-- John Casella, M.B.A.

It has been just over ten years since I stepped into my first class at business school. My reasons for attending business school were to broaden my perspective and gain the skills necessary to be (and be viewed as) a general manager. In other words, I wanted to learn how to build and run companies. Like approximately 20 percent of the business school's student body, my undergraduate degree was in business administration. In my five years of subsequent work experience, I developed expertise in accounting and information technology. While this background was important to prospective employers, it was clearly secondary to the M.B.A. As I reflect on whether business school was worth the effort and expense, the answer is a resounding yes.

That's my story, but everyone's story is different. People come to business school with a variety of personal backgrounds and previous work experiences, and as a result, they have divergent expectations. Some seek the prestige of those three letters, M.B.A., while others simply want to earn more money. Some plan to work in a specific industry that requires the degree, and others want to be considered for advancement in the industry from which they came. All of these are good reasons for considering business school. Nevertheless, all too often I heard my fellow students say, "I came here looking for answers, and as I approach graduation, I still don't know what I want to do." If you are considering business school because you hope it will be an instant solution to your feelings of uncertainty, think twice. It can be a very expensive place to figure out what you want from life.

An M.B.A. is not quite the ticket to a prestigious and high-paying career that it used to be. With record enrollment, there is a lot of competition for popular M.B.A. destinations like management consulting, investment banking, and now high-tech/Internet opportunities. As you evaluate your reasons for going, it is important to factor in the reputation of the school. There is a significant difference in job placement and opportunities, as well as in compensation, for graduates from different schools. While these considerations are certainly relevant, there is another crucial side to the business school experience -- what you learn.

Business school education has a dual purpose: to educate and to build future business leaders. The "educate" part of the equation is easy; it involves teaching students the methods and preferred practices in each of the business disciplines, including strategy, operations, marketing, organizational behavior, and finance. In fact, that's all I expected out of the experience. It wasn't until I completed the program that I realized the significance of what I had learned beyond the basics -- the "building" that had actually taken place. For me, the following insights were the crux of the broader business school education:

Good answers and better answers: My first few weeks were hell. I went to class feeling well prepared with the standard "right" answers, only to find out that I was not as right as I thought. Talk about a letdown. There are two important points to remember here: (1) you will be surrounded by many really smart people who were superstars like you prior to business school, and (2) there can be many "right" answers in business -- your challenge will be to find the best one.

Tag team problem solving: Although the total class size in my school exceeded 800, I was grouped with 90 people for the first year and with a different group of 90 for the second. It was amazing to watch how a group of intelligent people solved a problem and rapidly developed more creative solutions than the management teams represented in case studies. Understanding how to tap the knowledge and collective skills of teams remains one of the hot topics in business.

Your feet in the air, your head on the ground: What a shock … not everyone thinks like me! Whether it is your schooling or just you, everyone develops a pattern for absorbing information and solving problems. More important than this simple realization is learning how to break down your own conventional wisdom and methods of thinking and to incorporate different approaches. When you are stuck solving a problem, it is very useful to be able to set your assumptions aside and change your perspective entirely.

Confidence in your abilities: There's no better place to understand your own capabilities and limitations than on the playing field, and business school is one arena for that. You will have the opportunity to learn from a variety of individuals who bring experiences from an array of companies and industries. You will begin to understand how your perceptions of "business-world reality" compare with those of your classmates and with the case studies and examples you explore. Business school is an opportunity to gain a broad range of experience, and to increase your confidence as a result, without having to work for ten different companies.

I may have entered business school with one reason and one purpose, but I graduated with much, much more. Business school won't automatically change your life, but if you take the pursuit of learning as seriously as you take the pursuit of credentials, you will develop skills and ways of thinking that will benefit you no matter what future decisions you make.