what is getting an mba like?

T-minus ten posts from NSFW

don't do it lindsey!! noooooo think of what you will become think of the worllld

also apparently yr face turns to plastic!

and everywhere you go you are followed by boring graphs!

erstwhile dreadlocked campfire chef and engineering graduate Das Ed is looking into this as well, I hear

also isn't our resident master of poetry and father of indie guilt bermanisms bnw?

there is nothing intrinsically wrong with an MBA whatsoever, other than maybe the tui$$on

I have contemplated getting one for the past 10 years.

http://www.goalqpc.com/images/TQMWheel-on.jpg

i'm already followed by boring graphs everywhere i go rrrobyn!
anyways i can't afford an mba.
but those young leaders of tomorrow look so smug and happy, maybe i can't afford NOT to.

I would only get an MBA to convince venture capitalists to fund my nascent business. Only problem is I don't have any idea of what I'd want to do for a business.

(xpost) Do you really want to be as badly dressed as those people?

maybe if i just do a one-year masters in finance at baruch college it will be enough?

I would like to be "flown in" to cities for 4-10 weeks to help get a company impliment a new strategy or launch a new brand or put itself in turnaround and stay in the anonymous extended-stay hotels near the airports of the world.

Tom Peters is my favorite management guru.

that sounds like a hideous life

You just need to be in an extended-stay hotel with a pool and HBO.

i'm prob not the person to listen to here
but i will tell you this much: i have been super surprised that more than one MBA has confessed to me when i tell them what my masters is in that they don't consider their MBA a real masters degree. which i find kinda :(

but yknow $$

tho there are many routes to it

Seems like the kind of degree that can come in handy if you want a management-level job in whatever field or industry you want to work in anyway.

storytelling abt how to get $$$ - sound kinda fun?

and you dont need the $$$ to get one cause the $$$ comes AFTER

yeah but like an mba from stern costs $133k and while some $$$ might come after it's not gonna be THAT much $$$ and im already old

Best part about getting an mba is that you can go 'round saying, 'mbad, 'mbad, 'mbad.

going into a bajilloin dollars debt seems like a good idea when you are 22 and enthusiastic about being a global marketing strategist or something

well it depends i guess what u want to do w/the degree but u can def make enough $$$ to pay that back - also financial aid? also yr not even 30 r u? also 133k HOLY SHITS!

Can't you just get one from Joe's MBAs and Grill?

it also seems like a great idea when you don't have a parent in jail for securities fraud which was just basically being the CFO at the wrong time and not actually doing any frauding

i should really just go into animal husbandry or something instead

(Weirdly enough, I have a short play with a premise very close to that running right now.)

yah i mean you should prob want to do this not just cause yr in a what to do w/my life quandary

Taxidermy!

i take night classes so there's very much a no bullshit vibe to the classes since everyone is coming from 9 hours at work. math helps. And a lot of programs want you to have at least 2 years work experience, some up to 5. It is not a soulless as I feared. I did a presentation in one class and named my characters all after the Pixies and someone actually caught it!

The two courses I feared to be slitmywrists boring: Accounting and Statistics were saved by good profs. Management classes are brutal b/c they spew Who Moved my Cheese and Dale Carnegie crap at you that works really well in fantasyland. Expect a lot group projects where your partners grade you :/

mba.com has a nice little survey where you can gauge how much what you want to do fits into an a mba program.

that is why i kind of like the idea of the MS in finance better, i could deal with the math, but not the management crap. uh, they let you use calculators though, right?

Yale is supposed to be good for nonprofit/arts if that's what you're interested in

uh, they let you use calculators though, right?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP-12C

yes yes i have one of those already. i just can't do time value of money in my head

hahaha you WILL, young skywalker, you WILL

so glad my MSEM only had a few econ/finance/business courses

I am planning on getting my MBA from CU very, very slowly (like 2 classes a semester) in business-to-consumer marketing. My work pays for $1k per class, so I think out of pocket my total investment will be $15k. I don't think that's too bad! Labs maybe you need to move to a new job that offers some sort of tuition assistance.

although nothing in my academic career can ever compare to the hideous mistake of thoughtlessly registering for the compressed summer version of Systems Engineering

i would do one of those quickie finance masters' if i were better at math. i was really annoyed that for one of the core requirements in my program we had to take an econ class and not a finance class, the latter of which i think is infinitely more useful and less full of shit.

BUSINESS

i like finance classes, if only because there are a bunch of aging former frat boy types who turn to you like "wait how did u do that thing on calculator?" and you can be a jerk to them.

i am thinking about doing the MS in finance at baruch after thinking it over some

http://www.wealthnationusa.com/xSites/Agents/wealthnationusa/Content/UploadedFiles/Trump_Kiyosaki%20cover.jpg

the only way i'd buy the above book is if there are pictures of both kiyosaki and trump being disemboweled and force-fed each others' innards.

also, i suspect that "rich dad/poor dad" kiyosaki is given as much respect on b-school campuses as ann coulter is given on law school campuses.

Just visited a couple of schools for MBA and MBA like stuff. One practically offered me a partial tuition fellowship if I would drop everything and start this fall. However the other course I went to look at an MS in technology and innovation management fit with my experience so much better and gives me an opportunity to improve my technical skills at the same time as picking up management and entrepreneurial skills. I guess my advice is look at MBA programmes with an area of focus that interests you or that you have experience in (technology, entrepreneurship, sutainability, non-profit, healthcare, etc.).

I have learnt that there is a lot of innovation in the area of business education and business education for people with other specialisations. So as long as you don't mind being in an early cohort in a programme that is developing around you you can really get an opportunity to shape things to your needs.

http://mba.eiu.com/index.asp
http://www.economist.com/business/businesseducation/
http://www.beyondgreypinstripes.org/index.cfm

quote of the the week from one of the programme co-ordinators I interviewed with:

'I majored in english and got an MFA so I got an MBA to get a Job'

Getting an MBA is a huge pain in the ass, but it's all worth it.

the people at work in our grad student program are kind of hopeless. i think they went on to get their mba, finance and law degrees because they had no other way of getting hired. i think some of them have no concept of work.

ok i just talked to someone on the phone from baruch college about the executive MS in finance program. it's a little more $$$ then i was hoping ($37,500). it's a one year program, with classes 1 night a week and all day saturday. so one year of working really hard and i could be done! but with $37,500 in loans. does that sound worth it?

also they are doing the admissions NOW and so i could be in school by labor day if i went through with it.

Questions to ask:

Do you want to work in a bank/stockbroker's/fund manager etc.?
15 Months time what will the job market be like in finance?(is it worth hiding out in school for longer)
Who is hiring out of that programme? (With a degree like this which is designed to get you into a specific industry it is good to ask what jobs are graduates getting)

They appear to have open days coming up. Go and talk to as many people as possible.

i would prefer to stay in nfp finance but i want to get more into managing endowments, that kind of thing. i don't want a soul-sucking ibanking job. the job market in finance is reallllllllly lousy right now and i guess it really depends on what happens with the economy, but at least my current analyst job is safe, which i would keep while working through the program.

Have a look at the beyond grey pinstripes sites because a lot of the so-called sustainbility MBAs and sustainability bolt on's to MBAs focus on Not For Profit and NGO management and finance.

yeah that sounds interesting - as does an agribusiness mba...but i just worried that i'd end up having to use it for evil instead of good.

i just really like the idea of a one-year program at this point in my life.

Both of these things have factored into my decision to apply for a not an MBA. Although my back plan involves MBAs of both 1 and 2 years. I presume you want to stick to the NY Metro area?

Good advice Ed... I feel funny posting to ILX for the first time in ages about an MBA, but fwiw - I had some of the same concerns about doing one, and the key is to find a program that has a good history of specializing in the field you're interested in.

I wound up doing an MBA that was suprisingly "non-MBA" since it was focused on the arts/media/cultural sector (info here - they have lots of other specialties like NFP, etc), and I'm glad I did it.

Math skillz help, Accounting/Finance is a boring and hard necessary evil... but overall it wasn't as Gordon Gecko as I was fearing.

Rob, may I email you off board about application essays/personal statements?

yeah, i'd like to stay in new york and can't see myself being able to afford stern or columbia. but unfortunately there is no financial aid available with executive programs. i just think that no matter what, i will end up with less debt if i work through earning the degree, rather than doing a full-time program and relocating.

Don't discount Stevens, Rutgers and NJIT. Not that far especially if you only have to go a couple of times a week.

(As an aside, I have been looking at programmes in Metros where I can live with my SO, so it has to be somewhere where she stands a good chance of finding work or at least a post-doc so I've done a lot of research into programmes in NY, Boston, Chicago, Pittsburgh and SF)

Sure Ed! I think the email attached to ILX is deactivated - hit me at my gmail (rob dot bolton at).

Cool, will probably later in the week as I am barely staying awake from the overnight flight from NYC today.

no worries - email me whenever... i remember the essay portion being a bit of a pain. i actually didn't get accepted right away which pissed me off (i had awesome GMAT scores but a dodgy 2nd year undergrad transcript from ages before caused a red flag). luckily some follow-up appealing (and more essay-writing), got me in.

oh yeah i'm hoping my sometimes dodgy/not at all business or finance undergrad doesn't mess with me getting in. i have the work experience which i think is more important to them.

i mean i was a religious studies major lol

hmm my program had an optional extra third year for dual mfa/mba but i couldn't bring myself to do 3 years of study at this point in my life. now i kinda wish i was also getting the mba, but honestly i think i'm fucked for jobs either way.

if anything i'll wait like 5-7 years then go to lawyer school.

what is the degree that you got called? doesn't it have administration/management in it somewhere?

i'm getting an mfa in performing arts management, which, honestly is more about the networking that happens than the actual degree.

at least it's relatively cheap and i will have a masters and hopefully a job by august (when i start my 2nd year).

i think new school has a nonprofit management program but i don't know anything about it.

I'm a tad worried about my undergrad transcripts possibly preventing me from getting into grad school. I do feel good about my work experience and hopefully I'll do okayish on the GMAT (fuck, I studied this weekend and it seems I have forgotten ALL MATH I learned from K-12).

Okay, not all math. Hopefully my employer isn't spying on me since I manage all my clients budgets. Errr....

I have that worry as well, although this has been partly assuaged by visiting a couple of schools last week. One pretty much offered me partial tutition if i would drop everything and come this fall and the other (the one i really want) said I should have no trouble getting in. However both programmes are only on their second cohort and neither has considered themselves full up at any point yet. What seems to count a lot is good, diverse work experience and good references.

I really need to get a hustle on with my GRE/GMAT.

baruch doesn't require a GMAT. HORRAY

are there any credible online MBA programs? also, how much do these things cost?

there's a ton of them! but i don't know how credible they are.

well, i know that. i didnt know about the fry guys tho!!

i just looked at how much more MBA peeps make than people with a bachelor degree and i want all that money right now.

i knowwww. the online ones generally cost around $8000 from what i've seen. the average regular mba is like $60k a year i think?

wow. my work does a $5000/year contribution thing. Ive got to wonder if anyone would take an online degree seriously, though. Also, my bachelors transcript is atrocious.

some of these appear to be REAL schools, although it would be fun to say I got my MBA at THUNDERBIRD

http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/rankings/

I would've considered thunderbird if it wasn't in the middle of nowhere.

I am most amused by the Fuqua school of business at Duke.

ok i've been looking at baruch more and it looks like it would cost LESS to do the accelerated part-time, 28 month mba than the 1 year MS in finance. total tuition cost for part-time mba is $21k vs. $37k for the one-year program. what the hell is the difference between executive and part-time programs?

anyways. i'm going to talk to an admissions counselor tomorrow so i will ask a ton of questions.

report back pls, bell

friend of mine is getting his mba next year, having previously worked for years at WWF (pandas, not wrestlers), and he sees a real future in treading the fine line between NGO/NFPs and actual going business concerns. like, how to make gobs of money while not destroying the planet and/or social fabric. i think he's probably right. he's also going to stanford, which (a) might be more "into" that sort of thing and is (b) stanford, so he'll be minting $$$ when he gets out anyway

meanwhile i'm teetering at the edge of four years of school, ~$200k in debt, followed by another four years of making like oh maybe 40k and then, if i'm stupid enough to follow through on, say, pediatrics, a lifetime of 90k/year coupled with 500-1000/mo in educational payments and most of the rest of my salary to insurance.

:D

there should be a new poll -- who is more fucked when it comes to educational debt: lawyers or doctors?!?

oh, and my advice for would-be MBAs (if anyone cares): if you must go, GET SOMEONE ELSE TO PAY FOR IT.

Sounds like a basic e(x) calculation is negative? You’re employeer won’t cover any the expenses + limited value of executive MBA to your field + debt load? Common wisdom now seems to be MBAs have the best return when you’re getting some coverage from your employer and you only want generalized mgmt knowledge.

Did a lot of research ~2 yrs ago when I was graduating and most of the advice I got was to try more multidisciplinary grad programs. Better breadth of coverage and preparation. I was working in finance at the time and it was highly recommended that I do an MS in financial mathematics.

Sorry, rereading yr posts I see you're interested in nfp/ngo work. Maybe something like SIPA at Columbia is a better fit? A v. good friend of mine goes there, she really likes it and they have an executive/part time master's program.

oh thanks for the recommendation! i am checking out the SIPA website right now. the EMPA looks interesting. our work has a tuition program with columbia where just about any program fee is waived except for the business school, so this might be a really good idea.

list of things to do for tomorrow:
find out of columbia EMPA is covered by my work's tuition waiver
ask a million questions of EMS in Finance person

i went and talked with the admissions counselor at baruch today for about an hour. i am kind of psyched to do this program (the MS in finance) if i get in. it is going to be an insane amount of work though including classes from 8 am-5:30 pm on saturdays (this is gonna SUCK) and 6-9 on wednesdays. but then in 10 months i would have a master's. and maybe be a really boring person who talks about bond markets all the time.

i will also have about $40k in debt. is that stupid? i don't know. maybe i will know after i learn all about finance.

there should be a new poll -- who is more fucked when it comes to educational debt: lawyers or doctors?!?

MFA grads would be the easy answer here.

yeah but you're a dummy if you go to an MFA program that doesn't fund

ayo blabs I have not much to say other than to agree with everyone here who is recommending non-business school programs which overlap with the finance and shit like my EMSE MS did, but I wanted to give high fives for actually being proactive with this, there are so many people I talk to who just bitch when they hit the glass ceiling and never do anything to circumvent it (or sit in a position that offers big-time tuition assistance, with plenty of spare time on their hands, and never enroll in shit) so yeah WTG BL

i think i am just having an almost being 30 crisis since i've been really anti-grad school up until the last week. i just like that it's over in a year because i know i'd get sick of a part-time mba/mba-like program stretched over 3 years.

hey blabs - I can completely understand your situation. Much the same as I was in about 18/24 months ago (though I am the same age as you now).

Anyway, I have just finished my first year at Stern. If you have any questions I can hopefully try and be quite objective - there are certainly advantages and disadvantages from the whole thing.

are you doing a full-time mba or a part-time/executive one? i am mostly curious about working full-time while doing this and if it will make me want to die.

OF COURSE it will make you want to die! That's a given.

the counselor guy said to make sure it was ok with my loved ones if i didn't see them for 10 months before i made my decision.

I saw my loved ones while working full time and going to school 2-3 nights a week, I got shingles though.

win-win?

ooh shingles!

I am full time. I wouldn't want to do the part time one, unless you want to use it as a good way to get the girl to split up with you.

You have 6-9 classes two, three maybe four times a week. And then the trying to get work done in a team and everything. Part time MBAs seem to be a huge sacrifice from what I have seen.

i just can't imagine the loans i would have to take out to live in ny and have no income!

i mean, i have gotten used to a certain lifestyle i guess. i am really used to not having roomates and i don't know if i could revert.

The loans are a slight burden, but if you get a good job after the second year they typically pay a bonus that is suspiciously close to your second years fees.

But you will still be looking at the best part of $100k debt, for certain.

generally what kind of jobs will you be looking for right out of school?

i just can't imagine the loans i would have to take out to live in ny and have no income!

-- bell_labs, Tuesday, June 3, 2008 5:17 PM (Tuesday, June 3, 2008 5:17 PM) Bookmark Link

hahaha welcome to my life! also classes 6-9 4 nights a week. also 20 hours of work/wk but in fall i will be doing 40+ work weeks w/ class 4 nights a week but whatever then i will write a thesis and be done. i am really getting envious of bus. majors though... starting to think i should have taken that route to guarantee more $ and flexibility in job searching.

i can't decide what would be worse, the 6-9 four days a week or the saturday 8:00-5:30. saturday is going to hurt me.

I am summering in New York doing trading rotations at a bank. Which is why I came to business school (well that and to try and move from London to the US without having to commit to my American gf. Because marrying for a visa is no better than being a mail order husband, is it?!)

The weekend classes are a bit thinner populated, more from people outside of New York. You could split between the two though.

The night classes have more full time students in though. Which when we have been in the pub for a few hours makes them awesome, obviously.

one of the things i like about this program is that there is a 10 day international study tour of an area of interest. they went to china this year. that's just an aside.

woah awesome

maybe they will send us to dubai. omg please let it be dubai.

Ok now I want to apply

or russia?
where will it beeeeee

why the fuck would anybody want to go to dubai or russia
wtf

dude you've seen the ludicrous hotels, I want in on that action

(I used to sing with a guy who helped design the massively tall one that looks like a giant sail)

why because they look intrstng

also i want to go skiing inside a mall

lol Mall of America

Anyway yes, gluttonous, wasteful expenditures of money light every avaritic impulse in my body on fire and attract me like a moth to the flame, particularly if I don't actually have to pay for them (see, for example, the free wine-tasting at Opus we finagled our way into in 2004 with the help of some friends). I can see why Dubai is Bad Idea Jeans but that doesn't dampen any of my And I Must See It Before I Die reactions.

Badubaidea Jeans

i want to see the islands built to look like stuff.

maybe it will be india?

I think a Masters in Finance lines you up for the CFA exam more then does an MBA in Finance does. That's the way it is at my program. We have an abroad program in Japan and Spain and all the grads swoon about them.

The makeyouwantodie part about going to class straight from work... I treat it like going to the gym right after work... kind of allowing the 99% of me that's kicking & screaming NONONONONONONONONO to be led by the 1% that has that shred of willpower. Also bring a laptop w/ wifi so you can fuck around on the interweb yet still take notes. It also helps if your 9-5 gig has downtime for lolhomework.

oh i would like to go to both japan and spain pls what program is this?

mine's at St. Louis U, Fordham might have something similar since they all be jesuits.

Dubai sucks, I like Russia though.

Part of my motivation for studying in pittsburgh is how cheap it is, I can get two bedrooms for what my girlfriend is paying for one room in a share in bushwick.

3underscore what is the first letter of the bank you are interning at.

the reason i am going to do my MBA part time while working full time is that this is probably the only job I am going to have for a long time that allows me any sort of flexible work schedule and work/life balance. my last job had me working 60+ hours a week (plus commuting from another town) so school wasn't an option.

here at the loladagency i work at i roll in at 9 and rarely have to work past 5. i could probably fit in some school work if I had to. I have some really crazy slow days where I get angry the internet doesn't entertain me more. Those are pretty few and far between, though.

who am i kidding, the years 2009-2012 are gonna suck for me. and then the world is gonna end.

i wanna go to dubai!

Fuck Dubai, really fuck it.

im w/dan n blabs on dubai - i need to see it - not sure if i want to stay in the underwater hotel or the one made out of solid gold?

Sorry to be down on Dubai, I haven't been, I manage to keep dodging it(maybe not for much longer), but from what I have heard, it seems to me to be a tackily designed high end hotel writ large.

i love tackily designed high end hotels

My personal hell is the Cairo citystars Intercontinental for the rest of eternity.

i would kinda like to see the UAE and all of its architectural monstrosities with my own eyes ... there's something engagingly nutty in the egomania underlying these things that are being built there nowadays.

^^^ agreed

guys where should i go for MY study abroad period (in two years time)??? helpin ppl in like africa and shit or just chillin in japan

I have been watching a friends medical year abroad in new zealand through flickr, insanely jealous it is beautiful.