<p>Hi,</p>
<p>I'm currently a pre-med student and I dislike it so far not because of the hardwork, but simply because the idea of being a doctor is no longer that appealing to me. The thing is, I'm still pretty passionate about the field of science (just not as a doctor), so I was thinking about at least getting a degree in chemical engineering. The reason I'm thinking chem E is because I hear that the skill-set is marketable for many positions in the finance world, and I can get into both alternative fuels or medicine (the fields I like) as well as the finance world. Here's the catch: I know in my heart that my true passion is business and I'd prefer to be a businessman than engineer, yet I want to work in these fields. </p>
<p>Wow I just realized that was a really long digress lol. The point of this post is, I'll be honest, I know I'm not the smartest person in the world and I really doubt that I'll get a high enough GPA to warrant consideration at the top energy consulting/trading firms if I pursue chemical engineering. So I'm looking ahead to my MBA. Obviously I'll need a high GMAT score, but what GPA should I reasonably maintain (with an engineering degree), and what ECs/work experience should I get so that I can go to Stanford GSB or similar elite business schools?</p>
<p>Business School admissions looks for the "wow factor." This could be many things. Unique experiences, excellent volunteer services, prestigious awards, etc.</p>
<p>The traditional feeders into elite business schools are consulting and banking. Looking at the economy today, I think consulting would be the way to go.</p>
<p>hey thanks for the reply, but the point of my post was that what if, because of how hard engineering is, I can't get a good enough GPA for the difficult jobs like consulting and investment banking (well I guess not really investment banking anymore). Then what can I do to get into the top MBA schools for graduate studies?</p>
<p>Graduate business school admission works much like undergraduate school admission.</p>
<p>The key determinates of admission are:
(1) Undergraduate college GPA
(2) Difficulty of classes taken
(3) Difficulty of school attended
(4) Score on GMAT (Graduate Management Aptitude Test); and
(5) Work experience, including as lionheart2009 has already pointed out, the "wow" factor at higher ranked business schools such as Stanford (which is definitely in the top 5, and might be #1)
(6) Recommendations from college professors or people you have worked for/with.</p>
<p>If you have a low undergraduate college GPA, then you will be at a major disadvantage--but you can try to make it up by compensating for the other 5 (out of 6) items listed above. My guess is that if you are anywhere below a 3.5 GPA you will have about a 5% chance at best at Stanford.</p>
<p>(Sorry, but that's the case to get into all top schools--you have to compete with other who will be above the 3.5 GPA--and in this case, that will be at least 95% of the applicant pool).</p>
<p>Low GPA can be easily compensated for by having a top notch GMAT (ie 750+). Keep in mind that there are a high number of engineering undergrad students that attend top business schools and I would assume that the majority of them have 3.4+ undergrad GPAs despite the difficult major.</p>
<p>It is really impossible to say right now how easy/difficult it would be for you to attend a top school like Stanford, simply because we don't know what the demand for graduate business school will be at that time. In the past few years, it has become progressively more difficult to get in due to increases in the number of applications. If the economy were to get better, it is likely that application numbers will drop. Even so, the application numbers may still increase simply due to demographics (ie echo-boom generation being much larger than gen-x).</p>
<p>wait, why would the numbers drop if the economy gets better? I would have thought since the economy has gotten worse that people will avoid getting an MBA since they'd see it as going nowhere due to the poor economy.</p>
<p>People go back to school when times are rough for a variety of reasons. They may be having trouble finding a new job or perhaps just not getting promotions at their current job. I'm sure many would leave Ibanking simply due to the field's uncertainty...not to mention those who have been laid off. On the flip side, when the economy is good and people are making money hand over fist (and can easily jump from one position to another) they are less likely to leave their job to attend school.</p>