Possible to break into top MBA programs right after I graduate from college?

Is it possible to break into top MBA programs right after I graduate from college, without any post-graduate working experience? Will that be a disadvantage?

Thanks!

 
asiamoney:
It's also not even helpful, because firms won't want to pay you an MBA salary once you graduate, especially since you won't have any legit work experience aside from internships

This. It will help later on, as you have the MBA "out of the way", but you couldn't expect to make the same salary right out of school as your classmates with 5 years of experience.

 

Unless you have a RIDICULOUS resume (started a multimillion dollar company in college, single-handedly raised enough money to feed south Sudan, etc, etc,) then no. Wait, do you two to three years, then apply.

 

Going into an MBA program right after you graduate is not smart. No relevant exp to draw from.

On another note, that all sounds nice above but means nothing. You do know that your plan listed above will definitely differ throughout the next four years, right?

Array
 

There answer to your question is unequivocally, no. Unfortunately, at some point in your life, you will need to spend some time in the real world, working a real job. This is almost universally a prerequisite for top MBA programs. You already have an uphill battle because your undergrad institution does not have a reputation for elite academics, not to mention you can't plan a 4.0, being elected president of clubs, or attaining high quality internships.

You are getting way too ahead of yourself. Baby steps.

"For I am a sinner in the hands of an angry God. Bloody Mary full of vodka, blessed are you among cocktails. Pray for me now and at the hour of my death, which I hope is soon. Amen."
 
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I will be playing college basketball next fall. I will be playing in the point guard position and hope to be in the top 1% of my team. Along with being a captain of the team, and close to a 30 PPG, 9 APG, 5 RPG, and 3 SPG. I also plan on playing in the All-American McDonald's competition in the summers. So, my question is ... after I graduate from college do you think I could get drafted in the NBA in the first round, and furthermore, play as an All-star caliber player and eventually make it to the Hall of Fame? Thank you in advance!!

 

What is the reason for wanting to go to a top MBA? In the highly unlikely event one of those schools takes you, your chances at landing a good job are very slim given you have no experience. If you're not happy with you school's recruiting, either hit the pavement and start networking, or transfer to a different program.

FWIW I was in the bottom 1% of my college class and people with MBAs have asked me to help them find work. Your grades are secondary to your experience. I also was a top 1% student going into college and then life happened.

My point: figure out what you want to do and use school as the means to get there. Racking up credentials is not a good idea. Given your ambition and studiousness you will go far, just make sure to pay attention to the various advice being given on this thread.

Particularly good options: HPM - get good grades and transfer Sling Shot - look at Harvard 2+2 TraderDaily - enoy some time a college, you're only young once

Get busy living
 

You can't do the Harvard 2+2 if you're a finance major they specifically target engineering/humanities.

I don't know how well companies recruit from your school, but if you aren't on a scholarship and you're taking out loans I would follow happypants advice and transfer. If you are however on a scholarship and pay close to nothing just network like hell.

No matter what anyone says taking 120k out to go to NYU for undergrad to potentially get the same job if you just went to a cheaper state school and networked and attended conferences is incredibly unwise.

Getting into an MBA business schools">M7 mba program after undergrad with a 4.0, president of whatever, and whatever else you said won't ever happen. You need life experience and if you are graduating at 21 or 22 without ever having international experience or an interesting story/handicap you're just like everyone else. You're also white and unfortunately that doesn't help you at all.

 
ishouldbstudying:

You can't do the Harvard 2+2 if you're a finance major they specifically target engineering/humanities.

I don't know how well companies recruit from your school, but if you aren't on a scholarship and you're taking out loans I would follow happypants advice and transfer. If you are however on a scholarship and pay close to nothing just network like hell.

No matter what anyone says taking 120k out to go to NYU for undergrad to potentially get the same job if you just went to a cheaper state school and networked and attended conferences is incredibly unwise.

Getting into an MBA business schools">M7 mba program after undergrad with a 4.0, president of whatever, and whatever else you said won't ever happen. You need life experience and if you are graduating at 21 or 22 without ever having international experience or an interesting story/handicap you're just like everyone else. You're also white and unfortunately that doesn't help you at all.

It's funny... Your avatar was exactly what I thought after reading your post.

 

All the above advice is good. I can't think of a compelling reason why an admissions reader would want to admit a finance prospect straight out of ugrad. This sometimes happens for the entrepreneurship track people (esp. if you started a successful business in college), but will never happen if your career goal is traditional banking/IM/consulting etc.

Curveballs make life interesting, so don't try to plan too far ahead.

 

What were your grades and ECs like in highschool? Did you have any summer jobs? If they were good enough you might be able to bypass college and go straight to a top MBA program.....

I would call up a few admissions offices though (maybe just M7s for now) and see if they have any programs/scholarships available for this particular situation.....best of luck.

 
Crazy Lloyd Braun:

What were your grades and ECs like in highschool? Did you have any summer jobs? If they were good enough you might be able to bypass college and go straight to a top MBA program.....

I would call up a few admissions offices though (maybe just M7s for now) and see if they have any programs/scholarships available for this particular situation.....best of luck.

Going to a decent MBA program straight out of undergrad is a almost a total waste of your two years, even if you could get in. You have no value-add to any classroom discussion, you're completely unqualified for most of the good jobs, and you're a 5-6 years younger than most of your peers, which makes for a weird-ish social dynamic.

 

I know you school and this comes down mostly to the fact that I have a friend there. From what you said I think you should go in, get a good grades to transfer after 1/2 years. Bryant is like the worst compared to Bentley and Babson and even kids at those schools struggles - not surprisingly. They struggle not only in term of career prospects (Brown is nearby so oh well...) but also in term of grad-school prospects.

Also, as other said, you are not even in college yet, don't plan your life too much - most things will not happen anyway. Chilled out and have some fun, you only go to college once.

“He never chooses an opinion, he just wears whatever happens to be in style” (Leo Tolstoy - War and Peace)
 

There is Yale Silver Scholars, MIT has an MSF, so does Columbia, Princeton too, a bunch of top schools have MFEs, but why do you want to go right on to B-School, an MBA is a chance for a reset and the ability to propel yourself forward, it makes a lot more sense to go 3-6 years after graduating. At that point you'll have some real world experience and hopefully know what you want to get out of it.

 

Def experience regardless of what undergrad you go to.

If you really are that impressive as a student, I'm not sure if I would have enrolled at Bryant in the first place. Frankly its overpriced and some of the statistics/credentials it boasts are a bit inflated. With that being said, some impressive students pass through there so landing in the top one percent is not as easy as you may think.

As a recent Bryant Finance Grad the best advice I can give you is to focus on step one and that is getting into the Archway program where you have the opportunity to do some portfolio management/analysis with school funds. These students land comparatively with the Actuaries/Accounting which are the school's bread and butter.

Allocate all of your free time towards networking, research and possibly part time experience (Fidelity is across the street). You might hit a wall as far as ft job prospects go and since you are still able to do so, consider transferring to a more competitive finance program.

Grad school should be way down the road and don't even think about doing Bryant's program.

 

I've seen it done but the guy worked throughout undergrad, and it wasn't bagging groceries. That is an anomaly though and the guy walked on water with his GPA, essay and GMAT.

You need to transfer ASAP. Umich, Indiana University Bloomington, UIUC, UNCchapelhill, Notre Dame, Emory, UTAustin, Ivy league, Uchicago, Northwestern, UCB, UCLA, NYU... you get the idea. Brand name schools with excellent recruiting.

 

On the 2+2 program: Are you kidding me? I just watched the video on it that stated the expenses are around $90,000 per year. How can you afford $90k/year without a prior full-time job? Maybe I misheard the lady, but she said the cost is "never" entirely paid by aid/scholarships/whatever.

 

No, they aren't looking for people without experience. Yes, there are deferred admit programs (notably HBS and Stanford) and indeed, there is the Yale Silver Scholars program, which allows straight-out-of-college students to go to Yale SOM for one year, work for a year or more, and then come back. Note that the deferred admit programs like 2+2 are exactly that -- a two or more year deferral.

The reality is that MBA programs STRONGLY prefer experience outside of an academic setting.
That's pretty much it.

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The answer is technically yes. In every b-school class, there are outliers. In the age category there are people who are much older (i.e. with families) and people who are really young (i.e. out of undergrad). A partial explanation for this is diversity, adcoms do like an incoming class with varied backgrounds and while age isn’t quite the salient diversity trait like race, nationality or type of work experience, in my observation in some cases it does get factored strongly into the equation.

I know of a few people who’ve done this. When I was working in consulting (pre-MBA), I knew of someone who went straight from undergrad to Stanford GSB (person was a post-MBA hire). When I was at b-school, there were a few straight from undergrad admits there. Unfortunately, I didn’t know them very well so I can’t give any insights as to what was special about them and allowed them to get in so early.

That being said, it’s probably not something you want to do. Or at least carefully consider some of the consequences.

1) Lack of quality job opportunities – you won’t be as competitive for jobs as having an MBA in and of itself does not completely “level the playing field” as prior work experience plays a pretty large role in recruiting. A lot of places won’t want to hire someone with zero work experience when there is an entire class full of people from which at least several will have a more relevant background.

From what I’ve seen the straight from undergrads usually get something in banking or consulting as these places have the resources to invest in training and usually are set-up to recruit a larger incoming batch so they’re more prone to take the chance. PE firms, Hedge Funds, etc. who only hire 1-2 in their recruiting class likely won’t take such a risk. This is fine if it’s what you want but if you’re like most, I’m guessing you’ll want to keep your options open.

2) One trick pony – you can really only go to MBA once so you’ll probably want to make the most of it. A few years of work experience will give you a better perspective in terms of your goals and what you want and don’t want in your career path. This will allow you to focus your time in b-school in the best way possible (e.g. taking relevant classes).

An MBA also allows you a “mulligan.” If you don’t like the job you do straight out of school, it’s the ideal place for career switchers (e.g. moving from marketing to finance). If you’ve “played your MBA card” too early you don’t really get this luxury anymore.


Going straight from undergrad usually makes the most sense for people in specific circumstances. For instance, if you’re academia bound (e.g. want to be a business law professor) then certainly you could get the needed law credentials and supplement it with an MBA. However, in most cases it’s probably better you get work experience.

 

You do three things during an MBA program:

1) network 2) solve case studies with knowledge you gained from your work experience 3) learn a bunch of business terminology

If you are coming straight out of UG, you probably lack a network that could have helped you get a job so you wouldnt offer much in that area. Since you do not have work experience you would not offer much in that area also. I suppose one could though pick up on some b-school buzz words though.

 

I have a friend who worked for a year and got accepted into a good MBA program. I would say top 50 thereabouts. It is not a target for high level finance, but he doesn't want to do that so it's fine. He is trying to work in a big pharma co in some type of managerial/supply chain role. He says he is way over his head and is struggling to keep up and do well. I suggest you wait a few years to do an MBA as it will be a much more positive experience for you.

 

You're better off going into the 2 + 2 programs rather than directly from undergrad. This way you'll get some base level of work experience. I wouldn't advise doing an MBA straight out of undergrad -- you just don't have the same perspective on the importance of building your career, which is what the MBA is all about.

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Andrewr86:
Terrible decision to go right out of college regardless of how smart you are.

Agreed. It's not just about the degree. It's also about networking with classmates and professionals, whom you'd probably relate better with being a bit older and wiser. Also, B-school is the next best thing to undergrad. Why would you blow it all in one fell swoop? Take some time to get experience and work your ass off. Go to school afterward. B-school would then be a vacation.

 

Ideally, I would say get a solid job at a BB or MBB, but this will probably be very difficult without on campus recruiting.

If you cannot get a job like these, I would just try to go to b school immediately. If you get a random job that doesn't give you a relevant skill-set in finance, it won't be of any help to you recruiting out of b school anyway.

 

I don't know how good of a chance you have to be honest...

Top tier MBA programs value work experience quite a lot. I would say maybe you can do HBS's 2+2 program, but I don't know if any other FT MBA programs will accept you with no work experience.

I don't have much experience with MBA schools though, so take it with a grain of salt.

 

Get some work experience first - it'll put some hair on your chest (figuratively). It's not just good for your career or for your b-school prospects - it's good for your life.

To grow as an adult, you need to have that experience of making a full-time living in the real world. It's not fun, it can suck at times (you may even miss life in college), but it's part of learning the transition from boy to man (no offense intended, but no matter how mature you may feel you are as a college student, you don't know what you don't know in terms of real world experience and how invaluable that can be in your own maturation as a man).

If you were to go to b-school right out of college, you will be a boy amongst men. Moreover, recruiters will treat you that way too -- and you won't get access to the same kinds of jobs that your more experienced classmates will get.

Alex Chu www.mbaapply.com
 

I have a decent GMAT, my (future) brother-in-law is working in finance, and I heard some of the big banks have internship programs for internationals.....but yeah, I thought that might be difficult, so I'm looking at MFin programs in the States.

 

try your hardest to obtain that job in the US. it's pretty competitive and the GMAT score is okay. i am not sure what department/firm/role your future bro-in-law has, but make sure that it is in line with what you are looking at. even if he's in a great firm and in the same group/dept. you would like to work for, there is still a lot of other factors to consider.

 

Everything looks fine, but you're gonna need WE. I've talked to a few admissions people at MBA programs and while they do accept people without WE (extremely rare), they often say that it's hard for those students to relate to their classmates with WE. Also, students with no WE tend to get entry level roles because of that very same lack of experience.

"Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there" - Will Rogers
 

Yes, in most cases, Business School is for people with experience! Surely you go to Business School to progress your career from middle management up.

If you've never held a management position you're probably not ready for the concepts they teach in an MBA - in the worst case scenario you'll pay a fortune to go to B-school and the theories will be wasted on you because you've got no way to compare them to experience?

From speaking with students/profs of B-school for my online magazine BusinessBecasue.com I'd say the majority would agree that sheer intelligence won't be enough for you to get the most out of the b-school experience.

 

Top 6 is probably more accurate. Aside from its non-MBA curriculum, I don't find MIT to carry much more allure than a school ranked 20. To your question, it will be very difficult at any school in the top 20, maybe even top 50, to get in with no full time work experience. All the internships in the world will still equal 0 in the box on the application that says "full time work experience at matriculation". On one hand it's because you won't add value to the class. On the other, it's for your own good. Companies recruiting MBA-level gigs aren't going to hire some 24 yr old with an MBA but zero experience. The degree/class-room education itself is a very small piece of the MBA value puzzle.

 

Yeah totally agree with Merkin, I'd strongly advise you to get some work experience first, then get a good MBA and you'll be very employable. Getting yourself into a rubbishy MBA that accepts people with 0 experience will cost you a lot of money and won't add to your CV -and worse, it could give the impression that you couldn't get a job so took the easy option and went back to uni!

Sian BusinessBecause.com

 

yeah, i can understand

the only reason i asked because i have completed my undergrad and yet not able to find a full time job in accounting/finance (that's my majors) and i researched that most MBA schools prefer experiences in management level. So right now I'm stuck in between of not being able to find a job and not being to further advanced studies. I get seriously frustrated over this >_

 

Yeah, it's SO hard to get your first job but it sounds like you've got plenty of stuff on your CV to make you a great candidate - just keep at it and don't give up. It took me 3 months to get an interview for the grad programs I applied for, in the end I got interviewed and accepted for the first job I applied for at Accenture. One of the BEST things to do if you'd like to work at a particular company is find someone who works there and ask them about the interview and what kind of candidate they're looking for.

I now work for BusinessBecause, we're an online network for people who are thinking about doing an MBA. If you want you could sign up and use the network to find people who are working at companies that you think you'd like to apply to - there's a couple of big financial consultancy companies looking to hire both under-grads and MBA's through the site...add me as a connection on there if you like. :)

Good luck with your job search.

 

forgive my ignorance but if you cant get a job coming out of undergrad why do you think you will be able to land a job post mba still with no work experience? thats a very expensive gamble isnt it?

 
Cmoss:
forgive my ignorance but if you cant get a job coming out of undergrad why do you think you will be able to land a job post mba still with no work experience? thats a very expensive gamble isnt it?

education is always an expensive gamble

also, it will be different for MBA because the state where I live in and got my undergrad simply sucks

 

The better question in my opinion is why you even want to get your MBA in the first place? I think it takes 2-5+ years to even piece together a legitimate reason to go back to school. There are so many people on this forum and elsewhere who just seem fixated on going to b-school without a specific reason for doing so. A solid pedigree is extremely useful, but if I were an associate in a PE/VC shop interviewing a kid out of b-school with no work experience, I would be very interested in finding out why you made the choice, and I think you'd be hardpressed to give me a satisfactory answer.

Not flaming, but I think you're undoubtedly better off working for at least two years. Who knows, you may end up wanting to do S&T or something similar where an MBA is not at all necessary for upward mobility. Regardless, if you still want to go in the end, you're going to have a hell of a time getting into a top program.

 

Yes they do but it's rare to see someone go to an MBA straight out of undergrad w/out work experience. They would start as an associate.

Banking > VC > Tech PE; PM me if you would like any advice I'm happy to help
 

I am in the current situation described above. Went to a less reputable D1 school to play athletics and had weak full time opportunities upon completion of my undergrad, so I am currently working on my mba in hopes of getting into banking. You would definately NOT start as an associate at the BB's.

 

Ok thanks. Also, if a person were to work at a firm as an analyst and then go get an MBA, what would that person's chances of getting rehired as an associate at the same firm be?

 

Yep, if you do straight-to-MBA and apply to my group, you're considered for the second-year analyst class instead of the first. So all that MBA gets you is a year up on the rest of the analysts.

Additionally, it's reputedly very hard to get into a well-respected MBA program without a few years of work experience.

 

Stern has a program you can apply for that provides scholarships and admission to kids right out of undergrad. Although I haven't been to B school yet, I'm 2 years out of school and I think it would be a pretty huge mistake to go immediately to get your MBA. What's the real benefit you'd get from going earlier? You just wouldn't have as much to contribute to an MBA cohort and you'd probably get much less out of it in terms of career path/network.

By not working/ living life for the next 3-5 years you won't accumulate any of the life experiences that most accomplished B-School students have and due to financial circumstances (unless you have family wealth) it will probably be tougher for you to travel and experience the fun of going to B-School. Not to mention you use up your 1 free career change/2 year vacation pass you might desperately need in a few years.

It also pigeon holes you a little bit in terms of career advancement as I'm sure many post-mba jobs will be closed off to you based on the fact you have so little work experience. Yes you have some wealth management experience, but to me that experience would have to be something exceptional, as in I started my own wealth advisory and have xxx millions in AUM vs I worked part-time through school at a wealth advisor for an employer/b school admissions to really take notice. If the work experience was before undergrad then it probably has even less weight.

At the end of the day, why do you want to go back for an MBA. Why would it be better for you to go now instead of in a few years? I bet you'll be hard pressed to come up with a good reason for an immediate need, but with all of that being said, its your life. If you're not gunning for a Top 20 program, I'm sure you could find a place that would take you right now.

 

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