AlexMBAApply wrote:
If you want to work in the music industry, you don't need an MBA. Frankly, if you're interested in the business side of the entertainment industry, you really don't need an MBA.
In any case, focus on the GMAT. That is what will dictate where you'll be competitive for. I could go on and on, conjecturing about if you got this score or that score whether you'll get into which schools, but then that tends to psyche people out when they're trying to prepare. Again, rather than overthinking school selections, why you want an MBA, goals, etc. -- they are distractions that will get in the way of your GMAT prep.
Hi Alex, I took the GMAT's last Thursday and scored a 770.
I've since put in some thought as to my reasons for going to business school, and I still feel my interests lie in the more research/economics side of business. I would still like to keep the possibility of getting a PhD open (I'm pretty interested in behavioral economics, decision/motivation sciences, Freakonomics-like views, etc.), but I'd like to first get into a good B-school program before I make that decision. I wouldn't mind going into the consulting/analyst field after my MBA, either.
I believe my business experience is fairly good. However, I've found that most of the essays and recommendations seem more catered towards a corporation/leadership atmosphere. My company is fairly small, and we have a sort of independent vibe amongst us. My colleagues and I generally start and see through projects by ourselves—"convincing others" isn't really that necessary. I'm never doing any PowerPoint presentations. It's pretty obvious what we should or shouldn't be doing, and if we ever had any pertinent decisions to make, we basically go out to lunch, discuss a few ideas, and come to a yes/no conclusion and proceed. I do "lead teams" of commission-based sales reps, but again, our business is small and fairly casual, and not too similar to a corporate vibe.
As far as extra curriculars, would I be able to push through my music background as a solid extracurricular? While I've DJ'ed locally, written some music, and worked with some local school bands, I wouldn't necessarily call myself anywhere near a "successful" artist. I don't have press (good or bad) written up on me.
A lot of the B-school sessions and interviews I've read up on focus on "evidence-based" applications. I went to a local MIT clinic, and the people there said their admissions bases their view of a candidate by what they've done, not what they've learned or how they viewed the situation. This concept bugs me a little, as I've always thought of admissions essays as something to separate out the high scorers w/ no intuition from the above-average scorers who are deep thinkers (or display potential, good EQ, etc.). I'm kind of worried about either overselling my experience or underselling my experience in my essays.
If you look at it one way, I've led highly successful, integrated projects, seeing a product from planning to design to supply to marketing to retailers to consumer, by first presenting a strategy (we need to expand in $x price range), planning the budget (which I'm largely in charge of), laying out the design (I don't make the final decision, but I send some rough drafts up), marketing (I do our photography, copywriting, etc.), and push the product to our sales reps and retailers (all of us in the company help pitch the product), who in turn sell it to the end user.
But if you look at it another way, this all kind of worked as clockwork, and really wasn't too difficult. We saw an opening in the market, had some extra cash for a high-end product, I contacted our supplier, showed them some drawings, took photos and named the product over 2-3 days, and then pushed the product to our retailers, whom we've known for years. Not too difficult. I don't want to make this process seem as if
I were the only person in the world capable of doing this.
I guess that's basically it—I'm unsure about how to present the small business vs. corporate view, and also how to sell myself.
Looking forward to some advice, thanks!
Tony
P.S. Oh and as far as schools, my score has kind of bumped up my target range. I'd like to get into more research-oriented schools (like Cal), but am also focusing on the higher tier of schools. I know my GPA isn't stellar, but I'm hoping my GMAT and experience will cover that. I sent my scores to Cal, Harvard, MIT, UCLA, and USC, and I'm looking at USC as a sort of "back up" school—I'd prefer to stay local to SoCal if I can't get into my first choices.
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14 Aug 2010, 17:57
