Mediocre MBA Applicant Pools

My partner and I were discussing the modern MBA full-time program the other day. Specifically, we were comparing notes on our situations as relatively inexperienced college graduates applying to Stanford and Wharton over 20 years ago, with a typical full-time, self-funded entrant to a top B-school now.

His point, with which I agree, is that business schools such as Columbia, Chicago, Stanford, MIT, Tuck, Harvard and Wharton, in all probability, no longer attract the best students to their day programs. Instead, they now attract a mediocre talent pool. This is largely because of the schools' insistence on substantial work experience by candidates prior to attending their programs.

Consider this. A bright young college graduate, after 4-5 years of experience, at a mid-large-sized company, is likely on a decent career path. These days, s/he could probably get the employer to pay for grad school. Otherwise, the potential B-school entrant has to forego two years' compensation, still pay for living expenses, plus the cost of grad school. Rough estimates for this are in the neighborhood, I believe, of $200K.

So, one has to ask, why would someone incur all that added expense, when an employer will consider funding a candidate and continuing to keep them on payroll, or perhaps give them leave, in order to retain top talent? One answer is, the current experienced, full-time, self-funded MBA candidate is not the most talented segment of potential program entrants.

My partner added, for good measure, the following hypothetical situation. If a young college grad is doing well at his or her job, some years out, would s/he really throw away all the progress, money, momentum, and contacts, for two years of self-funded school? A really good prospect can do better than taking him- or herself out of the workforce for two years on their own tab, only to have to start over career-wise.

And, in these days of leaner staffs and heavier workloads, perhaps the non-applicants get better experience and skills by remaining in the workforce, sans graduate degree, and taking on more responsibility. Perhaps this results in better-performing employees. Only two years ago, I read an HBR piece touting the MFA as the advanced degree of the future.

Frankly, even in my day, over two decades ago, quite a few of my fellow Penn grad students were far more interested in the added money they'd make upon graduation than in actually learning anything from their course work. Few had an active interest in learning a specific discipline, outside of career retreads wanting to enter the arcane world of M&A or financial instrument trading. I still read of 'best practices' in marketing which bear a striking similarity to those taught back when I was at Penn.

Perhaps this explains why, despite the usual outpouring of full-time business school grads from name programs, companies, on average, don't seem to run better, or make fewer management gaffes. It could well be that name-graduate business program education is of decent quality, but the students are not.