MBA v/s Phd

[Abhishek Chaudh]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

Hey guys
I am doing M.S in pharmaceutical science(pharmaceutics) second year ,now the big question is weather to go for MBA or Phd . I am really confused about it as both are poles apart from each other. I have no friction for any of these courses and I am pretty much adjustable to both. Having said that I am also not biased to any of them.
The thing about Phd is the time(takes about 4-6 years) but it has the charm of scholarship and stipend with it . On the other hand MBA is a big financial affair but rewards afterwards are pretty sweet.
So if you guys can help me figure this out and could throw some light on what to expect after MBA or Phd I would really apreciate it.
Thanks

 

[HawkeyePostOp]

I'd have to say PhD. The thing about MBAs is that they're ridiculously stratified and investment banking oriented. The high salary averages are padded by schools like Harvard and Stanford, which are the only mba schools worth going to. MBA is a social networking degree more than anything else. Most people worth making business friends with are at Harvard - their class of 800 is selected largely on prior management accomplishments (i.e. leading your company division of 70 subordinates or building a small company into a fortune 500.) Harvard and Stanford pick students who are already successful, and just put them in a room together to see what happens. Friendships are made, agreements are hatched, and after two years of yachting in the Caribbean and hanging out at country clubs, students emerge better connected and ready to pack management positions all over corporate America.

Academics are nonexistant - it's a giant front for networking. Stanford once rejected all perfect GMAT scorers. You can study if you choose, but you won't get kicked out. Even at less prestigious but more academic schools like Columbia Business, professors say "you can hand in a blank essay and still pass, just don't disturb the lecture and you're all set."

PhD on the other hand- is always academically challenging, and very meritocratic. If you are smart and hardworking, you will get places. In business school, however, preternaturally intelligent students end up in schools like MIT Sloan, after which their careers stall.

That being said, the best way to make unethically obscene amounts of money is the investment banking track at Harvard.

 

[DrJosephKim]

I think the important question is: what type of work/career do you see yourself enjoying? academia? industry?

You can always get an MBA later, after you complete your PhD. It's much harder to go the other way around.

 

[tcp03]

It's never good to over simplify things. The grey area is where people truly make a name for themselves in any arena whether corporate or academia. This over simplfied dumbed down view of an MBA is so ridiculous that it instantly removes all credibility from the author. MBA's are given by most major universities not just Harvard and Stanford.....That is if you consider Dartmouth...Brown....Univ. Florida...Duke....and yes I attended one of these business schools and while there are a small handful of Business professionals in these programs, most of the students are in their 20's just like the average grad student. An MBA gives a higher monetary return than a Ph.D in mosdt instances. Ph.Ds allow you to teach or research... neither is very lucrative or worth it as a supplement to an MD if you are in clinical practice. An MBA is a great degree b/c you will beable to run your own practice, set yourself up to be a hospital admin. or chief medical officer...and a million opportunities in the private and public sectors. I am not down playing the Ph.D. if you want to teach or research...but saying MBA's have no academia in their programs is laughable. Companies, hospitals, and the govt pay MBAs enormous amounts to do research studies, demographic analysis, etc for them. Nothing wrong with any of the degrees....In life we should never generalize...it's the easy less intelligent way out.....saying that ALL MBA's are elitists who only graduate from Hartford or Stanford is a perfect esample....no matter what degree you obtain have an end goal in mind and get the degree that gets you there...also consider a Master of Healthcare admin (MHA) for a more clinical version of the MBA. Hope this helps

 

[oneironaut]

Oh-My-Word

HawkEye- . . . I'm nonplussed.

For the love of god, ignore his post.

Try to go to a top school. B school is a lot of hard work and very different from Med School. That said- it's a lot more fun intellectually as well as socially I think you'll find.

Yes, the connections are a huge part of B school, but it's not at all like the above post makes out. Listen to the tcp and dr. kim. But I disagree about 'setting yourself up to run your own practice or be a hospital admin . . . ' - you can do sooooo much more then that, granted you alluded to the public sector. You could do that, or you could go into consulting, banking, finance, marketing- anything that any top MBA could, plus the attractiveness of an MD to the healthcare/biotech sector.

I'm biased- I did both (DMS and Tuck) and I loved it- but I really especially loved B school. Just finished my intern year in surgery, because 1 year was important to me- but all I want to do.

My vote is definitely B school, but yeah- you have to know what you want to do in life of course.

 

[michaelrack]

If your goal is to run your own practice, an MBA is overkill (unless perhaps you are talking about a practice of dozens of doctors). Much of what is learned in MBA programs is oriented towards large businesses. An MBA is not a worthwhile investment for a solo practice primary care doctor.

 

[doctor7]

HawkeyePostOp - you sound like a snot-nosed punk who's gonna get bent over and reamed by reality soon enough

as for the OP question. MBA all the way. A PhD will statistically hurt your NPV potential.

I'd have to say PhD. The thing about MBAs is that they're ridiculously stratified and investment banking oriented. The high salary averages are padded by schools like Harvard and Stanford, which are the only mba schools worth going to. MBA is a social networking degree more than anything else. Most people worth making business friends with are at Harvard - their class of 800 is selected largely on prior management accomplishments (i.e. leading your company division of 70 subordinates or building a small company into a fortune 500.) Harvard and Stanford pick students who are already successful, and just put them in a room together to see what happens. Friendships are made, agreements are hatched, and after two years of yachting in the Caribbean and hanging out at country clubs, students emerge better connected and ready to pack management positions all over corporate America.

Academics are nonexistant - it's a giant front for networking. Stanford once rejected all perfect GMAT scorers. You can study if you choose, but you won't get kicked out. Even at less prestigious but more academic schools like Columbia Business, professors say "you can hand in a blank essay and still pass, just don't disturb the lecture and you're all set."

PhD on the other hand- is always academically challenging, and very meritocratic. If you are smart and hardworking, you will get places. In business school, however, preternaturally intelligent students end up in schools like MIT Sloan, after which their careers stall.

That being said, the best way to make unethically obscene amounts of money is the investment banking track at Harvard.

 

[dragonfly99]

Wow.
those are 2 TOTALLY different degrees.
If your goal is to be financially successful,then go for a straight MD or MD/MBA. PhD doesn't make you any money.
I do research so I know that research doesn't pay 🙂
PhD takes MUCH longer to get...5-8 years vs. at most 2 or so for an MBA. I would not factor in the stipend you'll get as a PhD student. It's nice to have but doesn't make up for the potential lost income later. You should do the PhD if bench research is what you love to do, and can't envision yourself doing anything else. Otherwise, I'd say no PhD. This is basically the same advice I give people considering an MD. MD is a "safer" degree than PhD, though, in the sense that if you finish med school and residency you'll have some job security and a pretty good income unless you do something heinous like sleep with a patient who reports you to the medical board. PhD's have no such guarantees - there are many underemployed ones around and even folks who go to solid biological sciences PhD programs have trouble landing academic posts at good universities...probably less true if you are MD/PhD, but there are still many hurdles to having a successful research career. A lot of it depends on government/NIH funding, and that waxes and wanes.