When Stephen Clark decided to get an MBA, he set his sights low. "I know I'm not even close to any of those 'name' schools," he says of the for-profit University of Phoenix, where he is seeking a master's degree in business administration. "I think they probably have a lot more rigorous structure. I'm not up every night till 3 o'clock doing homework. I hate to say it's a lesser degree, but it's preparing you differently." <snip> "For clients who care about the MBA background, a Top 20 or even Top 50 MBA degree is the only cost-justified degree," said Marc D. Lewis, North American president of the executive search firm Morgan Howard Worldwide. He said an executive MBA program or even a few business courses can be of as much value as a for-profit degree. "If you cannot get into a top-tier MBA program, you should look hard at whether you would be able to learn the MBA-type skills in a different setting," he said. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10950-2004Oct29.html?nav=headlines
Arrrrrrrrrrggghh... It's articles like this that have me very confused as to which way to head for my MBA. My wife is encouraging me to go full-time to the highest-ranked program I can get into, while my boss has offered to pay for me to earn a MBA locally (East Carolina University). Between deciding where to go, and studying for the GMAT, my brain is fried...
would someone just please cut/paste the article? this is exactly why i'm about 2inches away from bagging the idea of an mba.
This is a VERY interesting thread. J.D.s are not quite the same because of the law license but I do think that, if one can't get into a (cheap) State school or a (very expensive) top tier national school, one should think twice about whether to pursue the degree at all. Non top tier private schools are almost as expensive as top tier schools without nearly the potential for a large income at a major firm.
OK so does anyone have a list of these supposed "top tier" programs? Do they mean strictly Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Virginia, Duke? Or would that include Grand Canyon, Florida State, Cal State, etc
OK nevermind I get it. They must mean US News top tier, tier 3, tier 4, etc. Here is business week's top-tier: 1 Northwestern 2 Chicago 3 Pennsylvania 4 Stanford 5 Harvard 6 Michigan 7 Cornell 8 Columbia 9 MIT 10 Dartmouth 11 Duke 12 Virginia 13 NYU 14 UCLA 15 Carnegie Mellon 16 UNC Chapel-Hill 17 UC Berkeley 18 Indiana 19 Texas - Austin 20 Emory 21 Purdue 22 Yale 23 Washington U. 24 Notre Dame 25 Georgetown 26 Babson 27 Southern California 28 Maryland 29 Rochester 30 Vanderbilt
I think the problem with MBAs now is that there are too many schools offering them, and there is a satuarion of MBAs in the workforce occurring. It's gotten so ridiculous that Stratford University, which is nationally accredited as a culinary arts school, offers an MBA, with specializations in technology. As a result of all this I think an MBA doesn't necessarily mean as much unless it comes from a top school now (which is unfortunate). 10 years ago, an MBA from UoP would have had more weight than it does now. It's unfortunate that societal elitism has taken this turn.
beachhoppr, I see your pursuing your MBA at GCU. How is that program? I Have a lot of my military students interested in it.
I think that while having an MBA from a school other than a top 20 school might not get you anything credential wise; it saves you from having to answer why you don’t have one, when everyone else does…
I see some problems with an MBA (especially one from a no name school). The first is that, in many ways, the MBA is an "everyman's" Master's degree. It is obvious that over the years degrees from higher education have become more and more important in landing a job or getting a promotion. Also, the number of people with bachelors degrees has increased, making that degree no longer one of prestige, but rather a minimum requirement for employment. In other words, having a bachlelors degree is no longer a big advantage, but not having one is a HUGE disadvantage. What results from this is that those people who already have bachlelors degrees, but want some advantage over the rest of the competition pursue some form of graduate training. When you really think about it, the MBA is the only Master's program that can theoreticlly be related to anyone's job, and doesn't require a large amount of prior knowledge of the subject to enter the program. This is why you have such a large number of people pursuing the degree. As a result, both non-profit and for-profit schools are creating MBA programs as a new revenue stream. As the market floods with MBA's, the degree begins to lose value. I fully expect that some positions that only required a bachelors degree will eventually require an MBA for employment. Mind you, the salary won't increase, but the requirement will be added. There are two things I like about other professional degrees/Certifications (e.g. MD, DDS, JD, CPA, PE). First is that they train you to perform very specific tasks. The second is that they have degree/course standards and testing programs outside of the school which awards the degree that evaluate the competency of those trying to enter the field. This goes a long way from preventing a field from being flooded with "qualified" practitioners. There are certain tasks that, by law, only the above mentioned professionals can perform. The same cannot be said for the MBA. This is one of the reasons why I am considering taking enough courses to get a CPA as opposed to an MBA (I work at a university, so both options would be free). I have more thoughts about this, but I'll share them later. Regards, Jon
One guy at one search firm who can afford to be as choosy as he wishes isn't exactly a reliable gauge regarding the utility of an MBA from a school not in the top 50. This utterly ignores the outstanding results many have experienced using degrees from other, accredited schools. But he's quotable, so that's what the reporter used.