We mostly hear about Full-Time MBA programs. But there are others as well, which may be a better fit for you depending on your unique situation and may also be more cost effective. And these other MBA programs aren’t on fringes in terms of applicants considering them.
According to GMAC (2015) mba.com Prospective Students Survey, only 40% of MBA aspirants are considering a full-time two-year MBA. Here’s the complete list from a survey of nearly 12,000 prospective students:
Note: Prospective students are considering multiple programs; that’s why percentages don’t add up to 100%.
Clearly, there are several options – each appealing to a certain segment of applicants.
Broadly, MBA options can be divided into three broad categories on the basis of overlap in the choice of applicants. (Applicants considering a program in a particular category normally consider other programs as well in the same category, and not in other categories, as each category represents appeals to a particular segment of applicants.):
- Category I (mostly career changers with 3-7 years of work experience): Full-time two-year MBA, Full-time one-year MBA, and Joint Degree MBA
- Category II (mostly career enhancers with 5-8 years of work experience): Part-time MBA, Flexible MBA, and Online MBA
- Category III (mostly career enhancers with 10-12 years of work experience): Executive MBA
Let’s understand each program, category wise, in more depth considering their pros & cons, popular rankings, and suitability.
(Note: Admission policies of schools and guidelines for standardized tests can change. Refer to their website for the most updated information.)
Category I
Full-Time MBA
Full-time MBA programs – both one- and two-year – are the flagship, most competitive to get in, media-darling, brand-building programs for most schools, and that’s why they get disproportionately high attention (and also fellowships) from the school despite they being the least remunerative, something similar to what Virgin Atlantic is to Virgin group.
This program is ideal for students with work experience of 3-7 years who want to experience a full-fledged, rigorous campus-life, and, most importantly, who want to change career.
As per the survey data (see the chart above), full-time MBA program is more popular among prospective students in Central & South Asia and Latin America.
To learn pros and cons of the two full-time programs, you may read 1-year or 2-year? [Infographic].
Popular rankings
Pros
1. It’s the best program, more so the 2-year, if you want to change career; part-time or executive programs are more suited if you want to progress faster in the same organization or industry.
2. Unlike part-time and executive programs where students attend the school for few hours in the evening on weekdays or 4-6 full days in a month, it’s more rigorous and provides opportunity to participate in plenty of on-campus and off-campus activities, providing students the opportunity to network and experience college life.
3. It’s more prestigious, period. To the extent that popularity of a school is predominantly determined by the ranking of its full-time MBA program, and not by that of part-time or executive.
4. The 2-year program provides an opportunity for internship, where you can test waters in a new industry before taking a final call.
Cons
1. Besides the high cost of attending the program, there is high opportunity cost in terms of being out of employment for one or two years, depending on the length of the program.
Joint Degree MBA
Note: There is a slight difference between a joint degree and a dual degree. In a joint degree program, unlike in a dual degree program, credit from a single course may count toward both degrees.
In a joint degree MBA program, you get a second degree (such as Law, Public Policy, and Computer Science) in addition to an MBA degree in a time frame shorter than that required for getting the degrees if pursued separately. A Joint MBA program is ideal for those who want to pursue a leadership or managerial role in a niche field such as education management (Joint MBA + Education degree). Some of the popular Joint MBA programs are offered by HBS, Stanford, Wharton, and MIT.
Popular rankings
There are no separate rankings for joint MBA programs as there are few such programs and there are many combinations of an MBA degree with other degrees. The reputation of a joint MBA program goes by respective schools offering the two programs.
Pros
1. Your employment appeal in a niche market relevant to your Joint Degree goes up significantly.
Cons
1. Joint degrees typically take 3-4 years to complete, which means lot more study and even higher opportunity cost (than that of a two-year full-time program).
2. Employment opportunities, often, do not come in the way you want. It’s likely that you may land your post-joint-MBA job on the merits of only one of the two degrees, making the other redundant, at least, in the short term.
Category II
Part-Time MBA
Less-talked, less-flamboyant, yet one of more remunerative programs for a B-school. As the name suggests, it’s part-time: students maintain their jobs and simultaneously pursue an MBA. Though, students don’t need to take time off from office as classes are strictly held outside office hours: typically, either an evening (on weekdays) or a full-day (usually Saturday) option is offered.
The catchment area for part-time programs is local, as the students have to frequently shuttle (most weekdays for evening MBA, and every weekend for weekend MBA) between their work-place and the school. Evening option suits those who do not live too far from the campus, whereas weekend option works for those as well who commute from nearby cities.
Because they are a cash-cow program for a B-school, class sizes are unexpectedly large even at the expense of high acceptance rates (2-4 times that of the full-time programs at the same school).
A part-time program is an option for you if you want to maintain your full-time job while pursuing an MBA, want to fast-track your career while staying in the same industry, and can reconcile the location of your employment with the location of school (you need to be in proximity to the school). The average work experience for part-time MBA students is typically seven years.
As per the survey data (see the chart above), part-time MBA program is more popular among Canadian and U.S. residents.
Popular rankings
Pros
1. You can work full-time while pursuing an MBA.
2. Of all the programs, it provides the most flexible schedule: you can complete your MBA in anywhere between two to five years, and even take few quarters off at some schools.
Cons
1. Your chance of making an industry shift is much lower than for a full-time MBA.
2. They are less prestigious than their full-time counterparts even at reputed schools. So, if you are recruiting directly from the program, it does make a difference to your recruitment prospects vis-à-vis students from the full-time program.
3. The immersive experience – peer learning, networking etc. – of a part-time program ranges from being a fraction to negligible of a full-time program’s.
Online MBA
As the name suggests, these programs are online. Though, of late, some of these programs are also holding short, in-person events such as immersion programs and residency classes wherein students can network. And some programs also offer online mentoring and virtual environment to interact with employers.
As per the survey data (see the chart above), online MBA program is more popular among Canadian and U.S. residents.
Popular rankings
Pros
1. You can work full-time while pursuing an MBA.
2. You’ve to travel much less (some programs offer short immersion components, otherwise students rarely travel) in comparison to part-time and executive programs.
3. An online MBA is less expensive (one-half to one-third) in comparison to a two-year full-time program.
Cons
1. Your chance of making an industry shift is much lower than for a full-time MBA.
2. The immersive experience – peer learning, networking etc. – is the least (almost nil) of all the programs.
Flexible MBA
There isn’t much to differentiate a flexible MBA from a part-time MBA. It’s just more flexible. For example, a part-time MBA from Kellogg provides evening and weekend scheduling options whereas UCLA’s flexible MBA provides a third option as well – a combination of online and on-campus. Flexible programs generally offer more leeway to students in choosing their workload.
Because it’s similar to par-time program, its pros and cons are similar too.
Category III
Executive MBA
In an Executive MBA, too, you can maintain your job while pursuing an MBA. Here, though, students meet less often than in a part-time program: 2-4 days at a time (typically covering weekend, but it spills over to weekdays and hence schools require a documented time sponsorship from employers) on 1-2 occasions in a month. And because you meet less often, location of your employment can be less restricting than that in a part-time program. But, unlike a part-time program, an executive program is completed in a fixed term, usually two years. One advantage of fixed term is that in an Executive MBA, compared with part-time MBA, you work through as a cohort and network more with your classmates.
Typically, a sizable proportion of students in these programs are sponsored by their organizations. For example, in Kellogg’s Executive MBA class, approximately one-third of all applicants are fully sponsored, partially sponsored and non-sponsored (self-funded), respectively i.e. one-third for each category.
Like part-time programs, their class sizes, too, can be large.
This program is ideal for students with 10-12 years of work experience and who want to gain leadership experience, global outlook, and a network to catapult their careers in the existing industry to the next level. Because they are so much more experienced and entrenched in a particular industry, they are mostly career switchers.
Popular rankings
Pros
1. You can work full-time while pursuing an MBA.
Cons
1. Your chance of making an industry shift is much lower than for a full-time MBA.
2. The immersive experience – peer learning, networking etc. – of a part-time program ranges from being a fraction to negligible of a full-time program’s.
