Ask Your Accountant

While I am not your tax accountant, I do hope you will look into a possible tuition write-off. Recently the "Clarke Decision" ruled in favor of Lori Singleton Clarke, an MBA pursuing the degree to improve existing skills. She was allowed the work-related tuition write off as a qualifying "miscellaneous itemized deduction" within the years she paid for advancing her education. This may be good news for non-sponsored EMBA students, increasingly the rule rather than the exception as corporate sponsorship has taken a break.
Here's why:

Career Enhancing, Not Career Switching: EMBA programs were designed as general management degrees for professionals already deep into career specialties (10-20 years typically), where they need to enhance those skills to stay current and continue moving up their career path to senior leadership. To the extent that students are planning to stay in their field and thus pursue general management programs without concentrations of study in a different field of business, this bodes well for tax implications. (Conversely, many weekday MBA programs and some newer iterations of EMBA programs are designed -- through concentrations or internships or both -- to enable career switchers, typically at a lower experience level.) Improving skills is the key -- the CPA to controller or CAO path, the technical lead to CTO path, the sales director to EVP sales transition, etc. EMBA programs were designed for this upward path, to the extent they still encourage incoming students looking to escalate versus change career direction.

Employer Not Requiring/Sponsoring: The proactive nature of Ms. Clarke's case seems to have helped. She was not required to, but did pursue advanced education related to her job to be better at it. As a bridge against uncertainty in business and the job market, that's smart. I'd rather have an MBA than not in this job market. One of my recent EMBA graduates told me that a large number of her colleagues were laid off, but she was specifically told (in this medium sized company) that she was not, because her MBA would enable her to pinch hit across the organization when the number of employees is down. As she put it, "That's one sort of six-figure ROI that's pretty critical, even if it's not a promotion."

The education cannot lead to a new line of work altogether, from what I understand. In some cases, the marketing executive may be able to write-off the marketing portion of EMBA education and organization management courses if presumably in a leadership role, if not the whole degree. So now is a good time to talk to you accountant and Uncle Sam about continuing in your path and strengthening your position in your field through the EMBA program.

Time Management and the MBA

What does it mean to do an EMBA program and hold down a demanding management job? Each of our 1400 EMBA graduates started their own journey with the question, “Do I really have the time and resources to go back for an MBA now, amid my work and family commitments?”

What they found was a different philosophical question with rewarding answers: What does the EMBA experience do to make you a better time manager? Moreover, how will it affect your work and family ongoing, and how will the world view your accomplishment as a master juggler of multiple priorities? I think of these aspects when I get the occasional question about whether EMBA programs are MBA Lite. Here it’s quite the opposite.

Vanderbilt EMBA students are masters of hard work and earn every one of their 60-credits for the MBA degree without falling down on the job. Vanderbilt EMBAs experience the following:

• A longer week than the typical MBA. Our EMBAs spend 20-25 hours a week on school work after putting in a full work week and class every other Saturday. They test their stamina for this juggle by preparing for the GMAT, experimenting with where 20 hours can be found to get ready for that first of many tests.
• A vacation from volunteer activities. Incoming EMBA students unvolunteer themselves for the next two years from nonprofits, boards, committee chairs, coaching and other activities to clear their schedules for school.
• The ability to avoid time wasters at work. EMBAs practice the economic principle of moving their resources (time) to higher order uses. They manage their time more critically and eliminate nonproductive activities from their day.
• Decisiveness, overcoming the inclination to revisit issues. The ability to analyze thoroughly, make sound conclusions, and move on are hallmarks of the EMBA program’s effect on personal management style. In short, you can’t thrive here if you are the sort of person who gets caught up in analysis paralysis.
• Good practices outside of work and school. EMBA ’05 David Adams talks about how his “family night” consisted, pre-MBA, of his wife and 4 kids all scattered in different rooms. During the EMBA program, this changed to planned events, where the family agreed on a game or movie or activity they could all do together. That lesson alone made the family stronger, and helped him not only get through school but become a more involved parent. That habit continues.
• Respect by employers of MBAs from rigorous executive programs. As EMBA ’87 Corbette Doyle put it: “With so much high potential talent pushing for promotions and so many baby boomers not yet ready to retire, it is important to differentiate. The EMBA program showcases a significant career commitment and critical ability to multitask.” Vanderbilt’s EMBA format and MBA weekday format have the same academic credits and admission requirements leading to the MBA degree so that they are comparable in learning transformation and reputation.

The EMBA experience is time well spent. It’s a juggling act that says a lot about you as the MBA student to manage your time successfully and excel at it all. Picking the right time--for you, your career and your family-- is the next step.