Comments on: have MBAs been devalued by the crisis?

By: camping inYellowstone

camping inYellowstone — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 06:40:38 +0000

There are a lot of schools today whose planning to increase their tuition fee, today is really a crisis.

By: camping inYellowstone

camping inYellowstone — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 23:40:38 +0000

There are a lot of schools today whose planning to increase their tuition fee, today is really a crisis.

By: bubelah

bubelah — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 19:13:34 +0000

So I should've learned Chinese in order to understand my prof.? Doesn't make any sense in American college. I don't know what kind of interview process he went through, but I am also an immigrant and English was not my native language. So trust me, I know something about people with different background. And, Adam, I was not an American student who sucked at math. I went through a Soviet school, where we started learning algebra in 6th grade and trigonomerty 7-8 grades and know calculus by the time we graduated from school. They didn't wait to teach us calculus in College like they do in America. I had to take Calculus in college as a prerequisite for other classes and I was bored out of my mind b/c it was so easy for me and I just couldn't understand how hard it was for American students. You are right about this – American students do suck at math.

By: Adam

Adam — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 17:17:49 +0000

There is a difference between not able to understand someone and the person not able to speak english. American students in general we suck at math, and statistics is even worse. Professors go through length interviews before they get a job offer. If your stats professor survived the interview to get his job, I think you need to learn a second language to better understand people with different backgrounds. I did exactly that, and it really helped.

By: ajc

ajc — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:37:07 +0000

I think MBA's were 'devalued' about 10 years ago when 'everybody' started to get their MBA's ... good ol' supply and demand in action (MBA Economics 101).

The next wave will be the crash in general business & finance degrees, for the same reason.

The BEST school is still the 'school of hard knocks' ... save the time that you would have put into any post-grad degree that isn't directly tied to specific employment (e.g. medical specialist) and put that effort into learning business by starting a (part-time) business.

By: bubelah

bubelah — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 10:20:23 +0000

I am sure there are other ways to make contacts and network. You don't need MBA for that. I still keep in touch with people that I worked with 10 years ago. I used to intern in a Danish bank that since been merged and acquired, but we all meet for Holiday luncheon every year to catch up.

By: MBA

MBA — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 23:49:24 +0000

I'm a female MBA who has not regretted going (and the huge bill) for a moment. It's as much about the contacts and resetting your mindset (i.e. in order to get a salary you want, you must earn that much for your company and then some). My advice: go full-time, live like a pauper while in and go as early in your career so that you extract a lot of value over a long career

By: Lauren@LifeStyler

Lauren@LifeStyler — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 12:08:43 +0000

I think that too many people are going to grad school period for the wrong industries. A few years ago, it made sense to get an MBA to work in finance or to secure a job as a CEO/COO, etc. But lately I've heard of a lot of people who work in publishing going back to school to get a Masters and I have to wonder why. Publishing tends to not pay very well unless you're at the top of your company, and there aren't many of those jobs anyway.

I don't understand the logic of these students' decisions to get their Masters when there's only a tiny chance that they'll make enough money to pay their degree off. It seems to be based more on intellectual status rather than on smart financial acumen.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 18:00:18 +0000

I've had these thoughts for over a year now… I was planning on getting an MBA, but the proliferation of programs and subsequent watering down of the value made me hold off from going for it right away. I wanted to make sure it was something I wanted and needed, vs. something I was just getting to hang on my wall.

I still think MBAs are valuable, but they have the most value if they are from a highly regarded university – basically all the top tier schools. After that it really depends on your industry, region, focus, school network and various other factors. I still may get an MBA, but only because I want to learn the knowledge, not because I think it will make me CEO. (that and the MGIB will pay for most of it).

MBAs aren't for everyone, and to think otherwise is to walk with blinders on.

By: bubelah

bubelah — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 16:56:49 +0000

Anon, I took an honors statistics class and I had a young professor who could barely speak English, let alone write a “coherent” sentence. It was a small class, about 5-6 students and we ALL had hard time understanding him – we all failed our first midterm.