Is an MBA worth it considering the time and money involved?

I'm 27 this year and been working for around 4 years. I'm in a local company and enjoying my time, however, I was wondering if it makes sense to take this step and venture out to do an MBA. Considering it heavily for the network and brand of the potential school (Ivy league).

Discussion (2)

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Pascal S

06 Feb 2019

MBA Graduate at Singapore Management University

Hi,

I am taking the SMU MBA on a part-time basis, which is to attend evening classes and going on with work life during the day time. The SMU MBA has the advantage of being a 1-year long programme for Full-Time with compulsory internship (3-6 months long) while attending classes at night.

There are 3 things now particular to this programme,

Lowering the opportunity cost - You can study while working, or work while studying and getting a degree. Acquire work knowledge in a new field or industry as an intern (or join a well-funded early stage startup)
Network effects - As a Part-Time student, it is harder to embrace this. As a Full-Time student, you may leverage the SMU network on Day 1 to connect with more people, all day long. There are no classes on Fridays to allow students to go and build their network. And yes, you have the whole week to do so if you feel like it.
Starting your side-hustle as a student is EASIER in Singapore than anywhere else in the world.

Cheers,

Pascal - launchers.asia

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Luke Ho

02 Feb 2019

Founder and Director at CFX Money Maverick Pte Ltd

If it's Ivy League, it might be worth considering.

There's a lot of dependent variables, because you could go there and network a lot less than you think. An MBA is hard, thats why not everyone does it. I certainly didn't.

You also have to talk to your boss and see how that improves your future prospects within the company. You'd be surprised at how that conversation could go.

I did business consultancy a while back also, so I can tell you straight up that even if you decide to operate your own business, people are still impressed by your university, especially if you want to scale. Which is why they always talk about rich billionaires dropping out of prestigious schools, because they actually had the option to attend AND drop out. In the business world, its not a small thing. Right or wrong, I won't comment.

You have to think specifically about what its for - the networking, the MBA, all that - otherwise it becomes useless.

https://www.facebook.com/luke.ho.54

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