Good Regional MBA Programs Worth It?

Obviously a top 20 MBA is worth it in most situations but what's the consensus when it comes to good regional programs if you intend to live in the area. For example is it worth the $100 K to go to say University of Miami for southern Florida, SMU for Dallas, UC/Miami for Cincinnati, etc. It seems to me that you would have much of the same benefits of the network that you would have with a MBA business schools">M7, though it would be constrained to that region only (and a MBA business schools">M7 would still obviously trump these schools even in their cities). You would certainly have little to no OCR, and if you decide to move later on your network would more or less be irrelevant. But in certain circumstances does it make sense to fork over $100 K for a mediocre degree?

 

Could you find in-state public schools with decent programs that would give you almost the same network in those cities but for a lot less money? So, Univ. of Florida, Ohio State, etc. I would definitely look at that route too. So, at UF for instance, in-state 2 year traditional degree will cost you 26k total and I think avg. starting salary is around 75k and it will place well in Florida. But, each person needs to do what is right for him/her.

 

They tend to be worth it for non-finance folk. For example, I'm from Washington state, and the University of Washington is a rank ~60 MBA. If your goal is Finance (with a capital F) then UW isn't the school for you.

At the same time, there are lots of local computer scientists/corporate financiers/managers at large local firms like MSFT and Boeing who studied engineering in their undergrad. And now they are in their mid 30s, and want to get an MBA to move up in the firm, but plan on working part-time and staying part of the firm. For them UW could be a great move. It wouldn't be uncommon for a computer science undergrad to work for 5-15 years, get an MBA from UW, move up into management, and make 300k+ a year.

Other than that case, they can, once again, be good for people in their mid 30s for whatever reason. People who aren't switching careers or firms, but want a "boost" for a strategic reason. But for career centric aspiring Finance professionals, it's not as useful. You will still be sub-par to someone who got a degree in History from Dartmouth. Which is depressing and stupid... But there you have it.

 

I'm curious about what others have to say, but I was able to acquire multiple job offers from outside my MBA programs local region, and it was in the 15-30 range. There are a few national MBA career fairs that help you expand your reach, and the MBA hiring for the F500 firms typically gets a national draw of candidates, especially the rotational leadership programs.

 

Yeah it'd be interesting to hear what others have to say about this. I'm more than ok with going to Emory or Indiana, but given that long term I wanna be in the Boston or NYC area, I also don't mind going to a local T50 school.

From what I understand, MC firms prefer you go to a top 15-20 as first year offerees have their choice of offices, but I'd really like to see how the picture changes when it comes to F500 corporate jobs.

 
Best Response

Whatever anyone tells you, ALL MBA programs are regional to some degree. While a HSW will draw recruiters from all over the country, H and W will have more recruiters from the East Coast while Stanford will have more from the West Coast. The lower down the rankings you go, the larger the regional skew. This is more pronounced with F500 than with consulting firms, but it's true even in consulting. More than a "fair share" percentage of Fuqua consulting grads will go to offices in the Southeast, and more than a fair share of Ross consulting grads will end up in the Midwest. For consulting, it's more to do with where your school's alumni are located. Some firms are more strict about this than others. For instance, at my school (Johnson), people could recruit for any Bain or BCG office, while McKinsey steered our grads to offices like Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Stamford where we had a large alumni presence. For F500, an example would be CPG firms and where they recruit. Unilever and Colgate Palmolive recruit at Stern as both are located in the NYC area. They do not recruit on campus at Ross. Conversely, Kraft and SC Johnson both recruit on campus at Ross as both are located near Chicago. They do not recruit on campus at Stern. You'll see the same sort of regional tilt at every school, with the region becoming more important as you go down the rankings.

 

Thanks for sharing your inputs. Sounds like I'm much better off going to a lower ranked school in the Boston/NYC area over a higher ranked school (Texas/UNC/EMORY) if I'm not planning on staying at those places post-mba. I'm assuming I can still land a job in the Boston/NYC area from those schools, but it'd probably be tough and require a lot more hustle and networking compared to going to an area school.

 

I agree with the assumption that the F500 and smaller companies are more regional. And strategy for a smaller-than-F500 company, but is exciting and sexy, can be pretty cool. I think one of the ways to figure this out is to do a LinkedIn search for a target company, type in MBA in the keywords and then see what schools people come from.

But you know this.

The reality is that if your goal is to stay in the Boston or New York areas, your best bet is to go to the best school in the region that will take you. You don't get much juice from going to say, Vanderbilt, because it is ranked in the top 20 (depending on the survey), vs. Fordham if you want to be in New York. Remember the Saul Steinberg New Yorker cover? Says it all https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/View_of_the_World_from_9th_Avenue

Betsy Massar Come see me at my Q&A thread http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/b-school-qa-w-betsy-massar-of-master-admissions Ask away!
 

Yeah that's the intent of this post. Everyone says it's either a TOP 20 MBA or "waste of money/time". So I'm trying to assess even if I don't get into the top schools in the NYC/ Boston area (namely HBS, CBS, Sloan, NYU, YALE, TUCK, Cornell) am I better off going to any Top 20 I get into (Emory/ UNC/ Indiana) than a local Top 50 school if I'm planning to stay in the Boston/NYC area post graduation.

It'd be good to hear what other folks experiences have been.

 

UW is pretty much the most prominent B-school in Seattle specifically, excluding the ones you've mentioned and UC Berkeley. But its ranks around the 20-30 range, so not sure where you're getting the "completely out of top rankings" from. US News had it ranked at 23, so no slouch of a school, especially if you're looking to live in Seattle (like me).

 

If you want to be in Seattle, U of Washington is a great school. You will have more opportunities for Seattle-based employers there than at any other school. Microsoft and Amazon recruit at many business schools (and heavily recruit at Foster), but many smaller Seattle-area employers will only recruit at Foster and other local schools (not that I can really think of any).

 

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