ShadowGuy

I hear there are some one year MBA programs out there. Is there some from top tier schools and are they any good?

Hows the recruiting, selectivity, networking and etc?
I would appreciate some input

sammy101

Kellogg has one. Alot of schools have them especially for people that have a undergrad in business and already took many of the b-school courses. But you lose out on the internship in the summer between first and second year which is VERY important.

sakky

You also lose out on a lot of the networking, which is also extremely important. In fact, I would argue that that may be the most important part of the B-school experience.

Nevertheless, a 1-year MBA may definitely make sense to some people, especially those people who already have a good network and/or already know exactly what it is they are going to do. This is especially so for those people who are being sponsored by their employer. In such cases, you obviously don't need the summer internship because you're going to go back to your employer anyway. The networking becomes less important too because you should already have a strong network at your job.

MIT Sloan runs the Sloan Fellows program, which is Sloan's version of an Executive MBA program, but can be treated as a de-facto 1-year MBA program.

http://mitsloan.mit.edu/fellows/overview.php

Stanford also runs a Sloan Fellow's program, which is Stanford's version of an executive master's program. You won't get an MBA, but instead get a MS in Management, which is a comparabe degree.

http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/sloan/

However, most of the top 1-year MBA programs are located overseas, especially in Europe. For example, top notch European business schools such as INSEAD, IMD, Impresa, IESE, Oxford, and Cambridge (but notably not the London Business School) are 1-year MBA programs.

I think these Euro schools are an excellent deal for those who want an international career. Some of these schools in particular are very good at certain niches. INSEAD, for example, is extremely successful in getting its graduates into McKinsey and other major consulting firms.

ShadowGuy

I was actually more after the networking and schmoozing aspect of the entire thing myself above the many other factors. My own thought was that after one year that you would pretty be able to know a good portion of the population. Then again like it was mentioned the full two years is a much more extended amount of time which gives more opportunities to network.

I appreciate the advice as always and I still have quite a bit to go since I am graduating a little early this December. I was wondering what you think of the career prospects and heading towards an MBA in being some type of business analyst at a major tech firm at the Silicon Valley like Cisco, HP, Google and etc. I am heading towards that route from my internship experience and work environment preference. I know it still does vary like at Sun overall generally has bad bureaucracy, individualistic environment, competitive and bad work hours.

bern700

if you go to a school that has a top business school you can try to submatriculate...I know here at penn you can submatriculate into the wharton MBA program and finish in 5 years with a BS and MBA although only about 2-3 people per class choose this route.

sakky

You must be a pretty social guy. It's not enough just to do the meet-and-greet. True networking means establishing strong solid bonds with lots of people, and that inevitably takes time.

I'll put it to you this way. I know people at even some of the smaller 2-year MBA programs such as Haas, Sloan, or Stanford, who have confessed that even at the end of their 2nd year, they were still meeting people in their own incoming class who they had never even met before (and in some cases, had never even SEEN before). Networking is a full-time job.

Obviously a lot of it is what you make of it. A job can give you opportunities, but it is up to you to seize those opportunities. The more responsibility you have, the more projects you successfully complete, the more business issues you face, the better it will be for B-school. Heck, if your career goes really well, then you may find that you don't really need an MBA at all.

ShadowGuy

Well I wouldn’t describe myself exactly as social, but I am known to be quite a comedian in person so that characteristic tends to distinguish me easily. I was surprised that you included Haas in your example. That school population is fairly tight knit and the graduate school lounge isnt the biggest. However, I have also seen many people have not met together even though they are in the same incoming class.