How do I choose which MBA programs best meet my needs?
The number of MBA programs has grown dramatically over the past 100 years since the first graduate business degree was offered in 1900 at Dartmouth College's Amos Tuck School in New Hampshire, USA. There are now about 900 MBA programs offered throughout the world, with about forty of these in Australia. With this large choice of often very diverse programs, how do you choose the program which is best for you?
1. Gather information
This can be made easier by filling in the ‘Request MBA Information’ on this website to arrange for participating universities to send you information about their MBA and related programs.
2. Identify your criteria
These will vary between individuals so; you will need to decide which are important to you. Here are some of the more common ones:
a) Personal objectives
Think about what do you want to learn and what you hope to gain from having an MBA.
b) Impact on family commitments
You will need to have the support of your family, especially if you are working and studying at the same time.
c) Flexibility of study options, subject choice and location
There are many study options available. These include full-time, part-time, evening, distance-education, on-line and mixed-mode programs. Some offer a broad subject choice; others have many compulsory subjects. Some have specialist streams, for example accounting streams. Some programs allow articulation from Graduate Certificate to Graduate Diploma to Master of Business Administration; some offer an executive MBA.
d) Reputation and program quality
The reputation of most MBA programs is related to the reputation of the university offering the program. In some cases 'younger' universities may offer very high quality programs but have not produced enough graduates to have established a reputation. Your own investigations about the quality and reputations of teaching staff, peer review methods for teaching materials and nature of academic and administrative support maybe better indicators of quality than perceived reputation. Recent MBA graduates' opinions of their overall satisfaction and reception in the marketplace are very useful.
e) Cost
MBAs range in price from about AUD $15,000 to AUD $90,000, so you need to look at which you believe offer value for money. Find out if the fees cover such items as textbooks, compulsory student fees and postage. If not determine how much these will add to the cost before you compare programs. Also enquire about payment methods, refund policies and scholarships.
f) Get a "feel" for programs
Speak with staff from universities offering programs. This can be done by telephone or by visiting information sessions and exhibitions. By speaking with staff you will be better able to establish the philosophy of the program and determine how students are viewed by each institution.
3. Analyse your options using a decision matrix
Choose which of the criteria, such as those discussed above, are most important to you. Give a weight from 1-10 to each of your chosen factors, depending how important each factor is to you. Rank your short-listed MBA Programs according to how well you believe they meet each criterion. Then multiply the ranking by the weight and total each row. The MBA Program with the lowest total should best meet your needs. Of course, the usefulness of the matrix depends on the accuracy of your informed decisions about weights and rankings based on your assessment of all available information.
For example, in the partially completed example below, a student is deciding between four MBA Programs. Their selection is based on their personal objectives (weighted 9, very important), their intuition (weighted 10, even more important), cost (weighted 4, not as important) and the flexibility of the program (also weighted 4). They have ranked each of their 4 short-listed MBA Programs for each criterion and then multiplied weight by rank and added across the table to get the total for each institution. MBA Program B would appear to be the MBA which best suits this student's needs.
(Adapted from Regina Mitchell's 'Guide to NZ MBA Programmes')
Click on the following links to find out more details about choosing an MBA degree.