Vanderbilt (Owen) 2013 - Calling All Applicants

Bigbad, Krudget, I am going to Discovery weekend on November 9th and 10th. I would love to see you guys there. fv113 and the rest, I have been to Owen twice - albeit not a Discovery Weekend. I just went on a regular visit on my own. Owen is a great place and it is my number 1 school. It is very small and quaint - although right in the middle of a large city. Its also in an old yet refurbished engineering building, which my old engineer self loves! Let me know if you guys have any questions, again I would love to see you there.

Btw, I sent this to fv113 but I wanted to ask some of your opinions as well. I'm 37 and have 15 years of experience in the construction industry. I have a 2.8 but double majored in civil and environmental engineering at a large state university (NC State in Raleigh). I also am a licensed Professional Engineer in North Carolina. I have a 650 on my GMAT - Q39/V40. Do I have a realistic shot at getting into Owen if I rocked on the essays - it is my dream school. I want to use their incredible real estate concentration to go into development combing my construction experience. I asked fv113 this, but in no disrespect to him just wanted to get some more opinions. fv, when you come in - let me know.

Sounds good, hope to see you at Discovery Weekend. They have a tonne of stuff planned for us it looks like.

As far as if you're competitive, I honestly don't know. I helped with med school admissions in my second year, so hopefully its somewhat analogous. We'd get 'older' candidates with a variety of real life experiences and distinct goals and would be open to them. For example if our MCAT average was a 33-34, and the 80% was 28-37, we'd look at people that have real life experience (like you) with say a 29 MCAT, which is about what your 650 would be in Vandy's 80%. Some folks like me, look at the person having actual real life experience as far more important than standardized scores, and I'm sure in business admissions that much much more important. You've done things and seen things that most 25-30 year olds have not; no substitute for experience. That being said, there are plenty that will say "too old, not high enough scores" and chuck your app in the bin. I'd like to think most of us were the former rather than the latter, besides two of our best physician educators and physicians in general had a decade of experience in other fields: one was a banker for 10 years, and one was a high school teacher for 10. And I would have to assume the emphasis on real-world experience is more so in business. It certainly seems like you have a great reason for getting an MBA and a great reason for why Owen specifically, so I would say that greatly helps your chances. A big question they may ask is "at your age, why not get an EMBA?" But maybe not. Certainly worth trying, and the folks there seem wonderful and truly interested in a class with widely varied interests.

I posted this in the general Vanderbilt thread, but I don't think it is very active, so I wanted to post it in here.

For anyone who is going to Vanderbilt or has done research on the program, do you think Vanderbilt would offer significant value over a large state school that is normally ranked in the 40-60 range? I would save about 70-80k in tuition costs by going to the state school so I didn't know if others thought that Vanderbilt would add that much more value in terms of prestige, alumni network, career progress, etc. over a large state school program.

I am content at both schools with issues like school location, geographic placement after the MBA, etc.,

It really depends on what your goals are, what type of connections you already have and what geographic location you want to work in. In my opinion, Vanderbilt has great alumni connections, and because of the small class sizes they are not depleted like in bigger schools. Also, if you want to stay in the South Vanderbilt carries a lot of prestige and could help you get your foot in the door upon graduation and beyond.

Hey Benpack,

I was going through previous chat sessions and found this question and answer that might encourage you.

Comment From james
I am 38years old..
Is it too late to apply full time mba with my age?


Owen Marketing Team: James, it is definitely not too late to apply. I am sitting next to Hal, who is a very fit 35 years of age. And we have a student in this year's graduating class who is 47. As I've mentioned earlier, we look to have as much diversity of thought and experience as possible when building our classes here at Owen.

Next Online Chat is tomorrow btw.

Tightlines,

To me its all in where you feel your heart is. Like fv said, Vanderbilt has a tremendous alumni network in the south and the world. I am looking at some big state schools too. Its a hard toss up. I don't look at it as where I will save the most money, I look at it as where my heart is. I have often noted that the most successful people were the ones who were the happiest where they were at and what they were doing.

This sounds VERY encouraging.......

Krudget,

This was very informative, thank you. I realize that a lot of my candidacy rests on my essays and how well I convey my experience and where I want the Owen MBA to take me. I have thought about hiring an admissions consultant to help me, but I'm not sure yet. Thank you for your very valued opinion though.

I look forward to meeting you on the 9th - it does look like a blast. It looks like they may take us on tours of Nashville. If you've never been there, Nashville is a nice town.

benpack - I'm sure that properly explaining why MBA and why Owen will carry a tonne of weight in the admissions process. Also diversity isn't just ethnicity, it's age, too

fv113 - How did your interview go?

It went well, but I thought I could have done better. It was with Jill, who is awesome and really makes you feel at ease, but I wasn't prepare for some of the questions, so we will see what happens. Guess ill find out in 16 days

PM if you would like me to tell you more about it.

I'm sure you rocked it fv.

With regard to admission, is round 3 at Owen similar to round 2 at other schools since Owen's first round is an Early Action round?

Anybody coming this weekend to Discovery Weekend?

I'm here in Nashville for the Discovery Weekend. Had my interview earlier today. Very basic questions:

(Small talk about ballet and dancing....of all things )
Tell me your story.
Why MBA, Why Now, Why Owen?
Longterm, shortterm goals.
When did you best show leadership?
(few things specific to my background)
What is a preconception people have about you that isn't true?
What is the most important thing about you for me to take to the committee?
Any Questions?

Look forward to it tonight. Lots of folks to be there. The applicants and adcom seem fantastic. Interviewer kept saying I seemed like a fantastic fit for Owen, so hopefully that's honesty and not blowing smoke.

I saw this on of my friend's page. WTF vandy????

What really amazes me is that according to him, over 100 Owen MBA saw the post over the course of A DAY, and no one took the time to respond to Sonupe. I'm disappoint in this kind of behavior from a top 30 b-school.

Krudget, any other info? I didn't get to go at the last minute. Btw, it must have been packed because both hotels they had for the visit were full.