Several people I've talked to told me that it's tougher for traders to get into a top MBA program. Main reason is that admissions officers assume that you are not a great trader if you're applying to business schools, since superstar traders don't really need to get an MBA. Also, trading does not entail leadership, project management, and other attributes that top MBA programs seem to covet.
How accurate is this assessment?
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I would say that is pretty accurate for the reasons you mentioned. Around 30% of each top mba class is consulting (almost all mbb) and around 20-25% is finance (mostly banking+PE). The rest of the class is generally made up of general management/non-profit/military/entrepreneurship people.
Still, if you have a very strong GPA from a solid undergrad + good gmat + good recs and essays, you should be able to pull off a good mba.
It's much closer to 20% than 30% consultants. And they definitely are not "almost all mbb". That doesn't even make sense. There aren't that many analysts in a class.
traders don't have a lot of exit opps. thus if they are looking to make a big career change, MBA school is the way. Therefore they could be good traders and simply want to do something else.
This is one of the reasons I chose Research over S&T.
Cashcow you just picked up a first year analyst position according to another post of yours. Where are you coming up with these numbers? And, what TheRapist said.
A prior person here posted stats for HBS that you can find if you search. In a given year, 100 students came from McK. Very high numbers also for Bain and BCG, and around 50 from GS.
Here also you can see stats by area for HBS.
(This is based on where students are going, rather than where they are coming from, but still somewhat indicative).
http://www.hbs.edu/recruiting/mba/resources/career.html
Or you could just actually look at where they came from:
Stanford - 20% consulting Harvard - 23% consulting
http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/mba/admission/ http://www.hbs.edu/mba/profiles/classprofile.html
I don't think it's necessarily harder for traders to get into top MBA programs per say. However, their work is less project oriented than that of bankers or consultants. I feel like a lot of bschool apps emphasize leadership and teamwork and it's more difficult to get that when you are in a junior S&T role. So your observation is true, in my opinion.
I have friends who are traders. Yeah, I heard the same thing. The really good ones are not going back for an MBA. Most have already got their CFA (passed all 3 levels) and doing well. They said an MBA is not really going to add much value to their career as it would for IBD, Consulting, F 500, etc. Actually I think I only know one trader that went back to get MBA and he didn't really like what he was doing and to be honest not all that good at it.
I am too lazy to look up B-school entry stats. But that's seem like an exorbitant amount of consultant in one entry class. Not that I'm complaining, better chances. But that's seems kind of high.
I don't think there is a bias against traders. I just don't think there are a lot of traders who turn to an MBA as their next step. In my world, most traders dream of moving to the buy-side. Most MBA programs don't place well--if at all--into hedge funds and other Asset Management shops. The logical next step is to study for CFA/develop strong track record and take talents to buyside.
I spent two years at a prop shop and 3 years as an associate on a sales desk. My work experience was viewed very positively across the board. I still needed to demonstrate leadership in each environment and have a kick-ass answer as to why I needed/wanted an MBA.
there's "traders" from T3, SMB, sales "traders," and then there's traders from BBs/HF, SIG, Jane Street, etc. The latter group, no problem. You actually do partake in working with a team, coming up with your own ideas yet knowing when to talk and when to be coy, and being awesome with numbers.
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