Toubab wrote:
Why would you go to B-school if you didn't already have a pretty good idea of what you wanted to do? I'm following my professional interests into school... I figured everyone else was doing the same thing (or whoring themselves for money).
I think a lot of people choose B school with some idea of what they want to do, but I think one really limits themselves if they enter B school with only one out. I guarantee if you polled a bunch of bschool entrants in 1989 asking what they wanted to do, there'd be some overlap with today's answers (banking, finance, marketing etc) but many other differences (way more in technology, consulting, venture capital, social enterprise, healthcare etc etc). I'm sure in 20 years, when all of us will still be very much mid-career, we will have seen just as many changes. By being in Bschool you are going to have exposure to different areas/specialties that you probably never even considered before. As a result I feel that while one should have some idea of what they want(very easy to get overwhelmed if you don't), they should at least sample some other options.
For example, I know I really want to get into international business and made that a big determining factor on how I selected schools. But why didn't I apply to Thunderbird or Moore(the #1 and #2 schools in intl bus by US News)? Because I didn't want to pigeonhole myself.