Local MBA or Prestigious MBA???

I have graduated from a top tier University and have spent the past 4-5 years working around the world in the oil & gas industry. I found myself settling down to a desk job for a prestigious engineering firm based in Louisiana this past year and I have started to feel a need to to attend a MBA program to insure that my skill sets are well rounded and I am marketable for other industries (I am particularly interested in consulting and M&A). I have taken my GMAT and got a respectable score (760) and exploring my options. The local Business School is LSU Flores School of Business and they have night programs that I can attend while maintaining my career. Does anyone know of any studies or have any advise if it is worth it to drop my career to enter a full time MBA program at a prestigious top 15 school or if it is respectable to attend LSU (ranked 84 by US News) while holding onto my job?? I also noticed that their average starting salary is $54,000 out of their MBA program which is less than what I make, should I be concerned??? Thanks in advance for your advise!

 

I am also considering commuting to an Tulane University offered program which offers a bit more in depth program from a higher ranked school.

 

Sohard,

Welcome to DegreeInfo.Com! First of all, keep in mind that college degrees do not guarantee employment nor salaries. Depends on industries, mostly require experiences unless academia requires college degrees and researches. According to your post, you have not specified whether you want to do distance learning or not. Honestly, I would recommend you to hold a job as the same time finishing your MBA as your goal. Here are some of the top ranking MBA colleges/universities offer via distance learning.

- #8 Columbia University (NYC, NY): Dual MBA/MS: Business and Operations Research
- #12 Duke University (Durham, NC): EMBA
- #15 University of Texas--Austin (McCombs): MBA (May or May not Offer)
- #23 Indiana University--Bloomington: MBA

 

Tekman,

Thanks for the suggestion! Honestly I had considered distance learning MBA's but my greatest concern was that so much of Business School is about networking which might not be as readily available via distance learning. At first I thought LSU would be great for networking because its renowned in the area. At the same time if I decided to relocate to an area outside the neighboring states, employers might just look at general rankings. I wonder if those distance learning mba programs will indicate that I obtained the degree via online.

 

Columbia do not offer Dual MS/MBA completely online.

"All MBA requirements must be completed on-campus in 3 semesters of full-time study. The first 2 semesters in the MBA program must be done consecutively. "

http://www.cvn.columbia.edu/ormba_MSMBA.php

 

welcome

Sohard, this is a good case study for a pre-MBA student. If you quit your job to get the MBA, you'll need to weigh the opportunity cost of the loss of at least two years' worth of income versus the potential increase in income that you would get for the top-15 school versus the increase in income for the local MBA.

Other factors are 1) Are you going to stay in Louisianna or the South or would you move to the East Coast, Texas or West Coast? 2) What degrees do others in your company/field have and where did they get them and 3) Do you want to try a top-tier online degree where you keep your day job? (Usually with some extra time off offered by your employer for on-site residencies etc.) 4) How much do you want to pay for the program and is your employer going to cover it or are you going into debt for it?

If you're not going to stay in Louisianna, I'd definitely go for prestige. Also, consulting firms and M&A firms (along with finance) are fields that DO look at the prestige of the program.

UNC-Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler School of Business has a new online MBA. I've heard great things about Duke's (expensive) executive cross-continent MBA.

I wouldn't focus too much on average starting salaries - averages aren't much use to you as an individual with a unique background and work history to date. Look at it as a long-term investment instead.

 

Within the top 100 and holding a Nationally recognizable name isn't bad. It seems if you could accomplish that while continuing to work you would have something to brag about. I suspect your program peers at LSU would be a nice enhancement to your career.

Top 15 or top 100....deciding which would be a nice problem to have.

 

Thanks everyone for the great advice!

MBA Online -

Working in the oil and gas industry its really hard to tell where I will be! I am originally from New York and would like an opportunity to work there but I am specifically interested in international trade/economy/business.

To be honest one of the reasons I am pursuing a MBA is because of my colleagues lack in that sector. Unfortunately, while my salary is great for my level of experience, my work is not the most fast paced interactive work. It is a 9-5 (well 7-3) job where most of my coworkers stay at their positions for 15-20 years. This is a vast change in environment for me where my University internships consisted of fellow interns generally from top tier universities and program managers generally with a top 10 MBA.

I may be way off base with but one of the things that I struggle with getting an online MBA is that generally people go to a top 10-15 MBA program for two things, prestige and networking. Going to an Online MBA program from a prestigious school (i.e. duke/unc) might be counteractive. I dont really know how online MBA's are viewed by employers.

 

As someone who attended a fairly prestigious program, worked for 3+ years at Harvard Business School and now works in consulting in the education sector let me give you my two cents: If you want to go into M&A or consulting GO TO A TOP RANKED PROGRAM!!! LSU is a fine school but it's not a feeder into those industries. The reason the starting salary is so low at LSU is likely due to two reason, 1. the students are younger than more prestigious programs, many coming straight from undergrad. 2. Most likely end up in LA, MS, TN, etc. where salaries don't tend to be as high. You would likely skew that number upward considering your background, but it's going to be a tough battle to get into consulting at a large firm and virtually impossible to transition into M&A coming out of a part-time program.
With your GPA, global experience and GMAT score there is no reason you shouldn't be able to get into a top-20 program with a hefty aid package. You said you went to a prestigious undergraduate institution. I have two friends with similar grades to yours from UVA and Dartmouth, both had-GMAT scores in the mid-700's, neither had international experience (one worked in video production pre MBA, the other worked for a hedge fund). One received a full ride to Kenan-Flagler at UNC, the other earned a free ride to Fuqua at Duke (he passed on the scholarship and is attending Booth-Chicago). At the very least apply to top 10 full-time programs and see what the aid packages look like. If those don't work out you can use LSU as a fall-back. What about Tulane? I know it would be a bit of a commute from Baton Rouge to N'OLA and I only know one person that attended there (full time), but he finished up last year and took a job with a boutique I-bank in Atlanta with a six figure salary.

 

You may wish to include the 16-month Cornell-Queens EMBA as an additional option (a distance-learning/distributed/virtual classroom EMBA program). Tuition for the Cornell-Queen's Executive MBA class starting in June 2012 was $110,220.
Johnson at Cornell | Cornell-Queen's Executive MBA

 

As always, what AUTiger00 said. :yup:

With a 760 GMAT, 5 years out of undergrad, and decent work experience, unless you have a criminal record you haven't told us about, you should already be swimming in brochures from top programs offering to waive your application fees. Take a few of them up on the offer and see what kind of aid packages you get. You definitely fit the profile for a top-tier b-school. Good luck! Also, you might want to check out the BusinessWeek MBA forums for up-to-date info on the application process.

 

My $.02 is I would advise the local school for a few reasons. First, alumni associations can be a real asset depending upon the school and at last check, LSU had a pretty good one. Second, there is no "guesswork" involved in what employers can expect from you in terms what you learned in school. Third, LSU is way cheaper than many of the alternatives and you likely will not see an immediate ROI from earning an MBA.

 

Where would one look to learn more about this process? Specifically aid packages. I wasn't aware of such possibilities.

 

I was referring to full-time on campus programs. Most all top-20 programs have aid available. The process is simply: you apply, typically there will be an award letter (if you were deemed scholarship worthy) in the package with your acceptance letter. I know people who have leveraged aid packages from one school to get more money from another.

 

I agree with AUTiger if you are going to quit and self-pay (as opposed to tuition reimbursment from employer) then you should try to get a full-ride aid package to the best school to which you can gain admission.

If you are going to keep your job, I would advise a high-profile, prestigous on-line school (which would likely include in-person residencies and networking opportunities) above a local school, unless you are sure you'll never leave Louisianna. From your aspirations to be in M&A or consulting, I'd advise prestige.

 

The online MBA you probably can't get into

With an unusual marketing approach:



Most online programs don't try to sell themselves this way.
But if their slogan doesn't discourage you, there is more info here.

 

I bet the OP in this thread could probably get in. If I wasn't old and hadn't already done an MBA, I'd love to do this one. Love UNC-CH!

 

Students Virtuallly Grabbing Beer at UNC Online

It does sound like UNC has developed an unusual -- and potentially very effective -- way to leverage online technology:

Although I'm not totally sold on the virtual beer part:

 

It's always recommended to pursue MBA from a well reputed MBA institutes either in India or Abroad. MBA is a course in which institute matters a lot. An average or below average institute can ruin your career on the other had a well admired institute can change the chores of your life.

 

Thank you for that amazing bit of insight regarding the pursuit of a MBA.