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cecilpaladin32
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Joined: 06 Jan 2012
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Value of doing traditional Masters before MBA? 26 Feb 2012, 19:31
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So like many others, the current economy has been fairly difficult and interviews for jobs have personally been very hard to come by. I worked for a while in Los Angeles, and was for all intents and purposes living paycheck to paycheck (I earned less than half of the amount I typically interviewed for, when I was getting interviews) and decided that I was sick of doing so (and then I upped and left). A friend of mine recently suggested that I apply for Masters degrees at NYU and Columbia.

While I don't think I'd be a competitive applicant at either of these two places, I was beginning to wonder the worth of gaining a masters degree if I know for a fact that I will pursue an MBA somewhere down the line...Additionally, if I were to attend the same institution for both the traditional masters and mba, is there any likelihood that some of the credits from the traditional masters will carry over? I was thinking of pursuing a degree in something like financial economics or financial engineering (I know with 100% certainty that I wish to do an MBA in finance).

Thanks in advance.
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novanative
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Schools: McDonough '14 (WL) Smith (A)
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Value of doing traditional Masters before MBA? 26 Feb 2012, 23:49
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cecilpaladin32
So like many others, the current economy has been fairly difficult and interviews for jobs have personally been very hard to come by. I worked for a while in Los Angeles, and was for all intents and purposes living paycheck to paycheck (I earned less than half of the amount I typically interviewed for, when I was getting interviews) and decided that I was sick of doing so (and then I upped and left). A friend of mine recently suggested that I apply for Masters degrees at NYU and Columbia.

While I don't think I'd be a competitive applicant at either of these two places, I was beginning to wonder the worth of gaining a masters degree if I know for a fact that I will pursue an MBA somewhere down the line...Additionally, if I were to attend the same institution for both the traditional masters and mba, is there any likelihood that some of the credits from the traditional masters will carry over? I was thinking of pursuing a degree in something like financial economics or financial engineering (I know with 100% certainty that I wish to do an MBA in finance).

Thanks in advance.
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Getting a regular masters is worth it only if it will help you in your current job right now (ex- M.A. in Econ could help you right now if you are an economist or a statistician) or could make you competitive for another job in the future (ex - Masters in Education could help you become a school teacher if you don't have licensure right now).

Generally, credits from a traditional masters won't carry over to the MBA unless they were in really related disciplines and/or the MBA program you go to accepts those classes, whether they are from the same university or not.

I generally see the MBA degree as a general management degree, so I don't really care too much for concentrations if they're even offered depending on the school.