Is everyone applying to bschool this fake during visits?

I know exactly what you mean. Admissions is competitive, but recruiting for top jobs may be even more so. Can you imagine what these fake douchebags will be doing in school, probably trying to kiss recruiters asses all day and backstab other fellow classmates. I am not really worried about landing a job, since I know I'll beat out those douchebags anyways. My concern is having to spend 2 years with these people.

Please do elaborate...

I think there isn't much love lost between college town residents and their students (not just michigan) - understandably so, would you want thousands of 18-21 year olds running around ten months out of the year?

I have to agree with dghazer. Somehow I seem to plan my visits on the day where all the people who live life only to save starving kids in Africa by going into PE visit .

If I hear one more person ask a qustion like "how would you view an older applicant (28) if he graduated from a top undergrad with honors and went on to get two masters with honors as well and has also become a CPA, CFA and started a non-profit to ship brownies to kids in developing countries." (everything true except the brownie part) Dude, just ask how they view older applicants. You'll have plenty of time to boast about yourself in you application.

The other thing that bothers me is why do so many people pay thousands of dollars to fly across the country (or world) and ask questions listed on the website.

"Is there a minimum GMAT score? What's the average? What's the average age? Am I too young? Am I too old? How much work experience do I need? How many students are there?"

If you really wanted to make a good impression you would think that you would have at least reviewed the website before you come to visit. I have heard admissions officers refer people to their website countless times. You've got 45 minutes with an admission officer. Ask them something you wont be able to look up in 2 minutes when you get home.

And what is it with people that want to go into PE. I've heard not one, two, but three people ask can I switch to PE if I come here. What kind of question is that?

Plenty of pushy people as well. I visited one school with a friend and we got their early so I spent some time talking with the Administrative Assistant. Clearly other people treated her as someone who just answers the phone. After talking with her she told me that she had been there twenty years and gave great insight into the program. She went out of her way track down the presidents of the clubs I was interested in and made sure they came in to talk with me as well as printed out a list of alumni with similar backgrounds as myself. At the end of the day she reached into her desk and pull out two of her personal business cards to give to me and my friend and another guy just reaches his hand in to take it. You should have seen the look on her face.

OK, I'm done ranting. The students at all the places I have visited seem really cool. So I'm hoping these are the people that will be weeded out.

People without simple manners or etiquette theoretically should be weeded out during the interviews.

I actually had problems with the way some applicants/accepted students acted towards my fiance during visits and accepted weekends. During the course of normal conversation, people would ask what my fiance did, and she would explain that she is an elementary school teacher. For whatever reason, a few individuals took this as a cue that she was below them and treated her as such. These individuals essentially acted as though she did not exist when she asked questions or attempted to make conversation. They did not know that she has two degrees from Notre Dame (undergrad and grad), and is easily smarter than me and probably most of the other people in the room.

I have to agree with the 'asking questions that can be found on the web-site'. When I visited Chicago GSB, I encountered a lot of this. We alsoI saw some people walk off in the middle of tour, only to be found wandering around later as the tour completed. Just seemed odd to me.

To be fair though, I did find that I was able to carry on conversations with the majority of prospective students I met. Most students fell in the 'reserved' category rather than the 'fake/condescending' category.

What did you say in response if you do not mind me asking? Do engineers not belong there?

Nothing witty...I tend to enjoy getting into verbal scrapes (a little too much), so I figured I'd stay quiet as I didn't want to make a bad impression.

The majority of my comments regard experiences with undergrads, although I have had similar experiences with grad students.

Many Michigan alum expect the best jobs/treatment handed to them because of their Michigan diploma. A sense of superiority, patronization, and snobibness is not uncommon.

I don't mean to generalize, but this is a fairly common stereotype (typified by many students) held in the state of MI.

All that being said, I am sure many students are very nice, and you will find similar negative personality traits at other "big" schools.

Just wanted to add my two cents...

I went to Michigan State, and my girlfriend to Michigan, so I can comment on the general attitude of the Michigan students -

The feeling that Michigan students are arrogant I think stems from a couple things -

- It is a really good school, they deserve to be proud.

- But the real thing I think is that there are a massive amount of people in Michigan that didn't go to college but are absolutely rabid Michigan fans. These people tend to be more uneducated and want to latch onto a "proven winner." As a generalization, these fans make every attempt to talk about how great Michigan is at everything, and how much better Michigan is than any other institution in the area. I think people (myself included, I will admit) tend to then associate this over-the-top obnoxious behavior with Michigan students as well.

But, having said that, my interactions with Michigan students have, as a whole, been great. They have been down to earth, humble, always up for a debate, and very sharp. Many of my very good friends are Michigan grads, and they tend to feel that many of the UM fans that are not alums rub people the wrong way as well.

Just my two cents from growing up in Michigan near Ann Arbor.

~Sam

Wow In all honesty, the Ross students were the most down to earth of all the students that I interacted with over the last year (and I interacted with students from over 10 universities). But yeah, I can understand where you are coming from. During the course of my research, a current student really rubbed me off the wrong way. But the next guy I spoke to next was great. So, there are the bad apples yes, but to generalize saying that the Michigan student body is unfriendly is a little extreme IMHO.

People are fake everywhere, really.

Hi, this is my first post on Gmatclub,

I just want to say, unfortunately, if you end up working in management consulting, or in any marketing function, you'd have to deal with those types of people down the line. so it would be more than 2 years dealing with them

I've known some "keep it real" consultants and "fake" ones, and it seems that most of them are "fakes" and whats more dissapointing, most of them have stanford, harvard mbas.

Go search any consulting blogs out there, most of them boasted using up the company's money for their own pleasure and spewing out BS for their clients although perhaps they were directed to do so by their bosses ( I dont know). Most these blogs talk smack about clients behind their back and really show their bipolar attitudes. I see alot of arrogance in these blogs and this general observation had deterred me from pursuing a consulting career.

It's also one of the reasons why I'm unsure in applying for an MBA vs an masters in engineering... Granted I haven't actually visited any of the bschools or talked to the students, something on my todo list.

You will find some really cool, normal, down to earth people. Actually there will be far more of the normal ones than the fake ones. It'll just come down to whether you can stomach the fake ones while appreciating the normal ones.

Enjoy the process, or don't.

Kudos for that Gixxer. I managed to meet quite a few of those myself. good point about baking brownies for the poor too.

And what *IS* it about asking about GMAT scores? Sweet mother of Jesus, read the website. It is lucky I don't work in admissions, or I would just pick random/inconsistent answers to their questions just to throw them off.
Q:What is the minimum GMAT Score?
A:913
Q:What is the average for an admitted student?
A:800
Q:How can the average be less than the minimum, and isn't the maximum possible score 800?
A:That is odd, I thought all applicants would have at least BASIC math skills - what was your name again?

//end rant.

I actually DO enjoy the process, and there are less d-bags than regular folks, but MAN do the d-bags make themselves known!