Would you "settle" for your second choice school?

Please help me with a "problem" I've been debating in my mind over the past 2 days. It's been driving me crazy.

I was recently waitlisted at HBS, which was by and far the only bschool that I was interested in attending. To my surprise, I was accepted to Stanford GSB, a school that doesn't interest me in the slightest (only applied because it makes up the "S" of the "H/S" perfecta, often coveted by most bschool folk). I also have an offer that I've previously accepted to join BofA. Say I don't get into HBS off the waitlist:

  1. What would you do in this situation - 2nd choice school or risky job? Would you attend a bschool that you're not really excited about? Does the current market environment influence your decision? Normally I'd go right to work and reapply after doing banking/pre-MBA PE, but now seems like a good time to go to school. I'm also weighing that, despite that the job is risky, coming out of bschool with no work experience puts me at a significant disadvantage for recruiting (I'm a college senior and would eventually like to get into mega-cap PE).

  2. Given that my contract to join BofA was through Merrill, is there any legal requirement to pay back my signing bonus (I know that I "should", but I'm curious what the legal ramifications are given that ML no longer exists)? What about bonuses that were not stipulated in the contract (i.e. early signing bonus that would violate contracts b/w the firm and my school OCS, so they omit it)? Is there any legal requirement to repay this? I'm under the impression that I need to pay back the full pre-tax amount - how do I go about recuperating the ~5k that Uncle Sam jacked from me?

I realize that I'm lucky to have this problem, but it's annoying nonetheless.

 

I fail to see why you would even go to business school straight out of college.

How do you plan on keeping against other business students with 2+ years of experience during on-campus recruiting.

For example, why would a mega-cap hire you over someone with 2 years of investment banking and 2 years of private equity experience?

It's hard enough for people with just investment banking experience in business school to get hired by PE firms.

As for your FT offer...I honestly don't know what to tell you; you will have to wait and see because right now, the BofA-Merrill deal is looking like a complete shitshow.

 

Sounds like you have the resume to already get pretty far in applying to B-schools. Why not work for a bit and reapply later... you have already removed uncertainty about your b-school application strength, why not make it even stronger. Then maybe you can get into Harvard later down the road.

 

Going to school early would be a means to accelerate my career (I'd be 24 w/ an MBA as an IB associate, versus a 24 y/o A2A w/o an MBA or a 26 y/o Analyst->MBA->Associate).

My primary concern is whether I'd be able to make the jump from IB Associate -> PE Associate (especially at the mega-cap level) and whether going to Stanford versus Harvard might limit this possibility. I'm turned off by Stanford's: small class size; west coast location (and primary west-coast network) - a biggie for me; and lack of representation in PE.

 
Best Response

If you are bright and qualified enough to get accepted into Stanford straight out of school you may want to bypass IB altogether. I would recommend that you go to Stanford, get a solid summer internship at a MM PE shop or IB if necessary and try to make the jump upon graduation. You will be at a disadvantage competing against your peers who have relevant work experience but you seem to have a pretty solid background and by that time hopefully an internship or two under your belt.

My only warning is that I do not think you will gain as much from b-school straight out of undergrad as you would after having worked for several years. I say this as someone who has learned a tremendous amount about myself, my goals and my passions over the course of the past 3.5 years while working.

I have always viewed b-school as a "get out of jail free card", "vacation" or as a means to change careers. I plan on applying next Fall (if ever) after having originally planned on applying last fall. The job growth, work/life balance and compensation has kept me here

 

Pretty impressive stuff getting into Standford straight from college. Although, I am shocked you did not get into Harvard since they are really after younger applicants and Standford has a lower acceptances rate.

I think if Harvard is your main goal, you should re-apply when you have couple of years of W/E under your belt and follow the typical route to P/E/

However, if your main goal is to fast track your career than I would take Standford in a heart beat. You have a very good chance of doing P/E from Standford.

You are certainly in a lucky position. But your right, it is annoying. These are some big decisions you need to make and you don't what to look back with regrets. Remember, even if you get some W/E, their is no guarantee that you will get into Harvard.

If I were you I would take the Standford offer!

By the way, what are your stats like? Such as GPA, undergrad, GMAT, and W/E that got you acceptance into Standford?

 

If I'm not mistaken, Harvard isnt kind to re-applicants. If I were you, I'd contact alums at your UG who are at the firms you're interested in and ask them this question.

They'd be far more qualified than anyone on here.

 

Numbers-wise, my stats aren't too impressive (compared with many on this forum). I have a slightly better than average GPA, good GMAT, went to a good school UG, but I think that I got in based on the uniqueness of my profile:

2 BB IB internships soph/junior year; spent 6 months in Kenya and Uganda working at the International Criminal Court, covering the works of war crime tribunals, extraditing war criminals, and working on a cross-border peace building project; various campus leadership positions, ranging from finance to community service; TA/RA for Academic Dean for 2 years.

Harvard doesn't look kindly on re-applicants, with the exception of college seniors. I made sure of this before I applied. They even provide feedback to rejected/waitlisted college seniors to encourage you to reapply in the future (they don't provide feedback to anybody else except for shortlisted waitlist candidates).

I think Stanford values community service/non-profit type work more than Harvard does, which is why my profile was more powerful at that school.

Cali weather is one of the reasons why I'm turned off by Stanford :(

 
uru:
Numbers-wise, my stats aren't too impressive (compared with many on this forum). I have a slightly better than average GPA, good GMAT, went to a good school UG, but I think that I got in based on the uniqueness of my profile:

2 BB IB internships soph/junior year; spent 6 months in Kenya and Uganda working at the International Criminal Court, covering the works of war crime tribunals, extraditing war criminals, and working on a cross-border peace building project; various campus leadership positions, ranging from finance to community service; TA/RA for Academic Dean for 2 years.

Harvard doesn't look kindly on re-applicants, with the exception of college seniors. I made sure of this before I applied. They even provide feedback to rejected/waitlisted college seniors to encourage you to reapply in the future (they don't provide feedback to anybody else except for shortlisted waitlist candidates).

I think Stanford values community service/non-profit type work more than Harvard does, which is why my profile was more powerful at that school.

Cali weather is one of the reasons why I'm turned off by Stanford :(

Nice job dude. The ICC thing sounds amazingly cool. Can you give some insight on how you got the internship?

 

if you suck at life, which it sounds like you do, then you better hang on and get into HBS so you can be sure of getting one of those guaranteed interview slots.

but... if you have any social skill at all and can network, then it won't matter what school you go to, you'll still end up where you want to be because you dont suck and you can make shit happen without having your career management center brow-beat employers into taking required numbers from your school.

 
IBnutz:
if you suck at life, which it sounds like you do, then you better hang on and get into HBS so you can be sure of getting one of those guaranteed interview slots.

but... if you have any social skill at all and can network, then it won't matter what school you go to, you'll still end up where you want to be because you dont suck and you can make shit happen without having your career management center brow-beat employers into taking required numbers from your school.

You cannot get into P/E from any school no matter how much you network. The fact is the big P/E shops only recruit at a few schools and take very little.

I find it pretty funny that you think this guy sucks in life considering all of his accomplishments to date at such a young age.

I don't know why people like you attack others that are just asking for advice.

 

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