2x yes - Darden & LSE , waiting for Yale!!!

Question

Hi Guys, IN DARDEN, IN London School of Economics!!! After a almost 3 years of working on preparation for business schools, after spending numerous hours on samples in this forum, I am glad to announce I received an invitation to Darden (first round), and London School of Economics (Management, MSc) I haven't been here for a couple months and got disconnect from many of you. Meanwhile, many things happened but here is some sample profile: 27 years male, GMAT 650 (verbal 90 percentile, math 70 percentile), GPA 3.80 from a small but #1 liberal arts school in the south, KENTUCKY !(ya, don't ask me what did I do there

Ran a company when i was 17-20, success and then bancrupcy & failure > Came to the USA from Europe in '99, lived on streets in NYC, cleaned floors in Walmart, was preparing for undergrad, got full ride at KY school, opened a nonprofit company while a sophomore, ran it for 2 years, sold it to college, got hired by Goldman and then by Morgan Stanley. Left the USA three months ago, got hired by KBC group, and now I am holding an offer from one company from Big 4 (M&A). Darden I have worked on this school for three years - I visited the school, loved it and was in touch with alumni as well as one student ambasador. Applied early round, got a phone interview with Darden (yes, they can do it in some cases). And now - I have been in touch with Darden people for three years - I asked all possible questions and one of the ambassadors even recommended me when I applied. I was so ready...I knew I coulnd't be dinged ... WAS PUT ON WAITLIST! mostly because and now - an advice for you - I had two people from my school recommend me , NO professional from Morgan !! Ya, I was stupid. Don't ever do that ... they say it's ok, but it will hurt your application. Monday - waitlisted Tuesday - my colleague & my boss send their references Wednesday - a well respected US anthropologist who happens to be my best friend sends them his reference Friday- I received a phone call from Darden announcing me I was taken off the waitlist and accepted ! If you want any advice concerning how to be taken off the waitlist, please message me - I probably used all possible tools : ), that's why they didn't wait for the end of all their rounds (probably) Now, LSE Applied, got immediately (3 weeks) accepted .. they have rolling admissions. No pain there, no stress ... I am still waiting to hear from Yale as their decision deadline for R1 is Jan 20 2006 So, after coming and living on NY street, after working as a janitor, after opening my own company and after working for top WS banks .. I am deciding, whether I should accept LSE, Darden or Yale (if accepted)..or should I accept the offer from european branch of one of the Big 4 to work in their M&A ... : ) LIFE IS GOOD

but I am still wondering ... Why didn't I apply to ultra top schools ? I am not their type and they are not my schools. I was in touch with them, talked the school with them, met with people from HBS, Columbia, etc ... even started their online applications. I knew I had something not many people could offer but still .. .. I decided not to apply. So thanks for the opportunity to share - And as always, PAUL - THANKS

Cheers, Michal

homerfan33 · Answer

Michalky,

Congratulations! You are an amazing person with an even more amazing story. No matter what you choose to do, I know that you will be successful.

Homerfan33

Ozmba · Answer

Michal

Amazing story!!!..You will succeed any where mate

All the best

Cheers
Ozie

Praetorian · Answer

very inspiring. thanks a lot for sharing. This is great motivation for all our members.

laxieqv · Answer

A deeply inspiring story, it makes me feel like i'm reading an anecdote of some great men ..or traversing the book " Rich Dad Poor Dad"

. You don't need to apply to the ultra schools to be at the top of the world. Morally speaking, people are great men from inside out ...once they have optimistic vision and a daring mind. I can foretell that you will be a great business person

. All the best to you!!

Paul · Answer

Congratulation michaelky! This is all fantastic news and whichever you decide, you will succeed. You're story is a very humbling one and you definitely made it all the way to the top right now. You are right about the fact of applying for the sake of applying to ultra-elite schools is not good. One really has to know oneself and do some soul searching in the selection process. You did it all. Bravo.

michalky · Answer

Thanks Paul and thanks to you all for your great comments. I didn't even mention that first time I took GMAT I scored 550 .. without even lookin at it, i had 90 verbal and sucked through math : )
anyway - Paul, I see UK as your location now, congrats again. 
I am about to open a small company in the czech, run it for a while and give it to my partner after a couple months should I decide to go to darden/yale/lse .. 
Paul - what is people's opinion about LSE in LN ? how well respected is the school there? I know here in Czech/ Central Europe it has a sound name but still ...

Paul · Answer

LSE has about 1000 faculty members as compared to LBS's mere 85 or so members. LSE's alumni community includes some of the most well known politicians among which the current Japanese prime minister, Pierre Elliot Trudeau, a previous and well respected Canadian prime minister, and countless other high profile people. LSE is really the shrine of political and economic education, not only in the UK but also all over the world. As a matter of fact, it has the world's second largest political and economic library. Many of its faculty members are nobel prize winners; you might want to research this further and see how it would tie into your own career aspirations should you decide to apply.

LBS on the other hand is more modest as school. Although it has been ranked as one of the top b-schools, I believe it has more pre-eminence in Europe than it does in the world, especially the States. Should you decide to work in Europe, especially London, then LBS is the way to go.

To make a story short, you would not go wrong with LSE should you want to work in Europe.

michalky · Answer

Paul - I take it as you want to stay in Europe? MSc in Management at LSE is a 12 monhts program, it's (all costs) roughly 40k Euro. Darden is roughly 100k Dollars .. for two years. This all will matter a lot.
However, more I am looking at is to receive more "education" via my new work that I might accept , consulting in M&A worknig for one of the big 4 .. that's another question you can't answer (and I have to answer it) in a short period of time.

LSE is a well known school everywhere in the world. And I believe europe is more about the prestige than about what you really know .. at least central europe is like that ..
How do you like it here, anyway ?

michalky · Answer

Thanks Laxieqv ... Rich Dad Poor Dad is a great book, isn't it ? I was really thinkin about Ultra and I would even take the gmat again and score higher .. but .. I just don't dig it enough; I fell in love with Darden after talking with the people and people are the most important in business anyway ..

Daring mind it is !

laxieqv · Answer

yes, it is! ...magically, it makes me have a different insight into biz world...no longer do I think that the rich is always mean ( well, in fact, as pointed out by the book, they "spend" less and make use of the surplus to invest in profitable assets) ...how we indulge in a "rat race", blindly go on the safe way ..the book also teaches us to find jobs from which we can learn a lot instead of earning a lot to gain priceless experience for our own biz later

I'm honored to talk to you

I'm honored to talk to you

Paul · Answer

So far, I cannot complain with LBS and its recruiting events are impressive. All big firms are here and we were told that if they are not here, they will not even be at HBS, Wharton, or the like.

You are right, I do agree that Europe has more traditional roots and is definitely more conservative than America. Hence, your background, education and upbringing, seems to carry more weight than what you know. Although this is a stereotype, it is also true that one cannot rise to the top echelons without being street smart as well.

michalky · Answer

You know .. I was thinking the same when I drove a GS partner in my car, driving him to a football game (TN). I was a sophomore thinking Wallstreet is about backstabbin, etc .. We discussed Wallstreet, Goldman, people, motivation, etc .. 
After two hours I was very interested and after a couple months I got an internship in GS. I still believe if you survive GS, you can do everything... And if you survive GS in NYC, it's like the double "everything" : )
The book is good - but what's even more valuable is to be able to draw a compromise between the two approaches ...
Are you at school now ? Or applying ?

michalky · Answer

Paul .. still, are you gonna stay there or head back chez toi ? : ) 
I am submitting Insead application R3 next week, just for the sake of trying it - have been researched the school for way too long to not apply .. 
I am still curious - why did you decide not to apply there ?

Paul · Answer

Oops, I failed to answer your previous question; no, I'm not going back to Montreal where there is not really any capital markets. Only the derivatives market still remains in Montreal and still, it is relatively small. For someone spending that much money on education and doing a CFA, Montreal is really no place to be. However, I do not reject the option of going back to my hometown eventually in order to raise a family, closer to my parents, when I will gain some more experience so as to secure myself a decent job.

I am planning to work either in London, Hong Kong, Singapore or NY after graduation. Indeed, because of LBS' advantage in London, I would probably end up working there and honestly, I would perhaps be no less happy for London is a great city. The reason why I picked those cities is 1) They are great for capital markets 2) NY is closer to home 3) London is great with the LBS advantage 4) HK and Sing I more closely relate to due to my asian background although I must say the other two are no less multicultural.

You are right about someone having gone through GS; you really have seen a lot if not all. Furthermore, although it is right that there are common stereotype about GS or IB people in general, there are definitely some good people in there and I do believe in the inherent good in people.

Finally, I applied only to LBS because of its finance focus(for the MiF) rather than broad curriculum. Moreover, it is located in the heart of a financial city which makes it great for recruitment. If you look at the recruitment stats, there were two things that striked me about it: 1) INSEAD has definitely more consulting firms vs IB recruitments(ie over 92 graduates were recruited by Mackenzie only vs 10 at LBS in 2004 only!) 2) I found the recruitment stats for both the internship and full time offers to have been slightly better for my program(ie % of graduates holding jobs after graduation and only 52% of finance positions at INSEAD came with sign on bonuses(yes, you really have to dig deep here)). Overall, this is just to say that despite my less known MiF vs MBA program, I found that the career stats were comparable and after all, a job is really what you care for in the end.

michalky · Answer

Paul ..

Thanks for your comprehensive answer; I finally made my decision, I was deciding between LSE and Darden and chose to suffer a little bit longer on the american soil : ) 
Now, just waiting to hear from them concerning financial aid ..

Good luck to you !

michalky · Answer

One more update here - just received a full tuition ride at darden, 80k !!!!!!!! where am i going? VA it is

2x yes - Darden & LSE , waiting for Yale!!!

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