Path to B-School
(Senior Chimp, 24
Points)
on 5/17/12 at 2:35pm
I'm curious as to what are the different path's that one takes to get in to a top tier b-school for his/her MBA degree?
I come from a semi-target out here in the mid-west (think Wisconsin, UIUC, Indiana etc.) and am aware of a lot of kids doing 2 years at a BB, 2 years at PE and moving on to Wharton or HBS.
Is it possible to transition to business school by working in a boutique for 2-4 years (since a lot of boutique's turn their analysts in to career bankers) ?
Any inputs or personal experiences would go a long way in being helpful. Thanks!





It's possible to transition
It's possible to transition to business school by doing almost anything over 2-8 years. Seriously. MBA programs aren't just ex-BB analysts, pre-MBA PE associates, and MBB consultants. You have Teach For America/non-profit people, ex-military people, ex-corp fin people, CPAs, and a ton of other walks of life.
mcsteelemobile: I'm curious
I'm curious as to what are the different path's that one takes to get in to a top tier b-school for his/her MBA degree?
I come from a semi-target out here in the mid-west (think Wisconsin, UIUC, Indiana etc.) and am aware of a lot of kids doing 2 years at a BB, 2 years at PE and moving on to Wharton or HBS.
Is it possible to transition to business school by working in a boutique for 2-4 years (since a lot of boutique's turn their analysts in to career bankers) ?
Any inputs or personal experiences would go a long way in being helpful. Thanks!
Hi McSteeleMobile,
I could tell you my own experience or that of the experiences of folks I know, or you could look on any school's website to see videos and profiles of different paths (ex.: http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/mba/stanford_voices)
So the real question back to you is -- what do you want to do with your wild and precious life?
(ex: http://www.hbs.edu/mba/perspectives/PortraitProject/)
The quick answer is, sure, of course, you can transition to business school by working in a boutique, but what are you doing with your life now that is showing leadership potential? That's the real issue. We can all say, yeah, these are feeder companies, but beware of false correlations. One of the reasons prestige firms send a lot of students to the top business schools is because they've already done the screening for academic talent and leadership.
So for you, here's the first step: what are you doing, and what do you want to be doing, and why?
Start there, and then the path becomes your VERY own, not some statistic.
Sorry for all the questions!
Best regards, Betsy
Betsy Massar
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