MBA or not

I could write pages and pages on this but let me throw out a couple thoughts.

First is that you should get a few years real-world work experience before you get an MBA. Decent programs want the student's contributions to classroom discussions to be as valuable as what you learn from the instructor and textbook. If you're right out of undergrad, or only have a year or two of work experience, you probably have little of value to contribute to the discussion. Most decent programs won't take you until you're at least 25.

Second, because your cohorts are going to be such a major contributor to your education, get into the best program you can. What makes a program elite isn't just the faculty, it's your fellow students. If you aren't gaining at least as much from your fellow classmate's experiences as you are from the teaching staff, you're in a crappy program, missing at least half of what you should be getting out of the program, and just wasting your time.

I waited over ten years after my BSEE and was already in management before I applied to MBA school.

Finally, I've never heard of a really top MBA program that wasn't two years full-time, four years part-time (or three if you went year-round). I hope the 522 average GMAT score of part-timers at the school you're considering is a misprint, because if it is, that's pretty scary (your fellow students would be morons). I went to a school that was just barely in the top ten part-time programs in the US and even our average scores were a hundred points higher than that. What makes you think your school is a top program - it isn't even listed among the top fifty in US News & World Report?

 

New start-up restaurants fail at a surprising rate. Why? Because everyone tells Aunt Julia that she is such a great cook that she should open a restaurant. But Aunt Julia does not know anything about accounting or book keeping or cash flow or inventory management, etc.

If you want to start a business you need to learn how to run a business. Beyond that, I cannot address your question.

 

you seem to be pretty apathetic if not downright hesitant about this MBA thing. if you're going to pursue a graduate degree of any kind it's all or nothing. either you want to do it and therefore do fine, or you're there because you feel you have to be and as the years drag on you care less and less and don't do as well as you could. or worse, you burn out early and really struggle.

i'm not in any kind of related field, but i am in grad school. it requires quite a bit of self-motivation, and motivation comes from wanting to be there and wanting to get all you can out of the training program.

 

This non-degree evening program....that can turn in to a degree program?

It doesn't hurt to take a few classes in that direction.

But I do agree that you do need to get out and get a job and get some real life, real world experience. I doubt you'd be hired in any sort of managerial position if you went straight from undergrad, to grad even if you had an MBA.

So get a job and get some experience. While you're doing that, go ahead and do some of the night classes. THEN apply for the MBA after you've done this for a year or two.

And I don't see how you can complete an MBA program in two years unless you're going every single night and doing your coursework every weekend and in your other copious free time.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Godiva @ Aug 18 2006, 08:43 AM) [snapback]305331[/snapback]</div>

The program I was in required completion of 24 three-unit courses (quarter system), and two courses was considered a full load for a part-time student. I took four years and one quarter to finish. I went during the summer only half the time, and one or two quarters I only took one class. The only real prerequisites of the program were calculus and financial accounting. Having undergrad courses in micro and macroeconomics under your belt wouldn't hurt either; the pace in a good graduate program is much quicker than you might be used to (although engineers typically find microeconomics a breeze). I had a friend who was a CPA and he knocked nearly a full year off his program by getting credit for accounting and finance courses.

There are 1-yr full-time and 2-yr part-time programs at some schools, but like I said, I haven't seen this offered by a top ranked school.

 

How much is it going to cost overall?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(burritos @ Aug 18 2006, 05:21 PM) [snapback]305639[/snapback]</div>

Glad you brought that up - that's another advantage of waiting a few years before applying. You may be able to get your employer to pay for your books and tuition. I got reimbursed $10k a year by my employer for MBA school, and I had no obligation to keep working for them after I graduated.