Programs Have Their Supporters and Detractors. The

¶ … programs have their supporters and detractors. The first and most obvious objection to getting an MBA is its expense. More and more undergraduates have student loan debt, and piling debt upon debt in a weak economic environment can be dangerous. However, most MBA programs require or at least expect students to have some sort of work experience before embarking upon the program. Students thus have hopefully accrued some savings.

They also are likely to have a good idea of what they want to study in the program and their future goals, given their experience in their desired specialty. Unlike law schools, which have been criticized as holding pens for recent graduates without a clear career direction, to apply to an MBA program, a student must make a persuasive case for his or her potential to succeed in a hands-on field.

High grades and strong scores on the MCAT are not enough -- students must have demonstrated a commitment to business. Additionally, because of the practicality of the degree, employers often offer tuition reimbursement programs. Employers assume some or all of the debt themselves, in exchange for the opportunity to get a more qualified employee with enhanced skills.

Supporting the pursuit of an employee's MBA can be an ideal to way to get employees to make an enhanced contribution to the organization through their new skill sets, and build stronger bonds of institutional loyalty. Going to work at the same time as studying is one answer to the objection that being in school will result in a loss of income and work opportunities, as well as incur debt. There are even executive MBA programs and online programs that allow busy people to get degrees during the weekend.

For workers without generous employers, some programs offer scholarships to qualified candidates. A final way to minimize debt is to go into a joint undergraduate BA-MBA program, which may enable the student to gain his or her MBA within 5 years. This will further reduce the cost of spending more time in school, as well as reduce admissions fees and the costs of studying for and taking preparatory course.

The most frequent rationalization used by MBA programs to justify their costs is the larger salary workers are able to command, as a result of their degree. Despite the recession, salaries for MBA graduates are trending upward: compared with post-MBA salaries in 2006, 2008 salaries averaged $104,000, an increase of 9% according to BusinessWeek (Lavelle 2008).

In 2009, "consistent with previous years, the average starting salary employers planned to extend to recent MBA graduates in 2010 nearly doubled the average starting salary offered to undergraduate students… employers still value the MBA and the business skills it brings with the new employee…[and] offer people with MBAs significantly higher salaries than those with just undergraduate education. This premium, which we continue to see year after year, reflects the high value companies place on the skills and abilities people develop in business school " versus undergraduate business programs (Burns 2011).

However, critics point out that while salaries of MBAs are increasing, these graduate students are still struggling to pay off student loans. "Recent government data on student loan repayment show that 20% of students from elite business schools are struggling to pay down their student debt. And that average is miles better than the typical business school's" statistics (VanderMay 2011). For public colleges and universities the average MBA student loan repayment rate is an estimated 54%; 56% for private nonprofit schools (VanderMay 2011).

Salaries of MBA programs may be high, but the cost of living is increasing, and there is no guarantee of a job upon graduation. However, this is not a reason to discount MBA programs. The graduate must find a program that is a right fit for his or her aspirations, current debt load, and work schedule. A student with undergraduate debt can look for a scholarship or a lower-cost, part-time program that allows him or her to work while obtaining the degree and/or employer support.

This trade-off can require a great deal of soul-searching for a prospective student. A lower-cost program or a less competitive program may offer the candidate a scholarship. However, a more costly program from a 'top tier' school can yield greater salary dividends upon graduation. "You don't graduate with an MBA degree, per se.

You graduate with 'an MBA degree from Harvard' or 'an MBA degree from London Business School… [although] the investment on an MBA degree from the best business schools can seem like a huge financial outlay" (Geraghty 2011).The London Business School's MBA program costs $80,000 but the average salary of a graduate is almost three times that after graduation; Wharton's 21-month MBA program has $85,000 tuition but with expected average salaries of about USD $120,000 (Geraghty 2011).

Regardless of where a student chooses, to attend and whether to prioritize price over prestige or vice versa, the analytical and critical skills conveyed by an MBA can be invaluable in the business world today. Of course, a person should be learning all of the time, not just in school. But an MBA bestows a businessperson with additional tools to known how to motivate others, to analyze marketing data, and to streamline standard operating procedures.

It is very easy to get 'locked in' to one way of doing things, and to think that the way things have always been done is the only way.

Thus, while some argue that business is something that can only be learned by 'doing it,' an MBA gives a candidate enhanced skills to deal with the 'real world.' This is one reason that, while jobs may not be as plentiful as in the past, employers are less likely to 'let go' of an employee with an MBA than an individual with only an undergraduate degree, all other qualifications being equal.

"An increased demand for leadership to help them weather the economic crisis and become even stronger organizations might explain why employers will not cut base salaries for recent business school graduates, especially MBAs, in 2010" (Burns 2010). An MBA gives a student greater analytical capacity, a historical worldview of management, and an assortment of new paradigms to use when viewing his or her own business or the general business environment. Having an MBA also gives a graduate additional flexibility in deciding what career path to pursue: he or she can use.