According to Time magazine, venture capital funds sank $7.6 billion in start-up businesses during the second quarter of 1999 - and more than half of that money went to Internet startups. With money so readily available for ventures, prospective entrepreneurs face a dilemma when it comes to business school. They want the degree, but they worry that with technology moving at its present rate, they'll miss their chance if they "exit the race" (as it were), devote two years to books and theory, and spend upwards of $100,000 that could be used for seed capital.

Beyond offering classes in entrepreneurship and helping students find internships in hot startups, B-schools hope to satisfy that capitalist craving by sponsoring business plan competitions, which attract VCs from all over Silicon Valley. And students don't even have to submit a winning project in these competitions to walk home with a wallet full of business cards. If you scan the press, there's a pervasive sense that VCs are willing to invest millions on any intelligent individual who can write a business plan.

Founding entrepreneurial fathers like Larry Ellison, Dave Packard and Harvard dropout Bill Gates spent years developing ideas and building up their companies. Today's entrepreneurial men and women, on the other hand, can draw up business plans, secure funding and launch in a matter of months. In fact, if they spend too much time at the drawing board, they run the risk that someone else will step into their space.

Markets can explode within months. A year ago, there were no major online beauty and makeup vendors. But by the end of 1999, at least seven such companies (including Gloss.com, Sephora.com, Eve.com, P&G's Reflect.com, and Beautyscene.com), will be duking it out online. And in December 1998, Stanford business school student Matt Hobart began working on his business plan for an e-commerce company that would sell pet supplies online. By April 1999, he had secured financing and lined up employees - only to learn that four competitors, including Petsmart.com, Petopia.com and Petstore.com, were already preparing to launch.

Are today's MBA students really worried about missing opportunities to strike it rich as entrepreneurs? Vault.com contacted a few B-school students and recent MBA grads around the country to find out how they weighed opportunity against education. ~

Jim Hamilton, co-president of the Media and Technology club at MIT's Sloan School of Management comments, "Graduating MBAs are in huge demand by the hottest high tech companies, both start-ups and bigger companies." Thus, "if you're not exactly where you want to be," B-school can help you get there, "whether it be start-up, Internet, or e-commerce." "But," Hamilton adds, "if you're already exactly where you want to be and thinking about business school only for its long term benefits, you should probably think twice. Business school will still be there in a couple of years - but the technology, venture capital, and job opportunities may not!"

Deborah Adeyanju, a recent MBA graduate, has mixed feelings. "During the first year of business school I definitely learned new material and did not feel I was missing things by not working. However, after completing a summer internship between my first and second years and returning to school, I definitely felt some impatience with coursework that was not practical enough or applicable to my sharpened career focus."

Ramon Frausto, another Sloan student, doesn't think he's missing a thing. "Perhaps in a different school I might feel that way," he says. At MIT, known for its long history of innovation and entrepreneurship (more than 4,000 companies have been started at the school), "we are close to the latest developments in technology." MIT sponsors an annual $50K entrepreneurship competition, which gives Sloan students the chance to develop business plans.

Roberta Griff, a first-year at Columbia Business School, also admits that "it is a serious trade-off," but maintains that "I made my decision based on what would give me the best skills for the long run." The reality is that "having an MBA can never work against you when running a business or working for one." Business school, like any worthwhile investment, requires time, money and effort. The entrepreneurial opportunities are out there - and in there, for the growing number of business schools that offer venture capital to current students (such as Columbia Business School and the University of Michigan). For most, it seems, the MBA is a supplement, not a replacement, for entrepreneurial ambitions.

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