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How much work experience do u need to have (like how many years?) to be competitive enough when applying to the top-10 B-schools?
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<p>Generally at least 2. Students in the top programs have an average of 4-6 years.</p>
<p>sakky,</p>
<p>i understand your viewpoints and have heard the same stories about wharton mba students (i'm currently an engineering sophomore at penn).
you've mentioned many times that "people skills" are very important because afterall, that's what managers must be good at. however, wharton's most popular major is not management, but finance, and projects the graduates to go on and be successful in "i-banking, investment management, hedge funds and private equity" (taken from wharton website) and while i agree that all these careers require good personal skills, analytic ability may be more important.</p>
<p>in this and related cases, is it not true that maybe the admissions council is looking for more intelligent people with good work history and not necessarily someone who is just a leader?</p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>analytic ability is only present in hedge funds, investment banking is selling, you research to sell. Being on the buy side is totally different</p>
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wharton's most popular major is not management, but finance
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<p>Well, that's not really a fair statement, because the truth is, there is no true "management" major in the Wharton MBA program. Majors like "operations and information management" or "entrepreneurial management" are not truly "management" majors. A true management major is one that actually specializes in General Management, which none of the Wharton majors do. I believe Wharton's philosophy is that all of its majors require that a person be good at General Management, so there is little point in offering a management that caters strictly to GM. Whether you agree with that is not the issue, what is relevant is that the Wharton MBA program offers a multitude of majors, none of which can truly be classifed as a general management major. </p>
<p>
[quote]
in this and related cases, is it not true that maybe the admissions council is looking for more intelligent people with good work history and not necessarily someone who is just a leader
[/quote]
</p>
<p>What I will say is this. It is clearly true that all B-schools run their admissions differently and how much they weigh leadership varies from school to school. HBS, for example, is probably the most fixated on leadership. </p>
<p>However, my point is that every B-school strongly weights leadership. Some more than others, but all of them take it as an important consideration.</p>
<p>I am aiming for MIT Sloan,</p>
<p>I have a BA bachelor Degree concentration in Finance and Marketing from an American University.
My GPA is 2.67 which is low (My concern). Because I spent a while in engineering before switching to business however my business courses are mostly A and B grades.</p>
<p>I have a GMAT 700+. Speak three languages Arabic, English and Japanese.
4-5 Years work experience in one of the top automobile companies in the world. 2 yrs in the Middle East excellent achievements in many areas of the company. 2 years in the mother company in Japan also great achievements. My company highly invests in my training, I completed more than 25 certified and relatively expensive development courses in (Middle East, Japan…) I have worked all my summers during my BA degree working in leading community service companies and was selected to lead, train and direct a costal environmental protection team (was selected by Parliament member and vice president of the environmental group) also have shares in non-profit organizations. </p>
<p>Got promoted very quickly due to performance and is a general manager in 4-5 Years at a top 10 multinational company. </p>
<p>My recommendations are excellent from the top (President of our company) who is a board member in the school as well.</p>
<p>What do you think my chances are this is my top goal and highest priority at this point I am dying to get accepted, I am also trying other top 10 schools in UK and US… thanks guys!!</p>
<p>Hi Sakky,</p>
<p>I question whether I am qualfied for a top program but after reading your posts, I feel I might be. Could you provide insight?</p>
<p>In my undergrad, I had a 3.316 GPA overall, 3.778 in my major and scored a 660 on the GMAT. I have a finance/accounting job with a fortune 300 company and completed a highly respected accounting training program with them. In my full time experience, I have led continous improvement events, team meetings every morning, and have traveled to 5 different divisions of the company and completed various other leadership tasks such as taking over for our accounting manager when she quit (she had 10 years of work experience and a MBA) and training a new accountant that was recently hired. </p>
<p>In college, I was an officer in two organizations that were well respected at the University and have other accomplishments in my personal life (climbed 14 ft mountain, etc)</p>
<p>I thought I would not qualify for a top 10 school because my gpa and gmat are below their averages, but if your logic is correct and they look at leadership qualities and work experience, maybe I have a chance. What do you think?</p>
<p>14 ft mountain? stairs?</p>
<p>dcfca - do you know the names of any of those books that chronicle MBA students’ experiences?</p>
<p>The Military Officer and top-notch work experience certainly I think to a large degree can offset many things…HOWEVER I think the rule of thumb for typical, aspiring students is that some good work experience and the GMAT and GPA are always going to cut it…correct me if I’m wrong but any admissions program (be that college or grad) is a number-laden game, and, easily put, attracts adcoms regardless.</p>