Hi all,

I found Beat the GMAT several weeks ago and have enjoyed perusing the articles and forums - so thanks to everyone for such a great resource!

I'm very new to all of this and am in the very early planning stages of my MBA journey. I'd like to do a non-profit specialization and am interested to hear suggestions on various programs.

As a background, I did my undergraduate at Penn State, majoring in Art (concentration in drawing & painting) and minoring in International Studies. I'm aware that sitting around in a studio for hours on end doing figure studies of nude models probably was not the best preparation for business school.

Also did a semester in Florence, Italy. After graduation, I worked at a small arts service non-profit for two years, in a job where I wore many hats. Now I work at the National Gallery of Art in the exhibitions department. My work experience has been largely administrative but I have learned a tremendous amount about the issues that face arts organizations and other non-profits on a daily basis. That is very much what made me want to go to business school. I feel that the arts industry needs to have stronger leaders with better business minds and practices, especially in today's economy.

Anyway! There is a program at Wisconsin that is specifically an Arts Management MBA. It seems great, but at such an early stage I don't want to rule out other, more general non-profit MBA programs. Berkeley's, of course, looks amazing - but is probably a lofty goal for me (both financially and academically). I've done some research on these and a few other programs, but would love to hear firsthand from others who may have pursued similar programs.

Thanks in advance!