mostheinous wrote:
Hey guys,
I'm thinking about applying to MBA programs on kind of a whim. I don't have any real work experience as I went straight to graduate school after undergrad, but I do know that having an MBA from a top school can give you a lot of versatility career-wise. Anyway, I'm currently in an Economics PhD program (top 15), and I'm starting to think that an academic lifestyle isn't for me. I have pretty solid undergrad grades and GRE scores, but I'm wondering how much work experience matters; I've heard from a few people that it's everything in an MBA program. Do I really need to express interest in a specific career trajectory, or is being a 'blank slate' ok? Also, what would be my chances at top b-schools, specifically Harvard, Stanford, and Wharton (if evaluation like that is at all possible based on what i post below)?
Undergrad institution: top 10 liberal arts college
Undergrad GPA: 3.78/4.00 (Major: Economics, minor: Mathematics, 3.8 GPA in both), magna cum laude, phi beta kappa, top 5% of graduating class in terms of GPA
GRE: 800 Math, 710 Verbal, 5.0 AWA
Graduate institution: large public state school, top 10-15 in Economics
Grad GPA ~3.1/4.0 (not sure how much this matters, though)
Work experience: TA for the past year for introductory economics course, decent teacher evaluations; Research assistant for various professors, have a publication in an online journal in health-economics related stuff; worked at the Census Bureau for a summer doing statistical stuff and worked another summer as a 'development intern' doing fundraising for a think-tank.
EC's:
In college, I was a 4 year NCAA D1 letterman in wrestling. I wasn't very good, but I won some team awards since my coaches liked me and some academic achievement awards (like academic all-conference). I was also on the executive board for a few student activities and was on student government for a semester.
Honestly, I'd say that with no work experience your chances at a top b-school are next to nothing, unless maybe you cured cancer or something in your spare time. If you spin it right there's some b-schools within the top-25 that might give you a look, but it's not likely, and not H/S/W. And yes, you would have to have a VERY defined reason why you NEED an MBA right now and a specific career path it will take you on, B-school isn't the time to "feel things out" (actually in many cases it is, but damned if you tell the adcom's that). If you're set on a top-MBA you need some work experience, point blank. But, if you're interested in Finance (and with that perfect Math GRE score) you might look into Financial Engineering. Princeton has an amazing program and I don't believe they have such strict work requirements for those programs. Good luck