For What It’s Worth
Time-consuming and expensive, are MBA degrees really worth it?
by Stephanie Sparks
| Executive Education Links | |
Queen’s University’s School of Business in Kingston, Ont., one of Canada’s most prestigious business schools, offers perks to its graduate students like personal trainers, catering and star guest speakers (former United States president Bill Clinton, Sir Richard Branson and designer Kenneth Cole, just to drop a few names). These additions are meant to provide a richer educational experience, and maybe make those already industry-tested and destined for managerial greatness feel more at home. Then again, when you’re already investing so much time and money in a master of business administration, do you need the model fully loaded?
Besides receiving A-list treatment and countless networking opportunities for up to a year and a half of study, is earning an MBA from any business school really worth the personal, financial and professional costs to have three letters tacked to the end of your email signature? Self-made business people pop up every day. MBAs haven’t changed that, nor does the degree determine whether or not a person can rise to the top of Alberta’s or the world’s leading companies. For employers – or, if your dreams are entrepreneurial, partners and investors – an MBA is the icing on the brownie: it sweetens the deal. Instead of fast-tracking you to the corner office, it ensures you have the skills needed to be a formidable manager.
“You could say there are many, many successful executives from many different walks of life, and some have MBAs and some do not,” says Joan White, the associate dean of MBA programs at the University of Alberta School of Business. “It’s not a requirement for success, but let me suggest to you that it provides them with tools, provides them with networks, and if you look at that knowledge, the knowledge it provides is broad-based business foundations.”
Andrew Reif is a student enrolled in the U of A’s Executive MBA (EMBA) program. After a number of years in senior management, Reif started looking for other opportunities and is now juggling schoolwork with his role as president and CEO of startup company Biolithic Corporation in Edmonton. “I had an engineering background, and I had spent a number of years in international sales, but I realized that to move forward and to prepare for a C-level position, it was important to get that broader perspective on business. That was really my motivation.”
So what’s it going to cost you?
The University of Alberta may not have private chefs to entice potential students, but its MBA program was ranked first in Canada for value for money, aims achieved and career progress by the Financial Times of London in January 2009. But expect to pay at least $24,000 for a full-time MBA program, and that doesn’t cover deposits, textbooks and any other incidentals.
The EMBA programs at the U of A or University of Calgary’s Haskayne School of Business are no bargains either – unless you compare them with the Richard Ivey School of Business ($85,000) in London, Ont., the Rotman School of Management ($89,000) at the University of Toronto or the Schulich School of Business at York University ($108,000) – at about $55,000. (Again, this doesn’t cover books and supplies, which can cost up to $2,000 per year of study).
If enrolling in a full-time program and foregoing income for a year or two sounds preposterous, many MBA programs and business schools offer part-time enrolment for junior and middle management employees who are already climbing the company ladder. Students attend a handful of on-campus classes (on weekends and evenings depending on the school) and learn online or through distance education, leaving the nine-to-five schedule unscathed.
While you won’t lose your income, you will be losing time. For family men and women, this can cause much stress on personal relationships and commitments.
“You need a lot of support from the family,” says Reif. “There are times when you’ve got… schoolwork and then you’ve got to make time for the family. My kids are teenagers, so there are a lot of times where I’m reading in the hockey arena or while watching sports. It all comes down to time management.”
Director of information services for Epcor Utilities Inc. David Asquin, an EMBA from U of A, admits that chasing the magic letters is a major time commitment, one that nearly had him wearing a name tag at home. “It’s not easy,” he recalls. “One of my classmates added it up and they said over the past two years, we’ve read 5,500 pages of textbooks, we’ve prepared 400 pages of original research papers, we’ve conducted 200 minutes of presentations (prepared for and delivered), we’ve read 175 Harvard Business Review, Economist and other business articles and we’ve gone through 25 exams and quantitative assignments – and that doesn’t include the hours you spend doing the research, the study or the actual class time…. That’s why potential candidates spend a lot of time deciding whether or not the timing is right and whether or not they have the desire and the tenacity.”
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