The final term of my MBA is about to begin. With the end in sight, I find myself thinking about what I have learned from the experience. I have $30K in student loans: was it worth it?

I think it will take a few years to see the full value of my experience, but even now I cant say enough good things about my MBA at the University of Washington. UW doesnt have the reputation of a top-10 school but the small size (about 100 students per year) allowed an intimacy and accessibility that was fabulous for me.

There is a lot of debate about what an "MBA experience" should be and I suspect there is a lot of variation even with the same program because everyone gets something different from the degree. Depending on your goals, experience, age and the program you choose, your experiences will vary greatly. I am certain that I would have had a very different experience if I had gone for the degree when I first thought about as a perky 25 year old instead of the jaded 35 year old I am today.

One of my surprises has been the classes that I enjoyed the most. I expected to really get a huge lift from accounting and finance but neither class did much for me. Instead it has been the classes I didnt think much of originally that are the most memorable. Brand management, direct marketing and cross-cultural communications are three of the classes that I think will have the biggest payoff for me over time.

What have I learned?

Mastery

First off, I learned that I may have a master's but I am no master. The degree is not about mastery of a specific skill so much as it is a gigantic introductory experience for economics, management, accounting, finance and marketing. The people that had prior experience may be masters now but most of us are going away with an introduction to the formal approach to and structures of business. I often hear people say: "You wont know how to do this on your own but you will know that it needs to be done and how to hire someone to do the job right." As a DIY person, I found this to be a bit frustrating but it makes sense. Two years isn't much time to cover so much ground.

Marketing

As an engineer by training, I had a lot of preconceptions about marketing and a lot of frustration with company's that make a ton of money with inferior products or service. I thought brands were a silly idea and I thought direct marketing was junk mail. Im happy to say my beliefs were completely wrong and brand management and direct marketing were two of my favorite classes in the whole program. Marketing, not engineering, is the way businesses run because it is the study of people and how to satisfy needs for people. Marketing classes changed the way I think about business and business strategy -- and I love it. Life (and the behavior of others) makes a lot more sense when seen from a marketing perspective.

Investing

Another thing I have learned a lot about is investing, from the macroeconomic theories (and crazy IS-LM graphs) about the money supply and how the Federal Bank uses interest rates to Finance lessons on bonds and diversification and risk. Again I am no master, but my understanding is orders of magnitude greater than it was when I started and I find myself enjoying doing my investments now.

Spreadsheets

I have used Excel for many years but I now know that I was barely scratching the surface. Using linear algebra to build models for investing, scheduling or just about any other problem has been interesting and practical. Im not one of those people that thinks every answer in life is found in a spreadsheet but there are a lot of answers in there.

Communications & Culture

One of my pleasant surprises was how much I learned about cultures and communications. I used to think I was a great communicator but now I am much better. In school I learned formal communications structures (like how indirect and ideological techniques vary) and I became much more aware of of how those styles work with different cultures, including ethic and job function cultures. I have mixed feelings when my school describes itself as an "international MBA", but my exposure to people from Japan, China, Taiwan and Korea has been very enlightening. Most importantly, I see the patterns I learned about communications and culture repeated all around me, from politics to investing to management. Since life is fundamentally about communicating ideas between people, I expect to get a lot of use from these lessons.

Connections and Speakers

I have always heard that "business school is about connections" and "its not what you know its who you know." The MBA experience has allowed me to hear and meet a ton of local and national business leaders. Their talks have been eye-opening and inspiring, from the professor who started her own bank to the former Admiral who runs an international trade delegation to the Indian guy who lives in Switzerland and writes about globalism. As a naturally curious person, I have loved the opportunity to hear such a diverse group of people speak.

I am not a great networker but two years of the MBA has allowed me to connect with more local business people than I have ever known or ever would have met on my own through a job. For instance I recently had an opportunity to meet people at Microsoft and Google, a fascinating study in contrasts which I hope to write about soon.

Ethics

I didnt know what to expect from our class on ethics but I am glad I took it. Everyone should be exposed to the formal systems of ethics, like teleology and deontology. The class does not teach you to be ethical but knowing the different systems for ethical logic is very useful for personal and business decisions. The class also talked about social responsibility and ideas for making businesses a positive force for the environment.

Startups

I went into school thinking that I wanted to own my own company and that the key to a success is a great idea. With that goal in mind, I focused a lot of my time on entrepreneurial experiences. I learned about the VC process and that there are many ways to own a company other than starting one from scratch such as buying an existing business.

I still want to own my own company but I have a much deeper understanding of what it takes to succeed. The most important less is that it is not about the idea; it is about the execution of an idea. Those guys that made millions from IPO's make it look easy but there is a ton of work (and luck) that goes into those "easy" successes. You need the right skills, the right team, and the right time - none of which are necessarily in your control. Starting a business is always a gamble and I appreciate the things I have learned about tipping the odds in your favor.

Closing

It is hard to believe my two years are almost up. The real test of what I have learned will show up at my next job where I see what I can apply and what I forget.