<p>I know the usual requirement for MBA programs is 4-6 years of work experience after graduation, but there are a few exceptional students who get into top business schools straight from undergrad.</p>
<p>I was wondering what it takes to do the latter? After reading the threads on here, I get the feeling that it's very much like college admissions all over again. You need good GPA and test scores, but after a certain point their influence is negligible. You need something "special", something that other applicants won't have. </p>
<p>Now, what is that? And what can I do to gain it? My dad owns a real estate company that has some international ties. Could I leverage that in my favor?</p>
<p>First, why do you want to avoid the work experience? You will have a harder time getting a choice job.</p>
<p>The kids I’ve seen get straight in have had top grades at top colleges and done something entrepreneurial. Just anecdotal and a limited sample size.</p>
<p>Now if you can get your dad’s real estate company to make money in this downturn, forget B school, you won’t need it!</p>
<p>Trust me, I’ll be fine once I get into business school… I just need to get in, and without working 4-6 years. And I know I need to do “something entrepreneurial”, but I just can’t figure out what to do. And FYI, my dad’s company is fine.</p>
<p>Why not ask your dad if he could help you come up with some sort of company that has something to do with real estate; i.e. staging, consulting, etc. I think it takes a good aptitude for risk to start something in the real estate market in this economy. However, there are areas where it is growing. If you can target those areas I think you’ll see some nice growth over the next few years. This will show entrepreneurial aspirations as well as ability to obtain success.</p>
<p>Just as a brainstorm; there are a lot of distressed properties out there with people in foreclosure, what can be done from a business aspect? Foreclosure assistance? People still need a place to live, short sale assistance? Commercial real estate is no better, how can empty buildings bring taxable income and what can the city do to help? With a lot of people out of work self-employment is something that will be heavily considered; could these be used as office co-ops? temporary store fronts? etc.?</p>
<p>I think may have unintentionally misled you. Allow me to clarify:</p>
<p>My dad’s company invests in a lot of things, but mainly in residential real estate. His company is in Asia, and he can only help me by providing me with capital and general entrepreneurship knowledge.</p>
<p>What I do in university doesn’t have to involve at all. In fact, I don’t know any special interest in real estate. The closest thing I’ve had to “real” entrepreneurship experience is managing my own stock portfolio (which I’ve rather enjoyed). But, I’m open to different suggestions</p>
<p>MBA admissions is much less grades and test scores driven than college admissions. If you are not naturally coming up with something “entrepreneurial”, it probably means you are not one of the select few to be able to get admitted without work experience.</p>
<p>Not to sound condescending, but you have to look at it from a different angle. You have all of the resources that you need to get something going and no ideas, let alone a good idea. Yet for some reason you think you have what it takes to be one of the select few to get into b-school with no experience. Why do you think this?</p>
<p>As someone who was once in your shoes (wanted to go right to b-school after graduation), my advice to you is the following: wait.</p>
<p>I know an interviewer for a top 5 school that looks at all sorts of candidates, he rarely thinks much of the right out of college set. The one exception was a Harvard kid with off the charts GPA/GMATs and who ran a business with 1m in annual revenues as an undergrad. Somehow I don’t think this is you…</p>
<p>If you don’t get at least 2-3 exp you will be selling yourself short and won’t go to as good a school as your potential allows. I’d recommend you put in AT LEAST 2 years at some form of reputable institution: ie banking, consulting, asset management, the peace corps, whatever… get promoted and make sure you have a few good recommendations. In the long run this will serve you far better. The reality is that MBA admissions is only half academics, the other half is what you’ve done professionally. Applying now is like sending in half an application.</p>
<p>If you absolutely must go back to school right away, maybe try another degree where work experience is less of a consideration (masters in management/finance/econ are just a few examples). I don’t know what your primary interest is, but odds are that you could do postgrad work other than an MBA for it. For ex: my cousin is about to graduate undergrad and wanted to get a business related degree right away. He is an off the charts test taker and has good grades from a top school, but didn’t even consider an MBA at this point. Instead he is doing a joint management/engineering masters at an excellent school, which will land him a very nice job when he is done. He is much better off doing this than going to a second or third tier business school right away (which is where he would wind up without work experience).</p>