Programs Have Their Supporters and Detractors. The Essay

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programs have their supporters and detractors. The first and most obvious objection to getting an MBA is its expense. More and more undergraduates have student loan debt, and piling debt upon debt in a weak economic environment can be dangerous. However, most MBA programs require or at least expect students to have some sort of work experience before embarking upon the program. Students thus have hopefully accrued some savings. They also are likely to have a good idea of what they want to study in the program and their future goals, given their experience in their desired specialty. Unlike law schools, which have been criticized as holding pens for recent graduates without a clear career direction, to apply to an MBA program, a student must make a persuasive case for his or her potential to succeed in a hands-on field. High grades and strong scores on the MCAT are not enough -- students must have demonstrated a commitment to business.

Additionally, because of the practicality of the degree, employers often offer tuition reimbursement programs. Employers assume some or all of the debt themselves, in exchange for the opportunity to get a more qualified employee with enhanced skills. Supporting the pursuit of an employee's MBA can be an ideal to way to get employees to make an enhanced contribution to the organization through their new skill sets, and build stronger bonds of institutional loyalty. Going to work at the same time as studying is one answer to the objection that being in school will result in a loss of income and work opportunities, as well as incur debt. There are even executive MBA programs and online programs that allow busy people to get degrees during the weekend. For workers without generous employers, some programs offer scholarships to qualified candidates. A final way to minimize debt is to go into a joint undergraduate BA-MBA program, which may enable the student to gain his or her MBA within 5 years.

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This will further reduce the cost of spending more time in school, as well as reduce admissions fees and the costs of studying for and taking preparatory course.

The most frequent rationalization used by MBA programs to justify their costs is the larger salary workers are able to command, as a result of their degree. Despite the recession, salaries for MBA graduates are trending upward: compared with post-MBA salaries in 2006, 2008 salaries averaged $104,000, an increase of 9% according to BusinessWeek (Lavelle 2008). In 2009, "consistent with previous years, the average starting salary employers planned to extend to recent MBA graduates in 2010 nearly doubled the average starting salary offered to undergraduate students… employers still value the MBA and the business skills it brings with the new employee…[and] offer people with MBAs significantly higher salaries than those with just undergraduate education. This premium, which we continue to see year after year, reflects the high value companies place on the skills and abilities people develop in business school " versus undergraduate business programs (Burns 2011).

However, critics point out that while salaries of MBAs are increasing, these graduate students are still struggling to pay off student loans. "Recent government data on student loan repayment show that 20% of students from elite business schools are struggling to pay down their student debt. And that average is miles better than the typical business school's" statistics (VanderMay 2011). For public colleges and universities the average MBA student loan repayment rate is an estimated 54%; 56% for private nonprofit schools (VanderMay 2011). Salaries of MBA programs may be high, but the cost of living is increasing, and there is no guarantee of a job upon graduation.

However, this is not a reason to discount MBA programs. The graduate must find a program that is a right fit for his or her aspirations, current debt load, and work schedule. A student with undergraduate debt can look for a scholarship or a.....

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