Pursuing an MBA is a very personal choice, but principally there are 4 reasons my classmates sought after the degree:
1) advance or accelerate career
2) increase career optionality
3) meet likeminded people
4) get a business education
Certainly you can gain each of them without an MBA, but the complete package is very attractive. But it comes at a price! I will painfully pay down my loans over the next n-number of years. $100k in tuition and 2 years of cost of living in NYC is not exactly cheap.
Back in undergrad my friends and I discussed the difference between a top tier MBA and a non top tier MBA (just Google "MBA Rankings"). Back in those uninformed days, we ignorantly decided what was "worth it or not" -- looking at only the top 10 schools or so, completely discriminating all others.
Having had the benefit of taking classes at NYU Stern (in person and paid for it) and a handful of other top MBA programs (via Coursera and iTunesU, for FREE), there is NO DIFFERENCE in the educational value. Always frugal, I want to share my overpriced thoughts in hope to lower costs (and increase the value?) for the next guy.
The following provides high level nuggets of wisdom, and in the subsequent posts I will sprinkle in deeper dives into each subject...
The MBA is divided into core courses and electives. The core teaches you the basic building blocks (go broad) and the electives allow to specialize where interested (go deep).
- Statistics
- Accounting
- Finance
- Strategy
- Marketing
- Economics
- Operations
- Leadership in Organization (LIO)
My electives:
- Negotiations
- Managerial Communications
- Brand Strategy
- Investment Banking
- Corporate Finance
- Digital Media Innovation (DMI)
- Managing Growing Companies (MGC)
- Decision Models
- Financial Statement Analysis (FSA)
- Data Driven Decision Making (D3M)
- Business Development in Entertainment & Media
- Private Equity
- Business Law
- Foundation of Business Coaching
- Power & Politics
- Advanced Strategy
- Ethics & Professional Responsibility
My approach on electives was the pursuit of pleasure, rather than seeking a specific intention. By doing so, I graduated with 3 specializations: Finance, Marketing and Leadership. Looking back on that, it was 100% the right call.
My MBA format was the pursuit of pleasure. The posts will get tagged under "Shareable Stern MBA". In the coming months, I intend to share a lot. Stay tuned.
Be Well. Do Good.
BG