Executive MBA vs. Traditional

This is a question that I struggled with before beginning an MBA program. I decided on the Executive MBA program at West Virginia University, and have now completed 3 semesters of the 5 semester program. I'm excited to graduate this coming December (2010).

When I finished my undergrad degree, I was ready to be done with school. I graduated with a BBA with dual majors in Management and Management Information Systems. I was offered a job at the university in a graduate assistant position that would have allowed me to complete an MBA for free. But, after four years in school, I was ready to start making some money and really applying my education and experience I'd gained in internships. So, I declined the offer to stay and left the university.

I had always thought that at some point I wanted to go back and get an MBA. Although I felt I had learned a great deal in actually working within the business world, I knew those credentials after my name could help to open some doors, and that there was certainly more I could learn on the theoretical front to apply to my real world experiences. For a long time, I toyed with the idea of leaving the work world for a while to go to school full time in an MBA program. I figured if I was going to do this, I wanted to go big and try to go to an ivy league school (bring on the debt!). I greatly struggled with the practicality of this notion, though. Would it really be worthwhile to loose a year or two's income, go into debt, and loose the additional experiences I would gain from working? From a financial perspective, did it really make any sense. From a personal perspective, did I really want to give up my lifestyle and go back to that of a poor college student?

These ideas stayed in the back of my mind, and the concept of actually going forward with this was more resigned to my plans after winning the lottery or making a fortune with some new project. I hadn't given serious consideration to any executive MBA programs. One of the first reasons was that, living in West Virginia, there aren't any ivy league schools within a reasonable distance. Next, the concept of working my 40+ hour work weeks, and then going to class a few evenings a week, and studying the other nights for the next few years didn't sound too appealing - it seemed like I would basically have to put my life on hold for this extended period.

Ultimately, opportunities availed themselves to make the decision a bit easier. My employer offered to support me in the Executive MBA program at West Virginia University. Initially, I wasn't too excited about the idea of WVU - not that I had anything against the university, it is a fine place, and their business school is fully accredited, but, it wasn't the Wharton, Harvard, or Yale of which I had dreamt. With the company offering to pay for the education, though, it certainly had huge financial benefits - I would continue making my salary, gaining professional and leadership experience, and not go into any debt to attain the degree. So, the only direct cost to me would be in the loss of my evenings and weekends for 2 and a half years. After some deliberation, I decided to go for it, and started the program.

Now that I'm over half way through the program, I still question at times if the right decision were made. From a financial perspective, I think there is no question this was the right move to make. Also, I realize that the chances of my ever really abandoning my work life to move off to a bigger school was probably slim, so, this was much more realistic. I've found that although it does take a significant amount of time between class and studying, I can still maintain a good personal life.

So, what are the cons to the program? Well, first off, you don't have a full immersion into the education process. If in a full time program, your primary efforts involve focusing on your school work. In this format, you are balancing constraints between work, personal, and school life, so, clearly don't spend as much "thought" time with studying. Next, worth mentioning in my case is that I'm not attending an ivy league school, which I may have otherwise done. Another big drawback is the perception of the executive programs. I've heard that some employers don't give the same level of weight to candidates with EMBA programs as they do traditional students. It's somewhat disheartening to think that I'm doing all this work just for potential future employers to disregard the degree because of the format.

There are certainly benefits of the program as well. Obviously, being able to not lose your income and experience while you are obtaining the degree is a huge plus. In my case, having it fully paid for is another huge benefit. Also, although I listed the level of immersion as a drawback above, a benefit to this is that you are able to instantly apply what you are learning to real life business situations. In a traditional MBA program, you might learn something, apply it to some business study cases, but, not really directly apply it for a couple years. In my case, what I'm learning in the evening may have direct application the very next day, so, I can put it to use and see the immediate results.

There are certainly benefits and cons to both formats. In my case, although I still question it occasionally, I think I made the right practical decision that was in my best interest.

A couple other comments are that the program I am going through is still an actual physical classroom setting. Although we do have some distance learning sites in other cities, everyone is actually sitting in a classroom, listening live to a professor, and interacting with the classroom. It is not an online program where you work at your own pace and just read notes from professors. I'll admit that there is a bit of hypocrisy here - while I don't want anyone to judge my degree because of the format, I do think less of online degrees. In hiring decisions, I've actually considered people with online degrees to essentially not have the degrees. I've always felt that the in class interaction and learning process is very important, and that would be missed in an online program. Also, unfortunately a few fly by night online degree places that give degrees in exchange for a payment have given the whole concept a bad name.

I began by talking about an opportunity to get an MBA right after my bachelors degree. I'm glad I made the decision to get work experience first. I think the MBA education has a much greater impact after you've had true work experience. By having years of experience before going, you have a lot more real world application to draw upon. Further, by having this experience, you better understand the importance and value of what you are studying.