Women and B-school

Question

So my Wharton friend said he is convinced that women have a better chance at getting in to top schools with lower GPA, GMAT.. ect. Because "A woman getting an MBA is so rare it is like the holy grail for colleges and businesses"

What do you think?

pelihu · Answer

Your friend is correct.

OasisNYK · Answer

Yes your friend is right, but this exception is made for many different types of minority applicants.

dukes · Answer

I took my girlfriend along for a campus visit last fall. There were 3 adcoms running the session and tour and about 4 or 5 other guys there visiting along with us. Two of the adcoms spent the entire time talking to my girlfriend about how much they were looking for girls to apply and that she stood a great chance of getting in (without knowing anything about her). The rest of us (guys) got the basic treatment while she was being actively recruited to apply. It sort of annoyed me because she has no interest in b-school, but at the same time pretty funny to watch.

johnnyx9 · Answer

I don't think I would characterize a woman attending business school as a "rare" event (most top b-schools are 30-40% female), but I think women definitely have an advantage because schools like to have a high percentage of women, and with less female applicants, competition is lower for those spots. I have no idea how much lower, probably hard to quantify. Although the female students I have met on my school visits have been incredibly sharp, accomplished people.

If you look at the marketing materials that schools send you, it's very obvious that they are really trying to appeal to women, they usually feature lots of women in the pamphlets and literature. MIT Sloan's marketing materials came in a purple folder. A friend of mine who works at Sloan said that the decision to use a purple folder was part of a broader marketing effort to "soften" the dorky/quantitative/math-geek perception of the school so that it would be more appealing to women.

rhyme · Answer

See thats where you say, "Sure you can have her, but I come with the package too!"

sm176811 · Answer

He he ... I totally agree!!!

pelihu · Answer

Uh, huh huh. You said package.

dukes · Answer

Haha, I guess. I got in anyway, but she (my girlfriend) gave me hard time about the whole thing.

earlybird · Answer

This discussion should continue. Business schools court women. Fair enough. How do they feel about women with little/no W/E?

dabots · Answer

i feel women get a little more leeway, but experience is still valued. a big part of the youth movement in mbas is to catch women before they move on to law/med school, or start a family.

riverripper · Answer

The stats show its easier for women to get in...now it probably balances out with some demographics. An Indian woman will still have a harder road to climb relative to an american female. You still have to be competitive but it is an easier group, schools admit they want qualified women in their programs and far fewer women apply...so schools will cut a little more leeway.

Dont be upset about it, it definitely is to your advantage.

Dont be upset about it, it definitely is to your advantage.

kryzak · Answer

I also agree that women will have an easier time to get in than men. This is NOT to say that the women who get in don't deserve it, but there are definitely fewer women applying and most schools do not want to let their female population drop below 30%, so you do the math. The same with any underrepresented minority groups or people from special industries.

bewakoof · Answer

we need women in our incoming class.. WE DO!.. so, whatver even if it is easier for them to get in - i could care less..

earlybird · Answer

Which class, which school?

Just curious.

sm332 · Answer

River - you think it is more difficult for Indian women? I wouldnt have thought that to be as much of an issue. But in any case, all the more reason to convince my wife to actually evaluate this more diligently. I keep telling her (half jokingly) that she would be a shoe in (Indian female engineer). As with most wives - she pays me no heed!!! :lol:

kavet83 · Answer

It may be easier for women, I agree to that. BUT work experience is definitely still very very important. I don't have "good" work experience that counts for much of anything and therefore the schools I applied to dinged me. Technically for Cornell, I don't know if that's the reason. But BYU a much lower ranked school that specifically is lacking women, told me to work for a year and apply again next year. Most of my stats are above average for BYU except that darn work experience.

earlybird · Answer

So the B-schools dinged you because of lack of work experience. Dually noted.

Would three solid summer internships be sufficient work experience?

navy01 · Answer

Man bschools have acknowledged that if they want to compete for talented women who typically go into law or medicine, they need to be more competitive in terms of timing. The average mba age at matriculation is 28 which means women will graduate at 30...bad timing for starting a family.

I believe schools understand the timetable of matriculate 26, graduate 28, family 30-32 (2+ years experience) needed to succeed in very competitive fields such as IB and consulting. So I think schools are slightly more understanding of females with limited WE.

On another note, unless you have an absolutely stellar GMAT/GPA, I would feel slightly shaky with only 3 summers of internship experience. My friend got into Haas in the Engineering Finance Program because it was new and untested but he said he would have no chance now. So if you can find a niche program like that, I say go for it. Stanford also tends to accept younger applicants.

kavet83 · Answer

Were those three summer internships after you graduated with your bachelors? What were you doing between those summers?

Women and B-school

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