Fortune.com Why a MBA may not be worth it

[philipwhite]

I'm not out to depress everyone this month. The news has already done that. Fortune.com had an article entitled "Why the MBA may not be worth it"
http://www.fortune.com/fortune/careers/articles/0,15114,644753,00.html

"One reader says he used his MBA to line his African gray parrot's birdcage."

The article also links to "The End of Business Schools" (http://www.aomonline.org/Publications/Articles/BSchools.asp) which is a good article pointing out several trends of business education and changes that could be made to improve it.

[YaSO]

Economy is picking up(for big businesses), but it's really happening because big businesses got smarter(more evil?) and started laying off a bunch of people, lowering salaries, and cutting benefits. Is MBA so useless or reports like these are written because of great pessimism coming from rather extreme downsizing of existing businesses?

[philipwhite]

I think these articles and the one by Mintzberg (http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/83/mbamenace.html) point out some of the flaws in the educational system. The "End of Business Schools" article pointed out that if MBA programs were done the right way most schools probably wouldn't offer the degree. Its a very lucritive business for schools to offer the degree. It would be beneficial to students if universities greatly limited mba class size and incorporated a very hands on approach to industry but this takes away from their bottom line.

I still think the degree is valid especially if your interested in consulting. If I didn't think it was valid then I probably wouldn't be running a site dedicated to MBAs.

The economy is still in poor shape. A lot of companies are hiring people at wages that are so low its difficult to make a living on or they are working their current staff to death. Prices have gone up and wages have gone down. There is a lot of pessimisim out there and some of it is deserved.

[YaSO]

It would be beneficial to students if universities greatly limited mba class size and incorporated a very hands on approach to industry but this takes away from their bottom line.
Isn't E-MBA like this? It is very very expensive though, and from purely economical standpoint, I am not so sure if it is worth investment. What's your take on that?

[philipwhite]

An executive MBA I think is like the weekend resort type training class. It cost a ton of money and they usually have a number of speakers from top companies.

[jfslenes]

The earlier post regarding "hands on" style of teaching is paramount to any educational improvement and success. When I first went to school, practical internships were unheard of (damn). Now, they are far more common, but still not 100% prevalent.

Internships that require real world experience are the most productive educational change imaginable except for ridding the country of the "feel good" NEA crowd and their cohorts running most school boards. We need to get back to the three R's and add a class on critical thinking. Too many graduates believe the tabloids rather than their own thoughts.