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11 May 2016, 22:08
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Hi All,
I'm usually a lurker but am hoping to be candid as I am having a hard time with this issue. Hopefully some of you have vast and broad life experience and can chime in. I graduated ugrad with an extremely poor gpa (sup 3.0, ivy) and have been working very hard to overcome it. Over the past 4.5 yrs I've made every social sacrifice and moved to an undesirable location away from family and friends to gain the experience I needed to get into bschool. My dream was a top bschool program. This past application season I put together solid apps and was admitted to UNC (no $) and Duke ($) and rejected by a top 5 and a top 10.
I was thrilled and very grateful to be in at Duke however when I attended Duke's BDW for admitted students, I did not enjoy it. The students were rowdy and the atmosphere did not feel as academic as that of other programs, I am much more reserved. I enjoyed UNC however I would only consider going if offered a substantial scholarship. After all the sacrifices I've made I realize I need to achieve better life balance and am unsure if I want to attend. And to be completely honest, I haven't done very well nor enjoyed the corporate world (IT and Ops consulting) despite my sacrifices and am wondering if I should make a large career switch or switch into a non-business field altogether. I'm wondering what the point is of taking on debt to delay being happy.
Goals:
-Move to a desirable location
-A job with relatively flexible hours ie no face time, work as many hours as necessary to do a good job (things that come to mind: tech, work for a few years then entrepreneurship/small business owner, gov/NGO, writing/comms)
-low expectations of salary growth, satisfied with 150k all in 7 years time (current salary ~100k)
-good family life/ around friends
Fuqua:
Pros
-Best reputation in intended industry
-Small scholarship
-Possibility of dual degree (although this would increase debt)
Cons
-Student body culture/backgrounds
-Location
Negotiate with UNC:
Con:
-Was an ED applicant, and deposit deadline has passed so is this an acceptable thing to do?
Forgo Bschool and travel/figure out life for a few months then look for job/other credentials/schooling:
Pro:
-lowest cost option
-Short term happiness
Con:
-least defined, uncertainty
I realize this is a very atypical blog post and that I risk sounding incredibly ungrateful and lazy. I am incredible grateful. Since this is a crowd of current/future consultants, please help framework my life!
I'm usually a lurker but am hoping to be candid as I am having a hard time with this issue. Hopefully some of you have vast and broad life experience and can chime in. I graduated ugrad with an extremely poor gpa (sup 3.0, ivy) and have been working very hard to overcome it. Over the past 4.5 yrs I've made every social sacrifice and moved to an undesirable location away from family and friends to gain the experience I needed to get into bschool. My dream was a top bschool program. This past application season I put together solid apps and was admitted to UNC (no $) and Duke ($) and rejected by a top 5 and a top 10.
I was thrilled and very grateful to be in at Duke however when I attended Duke's BDW for admitted students, I did not enjoy it. The students were rowdy and the atmosphere did not feel as academic as that of other programs, I am much more reserved. I enjoyed UNC however I would only consider going if offered a substantial scholarship. After all the sacrifices I've made I realize I need to achieve better life balance and am unsure if I want to attend. And to be completely honest, I haven't done very well nor enjoyed the corporate world (IT and Ops consulting) despite my sacrifices and am wondering if I should make a large career switch or switch into a non-business field altogether. I'm wondering what the point is of taking on debt to delay being happy.
Goals:
-Move to a desirable location
-A job with relatively flexible hours ie no face time, work as many hours as necessary to do a good job (things that come to mind: tech, work for a few years then entrepreneurship/small business owner, gov/NGO, writing/comms)
-low expectations of salary growth, satisfied with 150k all in 7 years time (current salary ~100k)
-good family life/ around friends
Fuqua:
Pros
-Best reputation in intended industry
-Small scholarship
-Possibility of dual degree (although this would increase debt)
Cons
-Student body culture/backgrounds
-Location
Negotiate with UNC:
Con:
-Was an ED applicant, and deposit deadline has passed so is this an acceptable thing to do?
Forgo Bschool and travel/figure out life for a few months then look for job/other credentials/schooling:
Pro:
-lowest cost option
-Short term happiness
Con:
-least defined, uncertainty
I realize this is a very atypical blog post and that I risk sounding incredibly ungrateful and lazy. I am incredible grateful. Since this is a crowd of current/future consultants, please help framework my life!
11 May 2016, 22:53
Kudos
Bookmarks
There is always a question whether you want to do an MBA or not. An MBA does not mean selling your soul to the devil and working for a boiler room finance company that cheats old people out of money. It is freedom to move up, it is opportunities and it is about progress. If you are happy with where you are, you should stay there and not go through 2 tough years that will end with recruiting and job search. Why leave a job if you have one already that you are happy with?
Most of us wanted to leave or really needed to leave our work/companies behind. I can see how it is not easy for someone who has a good thing going, and I think it is OK to not get an MBA - it is going to take a while to pay back $170 of tuition and living expenses + 2 years worth of income or close to $300K. You have to want to do it.
However, if you are going to quit your job anyway to figure out your life, I would suggest you do it now while you have a chance to go to an MBA. Bschool does allow you time for soul searching and exploring your strengths with an internship and trying new things. In the worst case scenario, you can always drop out of the first semester if you feel this is not your cup of tea but you are likely to find quiet people just like yourself in every program - they are there, just not visible. The admitted student weekend is a feather show of people trying to impress other people. It dies down 2 weeks into the program when you figure out the winners and losers. If you do start an MBA and pay for the first semester, and then drop out, your costs will be minimal compared to trying to explain to adcom why the hell you had quit your job and did nothing for 3 months and then desperately trying to get back into bschool. I would suggest you don't base your entire expectations on a single weekend. Duke or UNC - don't think it matters - I think you will be valued in either program but if both cost the same, Duke is a better program.... unless you have a binding agreement with UNC that you should not break to start with.
Most of us wanted to leave or really needed to leave our work/companies behind. I can see how it is not easy for someone who has a good thing going, and I think it is OK to not get an MBA - it is going to take a while to pay back $170 of tuition and living expenses + 2 years worth of income or close to $300K. You have to want to do it.
However, if you are going to quit your job anyway to figure out your life, I would suggest you do it now while you have a chance to go to an MBA. Bschool does allow you time for soul searching and exploring your strengths with an internship and trying new things. In the worst case scenario, you can always drop out of the first semester if you feel this is not your cup of tea but you are likely to find quiet people just like yourself in every program - they are there, just not visible. The admitted student weekend is a feather show of people trying to impress other people. It dies down 2 weeks into the program when you figure out the winners and losers. If you do start an MBA and pay for the first semester, and then drop out, your costs will be minimal compared to trying to explain to adcom why the hell you had quit your job and did nothing for 3 months and then desperately trying to get back into bschool. I would suggest you don't base your entire expectations on a single weekend. Duke or UNC - don't think it matters - I think you will be valued in either program but if both cost the same, Duke is a better program.... unless you have a binding agreement with UNC that you should not break to start with.
PugLyfe
Joined: 30 Oct 2015
Last visit: 29 Mar 2018
Posts: 189
Given Kudos: 87
Schools: Jones '18 (A) Goizueta '18 (D) Mays '18 (A$) Owen '18 (M$) Smith '18 (A$) Tepper '18 (A) McCombs '18 (WA) Olin '18 (A$)
GMAT 1: 690 Q45 V39
Products:
Schools: Jones '18 (A) Goizueta '18 (D) Mays '18 (A$) Owen '18 (M$) Smith '18 (A$) Tepper '18 (A) McCombs '18 (WA) Olin '18 (A$)
GMAT 1: 690 Q45 V39
Posts: 189
12 May 2016, 06:12
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Not an answer to your question, but am I wrong in assuming the schools won't hold your seat for you after the deposit deadline has passed? If the UNC deadline has already passed, I definitely don't think you're in a position to negotiate.
If you don't like your current role whether it is in ops consulting or IT, I do feel like Duke will help open doors in tech for you. It's a great program and will help you reach all of your other goals down the line.
If you don't like your current role whether it is in ops consulting or IT, I do feel like Duke will help open doors in tech for you. It's a great program and will help you reach all of your other goals down the line.
