What Is an MBA For? Choose a School by the Leader It Helps You Become
What should an MBA prepare you to do?
An MBA can be a significant investment in your career. It can help you change industries, move into leadership, build a professional network or develop the skills to launch a business. But as tuition fees rise and expectations of corporate leadership evolve, prospective students face a question that salary reports and university rankings cannot fully answer: What kind of leader will this programme help you become?
The question gained fresh attention in October 2026, when Chris Marquis, a professor at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School, argued in The New York Times that business schools can encourage narrow, profit-first thinking at the expense of broader social responsibilities. Drawing on his experience teaching at Harvard, Cornell and Cambridge, Marquis questioned whether business schools can address these problems through incremental changes such as standalone ethics courses.
His essay, “I Teach at a Business School. It’s Time to Shut Them Down,” challenges applicants to look beyond the conventional measures of MBA success. Do programmes teach students to consider the consequences of their decisions for employees, communities and the environment? Or do they primarily prepare graduates to maximise financial returns?
For prospective students, this is not simply a debate about whether business schools should exist. It is an opportunity to reconsider what makes an MBA worth its cost.
The debate: Are business schools failing, or do they need reform?
Marquis argues that business education can shape how students understand organisations and leadership. He is particularly critical of the case-study method when it reduces complex organisational problems to decisions made by a single executive.
For prospective students, this is not simply a debate about whether business schools should exist. It is an opportunity to reconsider what makes an MBA worth its cost.
A case might ask students whether a high-performing employee deserves promotion despite damaging team morale. That is a useful management dilemma. But it can also leave larger questions unexplored: Does the company reward behaviour that undermines collaboration? Are its incentives creating the problem? Whose perspectives are missing from the discussion?
Marquis also questions the influence of corporate interests on teaching materials and the tendency to present successful companies as models to emulate without adequately examining failure, structural problems or competing approaches. His broader concern is that business schools can frame social and environmental responsibility as a means of improving competitiveness rather than as a responsibility in its own right. If ethics and sustainability appear only as electives, students may interpret them as secondary to the programme’s principal priorities.
However, the argument for closing business schools is far from universally accepted.
In a response published by Clear Admit, Eliot Ingram argues that the problems Marquis identifies justify reform rather than abolition. The response acknowledges concerns about overly simplified cases and the limitations of standalone ethics teaching, while challenging the conclusion that these shortcomings invalidate business education as a whole.
There is also an important question of generalisation. Experiences at prestigious institutions do not automatically establish that all MBA programmes operate in the same way. Schools differ in their curricula, teaching methods, institutional priorities and student communities. Nor does an argument about the shortcomings of some business education establish that every MBA graduate adopts the same outlook.
Meanwhile, business education continues to have a practical purpose. The Graduate Management Admission Council’s 2025 Corporate Recruiters Survey, based on responses from more than 1,100 recruiters and hiring managers, examines employer demand for graduate management talent, compensation and the skills needed in a changing workplace. Its findings provide one reason applicants continue to consider graduate management education: employers value relevant business capabilities, including the ability to work with emerging technologies.
The more useful conclusion is not that an MBA is inherently good or bad. It is that the value of a programme depends partly on what it teaches students to optimise, whose interests it asks them to consider and how it prepares them to exercise responsibility.
5 questions to ask before choosing an MBA
For applicants weighing the financial and professional returns of an MBA, a school’s stated mission is only a starting point. The next step is to examine whether its promises are reflected in the learning experience. If you need more help, you can also try our free ThinkMBA DecisionLab.
1. Are ethics and sustainability central to the curriculum?
Almost any school can publish a statement about responsible leadership. The more revealing question is where these subjects appear in the degree. Are ethics, sustainability and corporate accountability integrated into required courses, or are students expected to pursue them through optional electives? Do finance, strategy and operations classes examine the consequences of business decisions for different stakeholders?
Harvard Business School, for example, lists Leadership and Corporate Accountability and Purpose of the Firm among the courses in its required MBA curriculum. This demonstrates how questions of accountability and corporate purpose can be incorporated into core management education. It does not, by itself, establish how effectively students apply those principles in practice. Applicants should examine course descriptions, syllabuses and assessment methods rather than relying on a school’s mission statement alone.
2. Whose interests are represented in the classroom?
Business decisions rarely affect shareholders alone. Decisions about restructuring, supply chains, automation and investment can also shape employees’ livelihoods, local communities and environmental outcomes. Look for programmes that ask students to evaluate these consequences alongside financial performance. Case discussions should allow students to challenge assumptions, consider competing perspectives and examine the limitations of the available evidence.
Applicants can ask current students whether classroom discussions regularly explore the consequences of management decisions beyond the executive team. They can also investigate whether teaching materials include failed strategies, conflicting stakeholder interests and examples in which the most profitable option is not necessarily the most responsible one.
The objective is not to dismiss commercial performance. It is to understand whether students are being prepared to make decisions in complex environments where financial, ethical and social considerations can conflict.
3. Does the programme offer a credible approach to responsible business?
A school’s priorities become more visible when they shape the entire learning experience rather than appear in isolated modules. The University of Vermont’s Grossman School of Business offers one example through its Sustainable Innovation MBA. The one-year programme integrates sustainability across subjects including strategy, finance, marketing and operations. Its curriculum also includes a practicum in which students work on sustainability-related business challenges.
This is a different approach from treating responsible business as a single topic within a conventional management degree. It gives applicants a concrete example to investigate when comparing programmes. That does not mean every MBA candidate should choose a sustainability-focused degree. Someone targeting investment banking, technology leadership or entrepreneurship may have different priorities. The relevant question is whether the programme’s approach to responsible management aligns with the candidate’s own ambitions and the responsibilities of their intended career.
4. Does the MBA support more than one definition of career success?
MBA rankings and employment reports often emphasise salary, employer reputation and job placement. These measures matter, particularly when candidates need to assess whether a costly degree is financially viable. But they cannot capture every outcome a candidate may value.
Some students want to move into consulting or finance. Others aim to establish a company, lead a family business, enter public service, manage a nonprofit or build a career in sustainable investment. A programme that is an excellent fit for one student may be less suitable for another.
Review the school’s employment reports, including industry destinations, job functions, geographic distribution and salary data. Then examine its support for less conventional career paths, such as social enterprise, public-sector management and mission-driven entrepreneurship. Ask whether the career services team has relevant employer relationships and whether students pursuing these paths can access internships, practical projects and alumni networks. A school’s overall employment rate may look impressive while revealing little about the opportunities available to someone with a specific professional goal.
5. Does the school measure the outcomes it claims to value?
If a programme promises to develop responsible leaders, applicants should ask how it evaluates that ambition.
Employment and salary data remain important, but they are not comprehensive measures of leadership development. Other useful evidence may include experiential learning opportunities, partnerships with mission-driven organisations, student projects, alumni career paths and the integration of accountability into core coursework.
No single measure can establish whether an MBA produces better leaders. Applicants should therefore look for multiple forms of evidence and distinguish between what a school offers, what students experience and what graduates ultimately achieve. Be cautious of broad claims that are difficult to verify. A sustainability centre, responsible leadership initiative or corporate partnership may indicate institutional interest, but its existence alone does not prove that these priorities shape the wider programme.
How to test a school’s promises before enrolling
Once you have shortlisted programmes, move from general claims to direct investigation.
Start with the official curriculum and degree requirements. Identify which courses are compulsory, which are optional and how much practical experience students receive. Read employment reports alongside the school’s published fees and your own estimate of foregone earnings. This will help you assess both the financial return and the professional opportunities a programme may offer.
Next, speak with current students and recent alumni. Ask for examples of classroom discussions in which financial objectives conflicted with employee welfare, environmental considerations or other stakeholder interests. Find out whether students can challenge established management assumptions and whether the school supports career paths outside the most heavily recruited industries.
Finally, compare what you hear with the available evidence. A school’s marketing materials explain how it wants to be perceived; course requirements, career outcomes and first-hand accounts can help you determine whether that positioning reflects the student experience.
The same approach applies to return on investment. A high post-MBA salary may be attractive, but the relevant calculation depends on tuition, living expenses, financing costs, lost earnings and the realistic career options available to you after graduation. A lower-cost programme with a strong fit for your goals may offer greater value than a prestigious degree that takes you in the wrong direction.
The right MBA should expand your options, not narrow your thinking
The debate sparked by Marquis’s essay raises a legitimate challenge for business education: preparing students to manage organisations efficiently is not necessarily the same as preparing them to lead responsibly. Yet applicants do not need to accept the argument that business schools should be abolished to take that challenge seriously.
Nor should they assume that every programme shares the same weaknesses.
An MBA is an investment in knowledge, professional opportunities and the way you approach decisions. Its value should therefore be assessed through more than rankings and salary premiums. Curriculum design, teaching methods, institutional priorities and career support all deserve scrutiny.
Before enrolling, ask not only what a school can do for your career, but also what it expects you to do with the authority and skills you gain. The strongest MBA choice is not necessarily the programme with the highest ranking or the largest advertised salary. It is the one that equips you for the career you want while preparing you to understand the wider consequences of your decisions.
