Zeratul wrote: In that case look at who recruits from those schools and the percentage of graduates who find a job within x months (usually 6 or so--for months, not for graduates (I hope!)).

I like Zeratul's idea if you aren't going for the best jobs.

But seriously, I agree with tarheelfan4ever that apart from getting the good jobs, the 2 year program is more for networking / rolodex building than anything else. Given how much an MBA cost I would try to maximize the value by picking only the top schools.

danion8 wrote: No education is ever over rated. What you do with it determines whether or not it was worth the buck. I have seen people with no name school MBA's excel to be corporate executive level just coz they had MBA's which made them more competitive. It gives you an edge over say someone with just a bachelors degree. A very small number of people go to top 25 MBA's as compared to no name schools, and they excel with what they have if they know how to market themselves. Just like I have come across MBA's from ivy league school who are struggling because they are timid and don't know how to use it to their advantage or are too full of themselves to survive in any company. I would take an MBA any day over no MBA.

Danion8, I have also seen plenty of people with no name MBA (or no MBA!) rising to the very top of the corporations -- if you check out the Fortune 500 most CEOs don't have MBAs or do to brand-name colleges. But to me, this is another way to show the limited value of an MBA in a way... MBA is helpful, but not critical to success in my opinion.

It's well known that pretty much all colleges are overpriced. Tuition has risen well above the rate of inflation and has far outpaced the rise in salary graduates can expect. Most of the raises in tuition have nothing to do with better education; a lot of it has to do with a rise in administrative services, which are largely a waste. There are actually colleges out there which spend more on administration than they do on teachers!

This is one of the reasons why I'm not one of those "don't work while you're in college" people. Taking on $100,000-$150,000 (and you'll be lucky to escape with only that much going to a top MBA unless of course you work or have savings or parents willing to foot the bill) worth of debt is only worth it if you think you're going to be a multimillionaire, and the great majority of people will never move into this strata. For most people, college is a sucker's game. The flip side, of course, is that without a degree your options are much more limited.

The law field has been oversaturated since at least the 1980s. In this day and age, if you're not a top 10% student coming from a top 10 law school, forget about huge salaries. You'll be lucky to get a 75K job in some no-name law firm.

I also think we may have a little more than five years. Conversion to IFRS is going to keep accountants in demand for at least a few years. Although IFRS and US GAAP are pretty similar in a lot of ways, I'd say some of the differences are going to create headaches for a lot of people (for example, the loss of LIFO).