What about the MBA market?

The "Irate law school grads say they were misled about job prospects" thread had me thinking about the MBA. Is the MBA headed in the same direction? Are we there yet? Are we churning too many MBA's? I mean the market for JD's were saturated with under 200 or so law schools. Now there must be over 2000 business schools in the US alone. Including 100% online schools, NA schools, and B&M RA schools, and AACSB, AACSBP, and the list goes on and on.

 

I would say no because opportunities for MBAs should be greater then lawyers. An MBA can fit into any management position since they have a broad business knowledge (in theory) while a lawyer has a very specific set of skills.

 

I would say an MBA holds little to no value for someone with no professional work experience. It's a credential that can give a leg up to an applicant, but without relevant experience the position is still going to go to someone else.
The biggest value of an MBA is the professional network one builds while in school. It's a lot of back slapping and selling yourself. I'm still not completely sold on distance MBA programs (especially for people looking to change careers) because they provide little to no ability to build those professional relationships.
I've heard a number of professionals say that if you're not at a top 25 program or one with a program that serves a niche (such as Babson for entrepreneurship or the University of Oregon for sports marketing) then the MBA isn't worth pursuing (this isn't necessarily true if the point of the MBA is to move up inside the organization you are currently with).
As with law schools, it's the responsibility of the applicant to explore the success of graduates of a particular school. Institutions provide MBA programs because, like law school, they can generate a large amount of revenue. Have you ever noticed that tuition for MBA programs is often higher than for other graduate programs at a school? It's because the administration knows people will pay it. My advice is to tread carefully when considering pursuing an MBA.

 

This depends also on the type of MBA you complete. I completed an MBA in MIS and the program included many technical courses in programming and databases. I was able to land a job as a software developer with almost no experience after graduation.

I believe that specialized MBAs in accounting, finance, statistics, etc can give you enough skills for an entry level position with almost no experience. The problem is that most MBAs are in general management and include almost no course work in more technical subjects.

 

The ROI increases with the name of the school for sure but many people pursue MBAs for a career change. Many people graduate in arts, philosophy, history, etc and see the MBA as a way to break into the business world. For them the salary might be at the same level as the BA in Business but it can be completed in less time than a BA and it looks better on a resume.
No matter what, the MBA is the most popular graduate degree around mainly because it has a better ROI that most of the other graduate degrees.

 

I know some people in the teaching profession (high school). The systems where they work require that within 5 years of your hire date you're enrolled in an MEd degree program. In those systems a Masters degree is required to simply KEEP your job. Soon (if not already) the MBA will be the same sort of requirement. In larger corporations, if you don't have an MBA then you will not advance.

 

We may be churning out a lot of MBA's, maybe too many, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't go for it. When there are too many MBA's they will, as Kizmet suggested, become the norm and you might have to get one just to stay even.

 

We've already long since reached the saturation point in the market for MBAs.