Grad School

POLKOHOLIC

So im gonna graduate in May 2008. I want to go to grad school right after undergrad. Im a Finance major and will have a BBA in Finance and Economics in May 08. Plan on graduating with a 3.8 gpa or better - right now im at 3.7. I want to go for an MBA in Finance and have narrowed down the places I want to apply to. They are as follows:

Stanford - Graduate School of Business
Northwestern - Kellogg
Dartmouth - Tuck School of Business
Columbia
UPenn - Wharton
UC Berkeley - Haas School of Business

If I don't get in to any of those then I won't go to grad school and get a job right after undergrad. My question is for those of you who went to one of those schools or know someone who has. What does it take to get accepted into the MBA programs there?

Gaara

I would imagine you would need a certain mix of GPA and GMAT scores for any school. Beyond that some schools will require essays and some wont.

Not sure if your specific schools will require anything extra.

Jared

POLKOHOLIC

well other than GPA and GMAT scores...what do they look for in applicants...experiance/activities wise?

jmwest1970

Letters of recommendation from your profs, department heads, etc. are always good.

Gaara

Oh yeah forgot about those. I wound up going to the same grad school as I did undergrad so all that was unnecessary. If I were not going to the same grad school as undergrad things would be different.

In your instance you will probably need a official transcript of grades to prove your GPA, you need your GMAT scores to be sent to the colleges, recommendation forms from places of employment and professors, a resume, the application form, probably a fee...can't remember anything else.

As for experiences, one big thing is an internship...if at all possible I would highly recommend it. It looks very good on a resume, speaks well to your ability to work for the Grad program of your choice, and also looks good for future employers.

Other things that are looked for are any clubs or activities you participate in, with a leadership role in anything being even better.

Any jobs that you have during your time at school is also important, especially if it is a good job. By this I mean I did sales for 3yrs while attending school which looked good, my friend was a landscaper over the summers and did nothing during the school year, not good.

I know some schools will also require you to do a interview much like a job. 30mins or so talking to someone about why it would be a good fit, what you would bring to the school, how it will further your career, etc.

Keep the questions coming.

Jared

Mike682

I would also add that you pick up a book on grad school. Something like this :

http://www.amazon.com/Business-Schools-Graduate-School-Admissions/dp/0375765646/ref=sr_1_19/102-0694634-0704139?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1179665983&sr=1-19

Get a book that will tell you the admission criteria for each school (test scores, letters, etc.), tuition costs, average student, admissions acceptance percentage, average salary of recent graduates, etc.

You have a list of some very good schools. It's a good idea that you diversifiy your list of schools and include some solid schools (both public and private) that are somewhat easier to get into (and cheaper too). I'm not saying this because I don't you can get in, it is just good to cover all the bases so to speak. You can diversifiy your school list based on this info you get from the books and college websites

Also, financing grad school is different than financing undergrad. Grad school usually consists of subsidzed and unsub personal student loans and then any fellowships, or scholarship/grants you can get.

Gaara

One extra tidbit, AACSB accreditation for the school looks very good on your resume, you can find a list of accredited schools here.

Do you already have a job lined up or are you still looking?

Jared

jdhdiggs

I might add that most of the schools you listed won't take someone right out of school regardless of GPA and GMAT for their MBA program. They are looking for students to bring their experience from the real world into the classroom and typically want at least 5 years of real work experience.

If you are stuck on going to grad school, look into the MS and MA degrees and not MBA's unless you were a non-trad undergrad.

Shizelbs

Contact each individual program. They'll tip their hats a little on what they want from their applicants. Talk to a recent alum or student if you can.

Get some working experience if you can.

venomclan

jdhdiggs wrote: »

I might add that most of the schools you listed won't take someone right out of school regardless of GPA and GMAT for their MBA program. They are looking for students to bring their experience from the real world into the classroom and typically want at least 5 years of real work experience.

If you are stuck on going to grad school, look into the MS and MA degrees and not MBA's unless you were a non-trad undergrad.

I agree, when I was looking at local schools for my MBA, all of the decent schools required some work experience, at least 2-3 years. High grades will help, but these schools want a diversity of real world experience and look favorable to those with experience over "Professional Students".

Do not get discoraged though. Talk to the schools.
V

schwarcw

Those are all first class schools. It's a seller's market so it will be very competitive. If your not in the top 1 or 2% of your class, it will be difficult. The good news is that you really don't need the famous school degree to make an impact on your career. Have a fallback plan that includes some good school, not just the exclusive ones. BTW, get the degree now if you can. It will be easier now than later. The entry level business professional is expected to put in a shitload of hours. You may never get time like the time you have now! I'm speaking with 30 years of experience in the business world.

wallstreet

Go to work and let your employer pay for it.

POLKOHOLIC

schwarcw wrote: »

Those are all first class schools. It's a seller's market so it will be very competitive. If your not in the top 1 or 2% of your class, it will be difficult. The good news is that you really don't need the famous school degree to make an impact on your career. Have a fallback plan that includes some good school, not just the exclusive ones. BTW, get the degree now if you can. It will be easier now than later. The entry level business professional is expected to put in a shitload of hours. You may never get time like the time you have now! I'm speaking with 30 years of experience in the business world.

that is actually one of the reasons i want to get an MBA now rather then after i start working. i know a few people who planned on doing that and they just dont have the time or motivation any more. im still a "kid" in school and i still have that motivation to learn. i wont be as motivated later on when i start working and have a hundred other things to do.

as far as work experience goes, i believe most schools don't count internships as experience, although i do have 2 summers of intern experience and this summer will be 1 more. i will be taking the gmat in the next few months and have been studying alot the past couple of weeks. im aiming for a 720 - which im hoping if i can achieve, should offset my lack of work experience.

also, im planning on taking the CFA Level 1 exam in december. the gmat and cfa level 1 made me broke. $850 for the cfa and $250 for the gmat (plus another 200 for books) grand total of $1300.

PS: its either those schools or nothing. if they dont take me, then i guess no mba for a couple of years. i don't plan on going to school again after MBA and ill be damned if my last 2 years in school are spent in a tier 2/3 MBA program.

jdhdiggs

Reality check time:

Why do you want to do an MBA? You seem to be missing the point of what they do for a student. All an MBA is is a capstone or finishing coursework for an employee well into their career. That's it. It isn't something where once someone goes they gain some magical knowledge and will become a CEO by age 30 or starts out at $120K/year right out of school.

That being said, I would give you a 5% chance at best of getting into any of those schools. Why? Because as a teacher I wouldn't want you there, as a fellow student I wouldn't want you there, and as an employer I wouldn't hire you out of the program. The reason? All your learning until now has been based in books and classrooms. Sorry, but three summers of internships are nothing experience wise. All the internships tells me is that you were exposed to the field and are still interested and that's it.

A quick story: One of my good friends scored in the 99.9% percentile on the GMAT (It was a 790) with a 3.9 GPA as a double major in business and computer science (University of Texas-Austin) with 4 year real world work experience. He applied to the Cox MBA program at SMU (#4-#18 in the world depending on publication) and he was told that he was accepted BUT they recommended that he wait at least a year or two before attending because his work experience had barely exposed him to what they want coming from their students and that he would be one of the weaker links in the cohort process for the first year. Are you a stronger candidate on paper than him?

Also rmember that the average salary coming out totally depends on the one going in. If you're making $30K going into Wharton, you'd be lucky to be making $60K coming out. Most going into Wharton are already very uccessful in real life and are making $90-$110K anyway so having an extreme high average starting salary is very misleading.

If I were you (and it sounds like I was once) look at MS programs in the area you really want to learn about. Those programs are much more interesting academically and easier to get into when your young. This flip flops as you get older as MS programs don't care as much about experience as ability to learn where MBA's seem to be the opposite.

Oh, and those tier 1 schools- Doesn't really matter. As long as you go to a decent school, you'll get the benifit of an MBA. You can easily price yourself out of the market with any of the schools you listed. Would you really be willing to start at $50K a year out of Wharton or Harvard?

Anyway, good luck and prove me wrong!

jflail2

Darden at UVA is another excellent option to consider. But like jdhiggs said, most of the big boys want you doing 80 hour weeks for an investment bank somewhere for a couple of years before they'll consider you for acceptance.

Good luck on the cfa; I don't think level 1 is terribly hard from what friends have said...Random aside: A friend of mine actually works for the cfa instititute researching XBRL.

wallstreet

OTOH, my cousin went to Harvard, works on Wall Street and has a 7 figure income, a nice apartment in Manhattan, and a house in the Hamptons. And so does his wife, LOL.

I see it like this. Not everyone in real estate is a millionaire. But there are a lot of millionaires who are in real estate. Likewise, not everyone who graduates with a Harvard MBA will be a millionaire. But you know, a lot of millionaires come from Harvard.

jdhdiggs

eye, there's the rub. Would your cousin still be making 7 figures had he not gone to Harvard?

schwarcw

POLKOHOLIC wrote: »

PS: its either those schools or nothing. if they dont take me, then i guess no mba for a couple of years. i don't plan on going to school again after MBA and ill be damned if my last 2 years in school are spent in a tier 2/3 MBA program.

I disagree with your position here totally. If you can't see the fallacy in your position, you probably don't belong in one of the top schools. No offense my friend but you don't have to have a degree from one of the schools you listed to be successful. The MBA will help you no matter where it comes from. But, it's your job performance that will help you the most. Good luck!:)

schwarcw

jflail2 wrote: »

Darden at UVA is another excellent option to consider.

Absolutely! Great school!