PE Associate Rejected at HSW... Now What?
What are people's thoughts at this point? I'm at a MM / UMM fund right now who got dinged at HSW (only schools I applied to). My firm's willing to keep me on for another year, so I'm not worried about unemployment, but as I'm considering my next steps I'm wondering if it's worth lateraling or going to another b-school at this point?
My outcome is pretty typical for my fund in that maybe 1/4 of associates get into H/S, maybe 1/2 get into W, and pretty much everyone gets into B/K/C/S. I got a 760 on the GMAT so that wasn't my issue, I think it's just how oversaturated the market is with PE folks (anecdotally, I've heard that HSW has gotten much more difficult over the last 5 years coming out of my firm). I'll obviously rewrite all my essays, hire a consultant, etc., but I'm not holding my breath for a materially better outcome.
I think I'd have a decent shot lateraling elsewhere but the thing is, I really want to go to business school for the experience / 2-year vacation. Is it worth going to a non-HSW school if I want to stay in UMM PE or should I just lateral if I don't get in? Gracias everyone.
I'd apply again to HSW, but probably expand to the rest of the MBA business schools">M7, just so you have options. Consultant is a good idea as well, just for positioning and to help shape your story a little better. At the end of the day, H/S are a crapshoot, especially Stanford. They can only take so many over represented male finance candidates, so if you don't have some sort of unique edge to your story, it's going to be hard to stand out.
Wharton I feel like is usually where you'd end up pretty safely. I feel like a re-apply with some Wharton specific items (if you didn't do so the first time around).
From the conversations I'd had with people, if you have prior PE experience and get into an MBA business schools">M7/Top 10, there's usually a seat for you somewhere, but it might be more in the middle market vs UMM/MF. If you want to do UMM/MF, HSW probably gives you the best shot. It's probably not impossible from a non HSW MBA business schools">M7, but it's going to be tougher.
I wouldn't take it too hard, you might have just gotten a little unlucky this year. If you apply again in the fall, you could always take time off after decisions come in and attempt to lateral with business school (even if it's a non HSW) as a backup.
Good news, your situation is nearly identical to what mine was 10 years ago... I also got rejected from HSW coming from PE with a 760 GMAT. At the time, I was shocked and had to rethink my career strategy. I ended up working in PE for two more years in a more senior capacity at another firm. Decided to reapply (I had blamed my rejections on applying 2nd round instead of 1st, so I thought that would solve the problem). So two years later I applied to H/W and Booth. H/W both rejected me again -- in fact, this time Wharton didn't even have the courtesy to waitlist me! Booth offered me a huge scholarship which I accepted and never looked back.
In hindsight, this was a much better outcome for me as I had substantially more PE experience which made recruiting for PE easier, more savings when entering school, and $75k+ tuition cost savings (b-school was cheaper back then!). I also loved Booth and now realize it was a much stronger cultural fit than H/W would have been, even though I didn't see it at the time and probably would have gone to Wharton had I gotten in.
So my advice to you is to stick around for another year at your fund and apply again, but this time choose a few additional schools and add them to the list!