Being an entrepreneur has its own bragging rights; but with an MBA, your value as an individual and as a businessman increases significantly. The MBA or Master of Business Administration is a degree that you can only get if you have attended business schools. The biggest disadvantage however is that most business schools have ridiculously expensive tuition fees. That is why a lot of people are skeptical about whether to study MBA or not.
Now, is it worth it to spend an average of $32,000 a year to study this degree? Should you even need one to get the best paying job possible in business? Or, could it just be for the sake of putting authority to your own business?
Types of MBAs
Before you get into business school, take note that there are various types of MBAs. You may apply for either the part-time program or a full-time course. Some schools, however, offer financial aid including scholarships if you prefer to study full-time. But, if you can’t afford it, you may also have the benefit to ask the government to give you a low-interest student loan. In other forms of MBAs, the employers will partly pay for the employee’s tuition.
The average two-year MBA program in a prestigious school like Anderson School of Management at UCLA or Fuqua School of Business in Duke costs around $50,000 to $59,000 annually. That’s almost double than an average school but that is because these schools prefer to put students in a more realistic environment. They offer a replicated environment that is like working in a real corporation.
As for the MBA degree itself, there are various titles for it. Depending on your business, you may get an MBA for a business firm, for an insurance company, or even for hotel and restaurant management. However, there are also some very niche titles including MBA in Wine Business, MBA in Economic Resistance, and MBA in Traveling.
Now, if you are looking for the most prestigious type of MBA, the Executive MBA or EMBA is the degree you need to aim for. This type of degree, however, requires you to have 10 years of business experience. It is also the most expensive course. In Duke alone, the program costs more than $140,000.
What to Expect in MBA Business School
As previously said, an MBA course can vary from nine months up to two years. You could even go longer if you want to attend the course partially. However, whatever you choose will result in only one: It will be a very tough ride. The main reason why only a handful of students get the coveted title is because the professors intentionally load up plenty of tasks to their students to the point where finishing them in a short period of time is impossible.
Although it sounds brutal, this is for the sake of a realistic standpoint in being a businessman or businesswoman. After all, there are barely any break times for a full-time entrepreneur. There will be plenty of reading; so much of it that it is quite impossible to keep up with the books. That, plus homework that you have to thoroughly finish. And, once you attend class, expect nothing short of quizzes. Every time a lesson is finished, the curriculum requires you do a test right after.
This is to help their students enhance their time management skills. The number of workloads is a test itself that assists in the student’s growth to become worthy of the MBA title. It is even said that other colleges and even law schools are unmatched by the amount of work an MBA student has to go through.
Why Having an MBA is Worth It
If you are one of the business students that want to strive for the degree, then you must know what is at stake. It’s not a course for everybody and only those with a good business mindset will be able to muster all the challenges they will face for a couple of years inside the business school. Getting an MBA obviously has its perks but you’re getting it because it gives you that entitlement of managing people and resources professionally.
MBA graduates are quite happy with their degrees thanks to the perks they get whenever they are hired in a company. A median base salary for a 2009 MBA graduate is $114,000. Plus, over 77% of MBA graduates easily accept a job offer while 87% of them get hired within three months. That’s a huge leap compared to only graduating from an AB Commerce course.
The MBA course itself may be tough but it’s the graduation that is definitely worth it.
The Perks of Being an MBA Graduate
With all of that in idea, all the hard work will surely pay off eventually. As soon as you graduate, expect plenty of companies looking for you to hire you. They say that once you have an MBA, you will never go hungry. But, to get there, you must constantly strive through the hardships and obstacles as a student. Not everyone can earn an MBA; only those with perseverance and determination can do so.
Investopedia, When Is an MBA Worth It?
Masters Portal, 10 Very Good Reasons to Do an MBA Degree
US News, What an MBA Degree Is and What You Need to Know