Is a Niche MBA Better Than a Generic One?
With MBAs becoming more and more common, distinguishing yourself from among the rest is becoming a real challenge for business students, and has some wondering if their choice to pursue a career in business was a wise one. One solution to this predicament, has been to pursue a specialized or niche MBA instead of a generic MBA. As the generic MBA has slowly been losing its appeal, according to Education Post’s Marc Burrage (1), during the past 10 years niche MBA programs have significantly risen in demand. This is leading many prospective business student to wonder whether getting a niche MBA might prove more worthwhile than pursuing a generic MBA.
Have MBAs Become Useless?
In a recent issue of CNN Money (3), Annalyn Kurtz interviewed six recent MBA graduates–all of whom feel as if their degrees have been rendered worthless by their prevalence among up and coming businessmen. Considering this unsettling consensus, at which most business majors have likely heard, it might be time to consider some of the alternatives, such as the aforementioned niche MBA.
The Niche MBA and Specilization
“What exactly is a niche MBA?”, you may ask. A niche (or specialized) MBA degree covers all of the fundamental curriculum of the traditional MBA program, but focuses on a specific area or sector of the current business market; currently, an especially popular specialization is for niche MBA programs is technology. Another clear advantage of enrolling in a specialized MBA program is that the majority of these programs are associated with B-Schools, which typically have a substantially lower tuition than the larger and more prestigious universities such as Rutgers or Harvard Business. It’s easy to see why these programs have become so popular. However, while this approach has become increasingly popular among business students, it’s important that one doesn’t become too specialized as a recent issue of Economic Times (2) recommends.
Criticisms
This particular approach of specialization does have its fair share of critics. In the same issue of Economic Times, Ajeet Khurana, Finance Director of Peak Seekers, asserts that those who graduate with niche MBAs–especially the over specialized–run a risk of being ignorant of general (and vital) topics such as taxation and quantitative finance. Khurana goes on to say that what most employers are looking for is “breadth, not depth.” If this is indeed the case, soon to be business students might want to take a closer look at the niche programs before.
In short, prospective business students ought to be wary of overly specialized niche MBA programs. While generally speaking business is conducted independent of the state of the economy, the popularity and relevance of specific sectors ebbs and flows with the demands of the market. Although, with the right amount of foresight it’s certainly feasible to build a very successful career from a niche MBA– it’s simply a matter of whether you are willing to take the risk.
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(1) More a preference than a requirement?
