Oh @spacey11, my friend. you are getting me nervous with this fail talk, and timing it - and setting yourself up to be well positioned for the failure.
Be an entrepreneur, really be one. Go work in the field for as long as you need, leave, start the business and win. Stop this MBA-talk and back-up planning. It is nails on a chalkboard to a real entrepreneur.
Chicago Booth PT has a program like that too. Take recent grads who then work and learn at the same time.
No problem. Apply to b-schools if you fail. Youâll have a lot to talk about and experience to draw upon.
And you wonât be able to find any better job than straight out of undergrad if you donât have work experience.
Basically, save the MBA as a potential bullet for later. You only get one shot and you wouldnât want to waste it with no experience.
The best strategy is to stop overthinking and overplanning and just go and do things.
Back in ye olden days it was a standard corporate benefit (I was at Westinghouse at the time). There was probably a form to fill out for approval, but yes, it was pretty much just âI miss school, I think Iâll go backâ and they OKâd it.
This was something like early January when I decided to do it. I took the GMAT as a space-available standby at the end of January, applied by the Feb. 1 deadline and started at what is now Tepper in May. It was certainly much less rigorous/planned out than what I see in todayâs admissions.
Iâm sure they saw it as an investment in their people, but there was no requirement to remain as an employee. As it turns out, they closed down our division as I was 3/4 of the way through, the âre-trainingâ severance benefit just about paid for my one last semester as I switched to full-time, and I had a consulting job once I finished. It worked out pretty well.
There seems to be a very strong consensus that work experience before the MBA is essential.
My son is getting his undergrad degree in Engineering. He is giving strong consideration to getting an MBA right after undergrad. His wants to go in to consulting or finance (perhaps a hedge fund) to begin his career. He majored in Engineering because he is very good with math and enjoys solving problems. However, he is not excited about working as an Engineer for a couple of years before grad school.
In this case, would going directly into an MBA program make more sense?
He will likely have a relatively more difficult time getting accepted to a top MBA program with no work experience (and hedge funds and some consulting firms only hire from the top programs).
I would encourage him to look into getting a consulting job right out of undergrad, if he doesnât want to work as an engineer. There are many firms that hire engineering undergradsâŠcan his college career center help?
Then, work a few years in consulting (doensnât have to be at a tippy top firm, could be CapGemini, or LEK, or even one of the zillions of boutique firms out there) and he will likely have more success when applying to top tier MBA programs.
To add on to @Mwfan1921 post, which I completely agree with, what year is your S in? If he is a rising junior, he will need to immediately start looking for a consulting or finance internship for next summer. As a rising senior, he will need to start the process of seeking a full time job with one of these firms after graduation. You do not need an MBA (or even a degree in finance) for entry level jobs in consulting or finance. However, if he is unable to secure such a job, IMO, he is better off working as an engineer for a couple of years and then applying to a higher tier MBA program rather than be in a year or longer job search mode or attending a lower tier BSchool.
No.
I agree with @Mwfan1921: plenty of newly qualified engineers go straight into consulting, with the aim of going into finance / etc. Consulting firms like their quant skills & discipline.
No matter how clever your son is, not only will he have trouble getting into a good MBA w/o experience, even if he does get in he wonât get good value out of it. I am currently watching this yearâs crop of Harvard and MIT MBA students, and you can pick out the tiny number who came straight through from UG. They have dazzling CVs, with some pretty impressive internships & projects (which is how they got in), but their classmates complain that that they canât pull their weight in group projects and their lecturers complain about the extra support they need.
These students will complete the program, so you might think âwhatâs the harmâ- but I know from my own MBA experience that my classmates who came straight through (this was a million years ago when it was less uncommon) all say that they wish that they had waited b/c they would have gotten more out of it. A good MBA is a big investment of time & $. Rushing it is not a good long term strategy.
Whether or not earning an MBA degree immediately after completing college would make sense for one seeking employment in a field not directly related to that personâs undergraduate degree is not framing the issue properly, in my opinion.
Sure, earning an MBA degree makes sense for your son. The top MBA programs are expensiveâover $200,000 for the 2 year degreeâand almost all top programs ârequireâ 2 or 3 years of work experience in order to be given serious consideration for admission. Although there are several hundred fully accredited MBA programs in the US, the program from which one earns an MBA degree does make a difference in the job market.
Without post undergraduate work experience of several years, much of the benefit of attending a full-time MBA program will be missed by your son.
There are one year specialty masters degrees in business which are designed for recent college graduates with little or no post undergraduate degree work experience. There are dozens of masterâs in finance one year programs available to recent college graduates.
Thank you all so much for the valuable feedback. If you donât mind, I would like to ask one more question.
Where my son is getting his undergrad in Engineering, he has the option of getting a Masters degree in Engineering in one additional year. Because of advanced placement and dual enrollment while in high school, he will get his Bachelors in 3 years, and could also have his Masters in Engineering in 4 years. The bulk of this 4th year to get the Masters in Engineering would be covered by a scholarship.
Would this Masters degree in Engineering be a positive or negative when, after working for 2 - 4 years, applying to a top MBA program?
It should be a positive indication of oneâs ability to handle graduate level work.
Your son may want to consider sitting for either the GMAT or the GRE after taking a few sample tests online. The scores remain valid for 5 years. If your son does well enough, he can apply for deferred admission to many of the most elite MBA programs including Harvard & Stanford.
The MBA programs which are the most highly regarded are referred to as the M-7 group of MBA programs. (The âMâ stands for magnificent or magic depending upon the source & refers to the quality of the career opportunities open to graduates of these 7 programs.)
The M-7 schools are:
Harvard
Stanford
UPenn-Wharton
NorthwesternâKellogg
ChicagoâBooth
MITâSloan
Columbia
After the M-7 programs:
UCal-Berkeley (Haas)
Dartmouth-Tuck
YaleâSchool of Management
NYUâStern is great for finance
MichiganâRoss
DukeâFuqua
VirginiaâDarden
I would turn the question around: would impressing admissions people at top MBA programs be the only/main reason for doing the MEng? If so, imo that is not a good plan. Putting that energy into getting into a good consulting firm (defined as one of the big name firms or a boutique firm with a strong rep in an area of genuine/specific interest to him) would be at least as good a way to achieve the goal.
IMO a student should have a clear reason for doing any grad program. The reason informs the choosing of specific program(s) to apply to, the Statement of Purpose, the choice of modules within a program, the choice or projects/internships, etc.
Note that a clear reason is likely not a full or final reason! But it is an important marker.
If your son plans to start his career in consulting, then credibility will be important. A masters degree in engineering gives one added credibility over those with similar work experience but without a masters degree. Of course, it would be most helpful if his consulting work involves engineering issues.
Also, a masters degree as a fourth yer of undergraduate school on a significant scholarship seems like a very reasonable use of your sonâs time.
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