MBAs for Smart But not Elite Students?

You will get a lot of talk about finding a regional Bschool and nailing it. (think big fish in small pond, rather than mediocre in a huge pond)

What region are you in?

1) I think you are underestimating yourself

2) Give us more info, GMAT scores, UG GPA, work exp, etc. These will all factor into admissions and will give us an idea of schools to suggest

3) As mentioned above, look into solid regional schools. Pitt if you want to work in PGH, Rice if you are interested in TX or southwest, U W Madison if you like that area, etc. MBA is more about branding and networking than anything else.

You could check out Darden... although you might end up as a user pic on this forum.

Technically, Tuck isn't M7 (not like it matters). So you could check that out

Haha, yeah, damn Darden guy. I think CMU is a good school as well as others. Lets face it, you go to Harvard because of the people that go to Harvard with you as well as the brand. You go to a regional school and you will be in class with people who are at F500 companies moving up the ladder. Outside of a top school I would look into part time MBA programs. A lot of times it isn't worth losing 2 years salary for an MBA not at a top school.

BC is another good choice.

Agree with Anthony, my first instinct when I read the OP's post was "Carnegie Mellon."

Good call by Anthony. Some schools place very well regionally without having a stellar national rep or hundreds of rockstar students. U-Texas & UNC come to mind as well. You can get decent MM banking & research jobs in the Midwest coming out of Wisconsin or Notre Dame. I hear USC Marshall places well in LA. Vanderbilt does ok in the southeast, as does Emory.

Consider Columbia, they are in manhattan and a bit easier to get into than some of the favorites but still have a very good name. Also look at Duke, it plays very will down south.

I'm not sure being "smart" has a lot of bearing on where you end up. It's not like there are brilliant people at School number 4, but OH SHIT, at 8 there is a noticeable decline...and don't even get me started on 15." Just doesn't work that way. I know some mind numbingly dumb people who have gone to some great schools because they study their ass off and take the gmat 7 times (really). And I know some really smart people who have gone to a school ranked 50 because it was convenient and fine to suit their purposes. The difference in students will be more reflective of what they have already done, not what they are capable of doing.

So don't sell yourself short. Go to the best school you can...in the region you want to live in. USC is a hell of a lot better than MIT...if you want to work in LA.

In no particular order, Duke, Yale, Tuck, UVA & Stern.

You can actually go to businessbecause website:http://www.businessbecause.com/ This is a really resourceful website, where you can find a lot of profiles of business schools and MBA programs. You can find http://www.businessbecause.com/nottingham-university-business-school.htm. Nottingham Business School is becoming more and more popular, you can find a lot of feedback from their alums. There are also other business schools you may find interesting.

nontargetbanker:

Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone knows about good MBA programs for students that are smart, but don't come from elite backgrounds that might have trouble getting into the M7 schools. For example, I consider myself reasonably smart, but I'm definitely not a Harvard => McKinsey type of candidate either, so I was wondering if anyone can think of schools that smart, but not superstar people have a good shot at that still place well into banking, consulting or elite corporate finance jobs?

thanks

Also look at Chicago Booth, their acceptance rate is over 20%.

Here is a very easy way you can pick out schools - look at admission criteria, then look at job placement reports, every school has it on their websites... go to the school that places students in firms you are looking for...

However, remember that for many of these schools, your prior work experience may dictate where you end up.

Well forget about an MBA for at least 3 years. Good for you for setting a 750 GMAT target, but realize that you will probably come in around 680 unless you are a test taking genius. Non target doesn't mean no network. Start hitting people up, apply all over, something will come from it.

for the south, also check out emory, ut-austin, rice and smu

emory owns atlanta recruiting, and ut-austin and rice own texas recruiting

doesnt mean you should shoot for duke, uva, booth, etc. if you dont apply, theres a 0% chance youll get it

oh, and still rather early. wait til you have work experience then youll have a better gauge of where you want to be, what youll want to do, and what youll have a good shot at

Does Emory/Rice place well into F500s in Atlanta/Houston though? Forget about investment banking and MBB consulting for a moment and let me know what are some hidden gems for corporate finance jobs.

For Corporate finance jobs just find where F500 firms are HQ'ed and look for the largest school close by. U Washington, U of Oregon, UNLV, U of Florida, BC, Bentley, Temple, Villanova, Pace, John Hopkins, Clemson, list keeps going. F500 firms dont care as much about prestige. Pick a school ranked 20-50 and you will do fine in F500.

Alright, since apparently nobody thought this was odd, I'd like to point out that Booth and Columbia have both been thrown out there in this thread.

WTF!?

Does somebody need a definition of what "elite" means?