Most people with four and five years of work experience face the dilemma of picking either a one-year or a two-year MBA programme. Unfortunately, most candidates have a myopic view when it comes to making this choice. I have seen some of my students who went for a one-year MBA, regretting it later because the short-format didn’t let them accomplish the career shift — in terms of industry, function or geography — that they wanted to achieve with an MBA degree. On the other hand, some who went for two-year MBA programme realised later that the long format was simply not worth it.
Two-year MBA programmes are typically offered by business schools in the US, while the one-year format is offered by business schools in Europe and Asia, including INSEAD, Oxford University, Cambridge University, IE and ISB. The obvious benefit of the one-year MBA programme is that it’s easier on your pocket. Because you complete your MBA in just one year, you start earning earlier and the return on investment (RoI) is much better. For instance, while an MBA graduate from INSEAD finishes school in 10 months and pays back his loan in an average of two-and-a-half years, an MBA from Kellogg finishes school in two years and takes an average of four years to repay the loan. So an MBA from INSEAD typically breaks even in three years and then can take those risks that he wouldn’t otherwise have taken if he had his student loans to pay.
However, most students get caught up with the better RoI figures and don’t realise later that a one-year MBA may not have been the right fit for them. The one-year format is a good fit for those primarily focused at accelerating their careers and not for those who don’t have clarity about career goals and want to dabble in a few things before deciding what they want to do after getting the degree. It is also much more difficult to totally change your career track after a one year MBA programme; so if you are looking at changing your industry, function and geography (the tri-change, as it is called), such a goal is much more difficult to accomplish with a one-year programme than with a two-year one. This is because a one-year programme does not usually provide an opportunity to undertake an internship; and for someone wanting to make a career switch, perhaps, from IT to Investment banking, an internship proves invaluable in deciding whether or not to make that switch.
To sum up, if your focus is on accelerateing your career and studying for two years seems like too much of a drain on your financial resources and too long a period to remain in school, then you should choose the one-year MBA programme. But if you don’t want to work in your current industry after the MBA and want more time for introspection and developing skills, a two-year MBA is the right choice for you.
(The author is the co-founder of Aristotle Prep – an online test prep company for the GMAT and GRE that provides and publishes books across seven global locations for students in more than 60 countries.)