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Aaron
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| Posted: 13 Sep 2010 at 19:53 | IP Logged
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Yes, an MBA is overrated. I have one. Didn't help me one bit. Now I have $60k of debt and a crap job. If you get it from a top 25 it's a different story.
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Aesop
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| Posted: 14 Sep 2010 at 00:47 | IP Logged
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Education is never a waste. I went back to school for my Masters of Professional Accountancy for 2 reasons. One I was getting stale and wanted some fresh ideas. The other I wanted to sit for the CPA exam. I achieved both to a degree. I took what I learned about research and saved the company I was working for thousands, corrected their chart of accounts, worked with AP and purchasing to reduce coding errors by a huge margin, and the list goes on.
Now I am only one phreaking nauseating score away from getting my CPA certificate.
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CPA2011Plz
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| Posted: 03 Nov 2011 at 19:33 | IP Logged
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Asking if the MBA is overrated is like asking, "is a car fast?". Some
cars are incredibly fast, some are garbage. I'm applying to 2 top 15
programs and 2 top 30 programs next fall. I've done TONS of
research and I've determined that SOME MBA's have a really great
ROI, and some are quite literally worthless.
I would make your cutoff for MBA selection somewhere around the top
30 mark. Some people say top 15, however, stopping at 15 would
leave out schools such as Vanderbilt, Georgetown, Emory, and many
other truly great, and truly valuable programs.
Also, what you've done BEFORE the MBA has a huge impact on what
you'll be doing afterwards. For instance, the avg starting salary out of
Vanderbilt is about 87k, and the average work experience is 4-5 years.
Now, if you have 1 year of experience at a non-competitive common
job and end up getting accepted because of no reason other than a
world class GMAT score, then you will NOT be making the same
salary coming out of school as the 28 year old CPA who already had
professional accomplishments before he entered the program.
Long story short, according to the countless hours of research I've
done: 1) get at least 2 years of good experience or a top MBA
program likely won't accept you anyway, 2) aim for only top 30
schools, accounting for the marginal variations in the different rankings
systems and 3) don't listen to anyone who tells you an MBA is
"worthless", because they probably went to an unranked school that
accepts 50%+ of all applicants.
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jonus21
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| Posted: 07 Nov 2011 at 15:57 | IP Logged
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CPA2011Plz wrote:
Asking if the MBA is overrated is
like asking, "is a car fast?". Some
cars are incredibly fast, some are garbage. I'm applying
to 2 top 15
programs and 2 top 30 programs next fall. I've done TONS
of
research and I've determined that SOME MBA's have a
really great
ROI, and some are quite literally worthless.
I would make your cutoff for MBA selection somewhere
around the top
30 mark. Some people say top 15, however, stopping at 15
would
leave out schools such as Vanderbilt, Georgetown, Emory,
and many
other truly great, and truly valuable programs.
Also, what you've done BEFORE the MBA has a huge impact
on what
you'll be doing afterwards. For instance, the avg
starting salary out of
Vanderbilt is about 87k, and the average work experience
is 4-5 years.
Now, if you have 1 year of experience at a non-
competitive common
job and end up getting accepted because of no reason
other than a
world class GMAT score, then you will NOT be making the
same
salary coming out of school as the 28 year old CPA who
already had
professional accomplishments before he entered the
program.
Long story short, according to the countless hours of
research I've
done: 1) get at least 2 years of good experience or a top
MBA
program likely won't accept you anyway, 2) aim for only
top 30
schools, accounting for the marginal variations in the
different rankings
systems and 3) don't listen to anyone who tells you an
MBA is
"worthless", because they probably went to an unranked
school that
accepts 50%+ of all applicants. |
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I agree with CPA2011Plz. I have seen any number of posts
that comment about how useless an MBA is and how it's
also a waste of money. When asked, most have said they
went to an unranked school. I hate to break it to people,
but schools with no filters on acceptance are not going
to provide you with much advantage, beyond the knowledge
you gain, upon completion of the program.
I was actually talking with someone about this recently.
Just imagine, if a school has no filter on who it
accepts, other than whether you can pay (or get a loan to
pay), then upon getting your degree you will be competing
with everyone else coming out of your school. On top of
that, you will be competing with the thousands (and it's
a very high number indeed) of other graduates from
similar schools for employment. Now consider how you'd
also be competing with people from tier 1, 2, and 3
schools. Who do you think will get hired??? Now of course
prior work experience is factored in to this equation but
just look at the numbers! With an over 4,000 MBA programs
in the US alone (based on AACSB International), that's a
LOT of competition. So as CPA2011Plz said, get into a top
program. I also looked at top 30 and am very glad to have
broken into the top 15.
I'm curious CPA2011Plz, which programs are you targeting?
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CPA
CFE
Working on MBA at Duke
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CPA2011Plz
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Joined: 01 Jul 2010
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Posts: 203
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| Posted: 07 Nov 2011 at 16:07 | IP Logged
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jonus21 wrote:
I agree with CPA2011Plz. I have seen any number of posts
that comment about how useless an MBA is and how it's
also a waste of money. When asked, most have said they
went to an unranked school. I hate to break it to people,
but schools with no filters on acceptance are not going
to provide you with much advantage, beyond the knowledge
you gain, upon completion of the program.
I was actually talking with someone about this recently.
Just imagine, if a school has no filter on who it
accepts, other than whether you can pay (or get a loan to
pay), then upon getting your degree you will be competing
with everyone else coming out of your school. On top of
that, you will be competing with the thousands (and it's
a very high number indeed) of other graduates from
similar schools for employment. Now consider how you'd
also be competing with people from tier 1, 2, and 3
schools. Who do you think will get hired??? Now of course
prior work experience is factored in to this equation but
just look at the numbers! With an over 4,000 MBA programs
in the US alone (based on AACSB International), that's a
LOT of competition. So as CPA2011Plz said, get into a top
program. I also looked at top 30 and am very glad to have
broken into the top 15.
I'm curious CPA2011Plz, which programs are you targeting? |
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My long shot schools are Duke and UVA, my fairly confident school is UNC, my solid targets are Vanderbilt and Wake Forest, and Ohio State is my "back up".
Ohio State is actually ranked higher than Vanderbilt AND Wake Forest on many lists, but when I really dig deep into the statistics, I don't see it. Given the choice, I don't know anyone who'd rather go to Ohio State than Vanderbilt - but maybe for geographic reasons.
All the schools, though, have on campus recruiting from Chase, Goldman Sachs, GE, PG, Philip Morris, Nissan, etc, etc... though, so really they're all "worth it". And they all have fantastic ROI's.
What about you? Where are you attending?
I should note, the reason my school selections seem a bit odd is because geography is a huge factor for me. I don't want to move out west, and I don't want to move to the north east. If you wouldn't mind, could you PM me some of your stats? I'm just curious as to how I match up with a fellow accountant (i assume) that got into a top 15.
__________________
AUD - PASS 90
FAR - PASS 78!!!!!!
BEC - PASS 85
REG - PASS 80
All passed on first attempt, used NOTHING but Becker!
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Topic: Is the MBA overated?
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