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I am interested in applying to MBA school spring 2010 for fall 2010 admissions. Would like to go to NYU or Columbia since I live and work in New York. Trying to assess if I have a shot.

My Background:
I graduated from a top undergraduate school with a BS in nursing, GPA 3.4. Worked as a Neuro ICU nurse in a top Boston hospital for 2 years, and then as a CTICU nurse in a top NYC hospital for 10 months. After that, I decided to pursue other interests, and worked at an investment bank for about 10 months in an entry level job. Recieved outstanding performance reviews, but found the work unfulfilling. Decided to return to nursing and went to an SICU in a top NYC hospital for 10 months.
After the SICU, I entered graduate school and received a MSN with a concentration in Nurse Anesthesia. It's the most difficult and competative nursing subspecialty. My program is 27 months and admitts only 15% of applicants. Classes are held one day a week (all day long). The other four days are spent in the hospital doing my residency. I have really excelled in the program, GPA 3.9, and received excellent performance reviews. I recently graduated and will be working in NYC.

I'm planning on going for an MBA. When I decided to get an MSN, I knew that I would likely go back again afterwards (at somepoint) for either an MBA or Masters in Health Administration. I would like to tie together my knowledge of healthcare and interest in business by going into healthcare consulting. I would prefer an EMBA or accelerated part-time program, but not ruling out full-time.

Studying for GMAT....will likely take it this summer.

I'm concerned that B-schools will view me as a job hopper and steer clear. Any advice would be appreciated?

Thanks.

Hello! Thanks for your note.

There are a lot of moving pieces here so, before I do anything else, let me block out how I see them so that we're starting from the same page:

- Outstanding academic credentials
- Good work experience in a demanding nursing specialty but --and I"m not totally clear on this-- perhaps not more than 2-3 years of non-residency (yes, yes, I know residency is work...) work.
- A brief hiatus in I-banking where you did not particularly enjoy the work
- Always had in mind getting an MBA or an MHA.

Does that sound about right?

I'm planning on going for an MBA. When I decided to get an MSN, I knew that I would likely go back again afterwards (at some point) for either an MBA or Masters in Health Administration. I would like to tie together my knowledge of health care and interest in business by going into healthcare consulting. I would prefer an EMBA or accelerated part-time program, but not ruling out full-time.

Now...do I think you have a shot? Yes, absolutely. Are there hurdles to overcome and some thoughtful and consistent positioning of you and your experience that will need to happen? Yes, absolutely.

So, a few thoughts:

- I dont' think an EMBA is right for you. EMBAs are usually for people in their mid-thirties to mid-forties with lots of outstanding executive experience. For instance, I had a client who owned his own shutter manufacturing facility on the West Coast (medium-sized company; not small) and I think of him as a classic EMBA candidate. Another classic type might be a rising star at a Fortune 500 company who shot up through the ranks and never took time off for graduate school.

I think you could hack the work I just don't think that you would get the experience that would want from a business degree.

- Focusing on health care consulting is a good and logical solution to why you want to go to business school. They key thing (and I think you know this) is to make sure that you position your previous experience so that it all points naturally and organically to an MBA and a consulting career.

- Given that challenge, your I-banking experience may actually be a plus. You can talk about how "I didn't like the 'close the deal' mentality of I-banking and realized how much I would prefer working in more of an enduring relationshp context like I would as a consultant, etc., etc." This would achieve two things: show that your interest in business is not made up and pulled out of the air; and, mitigate some of the "job hopping" concern (though I don't think that that is a very great concern).

- NYU and Columbia are $$$$ so a part-time may make sense for you. You could continue to work (and keep down debt) though --in some cases-- part-times require your employer to sponsor you and price the progtram accordingly. This will require some research on your part.

- Another thought is that both Columbia and NYU have very fine medical schools so you may want to investigate links between the medical schools and the business schools (and the public health schools) to be able to talk about cross-registering in your application.

Finally, I would urge you to think about places other than NYU and Columbia. Many folks applying to that caliber of program don't limit themselves to one city: even excellent candidates are not guaranteed an offer and, if an MBA is that important to you (as it often is to people applying to places like Columbia and NYU), other factors such as program strengths, size, teaching method, etc., trump staying in one place for 21 months. Remember that you can always come back and work in NYC and, if you go just 100 miles north or south, you dramatically expand your options with little to no decline in quality.

You've got lots of great options. Let's stay in touch as your thinking evolves and if you have more questions.

Paxton

Paxton,

Thanks for the reply and the great advice. It's interesting you brought up the medical schools. I've been looking into it (particularly the Public Health departments), and many b-schools will allow you to cross-register for courses in health policy and management. This will really help me position myself and tell a cohesive story to the adcom!

As for work experience, I have 3.5 years in nursing and just under 1 year of administrative work at a bank.

I would love to go part-time. However, my concern is the internship. I'm trying to investigate and find out if an internship is necessary for the transition I'm looking to make. Any insight???

Thanks,
Kristen

Well...that's a good question. It depends on a couple of factors:

- Going from straight nursing into "healthcare consulting" with a part-time MBA is a bit of a stretch...it's not the quality of the educaiton (which is great) it's the fact that when you go to apply for such a position you're not going to have any experience...and, it's not just the internship: it's part-time projects you might be able to pick up in grad school, projects that you do in school for classes (i.e., "mini consulting projects"), any kind of "capstone project" (for credit, usually over two semesters your second year), etc., etc.

- I also have this more general kind of question --more of a suspicion really-- that you're going to run into some issues doing a part-time MBA while you're still working in nursing. I just don't see the sponsorship of your going lining up, I see it costing an arm and a leg, and I wonder about scheduling flexiblity. This is more of a suspicion than anything else and I am open to new information but I really want you to investigate the mechanics of how this would work.

- A solution to the above may be to switch into hospital administration of some kind or even start applying to work w/ a health care consultancy now. All in all, though, my instincts tell me that a full-time is your best bet though I am, as I said, open to new information.

My suggestion on action steps:

- Find out what the mechanics of what is required for the part-time MBA in terms of employee sponsorship and cost

- Define more concretely what you mean by "health care consulting" (political? operational? financial? etc. etc.) and see how that shapes your thinking

- Think about logical lateral moves that could keep you in nursing but would be a more logical move into healthcare consulting. Is there such a a thing as nursing consulting that you could do?

Let me know your thoughts and what you find out--

Paxton