Understanding the 5 C’s to decide whether to get an MBA.

5 pitfalls for recent grads starting a company

If you've ever toyed with the idea of going back to school to get your MBA, BNET's newest blog -- Back to B-School -- is for you. You'll learn how to get into business school and what to expect once you get there, but it's more than just academics. It's also about creating the right balance between work, home and school. It's about getting your MBA without losing your job or sanity.

Proponents of self-learning say that B-schools are a waste of time and money. Traditional MBAs say there's no substitute for the Halls of Ivy.

This is a short post from Seth Godin's blog. The key idea: "The fact is, though, that unless you want to be a consultant or an i-banker (where a top MBA is nothing but a screen for admission) it's hard for me to understand why this is a better use of time and money than actual experience combined with a dedicated reading of 30 or 40 books."

Why this is interesting is not so much the post but the various TrackBacks that reference it.

A research paper entitled "What's Really Wrong with U.S. Business Schools" shines a light on what has become a growing dilemma for business school deans-the yearly scorecard that assigns numerical rankings to selected business programs. The paper describes a "dysfunctional competition for media rankings that leads schools to divert resources from investment in knowledge creation and other important areas to short-term strategy aimed at improving ranking position."

The paper is written by Harry DeAngelo and Linda DeAngelo, business professors at the University of Southern California, and Jerold L. Zimmerman, business professor at the University of Rochester. It criticizes business schools for "failing to practice what they preach, particularly about the dangers of managing for the short term, but also about the importance of searching for Â… substance over form in business practices."

The writers point out that "Rankings mania also leads business schools to distort MBA curricula with ‘quick fix, look good' changes that enhance program marketability at the expense of providing students with a rigorous, conceptual education that will serve them well over their entire careers. This myopic and frenzied rankings competition has generated proposals (e.g., Bennis and O'Toole, Harvard Business Review, 2005) that would further de-emphasize the scientific research that is the source of U.S. business schools' global competitive advantage …"

The study precedes an upcoming AACSB International report that calls for the media to change the way it assigns rankings to business degree granting institutions. The AACSB document, to be released in September, calls the ranking methods used by BusinessWeek, Financial Times, U.S. News & World Report, and other media outlets flawed because of inconsistent and unverified data, which confuses rather than helps the consumer. [AACSB annotation]

A survey of 100-plus executives in more than 20 countries identifies the knowledge, skills, and attributes young leaders need to succeed.

With gay and lesbian students increasingly assertive, B-schools are working to be more inclusive and boost opportunities for them

Professor David A. Garvin offers a rare inside glimpse at how the case method is used by both faculty and students in classrooms at Harvard Business School.

Editor's Note: you can read the entire original article from a link provided in the text.

mbacenteronline.com is an online magazine where you can find expert advice on MBA admissions, articles from the top MBA programs (Harvard, Wharton, Stanford, INSEAD) and interviews with MBA recruiters.

Practically speaking, it's time to rethink core concepts of management education.

Note: Business 2.0 is now part of CNNmoney and some older articles are no longer available