Student in college aiming for the top schools

jjovan and all the other younger posters on this thread.

The point being made is that you're asking the wrong question, hence you're not getting the answers you want.
The first question one should ask is not "How do I get into b-school?", it is "Why do I want to go to b-school?"

A lot of you, even though you don't say it out loud, view business school as a goal, not a means to a goal. Us curmudgeons on this board are just trying to point out that b-school is a stepping stone to a goal, not a goal in itself.

It's about building a life for yourself, not accomplishing a list of achievements.

You want to know what else you have to do to prepare for b-school? I'll tell you: do what you would do to live life to the fullest, but forget about b-school. Run and train for marathons because you enjoy running (masochist!) or like challenging yourself physically. Climb Mt Kilimanjaro because you've always liked climbing and wanted to conquer the highest peak in Africa. Do things because you are passionate about them, and you want to live your life to the fullest, not because you want to improve your chances of getting into a top school.

I'm not trying to be a Zen-master and say stuff like, "To be a b-school student, you have to give up being a b-school student." I am trying to say that b-school is not a goal in itself, so stop trying to view it as such.

You want an answer that doesn't say "Stop being shallow, go live a life!" then stop asking questions like, "How do I improve my chances of getting into an elite school?"

So saying that I want to go to B-school in order to make the most amount of money as early as possible would be a logical goal-means correlation,

or should there be some type of spiritual fulfillment that comes out of it? because all this marathon and mountain-climbing stuff seems like it would not be logical at all, from a career standpoint, but going to b-school obviously would...

What is your goal? Or even better yet, what is a goal?
I think some of you are getting confused between means and goals.

Go watch or listen to this speech by Hans Rosling. If you have ADD and can't watch through the whole speech, fast forward towards the end and see Rosling's explanation of means vs goals.

I am not going to preach about needing spiritual fulfillment in your life, or you need to do something like run a marathon or climb a great peak (I have done neither). It is your life, you should decide what fulfills you. That's for you to figure out.

I will just speak from my perspective. A lot of things I do in my life does not make a lot sense from a career standpoint. I have dedicated a lot of my time and effort in activities that do not result in professional growth. There is no logical goal-means correlation between my activities and my career. However it does make a lot of sense (to me at least) in terms of the kind of life I want to lead and the kind of person I want to become.

Actually...I want to go to B-school in order to make a ton of money really quickly isn't really a logical goal-means correlation. To make a lot of money really quicky the best thing you can do is found a company based on some kind of breakthrough in technology (google, microsoft, HP, Bio tech, Ford motors, etc.). Virtually none of the people who did it this way actually had business school backgrounds. You'd probably say something like "what about IB or PE/VC guys? they make a lot of money too." Except that you're not really going to get a PE or VC job without some experience that will allow you to evaluate business plans and management teams to establish whether there are opportunities for the type of explosive growth that these firms look for. You're also not going to have the connections to get into these industries unless you have a family member already working in them. You're probably not going to do too well in IB recruiting when your blank resume is compared to the guy who spent 4 years doing M&A research for rolls royce before returning to school to transition to the Banking side or the guy who worked as a junior analyst at some fund for 3 years before returning to complete his credentials and move into a more senior position.

With no experience you'll run into the problem where HR is looking for MBA+experience in a candidate and you only have MBA. For someone they're gonna be paying 100k/year and looking to develop into a top level manager that's a huge risk. Think about it like major league baseball. The guy that gets taken with the #1 overall pick is an amazing talent with tons of achievements. They're still gonna want him to go to the minors for a year or more to develop that talent into something they can use on the big club. Acclimate him to the schedule of being a pro ball player, get him used to the pressures, to living alone, to going on the road, etc. That's why HBS and Booth have their 2+2 programs, which I think are a great option and you guys should definitely pursue if you're sure that you want an MBA. But if you just want a lot of money I suggest inventing Google. You'll make a lot more money and you won't need to go through the difficulty of MBA applications or take the GMAT.

Money is usually a byproduct of success at least in the business world.

Again, it's a byproduct, not the main driver for success.

The reason why is that unless you're the shallowest person in the world, you don't love money badly enough to be willing to suffer through the multiple hardships and risks along the way to realize that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Sure, a lot of financially successful folks may have been motivated by money, but money is hardly the only thing nor is it the main thing that drove them. It's a secondary motivation at best - even those in finance.

Anyhow, for you younger folks out there, you'll have to figure it out on your own. Nothing us old fogies here are saying will really convince you -- you'll discover it on your own.