The smart guys I know who made big bucks did so at hedge funds - not ibanks - and were applied math majors who never went to grad school. They didn't need an MBA. Another way you could "make it" in the world of finance was by getting your MBA at a top 10 program, and use the school's ibank recruiting channels to land a Wall Street job. There are no big, pure ibanks left. Goldman is now a commercial bank. Is a finance MBA now a terrible value (total cost is 150+K USD)? Will MBA programs be forced to drop prices?
I'm talking about MBAs with a concentration in finance from HBS, Wharton, Stanford...the top schools. 99.9% of all MBAs who concentrate on finance and are able to graduate from those schools can pass a CPA exam. So for the top finance MBA grads, is it worth it?