MBA Students Drop Out, Link Up, Cash In on Web

What happens to a dream deferred?

If you're an MBA student with a great Internet idea, maybe someone swipes your concept, takes their company public and gets rich while you're still studying for midterm exams.

Which is why Christopher Jenkins and Alex Wang bailed out of UCLA's Anderson Graduate School of Management last summer, determined to launch their automotive care "dot-com" before anyone beats them to it.

Indeed, dropping out has become the hot elective for some MBA students in the e-generation who are ditching coveted slots in the nation's elite graduate business programs to take a flier on an Internet start-up.

Wisdom imparted on campus might last a lifetime, but the e-commerce gold rush won't, these prospectors say. And with venture capitalists willing to bankroll top prospects with millions in equity capital, some B-school whiz kids are hitting the exits like basketball prodigies jumping early into the NBA draft.

Mallika Chopra is taking her game to the next level. The daughter of New Age luminary Deepak Chopra didn't return last fall for her final year at Northwestern University's Kellogg Graduate School of Management after investors put more than $5 million into her plan to build a Web-based business focusing on holistic self-improvement.

"It was a no-brainer," said Chopra, 28, who plans to launch Los Angeles-based MyPotential.com early next year. "My opportunity is now, not a year from now."

Even those students patient enough to hang around and graduate are increasingly shunning traditional blue-chip employers and six-figure salaries for the chance to hit it big with an Internet start-up.

It's a warp-speed transition that has the nation's business schools bolstering their e-commerce offerings to placate anxious would-be Internet entrepreneurs.

"There's a feeling that if this train leaves the station, there won't be another one," said Mohanbir Sawhney, professor of electronic commerce and technology at Kellogg. "The opportunity cost of waiting two years to graduate has gone way up in Internet time."

Clearly, a graduate business degree from a top-flight university remains a valuable asset. Many a Fortune 500 executive matriculated at elite programs such as Harvard, where recent salary data show the average MBA student comes in making $68,000 and leaves two years later for a job worth $164,000.