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Comment by benfocker | Hacker News Reader

This is a vastly oversimplified conclusion that only serves the author's interests. Of course he's going to say the MBA degree is worthless unless it's from Wharton... he went to Wharton.

A recent survey of top MBA students found that 88% of graduates say they were happy with the investment they made. Having come from a school that's not in the so-called top 5 (more like top 10), the MBA has opened so many more doors and offered opportunities I never would have without a degree.

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"88% of graduates say they were happy with the investment they made."

Of course you will rationalize your decision and you will say you are happy after sinking so much money in! Can you imagine answering something else? The minute you were accepted you were 'happy with your decision' and you crafted and told yourself a nice narrative.

I'm sure there is tangible ROI for a lot of MBA graduates, but the question whether they are 'happy' is simply biased.

"If people commit, orally or in writing, to an idea or goal, they are more likely to honor that commitment because of establishing that idea or goal as being congruent with their self-image."

Living in denial and rationalizing obviously irrational/destructive choices is one of the things that bothers me most about humanity. When we finally go extinct, this will probably be a major if not THE major reason why. :/

Or, it's like so many things in life and it is what you make of it.

"A recent survey of top MBA students found that 88% of graduates say they were happy with the investment they made."

Funny, that's what all the unemployed liberal arts majors who spent $100,000 in student loans on their college degree said too...

Accepting that you've made an extremely bad decision and are now condemned to indentured servitude for the rest of your life is way too difficult of a realization for most people to handle. And so--they say that it was worth it, and encourage those who are younger to follow their paths, not realizing that this cowardice is not only what perpetuates the cycle, but allowed the runaway degree inflation to flourish in the first place.

> Funny, that's what all the liberal arts majors who spent $100,000 in student loans on their college degree said too...

Is that true? I would be shocked if that were true.

That's because liberal arts majors don't know how to calculate ROI.

Spending 100k in an MBA seems better value for the money though.

(and as far as I've looked, they go to that value with everything included, tuition is less)

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