Was the MBA really worth it? Couldn’t you have gotten to where you are without MBA and been just fine, without all that debt?

Absolutely necessary for what I'm doing now. I couldn't have gotten into Bain without it. I wouldn't have developed a few of the close friends that have become huge parts of my career without it. That being said, in retrospect, the classes weren't all that helpful, though some of the relationships I developed with professors have been invaluable. As a consultant, I used a lot of business school skills and knowledge, but I didn't really love being a consultant. I feel like I could have built all the useful knowledge and skills in 1/10 the time. The hard part would have been figuring out where to focus your efforts and who to work with. There are definitely ways to DIY an MBA in 2012 that weren't possible in 2003. If you have the right mentors, and the right relationships, everything is a lot easier and I got my mentors and a lot of my friends at HBS.

Branch: USMC
MBA: HBS (Harvard)
Year: 2005
Industry: Technology