Hey, guys... I know how annoying this is, but I did a cursory search without seeing many specific results. I'll give you a little background on me:

BS in Econ, worked for a year in accounting, MS in Econ, working for 2 years now as an Associate Economist (in actuality I do data analysis/cleaning/programming).

Anyway, I have felt a strong urge to change career directions. It seems to me that an MBA would be a good way to accomplish this transition. I'd like to get started in consulting (probably management) and then move toward owning my own business a few years after.

So, my questions:

1) As I begin my prep, would it be a best strategy to spend the 1000+ bucks and enroll in a prep course or can I really do everything the course would teach with books/computer tests? Basically is structure all you really get out of prep courses?

2) As a more of a curiosity, are any of you that would be paying for your own MBA that concerned about the ROI? In other words, financially, how common is it that your investment turns out to be negative (assuming you get into a top 30 or so school)?

thanks, everyone.