When MBA's are free . . .

When MBA's are free . . . 

What Happened When a Business School Made Tuition Free

. . . we get a look under the hood of the Academe. And it ain't pretty.

"Arizona State University’s W.P. Carey School of Business received a lot of global attention after saying it would make its two-year M.B.A. program free starting this fall. It also got a lot more applicants than it bargained for.

Since the announcement in October that it would drop the price tag on its full-time business program—which runs from $54,000 for in-state residents to $90,000 for international students—to $0, prospective students have inundated the Tempe, Ariz., school, breaking previous application records and forcing school leaders to man jammed phone lines and respond to email queries.

As of April 4, the full-time M.B.A. program had received 1,165 applications, nearly triple the total number of applications it received during last year’s cycle. The number of calls and emails was much larger than that, school officials say, taking the school by surprise."

Not an iota of business sense among the lot! What in the world did they expect? They are giving away a product which they and others charge $100,000 to 200,000 to obtain, for free, and they did not expect a deluge of interest? Would these same knot heads find it hard to believe that Porsche giving away $100,000 autos might be deluged with interest? 

I am pretty sure I would have to think long, and hard about attending this "business" school filled with people who apparently don't understand either people, or business. 

"Pricing experts say the school’s experience underlines a sometimes painful business truth: offering something free creates a lot of extra work. Because Carey has a finite number of M.B.A. spots to offer, it can be more selective about whom it accepts, which will take more admissions manpower, said Sandeep Baliga, a professor of managerial economics and decision sciences at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management who researches pricing."

Perhaps ASU doesn't have a "pricing expert" on staff? The above quote at least makes it apparent that not all business school folks are quite so naive as ASU. Bonus Maddogsbrer went to and received an MBA degree from Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management (I think it may actually be the MMM degree). Thank God it wasn't ASU, that would have undermined my faith in his abilities!

Interesting experiment, good luck to all, yada, yada, yada . . .