What is an MBA actually like?

The college regression is real, but the MBA is exactly what you make it to be. Knew people that had kids during it, some that barely interacted with classmates and used it as a 2-year excuse to inbound everyone in the industry they wanted to go into, people that focused solely on a startup, and many others that used it as a two year break to enjoy themselves. If you want to drink 4-5 times a week, blow off your classes and take international trips (since the main difference to undergrad is we have money), then you will find your crew. If you want to use it for two years to get healthy / pursue a hobby / better yourself, go for it the time is completely yours.

Career wise - the best outcomes were for people that knew what they wanted to get out of it and had a coherent career narrative to support it. The bigger the leap you take the more time it will consume from you to see a successful outcome and there will still be some risk at the fringes. If you want to go from accounting to product management in tech, you can do it but you'll need to put in time on classwork, networking, certifications, etc. If you're in a corporate role or something back office finance and want to move to consulting / banking, then you do your structured OCR and the rest of the time is yours. And if you want to go PE without PE background you will have to cast the widest net possible and look at Tier 2-3 cities and still face long odds.