Deciding to go back to school is quite challenging. Leaving your job, selling your car, moving to another city, and not to mention becoming a student again. There is another dimension of difficulty for me – moving to another country. During this application cycle, I applied to 4 MBA programs. Those applications combined were not as nerve-wracking as the one visa application I had to fill out. As I write this, I still do not have my visa, but if you are reading this, all went well and I got the visa.

Going to do an MBA after having worked for four years, is to ensure that you can’t settle down. Graduate, work for four years, study for two years, get back to work. Before you know it, a decade has passed. The stakes are higher now. Not only will you have to earn back the time spent doing an MBA, there is also the small matter of student loans. You will be working the next ten to twenty years trying to pay off this loan. Is the time, effort, money, and stress really worth it?

I can make a list of articles, YouTube videos, and blogs that succinctly argue against an MBA degree. And they make some great points, a lot of which I can relate to, and some of which will keep me up at night as well. But yes, it is worth it. For me.

There are people whose life mission is to climb the Everest. Then there are people whose mission it is to climb the Everest the fastest. And then there are those who will climb the Everest again to beat their world record for the fastest climb. Is it worth it? For some, it is the reason to be alive.

Now I am not comparing an MBA to climbing Everest. For me, doing an MBA makes sense. I think it is worth it. It is the chance to learn from the best, and learn by doing. There is no other degree that puts so much emphasis on learning by doing.

I am looking forward to meeting interesting people from all over the world. People who have started businesses, who have achieved great success in their generally short careers. Young people who are easy-going, smart, ambitious, and driven. I am looking forward to working 15 hours a day, getting to work on group projects again, reading, learning, spending time in the library, walking in the snow, networking, making friends, worrying about getting an internship again, and making another career for myself. This is exactly where I want to be – future me can worry about those loans.