Master of Buzzwords & Acronyms
Overview
In the late 1990s, my father completed an MBA at NYU. The program, then still grounded in rigorous business fundamentals, required final projects that simulated real businesses, complete with scenario-based financial modeling and market forecasting. Despite limited computing power, the education was hands-on and rooted in the practical mechanics of running a company. Since he had already started his business, he never paid NYU for his degree.
That’s what I expected when I enrolled in an executive MBA program in 2023: financial modeling, market forecasting and help getting one of my startup ideas off the ground. Instead, I found something far less useful, and far more disorganized.
My program bore little resemblance to what MBAs once represented. Rather than preparing students to manage or grow real businesses, it leaned heavily into tech evangelism. It’s true Israel places emphasis on the so-called "high-tech" sector, making $million- and $billion-dollar businesses without a ton of capital or resources. But our world isn’t just web and mobile apps.
App pitches, vague lectures on marketing trends, and shallow discussions of SEO dominated the curriculum. For efficiency, many classes had one assignment, in teams of 4-5. Asking to work alone was frowned upon. We would finish lectures, complete one assignment, get a grade. That’s all, unless you were such an exemplary student you became a TA and continued the cycle. There was little to no feedback. Worse, there’s no chance to improve on your assignments, despite that being how learning takes place.
If I were to cook a meal and botch it, I’d try again. And again. Until I got it right. The experts should tell me, “You cooked it too long” or “Add a pinch of salt.” That’s just not how higher education works these days. It instead takes an “it is what it is” approach.
The low point in my MBA experience came during a mandatory cryptocurrency class taught by someone who neither understood the underlying technology nor tolerated dissent from her "BTC is G-d" worldview. The Professor and TA had strong positive feelings towards NFT artwork and other bygone blockchain schemes. Criticism was discouraged.
There was little attention paid to business essentials: bidding strategies, financial modeling, government contracting, or even running a restaurant or clothing store. B2G (business-to-government) work was never mentioned. The classes that weren’t excessively trendy were often trivial, relying on personality tests and superficial group exercises that could have been delivered as podcast episodes.
The Problem
We were sold on empty promises.
As a top student, I was offered mentorship that never arrived. The career center failed to connect me to any meaningful opportunities. One advisor suggested I take professional headshots to improve my resume [advice I rejected, despite being a very attractive man].
A professor (admittedly a highly successful VC lead) urged me to ask for 25 times the funding I needed for my Try Me! startup. I followed that advice, only to be shot down by an investor: ‘Your idea is great, but you could bootstrap it and start with $20K. Since you're asking for $500K, I’m out.’ I was crushed—not because my idea lacked merit, but because the guidance I received was disconnected from reality. The school never backed me, never clarified to the investor that I was simply following their advice.
At one point, the school’s scheduling chaos caused me to repeatedly miss work for mandatory one-off lectures that were rescheduled without warning. My employer’s patience wore thin and my reputation took a hit. I gained little in return: maybe a personality test or ice breakers with classmates. In my courses, I asked professors for extra readings or input on my startups. They deflected. One marketing professor flatly told me, ‘I do not have time to help each student. I'm busy. Good luck with whatever you're doing [or I’m sorry for your loss].’
This wasn’t an isolated experience. The value of the MBA is in decline across the board.
I visited Columbia University, where I first hand saw the reluctance of most students to do any work unless it was planning for their next vacation, on some resort island I had never heard of. These were students paying upwards of a quarter $milllion on tuition alone, who also rarely could explain their ‘analyst’ job to me when asked. I had meetups with British schools, where there was far more attention to putting on airs, but students held a similar sentiment of ‘what are we even doing?’ I visited state schools, some small, where students got far more attention, some large, where there were more funding options. In all these encounters, there was not one single benefit I could find that was unique to the MBA programs themselves. In fact, I always could quickly see a backdoor channel to get the same benefits, without the costs.
Recent data reveals that 23% of Harvard Business School’s 2024 MBA class was unemployed three months after graduation. This is a sharp rise from just 10% in 2022 (https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/fifth-of-harvard-mba-class-still-jobless-sjw63k8mz). Other elite programs, like Wharton and Columbia, are experiencing similar declines in job placement (https://www.businessinsider.com/top-banker-wharton-mba-waste-of-time-humanities-skills-needed-2025-6). I don’t know the data from my own school, without such a prestigious name.
Tuition is skyrocketing. According to Poets & Quants, the average 10-year ROI for a U.S. MBA is only 12.7%, with some students spending up to $300,000 on a degree that offers decreasing returns (https://poetsandquants.com/2024/08/01/ranking-mbas-by-return-on-investment/). I attended a private school that cost about $25k after scholarships, or in other words, every penny I had. It was miraculously cheaper than public school options.
I learned more about the business world from this movie (Office Space) than a 2 year MBA program
The Cause
What caused the drop in value? A key factor is dilution. As schools scramble to stay relevant, many pivot toward trendy topics like AI, entrepreneurship, and digital marketing. These fields matter, but often come at the expense of deeper, foundational skills in finance, operations, and strategic planning. The result is a shallower degree.
Schools also have a financial incentive to pass underqualified students. Final grades often reflected social status more than understanding. Students with financial privilege sometimes received inflated marks, while nerdier STEM-background students found their performance undervalued. In fairness, I’m not sure how grading could be standardized in some classes.
A broader labor market shift is also to blame. A 2024 UK-based study of 11 million job listings found that companies in fields like AI and sustainability are prioritizing demonstrable skills over degrees. Degree requirements have fallen 15%, and AI-related skills now command a greater wage premium than most graduate degrees (https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.11942). In one semester I had one Prof emphatically denounce AI use, while another Prof, an AI-Evangelist, required it.
Even business leaders are voicing doubts. Bill Winters, CEO of Standard Chartered and a Wharton alum, recently called his MBA “a waste of time,” stating that empathy and curiosity are more important than technical frameworks in the modern business world (https://www.businessinsider.com/top-banker-wharton-mba-waste-of-time-humanities-skills-needed-2025-6).
INB4
One may argue that disorganization in an MBA program mirrors the real world. Yes, businesses are messy, often hosting unnecessary meetings and giving chaotic direction. Yes, you often are grouped to work with people, even if the project really only requires one capable body. Yes, one may argue that you need to learn to adjust your world view to professors, like you would to a manager. And, yes, intelligent people are want to argue with their managers. None of these defenses would justify spending money for such experiences.
In my case, I’ve considered removing the MBA from my resume. It has occasionally worked against me, making me appear overqualified or expensive. Employers assume MBA grads want to change company processes. They’re not wrong. It’s hard to be taught “This way for success,” then see your manager drive the opposite direction while you keep your mouth shut.
The widely repeated claim that “networking makes the MBA worth it” is also hollow. If networking is your goal, professional events, local meetups, and platforms like LinkedIn are more targeted, more flexible, and vastly cheaper. You shouldn’t need a five or six-figure degree and piles of homework to shake hands with a product manager. Just talk to them like a big boy or girl. Ask them if you can buy them a coffee. I guarantee it’s cheaper and more memorable.
I’ve learned far more from podcasts, attending community lectures, speaking directly with professionals, and building my own ventures than I did in class. The modern MBA has become bloated and outdated. It may still offer value for senior employees whose companies foot the bill, but for most people, it’s a poor investment.
Here is what you might learn in an MBA: 1. Fail fast. 2. Don’t invest in a business until you have guaranteed paying customers 3. Theory does not work in practice. The rest is just 101 material.
In its current form, the MBA is no longer a reliable path to business mastery. It’s an expensive signal and one employers increasingly ignore. I skipped my graduation ceremony. It felt disingenuous to celebrate. Unless my school finds a job for me (and fast), the only way my MBA will pay off is if I publish a book on how modern MBA programs have lost their way.
Comment what you think below!
