Gentleman,
Was wondering what you thought the minimum amount of time I could give my two selected supervisors to write my rec's for MBA programs would be... I'm pretty sure my direct boss (a VP who is a personal friend at this point and not at all formal / serious) would do it for me (or tell me to write my own) in very minimal time without being pissed off, but the MD / head of my acquisitions team is a pretty formal Chinese dude and would probably not appreciate having anything sprung on him - particularly since he's on the plane like 15x per week and constantly busy as shit and so forth.
The thing is this, usually I'd just tell them to start now, but I really haven't made the decision for sure yet and there's some shit hanging in the balance at my company which I want to give as long as possible to play out before I decide whether to apply this year (I've only got 3 years W.E. at this point, I'm a 2008 grad, so it's early anyways and I'll wait till next year if the price is right).
The earliest admissions deadline for first round I'm working with is October 3 for Wharton... and I'm thinking of doing 3-4 schools in first round (I'm already working on the essays)... Without explaining more about WHY I'd rather wait as long as possible before asking, what do you guys think the longest I could reasonably wait would be? September 1? September 15? I'd tell them I needed it done by September 30.
Thanks guys,
-IP
Being first round for top tier schools as a common white male finance profile would be good since it let's you get into the "core" of the class as they are building it out as opposed to adding people to the core.. Also keep in mind those recommendations for a lot of the top schools aren't a simple copy and paste, there are specific questions that need to be addressed for each school so it's a lot of work on your recommenders so I'd highly recommend doing it NOW. Or give it a week if pissible
One of my old analysts is applying first round to top tier schools with the same deadlines, and she asked me a few weeks ago, which I really appreciated. The more time the better. If you need a specific amount of time, I'd say a month. 2 weeks simply isn't enough time.
I'm no longer in IBD but even now I find it's tough to carve out time to work on this stuff.
^well I work in real estate PE, so the timing isn't quite as crunched as it would be in IBD, but yes, i still see your point. I'll give them 1 month... which means I've got 12 days to decide... shit.
also- shorttheworld- don't say I'm a common white male finance profile! I know it's kind of true, but it's so disheartening... plus, I work in China, that's gotta count for some sort of differentiation! (I know - wishful thinking)
youre still a white pe finance guy -- with international exposure yes so you have that -- but the core youre still a white finance ivy league from rich parents :P i can say i work on the prop trading arm of a family office but nevertheless im going to be thrown in with all the bankers due to the high finance background. from everything ive gathered wharton is more the pedigree type while HBS likes the underdogs and different stories more... and im not saying it to bash you im just saying it is what it is so make sure you have them thurr ECs and other stuff to differentiate, esp anything humanitarian-leaning, and try to show that you have a track record of doing such things... and applying first round enables you to make up the 'core' of each class at each school rather than being the guy being fitted with the core from first round.
^i know, you're absolutely right... being, as you mentioned, a "white finance ivy league from rich parents" person is tough! Anyways - I'm really hoping to get into Columbia, Booth or Wharton and I'm feeling pretty good about my chances of getting into at least one (3.5 ivy, 730 gmat, PE, Chinese language fluency, etc.), so we'll see what happens... if worst comes to worst I'll have to ask my dad to donate a library somewhere ; P
you guys using admissions consultants? I dont know why I'm such a big advocate for them, I'm just curious. Perhaps I should focus on finding myself a job first :)
Did you get 730 GMAT or 720? Thought you got 720 first time, retake? No I'm not using an admissions consultant I'm confident now that I can stir my story much better than last years round of apps
Best of luck short. You applying to the same set of schools?
I actually got a 730, I don't know why I said i got a 720... had likely been looking at median GMATs sleep deprived and all kinds of shit and threw my mind off... I got a 730.
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