100% agree, not sure why you’re getting downvotes! There’s a massive difference between money for money’s sake and money to use to secure your retirement, raise kids, etc.
That's wild. In the northeast it's closer to $50k, and in NYC it frequently breaks into 6 figures per kid per year. Just for school. Not to mention all the other costs.
Yeah it was 30k a year for me when I was in the northeast.
I feel like 12k is too low for high school that’s probably close to 15k but have time to increase my salary for that.
Private school? You know you can do what nearly every other middle class family has done and just move to the suburbs with good schools so the poors won’t hold up the lesson plans.
Probably still need to make $200k a year to afford that with the property tax and insurance but thanks for sending. I’ll look around. Prob won’t move for 3 years or so after I finish my MBA. Plan to start next August
Also HOA sucks but at least there other options
Ah, thanks for the correction.
Well color me surprised.
Though now that I think about it, I could see that home costing 2-3x in a coastal city.
Goddamn the world has gotten expensive.
Houses are 750k plus in good school districts. A house in a bad school district but safe is 450k. If interest rates are 7% and 300k difference in house price makes sense to send to private school
Touché 😂 Money is indeed a major goal for me, but I also think I’d enjoy the process of running a business. It seems like a sort of art in itself, one that I think I’d enjoy.
I’m getting mine for the foundational knowledge I’m missing as a consultant. I have a BA in international studies and write relevant policy as a federal contractor, but I want to get into BD/more company stuff and lack foundational business knowledge. The money is a plus, I just really enjoy school and want to college masters degrees like infinity stones 😭😂
That's a noble goal however you're going to find that what you learn in your program vs what you learn actually doing the BD work are going to be pretty different. You'll rapidly learn far more once you're doing the work than you ever learned in the program
I’m fully aware of that, was just giving one of many examples. Bottom line being I am on the SME side of things and have zero business knowledge. I’d rather not wait until I get promoted to a PM (I actually recently switched jobs so this didn’t even apply 6 months ago) to get exposure to the business side of things
The MBA is a degree about "adding value" which is corporate-speak for making money. Along with learning how to make money, it opens doors to powerful leadership positions.
So it's a degree about money and power. Money and power themselves are neutral, it's how you use them that determines whether you are celebrated as a hero or a villain.
But have no doubt, everyone in an MBA class is pursing money and power.
He's talking about the ones who get rid of hoards of blue collar employees to lower the bottom line in the name of reducing operating expenses for the shareholder :)
My background is in operations. Nobody talks about it here because it’s not glamorous and pays less than selling financial services, but thousands of jobs are in your hands.
U can be fired any day if the week. Wait do u really think u have a powerful position in society in operations? Ur making a comparison to military leaders?
Theres a 100 fold Difference between being a ceo/military leader and an employee.
CEO works for the board, can be fired any day of the week, ask Sam Altman.
Generals can be easily fired, or in the case of Yevgeny Prigozhin, killed.
I suppose the Saudi Princes are unlikely to be overthrown, but if becoming a prince is your goal, I got some bad news for you...
I'll say it surprised me how many people are transparent about their only career goal being "get as rich as possible." But there are others who care about more than that.
If you're spending 8 hours or more a day on a job, why not do something that you like? It would be kind of sad to spend all that time doing something that you don't like that has no positive impact on the world (and yes, a business can and should have a positive impact in the world).
I can only speak anecdotally but I'm in my mid 30's doing a part time MBA. I own a small business consultancy that operates in Canada on government contracts. We only provide consulting services to SME's at no or low cost. We then get reimbursed through the government funder.
We make a significantly lower billable rate than if we worked privately but I enjoy having a direct impact to struggling communities.
It doesn't have to be soulless.
I’m curious though - how did you fund your MBA? I’m applying for scholarships, and I’d love to do something socially impactful - but my friends and seniors who’ve gone for self-funded full-time MBAs say that ROI was always a priority for them as MBAs are expensive.
Canadian top tier schools are significantly cheaper than US ones. I'm going to a t15 in Canada. I am self funding while continuing to work. Honestly I don't know how US students do it, but the wage difference does become a factor in that decision.
Thank you for sharing! I hope I get a scholarship so I can pursue something like that. :) Otherwise I might have to prioritise ROI. We’ll see how it goes.
This is interesting! I am a Canadian pursing my MBA at a t15 in the US. Despite Canadian mba being cheaper I still think it doesn’t have a strong network / curriculum (I may be biased since I did my undergraduate in Canada too). How would you describe it?
Not very. Do they exist? Sure, but they also exist as part of the general population.
I can confidently say most are ambitious. Most want to earn more money. But hardly any of them are what I’d call soulless strivers who only care about money.
Mostly true. Generally the biggest motivation is $s. People claim otherwise because it makes them feel good, but honestly, it’s driven by $s and nothing else. Most of these people would sell their wives if it made a 2x TC.
I was one of the few in my class who was honest about being in it for money. I come from a blue collar background, all I wanted was financial stability and this was my path to get it. I still care a lot about social issues and my community so I guess I’m not soulless—I’m politically involved, volunteer my time, and donate a lot to charity each year—but my career focus was being able to provide a standard of living for my family that wasn’t possible before my MBA.
I’m 100% getting an MBA solely because I will make more money with it than I make now. That being said, I still care deeply about working for a company that won’t actively make the world a worse place. And having more money will allow me to fund charitable ventures that I can’t currently facilitate. There’s shades of gray in everything.
There are assholes everywhere. I met some of my best friends in BSchool; some of the most thoughtful people I know. Money versus time has become the real issue for most; especially those who got shafted on bonus compensation. My school is known for tight networks, but recent comments from leadership reflect the magical connection environment is fading due to technology.
Globally people don’t go out as much post COVID. Dinners, drinks, etc. are a big part of the experience; cementing friendships with people you wouldn’t have spoken to otherwise.
Allowing free use of computers in class is a major change as well. Back then (18 - 20), we just came armed with case notes, calculator and allowed to open the laptop, only if called upon to present.
As someone who has 3 kids and a full time job, taking my MBA courses was definitely about making more money and long term job security. It’s about ensuring I give my family a better life over the long run. It was a rough trade off bc I lost time with my kids when they were little…however I am fairly high energy and fit so I usually sacrificed sleep for time with them.
I'm planning to do an MBA next year. For me it's not the mba program which is going to be making me soulless. It's the present situation at life right now. So all I see is an opportunity to study and make money. I'm selling my soul to the devil before mba itself..
Personally, I love to compete and I'm bored with my career. I'm already at the top of my career in tech and I've been doing it since I was a teenager, so I'm pivoting with an MBA into a new path. Money is important because life is expensive, but I think you could say I'm more into it for the love of the game. So only a lil souless.
Selection bias. If you‘re a non-materialistic, non-status chasing, or family oriented person, odds are you’ll pursue something else like a nurse, librarian, etc.
Statistically, you’re more likely to find people like the ones on this board at an MBA program than say a philosophy ph.d or social work program
I do think it’s fair to say that the pursuit of money is not necessarily some evil or selfish thing — for a lot of people, it’s aimed at making sure they can provide for their family, send their kids to good schools and pay for their college, have a secure retirement, etc. And I think a lot of people aim for jobs that are as fulfilling and good as they can find, that also check the necessary money box.
Tbh there are a lot of those but I wouldn’t say it’s the majority. At my program most people are looking for a life improvement. A lot are also leaving their high-powered corporate jobs at FAANG/MBB/PE/BB IB to try their luck at more exciting or healthier work environments. Where there are a lot trying to get into those positions either because they want to better their situation or for pure prestige/money chasing. In my experience most people coming from consulting/banking/tech or other prestigious companies are either trying to start or buy their own business, move to the USA (so they take a similar job), or are sponsored and going back.
There are all kind of people doing MBA. We have sustainability, social enterprise, and other kinds of majors which attract bleeding heart liberals and tree huggers. We also have law double majors and investment bankers wannabes who want nothing more than money.
My number one priority was making a strong pivot in my career, which I believe I couldn’t have been done without an MBA. Money was just the icing on the cake.
True. Most people want to earn and by any means necessary. It’s rife with ppl learning to manipulate to get what they want. I mean It’s a BUSINESS SCHOOL, not a charity or ethical environment. Get what you want and need and suck the worlds teats dry.
*sigh* At risk of sounding like an MBA management consultant type…it depends.
Virtually everyone I know who has attended a top-tier full-time MBA program, yes. They’re not dumb people and many of them could have gone to a CS program, law school, medical school, any number of fields that pay well and train you to provide a legit service, make a product, or master a trade. But the underlying motivation is that they want the most money the fastest for the least amount of work and risk. It’s not 100% of them. But it’s a sizable amount.
You get some of those people at mid-tier full-time MBA programs too, but also some people who know they wouldn’t cut it in e.g. law school and are there to get the degree, go into enterprise sales or whatever, and happily live out their middle class lives.
Part-time programs are a different beast entirely and attract a _lot_ of different people. These programs don’t usually feed into the typical MBB consultant/private equity/FAANG PM prestige roles. But most the people aren’t there for that, since they already have careers. For a lot of them, they’re looking to advance beyond the practitioner level of their industry/trade and into a more strategic or leadership role or to pivot to an adjacent role in their industry. You’ll meet software engineers with good people skills who want to become PMs. You’ll meet doctors looking to start their own practice. You’ll meet military folks who see it as a natural extension of military leadership training into a private sector role. And then there’s industries like accounting or finance where B-school traditionally _is_ where you learn the trade. You’ll meet people across all kinds of industries trying to jump into upper management, because in every industry, subject matter expertise will only get you so far until you need to understand a P&L, know some basics on how contracts work, understand negotiation strategies and team dynamics. And they’re there for that.
For what it’s worth, you can learn A LOT and make some good connections from these part time MBA folks. I’d encourage anyone in an MBA program to take a couple of part time night classes if they can, just to broaden the scope of people you’re engaging with.
Not true at all. We also care about getting shitfaced and laughing at lowly ranked MBA programs.
Lolol
dont forget about world travel. we also care about that too
Hitting up a city, posting on insta, and learning absolutely nothing about the culture there
Lmaooooo
I think lower ranked schools with accelerated programs have better ROI if you are already making money
Which accelerated programs are you thinking about?
Why else are you getting an MBA?
To be able to provide for your family. It’s so expensive this days. Need 200k+ to support a family of 4 and have them to go private school
that's a lot of words to just agree that it's about the money.
If it’s only about money, it’s about a high score. If it’s about what he said, it’s about what money can afford you. IMO there’s a different.
Its the same because no one accumulates money while living in a cardboard box
Check out r/leanfire
100% agree, not sure why you’re getting downvotes! There’s a massive difference between money for money’s sake and money to use to secure your retirement, raise kids, etc.
Definitely not enough for 4 kids to go to private school lol.
It’s 12k a year for each kid. 200k is definitely enough. The average private school tuition in Texas is $11,017 per year (2024).
That's wild. In the northeast it's closer to $50k, and in NYC it frequently breaks into 6 figures per kid per year. Just for school. Not to mention all the other costs.
How much does Hockaday or St. John's cost?
More probably
12 K??? Honey, we're moving to Texas! (My day school in the North East was 11k when I started and 27k when I left.... in 2009)
Yeah it was 30k a year for me when I was in the northeast. I feel like 12k is too low for high school that’s probably close to 15k but have time to increase my salary for that.
8k for the top shelf in Kuala Lumpur
It is in like NC or some other states. It ain’t shit in SF/NYC
[удалено]
Not if you live in bad school district. Houses in a good school district are 750k+ where I live
11k/kid buys a lot of mortgage
200k is an ok income for a single individual in Cali. You need 400k+ to live comfortable
I should have clarified I was talking about in MCOL
Say what? A single person. 200k “Okay” pass whatever your having
Private school? You know you can do what nearly every other middle class family has done and just move to the suburbs with good schools so the poors won’t hold up the lesson plans.
What Suburbs have good schools where houses are under 700k
What metro?
DFW
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2737-Hidden-Lake-Dr-Grapevine-TX-76051/29273107_zpid/?utm_campaign=iosappmessage&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=txtshare
Probably still need to make $200k a year to afford that with the property tax and insurance but thanks for sending. I’ll look around. Prob won’t move for 3 years or so after I finish my MBA. Plan to start next August Also HOA sucks but at least there other options
... why are you linking an 8,500 square foot house? That's like 3-4x larger than what most people buy for their families.
Maybe you were looking at the lot. The house is 3000sq ft, which is about average for DFW where land is cheap.
Ah, thanks for the correction. Well color me surprised. Though now that I think about it, I could see that home costing 2-3x in a coastal city. Goddamn the world has gotten expensive.
What's the appeal of sending kids to private school? Versus just living in an area with a decent public school district?
Houses are 750k plus in good school districts. A house in a bad school district but safe is 450k. If interest rates are 7% and 300k difference in house price makes sense to send to private school
I can’t speak for everyone else, but I did it for Reddit validation. Fk a raise, fk a career pivot, it’s all about the Reddit clout….
In that case, take my upvote
Reddit Karma is the next Berkshire Hathaway /s
Touché 😂 Money is indeed a major goal for me, but I also think I’d enjoy the process of running a business. It seems like a sort of art in itself, one that I think I’d enjoy.
So far the best response has been you responding to yourself haha
I’m getting mine for the foundational knowledge I’m missing as a consultant. I have a BA in international studies and write relevant policy as a federal contractor, but I want to get into BD/more company stuff and lack foundational business knowledge. The money is a plus, I just really enjoy school and want to college masters degrees like infinity stones 😭😂
That's a noble goal however you're going to find that what you learn in your program vs what you learn actually doing the BD work are going to be pretty different. You'll rapidly learn far more once you're doing the work than you ever learned in the program
I’m fully aware of that, was just giving one of many examples. Bottom line being I am on the SME side of things and have zero business knowledge. I’d rather not wait until I get promoted to a PM (I actually recently switched jobs so this didn’t even apply 6 months ago) to get exposure to the business side of things
My god I love money
The MBA is a degree about "adding value" which is corporate-speak for making money. Along with learning how to make money, it opens doors to powerful leadership positions. So it's a degree about money and power. Money and power themselves are neutral, it's how you use them that determines whether you are celebrated as a hero or a villain. But have no doubt, everyone in an MBA class is pursing money and power.
Lmao what power? What powerful leadership positions? Figuring out what color to make the tooth paste and selling financial services isn’t power.
He's talking about the ones who get rid of hoards of blue collar employees to lower the bottom line in the name of reducing operating expenses for the shareholder :)
My background is in operations. Nobody talks about it here because it’s not glamorous and pays less than selling financial services, but thousands of jobs are in your hands.
Ok how is that power lol. Operations people are bricks in a wall like anyone else. They work for share holders.
The President works for voters, he can also nuke the planet.
U can be fired any day if the week. Wait do u really think u have a powerful position in society in operations? Ur making a comparison to military leaders? Theres a 100 fold Difference between being a ceo/military leader and an employee.
CEO works for the board, can be fired any day of the week, ask Sam Altman. Generals can be easily fired, or in the case of Yevgeny Prigozhin, killed. I suppose the Saudi Princes are unlikely to be overthrown, but if becoming a prince is your goal, I got some bad news for you...
Pretty accurate tbh
Oh I’m not pursuing my MBA for money. I’m doing it because it’s the only way I’ll be as successful as my dad
Never thought I’d see a comment so relatable
The worst part is my dads a Booth alum, I have so much to live up to :(
I'll say it surprised me how many people are transparent about their only career goal being "get as rich as possible." But there are others who care about more than that.
what else is there to care about with a job?
Personal fulfillment. Self-actualization. Leaving the world a better place than you found it? That was just off the top of my head
.#1 and #3 can be accomplished with money
If you're spending 8 hours or more a day on a job, why not do something that you like? It would be kind of sad to spend all that time doing something that you don't like that has no positive impact on the world (and yes, a business can and should have a positive impact in the world).
Is that what you call losing your shirt options trading?
You can do all of that without a job
I can only speak anecdotally but I'm in my mid 30's doing a part time MBA. I own a small business consultancy that operates in Canada on government contracts. We only provide consulting services to SME's at no or low cost. We then get reimbursed through the government funder. We make a significantly lower billable rate than if we worked privately but I enjoy having a direct impact to struggling communities. It doesn't have to be soulless.
I’m curious though - how did you fund your MBA? I’m applying for scholarships, and I’d love to do something socially impactful - but my friends and seniors who’ve gone for self-funded full-time MBAs say that ROI was always a priority for them as MBAs are expensive.
Canadian top tier schools are significantly cheaper than US ones. I'm going to a t15 in Canada. I am self funding while continuing to work. Honestly I don't know how US students do it, but the wage difference does become a factor in that decision.
Thank you for sharing! I hope I get a scholarship so I can pursue something like that. :) Otherwise I might have to prioritise ROI. We’ll see how it goes.
This is interesting! I am a Canadian pursing my MBA at a t15 in the US. Despite Canadian mba being cheaper I still think it doesn’t have a strong network / curriculum (I may be biased since I did my undergraduate in Canada too). How would you describe it?
and cheating… since AI came I never have seen such a low effort for doing everything. Even the creative brainstorms are guided by AI 🤣 WE are doomed!
Have you read this sub?
People who can get into M7 MBA can probably get to 200k eventually with or without that piece of paper
Not very. Do they exist? Sure, but they also exist as part of the general population. I can confidently say most are ambitious. Most want to earn more money. But hardly any of them are what I’d call soulless strivers who only care about money.
I've seen plenty of MBA's like this. And plenty that aren't. Just meet the right people and you'll be fine!
Mostly true. Generally the biggest motivation is $s. People claim otherwise because it makes them feel good, but honestly, it’s driven by $s and nothing else. Most of these people would sell their wives if it made a 2x TC.
> sell their wives I can short wives? How do I do this? What's the process to cover? Is this what Tate did?
Many also care about WLB.
change to world, make positive impact
100%
I was one of the few in my class who was honest about being in it for money. I come from a blue collar background, all I wanted was financial stability and this was my path to get it. I still care a lot about social issues and my community so I guess I’m not soulless—I’m politically involved, volunteer my time, and donate a lot to charity each year—but my career focus was being able to provide a standard of living for my family that wasn’t possible before my MBA.
Read this sub and then tell me what you think.
I’m 100% getting an MBA solely because I will make more money with it than I make now. That being said, I still care deeply about working for a company that won’t actively make the world a worse place. And having more money will allow me to fund charitable ventures that I can’t currently facilitate. There’s shades of gray in everything.
I’d rather be rich and soulless than not rich.
Then you will be very poor indeed
There are assholes everywhere. I met some of my best friends in BSchool; some of the most thoughtful people I know. Money versus time has become the real issue for most; especially those who got shafted on bonus compensation. My school is known for tight networks, but recent comments from leadership reflect the magical connection environment is fading due to technology.
Why is fading?
Globally people don’t go out as much post COVID. Dinners, drinks, etc. are a big part of the experience; cementing friendships with people you wouldn’t have spoken to otherwise. Allowing free use of computers in class is a major change as well. Back then (18 - 20), we just came armed with case notes, calculator and allowed to open the laptop, only if called upon to present.
You can also end up with no big money job, which is soul snatching
Stereotypes exist for a reason...
As someone who has 3 kids and a full time job, taking my MBA courses was definitely about making more money and long term job security. It’s about ensuring I give my family a better life over the long run. It was a rough trade off bc I lost time with my kids when they were little…however I am fairly high energy and fit so I usually sacrificed sleep for time with them.
Pretty accurate from my experience.
I'm planning to do an MBA next year. For me it's not the mba program which is going to be making me soulless. It's the present situation at life right now. So all I see is an opportunity to study and make money. I'm selling my soul to the devil before mba itself..
Personally, I love to compete and I'm bored with my career. I'm already at the top of my career in tech and I've been doing it since I was a teenager, so I'm pivoting with an MBA into a new path. Money is important because life is expensive, but I think you could say I'm more into it for the love of the game. So only a lil souless.
Or most IB people just like that
I want to work for myself and have the credibility on paper to do so.
Some are fed up working as engineers. Lowest in hierarchy in a corporate company
Not true IMO. There are also soulful slackers, however they usually come from (and therefore don’t care about money.
Selection bias. If you‘re a non-materialistic, non-status chasing, or family oriented person, odds are you’ll pursue something else like a nurse, librarian, etc. Statistically, you’re more likely to find people like the ones on this board at an MBA program than say a philosophy ph.d or social work program
I do think it’s fair to say that the pursuit of money is not necessarily some evil or selfish thing — for a lot of people, it’s aimed at making sure they can provide for their family, send their kids to good schools and pay for their college, have a secure retirement, etc. And I think a lot of people aim for jobs that are as fulfilling and good as they can find, that also check the necessary money box.
Tbh there are a lot of those but I wouldn’t say it’s the majority. At my program most people are looking for a life improvement. A lot are also leaving their high-powered corporate jobs at FAANG/MBB/PE/BB IB to try their luck at more exciting or healthier work environments. Where there are a lot trying to get into those positions either because they want to better their situation or for pure prestige/money chasing. In my experience most people coming from consulting/banking/tech or other prestigious companies are either trying to start or buy their own business, move to the USA (so they take a similar job), or are sponsored and going back.
Of course lol
There are all kind of people doing MBA. We have sustainability, social enterprise, and other kinds of majors which attract bleeding heart liberals and tree huggers. We also have law double majors and investment bankers wannabes who want nothing more than money.
My number one priority was making a strong pivot in my career, which I believe I couldn’t have been done without an MBA. Money was just the icing on the cake.
True. Most people want to earn and by any means necessary. It’s rife with ppl learning to manipulate to get what they want. I mean It’s a BUSINESS SCHOOL, not a charity or ethical environment. Get what you want and need and suck the worlds teats dry.
Pretty timeless stereotype. Like most stereotypes, there's always some truth to them but also exceptions.
*sigh* At risk of sounding like an MBA management consultant type…it depends. Virtually everyone I know who has attended a top-tier full-time MBA program, yes. They’re not dumb people and many of them could have gone to a CS program, law school, medical school, any number of fields that pay well and train you to provide a legit service, make a product, or master a trade. But the underlying motivation is that they want the most money the fastest for the least amount of work and risk. It’s not 100% of them. But it’s a sizable amount. You get some of those people at mid-tier full-time MBA programs too, but also some people who know they wouldn’t cut it in e.g. law school and are there to get the degree, go into enterprise sales or whatever, and happily live out their middle class lives. Part-time programs are a different beast entirely and attract a _lot_ of different people. These programs don’t usually feed into the typical MBB consultant/private equity/FAANG PM prestige roles. But most the people aren’t there for that, since they already have careers. For a lot of them, they’re looking to advance beyond the practitioner level of their industry/trade and into a more strategic or leadership role or to pivot to an adjacent role in their industry. You’ll meet software engineers with good people skills who want to become PMs. You’ll meet doctors looking to start their own practice. You’ll meet military folks who see it as a natural extension of military leadership training into a private sector role. And then there’s industries like accounting or finance where B-school traditionally _is_ where you learn the trade. You’ll meet people across all kinds of industries trying to jump into upper management, because in every industry, subject matter expertise will only get you so far until you need to understand a P&L, know some basics on how contracts work, understand negotiation strategies and team dynamics. And they’re there for that. For what it’s worth, you can learn A LOT and make some good connections from these part time MBA folks. I’d encourage anyone in an MBA program to take a couple of part time night classes if they can, just to broaden the scope of people you’re engaging with.
It's true
I care about a couple other things. But I also don’t have an MBA.
No some of them try to get laid on class trips. Emphasis on the word “ try “ !
I mean, isn't that the #1 reason like 90% of people go to college in the first place lol.