MBA Help / Suggestions Please

External Since: Jun 21, 2003 Posts: 1

Here's my situation. I am located in Springfield, IL, almost the
middle of nowhere when it comes to education, but not completely there
yet. We have a satellite campus of U of I that has an MBA program. My
intent was to join up there out of a matter of convenience more than
anything.

I ended up doing fairly well on my GMATS (690) and believe I could get
into a much "better" grad school with that score, along with my
undergrad GPA and work-experience. I simply cannot afford to take a
year or two off from work to go through a full-time MBA program, but
there are several Top 30 (50) b-schools within a drivable range that
could make the Fri-Sat MBA classes doable (Northwestern, Chicago, UI
at Champ/Urbana, Washington U in St. Louis). I've been considering
applying to some of these schools, but at this point I would have to
wait until next fall to get into any of them, not to mention it will
cost me about 10 times as much.

What my question boils down to is: Is it worth it? A top 30 b-school
will get me some great contacts and probably hold some additional
luster on my resume, but is the education really that much better? Is
it worth $90K more than just going through a local program? Will it
push my career along any faster? Is it worth waiting another year for?
etc...

Any advice ideas would be much appreciated.

External Since: Jun 23, 2003 Posts: 8

markshiff.RemoveThis@hotmail.com (Mark) wrote in message news:<24ec371e.0306211521.695fb306.RemoveThis@posting.google.com>...
> Here's my situation. I am located in Springfield, IL, almost the
> middle of nowhere when it comes to education, but not completely there
> yet. We have a satellite campus of U of I that has an MBA program. My
> intent was to join up there out of a matter of convenience more than
> anything.
>
> I ended up doing fairly well on my GMATS (690) and believe I could get
> into a much "better" grad school with that score, along with my
> undergrad GPA and work-experience. I simply cannot afford to take a
> year or two off from work to go through a full-time MBA program, but
> there are several Top 30 (50) b-schools within a drivable range that
> could make the Fri-Sat MBA classes doable (Northwestern, Chicago, UI
> at Champ/Urbana, Washington U in St. Louis). I've been considering
> applying to some of these schools, but at this point I would have to
> wait until next fall to get into any of them, not to mention it will
> cost me about 10 times as much.
>
> What my question boils down to is: Is it worth it? A top 30 b-school
> will get me some great contacts and probably hold some additional
> luster on my resume, but is the education really that much better? Is
> it worth $90K more than just going through a local program? Will it
> push my career along any faster? Is it worth waiting another year for?
> etc...
>
> Any advice ideas would be much appreciated.

I would post your question to the BusinessWeek.com b-school forum -
it's much more active and you'll get better responses. When you do,
tho, be more specific about your work experience and what your career
goals and intended area of study (i.e., finance, strategy, marketing)
are - you'll get better responses. Generally, the idea is to go to the
best school you can get into and afford. The $90k more may pay off
more in the long run, but it does matter quite a bit what your goals
are.