I cannot legitimize taking the MBA; talk some sense into me?

Spot on.

Other thing you can do is, search more on what fields you would like to go to in finance. Would you want to work for a PE/Hedge fund/VC, in corp. finance, banking etc. Some might give you more money than others, if that is what motivates you. (I'm not against that sentiment)
Also, you may decide particular organizations you need to work for or aspire to be in.

Subsequently, check if you can reach your target without an MBA. If yes, you don't need to spend thousands of dollars and invest 1/2 years of your life. You need to work out backwards. No one can/should sell you an MBA.

Best

I like these rankings: https://poetsandquants.com/2012/12/07/the-top-100-u-s-mba-programs-of-2012/3/ They tend to be the most objective since it basically averages rankings from different media sources.

The biggest benefit of an MBA is facilitating a career change - whether it's staying in the same industry and switching functions, transferring a function to a different industry, or doing something completely different. Other benefits are the recruiting and networking - again, mainly if you're looking for a new job. As a military officer, I find high value in the MBA in terms of making a career change as I'm not satisfied with opportunities head-hunters can provide, and veteran specific recruiting efforts by some companies tend to pidgeon hole us (i.e. Booz Allen Hamilton hires vets for their government consulting division - getting an MBA from a top school can get you hired to a division of BAH where you actually get to solve real business problems).

If you're looking to move up in your current organization, you may not need an MBA at all. My brother works for a top-tier consulting firm and got promoted to the point where his peers were MBAs, so he really didn't need one, he ended up going to a top 16 for the hell of it - the company was paying and a two-year break sounded good. He's a partner now.

Getting a full-time MBA would mean leaving your job - between classes, school work, recruiting, clubs, etc, you won't have time to work.

An EMBA is iffy. If your company will sponsor you and guarantee you a promotion upon completion, then it sounds like it's worth it. If you just want to get an EMBA on your own (typically weekends, and probably involves travel if you want to go to a top program) and then want to see what kind of doors it'll open, it may be worth it, may not be. You need to see if the tuition (usually as expensive as full-time) and weekends is worth it to you. Same goes for Part-time programs (usually offered as evening classes).

Thank you, that is a very informative post. I think I probably need to figure out what exactly I want to do next before I go spending big bucks on a degree "for the hell of it," so to speak. I also work for a Fortune 150 company, so moving up is certainly an option.

I failed to mention this earlier, but I also have a Finance Certificate from a Top 50 school. The program is taught by the same professors that teach the MBA, it is just shorter (6 months) and cheaper. I am not sure how helpful that will be to my career, but it did actually help me get into my current employer (and in fact the hiring manager thought it was an MBA until I clarified in an interview, but luckily I was a good enough interviewer to get the job anyway).

I agree with the EMBA too. I saw a stat on FT that showed the top programs offer an average of a 40% raise to graduates 3yrs after completion compared to before they started the program. If you consider many companies offer COLA increases alone, a 3yr total would be about 10% in that category. Probably many of those employees would have also gotten raises/promotions regardless of the EMBA as well, which dilutes the remaining 30% of that stat also. Spending 200k on the prospect of getting a 25% salary increase is certainly not worth it in my eyes.