Which Path to Take? 3 Roads for a College Senior
Hi all, so I wanted to gauge some community perspectives on what I should do in my last 6 months of college. Details below
CONTEXT
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Very fortunate to have an MBB offer after graduation
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Already committed to doing a thesis with a rasonably difficult course schedule (5/10 difficulty)
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Starting MBB after 4th of July, school ending early May (~2 months of nothingness until start)
PATHS
- Study for GMAT/apply for deferred MBA programs
Notes: An MBA is absolutely on my horizon, I go to a state school and want better branding as well as buy-side recruiting (more on that later). I think that now I'll have the most time, and arguably might be more competitive today than in the future. I should graduate with a strong GPA, believe I can get 700<X<750 on the GMAT, strong ECs, and one of the more 'prestigious' FT employers, so I wonder if I stand out better vs. my peers now in comparison to 4 years down the road when you have to compete against founders, non-profit leaders, veterans, other exciting backgrounds
Notes: As alluded to above, I want to go into the buy-side after my MBA (particularly in a hedge fund or long-only AM firm). I think the CFA is a great tool to do so, and with my finance background from my major, I'm confident that I'll do best on these exams now vs. years down the road. To front-run an imminent question, I'm aware that CFA is not helpful in consulting, but would use this tool for HF/AM recruiting
- Relax, chill, and enjoy my senior year
Notes: Like many on this site, I had to sacrifice a lot of time and energy these past few years to get where I am, and wouldn't be opposed to just simmering down before the very stressful BA/AC/A years to come. My spring will already be reasonably busy, and maybe just enjoying the summer before I'm a corporate lackey is a reasonable idea
ASK
Anyone have insights? I assume people have faced similar questions before (at least the relax vs. something else question), so I'd love to hear what you did and how you feel about it in retrospect.
Thanks!
Intern in CorpDev, sorry about the lack of response. Maybe one of these topics will help:
More suggestions...
You're welcome.
deferred mba admissions at HSW is much more competitive than the regular processes. especially stanford. i think the other M7 are doable, but theyre also less useful for your goal of buyside
if your goal is HF/AM, you probably shouldve gone into banking instead. public market investing doesnt really recruit consultants - skillsets are too different. i also dont think HF really hires out of bschool, and AM takes a pretty small amount. bulk of buyside recruiting out of bschool is PE/VC and they typically look for people with pre-MBA buyside experience. fortunately, PE/VC recruit a bunch of MBB consultants these days so that option is definitely open to you, and the 2+2 path will make you pretty competitive for HSW (though again, not that useful for HF/AM)
This is a great perspective! I really struggled with the consulting vs. IB decision for this exact reason, but ultimately decided that the holistic training of MBB would be better for long-term career outlook than IB. I'll likely be taking my GMAT and holding off on deferred applications, saving my energy for regular cycle in 3-5 years. Appreciate your insights here!
The only thing I would say is to definitely NOT do #2. Currently working in LO and doing my CFA now and certainly do not think that studying that behemoth today will be the best use of your time, be more of an annoying thing to deal with than most things you've done recently, and is something you won't see any returns on in the near future. If you have the CFA coming into AM, this could help you, but rarely do MBA hires at my large LO have the CFA.
As for #1, if that's something you want to try, go for it, but don't have great insight on this one. It sounds like in your situation an MBA would be an awesome career accelerator. Listen to others on this one and get some advice.
I'll contradict the above line in saying that my large LO definitely hires people with a history of consulting in MBB, but this is very much the exception and not the norm.
Do you just want to chill? Do you feel like something might be missing in your current time that you want to do? Is there something you find interesting but haven't gotten the chance to work on?
You're overall in a good spot. Make sure whatever you do, you enjoy your last semester!
Appreciate you taking the time! Agree on the CFA point -- I think I like the idea of taking the CFA, but the process would really drag my final months of freedom
Definitely study for GMAT while you're still in study mode. You don't have to apply for deferred programs but it'll be useful to have a good GMAT score if/when you're applying to b school 2-3 years in.
Don't study for your CFA. I'm sure you could pass L1 but you'll lose your weekends studying for L2/L3. You probably have a better chance getting into HF/AM by relaxing on weekends and maximizing your performance during the week. (I'm a charterholder and do think it's valuable btw, so I'm not saying this lightly).
Definitely chill most of the time and try to meet people around campus--it can come in handy down the road. Plan travel for the summer, either with friends or alone, and have a blast.
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