comment my own ranking

Question

hey guys, I did a ranking for myself (to know which school to apply to). The ranking is based on
1. Short term career plan (banking i think). It is based not on how many people does banking, but on what % would get banking if they wanted to do banking
2. Mid-term, long term (Private equity or start my own company, non-tech, have no idea what it would be)
3. Network, since i care about one day starting my own company, it is important that i have a network of entrepreneurs and people in many fields willing to help
4. Flexibility (what if i dont wanna do banking??)

So my ranking would be like that (the problem is that i wanna apply just to 8, not 9 and i dont know which school to take off my list). I would apply to 4 in the first round and 4 in the second round.

1. HBS 
2. Wharton (big finance, and big network)
3. Stanford (not so good in finance AND network mainly focused in tech)
4. Chicago (good finance, good network)
5. Columbia (Finance)
6. MIT 
6. Tuck
6. Kellog
9. Stern (good placing in finance)

Not sure about MIT, TUck and Kellog, i feel like one of those has to go. Is Stern a good safety school, it seems as if it is harder to get there and Tuck and Kellog.

stanford2012 · Answer

I think that from all the schools on your list will provide you with the chance to interview for banking jobs at top IB / boutiques. If you want to work in PE at a later stage of your career I'd say that H/S (and to a lesser extent Wharton) have a slight edge over the other schools you listed. (Full disclosure: my opinion is based on the placement record of the schools, the number of alumni working at PE mega funds and what I've read on forums).

In case you work full time applying to eight schools will be unrealistic, not least because your superiors might not be willing to write eight recommendation letters. Assuming you have a strong profile, it probably wouldn't be the worst strategy to choose two schools from the most competitive bucket (H/S/W), two universities placing well in finance but being less competitive (Chicago / Columbia) plus maybe Stern. That's at least what I'm going to do coming fall (minus Stern).

I wouldn't say that Stern is harder to get accepted to than Tuck and Kellog, you just have a lot of finance folks applying there (due to the university being located in NY, strong finance faculty, ties with banks). So your chances might be better if you have a different background.

toiysam · Answer

A little bit about me: I am a life actuarial at a multinational insurer (don¿t know if that is considered a finance role) based in LatAm, graduated from a top bschool in LatAm, graduated first of my class, no gmat yet, but i think i will get 700+ ...

Well, I don't think that 8 is too much, that is 4 schools per round. I think that round one will be easier than round 2, since you dont have much time between round 2 deadline, and the date when they inform you with the results for round 1. I was thinking about applying to 5 schools round 1 so that i wont have to apply to many in round 2. The problem is that I can only apply to Columbia in second round (RD)

bakfed · Answer

My guess is that chances are, your round 1 will be much more difficult than round 2. Most people have trouble with round 1 applications simply because this is your first time submitting a finished piece of application to top business schools. This first round will be fairly rough as you're trying to explore the limit to your essays and experiences. However, once you have your round 1 applications done, your round 2 applications are going to be a lot easier since most of the questions are going to be the same. All you would have to do is some tweaking of your application.

Getting back to your list: it's a great list and surely, you'll be able to get in any industry (including ibanking) as long as you put in the legwork. For H/S/W, it'll be a huge stretch as they almost are for anyone out there. I would follow Stanford2012's advice and only pick 1 or 2. If you want to work on the east coast, I'd put harvard and wharton down and skip stanford (which is actually harder to get in than the other two statistically). For most people nowadays, there's no true safety within the top 15 b-schools in the nation. For you it'll be even harder because you'll be competing against people who went to Princeton, works at Goldman, who doesn't need a b-school degree but want to get one from Columbia type of personality. That fact alone makes it tough for anyone who wants to step into finance. In addition, the schools are paying much more attention to those who want to get into finance but have limited finance background due to employability. Taken everything together, in conjunction with your goals, your overall chances are going to be a bit slimmer. I agree with you that 8 is probably not going to be too much, but I would highly recommend you to spread your targets out a bit more. Currently you're targeting all the top 10 schools. Just as you mentioned, I would take Kellogg and Tuck away (these two are more traditionally known as consulting-feeder programs) and put a few more schools in the 10s-20s range. Unless you're pretty gun-hoed about going to a top program, a few schools in just a tad bit lower ranking will help you get to where you want to be, but not as competitive to get in in the first place. Again, I'm not saying that you won't get in any of the 8 schools, but you're just hedging your bet and money.

If I were you, I'd put Wharton down as my wish list. Next tier I'll include Columbia and Booth. Follow that by Stern (if you really want to be in NY), UCLA Anderson, and one more schools in the 10's to 20's list. These schools are all great for finance, but since locale matters a lot as well, it'll depend on where you want to work (i.e. if you want to be on the east coast, it'll be a better move for you to attend an east-coast b-school, and vice versa).

The above is just my $0.02, and I did not intend to offend you (if at all). I want to make sure people going into this process is fully aware of the difficulty of gaining an admission from a top b-school in the states. Had it been 10 years ago, things would've been much different. In today's world, all of the top 16 b-schools are going to be hard for most folks.

comment my own ranking

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