Columbia MBA part time vs Wharton MBA full time for a "former" financial technologist

I have been in my career in financial technology for a couple of years, and I decided to apply to MBA programs because I want to get closer to the client side of banking.

I applied for the full-time MBA program at Wharton and was accepted, and I applied for the part-time MBA program at Columbia and was accepted. Now I have to decide.

There are a couple of factors here. Namely, if I go with Columbia part-time then I can keep my current employment, and my employer will cover about 10k a year without any strings attached. It would probably take me three years to complete the part-time MBA.

I know that Wharton is more prestigious and possibly has better exit ops, but how can I justify the opportunity cost of two years' wages and an extra 30k in savings. Am I crazy to refuse Wharton? Thanks in advance.

 

Yeah this is awful trolling since Wharton round 1 decisions are not out yet. If you want to make a career transition, a full-time mba is always preferable to part-time due to having access to ocr for internships.

Columbia has an executive mba program, which actually is not a typical part-time program like the ones offered by booth/kellogg/haas/stern. The executive mba students at CBS get access to OCR for full-time jobs (not internships though, which is a deal breaker for those wanting to do banking or consulting) and can join all the full-time clubs.

 

Correct. Executive MBA is a giant rip-off that charges around 25% more than full-time but delivers almost none of the benefits. And the student caliber of Executive MBA programs, even at Wharton/Booth/Columbia, is dismally low.

 

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