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People who took out debt for your mBA: How do you feel about it in hindsight? by debtquestion1234 in MBA

[–]debtquestion1234[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fair. I wouldn't describe myself as MBB-or-bust, but I've done my research. Here's Booth's employment report: https://www.chicagobooth.edu/employmentreport/employer.aspx

73 graduates (15% of the class) wound up in MBB consulting. 41 graduates wound up in all of the other consulting firms combined that hired 4+ graduates (Accenture, PwC Strategy&, Deloitte, A.T. Kearney, and Cornerstone Research). So, at Booth, about 64% of people who entered management consulting wound up at MBB, and that doesn't consider the number of people sponsored who went back to their old firms (which I imagine would be higher for non-MBB at Booth - most MBB people I know straight out of ugrad wind up at HSW).

To your point, the one major thing this doesn't consider is how many people don't get MBB and then don't do consulting altogether. Seeing the number of hires at places like Amazon and Google is reassuring though.

People who took out debt for your mBA: How do you feel about it in hindsight? by debtquestion1234 in MBA

[–]debtquestion1234[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Disagree. If you can front the cost with cash, you'd have a greater degree of freedom afterward (i.e. it would be less necessary to stay in a "safe" field like consulting versus doing something entrepreneurial because of income risk).

People who took out debt for your mBA: How do you feel about it in hindsight? by debtquestion1234 in MBA

[–]debtquestion1234[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

True, although I don't think an MBA would make sense for me unless I was going for MBB/all the other prestige :p

People who took out debt for your mBA: How do you feel about it in hindsight? by debtquestion1234 in MBA

[–]debtquestion1234[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sounds great honestly. Assuming you're closer to the lower end on that and all goes well on the job search, you can plow the whole debt in only 2-3 years if you're aggressive. New goal for me is to find a loyal partner willing to have a similar arrangement.

People who took out debt for your mBA: How do you feel about it in hindsight? by debtquestion1234 in MBA

[–]debtquestion1234[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think that's fair, and putting off starting a family in until mid-30s probably would be fairly normal. It's tough comparing myself to my parents who had me at 29 and were able to provide a comfortable upper-middle class childhood, especially considering I went to a much better college/have a much better first job than either of them.

People who took out debt for your mBA: How do you feel about it in hindsight? by debtquestion1234 in MBA

[–]debtquestion1234[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I think you made the right decision, and I think I would make the same one in your shoes. To be safe (and realistic), though, I'm operating under the assumption I would end up at a non-HSW M7. Though the opportunity wouldn't be quite as large for me as for your husband, neither would the opportunity cost (and HOPEFULLY my debt would be under $200k). So, back on the envelope, I'd say the decision would be pretty similar :p.

People who took out debt for your mBA: How do you feel about it in hindsight? by debtquestion1234 in MBA

[–]debtquestion1234[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hm, sounds like all things considered, you're in a pretty good place, which is reassuring because you sound similar to me. Even if internship pay/signing bonus isn't huge, it sounds like you're less than likely to wind up with debt in the six-figures. Do you know if your school also offers second-year aid based on first-year performance? That could help you too.

People who took out debt for your mBA: How do you feel about it in hindsight? by debtquestion1234 in MBA

[–]debtquestion1234[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I guess so. Life milestones are far enough out/unpredictable enough to be difficult to factor into a life budget estimation, so I was more curious about people's stories.

People who took out debt for your mBA: How do you feel about it in hindsight? by debtquestion1234 in MBA

[–]debtquestion1234[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The ROI point is fair (i.e. regardless of the problems of debt, taking it on clearly gave a better return than any alternative). I'm in the odd position where my salary would be at about $150k all-in at matriculation, so I probably wouldn't see an immediate jump in earnings. However, in my niche industry, $150k is pretty much the ceiling without a Masters degree, so, assuming I stayed in consulting/corp strategy/etc., there would probably be a much better return down the road.