Calling Mason(William and Mary) Applicants:(2016 Intake) Class of 2018

planning to start the app!
Indian applicant... too late??
7th March is the next deadline....

Hello,

I am recent graduate from W&M MBA. Hit me up if you have any questions regarding the program.

To introduce, I did my undergrad from India and worked for over 6 years before coming to W&M. Currently working near DC as a Consultant in TMT sector. The views expressed here are my personal views.

Hey ayonde,

I had a couple of queries.

My profile is this : 3 years work ex (marketing and managerial), Indian, 710 GMAT, low GPA (49%). Do I have a chance at Mason?

Also, I see most people are applying for Operations and SCM, but I'm interested in strategy and consulting. Is Mason a good choice for my interests?

Hello,

Firstly I cannot comment on your chances - i don't think anyone can predict aspects like admissions and post mba recruitment. I would say that your GMAT is strong, and yet you have a reject from Katz. Maybe you need to introspect and strengthen other aspects of your application - interviews perhaps? I think the average GMAT at W&M is near 620, so think carefully about how W&M MBA might help you in achieving your short term and long term career goals. The more clearer you are in this aspect, you will become much stronger candidate.

Most applicants might come from Operations and SCM background, but statistically that's not where most students end up working. Many W&M MBA work as consultants in Deloitte, PwC, Booz Allen Hamilton etc. However they are American citizens, they have certain skill sets that is desired by Consulting firms. Such candidates are good in solving Case Interviews, they have superior communication skills and are able to view a problem from different lenses.

Indian students from W&M usually cannot pursue that patch, since we are usually not accustomed with Case Interviews. To get into Strategy you would need to be a student of top 15 US schools. If you dream of working into MBB then you should be looking at Top 10 where such firms visit to recruit.

ayonde

Thanks for the reply. Katz rejected me without an interview, I feel my age, low work ex and GPA were my biggest problems.

And not thinking about MBB, keeping my aims realistic. But I'm glad you provided me a clearer picture. Will probably end up applying to Mason before the upcoming deadline.

I've paid my deposit a few months back and not sure what to do next. I assume I should call the finical aid office to help with the loan process or what should I be doing next?

Got an offer today, with $$ and GA. I had a doubt about the assistantship, it says I will get a stipend of 4k, bi-weekly after tax. So that means, before tax I will be receiving 8k per month? Or will the stipend be spread over a month (so essentially 4k per month pre-tax).

Also, I haven't yet made my decision. Does the GA take up a lot of time? Can I still participate in the various clubs and events regularly?

ayonde

You should ask if the stipend is $4k/year.

The stipend is $4000 before Tax in total. It's more like $500 per month for 8 months in your 2nd year. Which translates to $250 bi-week before Tax, after tax it would be near ~~ $233 (assuming no other income).

GA can take a lot of time or none at all depending upon your engagement, nature of GA and your comfort level with the subject matter. E.g. I was the GA for Prof. Murray who teaches IT. So my work load was manageable as compared to one of my friend who was GA for Prof. Ganeshan who teaches Operations. The reason is my friend was doing lot of research work - which coincided with his report submissions he had for his electives and his job search. I had different electives - so different format of work load, and had a job by March. So my work load was top heavy in Sept / Oct and eased up by Nov to virtually non existent by Feb.

These of course change every year and vary case by case basis. GA's are allocated somewhat randomly. You submit your GA application and give your top 3 choices. You may get your top pick you may not get any of your 3 picks. Professors, Administration staff, Program directors also provide their inputs in the selection process.

I liked my GA and the $233 bi-weekly payment.

Thanks a lot for this, I thought that 4k bi weekly would be extremely high for a GA, but wasn't expecting it to be annual either. Thanks for clearing it up. Can you tell me a bit more about the classes? The primary method for teaching is case methods or lectures?

$4000 biweekly? Oh Boy! That would mean $104,000/Year or $50/hour. You'd consider yourself pretty luck if one would get a job paying that much. Considering the overall average salary from W&M is around $80,000.

Let me tell you that other on-campus part-time jobs at W&M will payout at a rate of $7.25/ hour (or the minimum wage for VA). Max rate I heard was $10/hour.
Most companies like to pay $15 - $25/ hour for Internships. The big ones may payout at the scale of $35-$45/hour for Internships. Landing those internships is tough and competitive.
I know that Class of 2014 - many students had to accept internships at $12/hour - some accepted for free. Because they were not getting anything even in mid June.

It's more stressful when it comes to job rate and job search. Anyways, to answer your question there is no single primary method across classes. Each class is different, e.g. Economic analysis will be almost 100% theory (the subject is such). Marketing will be 100% Case, you will have 33 classes to do 31 cases (or something like that). Finance and Accounting will be a healthy mixture of case, lecture, class participation etc. Operations will be 60% Case, 20% lecture, 20% simulation games (just ballpark estimates).

W&M faculty is highly regarded in US. Checkout Professor's profile on W&M MBA Faculty directory, however not everyone likes everyone. I did not like few professors but other students did, similarly others did not like the teaching methods of some professor - but I absolutely loved it!

ayonde Thank you so much for your help, appreciate it.

Waiting for new members