Get Off the Application Fence
If you’re like me, when you first got out of college and the world was still your oyster, the valuable advice served up to you by a wiser, well-meaning person about “not missing opportunities blah blah blah because time moves more quickly the older you get blah blah blah” was a big fat yawner.
This is because if you’re like me, you had just graduated from college and oh, you just knew it all, didn’t you? (Well, I thought I did.) This would’ve included the theory of Log Time, first put forward by French philosopher Paul Janet in 1897.*
* The rate of passage of subjective time is proportional to the age of the person making the judgement. This proportionality blah blah blah will be most marked when judging time intervals remote from the present, such as past years or decades blah blah blah.
In other words, as we age, time appears to move faster.
But here’s the thing: perception is reality so in reality, time does move faster the older you get.
Not to split hairs or anything annoying like that.
In any case, here you are, years having flown by at an increasing speed, and you’ve never made it to business school. You’re looking at your life calendar, wondering how/where an MBA is going to fit in now, and then you remember that little pearl of wisdom about how time moves—yes, that one at which you so callously rolled your eyes. It’s at this point that you float a quick apology out into the universe for being such a little jerk.
SAD FACT
Here’s the thing: once you’ve got a foothold in your career, THERE WILL NEVER BE A PERFECT TIME TO GO BACK TO BUSINESS SCHOOL. EVER. Maybe in retirement. (All hail, ye lifelong learners!) But here’s the thing: it’s not necessarily your career that’s in the way, demanding as it might be. It’s just that the timing of the foothold often coincides with other life inevitabilities: increasing professional responsibilities, young families, aging parents, community commitments, new mortgages, etc., not to mention unpredictable economies and other unwelcome world events.
As an admissions advisor, I can’t tell you how many people I worked with found themselves 15 years out of college, staring their own career foothold right in the face. They had been promising themselves every New Year’s that this year would be the year they’d go back to school. And when they finally did and then made it across the finish line two years later, diploma in hand, they’d be kicking themselves for not having done it sooner. In all my years of doing this, I never met one application procrastinator who didn’t fit this profile.
POTENTIAL IMPEDIMENTS
So here’s my two cents and I’m not saying it because I help people get admitted to Executive MBA programs; I really believe it. If you’re really serious about it, it’s time to pull the (metaphorical) trigger on applying to business school unless one of the following applies to you:
You have or will have an infant. You need your sleep to function, especially at a very high level, and most infants can destroy a circadian rhythm pretty easily. However, the excuse of “young children” (which your infant will be shortly) doesn’t have to be a showstopper. As soon as your sleep schedule returns to normal, you’ll be facing the fresh nightmare of childcare or carpooling or something else. Better to just accept that your life no longer belongs to you and figure out how to squeeze grad school into the equation. So again, parents: wait with the infant; full steam ahead once your little one hits toddlerhood or preschool.
You can combine new-ish parenthood with grad school—lots of EMBA graduates have. One great way to learn more about the seemingly impossible task of taking on yet another serious commitment (like kids weren’t enough) is to check in with graduates who are a few years ahead of you in the parenting department to see what’s worked (and not worked) for them.
You are the primary caregiver for an aging or other vulnerable person. This is a really tough one because, as this type of primary caregiver, your physical and emotional energy are frequently called upon and mercilessly stretched.
Grad school can be both physically and emotionally draining, so when I worked with prospective students in these circumstances, I would sometimes recommend they wait until they felt they had adequate time and personal resources—physical, emotional, and spiritual—to get the most out of grad school. For those who are permanent caregivers and need to be available 24/7, there are still options, including some excellent online Executive MBA programs.
Your financial circumstances aren’t clear or stable. If you’ve already looked, you know Executive MBA programs can be exceedingly expensive. Before embarking on your educational journey, build a solid plan for how you’re going to finance it, and have a reasonable idea of your individual break-even point and ROI. (See my post “Is an EMBA Worth It – Part II” if you’re curious about the difference between the two.)
The one thing I would not recommend is taking action based on your back-of-the-envelope attempts to estimate the economic impact of having to cough up that much dough. If you’re like many EMBA students, paying for your degree will involve debt so *maybe* use Excel instead of the white space on a piece of junk mail to calculate the total you’ll be repaying (don’t forget about compounding interest).
The good news is that there are a lot of financing options available. The better news is students in professional school can borrow up to the full cost of a program with loans through the US Dept. of Education. And of course, there are all kinds of private sources (Fun Fact: Like MDs and JDs, MBAs are considered a good credit risk by lenders). You can find out more on websites like Fund.com or loan marketplace platforms like LendEDU. (I’m not endorsing either organization; they’re just examples. There are many other similar information/marketplace companies.)
Only you can determine your financial comfort level with whatever path you choose. My advice is just don’t gloss over this part, and if it’s not clear, wait until it is.
THE TAKEAWAY
If you aren’t facing any of these impediments and you really do have the desire to earn a degree instead of dreaming about it, CARPE DIEM. There’s no time like the present and many Executive MBA programs will accept applications up to about a month or so prior to the program’s commencement.
As the Greek philosopher Heraclitus said, “Change is the only constant in life” and whatever’s preventing you from pursuing an EMBA this year is just going to morph into something different next year. Better to take control now and accelerate the trajectory towards your professional and personal goals. Start an application to an Executive MBA program. Just do it. Once you get the ball rolling, the momentum will carry you forward.
At the finish line, diploma in hand, you’ll be so glad you did.