I do not know about the U.S. system, but in Canada, the Ph.D. program in Business is part of the Faculty of Graduate Studies. Thus, the fees for any Ph.D. program in business, in many Canadian universities, are the same as for any other graduate program in the university. Besides this, once you are admitted (which is very hard, for example, they accept generally 2 in the Ph.D. program in Finance, from a pool of thousands of applications), you get generally a full scholarship. So, the Ph.D. program is "free". Now, in my experience, it is better if you invest your time getting a certification, like CFA, CPA, CAIA or anything like that, and working in the industry. This will be a lot more fun and much less stressful and risky. To get good networking, I would add a SMALL program in business at an Ivy League university, which is very expensive, but generally is not hard to be admitted to. Additionally, if you want to land a really good job, I also would tell you to get a master's in computer science or IT certifications. Now, if you think that getting a Ph.D. in Business is really for you, I would strongly advise you to know the faculty of the university of your choice. Generally, the faculty associated with a Ph.D. program in Business is a very small group of people. So, I would strongly advise you to get a lot of information about them from previous students, and mainly from previous dropouts of the corresponding program, and if possible contact them. In my own experience, I can say that, unless you are extremely lucky, getting a Ph.D. in Business is not worth the time.