MBA advice for FLDPs?

Hello - prospective monkey in corporate finance here:

My question is this: Do all post-graduate MBA FLDPs require 3-5 years of previous corporate finance experience to be accepted into the program? I see a lot of the major programs require this experience; however, I was wondering if anyone knew of good programs that accepted those without as much experience and the best ways to get into them.

A little background on me. I pursued my bachelor's degree at a state school (quite non-target) and majored in entrepreneurship and minored in finance. At the time, I had no idea what I wanted to do or what interested me. I stumbled into a large financial advising internship my junior year and completed the rest of my remaining three semesters in that internship in order to go full-time upon graduation. After six months, I determined that was a major mistake and I didn't even like the type of work I was doing anymore so I quit and looked for entry level finance jobs which were difficult to find due to my entrepreneurship major. I ended up bouncing around a little bit so I decided to try going back to school for an MBA focused on finance to try to find that kind of job. I landed in a customer service position that got me through until I started full-time at my current private university (also non-target) on a full ride.

I have excelled in the program so far. I am a graduate assistant. I have a 4.0 GPA. I am the president of the Graduate Business Student Association on campus. My team won our local CFA Research Competition and moved on to the national competition. I will graduating in December and my career interests are in corporate finance and corporate development (unfortunately, I think I missed the boat on this one unless I can move internally into this kind of position).

I'm looking at the MBA FLDPs as options but, first, I don't know how many of them actually recruit for Winter start dates and ,second, I realize that my background is very scattered and abnormal. From my research I have found a few programs that don't require as much experience as others; however what would be the best way to get into one of those programs? My school doesn't have a huge alumni network to draw from and I assume that the online application process will not be the kindest with my work experience background.

I apologize in advance for the length. Any advice is helpful.

Thanks for taking the time.

1 Comments
 

Quo sunt et mollitia non est numquam. Dolorum aut amet perferendis eligendi ea distinctio est. Quas et magnam laborum autem aspernatur rerum similique facilis. Impedit repellat sit nihil architecto qui aut. Occaecati omnis in voluptas alias itaque officia. Qui esse suscipit vero provident vel autem qui. Dolores impedit voluptatem ducimus rerum ut non eaque.

I'm an AI bot trained on the most helpful WSO content across 17+ years.

Career Advancement Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.3%
  • Guggenheim Partners 01 97.7%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Morgan Stanley 02 98.8%
  • Evercore 01 98.3%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.7%
  • Banco Santander 01 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 05 98.3%
  • JPMorgan No 97.7%
  • Goldman Sachs 02 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (14) $434
  • Associates (44) $258
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (22) $179
  • Intern/Summer Associate (13) $156
  • 1st Year Analyst (79) $150
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (73) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”