There is a growing national debate about the cost of higher education
even the most driven business students are crunching the numbers
to see if the returns of an MBA are worth the investment.
Some claim just work experience and free on-line classes are the answer.
At Simon we believe in asking the tough questions.
So we asked is an MBA worth it? It gave me the confidence to be in the discussion.
So being able to confidently ask questions using the right kind of
terminology and applying it.
Simplistic things like how you referr to items on a cash-flow statement or
balance sheet
and being able to utilize those terms when you're analyzing whether you should
go into a new market.
Alumni like, Diana Noll, are in good company. It's estimated that Simon
graduates include three hundred and eighty three Presidents,
two hundred and forty four chief executive officers,
one hundred forty chief financial officers and over one thousand
three hundred and thirty three Vice Presidents. Andrew Ainsley is Dean of the Simon
Business School. He says he's heard the warnings about an MBA before.
This is one of those the sky is falling type lines. It has been out there for as
long as the University has been out there.
I remember when I was doing my MBA, too long ago
for me to really want to remember, that this was exactly the mention that was coming up in the
news all the time.
So I think that there are many, many perspectives in which this
view point was saying that the MBA is dead.
The
world no longer needs MBA's. If you actually look to the leadership
of most companies the United States you'll see an awful lot of MBA's.
A recent study by the Graduate Management Admission Council
found that ninety six percent of MBA Alum's
rated the value of their degree either good or outstanding.
For Simon Alumni it's often about the network. There's really a network of people to
help you
work through some of those information gaps and I think that's also to Simon where you can
draw on the people you work with and you get to know there over the years
to sort of help you piece together may be incomplete information and offer
a different perspective on the situation your facing. When it comes to solutions
Simon Business School was big on data before
data got big. We are so fortunate that Simon,
that's been our sweet spot for years, whether it's popular or not,
it's been taught here and all of a sudden the world just discovered
we need that skill set. Honestly, I don't talk to an employer nowadays
who does not talk about the need for that skill set.
Independent research shows that starting salary goes up fifty percent
after getting your MBA. After five years
that number leaps to eighty percent. Simon Alums, like Sanjay Vatsa,
say the economic gains are very real but there is something else
an MBA does for your career. It makes you adaptable.
An MBA also prepares you for the unexpected.
Look what happens in the next four years is going to very evolutionary.
Digitization, waterization, the collaborative, the complete
will be a very important aspect in
life, coming, going forward and if that's the case
then how do you actually prepare yourself for it. Your undergrad
didn't, doesn't prepare you for it. Your MBA gives you a much more
broader capabilities to understand how to deal with equations like this and how to
re-invent any other answer. Associate Dean,
David Tilson, heads up Simon's full-time MBA program.
He says he understands what an MBA can do for your career.
I think I was a good engineer. I was a good project manager as well.
but I think the MBA rounded out my education
and knowledge of the business world. It allowed me to
participate intelligently in many more conversations and at a much higher
level
than I would have with my all be it very good engineering skills. Dean
Ainslie
agrees. He thinks the business skills you develop with an MBA
are something you can keep in your pocket for the rest of your career.
Because it is something I described recently in an article,
a Swiss Army knife, if you will, because in essence
develops you with a full set of skills. It allows you to do that
to handle those changes that's going to occur over a thirty or forty year career.
One thing you will not need to carry around the rest of your career,
is debt. Studies show most MBA graduates pay back their debt within five years.
Simon is even better. Our MBA graduates pay off their debts from school
in an average of three point eight years. Dean Ainslie sees a more
important value, the exceptional content
that students learn. We need to make sure that we take that great content
and produce it in the classroom in a way that gets students to build
insides that they would never of had at once and that's that balancing game
between great research and great teacher and that's exactly what we
are always striving to do here at Simon.
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