I picked up an MBA in 2001-2003 and I couldn't agree more.<p>Did I learn a lot? Absolutely.<p>Did I meet some great people? Sure.<p>Worth the expense? Hell no. I could have plowed that money into a startup and learned 10x as much in 1/2 the time.<p>These days skip the MBA, join a startup incubator, and use the saved hundred grand or so as runway for your startup.<p>Exception: Ivy League schools put you in a "boys club" for the rest of your life that will open doors at startups, banks, service providers, Venture Capital firms, etc. If you are going to spend the money, for heaven's sake go to Harvard, Stanford, or somewhere else with the killer network.
My girlfriend is the assistant director of nursing at a 175 resident long term facility.<p>She is two months from finishing her MBA online through University of Phoenix and will be taking an $8,500 raise (from $66,500 to $75,000) just for completing the program.<p>This article discusses what a mistake it is to leave your current job to obtain an MBA while completely ignoring the fact that you don't -have- to leave your job to get your Masters anymore.<p>"When you look at today’s most evolved business organisms, it is obvious that an MBA is not required for business success."<p>You could argue that an undergrad degree isn't even required for business success. That's not the point. There are plenty of career paths that having a Masters is still a HUGE benefit and the health care industry might be one of the biggest.<p><a href="http://www.va.gov/opa/bios/" rel="nofollow">http://www.va.gov/opa/bios/</a><p>Read the executive bios for the VA and count the number of people that don't have a masters degree.
If you are going to a World Top 5 - then it might be worth it to network with the people who are going to be hiring CEOs. But for the same money you can join the golf club.<p>Otherwise the world is full of middle managers who were sent on low grade MBAs by mega corps who didn't know what to do with them and couldn't fire them<p>When you are interviewing managers were given a year off by a now-defunct multinational to do an MBA, ask how all the projects they claimed to be deeply involved with managed to run without them during that time.
I've been dreaming about finding other business owners that want to do a Do-It-Yourself MBA ( <a href="http://personalmba.com/manifesto/" rel="nofollow">http://personalmba.com/manifesto/</a>) -like reading program and discussion group, but have yet to make the time to organize such a thing.<p>I've considered getting either my MBA or my CPA, but didn't find the return on investment to be worth it.
I went back and forth about the idea of pursuing an MBA for a few years. One day I had a conversation with a very successful small business owner and his response on the subject was "I know a lot of entrepreneurs and I can't think of a single one that has an MBA. Take that for what its worth." My deliberation ended after that conversation and articles like this just reaffirm that decision.
The author of this article wrote a interesting book chronicling his experiences at HBS. It's a quick read and helpful for anyone considering B-school (skip over the technical chapters and focus on the anecdotes). I don't agree completely with his assertions, but it's another useful datapoint to take into consideration.<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Ahead-Curve-Harvard-Business-School/dp/1594201757" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/Ahead-Curve-Harvard-Business-School/dp...</a>
One day we will see the (higher) education bubble burst. It's overdue already in my opinion.<p>I watched the bubble swell in the late 90's--and it has become insanely bigger and bigger in the last decade--as higher ed really turned into a business first and an education institution second.
For most of my college career I was set on continuing it further into a MS in CS. I'm approximately a year away from my BS, and there is no way that I'd deviate from this current explosion of awesome present in today's job market. I see a lot more enthusiasm for creativity and output, something that lacks from a few of the traditional college systems. Then again, I once heard "college is there to test you, not teach you."