Intern
Joined: 27 Mar 2018
Posts: 6
Location: United States
Concentration: Strategy, Marketing
GPA: 3.7
Settle for Top 25 or Shoot for Top 10? (Olin, Kelly, Mendoza or wait?)
[#permalink]
27 Mar 2018, 20:24
Hey Guys,
Long-time lurker, first-time poster, I could really use your help on this.
Profile:
- 24-year-old White American Male
- 3.7 GPA
- 328 GRE (168V, 160Q)
- Only 22 months of working experience, would be 27 months when classes start this year.
- My formal work experience has been at regional banks in mortgage banking/loan analysis roles
- Outside of that, I have founded a couple start-ups and worked as a digital/creative consultant for small business and local politicians (building websites, logos, messaging, etc.). I've also hosted/run weekly stand-up comedy shows and won a few major storytelling competitions.
- Degree from a respectable state school. Studied Econ and Political Science.
Current Offers and Scholarships:
Olin - $50k over two years
Kelley - $30k over two years plus teaching assistantship worth approx. $16k
Mendoza - $60k over two years
Goals: Short-term I am trying to decide between pursuing a consulting role (I love working with businesses to solve their problems) or pivot towards to the tech industry to work in marketing role (preferably product manager). After gaining experience and establishing myself financially I'd like to move into the start-up space and found my own company.
TLDR: I applied in a pretty rushed fashion this year without doing enough research. I have received decent offers, but after taking my time to research, I'm worried I may be selling myself short and should instead work these next few months to improve my profile and apply to better programs in the fall. What do you think?
Long Version: So I got to the game late. I was talking to a friend last Christmas about my current job and what I wanted to do moving forward, and he advised looking at MBAs now rather than later. I looked at the employment reports, promptly started drooling, and decided he was right. I applied at the January deadline for Kelley and Mendoza, which basically gave me no real time for in-depth research. Because of my general ignorance, I decided to apply to top 25ish programs that gave me the best chance of getting a scholarship, as I don't have a ton saved up and had to make the numbers work. Yeah, I know, most people spend a long time applying to school and this was dumb. I agree. After looking at employment reports I assumed that MBA programs were a lot like undergrad programs, where there is really not a huge difference income wise between the top 25. The difference between the median consulting starting salaries for Kelley and Tuck is only 7k, right? It was only after looking at salary info over time that showed me how different the degrees were. (I should've come here earlier lol)
So, despite my short work experience, state school education, and GRE in lieu of a GMAT, I have received the offers above. They are pretty good, any of them would elevate me out of my current job and get me closer to my goals. But now I'm starting to worry I've sold myself short. My gut is telling me to take this year, buckle down, improve everything on my application that I can, and shoot for better schools in the fall (Yale, Ross, Tuck, maybe Haas or Kellogg). At worst, I get rejected and just reapply to the schools above, right? However, I come from a pretty poor place and my parents are nervous about me turning down so much money.
What do you guys think? Any opinions would be massively appreciated, this site has already helped me a ton.
Thanks!