For example, an Indian MBA hopeful wanting to study in the UK may find Lancaster, Oxford, and Ashridge will likely provide the best return on investment (ROI); that is, twenty years following business school graduation, the percentage of the amount invested in tuition costs will be highest after attending one of these schools, as opposed to others.

You can get a rough idea of the time it will take to regain your business school expenses by examining the ROI of three different schools offering different programmes: a two-year programme at a top US school, a two-year programme at a less competitive school, and a one-year programme at a business school in the European Union (EU). Harvard, Rutgers, and INSEAD will be used to demonstrate the above. The following results are based on a female with two years work experience and a pre-MBA salary of US$40,000, employed by a company with fewer than 5,000 employees.

Top US school Harvard will require an investment of approximately US$147,000, yet the graduate can expect about a 47 pc salary increase (this figure will vary depending on the graduate’s post-MBA occupation). Therefore, we can predict an approximate time period of seven years to ‘break even’; that is, to regain the cost invested in the MBA programme.

Attending Rutgers will cost the student approximately US$108,000 for the two-year programme. In comparison to Harvard graduates, the MBA graduate from this university can expect about a 69 pc increase in her salary, resulting in only a five year period to ‘break even’.

Graduates of the one-year MBA programme at INSEAD in France can expect approximately a 55 pc increase in their salary, post-MBA. As the tuition cost is US$90,000, we can conclude that it would take about four years to ‘break even’. Cranfield, in the UK, yielded very similar results.

Khrisan Singh, a recent graduate of Ashridge, reports on his experience: ‘I grew up with the conception that only the top 5 schools are the ones worth attending, and that if I didn’t gain acceptance to at least one of them, my dreams of becoming a well-paid, highly educated business professional would be shattered. Once I truly reviewed the facts, keeping in mind that my return on investment is of great importance, I learnt that the best investment doesn’t necessarily correlate to the best-known institution, and that the skills I would learn throughout my MBA aren’t only accessible at the most advertised schools.’

Many factors will impact your ROI – from the economy to your post-MBA occupation to the country in which you wish to work after your studies. ROI is one very important factor that should be examined before commencing what will probably be the biggest investment of your life, but it obviously should not be the only factor you look at. Programme content, alumni reviews, recruitment statistics, and location in terms of enjoying life outside of the classroom are a few of the many things to consider when choosing a school.

Source – www.TopMBA.com