What Path Should I Choose? - Where i am -> B-School -> MBB

Hi Everyone, 

Thank you for your time and comments. I am currently a third year college student mapping out my future plans and would appreciate your input.

My Background:

- Non Target Top 25 (Via U.S News) Undergrad

  • Double Major, Double Minor (Half majors & minors in business related fields, Half in biological science related fields)

  • GPA is a bit low now (3.7x), hoping to get it closer to 3.8.

  • Internship at a U.S defense subcontractor firm, program management intern

- Internship on Capitol Hill for a Congressman

I am currently figuring out what I should apply to and get work experience in to get into Business school and eventually move to MBB post B-School.

My current thoughts are the following:

1.) Get a summer internship 2023:

  • Leverage references from the defense firm I worked at to move to a T1 defense firm (Eg. Raytheon, Lockheed, NGC) for a summer internship

  • Attempt to get a summer internship at a consulting firm specializing in defense (Oliver Wyman)

  • Attempt to get a summer internship in big tech as a program management intern.

2.) After the summer, Id like to keep obtaining quality experience and good brands on my resume. (Please suggest ideas for this step as well)

3.) Post undergrad I'd like to try and get a full time offer from one of the places I listed as internship opportunities.

4.) Work for some time (How much time should I work?)

5.) Go to a top MPP (Harvard Kennedy /Princeton) OR Go to a top B-school (M7) OR do the MPP to improve B-school chances and go to B-school after.

6.) Try and recruit into MBB from HKS/Princeton OR Recruit to MBB from M7 

Personal Comments: 

For step 1 -> 3 I'm currently thinking that I should go to T1 defense and work there for 3ish years and climb the ladder, then apply to B/school or a MPP.

My current thoughts for step 5 and 6 are do the MPP and try to recruit for MBB and if it doesn't work, I go back to work for a bit and apply to B-school, go there and recruit for MBB again. 

Let me know what you guys think. Once again, thank you for your time.

Comments (2)

Most Helpful
1mo 
parmesan123123, what's your opinion? Comment below:

Any of those three internship/job options would be fine from an MBA admissions standpoint. But you shouldn't anchor your career around getting an MBA and doing MBB- find what you are interested in because you never know where things will take you.

People usually have between 3 and 6 years of work experience pre-MBA (from my experience talking with post MBAs at my firm).

Definitely do not get another masters degree just to increase your MBA chances. If you want to do public policy, do the MPP. If you want the MBA, do an MBA. You can for sure get into MBB from any top 15 MBA program. 

However, what I think you're missing is that just because your school isn't a specific target for MBB, you can still network your way in. You're at a top 25 school- it's not like you go to some random no-name school in Montana. Reach out to the recruiting lead at the office you're interested in, and set up a chat. It's literally their job to find good candidates. Nobody is gonna look at Johns Hopkins/Emory/Cal Tech (three top 25 schools with low MBB presence) and think "Only if they went to ______."

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1mo 

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