Recent engineering graduate in Philadelphia - MBA or MSF chances?
Hey,
First post but been reading WSO religiously for the last month. I just graduated from a non-target (Pitt, Rutgers, Drexel, Delaware), with a degree in bioengineering. Stats are 3.4 GPA (honors), 760 GMAT. I got a job with Bloomberg as a Global Data Analyst, and have very solid EC's and am a URM. I'll be in Philadelphia for the next few years due to a family circumstance, but might have some freedom to leave for a year. I'm seeking to transition into equity research.
I'm fairly sure I can't do that without a postgraduate degree. Would aiming for a MBA at Wharton be unrealistic? How about a MsF from Princeton or Villanova (yes, I know they're not exactly of the same caliber). If these options are unrealistic, would a one year MBA from Kellogg or INSEAD be any more achievable?
If not, what should my goals be? Seeking a position at a boutique IB in Philadelphia? Aiming for a gig at SIG?
Thanks, hopefully all of you can be of some use! Either way, this community has been a lot of use in working out my options, and I'm grateful.
Edit: I should've made something clearer - I meant all of those options in the context of after working for two/three years.
Average age of matriculation at Wharton is 28. Unless you have an incredibly compelling reason to go now (career wise, not that you're stuck in Philly for a couple years) you should wait until you have enough experience to make a clear career transition or require an mba to progress in your current role. A 1-year MBA for kellogg is even more focused on experienced applicants and people who won't require an internship to achieve their goals. When you say "just" graduated you mean you have 2 months of experience right now? It doesn't make sense to apply to an MBA program right now unless it's one specifically focused on young applicants.
I don't know anything about MSF admissions.
My bad, I should've made that clearer - I meant those options in the context of after working two years at Bloomberg. Does that change anything? I'll update the intro post to reflect that.
That actually does change things. Thought you were trying to apply like, right now for 2018 matriculation. Still - no way on the Kellogg 1 year or INSEAD, those are schools for older applicants who have significant experience. These are less achievable, not more. Ditto on executive MBAs in general. They're for, you know, executives.
Wharton - honestly IDK. You are young, but it's not impossible with a good profile. Make sure it's the right time for you to go (i.e you're ready to either make a transition or you've maxed out on what you gain from your current job). Most people this is a minimum of 3 years. 3-5 years WE is ideal at the time of application, 4-6 at matriculation. This will help you in admissions but more importantly, b-school is expensive and time consuming. Don't just go to go. You can only do your MBA once, so make sure you're going for a reason.
Just curious, if I do the MBA at INSEAD, end up at Bain in Asia, but eventually want to work in the US(I'm not US citizen or immigrant), how is that going to be possible?
youre done with your chances if you just did MSF.
why not try something internal within bloomberg? little harm/foul in you can do in the same company, and the unsung financial giant (who doesn't have a terminal!)
your ideal industries are all over the place, and you picks of programs like Kellogg 1Year, Insead, Princeton MSF and Villanova MSF is like 4 continents away from each other.
If you feel like an idiot now, that's fine, but do ask around your friends or colleagues (or cold contacts), and literally ask them what they do/did for their jobs! Then absorb those things and start to think which stories excited you, and go in that direction.
This kind of gets to what I'm asking now - does the gig at Bloomberg have enough prestigious/gold qualities that I can be seriously thinking about programs like Princeton or Wharton in a few years? Or do I need to be focusing on getting into somewhere like SIG sooner rather than later.
It really depends on what you want to do. If you want Princeton MSF, it's taking hard quants in to produce superhard quants, so SIG is probably helpful with specific roles. They have ER too, but the level of quant is more modeling stuff.
If you want MBA, I think Bloomberg is a very good employer, but I'll let others debate whether it's equivalent to BB, MBB or GM, Apple kind of brands. Certainly more recognizable than SIG outside of Finance.
you're only pitted against applicants in your industries - you need not to have a "perfect background" for MBA, but you need to be a superstar in your field, convince AdCom that you can make transition to whatever industry you wanna go, and have some more depth of experiences to be good for MBA recruiting.
DickFuld @TNA"
Any final thoughts on eligibility for the MsF's I mentioned?
I had a lot of the same questions as you. Happy to help if you want to shoot me a DM. Check out my thread from a few yrs ago. I ended up doing a top MBA. Based on where you are right now, you'll have the freedom to do whatever you want if you play your cards right. It's going to be a matter of really understanding what's out there and where your interests lie.
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