Am interested in applying for top 15 U.S. MBAs but I am having doubts in terms of international student prospects, financing and opportunity costs
Background
* Australian - can go for E3 visa (pretty much guaranteed) - however I heard US employers are relatively unaware of this visa
* I've been working in Corporate Development since last year August 2018 with 1.5 years in Big 4 corporate finance prior
Goal
* Ideally PE (MM or smaller) post MBA - but given the difficulty of breaking in, am happy to go for BB IB first
* Would like to work in U.S. or Asia (don't want to be in Australia for much longer)
Second Thoughts
* Financing - require to borrow roughly 120k-150k (at 10% interest rates). Not sure if it is harder to get scholarships being a international student?
* Prospects - difficulty landing desired roles as international student
* Alternatives - given my background, would I be able to achieve my goal in US (or Asia) without a MBA? From reading posts on WSO, seems like the jump from Corp Dev to PE is extremely difficult
* Opportunity costs (standard foregone salary, 2 years of experience etc.)
Thanks
Thats okay, bummer your thread hasn't had a response yet. Sometimes bots are smarter than humans anyways:
If those topics were completely useless, don't blame me, blame my programmers...
With just 1.5 years of post-undergrad experience, you may be too early in your career to be a competitive applicant for a top 15 MBA program. Students at these programs have an average of 4-5 years of experience and 80% have 3-8 years of work experience. You would be well served to wait at least another year to apply.
The good thing for you is that more and more top programs are developing curriculum that allows international students to get a STEM designation that allows for an OPT extension.
Also working in your favor is that there are not a ton of Australian applicants to US schools and you could bring a unique perspective.
Good luck!
Thanks for the response, but actually I have 2.5 years experience now. Apologies if my post was not clear, but I started Corp dev last year in August (so 1 year experience) and did 1.5 years in big 4 prior to the Corp dev role - will have almost 4 years by MBA start.
My main concern is on how willing/companies are to sponsor Australians (we don't have to go through H1B lottery system, we can go for a E3 visa which has a quota that never gets filled - as long as company is willing to sponsor and do the paper work)
Thats okay,
Your question is excellent, but it's also a bit hard to answer because it's dependent on the employment market and visa situation 3 years into the future. If the employment market is tight, employers will be more willing to extend themselves. If unemployment is up and there are lots of job seekers, then employers are less willing to go to the effort of sponsorship paperwork.
Right now the U.S., job market is tight.
Best, Linda
I see, thanks for that perspective. I'm starting to think it might make more sense for me to do it at an international school like Insead and target Asia directly instead then (although im hearing singapores market is just as tight)
Just to be clear: When I say "tight job market," I mean that unemployment is low and job-seekers are in a relatively good position.
If you prefer Asia, INSEAD would be a great option. If you prefer the U.S., then apply to U.S. MBA programs. If you want to keep your options open, apply to both.
Oh I see, thanks for the clarification. I will apply to both since I heard it’s difficult to break into Asia without the language skills
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