B-School Fun/Camaraderie?
Might be re-hashing, but I'm sure there are a few bschool grads from top 15 programs on here. Would be interested in hearing about the social experience from bschool. I work with a bunch of HBS/Tuck/CBS alums, and all in all sounds like a fun experience, where people built some good friendships, similar to college. I left banking for the startup world, and no longer find myself in the position of being limited by not having an MBA, that said, I personally have a strong interest based no feedback and just how I think it would fit into my life.
I'm curious to hear more feedback, from people here who have done a full time 2 yr program. I'd rather not turn this thread into a HBS vs. GSB thread - there are plenty of those already. Thanks in advance.





it's a blast and my friends
it's a blast and my friends at other schools all over the country seem to agree.
A classmate of mine is fond of saying, "you only go to college twice, once" and that is pretty accurate.
I knew something was missing
I knew something was missing when someone told me my freshman year: this is the best time you'll ever have. Thanks, I needed this.
I'm just here for the free food
At just about any full-time
At just about any full-time program where the majority or entire class has full-time work experience -- the students are there to make friends, to have fun, and to take full advantage of the fact that they don't have to get up every morning to go to work.
B-school is "busy" but in a different way. At work, you're busy with other people's shit -- your bosses, clients, colleagues, etc. In b-school, you're busy with your own shit - it's YOUR time, not company time. And because most if not all the people in class know what it's like to work full-time, going back to school is a welcome reprieve.
Now whether that experience is worth $100K+ in tuition is subject to debate, but because a lot of it is about networking -- people are there to make friends, not adversaries.
Also, there's a personal element to it as well for a lot of folks. Bankers work crazy hours, and it's easy to get burnt out after a few years. Consultants are traveling all over the place. Engineers are stuck working on techno stuff all day (and are sick of it - those who aren't sick of it won't apply to school). Folks working in some F500 company want out. Military guys are looking for a way to transition out. So many of you are young, work your ass off, and realize that college was a far more social environment than working life. It's harder to make friends - also because for many of you, you're often "junior" or the youngest guy in a sea of folks who are at a different stage in life (married with kids, different kinds of interests, etc.), whereas some of you are only a few years removed from doing keg stands and watching Jackass on loop, getting stoned and munching on Cheetos.
Working life for a 20-something can be lonely compared to college. And b-school represents that possibility to reconnect again with a ton of people your own age, with similar kinds of aspirations and at a similar stage in life. I mean, how many times have you guys gone out with colleagues or clients for drinks/meals and find yourself woefully out of place when the discussion turns away from work? You get older folks going "I don't understand how to operate Facebook" and who talk about babies, remodeling the kitchen, etc.
Bankers work crazy hours for a few years. You're either working, or sleeping, and when you do have free time, it can feel weird because you don't know what to do with it. You realize you don't have anywhere as many *real* friends to hang out with. So you will hang out with fellow analysts. Consultants travel so much they don't spend any time in their home city and when they do - same thing; your contact list of *real* friends whom you can call up on a whim and who live in the same city is smaller than you thought. And if you're a military guy, chances are you're deployed halfway across the world - you get along great with your guys when you're working, but when it's time to finally go home, people scatter. And that same feeling of "what do I do now?"
So because of that -- a lot of MBA students are highly motivated from a personal place to make the most of their experience socially. Because that is part of the reason why they applied in the first place (and sometimes, the main reason -- I mean, most of you IB/PE guys know you really don't *need* an MBA, but quite a number of you will still have this desire to go anyhow; you'll justify it for "career" reasons, but there's also that personal motivation as well.
Alex Chu
www.mbaapply.com
thanks alex - very helpful
thanks alex - very helpful
Alex nailed it. All my
Alex nailed it. All my friends at top b-schools said it was the best 2 years of their lives, even more fun than undergrad. They said the experience of partying, travelling, and forming friendships with really smart and interesting people, was well worth the cost of going.
This is half of the reason
This is half of the reason why I think a 4 year JD/MBA might not be half bad. Particularly if you're not paying.
Some of the stories I've
Some of the stories I've heard from people at HBS and Wharton are really amazing. Jetsetting with rich tycoons, going to vegas on a whim, yacht parties, costume parties, random hookups, etc. There's almost no experience like it. Beats the crap out of college and definitely work life.
"This is half of the reason
"This is half of the reason why I think a 4 year JD/MBA might not be half bad."
A JD will require effort
Buyside CFA wrote: "This is
"This is half of the reason why I think a 4 year JD/MBA might not be half bad."
A JD will require effort
Yep, that's why I'm hesitating to jump on that bandwagon...
I'm just here for the free food
B-school aint no bitch. I
B-school aint no bitch. I thought i'd walk in and have multiple choice tests and everyone got a 4.0 and went to the bar. Au contraire, It is a lot of work....but it is also a lot of fun.
I don't know about this "beats the crap out of college" business...college was amazing and required damn near zero effort, relative to the real world (and b-school)...but it is a blast, nonetheless.