MBA: is the time right for me?

[PokerFox]

OK, I hope this is the correct forum. I'm 23, and I just graduated with a B.S. in Sociology in August 2006, with a minor in business administration. Finance has always been my strongest passion and pursuit, and I couldn't get a BBA due to the strict transfer requirements within my university.

I scored well on the GMAT (680), and am fairly certain I will be accepted by my program of choice starting August 2007 (16 month, full time program).

I worked for 5 months straight after graduation as a lowly bank teller. I have virtually no work experience post-grad, however, everytime I attempt to get a job in the financial sector, I am turned away due to my 'liberal arts education'. Frustration with this has led me to applying to b-school.

Thoughts/Questions/Comments?

At this point, my mind is all but made up to attend b-school in the fall. (assuming I do get in).

[AbreuTime]

It sounds like a good idea to go back for the MBA, given that you can get in at the school of your choice. Many top schools require/prefer a little more job experience. On the one hand, 23 would be on the young side at a top school.... and on the other hand, you do not have a job that you mind giving up (low opportunity cost).

I say go for it, and work hard to get placed in meaningful summer positions.

[ahnuld]

go for it if you can, but im surprised because the avergae work experience of accepted students in top MBA programs is 48 months.

So if you can get in, it would be a really smart move. Once you have an MBA they wont care at all about your undergrad.

[maxtower]

Yeah, it looks like getting an advanced degree will allow you to successfully change jobs.

[dp13368]

I am in a very, very similar situation as you PokerFox except my undergrad is in Finance. If you don't mind me asking, is your school top 50?top25?top10?

How long/any format used to study for the GMAT?

I say definitely go for it as this will open up many opportunities for you.

PM me if you get a chance too.

[NajdorfDefense]

You are way too young and no good B-school will admit you. You have nothing to offer your classmates, or the school, yet.

[bills217]

I have applied to Ohio State (#22 in latest US News & World Report) full-time MBA for Fall '07 as a 21-year-old and have an interview there next week. But I have a 750 GMAT, a ton of extracurriculars and some decent work experience while in school (not as good as full-time, but worth something) and will have a degree in chemical engineering so I have some advantages. (Also wrote a little about poker in my essays and someone on the committee enjoyed that.)

Their program is unique - only 150 students per class, average age is 27, so they look for experience but they make a point to accept 10-15 each year with no experience as a way of adding diversity to the program and presumably to get students who would go to an Ivy if they waited.

I have heard those who say to wait, but I don't really know what I want to do yet and I think this will be a good opportunity to find out. It makes more sense to me to do school now and work later, to kind of stay in the same mode. Plus I think my credentials are probably stronger now than they would be in 5 years, relatively speaking. Getting into an Ivy is hardly automatic, even if you wait. I couldn't get into a much better B-school than tOSU with no full-time experience, but a Harvard grad's first-year comp is $126k, tOSU $103k...meh. I think I'll manage. Plus tOSU is a great value tuition-wise.

Of course I haven't been accepted yet, but I think I will be. Hopefully will get some scholarship dough too - tOSU is supposedly very generous with teh monies.

I noticed OP was very vague about his school. An important thing to note though is that there is a huge dropoff from a Top 50 or so MBA to one that's totally off the map. MBA students from Kentucky (my undergrad), for example, make $48k when they graduate, which is significantly less than I would make going straight to the workforce with no MBA. So it really depends on where you're going. If it's somewhere off the map, you'll prolly only get bumped up $5k-$10k from what you would have made without it, from what I have heard. Then factor in time spent and paying for it and it may not be such a great deal.

[dp13368]

Bills217, great post...

I am planning on doing almost the same thing for Univ of Maryland in Fall of 2008 (top 20-25). I am also in the same boat of not knowing exactly what I want to do and have a pretty solid internship on my resume and actual equity investing experience through a unique program at my undergrad school, so I feel this is the right time for me to pursue my MBA.

Did ask anything specific about your lack of experience?

Did you use any particular format to study for GMAT (timeframe between starting to study and taking the test)?

[bills217]

[ QUOTE ]
Did ask anything specific about your lack of experience?

[/ QUOTE ]

They requested more details on my in-school work experience in engineering at Lexmark (Fortune 500 printing company). Also, the application stressed that applicants applying with little or no work experience should make the case for why they were ready now in the essays, and I think I did that.

Of course I expect to be fielding more questions along those lines at my interview.

[ QUOTE ]
Did you use any particular format to study for GMAT (timeframe between starting to study and taking the test)?

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, I took the GMAT on Dec. 26, so between fall finals and Christmas I really didn't have a tremendous amount of study time. I read through a lengthy text (Kaplan) that described the test format and types of questions in the week leading up, and took a full-length practice test the day before. You definitely should study enough to make yourself very familiar with the test format and the types of questions that will be asked, but it is very similar to the ACT/SAT - really no surprises. Whatever your percentile score was on the ACT/SAT I would expect your GMAT to basically be right in line with that. Really no sense studying like 14 hours a day months in advance for it, if you ask me...it's a reasoning test, there's really not much if anything to memorize. It's not like someone who makes 600 the first time can massively cram for months and then make 720...just not that kind of test.

Oh, and don't waste any time studying the essay part - if you can make coherent sentences at all you should do fine on it, and it isn't part of your composite score (read: the score schools care about).

[dustyn]

The answer to your question largely depends on what school you're talking about and where it's ranked.