Dan Dillard, now 35, quit his job in radio in Indianapolis to pursue an MBA at Indiana University–Bloomington’s Kelley School of Business in 2014. He submitted his applications to Kelley and a few other schools the week his first child was born.
Leaving stability, a home, a community, a known income and everything else was a huge hurdle and consideration, says Dillard, who now works in consumer market knowledge — market research — for Procter & Gamble in Cincinnati. He thought long and hard about the decision — especially since he was becoming a father.
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Pursing an MBA is a significant investment. The average tuition for the 2016-2017 school year was $57,218 at the top 25 private MBA programs ranked by U.S. News. At the top 25 public programs, the average tuition was $32,181 for in-state students and $45,151 for out-of-state students. This doesn’t include fees, which can be significant.
Professionals should weigh the following pros and cons related to finances when making a decision to leave a job for an MBA program.
Pro: Full-time students are focused on school and may get more out of the experience. “It being such a massive transition, I felt like I’m either all in or I’m not, and I decided obviously to go all in and do the two years and to really immerse fully,” says Dillard, though he considered online, part-time and other alternatives to keep his job and family life rooted in Indianapolis.
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Full-time MBA students have more time to build a network, says Jeff McNish, assistant dean of the Career Development Center at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. And since they are likely not working, students have time for extracurriculars and cocurriculars that add value.
Kim Truong, a 2016 graduate of the full-time MBA program at the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Wisconsin School of Business, says she learned some companies mainly recruit full-time MBA candidates.
“I wouldn’t get the same companies recruiting me if I went through a part-time program,” says Truong, now 32 and a compensation specialist at Starbucks in Seattle.
Con: Most full-time students won’t have a steady income for a couple years. Thirty-year-old Terry Evans Jr. rented out his house in Pittsburgh and lived in his aunt’s basement so he wouldn’t have to work while attending the two-year MBA program at the University of Pittsburgh’s Katz Graduate School of Business.
Because he was switching from a sales-driven job to something completely new to him, he wanted to focus on school, says Evans, now working in corporate development for aviation, defense and building organization United Technologies Corp. in Florida.
The 2015 Katz graduate also used savings, loans and merit-based scholarships to support himself and pay for his degree.
Be conservative when calculating how much an MBA will cost and the potential return on investment, says Jeremy Shinewald, founder and president of mbaMission, an MBA admissions consulting firm. Don’t assume financial aid will be offered, he says. Factor in the opportunity cost, too.
[Calculate the return on investment for an MBA.]
Pro: Adults can earn their degree in a relatively short amount of time. “I wanted to get in, get out and get done with it,” says Brandon Earle, a 24-year-old student in the one-year full-time MBA program at Florida State University.
Graduate school is like taking on a mortgage — the credential appreciates, says Karen Dowd, assistant dean at the University of Rochester’s Simon Business School.
“You will start at a higher level when you graduate and you’ll be able to have more opportunities for advancement because of your degree,” she says. Think about the costs not over a couple of years, but a longer period of time, she says.
The sooner students earn their degree, the less risk, hardship and inconvenience there will be, she says.
Con: There’s no guarantee professionals make more money after they earn an MBA. About 88 percent of 2016 full-time MBA graduates from ranked business schools seeking employment had a job within three months, according to U.S. News data. The mean base salary and bonus among 2016 graduates of these programs was $133,971.
Dillard is making about twice as much in his new job than he was at his old one.
Truong, previously an alumni recruiter at the University of California–Los Angeles, is making 78 percent more in base salary at Starbucks, she says. That doesn’t include annual bonuses and stock.
Still, getting a higher-paying job — or one at all — is not guaranteed upon graduation.
Prospective students can look at salary data from websites like Glassdoor and Indeed to get an idea of income prospects, Dowd says.
Money wasn’t a main motivator or concern for Dillard.
He and his wife had faith the financial aspect would work out, he says. “Getting me into a more satisfied position from a professional standpoint was the ultimate compass.”
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Consider Pros, Cons of Leaving a Job for a Full-Time MBA originally appeared on usnews.com
