I had my Rotman interview today- I expect to hear from both them and Schulich tomorrow at some point. GL me

Awesome to see all the good vibes in this thread. Congrats and gl riverfish @ tuck. And best of luck to the canuck in here!

Riverfish, pm me I've got two really good friends who will be first years at tuck as well. I am sure you will run into them

About to wrap up my summer internship and will try and do something more detailed in the next couple of weeks once I have a little time.

I'm going back to schooooooooooooooooooooooooollllllllllllllll

Thanks for all the advice ITT, I can't wait to start. I can't believe how quickly it happened, I wrote my GMAT 12 days ago!

Congrats lazer!

Hey guys, have a couple questions that I am hoping a few of you have related to at some point. Sorry if this is posted in the wrong place but have been reading through the thread a little and seems most relevant here.

I graduated a couple years ago with a Civil Engineering degree but instead of jumping into a job I decided to pursue poker for a little while. This was never meant to be a long term thing for me and have been giving some thought to wrapping it up to pursue something else. A big interest of mine has always been the finance/business world although I didn't choose this path in college.

There are probably countless people in a situation similar to mine so I guess i'll add my name to the list of what the hell do I do now? I have been researching a bit of how to break into it and there seems to be a catch 22 of to start in this field, you need to have some type of work experience. I then started thinking about going for my MBA and then ended up in this thread, but after some poking around, it seems as though even MBA programs want to see some work experience.

So I am hoping that there are a few people who have transitioned from poker and were in a similar situation. I am here to ask if you could share your experiences of how you got your foot in the door.

Also, is it true for the most part that MBA programs require work experience, or is this just for the elite programs?

Sorry if i'm a bit vague in having an interest in "business/finance" but am not extremely knowledgeable in the field. From the sound of it, there are some entry points as a financial analyst that sounded interesting.

how do you like kellogg?

What was your undergrad gpa, gmat (quant and verbal), and work experience?

I am getting ready to apply to the 12 month program at kellogg and am studying for the GMAT. My first run cold was at 640 which i dont think will be enough as my undergrad gpa was 2.99 overall and i only have 3 years work experience.

thanks in advance

with an engineering and poker background i would recommend you check out the masters of finance that MIT is offering now. It looks like a really badass program that basically teaches you finance and programming skills so you can create programs to execute trading strategies. This may be a stretch as you are a civil engineer (i am ignorant as to the difference between that and any other engineer), but the program is geared to engineering, math, computer sciene majors that want to get into finance. And this program does not require work experience. This may not be what you were thinking about, but it could be worth a look.

Fwiw This would be my first pick if i had the background, but i am only a silly finance/econ major.

There's good news and bad news. Good news is engineering is often perceived a solid background for going in many different directions via MBA school, and it's possible to get into good schools with just poker as work experience.

Bad news is most places want more than a couple years work experience and you'll have a challenge spinning that history into logical essays for future goals and why MBA here/now (which all schools ask and care a lot about)

Definitely only look at top 20 schools as the job market is a nightmare for most MBAs coming from lesser schools.

If I were you I'd take 1-2 years to get any entry level work experience, build extracurriculars as that's a big deal, and take time getting really good GMAT score. Then apply to top schools with good scores, essays, experience, and extracarrics.

In the meantime you might learn that your goals/passions are within bussiness or perhaps that you don't want/need an MBA to achieve those goals.

Good luck

I would assume the 12M program is less competitive but your scores/grades probably won't get you in at this point. Since your GPA is so low, you'll need to up your GMAT score significantly. Have you done your research about it. I just looked at the website and looks like you need to have 5 core classes done before you apply and done in the last 7 years. Honestly, it's not that much shorter of a program if you need to get those classes done now but it's probably less competitive. With that being said, I would work my ass off, due to your GPA, to take those classes and ace them if you have to take them now.

another Q is what is your 3 years of work experience and is it impressive? if it is, that can go a long way.

Is this really true?

I guess which schools do you consider top 20 MBA programs?

To me it's

Top Top: Harvard, Penn, Stanford
2nd Tier: NW, Chicago, Columbia, MIT, Duke
3rd Tier: NYU, Tuck, Berkeley, UVA
4th Tier: Yale, Michigan, UCLA, Cornell
5th Tier: UNC, Texas, Emory, Carnegie Mellon

I personally think you'd still be fine at Kelley, Minnesota, Gtown, Washu, USC, GT, Vandy and Rice.

Obv it depends who you ask and what your goals are. My Stanford friend say Duke is a waste of time/money for example. I think that's a stretch but through google research and friends who did MBAs at diff ranked universities, the consensus is top20-25 universities are all one should consider (with some exceptions of course).

Exceptions would include a respectable local university that has connections to where you wanna go (or stay)

I think for guys like myself and Seminoles it's even more imperative to get a higher ranked "brand" to put on our otherwise incredible resumes. (Can I use incredible that way?.. As in not credible)

Hey guys - just discovered this thread. Seems like a lot of people have been awesome about giving advice and helping each other out, but I just wanted to introduce myself and offer to help any way I can.

I graduated from HBS in 2012, and have done some MBA admissions prep stuff on the side for Veritas Prep, so I think I have a pretty good grasp on the process. If anyone has questions about HBS or bschool stuff in general, feel free to PM me. Congrats to those of you heading off to school in the fall... very jealous, it's an awesome experience.

As-

What do you do now?

Can't imagine going to a program as big as HBS--did you ever feel it was too big? I guess on the plus side, there should be a ton of electives.

What did you do beforehand?

does anyone have any opinion regarding INSEAD? been looking at it and it seems like a very attractive program for someone with my international background. not sure how it'd be looked at in the US though

I currently work for a small tech startup in Boston (which I should probably post about in BFI separately to get feedback from everyone). Fell in love with the startup world during business school and have been working on getting something new off the ground since graduation a little over a year ago. We're still very early stage... 6 people, raised a small seed round of funding to get it off the ground, etc.

Before business school I spent 3 years as a management consultant working for Bain in Boston and LA -- pretty traditional background for MBA programs. I was playing a fair amount of poker on the side and did actually write one of my essays about poker and thankfully that didn't turn them off completely.

Honestly, at times HBS did feel pretty large. It's ~900 people per year, but they put you in sections of 90. You end up getting very close with your section and maybe another 100-200 people from other classes, clubs, social stuff, etc. I definitely graduated with lots of people I had never met or spoken to once, which is a bit of a shame. With that said, there were benefits in terms of lots of classes to choose from, easy to find people you share interests with, large network to tap into after graduation.

Wow this looks great, I also have some interest in computer science and programming so that could turn out to be pretty cool. Will definitely be looking into this.

Any ideas on a ballpark of what the requirements would be to get into the program as far as GMAT scores and undergrad GPA? Also, how important is it to have gone to a top notch undergrad school?

Yeah I figured that I would have to get started pretty much at the bottom, and am completely fine with that. The only thing is that ironically most of the entry level jobs in my area require experience, but maybe i'm not looking in the right places. Maybe I just need to widen the breadth of the search.


Would be pretty convenient if Florida State or UF were a legit program with their instate tuitions...


What are your guys experiences on finding entry level jobs? I guess I don't have the luxury on using the recruiting services at my school anymore. Do you find jobs online or just walk into places and apply?

I have the required classes knocked out in the last 7 years and fwiw my major GPA is 3.5.

My work experience is impressive, imo, as i work ~3,000 hours/year for a restructuring firm that provides intensive experience in financial advisor, restructuring advisory, and investment banking. I will aslo be starting at a small PE fund at the end of the year, so i am hoping this experience will serve me well in the application process..

AS far as time, 2 years vs 1 year is a MAJOR difference imo. Not only do i have to give up my full time income but i have to shell out ~100k for tuition as well.

Looked into this and although the program seems pretty bad ass, I doubt I could get in. Looked at the admissions and average GPA was ~3.8 and I think I had like 3.2-3.3 (although was a bit higher in engineering classes).

No idea man, i just know that i wanted to get in as it looks really badass, but a finance degree is not enough as i have no training in computer sciences, engineering or any math after calc 1.

They do post a skillbuilder on their webpage that is a list of questions that tests your knowledge about stats, math, probabilities, finance, programming and the other requisite skills.

Personally, I see the above tiering system as a little off (though outside of H/S/W opinions vary quite a bit). There's the M7 + Tuck/Berkeley (some people consider Tuck/Berkeley peer schools while others don't. Some consider Tuck a peer school with the M7 and not Berkeley, mostly finance and East Coast, others consider Berkeley a peer school and not Tuck, mostly tech on the West Coast), with HBS/Stanford at the top and Wharton a half step down. M7 is HBS, Stanford, Wharton, Booth, Kellogg, Columbia, Sloan.

After that Yale/Stern/Fuqua/Darden/Ross are generally seen as the next step and variously argued to be part of the top 10 along with the above. Then there's Cornell, which is making a lot of moves with their NYC tech campus and rising. After that, I think it would be tough to justify shelling out a couple hundred grand to go to school.

For more on rankings check out poets and quants aggregate list (http://poetsandquants.com/2012/12/07...ams-of-2012/3/) as well as MBA Apply's "What are the top B-School Programs" (http://www.mbaapply.com/advice.htm#topmba). Or check out rankings based on starting salaries straight out of b-school (http://poetsandquants.com/2013/03/18...a-done-deal/2/) - I realize that this isn't perfect, but does offer some insight since getting an MBA is essentially an ROI calculation.

I also want to point out that these rankings are going to vary depending on what field and what geographic area you're in. For instance, PE/High Finance on Wall Street is going to rate Tuck higher than Kellogg, while marketing/consulting will rate Kellogg higher than pretty much any other school in the country. South may prefer Duke to NYU, but in New York, NYU is far better than Duke.

INSEAD/LBS are the only international schools that are viewed as peer schools to the top 10 in the US (with LBS perhaps getting a slight edge). That being said, talking to people I've heard that job opps in the US for graduates from those schools aren't quite as good as those from the top10 in the US (I guess recruiters at the big firms expect these guys to stay international and aren't as interested as putting the effort in). Basically, if you're fine with working in Europe after b-school, INSEAD is beast. If you want to come back to the states, INSEAD rates just outside the top 8 or so, from what I understand.

A good friend got rejected from 5 MBA programs (the 5 ranked after Harvard/Wharton/Stanford), then went to ESADE and now is with McKinsey.

Going to Europe is a good option for American poker players because they are easier for you to get into. On the other hand, you pay in Euros, so you have some exchange rate risk.

you should mention that in order to get accepted/graduate from INSEAD you have to be fluent in a foreign language and passable in a third. or something like that.

Cool.

Starting salaries is a really bad metric to use because the salaries are not indexed based on where a person lives. For instance, you move to NYC and your base in 100k vs. a base of 100k in Birmingham, Alabama, which is more impressive. With those stats, they are equal. Schools that have a huge influx into cities like NYC, Boston, SF are going to have much higher #s than others when the cost of living is so insanely high that by default they are going to be the best. If that's what you are looking for, great--but I think it's an insanely flawed metric.

their req is you have to be fluent in two (which I am) and willing to learn a third (which I am as well). this is an interesting anecdote, because INSEAD is a huge feeder into consulting (but could also be because it takes an exorbitant amount of people from consulting with a return offer). wouldn't mind starting out in MC after graduation tbh...just gotta make sure i can get into an office in US

hmmmm okay appreciate it!!! i find the 10 month to be super attractive and for me personally long term it'd be great to have some traveling experience but not at a huge expense of my career