Research MBA Programs

Hello!

I'm considering applying to *part-time* programs (Fall 2013). I took the GMAT a couple months ago and scored 700.
I'm a software professional with 5 years of experience. Post-MBA, I intend to continue working in tech.
My options after graduation:
- Advance into Executive Management and lead teams.
- Product Management (tech)
- Business Development (tech)

I live & work in SF/Bay Area and was considering UC Berkeley(Haas), UCLA (Anderson), USC (Marshall) and Santa Clara University(Leavey)

Haas is my first choice. I understand that it's very competitive to get in.

I'm not sure if it's worth travelling to LA on weekends(for UCLA/USC) or just enroll at local Santa Clara (Leavey) if I get in. I understand the benefits of going to a good school like UCLA (networking, education, brand name, global recognition, etc.).
I'm asking because I don't plan to do a career shift (e.g. finance, consulting, etc.) I know Product Managers and General Managers in my company who have graduated from Leavey and they seem to be doing well (obviously, can't generalize). My concern is that Leavey is ranked very low. In fact, this year, it slipped to #41. Does anyone know why it plummeted? What is the Leavey's reputation among technology companies in the Silicon Valley?



Your thoughts?

Thanks,
Rohit

Rohit,

I can't really comment on Leavey, but I believe that UCLA only offers a EMBA on weekends and USC requires weekday classes for part, if not all of the MBA program.

Brian

Thanks Brian!

I wasn't aware of USC's weekday classes.

I see that you've been accepted by Booth. Congrats!
Based on your research what are the weekend out of town stats for Booth and Kellogg?

When (what round) did you apply?

thanks,
-Rohit

Kellogg and Booth don't have rounds. You apply, interview and you get a quick answer. I applied about 2-4 weeks before the final deadline for the weekend program and got responses from Kellogg and Booth about 2-3 weeks after submission.

Also they don't give the break-outs for stats for the weekend program. My understanding is that the scores are slightly higher than the week-day part time program due to the larger applicant pool, etc. In a couple webinars, they suggested that the average GMAT for the weekend program is around a 700 and the average GPA is low to mid 3s.

Brian

Thanks for the info Brian!

I should have been more specific. I wanted to ask how many people at Booth/Kellogg fly in from the other (West) coast? How long is your commute? Is that something they don't encourage. I've heard that the projects require meeting your peers during the week. So, that may not work out well for someone like me who'd fly from San Francisco every weekend.

I see that you've applied during the April/May time frame. What's the ideal time to apply?

-Rohit

I don't know the specifics for Kellogg, but I would assume it to be similar to Booth...

https://www.chicagobooth.edu/parttime/co ... ekend.aspx


Note that a decent amount of people appear to move to Chicago after gaining admittance and I would guess (I have yet to start classes) that about half the people make a decent trek (several hour commute) to attend classes on the weekend.

I will travel from Seattle, and there is actually a small handful of other students that also fly every week from Chicago to Seattle.

Please also keep in my 30K+ is a hefty sum to pay for travel and hotel and if I still lived in the Bay Area (moved from Berkeley a couple years ago), Haas would have been hands down my 1st choice.

Did you visit the schools before applying?

I did not visit the school prior to my interview. I would highly recommend that if you travel out for an interview that you at least sit in on a class or two. Also, I would recommend that you wait to finalize your essays after you have you interview and class visits (I believe the interview is mandatory for both schools) and incorporate what you learned while on campus into your essays.