<p>I heard that Stern's notorious curve makes it very hard for students to maintain high GPA </p>
<p>Also, school's overall prestige can't compete with Ivies and other top schools such as UChicago, Stanford, Northwestern, etc.</p>
<p>So........ is it very difficult to get into a top MBA (HBS, Stanford, Wharton) with a degree from NYU Stern?</p>
<p>Because one of my objectives is to get into a top MBA programs like those listed above, I was wondering if it will be very hard to get into those MBA programs from Stern.</p>
<p>You might want to take this with a grain of salt...as you get near the bottom of the list, you see rates in the 1%/2% range from some pretty well-known schools, which raises at least a question in my mind...it is hard to tell exactly what the methodolgy is, but it is possible that it is simply the number of students who entered grad school directly from undergrad divided by class size...in which case why would those Stern grads who are out making money because their undergrad degree prepared them well for the workforce want to go to grad school right away? It could be that they, like Wharton undergrads, won't even need that MBA...</p>
<p>First of all, getting an MBA is not a very popular option for undergraduate business students - look at the majors that represent the entering class at the top MBA programs...only a relatively small percentage studied business during their undergraduate years.</p>
<p>Secondly, and much more importantly, MBA admissions is based on work experience, GMAT scores, and undergraduate GPA. If you do well in those areas, and go/went to a well respected school, which NYU is, you'll be fine.</p>
<p>There are a number of wrong assumptions in your post...</p>
<p>1) it's not that hard to maintain a decent GPA. The curve basically makes it so the 'average' person should be getting a B+, which is a 3.3, AND the curve only applies to some Stern classes. The end result is that if you're 'above average', you'll be fine.</p>
<p>2) a high GPA doesn't even matter that much in MBA admissions. Honestly, work experience is probably the biggest factor, with undergrad GPA being pretty low on the list. </p>
<p>3) FBI_34's post is pretty much dead on about even needing to get an MBA - if you have an undergrad business degree from Stern, the only real reason you'd get an MBA is if your company pretty much requires one for promotion (which is less common these days) or if you're changing fields.</p>
<p>4) That top 50 feeder school thing is not at all relevant to MBA admissions. First off, it includes med schools, law schools, etc, and there doesn't seem to be any breakdown by type of grad school. Secondly, note that their methodology is "based on the number of students a college sends to a grad school divided by the college’s class size". Even if 50% of the kids graduating from Stern are going to a top MBA school, that's a very small % of the graduating class of NYU as a whole.</p>
<p>Ok, that was kind of longwinded. Bottom line - graduating from Stern isn't going to hurt your chances of going to a good MBA school. Being dumb will. As long as you do well in school and get good work experience, you will be fine.</p>