University of Chicago's Booth EMBA Program was ranked #1 in 2011

With the economy in stasis, an increasing number of professionals looking to return to school to get advanced business degrees are unwilling to give up their current positions when finding a new job after their graduation is no longer assured.

Executive MBA programs, offer an excellent alternative to traditional full time MBA educations- where they would be expected to leave their current roles, and then hope that they will be able to find better positions after completing their post graduate education.

Part time programs take about 1-2  additional years to complete versus full-time two year MBA’s. Many believe that the job security they are afforded and ability continue earning an income during the degree, is well worth it.

The diversity of programs offered for EMBA students is growing as well, since an increasing number of applicants for EMBA programs are no longer having their education paid for by their employers. Now they are free to make the decision of where to attend themselves. This means finding new and innovative ways to attract students, like increased offerings of electives in growth areas like entrepreneurship and leadership workshops.

EMBA programs will no doubt continue to gain in popularity as more and more working professionals will be expected to have advanced post graduate degrees to remain competitive in their chosen career fields.

http://images.businessweek.com/slideshows/20111108/top-part-time-mba-programs-of-2011/

The study is based on recipients of full, executive, and part-time MBAs (online and distance MBAs etc. make up only 1% of those surveyed). A majority of those surveyed (58%) were in full-time MBA programs.

Especially interesting are the high satisfaction ratings among MBAs who desired to change or switch careers following their programs. Among these MBA recipients, very high rates of satisfaction are expressed in the areas of post-MBA marketability as well as post-MBA long-term financial stability.

MBAs were also surveyed as to the degree to which they feel satisfied in their skill development as a result of their MBA program. Skills such as strategic thinking and technological skills among others were included in the survey. In terms of skill improvement, it was again evident that those interested in career change were more satisfied. However, those MBAs who pursued the degree with the intention of enhancing their pre-MBA career expressed lower degree of satisfaction in their skill improvement.

This survey did not take into account additional demographic factors (location, ethnicity, nationality and race). Such factors too might have resulted in interesting findings.

The above discussions are based on GMAC Research Report “Satisfied MBAs: Career Switchers and Career Enhancers from Around the World,” written by Sabeen Sheikh & Kara Siegert on 7 June 2007.