Like thousands of other top MBA candidates, this 28-year-consultant has been working toward the completion of his applications to Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, and MIT Sloan to meet the round two deadlines this month. But he’s having second thoughts. Though on the young side for an Executive MBA program, he is now seriously considering a part-time experience in an exec program where the average age of a new student is 35.
For this aspiring MBA candidate, the ROI numbers just don’t add up. This young professional, who asked for anonymity, works in technology for a financial company in the Washington, D.C., metro area. Going into a full-time MBA program would mean the loss of two years of experience in the fast-moving tech field and nearly $300,000 of compensation and benefits. “It makes even top 10 full-time programs a hard sell,” he believes.
“Over the last week I have been leaning towards not submitting the full-time applications,” he tells Poets&Quants. “Why would someone in my situation go full-time? It doesn’t make sense to hassle my recommendation writers or pay $1000 in application fees just to potentially get an admission that I wouldn’t accept.”