First off, a bachelor’s degree in business/commerce from Canada =/= bachelor’s degree in business/commerce from the US or UK, in terms of the curriculum you are taught. So country differences need to be taken into account whent talking about the undergrad curriculum.
Secondly, no top MBA programwill accept you straight out of undergrad with no work experience. Those schools that do aren’t ranked in the top and are just trying to fleece you. An MBA that’s not from a top school isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on. People don’t go to go get an MBA to learn how to be business people. They go get an MBA for the networking opportunities and to complement the knowledge they already have. The whole point is to go to business school AFTER you’re 24, once you’ve already had some business experience and are seeking to increase your networking opportunities. if you talk to a lot of investment banking interns and recruiters, they will tell you that they hire undergrads once they have their undergrad and then after about 2 years of working for the company, they toss them out to get their MBA or law degree. Most people at top business schools are 24 and older, not people straight out of undergrad for this very reason. The reason you found MBA people taking your undergrad accounting class is because the MBA program is supposed to give you a broad overview of business management for people who don’t have that “big picture” knowledge. The curriculum for MBA programs is usually public, so you can go check it for yourself. If you’re doing a business undergrad degree, a lot of the MBA program is going to be a duplicate of it. But again, the point of the MBA program is not really to give you any tangible, technical skills like law school or medical school. In short, if you have what it takes to be accepted in a top MBA program then it may be worth going. Otherwise, save your money and learn to do something useful.
CFA requires 4 years of relevant work experience. As most people receive their undergraduate degree at 21 or 22, it’s highly unlikely that someone will have accumulated the required experience by the time they are 24.
My program had at least a dozen engineers. Recruiters drooled all over them and all but a couple had multiple offers before winter break of 2nd year. A couple didn’t even bother to finish the program because they had so much money thrown at them.
Doesn’t everyone who decides to get an MBA ultimately want to be recruited? I can’t blame the ones who left early, they had pretty ridiculous offers thrown at them.
Yeah–what I meant was–they didn’t really even care to do the program at all. They figgered that if they got accepted, they’d start getting offers immediately. Get your acceptance letter, get an offer, and leave without ever even registering.
Took me a while to figure out what RC and EC were. I was able to figure out what HBS was.
Just want to point out that not all hedge funds are fundamental analysis shops.
An MBA from a good school means that more people will take your phone call. That helps in both finding jobs, and in developing more business once you have a job.
I am in the minority in that I think the substance of a business school education can be valuable too, but there is no doubt that getting plugged into the right networks is a major advantage.
Perhaps if you have an undergraduate business degree, a lot of the material is similar, but to review it in light of more experience and a more mature mind is still likely to be valuable.
HBS. I have a few good friends who’re there now, and according to them, a lot of the women are aggressively targeting their male classmates to find a future husband. HBS or any other top school is actually a great place for women due to the skewed ratio and the ridiculously high concentration of super successful, smart, charismatic men. If you’re a woman wanting to meet an alpha male, perhaps no other better place in the world than HBS.
Very well said. I actually think you can learn a lot in b-school depending on your interests, the school, and the courses you choose to take. And the importance of the network and credibility has been understated on this forum.
Top schools do open up great networking opportunities, it’s true, but that is not to say harvard business school grads do not face the same challenges in this economy as others.
So this is a huge risk, time AND MONEY, if you want to do it you need to know exactly how to use it. I mean, we can all say easily that “ya, eventhough i didn’t get a job out of it but it was a good experience anyway, it’s worth trying at least…” but honestly in the case of MBA these sayings are just trying to make yourself feel better and it’s not fooling anyone.
I highly doubt HBS admits people that aren’t sure what they want to do and have laid out the groundwork to accomplish it. The attitude expressed above is more what I hear about Local State MBA.
