Why stop at B schools? All universities, these days, are debtor’s prisons, and the PhDs are the tapeworms.
MBAs have been an extended version of the boom in engineering schools in the mid to late 70s; it results in a glut of MBAs. The down side of the problem, at least most engineering graduates had some useful knowledge and skills. MBAs, not so much when you look at their track records in handling most large businesses, banks and the economy. American business needs to get back to more of the hardworking, practical individuals who know how to get their hands dirty, how the operation works and how to lead rather than manage people. Managers manage things, leaders lead people; there is a big difference.
Sounds like he expected the school to get him a $100k+ job.
Unfortunately, I don’t think his expectation is unusual these days.
Kids are pretty naieve.
In terms of degree value, I think MBA’s are the new lawyers—Can’t swing a dead cat without hitting one.
The problem with most MBA’s, in my experience, is that they’ve never held a real job or worked for any appreciable time in the real world—They’re long on theory and platitudes and short on practical experience.
Student loans at their most basic is simply a wealth redistribution scheme from the middle class to the elite.
When you have third party paying there is no incentive to keep cost under control.
I personally would forbid student loans. If that is not possible I have it so the college themselves must provide the loan and that these loans could be discharged under normal bankruptcy laws.
If the schools were the ones that would lose out if the graduate could not repay the loan they would show a lot more care in who gets a loan.
MBA Grads? What about BA and BS grads? None of them can get a job! If they do it’s for minimum wage!
My girlfriends son graduated in May with a BA, moved to Rhode Island and delivering pizza’s. The irony of it all, is that he’s a big lib and Obummer supporter. Hehehe...
I sense the problem right there.
From my experience, other than the VP of HR, people making that
kind of money were either mobbed up sleazes, or working
headhunter scams to cheat the company.
And from my part time b-school experience, I can only a recall one
person claiming to work in HR, and the reason was that she
was a minority expecting affirmative action to be an important
part of her corporation.
(That company is now a shell of its former self, mostly due to the
failure to keep up with new products introductions and
technologies that were obsoleting their core businesses.)
They picked Pepperdine as an example? I understand the article but this reporter is citing one of the most expensive universities I know of as his first example. On top of that, the housing costs in Malibu will eat you alive before you even get to the campus.
The MBA program always has been rich on jargon and short on substance. It always has been overrated.
The MBA program always has been rich on jargon and short on substance. It always has been overrated.
Most of my fellow students were liberal arts grads who needed marketable skills to find a job.
Looking back on it, it was an really good decision that has paid off handsomely in my engineering career.
Going to business school for a 6-figure salary is a fool's errand. Makes for a great movie, but reality bites!
There are few areas of study in which work experience is not preferred, PRIOR to pursing advanced degrees.
Get your undergrad, get a job, and then get the company to pay for the Masters.
There’s nothing more galling than having some MBA walk into a company, and start telling folks who’ve been there 20 years, what they’re doing wrong.
They have some sacred attraction to the bottom line at the expense of getting the job done, maintaining quality, and customer satisfaction.
For example, UCLA, just down the road from Pepperdine, has a highly rated MBA program. A public university may have more options for assistantships and jobs, and being in a large metropolitan area may have more opportunities for jobs and internships while in school.
The last option, but perhaps the hardest, is to enter the workforce in your chosen field, and pursue and Executive MBA part-time.
A little research on Mr Jenkins reveals he is 26 years old, he went to Pepperdine immediately after completing his undergraduate degree at Cal State Fresno in 2008, and after Pepperdine immediately went to Cornell and got another Masters (I wonder how much he took out in loans for that degree). After all of that, he was hired into HP's Human Resources Management Associates Program last month, which should result in the type of position he was originally looking for.
To me, Jenkins sounds like a typical millennial, who believes he is owned a six figure job simply for completing a MBA degree at a private university, and who should not be held responsible for the risk and the loans he voluntarily undertook.
Maybe, just maybe, the current economic challenges will fundamentally change the millennials sense of entitlement and they will teach their kids you have to work for what you achieve in this world.
They are? My wife got her MBA; the school paid her to go there. In fact two schools (both quite respectable) were fighting over who would pay her more.
With 5 degrees between the two of us, we've learned that if you're paying list price (or, heck, anything at all) for a degree, you're doing it wrong.
The problem isn't the rates, it's that people sign up for massive loans without batting an eyelash - much less actually spend a few hours looking for alternative pricing.