At the Harvard Business School Centennial celebration, I attended and excellent breakout session led by two HBS professors, David Garvin and Srikand Datur. They had recently completed an extremely detailed research project on the state of the MBa degree. Here are some of the highlights that I took away. At the end of this, i will give you my opinion.
Highlights of Professors Garvin & Datur Research
The 2-year MBA is in decline. Over the past 6 years, the top 12 business schools have not significantly increased their enrollment; however, the next 16 business schools have decreased enrollment from 5-50% respectively with the median close to 25%.
Schools are shifting their focus to executive education and part-time programs of 1-year or less. The 1-year program is particularly popular among European schools.
There is an increased demand for 1-year specialized courses. Popular curricula by both students and recruiters are Masters of Finance and Masters of Financial Engineering.
The two year full-time program is viewed as a tool in which to make a career switch (i.e. change from marketing to finance). The part-time MBA is viewed as a way to accelerate your career.
The curriculum across the top 12 schools is not meaningfully different. Not only do they cover the same subject matter, but most use the same textbooks and cases.
Recruiters are less enamored with the MBA than they have been in the past. They generally see the value as a screening tool for talent. They start recruiting students before they finish a semester of work which means that they don`t value what is learned or respect performance measures of the MBA program curriculum. Only 50% of McKinsey`s new hires are MBAs. The rest come from industry or have masters or doctorates in other disciplines. For those people, they simply put them through a 6-week intensive program.
My Opinion / Takaways
I have always felt that if you cannot go to a Top 10 business school program, then you should not go. I temper this by saying if you wish to stay in a regional area, then you can go to the top school in your region for instance, if you want to live in Indianapolis then you should consider the Indiana University business school. Professor Garvin asked this question to Kim Clark, the former Dean of Harvard Business School, who said, if you can`t get into a top 5 two-year program, then you should keep working and get a part-time MBA. That surprised me coming from a former Dean, but you can see how the tide is shifting.
If you go to a two year program, you MUST spend time abroad. This is where the world and the MBA is going. It is all about globalization. There is a huge emphasis on understanding how to do business in other cultures.
When I was at HBS, I wanted to take a language course at the undergrad and they would not let me. Boy, how times have change. Take a language and study for a semester or even a year abroad.
Depending on your career interest, I would consider a specialized degree over an MBA. Frankly, I don`t know the entire range of degrees out there, but until they figure out what the hell they really want to teach you at business school that will be valued by the world, get specialized.
Strongly consider going part-time. First of all, bschool is very expensive, plus you give up your income and you lose your place in your companies promotional track.
Professor Garvin made a stunning point. He said that if you were an analyst at an investment bank and did not get an MBA, but continued directly into the Associate role, then you were 3 times more likely to make it to senior management than if you came into the bank with an MBA as an associate. If that does not say it all, I don`t know what does. Many schools like Chicago do not differentiate between full-time, part-time and weekend MBA programs. Everyone gets the exact same degree.
So, it sounds like I am dissuading you from getting an MBA. Yes and No. Like I said, I still think a degree from a top 10 school is worth a lot. From a top 5 school it is worth a ton. I believe that Harvard is the strongest brand in the entire world. So if you can attach yourself to it, that is positive. You can also not deny the value of the Harvard network. The relationships you make while spending two years with the same small group of people who are all going on to do big things is incredible. You really can`t put a price tag on that. One relationship could essentially make your career or make you tens of millions of dollars. As people always like to say. It is a relationship business. You cant make as strong relationships in a few weekends or even one year as you can with two.