The mbaMission Podcast

Is an MBA Worth is in 2026 and Beyond? | Ep 113

• mbaMission • Season 2 • Episode 113

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Is an MBA still worth the investment in 2026? What about in the years ahead?

In this episode of The mbaMission Podcast, mbaMission Senior Consultant Harold Simansky, Founder Jeremy Shinewald, and Managing Director Gavriella Semaya discuss the MBA’s return on investment, AI, hiring headlines, scholarship opportunities, and the long-term value of business school. They explain why applicants should evaluate the expense of earning the degree through a broad lens that considers professional direction, leadership development, strategic thinking, workplace confidence, and the genesis of relationships that can shape one’s entire career.

The conversation also addresses practical issues. The hosts explain how to use schools’ employment reports in the decision to pursue the degree and how to weigh the short-term costs against the long-term rewards. They also explore the importance of human leadership skills amid the ever-increasing prevalence of AI and how a softer application environment creates opportunity for strong candidates. For anyone wondering whether now is the right time to apply to business school, this episode offers a thoughtful framework for making that call with confidence.

00:00 Is an MBA Still Worth the Investment?

01:30 The Extended Career Value of Business School

05:13 The Human Skills AI Cannot Replace

07:41 Weighing the Overall Return on Investment

10:12 The Truth Behind the Hiring Headlines

13:02 Critical Thinking, Leadership, and the MBA Network

20:28 How a Softer MBA Application Season Creates Opportunity

22:04 Scholarships and the Decision to Enroll

24:00 Final Advice for Long-Term Thinkers


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Is an MBA Still Worth the Investment?

Gavriella Semaya

People think I'm gonna go to business school because I'm gonna learn what the answer is to this question. And I think it's more about what question should you be asking.

Harold Simansky

In Simmons, it's a it's a gift. The idea to be in that environment, to sort of learn from other people in a very active way.

Gavriella Semaya

We can't be completely dismissive of the cost. It's a massive, massive investment. If your budget, you know, for the next couple years is maybe a little bit more painful, but manageable, it's a long-term reward.

Jeremy Shinewald

If you commit to business school, you're gonna continue to kind of benchmark yourself relative to a very competitive subset of individuals and probably learn to expect more out of yourself.

Gavriella Semaya

Having done this and now seen so many clients go through the process, I can't think of a single one who hasn't said it's been worthwhile.

Harold Simansky

Is the NBA still worth it in 2026 and beyond? With headlines about AI and a shifting job market, it's easy to see why applicants are now having their doubts. Joined by my colleagues Jeremy Scheinwald and Gabriella Samaya, we'll look at where the media is getting it wrong, how schools are adapting to AI, and why skills like leadership and strategic thinking may matter more than ever. Subscribe on YouTube or follow wherever you listen to podcasts. Let's dive in. So it's in the news all the time. Is an MBA worth it in 2026? Jeremy, you've been doing, you've been in the this industry for now 25 years?

Jeremy Shinewald

Okay, Harold, 22. 22 here.

Harold Simansky

I meant only 22 years. Finally, definitively, is an MBA worth it in 2026?

The Extended Career Value of Business School

Jeremy Shinewald

First of all, the reason it can't be that simple, and I'll tell you this any listener to this podcast knows exactly where I'm gonna go with this. So if you're I hope they do because I don't if you're anticipating this, then give yourself like five stars because you've been listening to the podcast for a while. But my feeling is that anyone who has an MBA anticipates that the value is gonna come right after they graduate and in fact discovers the value comes in 10, 15, 20, 30 years, like or becomes more pronounced and obvious to them. And and I think a way of saying that is that a lot of people think the degree is gonna be tactical for them. They're going to graduate and they're gonna have skills, they're gonna have learned specific skills that they're gonna implement in their job. So I I don't know, I learned how to do a conjoint analysis or something that you learn in business school, and I'm gonna apply it in in my job doing marketing, or I learned how to run a black shoals module, I don't know, whatever it is. And and and you assume that you're gonna be doing this thing that you learned that was so narrow and difficult to master, whatever it is. You don't do that. Like, like or maybe something.

Gavriella Semaya

Maybe you do right away, but certainly as you get on and advanced in your career, you're not gonna be doing those the modeling anymore, right?

Jeremy Shinewald

If you're moving up sort of in the ranks, but so I was just gonna say, like, I think where do people feel like when you talk to people deep in their careers, they're like I and this is what I would say about my own career, which is you know, I think you don't even realize you're using the skills, you don't even think about it. You're you're both considering your you're you're approaching problems with like with a variety of uh of of um of management disciplines in mind. So you're like, okay, this isn't in isolation marketing issue, this is also a finance and accounting issue and a strategy issue and an HR issue. I've got to kind of think about all and you're not doing that consciously. You're like, we've got to roll this new product or this new service or this what whatever it is. And you're like, I've got to think about all these different angles, and you're and you're just you're thinking about them and aligning them to the best of your ability.

Gavriella Semaya

Yeah, and I think the headlines are sort of that oversimplification, right? It makes for a much better headline to say the value of an MBA is dropping, or you know, salary averages are dropping $4,000 compared to the, you know, the immediate average. But that's not the right way to look at it. Certainly not the way that I look at it. And yes, we're we're biased. We obviously, you know, see value in the MBA. I don't think it's right for everyone, but it is a long-term investment. It's the intangibles, right? It's you know, if you're a quarterback, you gotta learn to read the plays, yes, but at the end of the day, it's leadership, it's critical thinking. It's I am a football fan.

Jeremy Shinewald

This is a this is a very take that analogy further. The the the uh no, but I bet you're right. Because I think like so the piece about alignment is one, but I think the second part is like the soft perspective on like leadership and and like being uh you know an effective and thoughtful team player. I think like these are the things that you kind of you learn through the cases and through the. If you want to be one of our success stories, sign up for a free consultation with a member of our full-time MBA admissions team. Since we've worked with tens of thousands of applicants over the past two decades, we can give you our honest opinion on your chances and help you put together your very best application. That is not a sales call, but rather your first session with one of us for free. We can give you a profile evaluation, answer specific questions about the process, review your resume, talk about your school choices, and so much more. Sign up at nba mission.com slash consult. We look forward to working with you.

The Human Skills AI Cannot Replace

Gavriella Semaya

You know, as you get farther along in your career, it becomes more strategic, more high-level, more, you know, about intention.

Harold Simansky

It becomes more human. Yeah. I mean, honestly, let's zoom way out in terms of sort of existentially now. We're living in a very disconnected time of uh in history. This idea here of sort of human interconnectedness is much harder to come by. This idea of developing authentic relationships is much harder to come by. You're now given two years to build deep relationships with people, relationships that can wholly probably last an entire lifetime. This idea here of in some movies, it's it's a gift. The idea to be in that environment, to sort of learn from other people in a very active way. And again, to bring the humanity back to a very cold environment.

Gavriella Semaya

When else in your life are you going to be surrounded by such an interesting, diverse pool of people? And that's right. You know, as you get you typically they say your circle gets smaller as you, you know, sort of age and move on through life. And this is one opportunity to really explore and meet different, different people. And I think you talk about, you know, sort of like AI and all of that, but I think business school, if anything, has more value now because it is the human skills, the critical thinking skills that an AI, you know, no matter how advanced, I think, you know, won't be able to replicate. And so I think business school's arguably an even better investment now than it may have been in the past.

Jeremy Shinewald

My favorite comic of all time, Norm MacDonald, probably not even known to the people listening to this show.

Harold Simansky

Is he Canadian?

Jeremy Shinewald

He is Canadian. Yes, yes, he is. He did the the weekend update on SNL. His brother actually was a correspondent for the Canadian National News for many, many years, for it still is, I believe. And so they came from like a news and comical news background. It's a very strange combination of that family. Anyway, on a clip I saw the other day, he said, you know, it's odd. I I have 250,000 friends online, but in reality I have two friends. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

Harold Simansky

People always ask me, is it worth $250,000 to go to business school? Well, is it worth $250,000 to get 10 of your best friends? And the answer is, well, I can probably MasterCard, right? I'd I'd probably be, you know, you're not going to be able to do that.

Gavriella Semaya

Right, it's like financial modeling 101 costs X dollars and uh yeah, entrepreneurship garage costs X dollars.

Harold Simansky

But it's something that's sort of true. I mean, this idea here of long friendships that people have in common. Like we're just sort of picked up and thrown into this environment and just so it's two years to reflect. Yeah. Right?

Gavriella Semaya

But you don't

Weighing the Overall Return on Investment

Gavriella Semaya

also, you know, you're kind of in the rat race, so to speak. And I think we were just talking about how people go to business school to explore. And yes, you know, let's not dismiss the fact that it's is a significant investment. It's a means to an end to some extent. You know, presumably it's a valid concern to say, will I have a job on the other end of this? But I think that's you know, still a short-term goal. And you have to think, you know, if it's three months later, if your salary is $6,000 less than last year's average, you don't care.

Harold Simansky

That's not going to be the material difference. Yeah. I mean, listen, that's what actually business schools, the outcome is very transparent. I tell folks, pull the employment report, look at what people are doing, look at the salaries they're getting. Does that make sense for you? If it doesn't immediately make sense for you, then that's the next level question. Okay, so under what circumstances does it start making sense for you? And at that point, then, so again, sort of zooming in.

Gavriella Semaya

But if I get there in five years, if I get there in 10 years, if if I have the career that I want as opposed to a career that I don't want.

Jeremy Shinewald

So you inspired an uh an analogy of me because you were, you know, speaking a clever analogy before. And so I I think that if if you think about it, like the S P 500 kind of just slowly goes up over time. And like it's like, should I invest in the SP today, tomorrow, last year? People invest professionals say like mathematically, when you have money, put it in the SP. Like you don't, you don't wait for the right day because the the difference is so is so minimal in the world.

Gavriella Semaya

It'll go up and down, you know.

Jeremy Shinewald

And that's sort of the same thing with with your if you're thinking about it from an income perspective, I would argue is kind of the same thing. No one looks back. I don't remember when I got my when I made my first job at a business school. I it it doesn't it doesn't really matter that much to me. It's like it's like it was more about just kind of continuing to improve and improve all the time. I started a company and improved my company every day. And you know, it it you you get to the end point.

Gavriella Semaya

To to be fair, right? We can't be completely dismissive of the cost. It's a massive, massive investment. And that's a fair calculus. You know, I talk to my clients all the time about you know the ROI and is it is it right for you? Is it right for you now? That's not an unreasonable question to ask.

Jeremy Shinewald

It's totally reasonable.

Gavriella Semaya

You know, but if you're in the position to sort of say this is a longer-term investment, I tell them, look at your budget. If your budget, you know, for the next couple years is maybe a little bit more painful but manageable, it's a long-term reward.

Jeremy Shinewald

Right. Just for the record, I don't want to be dismissive of the short term. And I do recognize that a financial return post-business school is important. But what I am trying to say is if you're good at what you do and you're just kind of continuing to improve and progress over time, the accumulated wins will become such that eventually things will go convex for you as opposed to this kind of like steady state.

Gavriella Semaya

Aaron Ross Powell Well,

The Truth Behind the Hiring Headlines

Gavriella Semaya

let's also just, you know, sort of dispel some of these myths, right? The headlines are that no one's hiring and the MBB firms, the consulting firms, it's contracting, et cetera. There was just an article in Poets and Quants of All Places interviewing the heads of HR, the executives of HR at McKinsey, at Bain, at BCG. Bain said it is the they're about to um inaugurate their second largest associate class ever. BCG said it's double-digit growth.

Harold Simansky

Wow.

Gavriella Semaya

So, you know, assuming they're telling the truth or some version of the truth, you know, all of the kind of the panic about um, you know, about there not being consulting jobs, what they did say is that it's evolving. The generalist model, they're shifting slightly away from that because maybe some of the more basic things that are universal that are generalist, um, you know, the basic analyses that you're doing can be replicated by AI or somebody less expensive than an MBA grad. But the specialization that you have, you know, so now they're looking a little bit differently at hires, but they're not hiring less.

Jeremy Shinewald

I'm also waiting for that moment. There was like a moment in time where suddenly these tech firms that grew up like being highly technical, led by programmers, whatever job is now obsolete or whatever it is, just suddenly were like, oh, we need a management class and we need it now.

Harold Simansky

And started hiring. Absolutely.

Jeremy Shinewald

And is that gonna happen with the AI world?

Gavriella Semaya

And if it does, it changes the equation for I think it will happen unfairly when, but in the not too distant future, right? Someone's got to manage the AI still.

Harold Simansky

Listen, at this point, Accenture now is just launching real consulting services specifically for the world of AI. And this is Accenture, uh, if what is it, 750,000 employees? And at the end of the day, what they're going to do is they're going to start bringing management practices into you know the biggest companies in the world. Who is going to staff it though? Right. At the end of the day, who are going to, those higher schools are not going to be able to do that.

Gavriella Semaya

Well, it's still a question of how strategically, how do you invest in AI? Where do you trade? You know, how do you do the transformation? All of those things that require business school skills. So, yes, there's, you know, uh I think there's value in AI and all that. And it's it's certainly a question that we're all kind of grappling with. But I do think, you know, to your point, sort of management of those things, those skills are not going away. And I think you are going to see more firms investing in it. A lot of my clients do AI transformation consulting.

Harold Simansky

Yes.

Gavriella Semaya

Um, or they're internal AI ambassadors or on an AI task force or something like that, where they have to think about it from an HR perspective, from an ops perspective, from, you know, an investment perspective.

Harold Simansky

Right. So is an NBA worth it? And and again, only you can decide, but think about it across the long term. When all said and done, your career is going to be long. Is it going to is the RA going to be there not today, tomorrow, next year, over the next five years, but really over the next 25, 30 years? And I'll be honest with you, when you think about actually how your career has gone, but also the relationships you built, what sort of experience you had two years of your life, how it can actually be very personally meaningful, I'd say absolutely yes, and it may be is worth

Critical Thinking, Leadership, and the MBA Network

Harold Simansky

it.

Gavriella Semaya

You know what the business school should do? They always have the employment report that's the immediate result. Do any of them have five-year surveys, 10-year surveys? Do you still think this is valuable? Yes. You know, and I I would bet that you would see increasing value. They would say it's more valuable 20 years out than it was, you know, when I graduated.

Jeremy Shinewald

Yeah, I mean, there there you there was a survey commissioned, I want to say either commissioned by Postquant, certainly, certainly highlighted by them talking about the difference in earning potential over time between um those with MBAs and those who didn't have them. And again, there's lots of self-selection in there that you know that goes to someone who's more business oriented, it might be going there. But anyway, um, and it was the the the dollars were were again, it's not all in dollars, but they were it was it was really significant. And then the other pieces though, is we're talking about AI. It's like the the what what what doesn't AI do? AI doesn't offer you know leadership, it doesn't offer it, it does, it can't get you to realize that your your team uh you know needs uh um to get off early on Wednesday to go bowling. I'm making it up. You know, it just it just it's it's it's not going to do all the soft things, and that's where people are really, really effective. It doesn't mean it's you know everyone needs to learn to hug at business school, but you learn how to uh listen and identify your team's needs or your subordinates' needs or your superiors' needs, and you learn how to be someone who can solve problems and think and like those are really important skills. Like, I don't know, we all have we all have kids, I've been saying to my kids as of late, I think that if you go into the workplace, in my in my case, well my daughter in 10 years, uh, she goes into the into the workplace, and you're capable of of listening to a task and giving it a very solid first attempt before asking for a ton of support, you probably will have a superpower. Okay. And I think the modern equivalent of that will be getting an MBA getting an MBA or getting some sort of an advanced degree and being capable of leading a project as opposed to doing a task without a ton of like external pat on the back, like insecurity, need. You just kind of go and you're like, it doesn't mean you can't ask questions, but go in and ask them that are thoughtful.

Gavriella Semaya

It's like I I use, you know, I use AI, Gemini, ChatGP, whatever, but you have to be able to call bullshit on the AI, right? It's kind of like you need to know enough to be able to say, is what, you know, not just from a hallucination standpoint, but is the advice it's giving me reasonable? Does it apply to me? Does this make sense? Right. And I think people who are going to have that critical thinking skill of being able to say, okay, maybe there's some point here, but you know, you need to be able to evaluate it.

Harold Simansky

Right. And also you're you have to optimize your employees' work uh across many different personalities. And at the end of the day, the ability to have conversations with different people, the ability to try things, to sort of nudge at the same point, sort of being a little bit sterner, those are skills that AI will never give you, that business school actually is focused on giving.

Jeremy Shinewald

Well, and I think like what Gabby's sort of saying, not to put words in your mouth, but it's like anyone can put a bunch of prompts into a, into a, into a, you know, into a claw and and and get back the output and take it to their boss. Like that's just not. And your boss is gonna know. He's gonna encourage you to use it, he or she is gonna encourage you to use it. And and you and there might be a task, but it's it's like again, it's the critical thought that goes into the outputs that would that that will allow you to use it. Right.

Gavriella Semaya

Everyone talks about prompt engineering, but it's also like evaluating the output.

Harold Simansky

That's right. And being challenged. I think that's what business school does very, very effectively, which is this idea here of you you go in there, you think you know one thing, and they're gonna really force you to think deeply about things.

Jeremy Shinewald

Yeah. I mean, uh so okay, so we talked about you know the the value of just the value of time off is is real. Like you're not gonna have that chance again, and you are unlikely to have that chance.

Gavriella Semaya

It's also it's not time off, right? It's constructive time off, right? Like, yeah, production. You know, it's not sitting on a beach.

Harold Simansky

Be with these, with these people. Yeah, and there's no question about it. And that is very much something that lasts for a lifetime. There's no question about it. And again, for some of them for some people, it really lasts for a lifetime because Gabi, what did you say? Four marriages came out of your small program? And and it might be.

Gavriella Semaya

Let's assume they last for a lifetime. It's still early on.

Harold Simansky

No, at that point, all bets are off. That's up to them. Okay. Okay, for me as well. In fact, my first day of class or first day of orientation. You were married four times during your program? Wouldn't that be something? No. We were told four there will be four married couples that come out of this. And that was actually true.

Jeremy Shinewald

Oh, I'm sure. I'm sure we I think we had at least four, maybe maybe mine was a class of 30-something people, though.

Gavriella Semaya

So it was an extremely high percentage.

Jeremy Shinewald

Yeah.

Harold Simansky

So it's business education, matchmaking, it all sorts of gets rolled into a lot of it.

Jeremy Shinewald

So we have we have uh friends, we have marriages, we have long-term, uh, long-term success rather than short-term or those short-term, but certainly within your grasp. But just like if you're questioning it, go to the career reports and and really think about it. Yeah.

Harold Simansky

Is this a job you want? Here's the job that people are getting. Is this a job you want?

Jeremy Shinewald

Yeah, like real skill development for the AI era.

Gavriella Semaya

And intentionality. Like if you come out of the MBA, I think you're going to be able to steer your career with more intent and thought and so the fulfillment aspect of it, I think. Um I certainly found my path more with more ease and sooner and in a more lasting way, I think, than I would have had I kind of continued to toil and guess and trial and error, you know, in different kinds of careers and things like that.

Jeremy Shinewald

I also wonder if maybe this is a negative, I don't know, maybe it's a positive, maybe it's a negative. There's some, you know, there's some commitment that will will lead to it's less like tailwagging the dog in some way. It's like if you commit to business school, you're gonna continue to kind of benchmark yourself relative to a very competitive subset of individuals and probably learn to expect more out of yourself. It doesn't mean that you're, you know, that's that's healthy and unhealthy at the same time. But, you know, the old, like I was talking to a client of mine yesterday who is has done just he went to Harvard Business School, absolutely knocked the cover off the ball and then just has has absolutely crushed it, started his own private equity firm, is doing incredibly well. Um, and he was talking about the phenomena of people measuring themselves at at reunion and how positive and negative that can be for people. And you know, both inspiring and humbling.

Gavriella Semaya

I just went to my 20th Harvard reunion, and I can tell you that you're standing in line, and someone one of the person I was talking to, she said she had to fly off to Geneva for a board meeting the next day. And I said, Oh, what are you doing now? And she said she's developing um uh a business that is solving the uh poverty crisis through food waste. And then she asked me what I did, and I said I help people get into business school.

Harold Simansky

Which may in fact be more impactful. I've heard a lot of these businesses, to be honest with you. I'm gray hair, a lot of people talking about the food waste problem. I've heard a lot of those businesses.

Jeremy Shinewald

I know I know of I know three different companies attacking. Yeah, exactly. Well, I mean, and uh they've been working on it a long time intimately, yeah. So there's also a lot of puffery reading and reading and 100%.

Gavriella Semaya

100%. But to your point, you know, I think there's healthy comparison. And I walked away from that conversation feeling both, you know what, I'm deeply fulfilled in what I do, and I help other people find their fulfillment and their success, and maybe they go out into the world and do great things. Yeah. You know, no, no shade, no disrespect. I'm sure what she's doing is fantastic, but it kind of gives you perspective too about what else is out there, I think, in a way that, you know, if you're just kind of tunnel vision with your own life and your own career and your own sort of small circle.

Jeremy Shinewald

Yeah.

How a Softer MBA Application Season Creates Opportunity

Jeremy Shinewald

Uh one other thing is that is it, you know, now, like I think now we're probably, it seems like all indications are that it takes forever for the data to come out because the schools don't like to release data. And then they release, they have to, they have to wait till their class fully gels before they can release their class profile for this year. So that's a wait till literally the program starts. And then they wait and they wait. And I think they're gonna wait longer this year because it seems that we're in a bit of a trough in terms of applications, and it it seems to be led by um internationals who are fearful of coming to the United States right now, and also possibly due to some uncertainty in terms of the hiring picture, yeah, overall economic uncertainty. That actually is a great time to apply.

Harold Simansky

Like if you're saying where other people are zagging, there's no question about it.

Jeremy Shinewald

And like if you applied to business school at the you know, during the real fallout from the tech bust or from like I'm talking about the the the the 2000s, yeah. Yeah, like like the Enron slash tech bust or the fallout from the 2008 financial crisis. So if you know if you appl if you applied to in 2004 or something like that, and you you graduated in 2006, you were moving into like amazing times of the financial market until that crashed. Um if you applied in 2009, when school in 2011, you've been riding a 15 year bull market. I mean, it's it's often a great time to apply when applications are down, and that's where we are now. So I I guess ignoring my comment about the SP being like this and There's no really good time to start investing. You know, maybe this is a localized lower.

Scholarships and the Decision to Enroll

Harold Simansky

Right. And also I'll add in one other factor, which is the idea here of there are scholarships out there. At the end of the day, your RRI can really change dramatically, but that requires you to apply to school. It requires you to apply to a lot of schools as well. So from that perspective, is an NBA worth it? Well, is an MBA worth it's f if it's free? Right. Yeah. It's like, yeah.

Gavriella Semaya

Anecdotally, I do think I've seen and across the firm, because we always talk about this, right? We share scholarship numbers amongst ourselves. Yeah, yeah. In in in this year alone. And I do think that's, you know, we haven't compared apples to apples, but I think on the general trend, scholarships have been more, schools have been more generous this past year. And they're competing for applicants now. The pool is smaller, so you know, they're competing with one another. We were we were talking to uh the the Dean of Admissions at at Duke, and she was saying that there's a real kind of feeding frenzy in some ways to try to get the best applicants, which if you're that best applicant, it's a good place to be.

Jeremy Shinewald

Yeah, it's funny. Like I, as you say it, I don't think I would ever have said to someone who's on the fence, like, you know, give it a shot and see how the scholarship market works out for you. And like maybe it becomes a good reality for you later. Like, I don't think that'd be a strategy I would have used in the past years. Right now, I might say that to someone. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. You know, it's expensive, like given it, you know, okay.

Harold Simansky

It's a lot of time and effort. And it's that's what I tell folks. Listen, the decision to apply to business school and the decision to go to business school are fundamentally different decisions. The decision to apply to business school is a question of are you willing to put in the effort? You know, and there's a lot of effort there. The decision to go to business school, that's an ROI decision. Right. That's but and you're not gonna know you won't know. And you won't make that until that calculus until later. So the bottom line for me at least is absolutely go to business school. Probably a key reason though is for its transformative power. This idea here, you will leave the other side different in many ways. And honestly, some of them may not have anything to do with how much money you make. It'll just be what type of life you live, how fulfilling it is, and what you are as a person.

Jeremy Shinewald

All

Final Advice for Long-Term Thinkers

Jeremy Shinewald

right. My final word is if you're a long-term thinker, 100%. Like if you're a long-term thinker and you are interested in business school, 100%. If you're interested in a PhD in literature, I would say don't do it. And uh I would say don't do the PhD in literature. I would say, you know, if you really, really are, if the short-term thinking is is is really important to you, um, first of all, I would say really think about the long-term thinking. Try to try to really take remove that that that uh you know that con get into a broader context for yourself. But if it is if it is shorter-term thinking, I think just, you know, really say to yourself, like, okay, you know, where do I want to be? Where do I want to go? What are the costs? And if it's close, go for that scholarship. But if it isn't close, then I guess don't do it. And if it's if it's pro, then certainly do it. I think you're gonna see very, very long-term rewards.

Gavriella Semaya

Yeah, I mean, I think for me, having done this and now seen so many clients go through the process, I can't think of a single one who hasn't said it's been worthwhile. And that's both in terms of immediate outcomes and in terms of long-term outcomes. I mean, nothing is better than getting that email from, you know, when they first get in. But it's even better when you get it two years later and say, you know what, I'm somewhere, I'm in a job that I never thought I would have. I discovered a passion I never thought I would have. I've made friends that I never thought I would have. You know, there's nothing better than that.

Jeremy Shinewald

Yeah, absolutely. Confirmation bias lead the way. All right. Exciting news. You can now access OnTrack by MBA Mission for free. Take our two-minute onboarding questionnaire to personalize your learning path. Choose the free plan, and you'll have unlimited access to our complete modules on MBA application timelines, standardized testing, your professional background, community leadership, school selection, and more. You'll also get access to select lessons from our brainstorming, personal statement, essay, resume, and recommendation modules. It's a great introduction to the OnTrack platform and will help you jumpstart the MBA application process. Get started today at ontrack.mba mission.com.