Intro
The MBA is a powerful tool both from a learning perspective about business and can also be valuable to advance in your professional career.
The question of whether to do a full-time or part-time MBA sometimes comes up for people considering getting an MBA.
I did my part-time MBA from Babson from September 2019 to December of 2021 so I’ll speak from the perspective of a part-time MBA student.
I also consulted friends of mine who were in the full-time program at Babson and other schools to give the full-time MBAs perspective.
Benefits of Full-Time MBA:
1. Cohort networking
The biggest different in part-time vs. full-time MBA is the feeling of community and cohort.
Take Babson College, for example, I did my part-time MBA from there. They had 3 starting terms — January, May, and September and students had anywhere from 2–8 years to complete the MBA.
Therefore, Babson and almost all schools are unable to give part-time MBA students a “cohort” or class because they just don’t know how long people will take to finish the MBA.
Full-time MBAs have a clear cohort of people where they’ll spend their time with for the entire duration of the program.
In this case, full-time MBAs have the advantage because one of the biggest benefits of the MBA is networking. Forming both friendships and business connections with people who will become managers at various different companies throughout the world is an invaluable part of the MBA experience.
That being said, if you are a part-time MBA, don’t fret. You will still network with your classmates, however, you just won’t have a traditional “cohort”.
2. Going full-time gives you the opportunity to intern in the summers
The other major benefit of doing a full-time MBA is being able to intern in the summers. As a part-time MBA student, you maintain your job, so you don’t have the ability to really to take up internships. This gives you less exposure to maybe trying new fields out.
3. Easier to be involved on-campus and take advantage of university resources
Because you’re not working full-time, you can join extracurricular groups or take advantage of campus resources (like career centers).
As a part-time MBA student, most likely, you have a full-time job from 9–5 so the most you really can be on campus is maybe 6–9.
A lot of extracurricular events happen during that 9–5 period and also most full-time employees at universities work 9–5.
Benefits of Part-Time MBA:
1. Can apply the knowledge as you learn
Whether you’re an entrepreneur working on your business or you’re working for a company, the knowledge you learn, you can immediately apply to your business or job as you learn.
For example, I remember learning something in my accounting class that I thought would be valuable to implement in the business I work in so the next day I did.
For people that work full-time, some of the knowledge that they learn doesn’t often get applied or might be forgotten. For example, a full-time 2-year MBA student might take accounting in the fall of their first as part of their core. That knowledge will probably have been forgotten by the time they graduate 2 years later.
2. Monetarily — is less of an impact
The part-time MBA is less of a financial burden because you’re not having to give all of the money at once or in two chunks. You can spread the total cost over 2–8 years depending on the speed at which you want to go.
The full-time MBA unfortunately, you will have to pay the entire cost within that 2 years.
Additionally, as a part-time MBA student you can retain your job and still be making income from your job.
As a full-time MBA, it’s almost impossible to have a full-time job in conjunction so you do lose out on that income.
3. Company/Institution may help pay for it
Certain companies will provide some tuition reimbursement or may even all together pay for it in exchange for you staying at the company for a certain number of years after you complete your MBA.
Final Thoughts:
Overall, I would say, if you’re able to, I would recommend the full-time MBA because I think it gives you the best shot at really taking in the value of the university and all that it has to offer (you have the time to be on campus, go to extracurricular events), you have a cohort with you, and the summers I think you can take advantage of getting an internship.
However, money is a big factor in life. Taking time off from your job to make no money is a big decision and I would say, going part-time is not a bad solution to that.
For me, for example, I ended up networking with a lot of full-time graduate business students by taking advantage of all the events that were from 6–9 or doing a good job creating friendships in the classes I was in.
Either way, I really don’t think you can go wrong with an MBA. I think the learning along with the networking will provide you a lot of benefits.