Should you go to business school full time or part time? We’ll weigh the pros and cons of each, and will help to maximize your potential once you achieve that MBA.
Full Time programsare structured for 23-30 year-old students who can afford to leave the workforce. They also have an “undergraduate” feel with more clubs and activities.
Advantages:
More financial aid, with 90% of all scholarships and fellowships granted to full-timers.
Structured for 23-30 year-old students who can afford to leave the workforce.
Greater access to on-campus recruiting
Deeper relationships with classmates – everyone is fully committed to business school
Disadvantages:
Much larger opportunity cost since you forsake your salary
Giving up 2 years of work experience
Classmates have less work and life experience because they’re generally younger
Larger academic workloads
Academics and job hunting overshadow time with loved ones.
Part Time programs are targeted to 24-35 year-old students and share the same faculty as their full-time peers, with some professors preferring to teach nights and weekends so they can devote more time to research. While there are few scholarship dollars available to part-timers, these students can cash in on employer-sponsored aid.
Advantages:
You get to keep your job and salary – this becomes more valuable as you make more money.
Classmates have more life and work experience, making case discussions more fruitful
On-campus recruiting can be skipped – you can take a new job whenever you want
You instantly have a network for job referrals through your classmates
Many employers will pay for part of your MBA
Disadvantages:
Part-time students are not seen as prestigious since their average GMAT scores tend to be lower than their full-time peers.
Changing careers through on-campus recruiting will be more difficult – you will be competing against full-time students who are fully committed to changing industries since they have nothing else. On top of that, these students will have more time to dedicate to job hunting and interview practicing (since they don’t have a job).
Building deep relationships with classmates will be a challenge – people have busy jobs, families, and won’t have the time to “network” like the full-timers will.
