15.2.2010
MBA Dropouts: Business School, Interrupted
When opportunity knocks, MBA students sometimes drop out, for a semester or a lifetime. The good news? You can come back. Sometimes destiny gets in the way of business school. You land upon a once-in-a-lifetime job opportunity, you get pregnant, the military calls your number, someone in your family falls ill. And it interrupts the MBA learning process. "For lots of students, leaving is the right thing to do," says Ann Harvilla, associate dean of students for the full-time MBA program at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business (Booth Full-Time MBA Profile). "One plans to spend two years in school, but life happens." Officials at most top business schools will tell you that "life happens" to a couple of students per year. These aspiring MBAs usually have to take off for a semester or a quarter. Few students leave the program for good. Most take some time off and then return to graduate. All of them have a unique personal story and a good reason for stepping away. None of them take the decision lightly. One would think that during an economic crisis, more students would be leaving B-school to pursue job opportunities or startups that become available midway through the program—and may disappear by graduation. That has not been the case, say administrators. In fact, the last time business schools saw an increase in the number of MBA dropouts was in the 1990s when dot-coms were flourishing. Even then, the numbers were small. Candidates are more likely never to join the MBA program than to drop out, says Michael Stepanek, MBA program director at the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School (UNC Kenan-Flagler Full-Time MBA Profile), where 11 students have left the program in the last five academic years, including those who became ineligible because of poor grades. Source and further information: businessweek.com |
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