Research MBA Programs

Mam, I am a engineering student and my scores in India are about 6.4 and i plan to increase them to about 6.8-6.9 till the time i complete my engineering. I have had decent acads all my life and my extra curriculars aren't too bad either(I am a student placement co-ordinatior these days and am currently organising a inter college declamation contest). I plan to go in for an MBA either from US or UK without work experience. What are the chances that i get into a decent B-school. I am very sure that i don't wanna go in for any work exp, so please don't tell me to go in for WE. I am sure we freshers can also do an MBA
Thank You

Well, that's a tough one. The reason b-schools require work experience is twofold. One, they want you to have a very clear view of exactly what you want to do after the MBA and without having been in "the real world" they usually have a hard time taking your career vision seriously (akin to asking a child "what do you want to be when you grow up?," they usually do not end up doing it). Secondly, and most importantly, they depend upon students to contribute what they have learned from their professional careers in the classroom--to solve cases, add insight and help teammates. Without work experience, b-schools have found students have little to add that goes beyond what everyone learns in college. Now that the lecture is over, and realizing you are committed to not getting any work experience, there are indeed "outliers" every year who make it into the top schools straight out of college. Not many, mind you, but yes a few do indeed get offers. Typically, these are what's considered "highly competitive" profiles, having graduated from a top five college with very high academic achievements and a knock-out GMAT score. If you have top notch qualifications and can convince a comittee that you will indeed be able to contribute to a class despite having no work experience, and that despite your young age, you can articulate a very clear vision of exactly what you will do with the MBA, you have a shot at becoming one of the few who get in without WE. Don't forget, though, that as hard as it is to get in b-school without work experience, it is even tougher to land a job out of b-school with an MBA and no work experience. But sounds like you are up for it! Much also depends on which schools you are targeting. If you are targeting top ten, it's obviously much more challenging, but if you target second tier schools, you will have a better shot.
Good luck!

Thank you so much for replying. Even though i sometimes find it scary reading such repiles but idk why i still feel that i have what it takes to get into a good B school. I think il do well in the interview. But that is a long way to go but the thing is i really have decided that i won't work before going in for the MBA and i know..i mean i feel it deep down that il get somewhere..i know this has nothing to do with what i had asked but i had to say this..

Ma'am,

I am a engineering graduate , completed my 4 year graduation in Electronics and Communication Engineering in 2009. At present, I am a faculty in a engineering college. I am planning to go for MBA abroad in the next fall or spring season (2011).
By that time, I will be having a teaching experience (work ex.) of 2 years. Simultaneously, I have done some part time intern ships with the PricewaterhouseCoopers-4 months and AC Nielsen-2months with the aim of getting an edge over other applicants when I apply for MBA abroad. Also, I have 87% during my graduation and has presented research papers in international conference. I am also appearing for the CFA Level I certification (by CFA institute of USA) and will hopefully achieve it by July-2010. Kindly guide me about the future prospects of MBA abroad.

Thank you

Coming from academia is actually a pretty unique background for b-school and could potentially set you apart. You may have to get creative in pitching how your experience will contribute to class discussion and solving business cases, etc., so be thinking about that. Depending on how your GMAT looks and your recommendations, the only other critical piece of the puzzle is casting a clear and compelling vision for what you want to do with the degree. Your work with PWC will demonstrate real interest in business, so you may want to leverage off that (ie set sights on consulting work or accounting/finance). Good luck.

Thanks a lot for replying. Can you please advice me that with a work experience of 2 years, in which programme (Masters in Management/ MBA), I would be having more chances of getting admission. My intended area of specialisation is finance and that's why, I am also open to Masters in Finance for which I am currently pursuing CFA level I certification. Please suggest me the prospects in this regard.

Thank you

With a lower number of years work experience, your chances of getting into a masters program is likely better than MBA program in general.

Thank you for the advice.

Hi all,

I visited the website of many B-schools where it is mentioned that for MSc in Finance, applicants need to have a undergraduate degree in finance, economics or mathematics. Does that mean, that engineers are eligible for such degrees or not? Also, pls tell me that if holding a CFA Level I certification will help or is of no significance ?

Thanx..

Dalhosie University is offering Mba without work experience

harshgoyal I don't think that having an engineering degree disqualifies you from being able to obtain a masters in finance. I'm not sure which program you were looking at specifically, but those degrees were probably the most common. I could be wrong but I think if you can prove yourself (with grades and test scores) and write compelling essays, you should be good to go.

Thanks for the reply...

glad to help.. you should call the admissions office to confirm this though.

Hi ,
I'm a Medicine student from INDIA. I shall complete my course by April 2010 .
My Acads in Medicine are pretty average but i have organised many events in our college and have good extra circulars.
My internship(compulsory for any medicine student) is an year long full time work. I have got varied opinions that it will and will not be considered as work experience.I would like to know if it is really considered as work ex.
I'm planning for an admission in the US for August2011. Will i have an edge because i'm from a diverse field?

harshgoyal wrote:Hi all,

I visited the website of many B-schools where it is mentioned that for MSc in Finance, applicants need to have a undergraduate degree in finance, economics or mathematics. Does that mean, that engineers are eligible for such degrees or not?

The reason why some masters ask for an undergrad degree in Economics is that not all masters are equally challenging. There are some masters that virtually take it to the next level in terms of knowledge. You are required to have solid base knowledge of the field before you apply. An example would be the Msc in Finance from HEC Paris: the courses are advanced and you are supposed to have taken at least a course of statistics or econometrics before you enroll. Where I come from (Romania), these are called "deepening masters" (sorry for the rough translation, I cannot find a better term). Since we're in line with the European Bologna system, there are similarities between what's in my country and what you'll find in other European countries. These masters are often called "masters of science". BTW, I received my acceptance to the HEC masters yesterday

Another type of masters would be the "complementary masters" (again, a rough translation). These masters are designed to be taken by all sorts of people, from doctors to engineers. You will also get introductory courses in this type of masters. Again, to give you an example, check out the Masters of Financial Economics from HEC Paris. You can download the two brochures from the programs that I've mentioned and compare them, just to get an idea of the differences between the two.

Why you should not apply to an MBA without work experience

I was almost 100% convinced I'd be applying to the Columbia MBA this year. I took the TOEFL and was ready to start the essays when I attended this session with MBAs from Tuck, Tepper and Said Oxford. I knew the guy from Tuck from last year's session and he'd been the only person who had told me: go for an MBA as soon as possible, don't waste time etc. This year however, he told me a different story: wait a few years, maybe around 2. I asked him what made him change his mind. His answer was that last year (his first year as an MBA) he hadn't gone through the recruitment process for an internship or job. He said he values job experience differently after this! He told me that there are two reasons why you should NOT go for an MBA without proper WE:
- you won't make the most of it. You'll be in a class where everybody has had much more hands on experience than yourself and you'll most likely feel slightly overwhelmed.
- you'll need to work extra hard to land a good job. Head hunters won't just hire you for having an MBA, they'll hire you for documented stuff that you can do. You need to have awesome grades, but that still might not be enough. Your starting salary will of course be higher than that of a guy who only has a bachelor's, but it won't be much more. And remember: you're coming out of school with huge amounts of debt, so you need all the cash you can spare!

Trust me, I had all the numbers: 770 GMAT, currently the only one in my year with a perfect GPA (likely class valedictorian), 117 TOEFL iBT, exchange experiences in Portugal and the US, internships at a law firm and property management firm (where I was offered a promotion in less than three months), member of the student council with good extra curriculars, won a number of French national contests etc etc.... I decided to go for a masters in finance instead, just because I know I CANNOT MAKE THE MOST OF AN MBA!

Hope this helps someone in the future...