MBA/ Business classes

As some who has a Finance degree. I completely agree with those statements.

Although I found economics to be quite fascinating.

At my first "real" job I remember we had a lady in charge of accounting when the company was small. All she'd done her whole life was accounting, although she was old enough that she most likely didn't have a degree and had been getting jobs based purely on experience. When that small company started to get big the first thing the boss did was hire some chick fresh out of college who he proudly introduced to us as having an MBA. He immediately made her the boss of the older lady who proceeded to quit and get a new job.

Turns out the MBA chick didn't have a clue. It was a great insight into the way the real business world works to me.

Me too. I love the probabilistic aspects and the EES stuff like the game theory. As housemates I met some German girls studying economics and let's say they are a walking stereotype who thinks (we) Latinos are trash. For the wrong reasons of course.

Higher learning institutions serve only to produce an elite. If you are fortunate enough to have access to one and can afford it, you will emerge as one of society's haves. It's our way of vetting out the poor and unfortunate masses and giving a certain portion of the population the power to control the rest.

I didn't learn a thing in business school and I can honestly say I ain't one bit smarter than the guy who cleans my trash and vacumms my office everyday except for the fact that I was born relatively luckier than him. It's an unfair system, but what're ya gonna do?

I think it's all about what you take out of it. Yes, most business classes have a similar theme running throughout them: BUSINESS. You probably can coast through and pass with "Gentleman's C's;" however, it's not going to pay off for you in the long-run.

Those that are truly successful in their careers, using their degrees as jumping-off points, are the ones that can successfully marry each of the fields of study within their program. If you're a moron, it'll reflect in your career success 10 years down the road.

Also, the day's coming when an MBA/BBA/BComm. won't mean squat without practical experience as well (perhaps it's already here...). If you're going to work in sales/finance/marketing/etc... starting from the ground-up and learning the ropes of industry is your best bet rather than go for the initial highest paying job out there.

As for it being a right-wing leaning degree: yes... to a point. I had my share of right-wing nutjob profs, and some that were more left of center. But again, it's what you make of it. I was lucky enough to have profs that challenged you to challenge them.

Unless you're studying to be an engineer/architect/chemist/tradesman, any degree is really just a course in teaching you how to learn (with a particular focus of course). Like I said earlier, it is what you make of it. You may grad with a BBA/MBA, but if you're an idiot, it'll show.

^ This

If you don’t have a specific goal when you begin an MBA program you will waste your time and a LOT of money.

An MBA can be quite generic or very tightly focused. If you opt for the former, the MBA program will allow you to network and make great business contacts. If you opt for the latter you can get a very lucrative career (if you’ve got the quant skills)

I’ve worked with a lot of MBAs and they are all extremely arrogant. The Marketing MBAs are the worst for some reason. They combine arrogance with a real mean spirited stupidity. Not sure why that is but It’d been pretty consistent.

That's retarded. My friends who got their degrees in business or economics didn't learn a damn thing, and they'll tell you as much. But they studied business because they never valued their education in the first place. They studied, not what interested them but what they thought would make them the most money the quickest. Now, for those of us who study what we love your analysis couldn't be further from the truth. My higher education has made me a better, more complete, more compassionate individual.

As someone in business school, I'd say I agree with some of this.

1. Partly. There's stuff you learn that's helpful, but a lot of it is basically regurgitating what they tell you to. Teachers are varied, so it all depends. Tenure is a bitch.
2. Not really. Finance is different from marketing for instance. Learning how a marketeer does his thing will be relevant if you find yourself in the position of needing to manage or deal with marketing. That's not just for marketeers.
3-4. Probably depends on where you are and who you're being taught by. I haven't been exposed to that, but there are a lot of conservatives students I think.
5. Electives pretty much weed much of this out. You learn more focused marketing or finance or stuff for investment banking or whatever.