How much time do you actually study during bschool?
other than networking and socializing and classes?
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Average student is 15-20 hours a week for classes and studying (so let's say 5-6 hours a week of studying alone). I'm down to about 12 hours a week because I'm checked out and taking minimum credits. Students going for honors/cumma sudde laude (sp?)/ 2nd year scholarships can put in 30+ a week. Grades don't matter, so you pretty much choose how much time you put in. You can put in less, and prioritize extra-curriculars/start-up/social life/recruiting/etc, or if you like academics you can put in a lot of time and get a 4.0.
Also you generally have much more work during end of quarter. Not uncommon to have some classes that give you both a final group project and final paper.
Not sure if troll...
Ehhhh, really depends. There's such a huge diversity of backgrounds represented. People from finance/accounting who crush those classes, while people like me super struggle to not fail those classes.
For Wharton there's like 3 care levels: getting a scholarship / getting a high enough GPA to qualify for the Wharton San Francisco program / not failing. Hahahaha. I'm in the "not failing" category. I have several friends who are academically inclined as well, and we all study together. It's not animal house.
Some schools like HBS, several of my friends say the classes were the actual highlight of their experience (case method y'alllll).
But like, you can skate by with minimal studying. Even for me, there's clear paths for me to not study and still get 80% of the same grades that I actually got. It's really up to you. I just value the personal integrity of actually giving effort for the primary, objective purpose of business school. And that's the actual curriculum lol.
During the core curriculum I studied about 12-15 hours a week independent of homework, group projects and exam studying. This was just to ensure I'd be prepared for class and I'd consider it baseline for a non-exceptional person. Year 2 that number dropped to half. The ones looking to graduate with honors put in lots more time. One guy in my Capital Markets class went down the syllabus and preemptively knocked out every single homework assignment for the semester in the first week to free himself up to study for other classes he felt weaker in. So you'll see some freaks of nature putting in time.
I would also estimate that roughly half of the class was on Adderall or Modafinil.
Where do you go to school? I don't think anyone is on Adderall at my school...I don't think this is the norm. I didn't mention this before, but at Kellogg and I think most other schools, the curve is a bit of a joke. For core classes it's ~ 40%% A's, 50% B's, and ~10% C's. For electives, it's 45% A's, 50% B's, and 5% C's (There's no pluses or minuses). Due to this, you really only need to be in the top 2/5 of the class to get an A. No way you should be studying to such an extent that you need drugs - especially with half the school not even really trying.
Went to Tuck. I think the people who were on Adderall or Modafinil probably picked up the habits from work/undergrad and didn't necessarily stop given the intensity of the initial term(s)+recruiting, or perhaps just kept them around. In retrospect half is definitely an exaggeration but I personally knew a decent sample size. Despite the "laidback" culture and non-disclosure, there were lots of gunners and competitive types there who liked to pretend they weren't. But agree that after the first term or 2 completely unnecessary. My own study hours got cut in half by that point lol
Do recruiters even care about your M7 MBA gpa?
they don't
I've heard that only Google made it a point to dive into your grades. Others may have occasionally been asked about grades in passing but it was never more than 5 seconds out of any interview
I heard banks used to ding any students without perfect grades in corp fin/accounting before we implemented GPA non-disclosure.
To OP's question: it varies. If you are STEM/finance background and didn't waive core classes, your first semester will be very easy. But I know many liberal arts students struggled to build a DCF model or learn stats. After the first semester, it varies even more since some people are taking leadership/soft classes while others may take advance finance ones.
I've never heard of anyone failing an MBA program haha.
But I've heard some employers do ask about your grades and that's why I asked. And you've never heard of MBA dropouts?
My second year friends know people who have, and my academic adviser confirmed that it actually does happen every year (though they find gracious ways to "phrase" it before it becomes official). I was like...kind of on the path to failing until I did serious course gymnastics with my second semester classes hahaha. I should be safe. Booth/Wharton are hard programs, very quant heavy.
And yah, I guess investment banking they might care, and for some b-schools with grade disclosure they might care. It's all relative right? And I'm just a single data point.
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