Question for those in the business field -- Is a MBA really important?

[nittanyalum]

Originally Posted by tld221

http://www.wharton.upenn.edu/mba/adm...nance/cost.cfm
Wharton is $71k yearly

http://w4.stern.nyu.edu/aboutstern/
interestingly enough, Stern is cheaper at $40K yearly (perhaps they didnt factor in housing costs?)

http://www.hbs.edu/mba/admissions/costsummary.html
HBS is $77k yearly

http://www.tuck.dartmouth.edu/admiss...d/tuition.html
Tuck (Dartmouth) is $70K yearly

http://www4.gsb.columbia.edu/mba/lea...ition/expenses
Columbia is $74K yearly

so umm yeah. not off the mark by that much.

Those are, without a doubt, outstanding schools, but there are many other well-regarded schools that will give you a great education, good contacts and will "look good" on your resume and cost for the full degree what the schools above might cost you yearly, if you either don't get into those programs or don't want to be paying loans until you're 70. If you haven't looked at them yet, here's US News & WR's list of top MBA programs and BusinessWeek's list of top Executive MBA programs:
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/gra...rank_brief.php
http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/03/emba_rank.htm