what is the purpose of an education?

My two cents:

I agree that an undergraduate education is about "finding yourself," but as an engineer, it was more than that. I learned how to think analytically, assess problems, and come up with creative solutions. Granted, many of my classmates were better at this than me, I think many of them were lacking the important aspect of communication skills. You can be the best engineer in the world, but if you can't articulate your results, they are essentially worthless.

So if I'm so perfect <sarcasm>, why an MBA? Easy enough...as I have progressed through my career, I have encountered problems that involve aspects that are too complex or too intricate for me to solve using the tools I currently possess. Do I expect an MBA to give me all of those tools? No, but I expect that continuing my education will help me to fine-tune my problem-solving skills into something that will make me more efficient and successful at addressing business issues. Yes, an MBA is about networking, but it's also about getting exposure to a diverse group of students who can suggest different ways to attack a problem. My hope is that I can ultimately perform better in my desired role than I could without an MBA.

You guys are starting to sound like you're writing an admissions essay. Is that the kind of stuff you would tell your friends over beers?

What if I say yes? Does that make you think less of me?

Actually, this is exactly the kind of stuff I tell my friends over beers.
A lot of beers.



P.S. Where's jallenmorris?

LLLOYYYYYYD. I need my coffee!!!

I agree with you agold, I just think there are a disproportionate amount of these people here at gmatclub because of the culture and the kind of people it attracts. The vast majority of the people that I meet are career/money focused. It's like when you meet people during school visits and in the info session they are talking about how they want to set up a nonprofit to provide brownies to starving kids around the world but when you start talking to them afterwards they start talking about the PE/VC placement statistics.

I understand people viewpoint who want to transition into less paying jobs, I just think they are a small minority of people who attend.

It's a very shallow facade that began with Harvard and Stanford (who tend to set the trends for other business schools). When I look at it, I think it's just a way to encourage further nepotism. The majority of folks who are concerned with setting up a non-profit or being a board member of a non-profit at age 22-25 are Ivy League graduates and/or members of the upper class. This is part of their culture and part of the culture of NYC and the Eastern establishment. Go take a poll and find out how many Ivy League graduates sit on the board of non-profits before the age of 27, and then go take that same pool at a Big 10 Midwestern state school. Should be interesting to see the results

Yes. I wish more people did.

Though I know what you're talking about. There are, unfortunately, lots of folks who throw around a lot of B.S. about this stuff. (I like to think my peace corps service shows adcoms that I've walked the walk as well, though, and intend to continue.) But I don't know if I agree so much that there's a class division between do-gooders who actually go into the field.

I'm talking about the guys who work 80 hours/week chasing money and still somehow sit on the boards of 4 non-profits. This is an upper-class shingle that they hang on their resume - a big facade, nothing more, nothing less.

I am not speaking about you or other people dedicated full-time to non-profit work and service.