I'm wondering if I should transfer to an ivy league school in order to get look better on my resume for i banks and, ultimately, MBA programs. I'm going to be a sophomore at a T25 private school (think UVA, Emory, Notre Dame) where I'm majoring in finance and minoring in art history and energy studies. Right now, I basically have a 4.0 GPA and I'm involved in a few clubs that deal with finance and I'm on student government. Would it be prudent to transfer to an ivy league school where there is better OCR/connections? Would it also be easier to get into MBA programs if I transferred even though I have a solid GPA?

Thanks and all the best!

What is a good GMAT score to apply for some of the top business schools? What are good programs that can help me study for the GMAT?

I'm currently a 2nd year IB analyst at a non-GS/JPM/MS/elite boutique firm, and spent ~1.5 year in a Big 4 audit group prior to lateraling into IB. I intend on staying for a 3rd year analyst position in the same bank to lengthen my employment history but don't have plans to pursue direct promotion to associate. After my 3rd year, my options are to move to another company (be it corp dev, strategy, PE) or to go the bschool route at this point.

For those who are applying to business school, with or without the anticipation of a joint-degree program, the question arises: should I take the GMAT or the GRE?

In all honesty, I think the answer is either, but it's not entirely black and white. First, not all business schools accept the GRE. You'll see below that indicates, at least of this writing, which do and which do not. I've also put links to the school websites for further explanation. Things change all the time.

MBA Programs that Take the GRE Too

I am a young corporate banker from pakistan, who wants to establish himself in good UK/US/European financial institution peferably in I banking or Treasury jobs. I have done a MBA with 3.9+ CGPA, got 3.5 years in front end jobs of commercial as well as corporate banking.
This year i am quite hopeful for Chevening award and want to pursue a good masters in finance from UK. But money comes a major barrier. As i applied to Tier I institutions but their fee is very high comparing with Scholarship money i will get.
So, i have decided to lower my academic appetite to Finance masters from Bradford, Strathclyde, Stirling, etc which are offering 1 yr program with academic fee up to GBP 15 K enabling me to stay in budget.

I'm wrapping up a 3 year stint in middle market PE next summer (2nd year right now) and applying to b school this fall to matriculate in 2014. Always been interested in franchising something and considering doing that post-PE. I'm wondering if that is a good enough reason for a business school to let me defer a year (assuming I get in). Would give me a safety net if the franchise doesn't work out, and if it does work out the franchise would give me some income while in school (would hire a FT manager for each location). The franchise locations would likely be far from wherever I end up in school, so the absentee ownership could be a challenge, but I would have some business partners in the deals with me so I think that part would be taken care of.

I understand that these top tier b schools prefer younger applicants than older ones. What would you say is the perfect age for b school? Say I went to Ross during my undergraduate years and had to spend 1 or 2 more years in undergrad due to some problems. I want to do consulting by the way.

Hello all,

I have been studying the GMAT for 9 months (including studying 3+ hours every single day for the last 3 months) and am truly "burnt out." I took two practice exams (GMAT Prep) 2 weeks before the real test and got a 700 and 710. On the real test I became so nervous I got a 640 (somehow my verbal went way down and that was where I was most confident). My question is - would it make sense to retake it right away (31 days later) and simply relax this month, lightly going over strategies much less intense than I was? With this method I will not "lose" my 9 months of studying and may not care as much leading to a more confident test day experience.

I'm currently a senior at a top college. I transferred here after my sophomore year from a relatively unknown school. I worked at a boutique investment bank last summer and will be starting at a bulge bracket this July.

I'm interested in applying to Harvard 2+2 before April 8 and I wanted to get some feedback on which recommenders I should choose. The first recommender is a professor at my current college and she will end up writing a really excellent recommendation. I'm not quite sure who to choose for my second recommender. Here are my options:

I'm looking at these two positions after I graduate from a mid-tier public university.Which one do you guys recommend doing if I plan on getting an MBA in the future? I'm not completely sure on what I want to do after my MBA, I'm considering consulting or high finance (like everyone else). I find unique appeal to both careers.

I know that I definitely do not want to work in accounting my whole career, but am wondering if it would be a better stepping stone into other fields of finance over TFA or if the TFA brand name and selectivity outweighs it. As for personal preference, I think I would learn a lot from both experiences, although TFA would put me out of my comfort zone a lot more, which is a good thing.

Thanks for the advice!

Half the time I'm spending looking at business schools is just trying to figure out if banks do recruiting there? Is there any main list?

BONUS: I'm correct that all of the following do have that, correct?
- Notre Dame (Mendoza)
- Wisconsin-Madison
- UT Austin (McCombs)
- Indiana University (Kelley)
- Ohio State University (Fisher)

Basically outside of Ivy league what schools have the largest presence on wall street or in the finance industry in general? I was looking at NYU Stern but other than that im not sure where to even start.

I know that the best schools are Harvard, Wharton, Columbia, etc., but I just want to know if the following schools would really help someone break into I-banking:

- Cornell (Johnson)
- Carnegie Mellon (Tepper)
- Notre Dame (Mendoza)
- Duke (Fuqua)
- Emory (Goizueta)
- Wisconsin-Madison
- UT Austin (McCombs)
- Indiana University (Kelley)
- Ohio State University (Fisher)

Which would and which wouldn't?

Hello,

I find myself in a bit of a bind and I am hopeful that folks here can offer me some good advice.

I am 26 years old and currently work at one of the top power merchant companies. I used to be an analyst in Origination, but now, after some restructuring within the company, I find myself working in an increasingly quantitative role where I am starting to pick up programming skills and gain greater understanding of derivatives and logic underlying their pricing and their use for hedging/speculation. However, after 2 years of doing this job I find my opportunities for advancement and growth diminishing in an increasingly bureaucratized environment and frankly am looking for a way out.

The China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) has been ranked 15th in the Financial Times 2013 global ranking of Full-time MBA programmes. Once again, CEIBS has the top-ranked MBA programme among business schools in mainland China and was one of the very few world class management institutions in Asia to make the FT list. CEIBS MBA has been among the Top 25 business schools worldwide for 9 consecutive years (2005 to 2013).

Highlights include:
- #2 in graduates’ salary three years after they completed the programme, ranked top 10 for 10 consecutive years.
- #8 e in alumni’s career progress
- #24 in value for money, a 25 point jump.
- #11 in employment rate at 3 months and international faculty.

http://www.ceibs.edu/media/archive/108877.shtml

hey, I'm currently a sophomore attending a mediocre school with a poor business program. I screwed up my first 3 semester doing absolutely crappy, my current GPA is around a 2.8. i had a lot of personal issues going on past year or so. i've finally gotten my priorities in check, however, I'm scared that i have already dug myself into a hole too deep to climb out and pursue my goals of working in the finance industry. I'm just looking for some advice, if anyone has been in a similar situation, i would greatly appreciate what you have to say.

Hello Monkeys,
I'm jumping off my regular Q&A Forum to post a link about "feeder schools" to top business schools. I know that Poets & Quants has done an excellent job aggregating the top feeder schools, but I do want people to know that a lot of it is a function of from where students apply.

I hope the link of the HBS class of 2014 below is encouraging -- who knew there were students from the University of Macau? LSU? Cal Poly, Bard?

http://www.hbs.edu/mba/admissions/admission-requir...

I cannot find Stanford GSB, but I have personally worked with students from a range of students there -- sure a lot are from glam schools, but I recall a few from state and state-like schools -- Cal State Long Beach, Oregon State, Texas Tech....

How much fun did you have in undergrad vs b-school? Did you find that you were able to get more out of your MBA experience (socially, outside the classroom) because you were able to manage your time better by then?

I feel like a lot of people in undergrad are still learning to manage their time and don't always make the most of the opportunities that abound

The merit fellowship deadline for CBS was January 9th. I know they get a ton of applications in before that deadline.

Since they do rolling admissions, is there any point applying this late? Anyone have an idea of how full their class is already?

Hello,

I am a last year BEng student. In september, I still had to take 19 credits so decided to split it in 2 semesters 8/11. I wasnt allowed and didnt want to take 19 credits in one shot.

I didnt find any good 1 credit class and my work load is already big.
Does this look bad on any applications? Master/mba/jobs etc..

Thanks

How do the ivy league schools rank Texas A&M's biz school for graduate admissions? I currently have a 4.0

So maybe a dumb question, but I am starting to look into grad schools now. What is so bad about attending the part time MBA and working over the full time MBA? How will employers know?
How will this hurt your potential network or recruiting?

Hi all,

Am hoping to get some feedback on whether to go to B school. Unfortunately this post is shamefully similar to my good friend Medical Monkey's recent post, but my situation is complicated by two issues: I earn twice as much, but went to a lowly state school in California (UC Irvine) for undergrad. So here's the scoop:

* 26 years old.
* Accepted at Kellogg and Columbia, haven't heard back from HWS but I expect to get into at least one of them.
* Currently work for a well-known hedge fund in Los Angeles.
* I make about $250k per year. I may make over $300k in 2013, and maybe $450k by the time I would have been graduating from MBA. I don't think I'll get fired. I live simply (pack my lunch, shop at Jos. A Bank, etc.) and will have well over $1 million before I'm 30.

Hi,
I am an international student, study in a non target state university.
EC major, 3.05 GPA, (at a growing trend) GMAT 720

2 months internship at HSBC in Shanghai, China.
2 months internship in the largest insurance company in China.
10 days internship program in Hongkong.

I am interest in corporate finance, IB, and want to work in California, but actually the place does not that matter to me.

I did some research and found that UIUC, NOVA, Vandy, BC, UWSTL, CMC, UTA, Duke with some solid programs.
since i have limited work experiences, and low GPA, am i gonna qualified anyone of those programs?
OR are there any other recommendations?

Thanks! any advice will help!

I am in my last year of bachelor studies at a leading European university. I am planning on taking a gap year afterwards and try to work and perhaps during that time send out applications to master programs. My ultimate goal has been to break into IB which I have not succeeded in so far.

Currently I am evaluating whether to
- work for a year, improve CV and try to apply for IB internship positions that take fresh bachelor graduates, do a master and then start FT the year after, if not getting an IB intern then try again during my master studies

or

- work in internship positions I get, hopefully long-term IB internships and with enough experience apply for post-experience master programs, such as the MSc in Finance at London Business School