I remember when High School Diploma used to be the shitz (I wasn't born then, just read and heard about it). Then came the College/University Degree crave. It went further beyond to the Masters/Graduate Degree crave. PhDs, not so much, considering the fact that they are time consuming, and nobody really hires you except government agencies, schools, or you're a consultant/your own boss.

Then came the Business School crave with Wharton School in 1881, the first collegiate business school in the world, and the United States. Harvard followed suit in 1908 and called theirs (then) Harvard Graduate School of Business.

The MBA has since remained the most versatile and attractive Masters degree to date. However as time went on and the business world became more competitive, general management MBA couldn't contain a lot of people's desires anymore. These "new sect" of people did not need general management skills as such, but needed an MBA that focused more on certain professions; hence the MBA "specialization". Today, every Tom, Dick and Harry can have an MBA. If not from the top 20 Business Schools, then from the top 50 or top 100. And those are the 1 percent elite Business Schools in the world to get an MBA from. If you can't go to Harvard, Wharton, U Chicago, Stanford, MIT, or Columbia, I bet you can get into Cornell, Emory, Michigan, UMD - College Park, U of Austin - Texas, Rice, Cambridge, Oxford, Manchester, Imperial, Edinburgh, IMD, IESE, U Toronto, Queens University, McGill, University of Capetown etc that have MBA programs. Everybody has a potential for greatness, and so it will be wrong to assume that you're gonna nail "that" only at schools such as Yale, Harvard, and the rest of the so called elite institutions. Don't forget that rankings are biased.

Ivy league education is no longer what it used to be. The world has advanced, there are programs and certificates that teach you stuff that those elite top 10 business school could never teach you.

Oh and the Executive Education at Harvard also fills in a "need void", How many Managers, CEOs, and Presidents can fully devote 2 years just to go get a piece of paper, rather than get the "real paper"? Also, what's the difference between a Harvard MBA and their - Advanced Management Program (AMP - with successful people such as Ratan Tata), General Management Program (GMP), Owner/President Management Program (OPM - with successful people such as Tyra Banks), President's Program in Leadership (PPL), Program for Leadership Development (PLDA)? After all, these programs confer the "alumni" status to their already -career, business, and financially successful graduates? As you guys stated, it's not just about the "academic rigor" but more so about the "connection".

If you don't know what to use your MBA for, just get a Msc in Finance or Management, then go for a lot of Entrepreneurship programs offered in those same schools. You'd be better off in the long run when you wanna start your own business. Being in the field for 20 years, then leaving with grey hair to start your own business doesn't cut it anymore.

Plus the University of Wisconsin has produced more CEOs in fortune 500 companies in the United States than those elite business schools. Harvard, Yale, Ox-bridge etc all rest on old laurels. The last time I checked University of Oxford's facebook page, they were bragging about winning the best college website,

Let me start from the topic. As i am now, i can't commit such amount for ivy league MBA, won't mind sponsors though. Come to think of it, that amount is huge.

I see some insightful comments to this interesting and often controversial topic about the value of an Ivy League MBA (or any MBA for that matter). Unfortunately, many commentators appear to be limited by what they see around them locally in imagining the possibilities and the doors that can be opened through a powerful global network.

Kellizle:

I remember when High School Diploma used to be the shitz (I wasn't born then, just read and heard about it). Then came the College/University Degree crave. It went further beyond to the Masters/Graduate Degree crave. PhDs, not so much, considering the fact that they are time consuming, and nobody really hires you except government agencies, schools, or you're a consultant/your own boss.

Then came the Business School crave with Wharton School in 1881, the first collegiate business school in the world, and the United States. Harvard followed suit in 1908 and called theirs (then) Harvard Graduate School of Business.

The MBA has since remained the most versatile and attractive Masters degree to date. However as time went on and the business world became more competitive, general management MBA couldn't contain a lot of people's desires anymore. These "new sect" of people did not need general management skills as such, but needed an MBA that focused more on certain professions; hence the MBA "specialization". Today, every Tom, Joystick and Harry can have an MBA. If not from the top 20 Business Schools, then from the top 50 or top 100. And those are the 1 percent elite Business Schools in the world to get an MBA from. If you can't go to Harvard, Wharton, U Chicago, Stanford, MIT, or Columbia, I bet you can get into Cornell, Emory, Michigan, UMD - College Park, U of Austin - Texas, Rice, Cambridge, Oxford, Manchester, Imperial, Edinburgh, IMD, IESE, U Toronto, Queens University, McGill, University of Capetown etc that have MBA programs. Everybody has a potential for greatness, and so it will be wrong to assume that you're gonna nail "that" only at schools such as Yale, Harvard, and the rest of the so called elite institutions. Don't forget that rankings are biased.

Ivy league education is no longer what it used to be. The world has advanced, there are programs and certificates that teach you stuff that those elite top 10 business school could never teach you.

Oh and the Executive Education at Harvard also fills in a "need void",  How many Managers, CEOs, and Presidents can fully devote 2 years just to go get a piece of paper, rather than get the "real paper"? Also, what's the difference between a Harvard MBA and their - Advanced Management Program (AMP - with successful people such as Ratan Tata), General Management Program (GMP), Owner/President Management Program (OPM - with successful people such as Tyra Banks), President's Program in Leadership (PPL), Program for Leadership Development (PLDA)? After all, these programs confer the "alumni" status to their already -career, business, and financially successful graduates? As you guys stated, it's not just about the "academic rigor" but more so about the "connection".

If you don't know what to use your MBA for, just get a Msc in Finance or Management, then go for a lot of Entrepreneurship programs offered in those same schools. You'd be better off in the long run when you wanna start your own business. Being in the field for 20 years, then leaving with grey hair to start your own business doesn't cut it anymore.

Plus the University of Wisconsin has produced more CEOs in fortune 500 companies in the United States than those elite business schools. Harvard, Yale, Ox-bridge etc all rest on old laurels. The last time I checked University of Oxford's facebook page, they were bragging about winning the best college website,    

It only makes sense if your gonna be sponsored.

okpara ugo:

Give me N40million, I will generate N3million every month. We share the proceeds equally.

Your Principal is retained till whenever you want it.

See guy man

Yeah it is pretty worth it, from what I've seen and heard. Harvard MBAs get pretty nice jobs. . . $200k+/year after MBA (N30 million/year) is not unheard of.

Plus it opens a lot of doors for the future, in terms of connections you make and people you meet.

Though I know people who've studied much less expensive masters level courses there and also gotten pretty sweet jobs in the business world.

Everyone keeps shouting contacts this, contacts that, I know some folks who went to hard and left with no real contacts except "hi" and "bye", they can't even confidently reach out to alumni networks in the database , Some people here shouting contacts are just screaming on top of their lungs, I'm not advising again Ivys because the bragging rights is indeed something to write home about but do you really need it to make it in the world ? The answer is NOOO! Just be wise and no one can decide your future goals except for you.

^^^^^
no mind them jare. you can attend all the Ivy leagues in America if u want. But if you don't have the personality, you still won't make valuable friends and contacts. It is all about the personality and crashing the right parties on the upper east side of Manhattan .

Yes ooo, I know folks who went to Baruch College and landed top jobs.

I had a friend who graduated from Wharton and was jobless for two years. Rather than network, he had spent all his time studying to keep up with his peers, He ruined his credit because student loans companies want to collect their money and he had no money, Once again just be wise!

Lagcity: you go school for New York ?

There are obviously many paths to success. . . no one is saying that the only way to succeed is Harvard MBA.

But imo, if you apply and get in, you pretty much have to go.

obowunmi:

Yes ooo,  I know folks who went to Baruch College and landed top jobs.

I had a friend who graduated from Wharton and was jobless for two years. Rather than network, he had spent all his time studying to keep up with his peers,  He ruined his credit because student loans companies want to collect their money and he had no money,  Once again just be wise!

Lagcity: you go school for New York ?

Baruch has good contacts with the city and are a decent feeder for IB.

lagcity:

^^^^^
no mind them jare. you can attend all the Ivy leagues in America if u want. But if you don't have the personality, you still won't make valuable friends and contacts. It is all about the personality and crashing the right parties on the upper east side of Manhattan .

Exactly, its all about connections but schools like HBS open the doors for you to interact with such people and gives you the confidence to build them. Yes some people dont use  alumni network (I dont, I am not really social) but I have seen people use them and it works wonders. There is a feeling of camaraderie which American schools foster on their students (largely absent in other countries) and generally if you forward your CV to an alumni you are guaranteed a look. If say you apply to an MBB firm and you know someone who can refer you, you will have better chances of getting an interview. I have a friend who uses alumni network decently well because he is a bit more confident than I am and it worked wonders for him.

Cornell, Emory, Michigan, UMD - College Park, U of Austin - Texas, Rice, Cambridge, Oxford, Manchester, Imperial, Edinburgh, IMD, IESE, U Toronto, Queens University, McGill, University of Capetown etc that have MBA programs. Everybody has a potential for greatness, and so it will be wrong to assume that you're gonna nail "that" only at schools such as Yale, Harvard, and the rest of the so called elite institutions. Don't forget that rankings are biased.

And they also give scholarships (The American ones) and some of the European ones. Its just that its the asians getting the scholarship not Africans because most have the same mindset as Ajanlekoko  . Sit down, be mediocre till I am in my 30s and then figure out my life later  

ekt_bear:

There are obviously many paths to success. . . no one is saying that the only way to succeed is Harvard MBA.

But imo, if you apply and get in, you pretty much have to go.

If you get accepted the school will also make an effort to make sure you get funded to go there. All these rumor mongers on Nairaland claiming that they dont give scholarships. I am going to meet a friend tomorrow who got a scholarship to HBS and he has a naija passpot.

All una go on being lazy and typing online instead of figuring your life lol

Sefag, easy on Ajanlekoko that's my main man,

Every one has different point of views and we can all agree to disagree.

Are you at Harvard ? How do you like it ? When do you graduate ?

SEFAGO:

If you get accepted the school will also make an effort to make sure you get funded to go there. All these rumor mongers on Nairaland claiming that they dont give scholarships. I am going to meet a friend tomorrow who got a scholarship to HBS and he has a naija passpot.

All una go on being lazy and typing online instead of figuring your life lol

Even if they don't give you any grants/scholarships and all they offer is loans, I still think it is worth it.

i swear, we must see sefago in five years. if the us continues on its trajectory we will see if he is still sputtering his master of the universe egosim.

I'm sorry but anyone who managed to raise 40M just so they can hand it over to a school is not only lazy but stoopid. Unless an IB is planning on starting me on 500k, HBS and their likes can forgerrit

40Milla for fees when boys and girls plenty for Abz city earning £100k+ salaries with MSc from common RGU !!!

obowunmi:

Sefag, easy on Ajanlekoko that's my main man,

Every one has different point of views and we can all agree to disagree.

Are you at Harvard ? How do you like it ? When do you graduate ?

I am just playing with him. I wanna see how angry he can get before he pushes me for a ban  . I really have no problem with his opinions. They are equally valid but some of them sound like bad belle sometimes sha. Like he seems he has been observing all the people who came back to Nigeria with an MBA and became average but for each failure I am sure there are decent success stories.

ekt_bear:

Even if they don't give you any grants/scholarships and all they offer is loans, I still think it is worth it.

They rarely loan money to foreign students because they need a US cosigner but there used to be an Access loan for international students.

A lot of the european business schools though would loan you the money straight-off regardless of your citizenship like ESADE, St Gallen e.t.c

So many scholarships for MBA out there, the main issue is being a top student with top grades and good work experience. You dont have to go to America or the UK (which has like only one really good MBA program anyways), the best programs are in continental Europe.

oyb:

i swear, we must see sefago in five years. if the us continues on its trajectory we will see if he is still sputtering his master of the universe egosim. 

I know you  ?

Why you mad 

In five years I will still be online chatting crap confidently and happily. Thank God its the internet age and we all have freedom of speech.

You think I want to live in the US? Shyt if you give me a job in Nigeria now I am leaving  .

I am making suggestions, you know how much research I do on this things with no one to give advise to? So anytime I have the opportunity to do so I spit it out. Its really not egoistic. I dont intend to work in finance, business or make money. I intend to have an easy 9-5 job where I get the opportunity to chase women till I am 50. Then move to the Caribbeans and keep on doing that till I pafuka. I am very nihilistic- All I need is clothes, women, food to eat and somewhere to sleep it does not have to be in a posh place.

We no go die someday- why all the vanity?

naijababe:

I'm sorry but anyone who managed to raise 40M just so they can hand it over to a school is not only lazy but stoopid. Unless an IB is planning on starting me on 500k, HBS and their likes can forgerrit

40Milla for fees when boys and girls plenty for Abz city earning £100k+ salaries with MSc from common RGU !!!

The problem though is how do you move up salarywise? If you are content earning 100k pounds or whatever per year for the next decade, then there is probably less reason to go to MBA school. But if you want to become CEO one day of proctor and gamble (or whatever), earning on the order of 1 million+ a year, then I'm not sure it will be so easy without an MBA.

Like it seems all these top guys in management earning the huge bucks all have MBAs. Least this is what I've observed.

Anyway it depends on what your goals are.

SEFAGO:

They rarely loan money to foreign students because they need a US cosigner but there used to be an Access loan for international students.

I see. So most internationals tend to pay cash down (if no cosigner)?

So many scholarships for MBA out there, the main issue is being a top student with top grades and good work experience. You dont have to go to America or the UK (which has like only one really good MBA program anyways), the best programs are in continental Europe.

Is this true? I think even Eurocentric ranking sites will probably have their top 10 dominated by American MBA schools. HBS and Wharton imo >>>>> anything else in the world. At least if it is me I'd rather have my kid/relative go to those over anything else.

ekt_bear:

The problem though is how do you move up salarywise? If you are content earning 100k pounds or whatever per year for the next decade, then there is probably less reason to go to MBA school. But if you want to become CEO one day of proctor and gamble (or whatever), earning on the order of 1 million+ a year, then I'm not sure it will be so easy without an MBA.

Like it seems all these top guys in management earning the huge bucks all have MBAs. Least this is what I've observed.

Anyway it depends on what your goals are.
I see. So most internationals tend to pay cash down (if no cosigner)?
Is this true? I think even Eurocentric ranking sites will probably have their top 10 dominated by American MBA schools. HBS and Wharton imo >>>>> anything else in the world. At least if it is me I'd rather have my kid/relative go to those over anything else.

The comment in bold sounds like a consolation/ justification for spending this sort of money on a 'pali'. The boys and girls I mentioned in post aren't stagnant earners, not everyone gets a single digit annual pay rise you know

Internationals pay the full fees not all cash down but don't forget that a lot of international students are from countries like europe and asia where you can get a loan from a bank to go to a school. No naija bank would lend you such a huge sum of money. So the large majority of internationals loan money from the banks in their country. If you don't have that option u will have to try cosigners or access loans if you have a credit history in america.                          

I meant the best b schools in europe are in continental europe not england. After maybe be london business school most b schools in the uk don't have strong placements because the mba is in general an american phenomenon. U are ok with a masters degree or even undergraduate degree in the UK. Also in the UK/europe there is a big market for PhDs in like consultancy/finance firms in the city relative to america so they tend to hire PhD people in graduate schemes. This is true for germany where they have a PhD glut. So these end up being the associates in firms instead of MBA.

In general though the US is the best to go for an MBA but the cost and visa issues are kind of a deterrent. There are also a lot of one year MBAs in europe which are attractive.

@naijababe

100,000 pounds a year is 26 million naira. Someone just said such salaries are difficult in naija but they can giving that to RGU grads really? Oil companies have that much money to spend?

naijababe:

The comment in bold sounds like a consolation/ justification for spending this sort of money on a 'pali'. The boys and girls I mentioned in post aren't stagnant earners, not everyone gets a single digit annual pay rise you know

What industries are they in? What is the chance of them making $500k+/year by the time they are age 35?

I don't know of too many salaried jobs that have this sort of potential. In fact I don't know of any, off the top of my head.

If these folks are on Wall Street (or whatever the equivalent term is in the UK), then fine, I agree. No reason to do MBA. But if they are just guys working for some company somewhere, salaried employees, then I just wonder what their upside really is.

SEFAGO:

@naijababe

100,000 pounds a year is 26 million naira. Someone just said such salaries are difficult in naija but they can giving that to RGU grads really? Oil companies have that much money to spend?

Believe it not or not they do  . I know a guy who works as a contractor and his current rate is £101 per hour on a 45hr/wk contract and that is his basic pay.

Interesting, lol. That is a bit surprising.

ekt_bear:

Interesting, lol. That is a bit surprising.

Yes it is, as my ancestors will say, if you travel far enough you'll see a hunched back squirrel

See some Nigerians supporting the spending of 40 million naira on a 18 month foreign degree program And yet if you ask the same Nigerians to pay a few hundred thousand Naira for degree programs in Nigeria, they would cry blue murder. Hypocrites!

Hmmmn,  HBS typically admits kids of the Nigerian business elite; to those peeps, N40mm isn't really a big deal. Some take loans (especially because interest rates are pretty low at the moment), others have partial scholarships but I know many that pay cash.

HBS only makes sense if you have a PLAN. I'm sure the guy has thought about it and decided hey this is the path I want to follow.  If one gets an MBA from HBS and goes back to Naija and expects to be paid way more than other candidates who can deliver the same quality of work, then that person is dreaming. The person should expect to be paid market rate. I think that's what Ajanlekoko was talking about.  SEFAGO also has a point when he says it's about the brand.
People treat you better, you are top of the line etc. I once went to a career fair 3 years ago and heard a recruiter begging a chick from Stanford to work for them. "[b]Please [/b]consider us". Nobody ever begged me at that career fair. They asked me if I would like to interview, but no begging. Kai!!!  Then again, I can't lie though, She was very hot black chick, who was graduating with an engineering degree from Stanford in a few months. Dem de scarce!


Back to the topic. If I were the hiring manager in Naija. I'd be glad the candidate has an MBA from HBS. However my main question is Can you do the job? and are you willing to accept the market rate?

My take on this is very simple, if you are going for a $40m worth MBA for the purpose of getting a Job then you are merely playing lottery, because most of these top organization are really struggling these days. Financial problems in european countries do not really bring much prospects, considering the fact that failure of the european economic community we reverbrates to other regions. Borrowing to finance the programe is suicidal.

If you are an entrepreneur then you cant leave your business to go and stay in a class room for two years. Short programmes are preferable.

If you have the money, I will recommend you go to Lagos Business School with N4m and use the the remaining N36m for your business. Nigeria has more prospect for growth than America and Europe.

SEFAGO:

I am just playing with him. I wanna see how angry he can get before he pushes me for a ban  . I really have no problem with his opinions. They are equally valid but some of them sound like bad belle sometimes sha. Like he seems he has been observing all the people who came back to Nigeria with an MBA and became average but for each failure I am sure there are decent success stories.

Welcome back

Ban ke. You think I have that much clout on Nairaland? Not to worry sha, finish your MBA, and I'll try to hook you up for a job

My thoughts on Harvard? Like my man Eldee said 'Na Wash'

@all frowning at spending big for HBS
u have no idea, wat d Op's friends plans are?

p.s
experience can only get u thus far, qualifications get u farther- afterall, sum1 without experience will still garner the xperience eventually.
HBS is not a waste of time in the Long run, short term it appears so.