Desautels (McGill U) 2013 - Calling All MBA Applicants

That is a pretty crazy interest rate. I'm sure you must have gotten some form of scholarship from McGill though.

Mod update: I deleted all posts related to minor technical issues, since everyone involved agreed.

great ... thanks for the immediate reply

Hey guys. congrats on your admits.
Can anyone tell me how long did it take for school to contact them? I mean for anything. reject,interview, admit?
but I haven't heard anything from the school and I'm kinda getting worried. I haven't even got a rejected or an interview invitation.
Is that a bad? should i be worried?
How long does it take to consider the files and move on to next level!? How much longer should I wait?

P.S. Has any of you gotten any financial aid, funding, loans, etc. from school? Did they tell you about it in your admission offer?

I've read the post and I'm worried. Do you think i have a chance with this profie:

International, GMAT 660, GPA 3.06, Bachelor in finance, good extra curricular, 4+years in management consulting firm as a consultant + a few years part time.
(I saw the GMAT 770 and went nutz!)

No worries, look at my profile. I am also international and have 9 years of work experience. My GPA is a little higher than yours, but my GMAT is lower. I guess they look at the overall profile. GMAT is just one component - but it may become decisive in offering financial aid.
I have applied on March 22 and received confirmation that I will be interviewed next week. When did you apply?

It was in March before the deadline. I think March 13th. Been almost a month. i guess i should get worried if I don't get any invitation in next few days.
I really really want go to McGill.
Is this interview invitation any indication of Acceptance? some schools are like that. They say if you get an interview you're almost in. Is McGill like that?

An issue that nobody raised here before is the concept of part- time work parallel to the course .The Desautels website site says that they do not recommend that students work along with the course ... but from the alumni 's experience is this actually possible , at least till the beginning of the internship ?

What do you think everybody ? I believe it can fit if number of hours per week was 5-6 maximum to afford time for studying and school extracurricular activities

Not sure about whether the interview really means the next step of admissions, - but talking about application on March 13th: I have also submitted my primary application on March 12, but I had it complete (i had to send the scanned copies of some missing documents and IELTS score) on March 22. So, I guess you can email them asking about their decision. In my case - I had to email them and inquire about my status, because I received 2 offers with a very interesting financial aid package from US universities and I need to make a choice as soon as possible. No need to say that McGill is also my number 1 choice!!!

I don't think it's possible for anyone to know how much weight they put on the interview. But what would be the purpose of the interview if all interviewees are admitted? I was bombarded with questions during my interview and it really felt like they wanted to see if I was going to be a good fit in their program.

I think the idea of part time work, though always possible, is a bad one. The amount of money you could make working 5 or 6 hours a week is next to nothing. I`m an engineer at the moment and I know for a fact that no firm out there would hire me for 5 hours a week, because you can`t accomplish anything in that time. Assuming other industries are as pragmatic, you would have to settle for some job paying b/w $10-$25/hr. But considering you could only work about 50 weeks during your degree, that would be $5000 (50weeks*$20/hr*5hrs/wk). $5000 in the grand scheme of things is nothing, that time would be spent much more effectively networking to find a better job when you graduate or gaining a better understanding of the course material, especially when you consider the whole MBA experience at McGill will likely cost you more than $100k.

I know about 80% of domestic students interviewed (in person) are admitted. That number may vary for international students or phone interviews.

While I feel very strongly against working part-time, there is however an exception IMO. I think it could make sense if you are a career changer and by working a couple of hours every day you can improve your profile and get more experience. Unfortunately a "job" like this might not even come with money.

Interesting fact carl, what's your source about the 80%?

Hearsay/consensus among current students.
What relevant company would hire you to work a couple hours a day? Have you heard of any MC or IB/prop trading firm having done this in the past?

I know at least two buy-side traders who started working about 10 hours per week, across 2 or 3 days. One was at Franklin Templeton, the other in a small hedge fund. Their jobs were to bring coffee initially, but quietly sit next to a trader just observing what was going on. Eventually, they would help closing books at the end of day. Not much it would seem, but it gave them great exposure. If at the end your CV says "assistant trader at xxx" it can make a massive difference. Very importantly, many of these trades happen very early in the morning so you can work there 6am-10am, for example, and be on time for your first class.

There are also a few MBA programs out there that have courses four days per week. If my memory doesn't trick me, I think Wharton, Stern and Yale do this. This is done on purpose so that students can spend a day working if they wish to do so.

Montreal can be one of the best places to find a job like this because of the high amount of buy-side firms.

Very interesting. Thanks for the heads up, DW. I think I`ll have to look into that...

That is quite interesting. I suppose you could do some cheap consultancy as well in your field of expertise. I know someone who used to do that