Realize there are a lot of people here who have an MBA and earned it through the full-time program. Seen a few posts about people wanting to go back to school doing a part-time program and the overwhelming response negative towards the idea of retaining the existing career while persuing the MBA. Full-time or bust.
Why? Is it really that bad for someone who is doing well in their current career to spend thier nights and weekends studying? Why is this “bad”? Is the person who is missing $250k in salary for 2-years + paying $130k tution (round trip cost of almost $400k) really “better off” than the person who retains the salary (and work experience)?
I get if you’re 25 and employed at some hack job but if you’re 30+ year old and make good money in a decent career why is it perceived as a negative or the part-time MBA viewed as less valuable than a full-time MBA?
It’s a good question. If you’re nothing but a kid, with no obligations and a low opportunity cost because you’re making $d!ck per year, then a full-time MBA makes a lot of sense. If you are currently further along in your career, however, and making considerable bank, then the tradeoff becomes a much more serious concern. I doubt that a senior investment professional with real experience and a top-ranked part-time MBA (read: a program that actually requires a GMAT score, none of this EMBA nonsense) would catch too much grief because they went that route.
Of course, if you have a low opportunity cost of time and you opt for the part-time program, then yes, certainly that would be hacksaw-worthy.
I think it’s because many recruitment activities are for Full Time students only. Companies would be mad if they let their employees spend time on Part Time MBA, and they all get poached by other companies.
A Part time MBA is best for someone already in a company they want to stay in and climb the ladder, and the lack of an MBA is a key thing holding them back.
For career changes, leap to another sector, or back office/front office changes -> you got to go full time.
Well, my Friends have done the MBA from distance learning, they are right now well settled. I think it is the best option for those students who are working in some companies or doing some odd jobs for finantial matter.
Or how about if you are in my situation–already making 200K plus and the company will pay for it with only a 1 year agreement to stay afterwards (while working less than 40 hours per week). If you finance a FT MBA with current rates on student loans you are looking at $2,300 per month over a 10 year payback period. I don’t care about the networking opportunities the NPV of that trade-off makes no sense.
You can’t really judge the value of the networking opportunities a priori. I can give you an example, my uncle did a MBA while he was making millions, the people who were his classmates ended up becoming huge assets for his business and future investment endeavors.
I bought a few lotto tickets. I improved my chances of hittign the jackpot and dream about owning a super yacht. I’m not sure what’s the problem with that?
^ There is nothing wrong with that. It’s no different than throwing a few bucks at far out of the money options. But, you’ll want to consider a zero expected return accordingly not giving it any future value.
You also don’t want to be the jack@ss out in the cold if your company has a lotto pool. I know a few years back someone at MMC won the lotto and most of the floor got a chunk of it. Those poor saps who didn’t contribute were left with nothing.