I actually had typed out a long post for this thread a few days ago, but thanks to an untimely computer crash (thank you Dell!) lost it all. So now, trusty Lenovo in hand I present you with take 2:
How has your B-school plan evolved? When did you decide to pursue this, what were you goals and have those changed, and of course the rotating decision on what schools and which is your top?
When: I first thought about an MBA as a junior/senior in high school. The undegrad school I attended offered a 5 year BS/MBA program for accounting majors, to provide us with the 150 credits needed to obtain a CPA license. I didn't know anything about MBAs at that point other than they made a lot of money, and so I thought about doing this program. Thankfully, greed got the better of me and when a Big 4 firm offered me $48k a year (huge money to a poor college student) I decided to stop school after 4 years and start collecting paychecks.
Fast forward to 2003. After working for 2 years I was not happy as an auditor and realized that perhaps accounting was not the career for me. I looked around at other opportunities both inside my firm and outside, and since they were all accounting related, nothing really got me excited. I started thinking about an MBA as an opportunity to get out of the accounting department and into bigger and (in my mind) better things. Before I started any serious work preparing for GMAT or researching schools, I was selected for a very attractive leadership development program in my firm. It would give me the opportunity to work with people from around the world, and work closely with my firm's top leadership. It also, I hoped, would give me an opportunity to switch out of the firm's audit group into something more interesting. B-school went back on the back burner.
Fast forward again to 2007. Following the leadership program and a near-disastrous dip back into the audit practice, I had used the relationship I developed with a senior partner to get a job doing HR strategy on a global basis for the firm. Great job, was learning a lot, but it was also a 2-3 year rotational assignment and I was facing the prospect of what to do next. I didn't want to be in HR for the rest of my career, nor did I want to go back into accounting, so again I starting thinking about an MBA to help me change careers. Took the GMAT in July 2007, did much better than I ever imagined, probably got a little cocky about admissions, applied to 3 schools for fall 2008 intake, and was rejected by all three. Was humbled by admissions. Much soul searching ensued. Decided MBA was still the right path for me, applied again for fall 2009 intake and the rest, as they say, is history.
What: I've run pretty much the entire spectrum of 'what' over the 7 or so years I've considered doing an MBA. Way back in 2002 I was thinking banking or IM, since I always found investing interesting. However, learning about the banking culture made me see that it wasn't the right career path for me. During the time I spent doing HR strategy for my company, I realized that I really enjoyed this work - the intellectual challenge of it, the big-picture thinking, the creativity and innovation - and so started to focus in on MC. All of my application essays have MC as my first post-MBA plan. However, as I spent the last few months working with my firm's consulting practice, I realized I didn't want to be a consultant anymore. After almost 8 years serving clients, I wanted to actually be part of running a business myself rather than just telling other people how to run their business. At this point, I had been accepted to Kellogg and decided I was going to enroll there, and solely because of the school's strength in marketing I decided to check out the Vault guide on marketing and brand management careers. As I read the guide, I realized that this was exactly what I wanted to do. I liked the fact that you work with all the different functional areas - R&D, production, sales, finance - and are responsible for all aspects of how your product performs. It seemed to have many of the same big picture challenges of strategy: how to grow sales, how to improve profits, - but was also grounded with the tactical details. And so, my focus became marketing.
In terms of healthcare, as soon as I gave up my dream of being an astronaut at about age 8, I decided I wanted to be a doctor. For most of my childhood this was my career plan. It wasn't until high school when I started volunteering at my local hospital, got to know doctors and talked to them about what practicing medicine was actually like as a career that I decided I didn't want to practice medicine. However, I still found healthcare very interesting - my inner nerd liked the science of it and, after dealing with several health issues in my own family, I liked the prospect of helping other people deal with illness. Over time though I migrated more towards the business end of healthcare. I spent my time in auditing working with pharma and biotech companies, and found the best parts of my job were talking with my clients about their business and their industry - what new products they were developing, what general trends were emerging in human health, etc. I had clients in a few other industries - engineering & construction, retail, technology - and no other industry excited me the way healthcare did.
Where: I'll focus here on where I applied this year. I was basically looking for programs that were good in general management or consulting, and had some sort of program or curriculum tailored to healthcare. In the end, my list was Harvard, Chicago, Kellogg, Duke, Columbia and MIT.
Harvard: I could say it's because of its strong general management reputation, or it's proximity to biotech in Boston, but I'd be lying. I applied to Harvard because it's Harvard. I didn't want to face the prospect of 30 years from now wondering whether I could've gotten in to HBS. After 2 rejection letters from Dee, I'm pretty certain of the answer to that.
Chicago: I fell in love with Chicago after I visted it. I mean it's hard not to be impressed with the facilities, and the students I met were all incredible. The all-star faculty certainly doesn't hurt either. Plus, I really like Chicago as a city. Really the only negative was that the healthcare program just didn't seem as well put together as some of the other schools on my list. It would have been a tough decision choosing between Kellogg and Chicago, and I still probably would've chosen Kellogg, but thankfully Rose made that decision easy for me.
Kellogg: On paper this was my favorite school. Very good in general management, very well liked by consulting firms, great healthcare program, culture that fits with my overall personality, check. Only nagging doubt I had was my visit was only so-so. Everything seemed a little disorganized (there was a lot of time I spent waiting pretty much by myself in the admissions office in between events), and I couldn't help feeling a little let down by the facilities after having just been at Booth. However, the class I visited was great, and the students were incredibly welcoming, friendly and helpful. I can't say students at other schools weren't helpful or friendly, and I can't put my finger on what exactly the Kellogg students did differently, but it just felt different. Still, despite the so-so visit, going into the decision season it was tied with Chicago as #2 on my list.
Duke: Duke started out pretty low on my list, but made a strong showing after I visited. In many ways I think Duke is very similar to Kellogg, especially in the healthcare arena. But the Duke brand name just isn't as strong in the northeast, and in the current job market that makes a lot of difference I think. In the end, I would've been very happy at Duke, but wasn't ready to pass up an offer from Kellogg to go there.
Columbia: Um, well I was kinda talked into going to Columbia by a few alums. I wasn't really impressed with the school when I visited, it doesn't really have a healthcare program to speak of, and after pretty much living my entire life in the greater NY metropolitan area, I was kinda looking forward to a few years away from NYC. So, to sum up, great school but I wasted $250 to apply there and withdrew as soon as I got admitted to Kellogg.
MIT: Probably my second least favorite after Columbia. Good consulting track, and unlike HBS I actually was attracted to MIT because of the proximity to biotech industry in Boston. In the end I never applied because I was planning it for R2 and stopped working on it when I got admitted to Kellogg in December.
Where, NOT: Well there are literally hundreds if not thousands of schools I didn't apply to, but I'll only focus on a few here:
INSEAD, LBS: Good schools, but since I want to work in the US post-MBA I decided pretty early in the process to focus on US schools. Plus, the language requirement at INSEAD would've been a problem since I haven't spoken a second language since high school Spanish class.
Wharton: Great school, great healthcare program, but just never really felt a good vibe here. Plus, I really, really don't like Philadelphia and the thought of living there for 2 years makes me shudder.
Stanford: I applied here for fall 2008 and was rejected. Great school, but I didn't think I had a realistic shot so I gave up on it.
UCLA, Haas: I don't want to work on the West Coast after MBA, and so didn't consider going to school there either.
Ross: I came close to applying here. In the end it was bumped by Columbia. I probably should've stuck with Ross given my feelings towards Columbia.
The decision: I got the call from Kellogg on December 4, 2008 (at roughly 3:30pm EST, not that I remember the details or anything). After going 0 for 3 last year, getting an early admit was incredible. I can't put into words how excited I was. Extra bonus that it was one of my top schools. At that point, I hadn't been called for an interview at HBS, so I was pretty sure I would be at Kellogg. I think I told my family and friends that I would definitely be in Chicago next year since the only other school I thought I had a shot at and would consider going to over Kellogg was Booth. I stopped all work on MIT's application, and emailed Columbia to withdraw my application.
Exactly two weeks later, my decision became a lot easier when I got the ding from Booth. Any sadness was tempered a few hours later when I got admitted to Duke (kudos for the Flash animation btw). I know it's purely ego, but now I knew I could say I 'chose' to attend my school rather than it being the only school I was admitted to.
A few weeks later, Duke made things interesting by offering me a 50% tuition scholarship. I wrestled with whether I wanted to pass up that money for a few days, before re-affirming that I wanted to go to Kellogg. In the end, I wasn't ready to let money overrule my reasons for choosing Kellogg in the first place: reputation (esp. in healthcare), culture and location. After attending DAK I was 100% certain that Kellogg was the right school for me, and I sent in the deposit. In the end, Kellogg has offered me just about as much money as Duke, so I'm glad I didn't make the decision to go to Duke for the money.
Edits: fixed proofreading errors
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