A nontraditional student in need of advice for business school

Hello everyone,

I’m currently a junior Accounting Major in college with a 3.71 GPA. I haven’t taken the GMAT yet, but I’m wondering if I should wait 2 years to go to business school or go right away.

There is also the dilemna of deciding which business school to go to. Marquette University for example would admit me without requiring the GMAT.

Although, considering my GPA, I think I have a good shot at possibly being admitted to top business schools such as Harvard, Chicago.

The dilemna is, should I take the GMAT and apply to Harvard’s 2+2 program or Chicago’s full time MBA program which would start in the fall of 2019? Or apply to Marquette for the fall of 2019 (the benefit of Marqutte would be that I would have a good chance of getting a fellowship and/or scholarship).

Or should I keep on getting good grades and apply to graduate school after 2 years of working full time as an accountant.

Thank you and I greatly appreciate the advice.

Many MBA programs prefer you to have a few years of work experience before returning for MBA.

That’s a good point, but do you think it’s worth applying to Harvard’s 2+2 program for college seniors? You would be required to work in a professional setting for two years and then go to the business school. Or should I just wait until i already have the 2 years work experience and then apply?

Since you are an accounting major I just wanted to mention in case you are not aware that to become a CPA you will need 150 college credits (most bachelor degrees are around 120 credits). Many people who want to become a CPA go on immediately for a one year Masters in Accounting to get the additional 30 credits. A lot of colleges will auto-admit their own students with good grades into their Masters of Accounting program or one can take the GMATs and also apply to programs at other schools. The top CPA firms will not bring on a full time employee until he/she has the 150 credit hours.

Regarding your discussion about applying to top MBA programs please note that they are exceedingly selective. You will need outstanding grades/GMAT scores, tremendous recommendations, a great essay, at least 2-5 years of meaningful work experience that demonstrates increasing responsibility to be a competitive candidate. I am not familiar with Harvard’s 2+2 program but if you feel you are a viable candidate I guess there is no harm to apply (from a two second google search it looks like the majority of those admitted are STEM students undergraduate with only 22% of acceptances being from students with business/economics backgrounds).

Thank you for your response. Since I’m a nontraditional student I took three years off before I entered college again in 2016. Therefore, in terms of credits I already have over 150. My goal for business school isn’t really to get a master’s of accounting since I can get the CPA without one. I am looking in something more along the line of management and information technology :).

I am an accountant, currently sitting for the cpa as well. im not sure if i will do an MBA either. I am leaning more towards data science instead. maybe look into that.