Sports MBA

[neerajkumar1_1]

Hi,
I have a friend who is a national level sports player in badminton.

HE plans to pursue club management or a course related to sports management.

How does the application change for him??

Would a score of 600 to 640 be good enuf for him for the best colleges.

Does he require some kind of work experience in such a case.

Any clues would help

thanks..

[Brian@VeritasPrep]

Hey neerajkumar:

Having worked in sports I can take a crack at this - a lot depends on the candidate and the schools. At least here in the US, most "top" schools (Harvard, Stanford, etc.) don't offer a sports-focused MBA, so the choice is going to come down less to picking the truly elite schools and more to finding a good fit. There are some well-regarded sports MBAs (Oregon, San Diego State, and a few others), but you're right that their GMAT ranges may be a little lower than those at the top 10 pure MBA programs...mid-to-high 600s is going to be much more likely than 700+.

Given all of that, though, I'd urge someone to consider a "pure" MBA along with a sports-specific degree. Someone with national team experience may already possess the sports-specific network and credentials, and could do just as well if not better with a well-respected MBA. There's also the potential that a sports-specific degree might be narrow enough to preclude someone from other industries he may want to consider later on whereas an MBA is more universal.

That's just all worth consideration - I've heard some great things about a few of these sports-MBA programs, but the decision may be broader than just that. Having worked in professional and NCAA sports myself, I've seen that a lot of management types have law degrees, actually, and that the majority of business types at least on the team side either rise through the ranks in a sales capacity or come from elsewhere in industry (say, a Kraft brand manager taking over marketing duties for a team).

Anyway, just some food for thought...