Accountant attempting MBA and then IB/Management Consulting
Will I have a chance to be accepted to HBS, Wharton, or MIT for an MBA. Also,
if I do attend a top-tier b-school, will my accounting background hurt my ability to join IB or management consulting firms?
Here's a quick run-down.
Undergrad: Villanova, GPA: 3.97, Majors: Accounting & Legal Studies, Minor: Communication
GMAT: 740, Work Experience: 3 years in Deloitte Audit - Financial Services, CPA
Current Situation: Left Deloitte to teach English in Germany for 8 months (wanted to do something "meaningful").
Leaving the Big 4 to teach English was probably a huge plus for your applications. Making manager would have been another way to help get into a top MBA program.
Your accounting background will hurt you, not because it's a weak background but because you'll be competing with peers who have previous consulting or banking experience. You will need to develop the skills they already have and have a coherent argument for why a company would hire you over your peer with direct relevant experience.
Not to be a dick or nothing. But do you (Kenny Powers) ^^^ actually have any hard facts/proof on this advice or merely hearsay. It would be much better if the OP ask someone in the MBAAdmissions or Stacey Blackman thread. Someone who knows adcoms decision process and how the system really work. The amount of myth and hearsay regarding B-school that is throw out there by entry level professionals and college students so religiously is incredulous. It seems half the "advice" given out are opinions based on half-facts and hearsay.
Ari, fair question. I don't have any statistics, my comments are based on what I saw and heard when I was at a Big 4 firm and what has happened to my friends at various Big 4 firms since.
On leaving to teach English: MBA programs like diverse experience, I think people generally agree on that (as opposed to just another auditor)-the people I know who quit the Big 4 and did various other things (like teaching English abroad, for one, or working for the FBI/other government agencies) got into some pretty strong MBA programs.
On making manager: MBA programs like management experience, I think people generally agree on that as well, and making manager at the Big 4 means you get a manager title and experience fairly young. A lot of people at my old firm started applying to Bschool the cycle after they got their promotion to manager.
The accounting background thing is based on my own personal experience plus the number of people I know who end up back in the Big 4 post-MBA.
Anyway the original poster should obviously asking for other advice as well, but this is what I've seen and I feel like I have seen enough people through the process to comment reasonably.
Villanova is going to hurt you more than anything else in my mind - but getting a 3.97 w/ multiple majors was certainly making the best of it. You never know what might happen - it's worth applying to some top schools... That said if I were you I'd also try to focus on second tier, still excellent schools... (HBS is going to be a stretch)
I'm not an expert, but my non-expert judgement (if you're interested in hearing it) is that you'd have a good shot at a place like UVA, Michigan, UT... maybe even an MIT or a NW or something if you really spin it right. Your GPA and GMAT will keep you in the running, despite having been in audit and going to a nothing school for UG... having spent some time abroad should be helpful too.
Interested to hear what others have to say --- maybe from some people who actually know and aren't just guessing.
I don't understand why some people think that accounting majors are at disadvantage. Accountants that learn finance or consulting stuff are valuable resources. For IB and PE, for example, I'd rather hire an accountant with a good MBA than something else with a good MBA.
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