Business school right from undergrad (entrepreneurship / non profit)

Graduate School Business School - MBA
1

<p>Hi everyone,</p>

<p>I just finished my sophomore year at Stanford. I am an Economics major with a 3.7 GPA, and I am taking the GMAT in August (my most recent practice test scores are 750, 800, and 780).</p>

<p>I started a company that provides summer academic programs for about 200 students, more than half of which are low income students who will be the first in their families to attend college. This summer's programs generated about $65,000 in revenue (most is from our internal programs but about 10k of the revenue is from some fundraising activities). We are growing quickly, and our program should roughly double in size in the next year (we more than tripled our revenue and the number of students served in our program this year).</p>

<p>My goal is continue running the company (officially, it's a company and a non-profit) full time after graduation, but I think I would benefit tremendously from what business school has to offer. I think I could use a better understanding of how large organizations function and are led, and even simple institutional tasks are sometimes challenging for us (e.g. we are paying employees for the first time this year and we've had to figure out payroll on our own). Most importantly, I hope the business school network will help us build our team and develop a strong group of advisors. Especially since the focus of our work is non-profit, I think we could benefit tremendously from the access to capital that I hope my business school associates might be able to offer. </p>

<p>During the school year, I spend about 25 hours each week working on the project during the school year and it has been a full time endeavor during the summer. As the project becomes ever more time consuming, it seems like it would be helpful to attend business school as early as possible. Also, I hope to eventually obtain a Master's in Education or Public Policy. Since I would likely pursue this degree immediately after graduation anyway, it seems like a natural time to attend business school.</p>

<p>However, I am very much aware of the criticism and skepticism that accompanies those who hope to attend business school immediately after graduation. To me, the biggest risk is the exit strategy (i.e. if I don't end up wanting to run this company long term). By going to business school immediately, I would be to some extent forfeiting my opportunity to use business school as a transition to a new career later. I think some might also say that a "real entrepreneur" doesn't need business school, but from what I have seen at the Stanford GSB it seems like I would find the experience incredibly valuable.</p>

<p>As of right now, I am most interested in the following programs:
-MBA/MA Education at Stanford
-MBA & possibly MPP at Harvard
-MBA/MA Education at Columbia
-MBA at Yale (b/c of the focus on non-profit management)</p>

<p>The Harvard 2+2 program seems like it might be a good compromise for where I currently am, but of course just like the rest of these that program is going to be a shot in the dark.</p>

<p>Do any of you have any suggestions about how I might best approach my future goals? Is it worth it in my case to try to attend business school right away? If so, should I be willing to attend a school outside of my top choices? Would I be better off running the program remotely part time from another company that will offer management experience (e.g. consulting)?</p>

<p>Sorry for the super long post, and thank you in advance for your help!</p>

2

<p>You should recognize that after a year or two, most of the "job transition" boost that business school gives you will be gone. Unless you want to change career paths while you are in business school, and can use the mechanism of on campus recruiting to achieve that goal, you will likely find that the business degree is of much less use and importance in enabling you to make a career change.</p>

3

<p>I think I addressed what you were talking about in my post. My plan is to continue running the company even after business school, but I recognize that in the long run my plans might change. I am aware that the "job transition" boost diminishes over time, but I'm not sure how I should best integrate that consideration into my plans.</p>

<p>From the perspective of my business, it seems to make the most sense to attend business school early and build a foundation in business and establish a network before the organization grows up too much. But at the same time I'm not sure how to reconcile this with the idea that perhaps I should work full time for a couple years and see where my career focus is.</p>

<p>Because the project is small with no full time employees, I think I could continue to manage its growth while in business school if I go right away. I'm not sure if I will be able to keep the project afloat while at business school after it has grown with me working on it full time. At the same time, I'm hesitant to disregard an MBA entirely as I feel like I lack certain foundations in business as well as a comprehensive business network that might be helpful in the future.</p>

4

<p>You are highly entreprenuerial and it would be a shame if some of that entrepreneurial energy is wasted while you are simply attending more school. Also, it would be incredibly difficult to manage this opportunity full time while attending graduate business school.</p>

<p>IF this is indeed a viable opportunity then you should just go with it. Regardless of how well it does, you can always fall back on graduate business school in a couple of years if you want (or need to). You will learn more pertinent information by going through "growing pains" than you would from graduate business school. Also, you should be able to make the necessary connections without attending a graduate business program (perhaps there are resources at Stanford that could help you with that).</p>

<p>
[quote]
Would I be better off running the program remotely part time from another company that will offer management experience (e.g. consulting)?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>You wouldn't have the time necessary to manage this program if you were working in consulting.</p>

5

<p>right, at best you might be able to consult on behalf of your current project, having gotten someone to replace you to run it day-to-day.</p>

<p>Yours is a very unusual situation and I would be happy to talk to you about it personally, but it would be more of a dialogue than an autocratic "this is what you want" sort of post on a message board. PM me if you want to discuss further.</p>

<p>Frankly, I'm a little surprised you haven't gotten more attention from the other regulars on this board - sakky, wildflower, calicartel, even VW. Yours is exactly the kind of situation that business schools get most excited about.</p>