ladyinred seems to be in the know. there is certainly a misalignment of incentives. you are evaluated almost entirely on your research. did you get the 8# hits in a top tier journal in the 6-10 yrs of your tenure clock? if so, congrats, professor xyz. if not, goodbye. even if you are a stellar teacher, it's really the research that counts at top institutions. there is absolutely no doubt about that. the other thing is that there is tremendous intertia at schools. the old farts who have been around tend to have their way a lot, and they have so much authority and are usually averse to changing their beliefs that things will take a really long time to change. liljohnny, seems like you need to do more research before deciding. the mba and phd tracks are completely different. an mba leads to a job in industry. a phd leads to a job in academia if you go to a top tier school if you want. if you don't you can always go to industry. having a phd (compared to an mba) is not valued that much in industyr, unless you go to firms that have a history of hiring phds for either their percieved ability, or the research-specific nature of the job.