i'm trying to decide if I want to go this route and was wondering if it was worth it

1/17/2006 5:28:30 PM

lets get specific why dont we

1/17/2006 5:38:14 PM

does having it actually earn you anymore money than not having it

1/17/2006 5:43:12 PM

I would think so. You also gain high level contacts that could be an "in" for you.

1/17/2006 5:49:11 PM

i mainly want to use it to get into management with a company or maybe to use whatever i learn in it to help me start my own company

1/17/2006 6:32:55 PM

To answer your question, no, an MBA is not worth it.

http://www.thewolfweb.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=311505&page=1#6658869

http://www.aomonline.org/Publications/Articles/BSchools.asp#AN0007373679-1

[Edited on January 18, 2006 at 12:59 AM. Reason : edit]

1/18/2006 12:58:10 AM

If it's from a top 10 school it is.

It's more for the connections than anything.

1/18/2006 5:30:48 AM

i had totally forgotten about that thread

1/18/2006 12:10:48 PM

Bigman, umm...seriously, why do you WANT an MBA?

Quote :

"If an MBA education is useful training for business, then the following should be true as a matter of logic: ( 1 ) having an MBA degree should, other things being equal, be related to various measures of career success and attainment, such as salary; and ( 2 ) if what someone learns in business school helps that person be better prepared for the business world and more competent in that domain--in other words, if business schools convey professionally useful knowledge--then a measure of how much one has learned or mastered the material, such as grades in course work, should be at least somewhat predictive of various outcomes that index success in business."

I disagree with both of those assumptions in the article. Won't comment further.

^^
Half for the knowledge, half for the connections.

1/18/2006 6:30:24 PM

i think it's funny when people bash getting an mba...i'm in my second semester and several of my classmates have internships with no experience in their respective concentrations starting at $30+/hour with relocation and rent money...find an undergrad internship like that...

1/19/2006 10:24:39 AM

^ Is it hard as hell (the coursework)?

1/19/2006 10:32:05 AM

No, its reasonable. Its just different than undergrad courses. Its not about doing the work and getting through the class. It is about MASTERING the field, the knowledge, in depth in a particular area.

They are wonderful degrees to have- if you are truly interested in business and better if you had a different kind of undergrad (like Engineering )

1/19/2006 5:19:01 PM

CNBC reported today that average MBA graduate pay is $106,000 up 13% from last year. I think it might be worth it.

1/19/2006 9:28:46 PM

dang. I think I'm gonna take the GMAT just in case. I've already landed a job for when I graduate after this semester, but I may wanna get into an Executive MBA program so I can work my 40/week and get an MBA in 5 semesters.

That pay looks nice.

1/19/2006 11:22:13 PM

just go into sales and you will make more than any manager. Commision plus Base, of course at a good company.

1/19/2006 11:32:29 PM

The degree itself is nice for the connections and knowledge-base but means little in and of itself after you've had a job for a few years afterward.

1/20/2006 12:47:00 AM

Is an MBA basically a minimum requirement to teach any undergrad BUS course?

I think Favre in the BUS dept. only has a Masters (no Ph.D) but he's an OUTSTANDING teacher. I would totally love to come back to NC State and teach after 15-20 years in the corporate world. Honestly, the hope of teaching after my 8-5 days are over would be the biggest selling point of an MBA to me. Any hope of teaching w/ just the MBA and no Ph.D?

1/20/2006 12:56:02 AM

Connections can be nice:

" Buffett began studying at the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania, but transferred to the University of Nebraska where he graduated. He then went on to the Columbia University to do a Masters in economics. This was where he met the influential value investor Benjamin Graham. "

1/20/2006 2:43:41 AM

^^
You need 18 credit hours at the Master's level to officially be listed as an instuctor for a course. You can, of course, always find a faculty member to be put down on the course and have them act as the coordinator while you yourself handle the actual day-to-day activities. As far as becoming the instructor for the course ... that depends on a lot of things, namely your department's policies. This is also where having connections within your own department can be useful ... give to your department and they'll most likely give back to you.

SouthPaw, you also mentioned doing the MBA in 5 semesters ... make sure you check on the requirements for individual MBA program you are looking into. The one I'm looking into at Virginia Tech has ~50 credit hours worth of course work. If you can do that in 5 semesters, more power to you. The way I've looked at mine, it's going to take me ~8 semesters, doing 2 courses per semester.

[Edited on January 20, 2006 at 6:28 AM. Reason : .]

1/20/2006 6:20:39 AM

^ Hmmm... I see.

I'm going to be relocating to WV after I graduate, so I'd likely be looking at WVU's Executive MBA (taught locally on weeknights/weekends so I can still work my job). Judging by this page: http://www.be.wvu.edu/grad/emba/courses_offered.html it shows 48 credit hours over 5 semesters.

I fully understand WVU's MBA isn't prestigious, but I really don't care about that. I wanna make enough money to live comfortably and buy my wife & I some cool stuff, and maybe one day teach so that's what I'm looking into.

What I'm most apprehensive about is the GMAT. I took 21 hours last semester, 20 this sesmter to get outta here and get to work. The last thing I wanna do is take a GMAT this summer but I'll be sharper (academically) now than in 1-2 years.

[Edited on January 20, 2006 at 12:24 PM. Reason : .]

1/20/2006 12:23:11 PM

You should have a masters degree (MBA) minimally to teach, but at Research 1 schools like this one, you would need a PhD to be on a permanent tenure track position. Masters degrees are more commonly seen at community colleges in the teaching ranks. And folks with significant professional experience + a masters may teach at a Research 1 school (like Kimbrough, Favre) but the pay will not be as much as a PhD and there is no real job security. In additional, professional accreditation groups that accredit business schools (In addition to the university's accreditation) will always consider the amount of students taught be Phd, full-time faculty. If there are too many masters folks teaching relative to Phds, it could create problems for the college.

So yes, an MBA will help you teach, but work first and get lots of experience. And, if you decide you want to teach eventually at a top MBA program, go for the Phd.

1/20/2006 12:36:29 PM

I think I'm gonna go for my MBA.

I'm deciding between that and a Masters in Civil Engineering. Working 40 hrs a week and getting an MSCE is pretty much undoable.


Plus, I'd make a lot more with an MBA anyways

1/20/2006 12:37:07 PM

^^ That annoys me more than I can ever explain. With exception to McCreery, every single professor I have ever had in college (and paying particular attention to the BUS dept. profs.) has been NOTICEABLY less effective as a teacher than Favre. The reason is obvious: Favre just LOVES to teach and even points out in his introduction on the 1st day of classes that he's here NOT to do research, but only to teach and help his students. It shows. He hasn't the worries of writing a textbook, or doing some stupid research for a grant, none of that.

I don't want, nor will I ever attempt, a Ph.D. If teaching would be my "second priority", I wouldn't do it all. It's not fair to the kids paying money to hear me yap. Research is fine in fields like medicine, and even in business. But don't hand a researcher a job as a professor and let him/her treat the position as a second income. It's annoying and it's painfully obvious in their teaching styles.

/rant.

1/20/2006 12:47:49 PM

I could be mistaken, but I believe that an Executive MBA is inteneded for executives. I don't think you'll get in at 21 with little or no experience. Regardless, it'll be much easier to get into any MBA after a few years of experience, and I've heard that an MBA is pretty much useless unless you know what you are applying it to in the real world.


edit: From Columbia's eMBA page:

Average class size: 120
In two clusters of 60 students

Women: 30% International: 28%
Minorities: 22%

Live in Tri-State (NY, NJ, CT) area: 85% Prior graduate
degrees: 25%

Average age: 33 (range 26–64)

Average years of work experience: 10


Titles
President, CEO, General Manager or Chairman: 6%
Vice President, Controller, CFO or COO: 24%
Directors, Manager, Analyst, Consultants or Associates: 60%
Lawyers, Physicians or Accountants: 5%
Engineer, Researchers, Scientists or Senior Staff: 5%

[Edited on January 20, 2006 at 2:02 PM. Reason : .]

1/20/2006 1:59:41 PM

^ "Executive" is a fancy way of saying "Get your MBA without stopping your work", for the most part.

And it requires 2 years of work experience, which I'll have by the time I start.

1/20/2006 2:14:38 PM

^

VT Executive MBA Admission Requirements (http://www.emba.cob.vt.edu/prereq.htm)

Quote :

" • Approximately Eight years of professional management work • Previous four-year college degree in any field • Previous course work in and a working knowledge of quantitative analysis • Working knowledge of computer applications "

1/21/2006 6:59:08 AM

anybody know of a top 30 school that doesnt really care much about work experiance, i mean i have 8 months co-op + 3 months summer internship, but thats still almost nothing in MBA standards.

so far i only found

18 University of Washington
26 USC

1/21/2006 12:21:00 PM

Georgia Tech is slightly under 30 (maybe 32 or 33?) that has a good MBA program without requiring a lot of experience. They also have a good dual-degree program for those who want to get an MBA in addition to another advanced technical degree (MS/PhD in engineering, etc).

If all goes well, I hope to start this program in the Fall.

1/21/2006 3:31:50 PM

when you make that $$, you will know its worth it

1/21/2006 4:33:33 PM

get a job first, then an mba... not the other way around. You get the $$ when you get experience, then the training and can advertise yourself accordingly.

1/21/2006 4:44:45 PM

Quote :

"^ "Executive" is a fancy way of saying "Get your MBA without stopping your work", for the most part."

no it's not...there are part-time and full-time schedules for an mba...

an executive mba is different from an mba. look at duke's emba program for example. it's a different focus and most people in emba programs have their mba and lots of high level management experience. it's fairly difficult to get into the mba program without much real work experience, but i think it's nearly impossible to get into an executive mba program anywhere without lots of work/managerial experience...

1/21/2006 5:30:00 PM

my stepdad always told me to wait if i wanted to do the mba thing

so my advice would be what ^^ said

1/21/2006 5:44:40 PM

^^ You guys are talking about schools like Duke.

I'm talking about West Virginia. Their Exec. MBA requires 2 years of work experience. It's not prestigious.

1/21/2006 6:48:52 PM

I am on student visa so if i dont get a job i go back home, and i know if i go to work back home i wont come back here again. Ofcourse, if i get a job here its not debatable that i will wait 2,3 years before getting my MBA.

I am just looking at the worst case senario where i dont get a job and i therefore need to get into an MBA school. i started studying already for the GMAT and hopefully i will take it sometime this summer. Thats why i am looking for good programs that dont insist on alot of work experiance.

On a side note, what does the work experiance have to do with it, i mean wheather its 1,2,3,4 years its all seems to be the same unless you moved up the corporate ladder during that period of time.

[Edited on January 21, 2006 at 9:23 PM. Reason : .]

1/21/2006 9:21:17 PM

Work experience is important to any graduate program. I used to do graduate admissions and advising for American University in DC. We want you to have some work experience for a number of reasons.

1) You have an idea of what you want to do in life and you know that the graduate degree you are applying for is a means of giving you the skills to get there.

2) You are not just an undecided student who doesn't know what you want to do in life; you keep going to school in order to avoid having to make a decision; you might be avoiding growing up and trying out real life.

3) Companies would rather hire people with education + experience rather than those with too much education and no experience. If you are the latter, you could be perceived by some employers to be overeducated and underexperienced. Being effective in the real world of work and advancing up the career ladder requires a knowledge of two worlds: the world of theory, and how things are supposed to function (college, degrees) and the world of actuality (job, day to day experience). You learn something from both that makes working in either much more meaningful and effective.

4) The main reason we want you to have work experience before you come to graduate school is so that you have some real life experiences to bring to the classroom, to bring to your learning and your learning with others. It makes the learning experience better for everyone, but most of all, for you as an individual. I worked for Macys for 4 years and went into graduate school for International Affairs and even though the two worlds may seem very different, there were things I could do, understand, and share with others that I would not have been able to do if I have gone straight to grad school. I also would have very likely picked the wrong graduate program had I gone straight away.

Still, there are reasons to do things differently. If it means that an international student has to go home and will not be able to come back to continue his/her education, then it might be wise to get as much education as possible before going home. If more education has value in the home country and lack of experience is weighed less, then staying and going straight away to school might be best. If an international student could get a year of practical training and then go to grad school, that would be really super.

Is this long enough yet?

1/22/2006 9:28:15 AM

Quote :

"2) You are not just an undecided student who doesn't know what you want to do in life; you keep going to school in order to avoid having to make a decision; you might be avoiding growing up and trying out real life."

that's me in a nutshell

1/22/2006 11:16:18 AM

http://www.salary.com/newsletter/chart_1_r1_c3.gif

http://www.salary.com/learning/layouthtmls/leal_display_nocat_Ser285_Par409.html

professional experience is worth more than anything. Ideally, if you can get a masters and professional experience at the same time, you are earning doubly

[Edited on January 22, 2006 at 12:40 PM. Reason : sdff]

1/22/2006 12:39:24 PM

I know i have to have a couple of years of work experiance, we are past that fact.

my question is, if anybody knows of some good MBA programs that dont insist as much on having alot of work experiance.

1/22/2006 4:56:37 PM

^
Find an employer who offers tuition reimbursement as a benefit. You can get your MBA part-time ... you'll most likely have 5+ years of experience by the the time you finish. As wolfeee said, you'll be able to bring some real-world items to the table while doing both school/work

[Edited on January 22, 2006 at 9:34 PM. Reason : .]

1/22/2006 9:33:40 PM

^

Best advice here.

1/23/2006 3:03:21 AM

^i said that 4 posts ago.

1/23/2006 3:16:09 AM

One word answer - YES

1/23/2006 3:20:17 AM

^DITTO

1/23/2006 11:25:23 AM