Maryland ($$) vs. Tepper vs. job hunting

Question

Hi all,

have a few tough decisions to make very soon....currenly working in investment strategy for a niche firm in London and been wanting to move to the US for the last few months. After some chats, i was advised that directly getting a job (in banking or consulting) is close to impossible as i would need to be sponsored and I am much better off doing my MBA at a US school which should land me a job.

Went through the whole process (applied with a gmat score of 610 but increased to 690 in april) and recently got offer letters from Maryland (20k scholarship) and Tepper?

So i NO idea what to do:(

Background: African citizen but been in london last 2 years..prior to that worked around 5 years in capetown across banking (risk and strategy)

Just thinking out aloud about various options of moving to the US
1) Start my MBA this year and graduate by 2018 and hopefully land a job. 
2) I do a lot of networking, reach out to all my contacts in the US and try to get a job through referrals...will an employer sponsor a visa someone not even living in the US?....since i will only graduate in 2 years if i pursue an MBA..might as well keep job hunting for 2 years and try to get a job that way?
3) The schools i have been admitted to are okkish ranked but not top 10..so i reapply for MBA for fall 2017..that obviously means i will graduate only in 2019
4) Job hunt a lot for the next 1 year, if i get a job then great! if not, then i do an MBA in 2017. Turning 30 this year, so will almost be 33 by graduation if i start MBA in 2017

Sorry for the ramble...just trying to figure my life out:). Ideally, would have preferred to just get a job in the next few months and move to US even if i have start form the bottom of the corp ladder.

bb · Answer

Thanks for posting your question - it is an interesting situation. You mentioned taking the GMAT in April, so did you end up applying in R3?

noname007 · Answer

had applied in R2 with 620 but got waitlisted so rewrote and got 690.

bb · Answer

Thanks. Going to the bottom of the question, since you got waitlisted, you technically received your final decision with the R3 crowd? R3 is traditionally a very hard round with only the best applicants getting admission and very few getting finaid. That is a very good result for an R3 applicant. My cursory and immediate suggestion would be to apply for R1, which is a few months away - you are likely to get a much stronger scholarship offering from similar schools or likely get into higher ranked schools that would help you with recruiting in the banking industry (which is yes, very competitive). You do have some risks to manage - exit from the EU and US labor market, which is booming at the moment - 2016-best-year-for-mba-hiring-starting-salary-climbs-to-105k-221132.html but may not be so in a few years - both of the risks are out of your control. The first one is strongly mitigated by applying in R1, which is too soon for the Brexit to have any impact on your career. The second one can be mitigated by going to a highly ranked program (the better the ranking, the better are the job prospects). As to the job question - the best option you have is networking and getting a transfer to a US branch. Getting hired for a US job out of London is pretty rare for an international person not holding a US work permit, unless you possess some special skills that are worth the cost/hassle.

Maryland ($$) vs. Tepper vs. job hunting

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards