Calculating your ROM (Return on MBA)

"Nearly all graduates earn more money two years out of school than the amount they borrowed—and some saw their salaries double."

How is this anything close to a measure of return on investment? especially a "strong return," without considering two years of forsaken salary, the $200,000 not paid by debt, and the chance they would have made the same, higher salary with two years of work rather than education?

Young Workers Ask_ Why Get an M.B.A. When ​Raises and Promotions Are Rolling In_ - WSJ.pdf

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Some clever MBA candidates are selling themselves as an investment, looking for financing from an investor to search for a new business idea. E.g., Matt Brugner has raised $500,000 to cover two years of full-time searching for a niche software business.

M.B.A.s’ Latest Pitch to Investors_ Skip the Startup, Invest in Me - WSJ.pdf

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Plenty of M.B.A.s finish business school with a hot startup pitch for investors. The latest breed of student-entrepreneur is skipping the startup part and pitching themselves as the investment.

Consider the model a SPAC of sorts—akin to the stock-market trend in which a special-purpose acquisition, or “blank-check,” company raises money and lists its shares, then finds a private business to merge with. In this case, the investment vehicle is a fund for a newly minted M.B.A. graduate. The M.B.A. uses the money to search for a privately held, under-the-radar business and run it as chief executive and part owner.

These so-called search funds came on the business-school scene decades ago, but they have taken off in the pandemic years as investors —awash in capital—look for promising places to put it.

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At Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, Matt Brugner has raised $500,000 to cover two years of full-time searching for a niche software business. Before business school, Mr. Brugner, 28, wanted to be an entrepreneur but didn’t have a startup idea. Hereford Johnson III, who runs the Kellogg search-fund club with Mr. Brugner, has tried to distinguish his outreach to companies from other searchers and private equity. Part of that means committing to move with his wife to the business’s location.