Should I go to business school?

Graduate School Business School - MBA
1

<p>Hi everyone,</p>

<p>I wrote a similar post last week, but I didn't receive much feedback.</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 three most recent practice test scores are 780-800).</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 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 I still feel like two years of full-time work might be enough that I might not have the flexibility to return to school.</p>

<p>Do any of you have any suggestions about how I might best approach my future goals? Should I attend business school at all? 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 has reasonable hours (e.g. Google, Teach for America)?</p>

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

2

<p>do people usually take the gmat this early? :O</p>

3

<p>The deadline for the Harvard 2+2 program is in 11 months, so this is my last summer to prepare for the GMAT and I would rather deal with it now than during the school year.</p>

<p>Any other advice? I could really use some help, and not too many people have gotten back to me. =/</p>

4

<p>If I were you I would stay at Google and remotely control your company. Ultimately, isn't it what you want? MBA program might be benefit at some point, but it takes too much time as well as capital commitment.</p>

5

<p>I'm not at Google; I still am a full time student at Stanford. I just was giving examples of two organizations - Google and Teach for America - that tend to have more reasonable hours than, say, consulting or investment banking. That one aspect of my question revolves around the idea of whether it would be better to:</p>

<p>(1) Attend business school immediately after graduation and run my business part-time during the year and full-time during the summer while my business is still reasonably small.
(2) Join a company that isn't known for its grueling hours and run my business part time until it grows or I want to change careers and perhaps attending business school to facilitate that change.
(3) Pursue the business full time at graduation and only attend business school if I want to change careers. The risk here is that I might miss out on many of the business fundamentals and schoolmate connections that might help my organization build a solid foundation for future growth. The advantage is I would have more opportunities to grow the organization.</p>

6

<p>I would say that right now is not the right time for you to go to business school for a few reasons. Since GMAT and GPA are not the key factors to getting into top programs, I think you'll have a tuff time getting into the programs your targeting. Your competition will have similar academic backrounds along with 4 years of grueling investment banking, private equity, or consulting experience. Second and more importantly, your job prospects after completing Undergrad and MBA back to back will be severely limited for the same reason as above. Nobody wants to hire the MBA grad without any post-grad experience ( the part time company won't con't) when they can hire someone with top notch experience. I would pursue your career of choice and apply in a few years. Or look at a different type of masters degree which has less focus on work experience.</p>