there were recent posts discussing MBA programs in the Midwest and I wanted to hear some opinions on a couple of things: * What is a good field to get into after getting your BS in order to position yourself for Booth in a few years? Background: 26 years old finishing undergraduate BS degree in Finance with Accounting minor (DePaul University), 3.9+ GPA, taking L1 in June. Can put in time for GMAT and score >700 (strong in math and English). Want to end up in PM or investment banking, no experience in either field. Work experience in real estate, trying to get into more equity/debt/buy side analyst role in Chicago or New York. My fear is not being able to get into a position that I can build on and prove myself in and therefore reduce my chance of being admitted to a top MBA program. I understand that I may not want to enter Business School after starting my career, but at this point I do not want to rule it out. Thanks in advance!
Well, a good start would be to start pursuing the career you think you’re interested in and also try to demonstrate leadership either at work or in extracurricular…I’m curious to know why you’re just now finishing your undergraduate degree. Anyway, investment banking is a field that you can get into after you pursue your MBA, though any front-office finance job would be a good way to position yourself pre-MBA…assuming you can’t actually get an investment banking position. You can get into business school from any career as long as you have a good story for why you want to pursue your MBA. If I were you, I’d just focus on pursuing the best available job out there and be a total rockstar at it, so that 2-3 years later, you can get awesome recommendations and go back to school.
I agree with above. Get the best possible job now. The specific field should not matter much.
A couple of thoughts. I remember orientation at Booth. When the dean was talking about the importance of networking at school, he said that around 15% of us will be wildely successful but they accepted all of us because they didn’t know which ones of us were the 15%. A business school is going to accept someone who is going to be successful with or without going to business school. Then after you get accepted, they do everything they can to help you succeed because your success becomes their success. Don’t worry as much about having the right package, get on track to be successful and that will be your package. With that said, you might get a lot of much better feedback at gmatclub.com. They have a special section that deals with questions like that. Good luck!
great advice!
I agree with the above posters - they have offered you good advice. One thing I can add is that you not only need to check all the “basic” boxes (e.g. high undergrad GPA, high GMAT, strong work experience, excellent recs) but also have a “good story” that shows you are a unique and dynamic individual. To do this, you’ll need to do something interesting outside of work and be able to write convincingly about it in your essays. Find something outside of work that you enjoy and in which you can gain leadership experience. Stick with this for the next 2-3 years and show progression and you’ll have a lot of good stuff for your essays and interviews when the time comes. Regarding Booth in particular, it seems that the school has made an effort to admit students who are more “well-rounded” and “social” during the past 2-3 years; make sure that you do not come across as “just another finance drone” when the time comes. If you start doing interesting things outside of work now you can avoid this predicament.
Have you given any thought to the fact that IB and PM basically are over-staffed with no job opptys at present - and that many believe we are witnessing a drastic reduction in demand for folks in those fields - might want to think about that before expending $100k+ to become a “banker”