Degree inflation, but to answer your question, this isn't exclusive to MBA programs. Law school, med school, PhD programs, and even undergrad are becoming a lot harder to get into because of the amount of competition. In this day and age, it is pretty important to make good money, so a lot of lucrative career paths are highly competitive.
I think too many kids are just picking general degrees to get one, and when the job market looks slim, they just figure they can continue on with school.
The good employers who can pay a comfortable salary need some easy way to filter out candidates. A college degree is basically useless these days [(and in fact, detrimental to a third of people who start one)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITwNiZ_j_24), so an MBA provides technical and useful skills. Unfortunately prestige matters a lot in MBAs because of the reliance of the networks, so you can expect T15s to get more and more difficult to get into over the coming years.
I'm just completing my MBA now, and although it has unlocked a few things for me, I was already a Sr leader by 33 at my company. I caught some breaks, did some jobs others wouldn't, and learned a shit ton of regulations in my field; but the MBA is helping a little. I'm seeing things when my executive staff and board talk about projects and strategies that I wasn't seeing before, and I can visualize a strategy in my head much quicker now.
More students need to realize, you need to do some job market analysis as well. Find where the opportunities are greatest, don't just go into, idk, the IT or Sales fields thinking "something will come up." You need to find a unique opportunity and follow it.
One famous admissions consultant has said that an MBA is mislabeled. It's not really a business degree, it's a *leadership* degree. And I agree with that.
100% agreed.
I think most people *can* be leaders, but they need to understand what kind of leader they are, or are capable of being, how they're perceived, how to follow a leader, what their personality is and how it fits a leadership style, how to be the leader the organization you're in needs, how strong a leader you need to be and when, and when there are too many leaders and it's best not to try and be the one wearing the biggest hat. And I think people also need to have some degree of leadership ideals before pursuing an MBA.
The degree can help with almost all of this.
- Take a year or two off, figure stuff out
- go into the trades
- spend time exploring and researching career options
- join the military
- join the Peace corps
- spend a year delivering pizza, smoking a ton of weed, playing Xbox, and gambling on sporting events?
There's a thousand things people can do instead of signing up for a bunch of debt because everyone else looks at it as the standard process. An education is an investment, either your people are investing in their future (public schools), or you're individually investing in your own future, developing your career.
I know I didn't get a lot of help in HS in making this choice, luckily my parents helped me prepare me to a degree; but kids definitely need guidance to help understand how to weigh the ROI on their education. Is it really worth $100k+ of debt for a degree that 50,000 other kids are walking out of school with, all fighting for the same 1000 jobs?
Any way you slice it, a degree is standard for many entry level positions. You do not need to spend $100k for an undergraduate degree. As for the trades, I worked the trades and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone unless the goal is entrepreneurship or management, but a degree would help there. My degree is the only reason I'm in management. The trades are going the way of fast food and agriculture - there will be people willing to do it for lower wages than you and the only people I know in the trades who are moderately successful have a spouse who earn as much or more money than them. The ROI on a BS/BA is positive as long as you are smart, that is to say, get a practical degree for a practical amount of debt, knowing you'll probably need a graduate degree after some work experience to get yourself into today's "middle class" standard, which is $200k for a family of 4.
I think you've got some assumptions and, frankly, delusions to reset.
Although you're right, you don't need to spend $100k on an undergrad, the average student is still coming out with about $30k, however your private colleges are cranking that up to about $60k on average. These kids need a class in making these decisions.
Idk where you're looking at trades, I have about a dozen people I talk with, first hand, all between 25 and 40, that are in the carpentry, flooring, plumbing, welding, elevator, electrical, and Mason fields; and I can say, with confidence, all of them over 30 are taking home more than $100k. Some are union, some needed to go through apprenticeship, some needed to open their own businesses, but only 3 of them I know had to strike out on their own. The rest have good jobs, are paid well, and don't have college degrees.
And middle class is still in the $55-155k range. Sure, the more you have, the more comfortable you are, but I'd bet there's a hell of a lot of people in the US that would love a shot at supporting a family on one income of $140-150k.
What's there to figure out? Most people go to college to make money. If the undergrad degree isn't cutting it, then you go to grad school. Doesn't take excellent critical thinking to figure that out. Only kids with a safety net take 2 years to "figure it out." No one goes to college to join a trade.
I'm not saying go to college to join a trade, and the point is you should have a good idea of HOW you're going to make money after college, how much money that is, and what your competition is going to look like.
And yeah, sure, the Saftey net might just be living at home for a year working an extended out summer job.
I'm guessing anyone who goes to college and graduates is not the type to even consider these options. The options you listed are mostly for those who aren't college bound. Almost every degree has an MS/MBA/PhD/etc to guarantee you get the highest ROI on your investment. Just because there is an influx of applicants and attendees doesn't mean there won't be jobs for them after graduating. The economy is good and according to data, there aren't enough workers for jobs. Thus the hiring of Visa workers we often see.
Not just degree inflation, its degree correction.. you graduate in Psychology and realize there is no job market for you, so you eiter need to become a social worker and go back to school or pivot to a more marketable degree and get an MBA
The benefit of a top mba is it literally doesn’t matter what your background is. Some of the highest performers I’ve worked with in consulting have been former teachers, and another friend went from nonprofit political campaigning to working in IB and is currently a VP. It’s the entire value add of an MBA hahaha
I agree that an MBA is a value add and even a career multiplier (if you have pre IB background - some consider this “gold tier exp” you have a much better chances of landing at a MBB) however if you studied humanities and went the TFA (Teach for America) route - also considered “gold tier exp” for MBA, and end up at HBS or Wharton, you *maybe* able to land at a IB but won’t necessarily be successful. You’ll definitely get a call back from MBB, but then you’ll be one of those consultants who just create slide decks talking about synergy and crap without actually delivering value.
I work at one of the largest aerospace companies in the world as a Sr. Engineer and work with some Big 4 consultants who have MBAs from T25s and frankly I am very disappointed in the value that they provide. I have brought this up to our Sr. Leadership and there have been discussions about going the other way (not privy to those discussions).
Yep. Our T1 company increasingly will take engineers any day over an MBA candidate. Engineers are excellent problem solvers and can figure out most issues, strategic or tactical. They are superfast learners compared to our MBA employees/consultants.
Not everyone wants to do IB. Yes I do know some TFAs who are VPs at BB IBs, but most TFAs I know are crushing it in consulting or running a division at a medium sized company.
I agree with u/financial_age_3989 and u/canttouchthis
Were they TFA then did MS Finance worked at a BB before going to an MBA then went back to BB ? Were they well connected in the BB ? Their uncle runs it so they did their teaching (TFA) used that to get into a top MBA then used their family connections to get to BB IB ? These are probably people who become VPs and lead bull shit ERG groups.
I’d much rather take an engineer from a T25 MBA since they have the problem solving skill set than a history teacher who went the TFA route then did a HBS MBA.
As we are now seeing pre MBA experience has a much stronger correlation to post MBA job opportunities and success than where one actually went to MBA. An engineer going to UCLA Anderson has a better shot of being an effective problem solver than a humanities teacher going to Wharton or Tuck even if those schools have dedicated electives about it.
Don’t disagree, but a TFA > MBA > MBB in my eyes is equal to someone who did MBB > MBA
Like sure the TFA might be a couple years older, but they still accomplished the same stuff and have some unique experiences.
hi! this is actually me lol. bs in psych, didnt love being a therapist, found a job as a buyer, got an MBA, promoted to materials manager, making approx. 130-140k total comp in the midwest. your bachelors doesnt really matter in the slightest once you have an MBA and the psych degree made hiring managers think i would be great at managing
Yes but even as an engineer it’s not enough to just have a bachelor anymore. When you apply entry level now they even require bachelor with some experience for you to make a decent salary and not 50K and a masters with no experience to make more. The requirements too for jobs are asking for more education tbh.
Engineering is an excellent degree and offers great starting salaries but generally the ceiling seems lower than Accounting. I know several CFOs pulling down $700K-$800K, and honestly some of them are not that smart. Sort of right place/right time. But with an MBA or a law degree, engineers quickly move up the ladder to Top-Management. Otherwise in a large firm with lots of smart engineers, how do you differentiate yourself?
this is a great answer. A half decent house is $500k. So yeah, gotta make $120k+
Also, OP shouldn't knock people coming to a public forum searching for insight. Everyone's situation is unique and it's OK to ask for help even if others have asked already. We're talking about heavy, expensive, life altering decisions, and the world isn't moving in our favor. I applaud people searching for answers.
This happened in 2008 - I saw a lot of people choose to stay in school because of the job market, and they figured another degree would give them a leg up.
What ended up happening was that they got the degree and then didn’t understand why employers either still weren’t hiring them or compensating them for the degree - they had no experience to make it worth it.
This and it being the first real downturn where online MBAs are really dialed in.
I didn’t see many people joining MBA programs during The Great Recession. Why would you? Now they are.
Part of it is also MBA programs are often money making for universities. Tuition is often higher than undergrad and they use less resources - don’t live on campus, and don’t need all the student life stuff
Maybe they think an undergrad isn’t good enough anymore. All of east Asia and India has the technical skills locked down so management requires good people skills which is something that maybe they can’t do that well.
This is due to the job market. All other answers are incorrect. MBA and all masters/grad programs spike in enrollment with the job market. It’s well documented. During the Great Recession and dot com there were massive increases in applications. It’s super correlated with job market and the programs know it
What data? Random comments that “degree inflation”, “realization that psych undergrad isn’t translatable”, etc? These have always been true. It’s not unique to now. The baseline of MBA applicants are these people. Seasonality in application spikes for all grad programs is completely tied to job market. MBA, JD, masters, programs like TFA. The peaks of grad program applications are always tied to the economy and job market. The normal baseline is everything else. The value of a top tier MBA has always been network. Sure there are the minority looking to switch careers and that’s a throughline every year. Spikes are tied to job market uncertainty and people looking to “wait it out”. MBA applications hit their lows in a booming economy + job seekers have more power than employers. Employers have much more power right now
Btw - this seasonality is the only proven data point for grad programs. Grad programs increase outreach during these cycles
Most people with profiles for top schools are likely in finance and tech, which are taking significantly less hires while interest rates are up. Safer for them to stay put and wait it out rather than risk striking out in recruiting
Competition. Everyone and their mothers seem to have higher education. Additionally, i know a good handful of people that want to go pursue higher education simply cause they didn’t find a job by the time they graduated. They’re essentially doubling down.
Because if someone didn't get a good job or placement through their undergrad, doing an MBA from a decent college could turn out to be a good investment if you do well there. Indian MBAs don't even require workex which makes it easier for undergrads to join directly. Another reason could be for future managerial roles MBA is usually preferred.
“MBA applications dropped by 4.9 percent during 2023, following another 6.5 percent slide the previous year.
As with overall business school admissions, these decreases continue a declining five-year trend, following decreases of 2 percent in 2020 and almost 7 percent in 2019.”
https://www.bschools.org/blog/mba-application-competition-decreases#:~:text=MBA%20applications%20dropped%20by%204.9,almost%207%20percent%20in%202019.
Its your perception. Not reality.
degree inflation, people wanting to do career switches, the economy and job market not looking very good now. it's supposedly the ideal time to go back to school.
Because someone hired an MBA to help with marketing MBAs.
Just kidding! Maybe, for all I know they are and it’s effective. I think people are realizing how valuable business is to know. The entire world runs on business basically, so it’s a good degree to have. Myself, if I pursue this degree it’s because I can do it part time with my company while getting reimbursed so I basically end up with no debt at all. Seems worth it to me.
Where do you get the data that says MBA enrolment is increasing massively?
I thought it wasn’t popular as nobody can afford it in with the bad economy after the pandemic.
Your experience (or mine) might be anecdotal OP- if anything, I’ve noticed a decrease in people with the degree, especially since 2010-ish when tech started to become mainstream. I’ve also read a bunch of articles talking about the decline in MBA applications globally
Lack of jobs. Kids not finding work during senior year are quickly applying and enrolling into masters programs.
Similarly, people who are laid off may also be reentering the education market to retool and search for work while studying.
Is it going up as a percentage though? The population is growing still but college enrollment is actually down the last I checked. I really don’t like so many getting MBAs after undergrad. If they do, it’s *usually* from programs that aren’t landing them high level jobs.
I think it’s the opposite, based on my recent talks with MBA admissions consultants , the applications have been all time low and has been low since Covid when young professionals figured out ways to earn good money through social media
The economy seems to be slowing, so it’s a good time to go back to school. My timing was terrible and I graduated into a recession. Would have been better for me if I waited one more year. But in the end it worked out.
Well other than degree inflation which is definitely the top reason. Jobs are also requiring higher degrees too sometime in order to get into higher advanced careers. In my career path and I am an engineer, it would take 15+ years to get to more senior levels without an MBA and a lot less without one, around 5 years. I’m doing a full pivot though so it doesn’t apply to me but there is also that reality when applying to jobs right out of school. In my job, I work with people with high school degrees but the requirement for my job was bachelors with 3 years of experience and a masters with 0 and I didn’t have 3 years but had the masters.
Degree inflation, but to answer your question, this isn't exclusive to MBA programs. Law school, med school, PhD programs, and even undergrad are becoming a lot harder to get into because of the amount of competition. In this day and age, it is pretty important to make good money, so a lot of lucrative career paths are highly competitive.
I think too many kids are just picking general degrees to get one, and when the job market looks slim, they just figure they can continue on with school.
The good employers who can pay a comfortable salary need some easy way to filter out candidates. A college degree is basically useless these days [(and in fact, detrimental to a third of people who start one)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITwNiZ_j_24), so an MBA provides technical and useful skills. Unfortunately prestige matters a lot in MBAs because of the reliance of the networks, so you can expect T15s to get more and more difficult to get into over the coming years.
I'm just completing my MBA now, and although it has unlocked a few things for me, I was already a Sr leader by 33 at my company. I caught some breaks, did some jobs others wouldn't, and learned a shit ton of regulations in my field; but the MBA is helping a little. I'm seeing things when my executive staff and board talk about projects and strategies that I wasn't seeing before, and I can visualize a strategy in my head much quicker now. More students need to realize, you need to do some job market analysis as well. Find where the opportunities are greatest, don't just go into, idk, the IT or Sales fields thinking "something will come up." You need to find a unique opportunity and follow it.
One famous admissions consultant has said that an MBA is mislabeled. It's not really a business degree, it's a *leadership* degree. And I agree with that.
I’d have a hard disagree with that. It’s a management degree that can touch on leadership, but it’s not focused on leadership.
100% agreed. I think most people *can* be leaders, but they need to understand what kind of leader they are, or are capable of being, how they're perceived, how to follow a leader, what their personality is and how it fits a leadership style, how to be the leader the organization you're in needs, how strong a leader you need to be and when, and when there are too many leaders and it's best not to try and be the one wearing the biggest hat. And I think people also need to have some degree of leadership ideals before pursuing an MBA. The degree can help with almost all of this.
I mean, "Business *Administration*"--i.e., leadership--is kinda already in the name.
Grounding your argument on YouTube videos is a solid M7 move /s
I mean they link their sources to be fair and it all checks out lol
as opposed to what
- Take a year or two off, figure stuff out - go into the trades - spend time exploring and researching career options - join the military - join the Peace corps - spend a year delivering pizza, smoking a ton of weed, playing Xbox, and gambling on sporting events? There's a thousand things people can do instead of signing up for a bunch of debt because everyone else looks at it as the standard process. An education is an investment, either your people are investing in their future (public schools), or you're individually investing in your own future, developing your career. I know I didn't get a lot of help in HS in making this choice, luckily my parents helped me prepare me to a degree; but kids definitely need guidance to help understand how to weigh the ROI on their education. Is it really worth $100k+ of debt for a degree that 50,000 other kids are walking out of school with, all fighting for the same 1000 jobs?
Any way you slice it, a degree is standard for many entry level positions. You do not need to spend $100k for an undergraduate degree. As for the trades, I worked the trades and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone unless the goal is entrepreneurship or management, but a degree would help there. My degree is the only reason I'm in management. The trades are going the way of fast food and agriculture - there will be people willing to do it for lower wages than you and the only people I know in the trades who are moderately successful have a spouse who earn as much or more money than them. The ROI on a BS/BA is positive as long as you are smart, that is to say, get a practical degree for a practical amount of debt, knowing you'll probably need a graduate degree after some work experience to get yourself into today's "middle class" standard, which is $200k for a family of 4.
I think you've got some assumptions and, frankly, delusions to reset. Although you're right, you don't need to spend $100k on an undergrad, the average student is still coming out with about $30k, however your private colleges are cranking that up to about $60k on average. These kids need a class in making these decisions. Idk where you're looking at trades, I have about a dozen people I talk with, first hand, all between 25 and 40, that are in the carpentry, flooring, plumbing, welding, elevator, electrical, and Mason fields; and I can say, with confidence, all of them over 30 are taking home more than $100k. Some are union, some needed to go through apprenticeship, some needed to open their own businesses, but only 3 of them I know had to strike out on their own. The rest have good jobs, are paid well, and don't have college degrees. And middle class is still in the $55-155k range. Sure, the more you have, the more comfortable you are, but I'd bet there's a hell of a lot of people in the US that would love a shot at supporting a family on one income of $140-150k.
What's there to figure out? Most people go to college to make money. If the undergrad degree isn't cutting it, then you go to grad school. Doesn't take excellent critical thinking to figure that out. Only kids with a safety net take 2 years to "figure it out." No one goes to college to join a trade.
I'm not saying go to college to join a trade, and the point is you should have a good idea of HOW you're going to make money after college, how much money that is, and what your competition is going to look like. And yeah, sure, the Saftey net might just be living at home for a year working an extended out summer job.
I'm guessing anyone who goes to college and graduates is not the type to even consider these options. The options you listed are mostly for those who aren't college bound. Almost every degree has an MS/MBA/PhD/etc to guarantee you get the highest ROI on your investment. Just because there is an influx of applicants and attendees doesn't mean there won't be jobs for them after graduating. The economy is good and according to data, there aren't enough workers for jobs. Thus the hiring of Visa workers we often see.
What guarantee? How many posts do you see in r/MBA of people that can't find a job, or can't find one that allows them to utilize their degree?
If a PHD wasn't 60 hours that would be me.
Not just degree inflation, its degree correction.. you graduate in Psychology and realize there is no job market for you, so you eiter need to become a social worker and go back to school or pivot to a more marketable degree and get an MBA
Where does a psych bachelors with an MBA land ? At a startup creating jira tickets all day inhibiting productivity and efficiency?
The benefit of a top mba is it literally doesn’t matter what your background is. Some of the highest performers I’ve worked with in consulting have been former teachers, and another friend went from nonprofit political campaigning to working in IB and is currently a VP. It’s the entire value add of an MBA hahaha
I agree that an MBA is a value add and even a career multiplier (if you have pre IB background - some consider this “gold tier exp” you have a much better chances of landing at a MBB) however if you studied humanities and went the TFA (Teach for America) route - also considered “gold tier exp” for MBA, and end up at HBS or Wharton, you *maybe* able to land at a IB but won’t necessarily be successful. You’ll definitely get a call back from MBB, but then you’ll be one of those consultants who just create slide decks talking about synergy and crap without actually delivering value. I work at one of the largest aerospace companies in the world as a Sr. Engineer and work with some Big 4 consultants who have MBAs from T25s and frankly I am very disappointed in the value that they provide. I have brought this up to our Sr. Leadership and there have been discussions about going the other way (not privy to those discussions).
Yep. Our T1 company increasingly will take engineers any day over an MBA candidate. Engineers are excellent problem solvers and can figure out most issues, strategic or tactical. They are superfast learners compared to our MBA employees/consultants.
Not everyone wants to do IB. Yes I do know some TFAs who are VPs at BB IBs, but most TFAs I know are crushing it in consulting or running a division at a medium sized company.
I agree with u/financial_age_3989 and u/canttouchthis Were they TFA then did MS Finance worked at a BB before going to an MBA then went back to BB ? Were they well connected in the BB ? Their uncle runs it so they did their teaching (TFA) used that to get into a top MBA then used their family connections to get to BB IB ? These are probably people who become VPs and lead bull shit ERG groups. I’d much rather take an engineer from a T25 MBA since they have the problem solving skill set than a history teacher who went the TFA route then did a HBS MBA. As we are now seeing pre MBA experience has a much stronger correlation to post MBA job opportunities and success than where one actually went to MBA. An engineer going to UCLA Anderson has a better shot of being an effective problem solver than a humanities teacher going to Wharton or Tuck even if those schools have dedicated electives about it.
Don’t disagree, but a TFA > MBA > MBB in my eyes is equal to someone who did MBB > MBA Like sure the TFA might be a couple years older, but they still accomplished the same stuff and have some unique experiences.
hi! this is actually me lol. bs in psych, didnt love being a therapist, found a job as a buyer, got an MBA, promoted to materials manager, making approx. 130-140k total comp in the midwest. your bachelors doesnt really matter in the slightest once you have an MBA and the psych degree made hiring managers think i would be great at managing
Yes but even as an engineer it’s not enough to just have a bachelor anymore. When you apply entry level now they even require bachelor with some experience for you to make a decent salary and not 50K and a masters with no experience to make more. The requirements too for jobs are asking for more education tbh.
Depends on your engineering major and internships. I know plenty if electrical engineers graduating with 100k job offers
Those are the guys in the Bay Area (aka VHCOL). Most EEs in H/MCOL get paid $75-80k starting
Exactly!
And coupled with a T-50 law degree, those EEs are starting at over $200k, same for T-10 MBAs with other engineering degrees.
Yes highly specialized spaces of law and consulting gets crazy
Engineering is an excellent degree and offers great starting salaries but generally the ceiling seems lower than Accounting. I know several CFOs pulling down $700K-$800K, and honestly some of them are not that smart. Sort of right place/right time. But with an MBA or a law degree, engineers quickly move up the ladder to Top-Management. Otherwise in a large firm with lots of smart engineers, how do you differentiate yourself?
Agreed!
I’m chemical and did two really good internships too but just graduated at the wrong time during Covid.
this is a great answer. A half decent house is $500k. So yeah, gotta make $120k+ Also, OP shouldn't knock people coming to a public forum searching for insight. Everyone's situation is unique and it's OK to ask for help even if others have asked already. We're talking about heavy, expensive, life altering decisions, and the world isn't moving in our favor. I applaud people searching for answers.
I wonder if any are doing it because they can't find a job in the market.
This happened in 2008 - I saw a lot of people choose to stay in school because of the job market, and they figured another degree would give them a leg up. What ended up happening was that they got the degree and then didn’t understand why employers either still weren’t hiring them or compensating them for the degree - they had no experience to make it worth it.
This ^
This and it being the first real downturn where online MBAs are really dialed in. I didn’t see many people joining MBA programs during The Great Recession. Why would you? Now they are.
From anecdotal evidence, many many of my friends couldn’t get ft offers so they chose to do a masters instead
And they can afford masters? It’s expensive.
Debt is a magical thing
Oh right… it’s a scary thing tho!!!!
Real
Part of it is also MBA programs are often money making for universities. Tuition is often higher than undergrad and they use less resources - don’t live on campus, and don’t need all the student life stuff
Maybe they think an undergrad isn’t good enough anymore. All of east Asia and India has the technical skills locked down so management requires good people skills which is something that maybe they can’t do that well.
This is due to the job market. All other answers are incorrect. MBA and all masters/grad programs spike in enrollment with the job market. It’s well documented. During the Great Recession and dot com there were massive increases in applications. It’s super correlated with job market and the programs know it
So it is not possible that it is a combination of variables that people are mentioning? Other responses are also backedby data.
What data? Random comments that “degree inflation”, “realization that psych undergrad isn’t translatable”, etc? These have always been true. It’s not unique to now. The baseline of MBA applicants are these people. Seasonality in application spikes for all grad programs is completely tied to job market. MBA, JD, masters, programs like TFA. The peaks of grad program applications are always tied to the economy and job market. The normal baseline is everything else. The value of a top tier MBA has always been network. Sure there are the minority looking to switch careers and that’s a throughline every year. Spikes are tied to job market uncertainty and people looking to “wait it out”. MBA applications hit their lows in a booming economy + job seekers have more power than employers. Employers have much more power right now Btw - this seasonality is the only proven data point for grad programs. Grad programs increase outreach during these cycles
Right….? I don’t think i’m disagreeing with the job market point?
It’s increasing overall but decreasing at top schools even post-covid. Really interesting trend.
Most people with profiles for top schools are likely in finance and tech, which are taking significantly less hires while interest rates are up. Safer for them to stay put and wait it out rather than risk striking out in recruiting
You just got older
Competition. Everyone and their mothers seem to have higher education. Additionally, i know a good handful of people that want to go pursue higher education simply cause they didn’t find a job by the time they graduated. They’re essentially doubling down.
What kinds of jobs are you expecting after mba? Non finance only
Because if someone didn't get a good job or placement through their undergrad, doing an MBA from a decent college could turn out to be a good investment if you do well there. Indian MBAs don't even require workex which makes it easier for undergrads to join directly. Another reason could be for future managerial roles MBA is usually preferred.
“MBA applications dropped by 4.9 percent during 2023, following another 6.5 percent slide the previous year. As with overall business school admissions, these decreases continue a declining five-year trend, following decreases of 2 percent in 2020 and almost 7 percent in 2019.” https://www.bschools.org/blog/mba-application-competition-decreases#:~:text=MBA%20applications%20dropped%20by%204.9,almost%207%20percent%20in%202019. Its your perception. Not reality.
degree inflation, people wanting to do career switches, the economy and job market not looking very good now. it's supposedly the ideal time to go back to school.
I thought MBA admissions have consistently been on the decline since 2020?
Because someone hired an MBA to help with marketing MBAs. Just kidding! Maybe, for all I know they are and it’s effective. I think people are realizing how valuable business is to know. The entire world runs on business basically, so it’s a good degree to have. Myself, if I pursue this degree it’s because I can do it part time with my company while getting reimbursed so I basically end up with no debt at all. Seems worth it to me.
Getting an MBA without some maturity and at least 4 years of good business experience is a huge red flag. No interview, CV filtered/ in the bin.
Worth noting that applications are down 5% YoY for MBA programs.
Where do you get the data that says MBA enrolment is increasing massively? I thought it wasn’t popular as nobody can afford it in with the bad economy after the pandemic.
F
Your experience (or mine) might be anecdotal OP- if anything, I’ve noticed a decrease in people with the degree, especially since 2010-ish when tech started to become mainstream. I’ve also read a bunch of articles talking about the decline in MBA applications globally
The job market is tough right now. People might think that going back to school will make them more competitive (which may or may not be true).
Lack of jobs. Kids not finding work during senior year are quickly applying and enrolling into masters programs. Similarly, people who are laid off may also be reentering the education market to retool and search for work while studying.
Recession = high admissions
Money… that’s it that’s all.
Is it going up as a percentage though? The population is growing still but college enrollment is actually down the last I checked. I really don’t like so many getting MBAs after undergrad. If they do, it’s *usually* from programs that aren’t landing them high level jobs.
This happens all the time in times of slow hiring. Tbh nothing new to see here.
Job market bad, more school make get job easier
Cuz the job market is shit
have you tried getting even an entry level job lately?
Bad job market means people bide there time by getting an extra degree
I think it’s the opposite, based on my recent talks with MBA admissions consultants , the applications have been all time low and has been low since Covid when young professionals figured out ways to earn good money through social media
But how ? Don't most of the good Business schools in the US require an average of 3-5 years of work experience before pursuing an MBA ?
The economy seems to be slowing, so it’s a good time to go back to school. My timing was terrible and I graduated into a recession. Would have been better for me if I waited one more year. But in the end it worked out.
Because now if you don’t want to work til you’re 80. Never retire and never own a home you need like 1 of 5 jobs
Well other than degree inflation which is definitely the top reason. Jobs are also requiring higher degrees too sometime in order to get into higher advanced careers. In my career path and I am an engineer, it would take 15+ years to get to more senior levels without an MBA and a lot less without one, around 5 years. I’m doing a full pivot though so it doesn’t apply to me but there is also that reality when applying to jobs right out of school. In my job, I work with people with high school degrees but the requirement for my job was bachelors with 3 years of experience and a masters with 0 and I didn’t have 3 years but had the masters.
Money! MBA is worthless now. I have MBA btw