Business school experiences and input

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m going back to school, and this time I mean business! ducks

I took the GMAT, scored a 680 (5 out of 6 in the writing section), and I’m now working on applications for schools in the city in that GMAT range.

I got my law school transcripts (3.00 GPA), and my college transcripts (from what I recall I was about 3.25 GPA; my major: philosophy :smiley: ) are being processed.

I’m planning on continuing working while attending school.

School numbers taken from Princeton Review’s Complete Book of Business Schools and website

By my GMAT score, I think I have a good shot at most of the schools in the city, except for perhaps Columbia (average GMAT is 705) and NYU (average GMAT is 689). My grades probably aren’t good enough with my GMAT score to get into those schools.

However, my GMAT is well above the averages of Fordham (600), CUNY Baruch College (650), St. John’s (515), and Pace (518), and my college grades are in the range of the averages students at these schools (3.1-3.3). I figure that my law degree, even with only a B average, will only make my application look better.

Do we have any MBAs here?

What were your considerations when looking at B schools? For instance, Baruch is the most select of the schools I am considering, but starting salaries upon graduation at Fordham and St. John’s are much higher. On the other hand, Baruch is a city school and as such much cheaper than the other schools, and while student loans from law school will be deferred during school attendance, I will have more to owe upon graduation.

I’m still looking over documentation I requested and as such I’m still trying to figure out which schools’ programs I may find interesting. I’m planning on focusing on management, although I may consider other focuses as I proceed with my eduction.

It has been three years since I graduated law school, I am a member of the NY state bar, and I work for a city agency. While much of my experience at work has been legal, I also have many administrative responsibilities. I have made decisions on cases submitted to my agency that not only address legal issues, but also take into consideration potential policy issues. I have found that my mathematic abilities combined with my legal knowledge have proven very important in many of my responsibilities. I have also coordinated many agency group projects, as well as solo projects, and have found that in a pinch I’m a pretty good as far as staff diplomacy goes.

I want to take my legal and administrative skills and develop them further so as to enable me to move into a business setting. However, I am not in the business sector. I want to be able to do so, and an MBA would help me do that.

How will prospective business schools view my current employment situation?

What were your business school experiences like? Did you enjoy it? Did you go part time or full time? Do you have any advice for someone planning on starting school next fall?

Thanks in advance for any helpful input. Those providing unhelpful input will be punished severely.

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I’m a graduate of the Olin School at Wash U. in St Louis (1992).

I would say, go to the best school you can get into but do pay some attention to costs. B school names seem to mean a lot among many recruiters. Many recruiters also seem to find the BusinessWeek rankings pretty important, so look into where your prospective schools fall in those lists.

When I said go to the “best school you can get into” I consider best to be a combination of reputation (rep is very important) and the program offered (if it fits your needs). Starting salaries are important, but you have to look at the fields graduates go into and how they’re calculated. Some fields pay a lot more than others and that can affect the average. Also, some schools don’t figure your starting salary into their average if you don’t take a job that requires an MBA. For example, if someone like you were continue in their current law position for a time after graduation, the school may not include that salary in the average. And that too can affect the results.

In addition to the school’s repuation, make sure the school is excellent in the area that interests you. Some schools have made their names in specialized fields like international business. If that’s not your area, coming out with a general management focus may not enable you to really take advantage of that reputation.

Do look at costs, and try to estimate what your loan payments will be after graduation. Nothing is worse than feeling trapped in a career because your darn debt level makes everything else impossible. (Trust me on this!)

I don’t know a lot about admissions (other than having gone through them), but I would guess you’ll do okay. You have good GMAT scores, and you have solid work experience. It’s not “business” per se, but you’ve shown leadership (a biggie with B-schools), responsibility, and decision making. If you have essays or interviews, play up those aspects of your experience. 3 years experience was around the norm when I went (90 - 92), but it may have changed since then. Also, I would imagine they’d look at your law school grades in addition to your college scores. So you’ve shown that you can handle graduate level work.

As for the B-school experience, I went full time. I just wanted to get it over with as quickly as possible. You should be prepared for the fact that it is NOT like college. You don’t form the same type of friendships. You make friends and establish contacts, but be prepared for it to be more competitive and for several people to szie you up as to what kind of team member (we did a lot of group/team projects) and future contact you’ll make. Not everyone is like that by any means (I’d say that type was a minority), but they were there. When I went, there wasn’t the same “love of learning” that I saw in some college students. People were there to get a good degree and get a good job.

When I went, the work itself wasn’t all that hard. The hardest part academically was remembering all my darn calculus (why did it have to be used in every class?). You will be pressed for time and have to learn to prioritize and recognize how much work is neccessary to get the darn project done well, and how much is just overkill.

Also, be prepared to do countless group projects. I would estimate 75% of my work was done in groups. One of our big jokes upon graduating was that the program taught us how to hate people in groups as well as individually. But you’ll learn who makes a good group member and who you would never again work with even under pain of death!

After saying all that, you probably won’t believe me, but I actually enjoyed getting my MBA. I did learn a lot, and loved the focus on results that we had. Also, I made a lot of good contacts (and even good friends) among my classmates and professors. We had some great professors, and it’s amazing how much more respect they had for us when we were graduate students compared to college kids!

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I was hoping for more responses to my initial post, but there is something to be said about quality over quantity :wink:

One thing that I have noted is that most schools have a high percentage of students going into finance-oriented jobs. Management jobs, which I think I would enjoy based on my work experience, vary from school to school. As already indicated, I’m still looking into any specific programs that are particularly beneficial for someone with my interests.

While I’m hopeful that a J.D. and a M.B.A combined will make me very marketable, I am also aware of the financial constraints that may be involved in choosing a school. Graduate school enrollment has increased greatly over the past year due to 9/11, as people are hoping to weather the storm that is the depressed job market by improving their resumes and skills by going back to school. An additional bonus for someone like me is that my student loans can be deferred while I’m in school. At the same time, I know that my already substantial loan obligations will be increased by going back to school. I just hope that what I learn in business school and my qualifications will enable me to succeed among what will be a large number of MBAs graduating in a few years.

I expect the math parts to be a bit difficult to get back into again, as despite my relatively strong math skills in high school, I stopped taking any math whatsoever after two calculus classes in college. Given my current situation, I wish I had considered some applied math courses in college :stuck_out_tongue:

I’m encouraged by your description of business school experiences, as I have a feeling that I should do well, even if it is competitive. After the lecturing of law school, I would prefer a more “hands on” schooling, as I thrive more on interaction and study than on passive attendance to a lecture. Law school has such an archaic and outdated teaching method that business school will be very refreshing.

I also feel that I didn’t do enough to network while in law school, and it seems to me that networking is vital to career success in and after business school. I plan to be fully exploit those things I felt I neglected when in law school.

I’m really looking forward to going back to school (something I never thought I would ever say!), and your input only heightens my anticipation :slight_smile: