Wow. B-school really is that crazy

Just talked to my best friend, who is starting his first year at a top 5 MBA program. He got back from a trip abroad with a group of his classmates, and it was basically non-stop partying and drinking. He had more crazy stories during that 1-week trip than his previous 3-4 years combined. I think the social experiences alone are worth the price tag of b-schools.

 
WSOWill:
I hear about all these trips overseas, is it school sponsored or do these guys blow money they earned during their analyst stint?

For most students, they're financing their travel during b-school with loans. Former IB analysts make up a minority of the b-school population.

 

Business school is really not full of a bunch of nerds. I haven't gone yet myself, but I'm telling you that it's not. I live in Beijing/Shanghai and am always hanging out with groups of traveling MBAs that come here for their schools' China Trek or just a trip they've organized with their classmates--- harvard, kellogg, booth, etc.... it's always a fun group of people--- they go out drinking hard every night, etc...

 
secretariat:
You can "go out drinking hard" every night and still be a nerd...just sayin. Anyone who parties harder in b-school than in undergrad was at least a nerd in their former life.
Wow, it seems like you figured out the whole thing here.
Get busy living
 

i've asked this before on another thread, but is the whole "party" vibe confined to only the top 5 schools?

i hear a lot of great party stories about HBS and Northwestern, but decent T-15 b-schools like Cornell Johnson or UVA Darden seem a lot less fun..

Money Never Sleeps? More like Money Never SUCKS amirite?!?!?!?
 
sayandarula:
i've asked this before on another thread, but is the whole "party" vibe confined to only the top 5 schools?

i hear a lot of great party stories about HBS and Northwestern, but decent T-15 b-schools like Cornell Johnson or UVA Darden seem a lot less fun..

I don't think its T15, but I got a MAcc at Kelley and took a few classes with some MBAs. The few that I got to know were really cool, down to earth guys. I never really went out with them so I don't know how hard they partied, but there were definitely a lot of events and social outings among the mbas.

I'd assume most places with people in or around their late 20s will have a lot of cool people and then some pretentious a-holes. Some schools may skew slightly more towards the anal, a-hole type but all in you should be able to find some people to have fun with.

twitter: @CorpFin_Guy
 
sayandarula:
i've asked this before on another thread, but is the whole "party" vibe confined to only the top 5 schools?

i hear a lot of great party stories about HBS and Northwestern, but decent T-15 b-schools like Cornell Johnson or UVA Darden seem a lot less fun..

B-school is the opposite of college in this regard. For college, the lower ranked it is academically, the more fun it is. For b-school it's the reverse. At a place like HBS or kellogg, getting a good job is fairly easy, and grades don't matter, so people go all out. And keep in mind that a lot of these students were high achievers who did not party that hard in college and worked demanding jobs. So b-school is 2 years of insane partying, travelling, debauchery, hooking up. It's easily more fun than college.

 
Brady4MVP:

B-school is the opposite of college in this regard. For college, the lower ranked it is academically, the more fun it is. For b-school it's the reverse. At a place like HBS or kellogg, getting a good job is fairly easy, and grades don't matter, so people go all out. And keep in mind that a lot of these students were high achievers who did not party that hard in college and worked demanding jobs. So b-school is 2 years of insane partying, travelling, debauchery, hooking up. It's easily more fun than college.

Makes sense!

 
Cardinal:
Do most people work alot while in B School? Im having trouble comprehending how anything could be more fun then undergrad was.

In fact today is the first day of classes for my Alma Mater and I'd give a kidney to be able to switch spots with the kids bitching on FB about having to go back to classes.

A lot of the work is outside of class, such as going to recruiting events, networking, interviewing, etc. Grades don't matter at top schools (most of them have grade non-disclosure). But yeah, b-school is like drinking from a fire hose because there's too much stuff going on, and you have to prioritize. A lot of the people I know would neglect coursework and sleep to focus on partying and recruiting.

Unless you went to a big party school for undergrad and banged tons of hot sorority chicks, b-school is definitely more fun than undergrad.

 
Brady4MVP:
Cardinal:
Do most people work alot while in B School? Im having trouble comprehending how anything could be more fun then undergrad was.

In fact today is the first day of classes for my Alma Mater and I'd give a kidney to be able to switch spots with the kids bitching on FB about having to go back to classes.

A lot of the work is outside of class, such as going to recruiting events, networking, interviewing, etc. Grades don't matter at top schools (most of them have grade non-disclosure). But yeah, b-school is like drinking from a fire hose because there's too much stuff going on, and you have to prioritize. A lot of the people I know would neglect coursework and sleep to focus on partying and recruiting.

Unless you went to a big party school for undergrad and banged tons of hot sorority chicks, b-school is definitely more fun than undergrad.

if you have more fun at bschool than undergrad, chances are you were a complete nerd/square. all that bschool stuff sounds fun, but i highly doubt its funner than drinking and partying with hot girls when you're 18 without a care in the world...

 

paying 150k to do random trips with strangers you just met seems fkin horrible, just don't be a loser, have a social circle of fun, wealthy friends who can go on random trips with you.

then again this may all apply to the US, most finance kids i've met had hardly travelled outside the US during college.

I still like the premise of having 2 years to just blow money doing cool shit.

 

I went to a top UG B-School and I met a lot of MBA students, there were a lot of ex-IT consultants, Eastern Europeans, Asians etc even the American whites were mostly the nerdy types, not the jocks/frat boys that were cool in college. I've been to Columbia B-School a few times and saw similar demographics.

 
Aviator:
I went to a top UG B-School and I met a lot of MBA students, there were a lot of ex-IT consultants, Eastern Europeans, Asians etc even the American whites were mostly the nerdy types, not the jocks/frat boys that were cool in college. I've been to Columbia B-School a few times and saw similar demographics.

This is true, but they still know how to have a good time, which is all that matters.

 
Best Response

I think while there is some truth to the "party hard" ethos of business school, in my class the 'party crew' was much smaller than the class overall. The party crew was intense, but keep in mind there were several factions like the Indians, the married types, the just-out-of-college kids, the endurance athlete types, etc. I also dare to say that the partiers in general were perceived to have wasted a massive opportunity given the fact I graduated during the recession and finding jobs was brutal. And it will be a sausage fest, and yes you pay your own way for these international trips, which are supposedly awesome (I did not partake).

To be honest, anybody that decides to pursue an MBA in this new economic reality should realize that it is extremely competitive and grades do matter. My school had a grade-non-disclosure policy but basically the companies know who is an achiever and who is party of the party crew. (the recent alumni working at the banks know this, and the recruiters will see your grades). I saw ormer Analysts struggle / fail to return to IBD as they were not selected vs. harder working, more talented kids from bschool.

If you want to ensure landing a dream job from MBA, you should be prepared to compete vs the top business minds in the world. And if you can't compete in the classroom, you might not get a shot to compete in IBD. Of course, it could be different at HSW (I was top 10 school), and it could be different in good times.

With Wall Street is laying off thousands and thousands of people, I don't foresee a return to the MBA recruiting 'good times' any time soon.

 
gamenumbers:
I think while there is some truth to the "party hard" ethos of business school, in my class the 'party crew' was much smaller than the class overall. The party crew was intense, but keep in mind there were several factions like the Indians, the married types, the just-out-of-college kids, the endurance athlete types, etc. I also dare to say that the partiers in general were perceived to have wasted a massive opportunity given the fact I graduated during the recession and finding jobs was brutal. And it will be a sausage fest, and yes you pay your own way for these international trips, which are supposedly awesome (I did not partake).

To be honest, anybody that decides to pursue an MBA in this new economic reality should realize that it is extremely competitive and grades do matter. My school had a grade-non-disclosure policy but basically the companies know who is an achiever and who is party of the party crew. (the recent alumni working at the banks know this, and the recruiters will see your grades). I saw ormer Analysts struggle / fail to return to IBD as they were not selected vs. harder working, more talented kids from bschool.

If you want to ensure landing a dream job from MBA, you should be prepared to compete vs the top business minds in the world. And if you can't compete in the classroom, you might not get a shot to compete in IBD. Of course, it could be different at HSW (I was top 10 school), and it could be different in good times.

With Wall Street is laying off thousands and thousands of people, I don't foresee a return to the MBA recruiting 'good times' any time soon.

Based on this post, it seems like you're at a non-M7 school like stern, haas, ross, where recruiting can get quite competitive depending on the state of the economy.

Your point on grades is off. If a school has grade non-disclosure, recruiters are not allowed to ask a student about his grades. If the person is doing very well, however, they can put it on their resume, but it's not part of the hiring process. You're right though that recruiters will find a way to discern the boys from the men. And the main criteria they look at is pre-MBA work experience. This is especially true in buyside finance where you need relevant work experience to have a shot.

Classroom performance just doesn't matter that much for post-MBA recruiting. Every student I've talked to said that classwork was perhaps the least important part of their experience. Going to networking events, partying, travelling, and interviewing, were far more important than grades.

 

My school was known as more of a nerdy school to begin with, so the quality of the women at school was horrible. Plus, you will be going out with large groups of unemployed grad-students who are all operating in the 'MBA bubble', which bores outsiders to tears. Most of the guys hooked up with girls from school.

Saying that, you will find great partying at any school.

I do concede I did not go to HSW, so the recruiting may have been more difficult for me. But overall hiring is way down, and there has to be some way to separate the men from the boys. And grade non-disclosure only applies to on-campus interviews. The moment you are off-campus, your grades will be disclosed. At least in my experience. Pre-MBA work experience is huge, and career switchers will face far higher hurdles.

'Do grades matter' was a hot topic of discussion while I was at school. I stand by my comments that grades do matter. bottom line - the world is a much different, more globally competitive place in 2011 and you should be doing everything possible to secure your future.

At my school the party crowd mostly didn't end up in IBD or the buy side. It was the studious guys, super involved in clubs and professional events, special projects for professors etc....those were the guys who ended up landing the dream jobs. And the quants got all the trading jobs. I had my share of fun at bshool, but I also got a 3.9 and was president of one of the biggest professional clubs on campus (helping first years to transition to wall street) which really set me up nice for recruiting.

Again, this is just my $0.02 and keep in mind I graduated post-Lehman so hiring for MBAs was abysmal.

 

Regardless of whether you are at top 3, m7, top 10 or whatever top, there are fewer job openings than there are candidates. Especially for the “good” jobs – I’m assuming these are positions that most people want and by definition you are competing with other students for limited spots. For around 10% of the students at the top schools recruiting might be a cakewalk because of previous experience, but it’s definitely not easy for the majority at HSW or other top 5-7. They all get jobs in the end, but not necessarily their top choices. It’s not easy and from conversations with fellow students I know that it’s stressful for most. And most people get enough rejections before they get an offer so all that shit about m7 students waiting for the top jobs to fall in their laps is a huge piece of crap.

Regarding fun, I know people from all top schools and I can say that I don’t have the impression that people outside the top 5 have or are less fun. I can understand how someone might view these two years as the best in their life; however I personally didn’t think they were anything special. If someone thinks that getting drunk, snorting coke, being with a stripper, having sex, or vomiting are super great experiences out of this world and the first time they got to experience them was in their late twenties… well congrats on finally entering the sacred halls of manhood! lol I think most MBAs like these years just because it’s a 2-year vacation, not because they never got drunk, although you surely have some of these nerds. And MBA chicks are not that great in general. For those who like hard stats, about 10% are doable by my estimates.

Regarding grades, I don’t think they matter. At least for most traditional recruiters on campus. For one thing, during recruiting for internships, you have taken no more than 3-5 classes in the first semester at most schools, so your grades are hardly indicative of anything. Some bankers reiterated how important accounting and finance grades are, but in the end half the people they hired for associate positions were good networkers, but quite unimpressive otherwise. Some of them had barely passed the core finance class and yet got jobs over some finance nerds. Consulting was not much different – they cared more about cracking the case and I have yet to hear about someone being asked about grades. F500 – 99% of the companies didn’t ask about grades from what I know. Those that did were few and not among the most desired employers anyway. Perhaps gamenumbers can elaborate what kinds of employers asked him about grades and what classes they were interested in.

 

If they are in their first year, i assume they went on a pre-launch trip? They probably havent even had a single class, assignment, exam, or had to do anything with regards to recruiting or networking yet, so they have a highly skewed view of what life in business school is like, even at an M7. Maybe if you ask them in 3 months they will have a different perspective.

 

Here's the facts, based on my experience:

  • lots of drinking (house parties, restaurants, clubs, on campus events, etc)
  • some drugs (more than you'd think; mostly weed though; I wouldn't be surprised if a handful did the white stuff, but I woudln't have known)
  • lots of eating (eating in groups - whether at hole-in-the-wall diners for lunch, at food trucks together, restaurants, etc.)
  • some hooking up if you're single (but again, it's still majority guys... it's not undergrad)
  • traveling with classmates (weekend trips, summer trips, holiday ski trips, etc.)

In short, there's certainly a lot of socializing. And it's certainly a lot of fun. But whether all of this means it's the 2 best years of your life is really all relative, depending on the individual.

Alex Chu www.mbaapply.com
 

the bachelor degree is saturated and everyone feels entitled to go to college which is why it's not longer a prestigious opportunity as it once was. Now it's full of a bunch of people who want to go party for 4 years. I think the MBA is becoming saturated and, as a result, you're seeing the same trend, albeit at an older age (mid life crisis anyone?)

 
shorttheworld:
Yes because fake ids for shitty bars and drinking keystone light is the life and being poor with your minimum wage jobs is balling
ok ur officially the coolest american on this forum.
 
shorttheworld:
im not sure if that is sarcasm or not lol
I was serious, on this forum I sometimes get the feeling the american dream is going to college drinking shit beer at shit bars and then dream about how awesome the 4 best years of your life of drinking shit beer at shit bars was :p
 
leveredarb:
shorttheworld:
im not sure if that is sarcasm or not lol
I was serious, on this forum I sometimes get the feeling the american dream is going to college drinking shit beer at shit bars and then dream about how awesome the 4 best years of your life of drinking shit beer at shit bars was :p

That sounds downright awesome to me. What are you, some kind of nerd?

 

mba vs. undergrad social life... hmmm i don't know about that one.

what i can say is for people working 80-100 hrs for the past 3-5 years, b-school will be like heaven compared to the working world, and probably the last time they get an opportunity to party it up while still [relativley] young.

Money Never Sleeps? More like Money Never SUCKS amirite?!?!?!?
 

i think most appealing about b school is the network on a personal level - sure its amazing professionally, but you don't get many chances to make good friends like you do in college, high school, etc. very few jobs or professional environments allow you to be in that academic environment where you are that close to your peers. i think about my closest friends from college and know that can never be replicated for the most part in any job i've had.

re nerds - while i'm not a fratstar, i like to have a great time, and arguably had more fun in undergrad than i should have - sure my analyst class had some nerdy ones from every top school - but the majority were motivated young people, who want to be successful professionally, but were also very interesting on a personal level. to be in an environment like that is rare in the working world i think, but sounds like a priceless experience if you go to a school that is a great fit. also - assuming i get into bschool, i'm moving to bali for 2 months before hand...so that is also appealing to me haha.

 

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