rpratt620 wrote:
Forbes lists "average years to Break Even" and states that most top schools take about 4-4.5 years to pay off debt. Does that sound legit? I was under the impression that most people took 10+ years to pay off their loans, even at top schools. Can anyone shed some light on this?
In my opinion, this ranking is completely useless for [strike]schools within the top 15[/strike] all schools. Years to break-even is a calculation of tuition costs, pre-mba salary, and post-mba salary.
Obvious Flaws- Tuition costs are comparable at all of the top 15 schools (before scholarship considerations)
- Pre-MBA salaries are dictated by the individual, not the school
- Post-MBA salaries are largely dictated by the individual (some exceptions)
You can decrease your years to break-even by decreasing tuition cost or by increasing your post-MBA salary. Since top MBA employers recruit at nearly all of the top 15 schools, you're odds of improving your post-MBA salary via school selection are not good. You might be able to increase your post-MBA salary through careers in Private Equity, Hedge Funds, or Venture Captial, but you'll need to attend the very best programs (H/S/W, etc.). Of course, attending a higher ranking program often means that you're less likely to receive a scholarship offer. You're basically squeezing squeezing a balloon.
To maximize your ROI, you should go to the school that's good enough to bring your target employers to campus, while offering a lower cost of attendance than comparable schools (through scholarship or cost of living). Having a full-ride to a low-ranking business school might yield a low years to break-even, but what good is an early break-even if you can't get the career that you wanted or the significantly improved salary.
There are many was rank and choose a business school for each person's goals, but break-even estimates for an entire MBA classe is not a useful measurement (it won't even tell you your own break-even).