This is the story of Matt Bulloch, a startup-launching entrepreneur who made a decision to obtain an MBA degree at Stanford when his company was already on the rise. Was it a sensible investment? Did it bring him more upsides than downsides?
How Matt Made the Decision
Bulloch was at a stage when he was hesitating whether he should continue his promotional tent business or switch to electronics. As he said, after doing an internship with Apple, the entrepreneur understood that he shouldn’t have considered leaving his first idea. As he himself said, he had to quit his business to finally realize that it actually was the best thing he had.
The Benefits of the MBA
Still, Matt did not regret enrolling into the Stanford MBA program, although the two years of studying there cost more than 218 K. He wanted to continue improving his new startup, and was actually successful here: at the time when his program started, his company had only fifteen employees, and now it has eighty-five.
According to Bulloch, the greatest thing about the program was not even the classes, but the opportunity to meet new people who might get interested in your business. For instance, one of his biggest clients is his former classmate who bought so much of his product that this money alone could cover all the financing for Matt’s studies.
Of course, the financing needed to pay for a school year at top universities like Stanford or Harvard are incredibly high: more than 100K annually. That is why many prospective MBAs dreaming about enrolling into a full-time program have one biggest worry: money. Besides, they do not only have to find a large sum for tuition, but also to leave their current jobs for two years, which aggravates the situation further. Hence, everything depends on the potential earnings as an MBA graduate in further career.
Consequently, many aspiring business students choose their target school based on the earnings of its alumni. Obviously, the top of this list is taken by the best business schools. Typically, most MBA graduates start earning twice as much than they did before starting the program, although the salary amount depends on the sphere. For instance, in finance and banking, a post-MBA salary may be more than 150K, while in the industrial sector it barely makes 140K.
Nevertheless, even if a future MBA degree holder may hope to double their prospective salary, many young managers do not even consider applying for a business program because of the tuition cost, which makes the popularity of top business schools drop to some degree. That is why universities have to find more ways to attract potential students and make the studies worthwhile.
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