Is an MBA worth it?

Hi Everyone,

Ever since I was in highschool I decided that my plans were going to be to do a business undergrad degree, work in the financial services sector for a few years and then do an MBA. At that time and until recently I thought an MBA was the logical next step in my career/life path. At this point in my life I am now approaching the time where I thought it made the most sense to do an MBA. For context I want to do my MBA in the UK for a variety of reasons and plan on only applying to LBS, Oxford and Cambridge but my long-term plan is to remain in Canada.

Im currently 24 years old, I have an honours in business administration from the Richard Ivey School of Business (Canada) and have been working at one of the big 5 banks in Canada since I graduated. I am now on my second job at the bank (got a promotion a few months ago after only a year and a half working here) and both of my jobs have been in strategy/project management type roles which I really enjoy and would like to continue to do. I made 71K/year in my previous role all-in, and I am going to make 85K/year all-in in my new role. I have built up an incredibly strong network at the bank and the city I live in, and have no shortage of options for my next role at the bank or trying something new at a different company.

Now the big question I'm wrestling with is, should I drop all of this and go do an MBA?

Many people have told me that the most value in doing an MBA is for either a career change or career progression. I don't want to make a career change as I'm already doing the type of work in business that I always wanted to do. In terms of career progression I can't see how an MBA would help me speed it up any faster than its going. On top of that I'm a little worried that leaving for a year and coming back may even hurt some of the career momentum I've built up. There's also the financial concerns. I am close to having enough saved up that I would graduate with less than $30K debt, but thats still ~$120K + ~$85K in lost earnings to pursue a degree that I'm not confident will help me that much.

Some of the reasons I want to do an MBA are for the learning experience, the prestige of going to one of those schools (assuming I can even get in), the network and the overall life experience. I dont know if these reasons justify the $200K+ price tag.

Have any of you been in this situation and do you have any advice? Are there any of you that are now in there 30s that regret not doing one for the reasons I just stated?

Thanks! Any response is really appreciated!