Interesting article from poets and quants on the importance of pedigree, whether it's school or work, in getting into wharton. I think the same concept applies to HBS and Stanford as well. This confirms what I've known for some time about b-school admissions at these top programs. You either need pedigree (school, work, or ideally both) or do something really interesting and off the wall, like navy seals, teach for america, peace corps, founded a successful start-up, worked for a professional sports team, olympic athlete, etc.
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Crap, looks like I need to transfer out of Hopkins ASAP....
(Although this guy should have just double majored and gotten a 3.8+)
In all seriousness, I think fit is what matters most and if they had enough IB guys from China, he probably didn't get the spot.
Well that’s infuriating
Admittance to a top school is like obtaining a loan. It typically goes to those who need it the least.
Well, remember that the material in most MBAs is roughly the same. We live in a free country and you have the opportunity to prove those schools wrong on a not-perfectly-level playing field, but one that is relatively fair for intelligent people like yourself.
It is time for you to take "Friend B's" offer and work at a hedge fund. Now it is very simple- just you against the market. UIUC would 100% believe in you, and when you succeed as a hedge fund manager, I want you to mail copies of your checks to the University of Illinois to Wharton and Booth- though I am kinda shocked that Booth would turn you down FT.
If I ever have a successful hedge fund, I am going to have a rule of specifically excluding everyone who's spent more 1/3 of their time over the past ten years at an elite east-coast school from consideration. The key to success in investing and trading isn't getting things right but thinking differently than the rest of the market. Some people might only be wrong 20% of the time, but the markets show us that it's much better to be wrong 40% of the time but 10% of the time be right when the smartest guys in the room are wrong by virtue of participating in less crowded trades. So if you just got a 1600 (ok, now I guess it's 2400) on the SATs, go to a non-target school that has a top-ten ranking in US News for your favorite program. You'll do just fine in the long run and have much a different perspective on how the economics of this country works than the typical Ivy League grad.
I just wanted to conclude by noting that the person raising these concerns is an Ivy League grad about six or seven years out of school working as a trader at a decent prop shop who is disappointed he only got into Booth's part-time program. Chicago has always been a school that asks "So how do you respond when life deals you a tough hand?", and it's subtly giving him a shot to get into their full-time program.
So those feelings of rejection and pushing against a brick wall you are experiencing? They're not unique to state school grads. And if you are a UVA grad who got rejected from Harvard and Stanford but got into Kellogg, don't worry, a lot of blue-blooded Ivy Leaguers are jealous of you. :D
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Brady, give it a rest buddy, it seems like you've got an unhealthy obsession with B school. Life's too short!!!
Poets & Quants is also a start up site and not one I would take as a definitive source.
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