Anyone in an MBA program at Harvard, Stanford or Penn?

[GoldenBears]

I'm applying to these 3 this Fall... trying to go to B-school right out of college, which is pretty difficult. Any input about the schools or any advice would be really helpful. What is life like? How hectic is your schedule? What are you supposed to do the summer before you go? Obviously I already know what I've read on the respective web sites, I'm just looking for some insider input.

Thanks in advance!

[emon87]

You won't get into any of these three right out of college.

[Dan.]

[ QUOTE ]
You won't get into any of these three right out of college.

[/ QUOTE ]

He'd be extremely lucky to get into any top B-school right out of college.

[NozeCandy]

Any reason why you aren't trying Michigan?

[wstaffor]

No chance you get any of those programs straight from ugrad.

[GoldenBears]

Harvard is making a big push to get undergrads, and they are recruiting college seniors to HBS really hard... they had about 20 in their last class. Stanford has 12 and Upenn only has like 2. I did the Summer Institute for General Management at Stanford last month and made a lot of really good connections, so hopefully that'll help me out. Penn is basically a shot in the dark.

I got a 780 on the GMAT, but I might retake it to try and get an 800... I've started two of my own businesses and I'm working on a third, and I have good recs. GPA is average, work experience is basically nil.

I realize the odds are pretty stacked against me but I wouldn't say that I have 'no chance,' especially if I can pull out an 800... I figure I'm probably about average for Harvard or Stanford at around 10% and maybe 5% or less at Penn since they don't like undergrads much.

Anyway, I don't really need a bunch of people telling me that I can't do it, but if anyone is in these programs and can tell me any more about them than what I can read online it'd be really helpful. Thanks.

[redsoxsalty]

I'm not in B-School, but all of my friends that are treat it as a giant two year vacation (and they're at top schools like Stanford, Wharton, Harvard, Tuck, Kellogg, etc). Of course, they've all been busting their asses for the past 3-5 years in the corporate world, so a couple of classes a day must seem like a joke.

I always, always, always tell my students at Cal to take at least one year off between undergrad and whatever grad school they're interested in. The burnout rate of kids who go straight through undergrad to grad is ridiculous. Law, Med School, PhD...it doesn't matter. My experience has been that the "straight-throughers" are always jaded and exhausted one year into grad school.

[GoldenBears]

Redsox - are you a professor/GSI here at Cal?

[redsoxsalty]

GSI

[NozeCandy]

DOES GSI MEAN GAY STUDENT INSTRUCTOR? DOES THIS MEAN YOU ARE GAY OR THAT ALL OF YOUR STUDENTS ARE?