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Elite MBA Programs Report Steep Drop in Applications

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Re: Elite MBA Programs Report Steep Drop in Applications

#91

I'm not sure what an "elite" college teaches that a "regular" college doesn't. Maybe quality of student is better, but the content seems negligible. Heck I find the personalities of young "elite" grads need additional shaping in the real world.

It teaches you the value of Harvard on a resume. It teaches you the value of having rich and well connected contacts in your phone.

Re: Elite MBA Programs Report Steep Drop in Applications

#92
Based on the abstract (paywall), this is the much predicted impact of the hostile environment being created in the US.

Since MBAs especially are largely network building institutions, this is a situation where the clear losers are gonna be the educational institutions and the US, because the Chinese and Indian students who would have otherwise built an American network when trying to create their own businesses, largely in their own countries, will now be building a Canadian one instead.

Re: Elite MBA Programs Report Steep Drop in Applications

#93
post #48

Applications are still growing, the highest was Canada with 9.4% growth between 2018 and 2019: > Applications to U.S. business schools, including M.B.A. programs, fell sharply, while rising in Canada, Europe and China. just not in the US: > “There’s perception, which we absolutely pick up in our data, that the U.S. is not a welcoming environment,” said Sangeet Chowfla, GMAC’s chief executive.

After working with so many MBAs from prestigious schools I find it very hard to take this kind of title at face value, before seeing the person in action. Most had an MBA at 23 years old, basically jumping straight from university classes to MBA classes with nothing in between. At best the MBA did not bring anything. At worst it made some feel so entitled that they actually performed far worse. I fail to see the adde…

They come knowing certain things that most non biz grads have no clue about. Try getting technical people to do sales or PR or admin work. Of course some are unfit but try hiring 200 people by next quarter to expand sales or launch a new product without MBAs and watch the madness unfold.

Re: Elite MBA Programs Report Steep Drop in Applications

#94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's a pedigree that allegedly excludes the dumb rich kids Yeah, it's exclusively for the smarter rich kids.

I don't know. As the son of a High School teacher and an unemployed father from a third world country, I'm probably not what you call "smarter rich kid" yet I went to a top 5 MBA. Many of my classmates came from equally diverse backgrounds and nationalities. I think 30%+ of my class were foreigners. But go on, it's easy to hate on MBAs. It's the one bigoted view everyone is seemingly allowed to have.

> I think 30%+ of my class were foreigners.

Because foreign born people can't be rich?

What income percentiles are Harvard MBA students coming from?

Re: Elite MBA Programs Report Steep Drop in Applications

#95

This is a good thing. People are realizing that a $500,000+ upfront cost (tuition + 2 years' lost income) had better have an an astronomical ROI. In many cases, it doesn't. Anecdotally, I went to undergrad at a school with an elite MBA program. It seemed to me that the only hard part of the MBA program was getting in; the MBA students were essentially paying to have a 2 year networking party. Their experience was lik…

I have several friends with top tier MBAs. They all got them in an effort to jump from the sell-side to the buy side, and most saw salary increases from 300-400k to 600k-1M+. The ROI on that specific career move is pretty clear and is really the only path I would personally justify for an MBA. They all say the course load and work is a joke. It's mostly an accreditation to the buy side hiring process and networking.

I don't know about your friends but the average salary out of an elite b-school is something like 160k in the best of cases [1], not the ranges you mention...

Either they're total outliers, or you're talking about something like an exec MBA, or something else altogether.

[1] https://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-schools/top-b...

Re: Elite MBA Programs Report Steep Drop in Applications

#96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know. As the son of a High School teacher and an unemployed father from a third world country, I'm probably not what you call "smarter rich kid" yet I went to a top 5 MBA. Many of my classmates came from equally diverse backgrounds and nationalities. I think 30%+ of my class were foreigners. But go on, it's easy to hate on MBAs. It's the one bigoted view everyone is seemingly allowed to have.

> I think 30%+ of my class were foreigners. Because foreign born people can't be rich? What income percentiles are Harvard MBA students coming from?

Many of us weren't. You claimed MBAs are exclusively for rich kids. I provided data to refute that baseless claim. The point on how many foreigners there were is just a freebie.

I don't know about Harvard MBA students, I didn't go there. But you can go ahead and google each school's class profile. Maybe that info is out there.

Re: Elite MBA Programs Report Steep Drop in Applications

#97
post #6

Good. The rise of the MBA has seen the downfall of quality. "Business Administration" is not something that can be taught in such a generic way that an MBA qualifies you to actually run a business. In particular, the rise of Financial "Engineering" has led to huge inequality and the total disconnection of "Wall St" from "Main St" such that their relationship has been completely inverted.

> "The rise of the MBA has seen the downfall of quality." specious and unsupported statement. what "quality" are you talking about? what "downfall" has there been? when, how and why did "it" rise in the first place? you're making a fundamental attribution error (a topic taught in an MBA program, no less) by hinting at structural issues that are much wider and far-reaching than a simple graduate degree. make a reasone…

All great points. I'd also add "the rise of the MBA" really happened 50+ years ago...

Re: Elite MBA Programs Report Steep Drop in Applications

#98

Applications are still growing, the highest was Canada with 9.4% growth between 2018 and 2019: > Applications to U.S. business schools, including M.B.A. programs, fell sharply, while rising in Canada, Europe and China. just not in the US: > “There’s perception, which we absolutely pick up in our data, that the U.S. is not a welcoming environment,” said Sangeet Chowfla, GMAC’s chief executive.

Doing a masters (or undergrad) in Canada is the backdoor to immigration.

Once you graduate, you get an open work permit equal to the length of your program and can then apply for Permanent Residency through “Express Entry” based on your advanced degree and local experience.

The desperation for local experience can really suppress wages in some fields.

And you don’t need to prove that you’re not taking a position or anything from a local candidate.

Canadian universities and colleges have been making out like bandits and accrue excess value from the scheme.

Re: Elite MBA Programs Report Steep Drop in Applications

#99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not really that generalized as you can pick 1 or more majors and focus on what you want to learn most. Not to mention each MBA school has different characteristics, attracting different candidates and campus recruiters. Stanford and Booth couldn't be more different if they tried. MBA graduates are also not fit for running literally any business. The only thing employers know is that if you come from a top 10 MBA…

Folks on the trading side definitely don't. Folks on the PE side definitely do, especially the decisionmakers

Trading seems to have people from a very wide variety of backgrounds and capabilities. I think it's the result of random events being the most significant filtering mechanism. Anyone can get burned on a trade at any time, so staying in the game doesn't really depend on anyone's qualifications or abilities.
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