01.06.06

Why I went back to school…

Posted in MBA at 2:33 am by Jason Permalink

I run a small on-line marketing business, I am married, looking to have kids, have a LARGE mortgage, and two cats… Why on earth would I try to go back to school and get an MBA?

I’m not sure…

I mean if you have applied to any graduate program you are “supposed” to know why you’re going. They even make you write an essay, or seven, eloquently describing, in great detail, how sure you are about this decision Total bollix! I think the admins must know that the vast majority of people applying to most graduate programs have no idea what the end result will be (I guess unless it’s med or law). Anyway I digress… My point being that I have yet to talk to a single student at Anderson who really knows what they’re doing there.

OK… So we’ll take this in two parts. Why I applied and why I stay enrolled

Why I applied: After I gradated from UCLA the first time I almost applied to Anderson thinking it was the next step on my path to great wealth. Luckily, reality set in and I continued on to consulting for a major bank making more than I deserved. Fast forward 5 or so years and here I am pondering applying again. Only this time I have made a relatively decent living and am running a small business which I think could possibly benefit from a proper business education To be honest I sort of applied on a whim. In January 2005 my wife suggested I just take the GMAT and put together the best application that I could in the 1 month I had left before the third round deadlines. So I did…

I did quite well on the GMAT and got the score in just under the deadline I decided to apply to UCLA and , half heartedly, to USC (as a backup, mind you an expensive one). Why UCLA? Because it was ranked 14 at the time, #1 for entrepreneurship, but ,more importantly, because it was local. USC had just fallen to 27 and had more of an international flavor, so I was not too warm to shelling out the big cash they wanted for something that I didn’t really love. Luckily I got in to UCLA

So here I am going to Anderson… I tell them my reasons are to learn how to grow my business and to take advantage of the entrepreneurial environment they foster, but I’m still only vaguely believing that. My greatest hope was that it wouldn’t cost me what I had already built in the process of reaching for something greater.

Now I’ve finished my first quarter and am just about to dive head long into my second. So…

Why I Stay: Sometime during the first few weeks of the first quarter I found myself sitting in Econ listening to the economic reasoning behind getting an MBA sooner rather than later. The professor was trying to illustrate present value theory and the relative cost of sacrificing income at 28 vs income at 50 (ie there are many earning years after 28 rather than 50 and your salary at 28 that you’re sacrificing SHOULD be lower than that at 50)… Anyway This is true, I guess, regardless of your relative income at 28 compared to your fellow students AS LONG as your income actually increases as a result of this undertaking. Simple investment analysis The part that bothered me was his comment on how little we all made. Not so coincidently, my marketing professor also made a few comments to that effect. Well perhaps I am an atypical case or something, but I make a damn good living and this education has a VERY high opportunity cost for me right now…

So back to simple investment analysis Can I possibly make a profit? At first I thought OF COURSE! I thought there would be some magic awaiting me at Anderson. Well, perhaps there is, but I have yet to find it (at least I am still diligently looking). So I ask people I know who have MBAs if they thought it was worth it. They almost all say it was, but they also weren’t running a company before they signed on and they aren’t now either… I ask a professor or two and get something similar to what the MBA party line seems to be “It teaches you a way of thinking”. Hmm… What if I already have that way of thinking

Oh, i was supposed to say why I’m still here. I’m still here because I’m fighting the urge to quit too soon. One of the hardest things I think I have found to do is choosing between two ‘potentially good’ things. Your urge is to hold on to both opportunities until it is obvious which is best. The problem is that in doing so you usually lose them both.

That’s where I’m at now I will keep you posted…