While reading the World In 2010, an annual production by the Economist magazine to predict and analyze the coming year, I found one article titled “The end of the affair”, to sadly mirror my own feelings about the future of the MBA or more importantly the value of business education.

Years ago when I applied to become a Finance major for my undergrad, business seemed to be the sure thing to go into;  a field that could be pinned down and quantified just as any other scientific discipline. Unfortunately, in the aftermath of a financial collapse reading about corporate greed and ethics are much more common than hearing of the brilliance of top finance companies.

As I have myself struggled to even find work with a finance undergrad in the poor economy, it looks to be much worse for the thousands of people graduating with their shiny new MBA.  With massive school debt looming and jobs under fierce competition, these new graduates will I think find it hard to justify the money spent.  The glamor of wanting to enroll into the program myself has diminished.

Business school in my view may have been overvalued.  Many leave school, I speak for myself but can only assume others feel similarly, with an unimpressive amount of tangible skills.  Often one of the biggest tools at your disposal upon graduation is the ability to speak the jargon but the inability to understand the mathematics or complex systems underneath is lacking.  I don’t expect an MBA program to be much different.

To self-criticize, I have not gone through the program myself, and therefore can only speak to what I have read and heard.  The MBA program may well still be a valuable program for some who already have a technical background e.g., engineering, math, IT, and are pursuing a more managerial role in their office.  However, I think with a gluton of MBAs looking for work and a need for workers with more at their disposal than fancy terminology, the program overall looks less enticing.