You are considering getting your Master’s in Business Administration, an MBA or an Executive MBA--but tuition costs are staggering, not to mention the idea of either quitting your job to go to school full-time or adding night or weekend classes to an already busy schedule with your career and family can seem daunting. And there is one more issue weighing on your mind, uncertainty as to whether it will lead to career advancement (and higher pay) or not.

Obviously, there is no guarantee but the potential rewards are hard to ignore. GMAC, the international nonprofit association of business schools, reports 93% of respondents from its 2010 poll were employed and had an average salary of $94,542, with a bonus of $17,565. With numbers like that (well above national averages) one has to ask why more women aren’t flocking to business schools. 

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Tonya Olipin, the executive director of the National Association of Women MBAs says that the high cost of an MBA and the fact that it doesn’t offer a clear career path (in comparison to medical school and law school) make it a challenging proposition for women. “An MBA doesn’t guarantee you a job,” she says. “It gives you a toolbox.” Though Olipin says for women hoping to break into the executive ranks there is no better strategy. “It opens up a lot of opportunities,” she says.

Still in this difficult economic climate it is best to seek out advice from mentors, talk to people in your industry and weigh the decision carefully to get a sense of the return you would get from an advanced business degree. They certainly open doors, but they aren't advantageous for everyone. 

The women’s advantage

According to the U.S. Department of Education, women received 44% of MBAs in 2007, up from 39% a decade earlier. This translates to a 75% increase in women MBAs in the last ten years. Despite advances women still make up a minority in most business school classes. Harvard Business School’s 2010 class is 38% women, and that is pretty much the norm. That means unlike other graduate programs like medical school (where women are the slight majority), women actually have an advantage when it comes to getting into business school. And business schools are working hard to lure in top women candidates.

Mori Taheripour, Outreach Coordinator at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business says, “[We must] be able to show women that even though they have all of these other commitments in their lives, this is something that others can do, and others have done it. We ask for about ten years work experience, so the average age of our students is 35 and that's a point in their life where most of them have families and have senior level positions or are entrepreneurs. So it's a challenge to get them to say ‘I can add one more thing to my plate.’"

To lure in women, many business schools are offering women specific recruiting events and displaying women in their advertisements. Duke’s Fuqua School of Business for instance, offers an MBA recruiting weekend targeted specifically to women, with sessions like, “What You Can Do in Your Jimmy Choos: Managing Your Career at Duke.”

Flex-time and maternity leave 

Just as corporations have become more accepting in recent years of the needs of working moms, so have business schools. According to Elissa Ellis Sangster, Executive Director of the Forté Foundation, women are more likely than men to choose part-time or online programs so they can continue working and raising children. "Women think that managing [work, school and family] is easier than quitting and taking the financial risk," she says.

To meet the demands of this group of women, the University of Indianapolis offers a Saturday-only option, and offers expecting moms the option to take a semester off for maternity leave.

Despite forward thinking programs like the University of Indianapolis’ many detractors say that in general business schools should be doing more for working moms, like offering on-site daycare. 

More on advancement of women

The women’s network

While business schools might have a reputation as being an old boys’ network, there is a thriving women’s community within many schools. Indiana University’s Kelley School has a Women’s MBA advisory board which aims to recruit women applicants and provide support and mentoring to current students. The board includes women leaders at companies like Wellpoint and Eli Lilly. Dartmouth’s Tuck Women in Business Club is a thriving alumni network, which the school credits with helping drive up its women’s enrollment numbers. Simmons School of Management (which is an all women’s business school) has also been rising through the ranks as of late with a program designed specifically to help women succeed. Enrollment has increased by more than 50% in the past five years.   

Despite the slow but steady climb of women enrolling in business school, Forté Foundation’s Sangster remains cautiously optimistic. "It's great that women are close to the 50% mark, but there's still a lot to do. We're still relatively new to the workforce. We need more examples of female leaders, mentors and role models."