Education


The Master of Business Administration: Is the MBA Worth the Time, Effort, and Cost?


by Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D. A


re you a job-seeker who is looking for more responsibility and pay, seeking more leverage in obtaining a work/life balance, or contemplating a move into management --


and are considering returning to school to get your MBA? Or perhaps a job-seeker exploring changing careers by going back to school for your MBA? Or perhaps a consultant looking to add a credential to your dossier. Or perhaps a college junior or senior contemplating going straight through and obtaining your MBA right after your undergraduate degree? Regardless of your reasons, if you are contemplating at-


tending graduate school to obtain your MBA, you should read this article before you make your final decision. This article will take you through all the important issues you need to con- template before making your decision of whether -- and when -- to obtain your MBA. What is an MBA? It’s a Master of Business Administration


degree, granted after one to two years of graduate-level univer- sity study that provides training in the theory and practice of business management. The MBA is basically a document that certifies that you have a general competency in all the major functional management roles you’ll find in the modern corpo- ration. An MBA is a career accelerator across a number of in- dustries and MBA graduates can usually command higher salaries.


Ideal Time to Get MBA When is the best time to enroll in an MBA program? The


obvious answer is to enroll at a point in your career when the MBA is necessary to take your career to the next level, but the choice is never that simple. For the college undergrad, the biggest question you need to


ask yourself is why -- why are you interested in going straight through and getting your MBA right after your bachelor’s de- gree? The top-ranked programs will not even admit you if you don’t have at least several years of experience, and a freshly minted MBA with little or no job experience is often in a much tougher job hunt than a recent college grad with little or no job experience. For the job-seeker, the question about getting your MBA


involves how as much as when. Will you keep working while earning your MBA in a part-time program or do you have the financial resources to quit your job and return to school full- time? Will your current employer help finance your MBA? Do you need the MBA as part of a career change -- and if so, how


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are you going to do it? Finally, there is the question of the economy. Some people


think it’s a good hedge to get an MBA during an economic slow- down -- a safe haven -- rather than face the tough job market; however, when the economy is bad, even having an MBA is no guarantee of obtaining a lucrative job offer. The best advice? Talk to recruiters and MBA career placement counselors -- and read the current trends in magazines such as Business Week, Success, U.S. News and World Report.


MBA Enrollment Trends The number of MBA degrees conferred annually has seen


explosive growth over the last few decades, going from under 5,000 MBAs in 1960 to more than 100,000 MBAs in 2000 -- and now averaging more than 150,000 annually, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Enroll- ment is also influenced by the economy, and as the economy turns toward a downturn, both recent grads and displaced work- ers head back to earn their MBAs. Because of the growing number of graduate business pro-


grams that confer more and more MBA degrees, the degree it- self is not as special or highly-valued as in the past. An MBA alone will not be the magic key to the door of career and job- hunting success.


Types of MBA One of the questions you’ll need to answer is whether you are


interested in a general MBA, which is often shorter in duration, or a specialized MBA, which may take longer but make you more marketable. Regardless of the type of MBA, the core topics you’ll en- counter include:


Accounting, Quantitative analysis, Econom- ics, Marketing and Organizational behavior Specialized MBAs offer more advanced study in a particular


area of business (such as marketing) or a particular industry (such as higher education). Finally, you’ll need to determine the value of the “name” of


the program you are considering. If you are searching for a big push that fast tracks your career, snagging an MBA from one of the top schools in the country may be the ticket. But, if you’re looking to simply get ahead and move your careers along, don’t discount the many MBA programs that are unranked but that


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