- News
Featured 
Recent
full time mba vs part time mba full time mba vs executive mba which is better
Full Time vs. Part Time MBA: What You Need to Know
5Any quality MBA programme, part-time or full-time, will demand a significant amount of your time and energy. Finding one that fits comfortably into your life and schedule will be challenging at best. Deciding on going full- or part-time will be based mainly on your own personal situation; however’ each offers specific pros and cons.
The Full-Time Option (one-year and two-year full time courses)
The most cited advantage of attending a full-time one-year MBA or a full-time two-year MBA is that students can devote as much time as possible to the extraordinary amount of coursework without being stretched too thin by other competing demands.
Immersion and Networking
A full-time program means that you and your classmates are fully immersed in coursework’ group projects’ and out of class activities’ so you get to know them extremely well. Networking among classmates is one of the greatest benefits attending full-time. B-schools generally admit students with significant prior work experience. Consequently’ your fellow students often become invaluable contacts who can help you throughout your entire career.
Internships & Job Opportunities
Two-year full-time programmes (and some one-year full time programmes) also provide an opportunity to gain significant professional experience through summer placements or internships. Through these important programs’ participants can try out an interest in a particular field and determine if it’s right for them. At most schools’ placement services generally focus on helping full-time students conduct their job searches for the often dramatic leaps in job responsibilities and salaries and the unique disruptions that go along with it.
Juggling School & The Rest of Your Life
The intensity of being a full-time student can exact a price. This is especially true for those who have been working for a while and recently returned to school. In addition’ there are competing demands for time for those with families. Finally’ attending business school often entails relocating to a new area and the unique disruptions that go along with it.
Cost
Paying for full-time school is often the biggest disadvantage of being a full-time student. While financial aid is available for B-School—usually in the form of loans’ although some programs offer grants and scholarships based on GMAT scores and other factors—you would accumulate significant debt as a full-time student.
The Part-Time & Executive MBA Option
Attending business school part-time has its positives and negatives. A part-time program can drag on for a number of years’ during which your commitment to an MBA will be tested by professional and personal obligations’ as well as by simple fatigue.
Flexibility
This is the main advantage of the part-time route. Part-time students generally decide whether they want to enroll for any given term. This can help relieve some of the pressure from competing professional or personal demands. Many vary their course load in order to concentrate exclusively on a particularly difficult course and then take a heavier load later with less intensive courses.
Networking
Because of the flexible nature of part-time programs’ enrollment patterns of students tend to vary greatly. This makes it comparatively difficult to develop the same kind of relationships with peers—or to do the same kind of networking—that full-time students enjoy.
Executive MBA Programs
Executive MBA Programs are a class of part-time programmes targeted at senior working executives and are especially attractive to those who have significant work experience and plan to continue with their present employers after graduation. These programs typically offer classes on weeknights or on Fridays and Saturdays. They are often completed in two years and sometimes in one-year. However’ Executive MBA Programs are usually open only to the most senior managers who are supported by their employers.
Cost
Most schools have little ‘if any’ financial aid for part-time students. However many companies reimburse some or all of the cost of tuition for continuing education. Because of this and the fact that most are working during their education part-time students often do not incur the massive debt associated with full-time students.
Adapted from Kaptest.com
5 Comments
shallow article.
Thanks for the feedback Mayank! We’ll be discussing your input. No dessert for editorial at lunch today 🙂
haha .. well may be there is not much to write about it.
The real quest which needs to be covered is..
a) relevance of these part time/exec programs in terms value add.
b) efforts vs outcome.
c) acceptability
After killing your weekends/evenings for 3 years and shelling out decent money unless you are doing from JB/FMS etc …. what you get is very important and this needs to be introspected.
Also can you pls suggest some good part time/exec/distance programs.
I am more interested into some foreign program which can compelted at distance.
Regards
We’ll try and dig up more information on points raised by you mayank. Here is a respected list of good international executive MBA programmes – http://www.oneyearmba.co.in/hec-paris-trium-tops-ft-executive-mba-rankings-2014-best-india-asia-world-europe-usa-financial-times-top-ranked-executive-mba-best-part-time-mba-working-professionals/
Mayank, we did some research on the aspects raised by you – as far as Indian B-schools are concerned, unfortunately, it seems that most schools are keeping the career growth numbers for participants of their executive courses under wraps which leaves many of these aspects difficult to judge. We wish that in the interest of the students, they would be more transparent on these aspects.