How to Get a Master's Degree in Business Administration

If you are planning on a career in business, you may want to consider going back to school to get a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree. Pursuing an MBA may even be a business decision--you can decide whether the time and money involved in earning an MBA seems likely to pay off in the form of enhanced career prospects.

Find the right school for you

Degree:

Subject:

Program:

You may improve your chances of success by approaching the decision in an orderly, businesslike way. This guide is designed to help you do that by taking you through the decision process step by step. The key stages of this process are:

Identifying whether you fit the profile of someone who should consider an MBA. Hundreds of graduate degree programs are available worldwide, and today's candidates can also earn a master's degree online. However, an advanced degree may not be right for everybody. The profile of MBA candidates is diverse, but there are some common characteristics. You should examine what you are willing to put into an MBA program and what you may be able to get out of it.
Compiling information on MBA programs. Before you decide on full-time or part-time, or whether to attend on campus or earn a master's degree online, you should start by considering all the possibilities. Certain resources can help you gather information on campus-based and online MBA programs so you can make your choice from a complete range of possibilities.
Evaluating MBA programs. After you have information on a variety of master's programs, you can start working your way through a list of criteria to narrow the field. This guide lists several criteria you may use in making your decision.
Applying to your target MBA programs. Getting into graduate school is a competitive exercise, so proper planning of the application process is important for putting your best foot forward.
Making the most of your MBA after you've earned it. As you contemplate business school, an MBA may seem like an important goal. But in addition to earning your MBA, you should employ other factors to help advance your career.

The following sections examine each stage of the process in greater detail.

Deciding to Pursue a Master's in Business Administration

MBA degrees were growing in popularity even during the recession. Today's students can attend full or part time. They may choose from campuses around the world, or earn a master's degree online. They may pay top dollar if they can afford to, or they may minimize costs through a combination of financial aid and lower-cost options, such as online grad schools.

So, you may have ready access to MBA programs, but how do you know if the degree is right for you? There is no set profile of an MBA student, as they fit into several different categories:

They may be fresh from earning their bachelor's degrees, or they may be going back to school after working for several years.
They may have majored in business as an undergraduate, but many MBA candidates also have backgrounds in other disciplines.
They may be of either gender, and any race or nationality.
Prior work experience may be in finance, technology, health care, consumer products, manufacturing, communications, or the not-for-profit sector.

As broad a profile as that seems to be, there are two key determinants of whether pursuing an MBA is the right path for you:

Whether an MBA may enhance your career prospects. If you are already on the fast track, you may not need to add an MBA to your credentials. With more and more people in the business world getting an MBA, however, it may be important to keeping your competitive edge.
Whether an MBA may add to your skill set. An MBA teaches a broad set of business skills, touching on finance, marketing, strategic planning, and management. If you have a need for some or all of these skills, combined with the resources of intellect and energy to obtain them, an MBA program may make you more effective in the workplace.

If you decide that you are a good candidate for an MBA, your next step is to start gathering some information on MBA programs.

Compiling Information on Master's in Business Administration Programs

The next phase of the decision process is information gathering. You may consider hundreds of on-campus and online master's degree programs, and you should gather information on topics such as financial aid and accreditation. With so much territory to cover, where do you begin? Fortunately, there are a number of resources that compile relevant information and make it easy to access. Some key resources you could use include:

Online college guides and directories. Even if you don't plan to earn a master's degree online, you'll find that online directories like WorldWideLearn.com are a useful source of information. They include listings of both on-campus and online grad schools, and also address other important topics such as program accreditation, financial aid, and preparation for standardized tests.
The U.S. Department of Education. The Department of Education's Web site is a great source of information on a variety of educational topics. In particular, it is the starting point for learning about and applying for federal financial aid, and it also has extensive information about accreditation standards.
Published ratings and rankings of colleges. U.S. News & World Report and Kiplinger's are two publications that produce widely-followed annual college reviews, and The Economist does an annual ranking of full-time MBA programs.
Web sites for specific colleges. After you start to narrow down the possibilities, you should look in-depth at certain MBA programs. You may choose to visit some in person, but as an intermediate step, visit the Web sites of the many MBA programs that have an informative Web presence. Looking at specific programs online should help you find out about things like coursework, admissions standards, faculty, and placement statistics.

Online information allows you to start your selection process by seeing the whole field. You might have certain preferences, such as attending school full or part time. You may want to go away to live at an out-of-town campus, attend a local school, or earn a master's degree online. You may even have certain high-profile programs in mind from the start. All of these preferences may shake out in the decision process, but you can consider all the possibilities and weigh each criterion against the others by starting with a comprehensive list of master's programs.

Next, you should pare this list down to a select few programs to which you want to apply.

Evaluating Master's in Business Administration Programs

In business, many decisions are multi-factor decisions. Rarely is there only one consideration when deciding between two or more alternatives; instead, there are often a variety of competing and sometimes conflicting issues to consider. As an executive, you should use an orderly decision process to consider each relevant factor in turn and steadily narrow down the possibilities.

A good way to do this may be to start with the more black-and-white and quantitative criteria first, which lend themselves to clear-cut judgements that may be made quickly. Then, when you have reduced the list of possibilities to a manageable few, you may engage in more in-depth study with more subjective criteria.

Your choice of an MBA program is an opportunity to exercise this type of complex decision-making process. Your process should start with some objective and measurable factors, and then move into some more subjective areas. The following is a list of decision criteria you may use:

Accreditation. You may want to ensure that schools you consider meet widely-accepted accreditation standards.
Full- or part-time. Depending on your work and financial situations, you may be committed to earning an MBA on a full-time or part-time basis, and you should look at schools that can accommodate those plans.
Acceptance rates and standards. Some schools post data about acceptance rates and the typical range of test scores and undergraduate grade point averages of students who have been accepted. You should apply to schools where you have at least a reasonable chance of being accepted. One strategy would be to aim high with one application, shoot for a school where you seem about average on another, and then apply to a third school with lower standards as a safety plan.
Placement rates. You should also look at statistics pertaining to students leaving an MBA program. Some schools post placement rates and even average starting salaries for their graduates. This type of information may give you a feel for how much the time and money you invest in an MBA may be likely to pay off in terms of improved career prospects.
Cost. With the average cost of an MBA now over $50,000 a year, cost should be a significant factor in your decision. However, you may want to postpone final decisions based on cost until you have explored financial aid possibilities, including tuition assistance from your employer. Alternatively, you may explore lower-cost options, like continuing to work while you earn a master's degree online.
Convenience. The location of a school factor in your decision, especially if you can avoid incurring room and board charges by attending a local school. Online MBA programs may be more popular because they overcome location issues and often have more flexibility in scheduling.
Academic emphasis. Both core requirements and the type of electives available should relate as much as possible to your planned career.
Reputation. You should consider published rankings as well as the insights of recruiters and business professionals, which may give you insights into a program's reputation.
Quality of faculty. Consider factors such as the student/teacher ratio and what percentage of the MBA faculty holds a PhD degree.
Campus environment. You may want to make sure that the campus is one that you'll find conducive to learning, or you can eliminate environmental factors by pursuing your master's degree online.

Moving through this sequence of decision factors should enable you to trim a comprehensive list of possibilities down to just a few target programs. At that point, you should be ready to tackle the application process.

Applying to a Master's in Business Administration Program

Roughly 75,000 candidates apply to MBA or similar graduate management degree programs annually. Top programs accept less than 15 percent of applicants. Make no mistake about it--applying for graduate school is a competitive process. You should engage in careful preparation to put your best foot forward. It's a good idea to also have a backup option or two--many MBA candidates submit an average of three applications apiece.

Some of the relevant factors in the acceptance process include:

Work experience
Evidence of leadership ability
Standardized test scores (typically the Graduate Management Admissions Test [GMAT])
Academic history
Recommendations

If you have some weaker points on your record, don't despair. You should highlight your strongest attributes most prominently and address any problems candidly and succinctly, while emphasizing what you've learned as a result. If you are realistic about your choices and thorough in the application process, you may be able to gain admittance to the MBA program of your choice.

Beyond the MBA: Making the Most of Your Career

An MBA is a credential that may help you get opportunities, but it is up to you to make the most of those opportunities. Here are some tips that may help you do that:

Keep your knowledge base current. Business conditions may change often, so even after your formal education is completed, you should keep reading about economic conditions and management trends.
Gain relevant experience. Your MBA may help you, but what employers often prize most is a combination of formal training and practical experience.
Make contacts. Studying for your MBA can be an ideal time to make business contacts, both with faculty members and fellow students.

Earning your MBA may be one of many stages in a successful career, but it certainly can be an important milestone on that journey.