<p>Why is it highly recommended not to attend business school as soon as you graduate from undergrad...? Is it hard to get into one of the top business schools if you have just graduated from an undergrad school?</p>
<p>First of all, you won’t learn as much. Classes in an MBA require you to critically think about a situation, and to frame how you’ve seen people / circumstances occur in the past (i.e. you’ll be asked questions that will require you to draw on your experiences to answers). If you have limited work experience, you won’t get as much out of the program as you would with work experience.</p>
<p>Second, everyone else (or at least a majority of them) will have work experience in the program. This puts you at a distinct disadvantage when you’re competing against them for jobs at graduation.</p>
<p>Third, it’s a good idea just to make sure you know what you want to do. Your other post indicates that your primary goal is to make money. That’s the wrong way to pick a career. If you don’t like it, you won’t be good at it, and you won’t succeed.</p>
<p>^ I couldn’t have said it any better</p>
<p>While I agree with GPBurdell that you won’t learn as much and won’t be as competitive as your B-school classmates, those by themselves aren’t good reasons not to go to (presumably a top) B-school right after undergrad. For example, if you’re 22 and go to Harvard Business School right after undergrad, sure you probably won’t learn very much, and you won’t be competitive for the best jobs upon graduation. But, you’ll still probably be better off by the time you graduate at the age of 24 than if you had done something else during those intervening 2 years. After all, most entry-level jobs, frankly, don’t teach you very much and don’t really provide you with great career possibilities either. What many people will do after working at these jobs is to go to B-school, which you now have already done.</p>
<p>What I will say is that it is extremely difficult to get in right after undergrad. Only maybe 1-2% of the entering class at HBS is admitted right out of undergrad. But if you happen to be in that small group, I think it is hard to justify not taking it.</p>
<p>Thanks, sakky you definitely answered my question!</p>
<p>on the other note</p>
<p>In respone to G.P. Burdell…I never stated my primary goal was to make money. I stated that I would like to become successful to the point where I make six figures. I think anyone who graduates from college and continues there education to graduate school is of course hoping to become succesful. So therefore, money is not the reason why I am considering attending business school, nor did I ever state that I did not like business. I have an interest in both business and law…so I don’t understand where your receiving this misconception of me not knowing what I want to do? All I simply asked is why isn’t it recommended to attend business school upon graduating from a 4 year university. I did not ask for counseling on my career choices. Thanks for your help though…</p>
<p>You have no clue what your goals are. Your chances of getting into HBS from undergrad will be zero to none. </p>
<p>There are a very small number of students who come directly from undergrad to a top business school, but it would be difficult to describe how exclusive that group is. You can certainly go to a subpar MBA program straight from undergrad but that would not be in your best interest. Feel free to shoot for HBS, but be prepared for failure and rejection because YOU will not get in.</p>
<p>Well, to be perfectly fair, there are some people I’ve seen who got into HBS straight from undergrad whose qualifications I strongly question. But hey, what can I say? They got admitted.</p>
<p>And I gave you a well thought out and clear answer. Determining success by the number of zero’s after your salary still shows that your indicator of success is money. There are, of course, other ways to define success, including happiness, prestige, furthering knowledge, etc. If a History PhD make $60,000 as a professor, does that make him a failure?</p>
<p>As for sakky - I agree that if HBS admits you, you take it. But you bring up an interesting point. Most people can’t go from undergrad to HBS. So if you’re admitted to a good but not great school right out of undergrad, you might be better off waiting two years then going to a great school. </p>
<p>I question the comment about entry-level jobs not teaching much, though. If you work in Pharmaceuticals for 3-5 years, then get an MBA and look into VC or i-banking, that experience will probably come in very handy. You might be assigned specifically to Pharma cases, etc.</p>
<p>Sakky, what is the thread that you see running through those admitted out of undergrad?</p>
<p>Hmom5, I don’t know what you mean.</p>
<p>I think she meant what trend do you see. I’d guess that it is largely due to connections.</p>
<p>The undergrads that I know who have gone directly from undergrad to a top b-school have good credentials (ie. 3.8+ GPAs) but more importantly they have serious connections.</p>
<p>(examples: one has their name on the business school, another was an all-american college football player, etc). I know less than a handful though.</p>
<p>OP: the bottom line is this, it’s not the most common route, but it’s possible; if money is not an issue ($250 Gmat, ~$100 to $250 per application fee/school) apply and see if you get in. You may want to hire an admissions consultant to help you with the essays (which are the most important part of the admissions game). Generally, these people are real expensive, but worth it. Make sure to shop around for a good, reputable, one if you take this route. The rest of the things you hear–including most of what you read on this type of forums–is either hypothetical or hear-say or flat out misinformation based on opinion, sometimes true, sometimes not, oft-times not even relevant to your specific circumstances.</p>
<p>Okayyy! I don’t understand why everyone is being so negative about this going to B school straight after undergrad. I just wanted to know why it was not recommended to do that. That is all. I NEVER stated my goal was to go to business school straight out of undergrad! I just asked WHY IT IS NOT RECOMMENDED! I dont understand why some of you are getting on me about my life goals…this question clearly has nothing to do with life goals.</p>
<p>Oh I also don’t understand why it seems as though you guys think its impossible for a young person to know what they want to do in the future…I know that I want to work with law and business. I know im good at math and history. I know im horrible at science. Why is it so hard to believe that I actually know what I want to do in the future…</p>
<p>“I like law” “I like Math” “I want a joint JD/MBA” “I want an MBA” “I want to major in political science” “I want to major in marketing or engineering”.</p>
<p>You don’t know what you want to do. But that’s OK at your age. Just take it one step at a time. Start your undergrad classes and make sure you keep your GPA up. Then in a few years reevaluate. Don’t worry about the money right now - there are lawyers making $40,000 a year right out of a JD and unemployed MBAs, and there are communications majors making twice that to start. It all depends.</p>
<p>Also, don’t take things too personal. None of us know you, so none of this is directed at YOU (as a person). Your question about why a direct MBA is bad was answered in this thread already. To summarize: you don’t learn as much, you’ll have a hard time competing for jobs against your classmates, it doesn’t let you develop your career goals through actual experience, and you’ll probably get into a lower tier MBA program than if you had experience.</p>
<p>Then people started talking about direct to HBS undergrads. That doesn’t apply to you.</p>
<p>One more important consideration. A lot of the activity in MBA programs involves work in groups and teams. Although every student is earning their very own MBA, what they bring to their classmates is very important to everyone else’s learning experience – as well as very important to the admissions committees for the MBA programs. Your prior work and leadership experience is thus very important to everyone else’s learning.</p>
<p>what is HBS?</p>
<p>HBS = Harvard Business School</p>
<p>When I attended Stanford Business School some years ago, there was one (!) student in my class directly from undergrad. It’s my impression that there are a few more admitted each year more recently.</p>
<p>That one student was a good friend of mine and did very well, both at school and after.</p>
<p>However, I agree with all of the points outlined, especially by GP Burdell, in favor of work experience prior to the MBA.</p>
<p>Thanks Japher, I took thetruthecomesout rude approach of giving advice and googled it.</p>
<p>Oh and Thanks G.P. Burdell for answering my question… I guess your right, I don’t know what I SPECIFICALLY want to do in the future…but hopefully once I begin college I’ll figure it out.</p>
<p>So would working at an entry-level job be looked upon as experience…or is it more of middle management positions?</p>