University of Illinois at Chicago Liautaud Graduate School of Business

Executive MBA (1 year)

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How do I Find the Right MBA?

There are several hundred MBA courses in Germany alone. There are thousands in Europe and worldwide. How can you find the right and best MBA for yourself? We have the 5-point plan for the right MBA.

Take your time!

The most important thing when choosing an MBA: time! It is not enough to do a weekend of research, but it will certainly take you several weeks to find the best MBA program for you. Because it's not just about a university, tuition fees and admission criteria, but also about study models (full-time vs. weekend vs. distance learning) and of course the course content.

First of all: do I even want that? And what exactly do I want?

Are you sure that you will get through the MBA? This is not meant badly, but a serious question. The course is very stressful, especially if it is to be taken part-time. You have to be sure that your nerves, your family and your job are involved.

And you should know what you want to do the MBA for. The motivation varies from person to person, as our MBA experience reports show:

• "I was looking for a degree that would promote my general management and leadership skills."
• "As a surgeon at a large German university clinic, I wanted to prepare myself for a management role and look outside the box."
• "To break through the 'surface tension' to a management position (eg department head)."
• "After I graduated from law school, I just wanted to gain knowledge in economics."
• “To be frank, I decided to study for an MBA because I wanted to. In the back of my mind, I had a professional reorientation. "
• "In order to 'saddle up' again after a few years of professional experience and get new food for the head!"

In addition to the question "What exactly do I want?" : Would you like to reorient yourself professionally or use the MBA to strengthen your career? And up to which company floor do you want to go up? CEO? Or do you see your realistic opportunities in middle to upper management? In the latter case, you can also look at specialized MBA courses at smaller German universities. Only those who really want to get to the top should do one of the European or German top-ranked MBA - whatever the cost.

First decision: full-time or part-time? If part-time: weekend or distance study?

Can you or do you want to interrupt your professional life and study a full-time MBA? This is not as absurd as it sounds at first. Many international courses are designed as one to one and a half year MBA studies. The students use the study time to deal intensively with the topic and to start in a new position with a new company immediately after graduation.

If you don't want to quit your job, you need a part-time MBA. There are different study and time models that you should definitely consider. Some part-time MBAs have a block week from Monday to Sunday once a month, others teach every weekend. And then there is distance learning, which is very flexible, but where you have to teach yourself almost everything on your own. This is not for everyone.

Tip: If you don't have the time for an MBA, the Mini MBA, a training course with a certificate, may offer the right alternative.

Decision making questions:

• Can I do without a salary for about 1.5 years (in addition to the high costs)?
• Do I dare to quickly find a job again after completing my full-time degree? Or would I prefer to reapply from a secure position?
• What type of learning am I? Prefer classic lessons with professors and fellow students, or is it also possible to work alone at your desk?

Second decision: specialized or generalist?

With the next decision, you limit the options directly by 80%: Would you like to "just" acquire new business knowledge or fundamentally expand existing knowledge? Or should industry-specific content also be integrated into the MBA course, for example with an MBA media management, sales engineering or logistics ?

The MBA was originally invented to impart basic business administration know-how and management skills to non-business students. As a humanities scientist, doctor, lawyer or engineer, you mostly have little idea of ​​this, but the more you get on the career ladder, the more knowledge you need about budgets, financing and personnel management.

For those who already have a bachelor's (and possibly a master's) degree in business administration, a generalist MBA course is less worthwhile because the content is sometimes not really new. Unless it's a long time ago and you want to refresh your knowledge. Alternatively, you can choose an industry-specific study program to expand this "niche know-how". The same applies to those who want to change the industry and the professional field.

Decision making questions:

• Do I need more industry knowledge or more in-depth business / management knowledge for the current and future positions in my company?
• Do I want to change my job and do not see any reorientation opportunities in the target area without academic knowledge?

Third decision: university, budget and accessibility

Now the selection of the relevant MBA courses should be quite limited. But of course there are still dozens of programs on offer. Therefore, it is now time for deeper research:

• Which university offers the desired MBA?
• Where are the study locations?
• What does the fun cost?

You have the shortest research if you want to study a specialized MBA, because depending on the industry, there is only a choice between a few providers. It becomes more extensive with generalist MBA courses. For example, if you are looking for a part-time generalist master, you still have the choice between numerous universities. If you would like to study part-time with attendance phases, i.e. not as a distance learning course, it makes sense to restrict yourself to a radius of approx. 200 kilometers around your place of residence and work. Because it is quite exhausting to drive across the republic to the face-to-face events every few weeks.

The next step is to narrow it down based on your budget. There are MBA courses for 8,000 euros and those for 75,000 euros. What budget do you have? And do not forget that there are additional costs in addition to the tuition fees. In our survey, the average expenditure was around 18,000 euros.

Example calculation of a dentist:

• 32,000 euros tuition fee
• Interest of 8,000 euros for a 5-year loan from Deutsche APO Bank
• Costs for 65 attendance days and 1 week module abroad: flights, overnight stays, arrival and departure and meals
• Total: 50,000 - 60,000 euros costs

Fourth decision: rankings and experience reports

What experiences have other students and graduates had with the universities that are suitable for you? Write to people about Xing, for example. There are also separate groups for numerous MBA programs.

We have also put together an overview of the MBA rankings for Germany. However, you will only find the top 7 business schools there - the dozens of other, sometimes very good, German MBAs do not appear in the international rankings.

Fifth decision: do it!

Now you should have all the information together. Decide on the basis of a consideration of the study model and attendance times, costs and course content. And then hit it and do your studies!