Is a Top MBA Really Worth It - CareerAlley

Is a Top MBA Really Worth It - CareerAlley We may receive compensation when you click on links to products from our partners. In response to the economic troubles of the last few years, many professionals have decided to go back to school to earn their MBA. But with so many professionals enrolling in MBA programs, does this once-exclusive degree even promise the professional advantages it once did? Lets Cut to the Chase- MBAs are Expensive Its impossible to discuss the worth of an MBA without first laying out the dollars-and-cents expenses and earnings associated with acquiring one of these degrees. MBAs cost a lot of money to acquire. Enrollment in most 2 year MBA programs will set you back $80,000 to $100,000 for tuition alone. Add living expenses to your calculations and youll need to account for an additional $30,000 worth of debt. Factor in the income you lost by spending those 2 years unemployed, and the true cost of an MBA rings up to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Yet tuition costs and missed income opportunities represent only half of the worth equation detailing your degrees worth- the other half of the equation relates to what your new degree promises you. Most MBA programs will tell you their degree will all but guarantee you a job offering a combination of starting salary and perks totaling north of $150,000 a year. They will tell you it will take you just a few years to fully earn back your educational investment, after which your MBA will net you a salary bump large enough to more than justify your degrees initial expense. And all of this is true provided, of course, you earn your degree from one of the countrys top MBA programs. Not All MBAs Are Created Equal To meet the demand for advanced business degrees, countless new MBA programs have sprung up over the last couple of years. Most of these new programs are either 1-year degrees, or they are offered by poorly ranked public universities. When you run the numbers, even accounting for the lower cost of enrolling in one of these programs, most of them dont offer the same long-term financial benefits as their seemingly more expensive counterparts. While nearly every MBA program in the world promises you a $150,000-a-year job right after graduation, the only programs that can make this claim with any shred of honesty are schools whose MBA programs rank among the top 50 in the country, and the only MBA programs that can actually guarantee high-paying employment on the strength of their name alone are those MBA programs who consistently find themselves ranked within the countrys top 10- the Harvards and the Columbias and the MITs of the world. In fact, according to a recent survey by the Graduate Management Admission Council, only 27% of recent 1 year MBA graduates received job offers or found themselves currently employed when surveyed, compared with 29% just last year and 47% in 2008.The modern business climate has created a palpable level of employment uncertainty among practically all MBA graduates, but, statistically speaking, graduates of both 1-year programs and lower ranked programs have absorbed the brunt of our current economic downturn as it relates to individuals with advanced business degrees. All of this data creates a complicated picture of just how worthwhile a modern MBA actually is. If you acquire an MBA from a top-ranked school, then yes,your MBA will absolutely offer a reliable entry into higher quality, higher paying employment opportunities. But if the MBA program youre considering has failed to crack the top 50, you should probably pursue alternative options for professional advancement. Author Byline The post is authored by Jason Phillips, he provide tips on how to get into harvard mba. He is an expert who can suggest you tip like what you can do to set yourself apart in your application. This is a Guest post. If you would like to submit a guest post to CareerAlley, please follow these guest post guidelines. Good luck in your search. Visit me on Facebook