If green is your thing, then I believe ‘our’ MBA is very high ranking (Exeter).
we stayed in a ski chalet many years ago and one of the others staying there was a Prof of Marketing at a Russell university business school that offered MBA courses amongst many offerings. I was already sceptical of MBAs being offered by all and sundry institutions and he also felt that many were a waste of time to those doing them.
so I asked him why the school offered them
simple answer - “they bring good money in”
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Im a bit the same, I wouldnt say my childhood was difficult, but my parents were never satisfied. I could have got 12 A*s at GCSEs and they would have said you should have got 13. So I ended up with this attitude of I’ll bloody show them.
Sad thing is, they are still like that now, and so am I. I casually dropped in to conversation the other day how much I earn, just to make the point I wasnt the failure you assumed I would be as Im fairly certain I earn more than him or my brother ever have by a long shot.
Its caused a lot of grief and anxiety over the years. I am a lot better with it now, and I try hard to not to do things to prove other people wrong. So I would definitely not do an MBA if its about proving yourself to others.
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I did an MBA a few years ago. Cheap one with the OU, cost me about 16k.
I probably don’t fall into many of the categories mentioned above, as I did it for me, to prove that I am capable of this level of study (having a BSc (Hons) Maths and MMath). This was after leaving school with nowt, in fact being the first ever person to leave with no O’ levels, showing my age I guess. “I’m afraid Clive will never be suited to an academic life” etc etc says my old shool report.
Whether I ever use it to move to senior mgt is doubtful as I’ve decided that I want to start right at the bottom and am at present an asst mgt accountant!! Who knows, it may give me the lift up I need at some juncture. Previous career includes first job shithouse cleaner on the railway rising to station manager Waterloo, and then Pricing mgr for Virgin before I left the railway. Adult centre organiser helping get adults back into education, I had the stripes and empathy! Statistician. Own Ltd Co for 6 years earning silly money and occasionally employing 1 other. Person trainer, info analyst, financial analyst, and here I am now. This may be my first ever job that I truly like… that’s been my life ambition and journey.
Scope and the bigger picture didn’t come natural to me (being analytical type person!!!) unlike a few of my mates who seem to be naturals. The MBA gave me so much, the bigger picture thinking now well and truly ingrained. I gained a great overall view of all business and management disciplines. Critical reflection and all that. Talk about personal growth, wow, interstellar.
Would I recommend it to someone who is full time and a triathlete as I was? Depends how much spare time you have and want. I did find the study needed loads of hours each week, and this was even part-time. The socialising and free time vanished. The stress levels, along with a full time job were immense.
But to each their own I say - if you feel and MBA is right for you, and you can drop the training. or tone it down, and want to grow, go for it!
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I have just finished an Exec MBA (dissertation just handed in), happy to answer any questions you have. In answer to the two you posted:
Time - I did an evening course so spent 2 evenings a week in the classroom and then every couple of months had to write an essay that took a couple of weekends. On average I would say 8-10 hours a week. Covid helped as in the second year (of 2) everything went online which made it easier to fit in. I still made sure I had plenty of family time on weekends (3 kids under 10) and kept up triathlon but only up to standard distance. I think it enriched my life (easy to say now) but I did get stressed on the assignment weekends and missed out on ling rides and runs. The dissertation would have been tough to balance with work, family and triathlon if it wasn’t for Covid and a broken collarbone preventing me from training for the last few months!
Value - undecided if it was value for money. This will come down to your reasons for doing it. I did it to get a different perspective on life and work (20 years in IT). It definitely gave me that but it’s an expensive way to do it, I should have just gone to Waterstones! I was not looking for a career change or help climbing the ladder but it has changed my outlook in that regard so it may happen.
As others have said, I think where you do it is very important. Good luck!
.
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I’m out.
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Was about to post something similar. 16k is cheap!!!
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All this talk of MBAs reminds me of a good mate from school in who has had a “complicated” life.
He studied Russian at university (why oh why) and ended up getting a job straight out of uni with an oil industry mag in Moscow.
His then inexplicably got deployed to manage a bacon farm in Minsk, Siberia, which somehow was a subsidiary of a huge oil conglomerate. One English guy, 400 butch Russians called Vlad with cleavers.
When it became apparent that things were going south for the oil company in the early 2000s- executives jailed and “disappeared”- he got the hell out of Dodge and took himself off to Yale in the USA where he self funded a MBA with his Ill gotten Soviet gains no doubt.
A glutton for punishment, he decided then to set up a venture capital outfit with a partner. In Ukraine, obviously. They borrowed money and bought tracts of farmland in Ukraine and farm carrots and onions and so on.
To make life more complicated he chose to live in Lausanne, Switzerland just up the road from Spooner, and weekly commute by plane.
We went out to see him a couple of years ago and did some hiking in the mountains and - I swear this is true- on top of a glacier at a place called “Plaine Morte” he stopped us all for half an hour while negotiating the shipment of 80 tonnes of turnips to Rotterdam.
So @awildt . Careful what genies you unleash when you rub the bottle 
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My Poindexter is telling me that’s in Belarus.
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Apologies I think it was Omsk
Some godforsaken patch of tundra anyway
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A Level Geography init. Money well spent 
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My last direct report did his CFA L1 and can confirm it is a lot of studying and was a challenge with the remote learning. There was supposed to be class room elements as well I helped with his revision on financial products and valuations but that was my limit.
My new (inherited) direct report at my new employer has an MBA and has ideas of grandeur because of these 3 letters unfortunately. I work directly for the c-suite and have been told by my MBA chap that he intends to be in the c-suite with 5 years. If the entire business was wiped out and he survived it would be the only way of it happening but I’m not allowed to dent his aspirations.
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Is it Student Loan 16k that’s just a tax for later (that you may well never pay back) or actual cash?
Now whoever said triathlon was full of middle class type A’s eh?
More MBAs in here then a PWC Xmas party 
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Norfolk?
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That was Clive, not me. I’m definitely not eligible for a student loan.
Are you sure? I thought you were old enough to pre-date the undergrad loans so
would kick in?
I got a Loan in my second and third years at Uni (graduated in '95); a grand total of about £1600 back then 
I paid that back when I got my first full time job! Of course, there were no tuition fees back then.
I am under 60. Where do I sign up?
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A previous colleague of mine spent more time working on his self-funded MBA (done through Imperial College) than actually working for his employer. Trying to get him to do any real work was impossible and when he did do something it was diabolical.
The company found a loophole to get rid of him eventually. Only he turned up working for an ex-colleague of mine that I really liked. Of course, professionally I couldn’t tell my old colleague to not hire him. I eventually received the following message:
Thanks for sending me Billy-Bob (
) I have a shallow grave dug for him on Saddleworth Moor
So my reservations about MBA’s and the different institutions that dish them out come from experience.
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