Tougher for traders to get into a top MBA program?
HF
(Neanderthal, 3,161
Points)
on 2/18/10 at 7:24pm
Several people I've talked to told me that it's tougher for traders to get into a top MBA program. Main reason is that admissions officers assume that you are not a great trader if you're applying to business schools, since superstar traders don't really need to get an MBA. Also, trading does not entail leadership, project management, and other attributes that top MBA programs seem to covet.
How accurate is this assessment?





I would say that is pretty
I would say that is pretty accurate for the reasons you mentioned. Around 30% of each top mba class is consulting (almost all mbb) and around 20-25% is finance (mostly banking+PE). The rest of the class is generally made up of general management/non-profit/military/entrepreneurship people.
Still, if you have a very strong GPA from a solid undergrad + good gmat + good recs and essays, you should be able to pull off a good mba.
traders don't have a lot of
traders don't have a lot of exit opps. thus if they are looking to make a big career change, MBA school is the way. Therefore they could be good traders and simply want to do something else.
This is one of the reasons I
This is one of the reasons I chose Research over S&T.
CashCow wrote: I would say
I would say that is pretty accurate for the reasons you mentioned. Around 30% of each top mba class is consulting (almost all mbb) and around 20-25% is finance (mostly banking+PE). The rest of the class is generally made up of general management/non-profit/military/entrepreneurship people.
Still, if you have a very strong GPA from a solid undergrad + good gmat + good recs and essays, you should be able to pull off a good mba.
It's much closer to 20% than 30% consultants. And they definitely are not "almost all mbb". That doesn't even make sense. There aren't that many analysts in a class.
Cashcow you just picked up a
Cashcow you just picked up a first year analyst position according to another post of yours. Where are you coming up with these numbers? And, what TheRapist said.
A prior person here posted
A prior person here posted stats for HBS that you can find if you search. In a given year, 100 students came from McK. Very high numbers also for Bain and BCG, and around 50 from GS.
Here also you can see stats
Here also you can see stats by area for HBS.
(This is based on where students are going, rather than where they are coming from, but still somewhat indicative).
http://www.hbs.edu/recruiting/mba/resources/career...
Or you could just actually
Or you could just actually look at where they came from:
Stanford - 20% consulting
Harvard - 23% consulting
http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/mba/admission/
http://www.hbs.edu/mba/profiles/classprofile.html
I don't think it's
I don't think it's necessarily harder for traders to get into top MBA programs per say. However, their work is less project oriented than that of bankers or consultants. I feel like a lot of bschool apps emphasize leadership and teamwork and it's more difficult to get that when you are in a junior S&T role. So your observation is true, in my opinion.
I have friends who are
I have friends who are traders. Yeah, I heard the same thing. The really good ones are not going back for an MBA. Most have already got their CFA (passed all 3 levels) and doing well. They said an MBA is not really going to add much value to their career as it would for IBD, Consulting, F 500, etc. Actually I think I only know one trader that went back to get MBA and he didn't really like what he was doing and to be honest not all that good at it.
I am too lazy to look up B-school entry stats. But that's seem like an exorbitant amount of consultant in one entry class. Not that I'm complaining, better chances. But that's seems kind of high.
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