Should You Go for an EMBA?

When and why should you consider pursuing an EMBA? What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of the program?

Let us begin with its advantages:

1. You can work and study at the same time.

Since the EMBA is a part-time or a weekend program, it allows you to study even while you are working. This invests it with a special relevance in economically trying times. At the same time, it broadens your business perspective, equips you with additional skills, and gives you the opportunity to climb up the career ladder.

2. You learn by doing.

An EMBA allows you to apply, without a time lag, what you learn in the classroom to real-life situations at your workplace. This not only augments your learning, but also brings in immediate benefits both to you and your employer. For instance, the MIT EMBA offers a course on Organizational Processes in which students work on a process in their companies they would like to improve.

3. Admission is easier.

You are much more likely to get admission into an EMBA program than into a full-time MBA program. While the acceptance rate in many of the major full-time MBA programs ranges from 14 to 22 percent, that in EMBA programs is generally much higher, sometimes even exceeding 50 percent. Additionally, many EMBA programs don’t require you to submit your GMAT score, and even those that do, are ready to settle for lower scores than those at the top full-time MBA programs.

4. You get more mature peers.

Typically, EMBA students are older and have more work experience than their full-time MBA counterparts. As such, you are likely to benefit more in their company than in that of a younger set of people with fewer years of work experience. For the same reason, many professors are said to prefer teaching EMBA students – they ask better questions, and respond more intelligently.

Now let’s take a look at some of the disadvantages:

1. Recruiters prefer full-time MBAs

Many companies don’t have a focused program for recruiting EMBAs, and would rather go in for those who immerse themselves in their studies by completing a full-time MBA. As such, EMBAs may be said to be more appropriate for who want to improve their prospects in their existing organizations, though here too EMBA graduates have sometimes faced problems because of their employer’s disinclination to acknowledge their new degree. As the graduate of a leading business school’s EMBA program observed, “I am back to work full-time in largely the same role as pre-EMBA.”

If you are looking to pursue an EMBA, therefore, it would be worth it to get your company to sponsor you.

2. EMBAs are demanding.

Working full-time, commuting to business school and, possibly, managing a family, is certainly no child’s play. Unless you are highly disciplined, and are willing to sacrifice much of your free time for the duration of the program, an EMBA may not be ideal for you.

3. There are fewer EMBAs.

Though the number of EMBA programs is rapidly rising, it is still nowhere near that of full-time MBAs and, therefore, depending on where you live and work, it may or may not be easy for you to commute to the nearest recognized business school that offers an EMBA.

A note to women EMBA Applicants:

EMBA classes have a male majority, and the average age is 37. One of the reasons for this is that women in their 30s are often busy raising children. Therefore, if you are a woman interested in doing an EMBA, it would make sense if you get through with it before you have children.