“Business School, the Two Year Vacation.”
Says my buddy in law school. Disclaimer here for all those who have applied to law school: you may not like this post… So I thought it was pretty presumptuous my buddy made an executive decision that business school was a joke. I’ll give this to him, law school is extremely intense, and the stress of having your entire grade be decided on one exam sounds absolutely ludicrous to me (I can see why he’s on the verge of soiling himself at the end of a semester). But to refute his contention, business school is far from a vacation, especially if you have your sights set on a Top 10 program. While business school may not be as academically intense as law school, from a networking and recruiting standpoint I think it makes sense why business school is the graduate degree that has the shortest return on investment.
The Case for an MBA
Even though that’s not why I’m going back to school, I do think making a living while doing good is a prime factor for why I am choosing an MBA. One of the beautiful things about an MBA is the fact that career options are endless. You don’t HAVE to love business in order to go to business school. You could be an artist, a corporate raider, a lion tamer or a lady road warrior and still join the ranks of top management in non-profit, consulting, healthcare, entrepreneurship or anything your heart desires. Why? Business school teaches the most important skills everyone in this world needs: the ability to solve problems from multiple angles. No disrespect to lawyers, doctors or PhD’s I have all of them in my family, however when you graduate from law school or med school, per se, you are expected to become a lawyer or a doctor. It doesn’t happen in every case, but it happens in most cases. With an MBA it’s different.
Modern day MBA programs are well aware of the fact that students have varied interests and career aspirations so their approach to learning is a reflection of those diverse interests and dissimilar career paths. In prepping students for the next job, top-tier business schools are moving away from the old ‘one size fits all’ axiom of problem solving to a providing multi-pronged set of tools that one can use in situations where it dictates. So you’re saying in your head, “That’s not very efficient.” I disagree. What is the same and is very efficient, and each school has a different way of getting there, is the process an MBA goes through the recognize the problem. Time and time again, problem assessment is the key to coming up with the many right solutions and unleashing one’s MBA toolkit. And if you use THAT template over and over and over again it becomes easier the recognize a problem and employ an appropriate solution, IN ANY career field.
Obviously, I’m über excited to go back to school and no I’m not doing it to go on a $175K two-year vacation. And in three years I can ask my buddy if he thinks my vacation has paid off. I know it will.
On my way to Kellogg DAK this weekend!
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I’m a current 3rd year JD/MBA at Berkeley. Just wait until you matriculate, friend. You’re drinking the kool-aid right now because you’re not in it yet. Law school is slightly tougher than B-school only because it’s graded more arbitrarily. Work level is similar. All that either degree gives you is a piece of paper, great contacts, and a job if you play your cards right. You come out a little smarter, a little older, and a little more confident, but if you think that b-school is going to teach you how to solve problems in a way that you couldn’t before, you’re in for a rude awakening.