Two Options

Graduate School Business School - MBA
1

<p>This is a long post, so thank you in advance to anyone who takes the time to respond.</p>

<p>I am at a crossroads.</p>

<p>I want to be a business analyst for McKinsey & Company or another consulting firm. (I don't want to specialize in any industry). From there I would like to either go into Venture Capital/Private Equity or form my own consulting firm.</p>

<p>-I went to a college prep high school and did very well.
-Immediately after my first semester of community college I joined the Army.
-After about a year in the Army I realized that I missed learning.
-I spent every spare second of the next 4 years in the Army studying a myriad of business related concepts. I studied everything from aspects of different types of business structures to Entrepreneurialism to Real Estate to Finance to Forex to Internet Marketing/Web development to the more social stuff like body language and negotiation (short list , in no way encapsulates everything I dabbled in). I read an avg of 75 books a year.</p>

<h2>I am a proponent of Capitalism, so it follows that I would assume private and for-profit institutions are higher quality, but of course I will always do proper due diligence before attending: Visit classes, obtain syllabuses, conduct research on professors, etc.</h2>

<p>Option 1:
Test out of the rest of my bachelors (should only take a few months, can probably do some sort of concurrent enrollment option) and spend the next 3 years grabbing a couple Masters; MBA and Masters of International Finance. Not entirely set on those two, but the point is that I can get two or three masters in this timeframe.</p>

<p>Option 2:
Start a Bachelor's degree that will be particularly useful as a business analyst. Something like Business Intelligence and Analytics or Business Information Systems. Most of my credits will not transfer. I can always test out of the science, math, arts, and humanities bullsh*t that I learned in middle school.</p>

<hr>

<p>Heres the kicker: Both of options will take the same amount of time, and both are FREE. (GI Bill + Yellow Ribbon)</p>

<p>Option two allows me to work on my Small Business Consulting Venture (I have a very unique model I am dying to try out), option two will probably require more of my time and make it much tougher for me to get anywhere with this Venture. This opportunity will generate residuals which will make my life better. Can probably generate about 10k/mo in residuals in 2-3 yrs or so.</p>

<p>I am not worried about the difficulty of the coursework. I am concerned with the quality of education I will receive, I have attended 5 different undergraduate schools and been dissatisfied with ALL of them.</p>

<p>If doing option 2 I prefer to stay in the Los Angeles Area, if doing 2X Masters option I prefer International campuses</p>

<p>Also... does prestige of a school really matter? If I can go into an interview and kill it... my LinkedIn is already decked out, and when I get this venture going I will already have experience, albeit indirectly/not for an employer. (Clients originated from my own efforts)</p>

<p>So short version:
1. BA(General Biz) + MBA + MFA + much smaller side business, less residuals
2. BA (Industry Specific) + side business generating plenty of residuals for living & opportunity capital, I can always go for Masters later on...</p>

2

<p>Network, name, and recruiting opportunities of a school may matter a lot. Especially if you are aiming for something like McK & PE/VC.</p>

3

<p>OP,</p>

<p>It seems as if you want to jump before you learned how to crawl.

Oh Yes, especially for McKinsey.

Were they online programs? </p>

<p>

Reading books won’t give you experience and credentials. Decked out LinkedIn won’t give you credibility without a degree from a top college.</p>

<p>Here’s some advice- try to get into and graduate with top grades from a top 15 university, target schools for McKinsey. </p>

4

<p>@ PurpleTitan - The networking is easy, plus I AM the one recruiting a company to work for for next to nothing in order to gain valuable skills. Wages have stagnated since the 80’s, but cost of living has not. </p>

<p>@‌ CBreeze- Only one online program, 2 community colleges, and two Art Institutes of California (separate programs) The only course that has ever given my private (K-12) education a run for its money was a six week (weekends) pre-brokers licensing course for real estate. Nobody has rigorous standards anymore. I want something that isn’t a guaranteed A+</p>

<p>To be blunt I have ■■■■■■ college grades because — why would I spend 10x the amount of time on coursework to get an A when I can easily get a C by only showing up to like half the classes and doing a minimal amt. of HW, NO STUDYING. LOL and instead I spend my time studying business stuff that I only get knowledge for, no “credit”.</p>

<p>Thanks for the responses, I have it figured out for now, your responses helped me confirm the idea that real world experience is valued over prestige of school. Why would I try to go for entry level when I could probably just become friends with the C level execs. (through networking etc.)??? </p>

5

<p>Your approach is certainly very unusual. I’d give it less than a 5% chance of success. That is, unless you count success as having CEO as friends but not colleagues; in that case I’d bump it up to at least 5%.</p>

6

<p>Yea its definitely not traditional. But oh well, success can come independent of academic credentials. Success to me is simply to be in a financial position where I can spend all my time either building start-ups that I believe in or just vacationing/traveling.</p>