College senior seeking MBA advice

Question

Hey everyone,

I'm a college senior seeking advice on MBA applications. To give some background: I recently applied to HBS's 2+2 program for college juniors. I received an interview on campus, but did not make the final cut. I'm from a top undergrad (HYS) with a double major 3.8 gpa (in a humanities and a language) and good GRE scores (99.9 percentile), and my harvard interviewer complimented me on my internships thus far, so I think those are fairly strong as well. I am hoping to use my materials from that HBS 2+2 application while they are still relevant to apply to some business schools out of college, and perhaps defer for 1 or 2 years or just go straight into an MBA program if a deferment is not allowed by the school. I'm also applying to jobs in case I get rejected from everywhere. I was wondering if anyone knew how friendly the following schools are to college seniors: stanford, columbia, UVA, and MIT. Thanks for your help.

asimov · Answer

Stanford is willing accept college seniors. I met a Duke senior who is Stanford admit. You can also consider Yale SOM's silver scholars program.

It is more difficult to get into other MBA programs without work experience.

Don't let this discourage you. Having work experience is extremely beneficial to you (and your classmates) in business school. I'm sure you'll have much better luck after some work experience.

Best of luck.

nink · Answer

Don't forget to apply to fellowships and other programs (Rhode Scholar, etc) If I had a dime for every Rhode Scholar I've met in bschool and networking events.....3 weeks of beer money, right there!

Noctus · Answer

Thank you for your responses. I have thought about applying to fellowships like Fulbright, Marshall, etc but it's been my impression that these don't count as work experience, and it is my goal to be started in an MBA program at the most 3 years from now.

whiplash2411 · Answer

Stanford is definitely senior-friendly and as someone suggested, you might want to try the Yale Silver Scholars program, but personally, I think college graduates can benefit from the work experience before the MBA a lot.

(I'm a 2+2 applicant next year, so I am not even pretending to be very knowledgeable! Just my 2 cents)

3underscore · Answer

I have read your post three times to check, and I still can't find the reason why you want to go to business school.

Oh, and very few schools take deferals. They either want you when admitted or not at all.

Noctus · Answer

I have a lot of reasons for wanting to go to business school, and I also think I have a good answer for the "why now," but I don't want to give out too many personal details on a public forum.

Oh, and 4 out of the 5 schools I'm applying to allow deferals.

Jeanette · Answer

"Why now" is sort of defeated by your willingness to do deferrals. It seems to me you're really just looking for instant gratification/security of admission. I mean, that's not necessarily a bad thing, but you may find in two or three years it's not what you want, you may find that it hurts your admissions possibilities needlessly (your application  should  be stronger in two or three years... if you're not going to attend until then, why use a less strong application now?)

Noctus · Answer

You make good points, however, I'm not sure I will have a stronger application in 2-3 years. After all, I did just beat out 80% of Harvard applicants in getting an interview. I'm not 100% confident that the WE I will accumulate if I wait will be of the high caliber that is expected at many top schools. Finally, it's been my general impression from quotes from adcoms and people on these forums that being a reapplicant doesn't hurt your chances. Am I wrong in thinking this?

Also, I don't plan to say I want to defer.

Also, I don't plan to say I want to defer.

rhyme · Answer

The incredibly beautiful thing about an MBA is that it is a tabula rasa. A clean slate. An MBA lets an engineer become a banker, a chef a consultant, a programmer a strategist. 'Burning' that option now is a bit of a waste... Although admittedly your plan of deferring isn't a bad one, I'd be a bit skeptical of your successes doing so. In my experience, and this may well be wrong, deferrals are not that easy to come by. Not trying to discourage you, just suggesting you think about whether now really is the right time.

Jerz · Answer

Wouldn't the skill and intellect that allowed you to "beat out 80% of Harvard applicants in getting an interview" also allow you to gain employment of the caliber expected at many top schools?

There's two aspects to the work experience dimension for business school. First, you gain maturity and perspective on how the real world works, which gives you better insights to share in the discussion and case based nature of business education. Second, it makes you more attractive to employers post-MBA (other than banking and consulting which hire MBAs for entry level positions), since most employers would not want to hire a manager-level employee who has no prior full-time work experience.

kyro · Answer

I share your predicament noctus, though i don't boast such a stellar profile. They say you should look at what you want to do in life and try to figure out how MBA will help you now. Get the aerial view.

College senior seeking MBA advice

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