Reasons Why You Should Get An MBA

You want to go to business school…but you aren’t quite convinced whether an MBA is right for you.

Matt Gavin, of the HBX Business Blog, recently outline a few reasons why you should pursue an MBA.

LOOK AT IT AS AN INVESTMENT

The MBA doesn’t come cheap.

An MBA, especially one at a private b-school, can put you nearly $100,000 to $200,000 in debt within two years, according to Investopedia.

But experts say students should see the MBA as a personal investment to better yourself and elevate your career.

“The purpose of a full-time MBA program is to give students an opportunity to immerse themselves for two years in a period of intense personal and professional development that enables students to really accelerate their career, as well as prepares them to lead organizations,” Kate Bennett, director of marketing for MBA Admissions at Harvard Business School and a 2009 HBS graduate, tells HBX.

Those two years can give you time for both reflection and self-discovery.

“It’s rare to have two years to focus on improving yourself and charting how you want to make an impact,” Bennett tells HBX. “The two years allow you to reflect on the difference you want to make in the world.”

GROWING AS A LEADER

If you’re set on becoming a leader, then an MBA may be the right path for you.

Experts stress that leadership is one of the most important skills you learn as an MBA.

“Without leadership you will always have a glass ceiling above you because the top jobs in an industry will not be appropriate for you,” Merlin Hanbury-Tenison writes for The Association of MBAs. “If you do manage to reach these top jobs and you are incapable of sound leadership then the company will suffer and, eventually, the house of cards will come tumbling down around you.”

But an MBA doesn’t just let you discuss leadership. It lets you practice it in a low-stakes setting.

“If a student wants to try out a new way of persuading someone else, the classroom environment is a very risk-free way to get feedback from peers on how that worked,” Bennett tells HBX. “If you were the founder of a startup in an investment meeting with a VC, that would be a much riskier time to try a new approach.”

GAINING DIVERSE VIEWPOINTS

An MBA education spans beyond the classroom. Within your two years, you’ll also be learning from your classmates.

“I came to business school from consulting and thought my perspective was broad having worked in multiple industries—ranging from education to retail to aerospace and defense—but it wasn’t until I got to HBS that I realized my perspective wasn’t nearly as broad as I thought,” Bennett tells HBX. “It took hearing perspectives from classmates who had started companies, led troops in the military, built amazing nonprofit programs, or served in the CIA to really start to see the full range of angles to a problem.”

Sources: HBX, Investopedia, The Association of MBAs