Lack Of Experience - Application Advice?

Question

Hello everyone,

I am searching for some advice from people who may have experience with my background. Or if anyone thinks they have valuable advice, please feel free to share as well.

I took my GMAT last week and got a 710 (48M, 40V) 6.0 AWA. I had a 3.3 GPA as an economics major at an Ivy League university (Cornell) although my first year dragged it down. I changed majors my first year, and that caused my GPA to be lower than it should have been. I had a 3.5 my sophomore through senior years of college. I currently work in finance at a corporation with primarily engineers as we build engines. However, I will only have two years work experience when the 2011 school year starts.

I would like to apply to business school and start in the fall of 2011. The schools I am looking at are Harvard, Stern, Columbia, USC, UCLA, BC, and BU. I am only considering schools in cities, and Boston, New York, and California are really the only places I want to be. I was wondering if anyone could give me advice on how my lack of experience would hurt me. I am wondering if anyone has had success with these top schools with a similar background to mine.

I would really appreciate any advice. Especially if you have experiences that may help. Thanks so much in advance!

Joseph

riverripper · Answer

Huge jump from HBS to BU....my advice 2 years of school is a really short length of time you are probably bertter off going to the best school you can get into regardless of location. I think more of my close friends from Kellogg ended up in the bay area than stayed in Chicago. If you want a location after graduation its doable to get there if you are focused.

Honestly, being so young will hurt your application at almost all schools. A lot of my friends who were younger had stellar backgrounds, if you are younger than average you are going to have to better than average. So if you would be in the youngest 10% then you are going to have to have done some very impressive things in a short time.

JosephC87 · Answer

Thanks for the advice! Anyone else have experience or advice? I would really appreciate it.

Jeanette · Answer

My advice is either wait to apply or only apply to your "ideal" schools and recognize you're probably going to get rejected and have to reapply. The one thing you don't really want to have happen is to end up going to BC or BU with far more limited options when you could have gotten into a better school had you waited a year or two... or could have gone to BU or BC with a scholarship.

The truth is that unless you hid some crucial fact from us, you stand very little chance of getting in this year. Not only is is "just" that schools will look askance at someone with only two years of experience, but you only have a year's worth of experience to draw from for your essays and for your recommender.

So yeah. Waiting is your best bet here followed by apply only to schools that won't make you think "what if I had just waited" in a few years.

shaselai · Answer

HBS 2+2=4 might be good. with low WE it will be tough for any school though

Jeanette · Answer

Isn't HBS 2+2 for college juniors, not people who already have a year or so of experience?

JosephC87 · Answer

Thanks for all the advice.

I think I'm going to apply to BC's MSF program, get a few more years work experience, and then apply for the MBA. I REALLY appreciate everyone's advice. You confirmed my suspicions, and everything was helpful.

Good luck to everyone with their own endeavours!

MaxwellRoper · Answer

Hi Joseph

Thanks for the post.

As you look to gain more years of experience before applying to a top school, please consider joining our professional group, USA Leadership Corps.

We structure part-time volunteer nonprofit and small business strategy consulting projects for emerging MBAs who desire to strengthen their leadership, consulting, entrepreneurship, and/or community-involvement backgrounds. Our website: https://www.usaLeadershipCorps.org

Thank you again & good luck,

Maxwell Roper
Outreach Director
USA Leadership Corps

shadow · Answer

first of all, applying to any school is all about differentiating yourself from your applicant pool. this is especially true at top schools like HBS. the fact that you have less years of experience means that other parts of your application will have to carry more weight.

not sure i see the value in getting both an M Fin and an MBA. if you want to go into investment management, a CFA + either of those 2 degrees would be sufficient, but not both. b-schools might also be wary of someone with a) undergrad in business, and b) a master's degree that is very similar to an MBA

MBAbot · Answer

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Lack Of Experience - Application Advice?

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