Profile Assessment

You may have to look outside the top 16 for full-time (schools like Georgetown, Texas, Carnegie Mellon, etc.). Again, given your goals you're going to be a better fit for the part-time and exec programs.

Alex, just wanted to bump this. You advised that for full-time programs, I should focus on schools outside the top 16. Do you feel that I would not be a competitive applicant at a top 16 school? The reason I ask is that I may choose to make a more significant career change that would warrant a full-time program over a part-time / EMBA program. Can you please elaborate? Thank you.

Hi Alex,
First of all thank you for providing such helpful insight into the choices of B School.

I have a slightly different profile and was wondering if such a profile would be acceptable to B schools.

Age : 27
Work Exp : 8 yrs
Industry : Merchant Marine ( Oil Transportation )
Designation : Navigating officer
Previous GMAT : 690 ( Q 48, V 37 ) , Planning to take the GMAT again in 1 months time.
Choice of Schools : Wharton, Harvard, Stanford, Tuck, Stern, Columbia, INSEAD, LBS
Post MBA Concentration : Energy Consulting/ Brokerage

With absolutely no experience in the " Corporate " world, would my profile be suitable for B Schools listed above. Also what kind of score should I be targetting ?

Thank You

If you're gung ho about applying to a full-time program, go for it. You don't need to convince me - convince the adcom. If you really think you're competitive, by all means go ahead and apply.

Here's the thing though -- like just about everyone here who is under 40, you WILL be changing careers multiple times over the course of your life. Maybe every 10-15 years. Some of them will be 180-degree changes. You can't keep on going back to school each time to make that change. Especially for certain paths like business where it's far less about credentials/prestige and more about hustle.

It just sounds like you feel you need the MBA to get out of the law. And what I'm saying is -- don't count on it. And more importantly, you don't NEED the degree. It's a luxury, not a necessity. You need to figure out another way to make that change other than making b-school the only thing you're holding onto (because if you're going after top schools, there's a good chance it won't be the answer).

You're not the first lawyer looking to get the h*ll out. Far from it. You're not the first career professional looking to make a drastic change. But unless you're going into a field where the credential is a requirement by law/policy (i.e. medicine or law), you have to treat "going back to school full-time" as just one option of many - and not the *only* or most important one. If you want to get into business, an MBA could help, but if you feel it's essential or even that important, you're overvaluing the degree (it's got some practical value, but for many career switchers it seems to have more psychic value because businesses in the real world care less about it than you'd think). If you want to become a film maker, you could go to film school, or just go and make a film. If you want to open a bed & breakfast, you could go and do a hospitality degree, or you can simply find a way to do it without going back to school.

The biggest trap isn't what one feels in their current job -- it's the mental trap of believing that there is really only ONE way out. There are many more doors if you're willing to see them, and if you're willing to work at it to see other doors.

Go for at least a 700 more; 720+ if you can.

Given that you come from a non-traditional background, you will be an unknown quantity to the adcoms - it will be even more subjective, and your results could end up being very random (i.e. getting into a top ranked school, but dinged at a lower ranked school - it happens to a lot of applicants, but could happen more often in cases like yours).

From a practical standpoint, focus on the 5-6 schools you really want to go to, knowing that with your background, there are no real safeties within the top 16 schools. There aren't really any real "stretches" or "sweet spots" because it will really depend on the individual adcoms reading your case, and their decision will be even more subjective because there won't be many people similar to you that they can benchmark against.

While most applicants need to focus on standing out (because there's tons of people with similar resumes/profiles applying), in your case you need to focus on convincing them you can fit into a b-school environment. And whether you will or not is really a judgment call on the indivdiual adcom reading your case - some will believe you, and some won't -- and that's assuming you still put together a solid narrative in your applications.

Thanks for the advice, Alex.