Pass/No Credit Undergrad Classes for 2+2 and regular admission
Hi WSO,
I'm currently a sophomore at a top 60 state school interested in applying to HBS and GSB 2+2 my senior year, and potentially regular MBA admissions down the line. My background is Applied Mathematics major with an economics minor and honors classes, 3.92 GPA, URM and bilingual, involved in consulting/finance clubs on campus, and will be interning in BB IBD this summer.
As part of the "School of Arts and Sciences" at my university, I have to take gen ed requirements such as foreign culture, creative expression, history, etc which are not part of my major. My plan was to take these classes as Pass/Fail, which does not affect your GPA. Although these classes are easier, I'd rather have them not affect my GPA because the grading is much more subjective than mathematics or economics classes, which I know I can get an A in if I put in the work and learn the material. However, I read that some business schools treat P/F courses as a "C" in your GPA when being considered for admission... Is this true? Does it matter if I take gen eds as pass/fail, given that I'm in a technical major, taking honors courses, and doing well?
Also, if anyone has any insight into my chances at the deferred admission 2+2 programs, they would be appreciated!
You won't get into HBS straight out of undergrad without work experience.
They do admit some college seniors and then have them do two years of employment sponsored/approved by the MBA program.
HBS and GSB have 2+2 or deferred admission programs which are targeted towards undergraduate seniors or last-year graduate students without previous work experience.
http://www.hbs.edu/mba/admissions/application-process/Pages/student-app…
As for P/F, I can't speak on behalf on MBA admissions officers, but I don't think treating those classes as C's is correct. It can be a big deal for law schools. Obviously in MBA admissions undergraduate GPA usually isn't a big factor since it's a record of grades that occurred at least four years in the past for most candidates. But for MBA's they're usually just trying to assess your general academic competency, and GMAT and work experience is much more important. Of course in your case the work experience isn't going to really apply outside of any brief internships you've completed so they'll take a closer look at your transcript, and GMAT especially, as that's standardized and allows them to compare you directly alongside other candidates.
Also, why would you want to apply to business school after just two years of work experience? I don't think any firm would hire somebody as a senior associate (in whatever avenue of finance) after just two years as an IBD analyst, assuming that's your current goal. If anything, I'd use those programs as back-up plans and apply after 4-5 years of work experience.
But your best bet is to contact the schools you're looking at applying to directly about P/F and see what they have to say.
Thanks! I know that for HBS 2+2, although they advertise it as two years, I know 2 people who have gone IBD 2 years -> PE 2 years -> HBS through the 2+2 program, and they were allowed to defer for those two extra years. Obviously, due to the small sample size, I can't say whether this is typical or not. It seems to me that if HBS already accepted a student through 2+2, they don't have anything to gain by denying them 2 more years of work experience to make them stronger candidates for post-mba recruiting.
I realize I seem like I'm planning way too far ahead, but I think it would be nice to have guaranteed acceptance to HBS/GSB as an undergrad. If I end up attending in the future, it will allow me to avoid the stress/work of MBA applications. If I don't end up going, then I'll only be out $100 application fee and $1000-2000 deposit, which I think is a fair price to pay for the optionality.
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