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This morning, I put on an SMU t-shirt and I thought to myself: Was business school worth the investment I paid?

I’m going to be honest with you.
👉 I set out to confirm my own bias here: I don’t think graduate school is worth it.
My goal was to back it up with statistics - and what I found was… well… a bit surprising.

Ten years ago, I received a master’s degree from SMU in Dallas, TX.
Pretty solid business school. SMU is known for its outstanding network and its influence in landing graduates top jobs in the city of Dallas. Employers in Dallas respect the school and are eager to meet recent MBA graduates.

I moved to Dallas to attend SMU.
I was an entrepreneur, never had a ‘real’ job - and I was, well, a bit bored.
I wasn’t there to get a job. I thought grad school would be a nice reset for me… meet some nice people, learn a few things and see where it leads.

The program was a very intense 2-year journey that consisted of me flipping out about 3 times a week and having nightmares about not graduating. My girlfriend at the time (now wife) Lauren really enjoyed this season of our lives. 😜


Oh, side note… if you click her name, you’ll see her TikTok.
Do you want me to tell you how she went from 0 to 500,000 followers in less than 2 years? I’m not going to sell you anything — she just had a remarkable realization one day and her experiment worked.

She has 1.3 million followers across TikTok, Instagram and Facebook. All organic.

She probably should be running the social media for a large company at this point.

Ok enough about her…

I was a fish out of water in grad school. No one was there to work on ideas. All were working toward the goal of getting a job as an analyst, consultant or VP at a major firm. The first day after attending classes, I came home, shut the front door and threw my books across the living room floor (seriously).

“It went that well?” Lauren said, laughing. She was waiting to hear how day one went.

Looking back, yeah it was a funny moment. At the time, though, I was thinking:
“Good lord, we moved here for this! I’m locked into 2 years of this madness?”

The curriculum (it took me four tries to spell that word correctly) followed the same theme: not much entrepreneurial thinking, tons of analysis, strategy and math. I thrive on pursuing ideas… I love to think big and put plans into action. I love talking about ideas and proving them out — it’s my passion. Graduate school felt like a place where those desires go to die.

There weren’t many people like me there. The majority were from big firms in the area like Lockheed Martin, looking for career advancement. These people just don’t get excited about new ideas. Their brains are wired differently than mine. Which is 100% ok… we’re all different.

But something interesting happened:
 
A guy sitting next to me in one of my classes asked the professor how to pursue a startup idea he had. The professor said, and I kid you not:

“The guy sitting next to you, Aron, probably knows more about this than I do.”

Hand to God, a 100% true statement.

That student, Joe, introduced himself minutes later and we became friends as we explored his idea. Joe was impressed with my entrepreneurial acumen, and he told one of his close friends about me, who just happened to own Heritage Auctions — the world’s largest collectibles auctioneer.

Long story short:

Heritage brought me in and hired me on the spot to start and run their Domain Name and IP Division. Apparently, they’d always wanted to start this category. Lucky for both of us, I fell in their lap. I wasn’t looking for a job, so I was in a pretty good negotiating position 🙂 (we can discuss that sometime as well).

So, my first real job took off while I attended grad school. An ever-increasing excitement for starting a new category at an auction house, accompanied by an ever-decreasing desire to attend class started to take shape. But I managed to do both at the same time.

The job allowed me to be entrepreneurial with resources at my disposal. It’s an entrepreneur’s dream - to chase ideas and build something, while taking no financial risk - yet being rewarded with some upside if success hits. This is being an intrapreneur at a company… and it’s an awesome position to be in.

I have my SMU transcript in front of me… the courses are almost entirely management related… very little entrepreneurial thinking. And this isn’t exclusive to SMU… almost all grad schools are like this. The students attend for the OUTCOME of job placement, not to have their brains tickled with startup dreams.

And the few times we discussed starting a new venture, the course dove into writing a lengthy business plan as the first step. Yikes. This is part of the reason why I started ValidatorAI.com — I realized most people don’t know what to do when they have an idea they want to pursue.

It seems academia is always 5 years behind when it comes to starting up.
10 years ago they were still talking about business plans.
5 years ago they were talking about business model canvases and lean startup methods.
Today, they are probably still building business model canvases.

When I have spoken to college classes about entrepreneurship, the students’ knowledge of best practices has always seemed a bit outdated. Not their fault… most university professors haven’t been in the trenches of starting something from nothing. The professors are almost always amazing human beings, fulfilling their calling to educate the next generation — but the books and resources they lean on are a bit stale. The smart ones have adapted. You can tell who they are by attending their student pitch competitions. If you walk away thoroughly impressed, the university is doing something right.

Actually… 🤔

Perhaps it’s not in the best interest of universities to teach students how to quickly validate an idea, iterate and move the idea forward. Universities are there to educate, not to promise entrepreneurial success. But entrepreneurship is ALL about outcomes… so everyone is in a tough spot when it comes to this topic in schools.

And you can’t do much with a degree in entrepreneurship… so you need to learn the skills necessary to look for opportunity, find a value proposition and test your assumptions, fast. There are better places to learn this than a college classroom.

Here’s what the stats say about an MBA today

Check out what I found, with a bit of searching. MBA programs promise career advancement, salary bumps, and a strong network - as we discussed. But in today’s job market, outcomes seem to be slipping…

Across 124 ranked full-time MBA programs, the average employment rate three months post-graduation was 86.8% in 2024. That means roughly 13% of MBA grads saw no immediate job placement. Not horrible, but 1 in 8 graduates are seeing no return on their investment. 87% are happily employed.

At top schools like Harvard, up to 23% of grads in 2024 were without a job three months after graduation. That’s up from just 10% in 2022. Why? I have no idea, but I give my thoughts about this later.

Interesting - it seems the ‘sure thing’ of an MBA isn’t as sure as it was just two years ago.

The average salary increase after earning an MBA? Somewhere between 29% and 50%, depending on industry and whether the student stayed with the same company. Ok, wow, that’s pretty good. Amazing, really. But I need to hear this from real people… we’ll cover that in a second.

A 46-50% pay boost is typical. In some sectors (like food & beverage, tech, or finance), the jump can be 65% or more. Yeah, dang it, that’s pretty solid. My theory of an MBA not being worth it is falling apart here in real-time. 🙂 

Executive MBA grads tend to fare better, often seeing 39%+ pay increases thanks to promotions and equity. And, in most cases, the employer is paying for the schooling. “Here, have a free education and a 40% bump in pay. Enjoy yourself.” Yes please.

But those are stats from research articles. I want to hear from MBA grads directly… maybe they will confirm my bias!

I found some of these people on Reddit…

I stumbled upon a Reddit thread asking MBAs: "What was your +/- 3-year salary change?"
This is a perfect question to ask.

The thread is here: Reddit MBA Earnings Thread

Here’s what stood out in the replies:

Massive jumps: People reported doubling or tripling their compensation within 3 years. Many cited 200-400% increases, especially those switching into consulting or tech.

Here are some real-life results from graduates in the Reddit thread:

My gosh, these are strong numbers. I’m surprised. Are you? My theory is collapsing. There were only a few people in the thread that had disappointing results.

Here are some key takeaways hidden in these conversations… once you start digging, you unearth the truths…

Career pivots matter. The biggest wins were from engineers and non-business folks who pivoted into business-heavy roles (PM, product, finance).

Not everyone is a winner. A few who already had business backgrounds or high pre-MBA pay said the boost was small. Some even questioned the ROI. These are the 1 out of 8 that are disappointed (we referenced them earlier).

International grads moving to high-cost-of-living cities in the US saw huge gains.

Representative data points…

Pre-MBA salaries ranged from $20K to $105K.

Post-MBA comp hit $110K to $350K regularly.

Top performers… $400K to $700K total compensation.

My favorite quote: "100% worth it for a 400% raise."

Yeah, I’d say.

The Reddit thread is two years old. I wonder why recent reports are showing less job placement among MBA grads…

My guesses:

Tech and consulting hiring may have slowed. These industries have historically hired tons of MBAs. Perhaps not anymore. With the rise of AI, I assume AI agents are doing a lot of the analysis now, cheaper and quicker. AI is leading to leaner teams, more automation, less demand for generalists.

Graduating class sizes could be larger. More grads, fewer jobs. There just aren’t enough jobs for all the business school dreamers.

Visa uncertainty has made things harder for international students. Perhaps less students are making the leap because of this.

As with everything, the market will correct, and people will adapt. Go where the demand is, and right now, the demand is for AI.

What I got from business school and what I didn’t

I didn’t go to grad school to learn how to start a business. I already had a business.

As previously mentioned, they didn’t teach much of that at all. There were case studies, marketing frameworks, and finance modeling. Not much about building something from scratch.

But I met a good friend there, who landed me an amazing job. And that job essentially made my business school experience free and worth it.

The category director job with Heritage helped me solidify myself as the go-to person when it comes to domain names. From auctions to private sales, brokerages, valuations — it put me on the map and led to dozens of press stories about domain names, alternate investments and more.

Like this New York Times story about a domain name we sold. Without grad school, the networking, the cool job and press stories don’t happen. And when something like this article is written, the snowball effect that leads to more business and press is pretty awesome.

If you're building something...

grad school probably isn’t for you.

It’s a long, expensive detour that teaches you how to be a manager inside a big machine. In fact, when I meet influential people at big companies, very little focus is on innovation and seeing around corners - most are just trying to maintain the status quo and keep up with the competition.

But if you’re trying to reset your career, land a new job, or break into a new industry, the MBA can work. For those of you outside the USA… we had a lot of people from India and the Middle East at SMU. The Reddit thread mentioned the increases in pay from international MBA students when they moved to the USA. This lure of landing a top job keeps business schools in… business.

If business school is for you, just go in with your eyes open:

Pick the right school. What do they specialize in? Make sure they have an outstanding reputation with large companies. What are their job placement numbers? Is their alumni network big, powerful, valuable?

And make sure you're willing to hustle outside the classroom. 👇

Networking is the clearest value that business schools bring. You never know who you might make friends with — everyone is there to learn and advance their careers. But (depending on the school) very few are there to start a new venture.

So… was grad school worth it?

That question still hangs around my mind a decade later, especially now, as more people challenge the value of traditional education. College is under fire. And MBAs (the golden ticket, right?) are being reexamined by entrepreneurs and corporate climbers alike.

Many startups are popping up with a mission to rethink higher education. Some are specifically targeting the traditional MBA program, like Augment, one of our partners.

Is business school worth it if a startup can teach you the MBA curriculum in a few months? Plus, there are startups that will help you network with other like-minded people. Can you replicate my experience for 1/10 the price? 1/100 of the price?

👉 At what point do these alternatives become more attractive than the traditional MBA route?

But…

For me, yes. It was worth it… Because it got me in the room. I get the feeling that this is what other business school students are looking for as well. They want to be in the tight networks. That’s value proposition #1. Closely connected to this is job placement.

SMU gave me a starting point of a network. And the network gave me a path. Post grad-school, my network has exploded. How? Because I’ve made it a point to meet a lot of smart people - founders, investors, VCs, accelerators, educators. You can do the same thing… you don’t need a 2-year business school to build a network if you are an entrepreneur. You can do that starting today on your own. But, if you want to get in the circles that hire analysts, PMs and consultants - yeah, grad school might open some doors for you.

If your goal is to start a company, skip the classroom. Build something small. Talk to customers. Launch. Iterate. 

If your goal is a better title, a better salary, or a new industry, the MBA might be your bridge. I wanted to prove otherwise, and I was shocked to find out exactly how much more money people make post-MBA.

But the degree alone isn’t the win.

The win is what you do with the room it puts you in. The network is what helped me. And I assume it’s the same for other business school graduates.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the topic… and your experiences.

In the queue to share with you:


How I’d Rig the NBA Using a Single Employee
This is How I’d Implement AI in Your Company Today
Confession: This is Why I Gathered You Here
How Companies Make Decisions Based on Avoiding Pain
Why I Thought About a Random Football Box Score for a Week Straight
How to Establish Trust on Day One and Resolve Future Conflicts
Every Pitch Starts the Same Old Way — One Opening Line to Draw Them in
The Insane World of Domain Investing
My Experience in Graduate School — Is it worth it?

* I don’t share these newsletters online. If you missed one, listed above, that you want to read email me and I’ll send it to you.

Take care,

Aron Meystedt

Aron’s LinkedIn
ValidatorAI.com
Symbolics.com 

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