The problem with WSJ’s methodology is that it ignores the fact that MBA students at top schools don’t care what recruiters at average / unknown companies think (i.e. JM Huber Corp???). Maybe the recruiters’ rankings should be weighted based on MBA students’ rankings of their companies. Another approach might be to take a sampling from the top 5 investment banks, hedge funds, PE shops, consulting firms, packaged goods companies, fortune 500 companies, tech companies, etc. My guess is that using this methodolgoy would not put an unknown Mexican school in 4th place internationally or schools like Harvard / Stanford / Kellogg barely in the top 20.
I wouldn’t know from experience, but the MBA doesn’t seem to really add that much educational/vocational value. It is mainly a tool to get connected and get into that coveted associate position. I mean, isn’t a whole year of MBA merely taking a plethora of various topics in operations, management, marketing, etc… and the actual specialization curriculum is basically a year, or 8-9 courses worth? I remember looking at the MBA program at NYU and the exact same courses I took for my undergrad finance degree were there in exactly the same form. The only difference was that the MBA people were able to take many more courses that were closed to me as an undergraduate like bankruptcy, etc. which I really would like to take. The MBA feels to me like a educational tool built to milk Money from students while confining them into a rigid, hierarchical career path. At the undergrad level, the seeds of this is done by limiting the educational exposure that a student can partake in…I would surely appreciate if I could get the educational equivalent of a master’s in finance (like I am doing with accounting) at the undergrad level.
sternwolf Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I wouldn’t know from experience, but the MBA > doesn’t seem to really add that much > educational/vocational value. It is mainly a > tool to get connected and get into that coveted > associate position. Same thing for an Ivy League diploma (undergrads don’t know anything of value), a Rhodes scholarship (ditto), and an Olympic medal (excepting a few Wheaties box covers, and Kurt Thomas’s parlaying his into a starring role in Gymkata).
Yeah, perhaps. I took a whole plethora of courses in undergrad B-school…Information systems, operations, management, etc. I’d hate to take those things again when I go for my MBA. Seems like a waste of time and money.
sternwolf - at some schools, you can waive the cores if you pass a test or have the requisite background. i’m in b-school now, and I waived stats, finance, and accounting. but I generally agree that the real value from an mba isn’t the classes, it’s the connections it helps you make and the status it gives you. i sent out two cover letters last week for pt hedge fund research positions, and I got an interview for one today. and I’m a scrub. but I’m a scrub in a top 10 program.
What other subjects can you wave? I completed three full undergrad majors (finance, international business, marketing) at undergrad B-school and am completing CPA accounting major. How many courses would I be able to wave?
well, generally you can’t waive out of any speech or leadership cores. and it definitely depends on the school whether you can waive at all. one drawback to waiving is that you usually take your cores with your small section, so since you’re not suffering through stats with them, you might not bond as much. and remember, it’s about the connections, not the classes. another drawback is that if all the people who are good at stats waive out, then your small study group could be left with people who aren’t as good at stats.