Is an MBA Worth It? Assessing the Value of an MBA
28 March, 2025
Today’s professionals can take many paths to begin or advance their careers. Furthering your education is one of the most comprehensive ways to develop your skills and expertise when seeking career advancement.
A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is one of the most common degrees that professionals seek to position themselves for high-level business careers. With the increasing prominence of specialized master’s degrees, some people wonder if earning an MBA is still worth it. The good news is that an MBA is still the most comprehensive business degree on the market, and aspiring leaders can be confident that an MBA degree is the best way to prepare themselves to solve interdisciplinary business problems.
What Do You Learn in an MBA Program?
One of the key benefits of MBA programs is their curriculums, which comprehensively develop students’ cross-functional business skills. These can range from broadly applicable skills like leadership and strategic management to more specific business skills like finance, marketing, and operational efficacy. Ultimately, business professionals need these interdisciplinary skills to support their organizations, teams, and their own career advancement.
Leadership
Leadership skills are widely applicable: Even if you’re not aiming to become a CEO, you need these skills in your toolkit in order to lead small or large teams, projects, and processes. MBA programs do more than offer one or two courses in leadership. These programs infuse leadership skill development into every single course, so even your finance and accounting courses will be guided by what leaders need to know.
Strategic Management
Like leadership, strategic management is a core MBA learning outcome that is one of the most important skillsets for leaders and managers. Essentially, strategic management is the process of creating and implementing plans for organizations to meet their goals. Strategic management allows leaders to implement long-term strategies, which are important to organizational development and a key skill for career advancement. In an MBA program, you’ll learn specific strategic management skills like:
- Building an annual strategy
- Planning resource allocation
- Identifying business challenges
- Conducting SWOT analyses
Technical Business Skills
Leadership and strategic management are core skills that business leaders and managers can use in any industry, organization, team or department, but there are also more specific skills that leaders need to have in order to effectively manage their teams.
- Finance knowledge is critical in the workplace, as businesses must operate in competitive markets, plan for the future, and ensure effective resource allocation. With finance skills, MBA graduates can ensure that businesses are operating in a financially sound way that enables them to work toward their goals.
- Marketing is about more than just creating campaigns for products and services. High-level marketing knowledge helps you understand what drives commerce, how to engage with the market at large, and how to bring your product or service to as much of your audience as possible.
- Operations skills help leaders understand their organizations in a systematic way. Operational effectiveness requires a thorough understanding of an organization’s resources, as well as the skills to ensure efficient execution.
What Is the Value of an MBA?
The skill development and high-level knowledge of an MBA prepares graduates for career advancement and a higher earning potential, while the collaborative activities throughout these programs provide students with valuable networking opportunities.
Career Advancement
There’s a reason why 42% of MBA applicants pursue their degrees in order to obtain a senior-level position: MBAs support individuals on their career advancement journeys. MBAs position professionals for overall career advancement because they teach effective leadership skills alongside the most important concepts that support business success. And, the degree demonstrates professionals’ commitment to personal development to potential employers. All of this means that MBA graduates are likely to have a wider scope of career opportunities available to them.
MBA graduates were the most hired talent in 2023, and over a third of global recruiters expected to hire even more MBA graduates in 2024.
Earning Potential
For many candidates, an MBA program might draw them in as they are seeking to improve their earning potential. While completing a degree doesn’t guarantee a raise, many individuals seek an MBA to bolster their resume before seeking higher-paying leadership and management positions. As employers are increasingly willing to pay more for highly qualified candidates, an MBA is a great way for professionals to enhance their skills, knowledge, and credentials.
Individuals with a master’s degree in business administration/management earn just over 50% more than individuals with only a bachelor’s degree in the same area.
Networking Opportunities
Another one of the great benefits of MBA programs is their potential for networking opportunities. MBA students have a wide variety of professional backgrounds, and they may differ in terms of education, work experiences, industry backgrounds, and future career interests. Exposure to professionals with varying perspectives and experiences can teach you to solve problems in new, more effective ways and create a valuable network that you can tap into for future opportunities.
Online MBAs have even more expansive class profiles, as the greater degree of flexibility invites professionals from highly varied backgrounds. This means that your network can expand even further across different geographic regions.
Is an MBA Worth It?
While the return on investment (ROI) for every MBA graduate will differ based on their industry and career path, the vast majority of MBA graduates can be confident that they will earn back their investment. The important things to consider when it comes to ROI include:
- Financial costs: Some MBA programs can climb to more than $100,000 in tuition alone. In addition, traditional on-campus MBAs may require indirect costs such as commuting expenses. However, there are many affordable MBA programs on the market. UNOH’s online MBA has a total tuition cost of less than $25,000, making it accessible to professionals who may not be able to afford a high-cost MBA.
- Opportunity costs: MBA programs take time to complete, which may mean having to take time away from work or other important commitments. Part-time, online MBAs like the UNOH program allow you to continue to maintain your responsibilities while you earn your degree.
- Benefits: As discussed, an MBA on your resume offers the potential for fantastic career advancement opportunities and a highly increased earning potential. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasts strong job growth in business and finance occupations, with 963,500 new jobs projected each year between 2023 and 2033. And, a 2024 survey conducted by Transparent Career found that MBA graduates reported an average salary increase of $41,000 after earning their degrees.
Is an MBA Right for Me?
If you’re still deciding on whether you want to pursue an MBA, there are a range of considerations to keep in mind.
- Costs: It’s important to find a program that is accessible to you, both in terms of financial costs and time commitment costs.
- Industry trends: As more and more organizations need well-trained leaders, MBAs are becoming more relevant to a variety of industries — not just business. Aspiring managers and leaders should consider if an MBA is the right path to leadership in their specific industry.
- Work experience: Some MBA programs require work experience, but not all of them. If you are earning an MBA early in your career, it will be important to choose a program that is accessible to your experience level.
- Personal career goals: An MBA can meaningfully enhance your career path, preparing you for high-level leadership positions. As such, you should consider what roles you hope to pursue, which sectors or fields you want to work in, and to what extent you’re seeking leadership responsibility.
- Preparedness: The curriculum of an MBA program is designed to be challenging because it’s designed to produce executive-level leaders. If working through engaging topics and complex business challenges excites you, you’re ready for your MBA!
About the Online MBA from UNOH
The University of Northwestern Ohio offers an online Master of Business Administration degree for working adults seeking career advancement amid a busy lifestyle. This convenient advanced degree is taught by doctorate-level faculty who are experienced business professionals and educators.
At UNOH, we’re committed to providing an affordable degree option to help students catapult existing careers to new heights or pursue higher levels of new employment. Our MBA courses are 100% instructor-led and can be completed in less time and with less debt than other university MBA programs.
Request a brochure to learn more or start your application today.
