Ask an MBA Admissions Consultant

Hi,

Background information: I am a 21 year old female about to start my Senior year of undergrad at a small Liberal Arts school in Pennsylvania. I am an economics major and a sociology minor, with a GPA of just about a 3.4 (by the time I graduate I am assuming it will be about a 3.4). I want to get my MBA with a concentration in Human Resources.

Work experience: This is where I feel the problem may lie. I do not have any "real" work experience. I worked for 3 summers in high school into college at a Law Firm (before I decided Law was not for me). And this summer I have an Internship. I know most of the graduate schools look for lots of work experience, which I do not have, but at the same time, I think for me personally I would benefit greatly from an MBA, especially early on in my career.


Extracurriculars: I have participated in a great deal of extracurriculars. I was the secretary of my school's Panhellenic Council, a founding member of my sorority, secretary of WARE social committee, treasurer of the Environmental Action Alliance, a WARE mentor for incoming freshman. Plus I am a regular volunteer/coach for Girls on the Run International. I have academic achievements like the International Economics Honor Society, Omicron Delta Epsilon, and every semester I have made the Dean's List. I am also planning on conducting a senior independent study project, hopefully for Honors as well.

GMAT: I haven't taken it yet but I hope to get 650 or above

Schools I would like to apply to: I am not planning on applying to the most competitive schools, however I want them to be in the top 100 schools. I am currently looking at schools like Bentley, Brandeis, George Washington, Penn State, Temple and as reaches, Vanderbilt and Cornell

Post-MBA plans: I want to go into the Human Resources field. I believe that it would be difficult for me to just enter the industry post-undergrad without any training in HR. Economics and sociology set me up well for that field, but they do not train me in the specifics that I would need to know to perform in HR. I also am very interested in business, and ideally would want to do HR for a corporation, like bank or insurance company. Therefore, having the MBA would be beneficial for working in such a business-oriented environment. However, most schools want older students with more work experience when they accept people.

Do you think there is any remote chance that I could get into some of these schools considering my situation? Also, if there were any tips in general that someone could give me, that would be great too! Thank you!


Thanks a lot in advance!

Hi devans - welcome to BTG! You have clearly been doing your research based on those great questions you're asking. Let's see if we can help.

First off, you're right, most good business schools require some full-time work experience before they'd accept you - in fact, a handful won't even accept an app from someone who has none. However, there are a bunch of options available to you:

1. Many of the schools on your list are more flexible - even potentially the more competitive ones like Cornell. If you show good reasons for why you need an MBA, and why you need one now, then you might make it through the app process anyway - but see below for additional comments on whether the MBA is right for you.

2. Some bschools have programs specifically for college seniors to apply - two in this country are the HBS 2+2 program and Yale Silver Scholars, or some lower-ranked schools like Kelley and Washington Olin also have these. They all work differently but generally speaking, you apply now (like, NOW - the first deadline for HBS is coming up fast) and if accepted, you'd finish college, then go to work for 2 years, then matriculate at Harvard as a member of the Class of 2018 (if we did our math right - wow that sounds like a long ways away!). Yale SS works differently but the idea is the same. HBS 2+2 is incredibly selective - your GPA is lower than they usually accept and you'd probably need to do better than 650 on the GMAT. You could apply in later rounds this Fall but you'd want to get started on everything right away. No guarantees on whether this would work out since the candidate pool for 2+2 and SS is even stronger than a regular HBS app class. But these are great options to consider.

3. Finally, the direction we'd encourage you to explore the most is a non-MBA master's, either a pre-experience Master's in Management such as what Duke offer and London Business School and some others offer, or something HR-specific like what Cornell has with their ILR school: https://www.ilr.cornell.edu/gradDegreePr ... index.html These programs might be the best fit for you of any, and they would let you still go get your MBA later on if you wanted.

If you decide that you really really really want an MBA right now

You'd need to do more to explain in your essays for admission your reasoning for why you need it now. That part we're not so certain of. What you've described about HR might be true but it's also true that the MBA is more valuable if you only start it with some work experience under your belt. You'll be going to class with people who worked for, on average, 5 years before heading back for their master's. You will have a hard time keeping up with them in discussions and making a contribution to your team projects since you won't be true peers with them. That's why we don't think the MBA is the perfect answer for you right now.

Anyway, hopefully that gives you some stuff to think about. The job market is picking up so if you decide to go launch your career when you graduate next Spring then you should have more options available to you - it's not going to be this difficult forever!

If you have any follow-ups we're happy to help.

EssaySnark

devans

Rather than repeat any of the good advice that my peer has given, I would push as to why you really want to go now. The MBA experience is generally participatory, and you can add true value to the program and absorb to the extent that you have real work experience in a functional area or two.

So why spend a lot of hard earned money and valuable time before you have actually tried business? Perhaps your plans may change once you work for a while.

And if you do work for a while and grow as a business professional, then you may be able to apply to some programs that are even better than some of the ones you are listing.

So keep working hard on that GMAT and push for a 690 plus and consider trying a job prior to applying. You will likely get much more from your studies and the networking experience.