Posted on 04/27/2011 6:23:46 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
MBA students at top business schools are borrowing more money than ever to pay for their degrees.
The average debt carried on the back of graduating MBAs at Wharton increased by nearly $5,000 last year to a record $109,836, the highest debt burden reported by any business school. Wharton MBAs now graduate with debt that is more than a third higher than their counterparts at Harvard Business School and Stanford's Graduate School of Business.
The largest year-over-year increase in student debt was at Dartmouth's Tuck School, where the average debt burden of a class of 2010 MBA rose by more than $10,000 to $96,292, second only to Wharton grads.
Financial aid officers at B-schools attribute the rising debt levels to the recent recession, which led to pay freezes at pre-MBA jobs and caused applicants to tap into personal savings, as well as the increasing costs of tuition.
"Two years ago, the class came in with much greater financial aid," says Diane Bonin, director of financial aid at the Tuck School. "People coming in made a little bit less and had much less in available savings due to the economy."
After Wharton and Tuck, the highest debt loads were carried by graduates of Duke University's Fuqua School of Business ($92,827), the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business ($92,734), Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management ($87,256), and Cornell's Johnson School ($86,900). These staggering levels of debt are far in excess of averages for undergraduate student loans -- $27,803 in 2007-08, the latest reported year -- and have fueled widespread concern.
Most MBA students at top schools eagerly take out what many would regard as crushing levels of debt because they are confident the degree will pay off in the long-term.
(Excerpt) Read more at management.fortune.cnn.com ...
Bailout for students.
Whoa. That’s practically the down payment on a house.
Overpriced education bump for later.......
Article does not state the average wages for one of these MBA grads so it is impossible to figure out if this is a good deal or not...
While I have a BS and MS degree, I can't say that either has gotten me further than my 25 years of military experience.
These schools may be able to teach management, but leadership is all OJT.
RE: I don’t recall ever hearing of Thunderbird. The school, not the wine.
Thunderbird School of Global Management is a private business school whose main campus is located in Glendale, Arizona.
Founded in 1946 by retired U.S. Army Air Forces Lieutenant General Barton Kyle Yount (1884–1949), it is arguably the oldest graduate school specializing in international management and global business.
You might want to visit their website :
These schools may be able to teach management, but leadership is all OJT.
I don’t necessarily agree. Leadership skills CAN be taught, though I will admit that experience is a vital piece of the component. I DO agree that an MBA isn’t necessarily the road to riches, if that’s the only reason someone is pursuing it. There are many occupations and vocations out there, plumbing being one, that pay very well.
>>leadership is all OJT<<
Not true in the least. While it is true that you won’t excel at it without actual experience, there are a great number of excellent leadership learning opportunities (my training program, for one!). Unfortunately, few MBA programs develop this skill.
My daughter just got her MBA. She is making $30K. Not a good investment - yet. Time will tell.
It has long been a misconception that leadership = management. Grace Hopper once commented that managers manage things and processes, leaders lead people. Too many think of managers as leaders and that is not usually the case.
These graduates believe that they can buy either management and/or leadership status by virtue of what they pay for their degree. A degree gives you some level of base knowledge, if you pay attention. You are right that leadership is learned and earned by doing, or not.
Northwestern University has had to raise prices across the board as the price of rubber has gone up and their Sex-Toy Class is feeling the pinch, or whatever.
RE: My daughter just got her MBA. She is making $30K. Not a good investment - yet.
Can you tell us what school she went to and what the tuition was ? Thanks.
North Greenville University - Greenville, SC. She also did her undergraduate there. All together, it is probably about $80k. Private Christian university. Some really great professors. I have met some of them. She will be paying back loans the rest of her working life, even though she had some scholarships. She actually graduates May 5 - magna cum laude. I am very proud of her, but she probably would have been better off becoming a plumber!
Im an mba student. My tuition is 22k/yr.
Give her a chance. I bet it will pay of in spades over time. If she doesn’t give up while in the trenches and leverages what she has learned, she will jump over obstacles put in front of her and eventually control her own destiny (just as I did after getting my MBA).
Thunderbird: Located in Phoenix, Arizona. Formerly the American Institute for Foreign Trade, founded around 1949. It originally offered a Bachelors of Foreign Tade, and it educated thousands of Americans who entered the foreign trade field. It is expensive, and now tends to attract foreign students, who are probably in the majority. It offers a two year Masters Degree program.
That’s encouraging. Thanks.
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