MBA vs. Bloomberg Terminal Subscription

Don't bother with an MBA course. Just go read "The Personal MBA" by Josh Kaufman. It covers the stuff business tracks do for MUCH cheaper. It'll save you a ton of money, and you can make a better investment. Seriously... grad school for business is NOT worth it. It wasn't worth it for undergrad, either.

I was a business major for undergrad. I'm kicking myself for not having just started with a CS major from the outset.

Unless you're planning to go into a career in equities/fixed-income research, or trading, I don't see why you'd want a Bloomberg terminal. I don't even know if they make subscriptions available for individuals.

An MBA's value isn't based on surface-level stuff like coursework on marketing or strategy; you can get that anywhere. It's in the recruitment network that a high-ranking school attracts. It's the difference between having Google or Goldman send alums to campus to interview people, and applying online into the black box of an Application Tracking System.

This definitely seems like an Apples to Oranges comparison.

It is highly dependent on what your goal is / how you want to leverage either of those things.

A bit of perspective on B-school: - The value is primarily in the network you get exposed to (students, professors, industry veterans, alumni etc). This is something that can help you throughout your life. - It's also a great way to switch careers, to a certain extent, or even move up the corporate ladder (some companies even sponsor the MBA) -- both of these you can do without an MBA -- but may require a lot of hustle. - In terms of classes/courses, I would argue that you can get access to 80-90% of the course material / learnings from online courses/MOOCs/blogs etc -- depending on what you are trying to learn.

However, the opportunity cost, especially if full-time, is crazy. It's basically 200K + 2 years of salary.

The Bloomberg terminal on the other hand, is something you can try/use for a year, while working and see if you are getting what you want out of it, and then continue or stop.

Once again, definitely dependent on what the end goal is.

I would choose a MBA because it can open doors to some good careers, plus the connections can be valuable.

A Bloomberg is rather useless imo. Anything you can find there is already public information and you just are on the same level playing field as everyone else with no edge. no thanks

Most universities have Bloomberg terminals so you could use them if that is what you were looking for.

I think the real question here is what would generate more value.

I used to work at a company similar to Bloomberg and I can tell you that an individual user who would purchase the terminal subscription is most likely sophisticated enough to be using it at a high level (options, futures, swaps etc..), has a high tolerance for risk and wouldn't mind burning a load of cash "experimenting"

Earning an MBA might get you a better job in the long run, but again you are giving up 2 years worth of income so if you can survive that then why not. I think I would go for the MBA if I had to pick

I'd like to do both, but the opportunity cost of even a weekend professional mba program is too much... bloomberg i can do from home.

i was thinking of getting the bloomberg terminal partly for my curiosity, partly for teaching my kids about trading and researching something outside of youtube and google. Since they are too young to go to business school anyway.

it seems like for the price of private k-12, college, professional schools, if you just buy some data subscriptions like bloomberg, wrds, lexisnexis and if they are self learners, it might prepare them to get more out of school later.

MBA at a top school hands down. The network you build with stay with you forever. One of my regrets is not getting one and now is too late.

MBA if you want to signal to top tier employers.

Bloomberg if you will be able to turn a 25k/yr subscription into > 25k/yr of gains to offset the cost.

The capital gains needed to offset the subscription to Bloomberg are pretty steep, so unless you have millions or you can get some limited partners to give you money, I doubt it’s worth it.

People are hedging their answers. I'd go with the Bloomberg terminal and a lot of books.

The value in the terminal is you get access to their chat rooms. Those are good, I am not speaking from first-hand experience but from what I saw other analysts doing at their desk and how they find trade ideas, but it's better to make some money through a career and use that to funnel your trading. The MBA would open many doors and can increase your salary, but with all careers, networking is crucial.

If you want to make money, come trade with me, no Bloomberg terminal needed. ;)

Have you considered CFA instead of MBA, and saving/investing/networking the difference?