The Best Possible School for Me

Graduate School Business School - MBA
1

<p>Hello everyone,</p>

<p>First I would like to thank you in advance for reading my thread. As this is regarding very important aspects in my life about school I am very thankful for any advice that anyone could give me.</p>

<p>Myself:</p>

<p>23 years old
graduating from UC Riverside spring 2010
cumulative gpa = 3.5
majors - BS in Business Administration, BA in Psychology
upper division business gpa = 3.65, upper division psych gpa 3.45</p>

<p>No real work experience
-worked at circuit city in high school for 2 years
-no work experience during college
-started my own prototyping company, no employees, low revenue (under 10k/year)
-started my own eBay company, no employees, low revenue (under 30k/year)
-been heavily involved in Fraternity life, with numerous positions
-philanthropy chair, scholarship chair, 2nd vice president, treasurer, website developer
-participated as a research assistant in psychology for my last qtr at UC Riverside
-been a somewhat active participant in roughly 6-7 honor societies (alpha lambda delta, golden key, nscs, gamma beta phi, omicron delta kappa, etc)
-no internships</p>

<p>I have a 700 on the GMAT</p>

<p>I am looking to get into a top 15 b school if possible, but I understand this may be impossible with my lack of work experience. I would like to go for my MBA with minimal delay after graduating college. The longer I wait, the harder it will be both financially, and mentally, to go back to school. With a long 2-3 years of acquiring work experience, I may be unable to go back to school. </p>

<p>Are there good schools that I may be able to get accepted into? </p>

<p>Do you know of any schools in particular that are less concerned with work experience?</p>

<p>Regarding work experience...</p>

<p>Provided that everyones answer to the questions above are "no way, you need 2-3 years of good work experience to have a reasonable shot at getting into ANY top 25 b schools"--</p>

<p>What is the best way for me to get work experience?</p>

<p>Do you have any recommendations of any specific companys to apply for or the exact type of work experience that is excellent to have? </p>

<p>What are the best types of management work experience, or marketing work experience (prefer to stay away from finance if possible)?</p>

<p>Lastly, I have considered joining the peace corps for a year or two, could Peace Corps be considered as valuable work experience for b schools?</p>

<p>If peace corps does not work as work experience, do you know of any not-so-stereotypical methods of acquiring work experience, particularly ones involved with international travel?</p>

<p>Thank you so much in advance for any help/ replies and your time.</p>

2

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<p>I don’t know why you think that. The way in which an MBA is taught is such that it favors people who have been out of school a while, it will not be the same as your undergrad as adult learning techniques are different.</p>

<p>I would wait a few years, get some self discovery out of the way so that you can mature into self awareness. That is why they want work experience or life experience. Besides, you GMAT is good for 5 years.</p>

<p>If I were you I would get any position I could that would give me Leadership experience. there are lots of opportunities out there, not all are traditional. Be cleaver and you’ll do fine.</p>

3

<p>Peace Corps can be good experience, but you’ll want to do something businessy afterwards.</p>

<p>Don’t even try for an MBA program without work experience. Plenty of people do that and end up just as employable as they were with just a BA.</p>

4

<p>Thanks very much for your replies BedHead and Japher! </p>

<p>Could anyone else provide some good advice. I understand about the negative aspects of going for your MBA with little or no work experience, but I would still like to know if it is even possible, or potentially some other interesting routes.</p>

<p>Thank you so much everyone!</p>