Is An Executive MBA (EMBA) Worth It?

Unlike full time one-year and two-year MBA courses that are mostly for students with 3-7 years work experience trying to improve their prospects in the business management field, Executive MBAs (EMBA) are part-time programmes for professionals with 10-20 years of work experience, who are looking to better their prospects for senior positions. How much value to they offer?

While most of the regular MBA programs require students to attend classes through the day, EMBA allows senior executives to continue with their jobs with the studies conducted through part time classes or on-line learning packages (hence the ‘Executive MBA’ name).

Thus, it is a best fit for those with 10+ years work experience seeking to boost their career. They could aim at developing managerial skills and in-depth knowledge of a particular field.

EMBA is also seen as a program that would develop strategic thinking, enable students to plan and assume leadership roles in their firms.

These programmes are not to be confused with One Year MBA Programmes (especially with those in India where such courses are incorrectly branded as Executive PGP and PGPX etc) which are full-time MBA programmes for students with work experience.

EMBA is not meant for ‘placements’, ‘job switches’, shifting into new roles or ‘understanding management principles’, as much as consolidating existing knowledge into more structured tools that can help senior managers tackle responsibilities more efficiently.

Owen Executive MBA Students

But how does EMBA stack up as far as course expenses are concerned? It is of course expensive but top business schools assure that the return of investment (ROI) would be worthwhile.

Let’s have a look at the expenses. The average cost of the program in an average business school works out to be around $75,000-85,000.

It would be twice as expensive in top B-schools. A 24-month EMBA program at the Wharton School would set you back by $ 181,500;  a 21-month course at The Booth School of Business would be $ 174,000; 24-month program in Columbia University $ 163, 940; 19-month course in Haas School of Business $159, 900.

Yet another factor to be considered is how much you would be willing to sacrifice by way of personal comfort and relationships. Managing a full time job plus studies is never going to be easy. Students are expected to remain totally focused on the course in exception to everything else.

Another factor to be considered is that employers are increasingly becoming unwilling to reimburse the cost of the course. The Executive MBA Council, the body that accredits B-Schools offering EMBA degrees worldwide, found that employers part-sponsored 36% of students and fully reimbursed 25% in the year 2014.

Also, scholarships or fellowships are available only for 53% of the programs.

Thus, considering the expenses, the time and effort and the returns, you have to ensure that the final choice of the course is the right one and best suited for you.

All the same, EMBA continues to maintain its popularity due to factors such as enabling the graduates to move up the corporate ladder with faster promotions and facility to switch career tracks for better prospects.

Return of Investment (RoI) is also considered good. While Wharton and Columbia claim that their students get almost 60% salary hike, Ross School of Business and Stern School of Business stated a rise of 42% and 35% respectively.

The salaries have seen a rise from $155,848 to $181,965 from 2013 to 2015, that is, a 17% increase in two years. If this trend holds, EMBA grads could expect a pay packet of $200,000  in 2016.

Interestingly, alumni of Executive MBA programs are the most likely graduate business school graduates to recommend their experience to others, according to Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC)’s 2016 Alumni Perspectives Survey Report.

The report said that the net promoter score (NPS), a widely used metric of customer loyalty, for EMBA programs was +57, the highest for any graduate business program.

The NPS score for all advanced business degrees was +45, a dozen points below the EMBA approval rate. For two-year, full-time MBA programs, it was +48, nine points lower than EMBA. Online MBA programs, that offers keen competition to the more expensive EMBA, had a score of +51.

The willingness of alumni to recommend EMBA is strong evidence of the value of the programs.