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unixbeard posted:I am in Australia and AGSM is the only place I would consider doing an MBA. I would still probably rather go to the US to do one, but if I were to base myself in Sydney long term I'm probably better off staying local. Did you try for US programs? Are you Australian? I went for a mini-tour with the admissions officer but didn't get to chat with any Americans doing their MBA at AGSM.
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Apr 28, 2009 19:20
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problematique posted:How old are you and how many years of work experience do you people have before starting an MBA? 26 and will finish up at the end of August. The program "required" two years but those were in the wonder field of computer janitoring. The university that I work at provides tuition reimbursement and their MBA program was the closest program that related to my job!
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Apr 28, 2009 20:22
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My current standing is a 3rd year student at CSUEB (glamorous eh?) working on a business admin. degree in marketing mgmt. I lack work experience in the marketing field, but have worked in retail, sales, and customer service. With no student loans, I'm thinking about going straight to an MBA program. However, with the degree and experience I have, I doubt I can qualify to be in any decent programs. Should I work at entry level positions post-graduation and seek a solid full-time position for a couple of years before applying for a graduate program? What do you guys think? Edit:: I'm a retard and have been slacking throughout the 3 years. My current gpa resides a little below a 3.0, but I'm looking into getting it to around 3.2-3.5 by graduation. zerogravity fucked around with this message at 05:03 on Apr 29, 2009 |
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Apr 29, 2009 04:58
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Mandalay posted:Did you try for US programs? Are you Australian? I went for a mini-tour with the admissions officer but didn't get to chat with any Americans doing their MBA at AGSM. Yes I am Australian. No I haven't tried for any programs as it doesn't make sense for me at this time. MBA's aren't particularly well regarded in Australia, there's an element of "so what." Partly because they're are so many mediocre local offerings and Australian management as a whole is pretty average. If I were to bother with the time and expense of doing an MBA it would have to be from a brand name institution, which typically means an American or maybe one or two European ones. A lot of the value of an MBA seems to come from the people you meet and contacts you build up on the course, so if I were planning on staying in Australia, doing one overseas doesn't really make a lot of sense. Any network I built would be on the other side of the world. The only one I would bother with in Australia is from AGSM. I read the financial press here daily and it seems to be the best regarded and it does have some interesting lecturers. It's as good as you're going to get in Australia, but not as impressive as say Harvard. At the end of the day, companies that want MBA's are going to be looking at the label when they buy. The name of the institution you get it from is very important, at least as important as the course content, with few exceptions. Institutions with good reputations usually have them for a reason, and if you're going to the trouble of getting one you might as well get a good one. To the other person who was asking when to get an MBA, I would say the best time would be when you need one. If you want to go into investment banking where an MBA is par for the course, go do one straight out of uni. If you've been given some management responsibility at work (ideally both people and budgetary) then go get one. Don't go get one straight after your undergrad (with exception above), and don't go get one thinking it will boost your salary. It may, but unless you want to start looking for management roles straight after finishing you're a bit of an employment mismatch. I interviewed a guy for a systems administration role who had an MBA. Yes he was good but he was very expensive and you don't need an MBA to check logs, apply patches and trouble shoot server issues. Having an MBA when you have no need for it looks really silly. Don't get it too early or you may end up wasting it. Think long about where you want to be two years after completion and if that is realistic. By realistic are you really a junior person trying to queue jump into middle management. Any company that puts an MBA with no experience in a management role just cause they have an MBA is likely not a company you really want to be working for. There are exceptions for certain industries and blah blah blah, this is just how I see it. unixbeard fucked around with this message at 10:01 on Apr 29, 2009 |
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Apr 29, 2009 07:14
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Writing the GMAT today. I scored between 630-650 on practice tests pretty consistently (outside of one I did last night while also watching hockey when I plunked an awesome 520, I may not have been paying full attention). I write in exactly...9 hours (well, 8 hours and 58 minutes), and it occurs to me I have no idea what I'm going to do to kill the time. I plan on hitting the gym before, but other than that I got nothin' planned. I don't test stress at all, so I got no concerns over that, figure I'll grab a Red Bull about 90 minutes before, but I got a whole lot of time to kill. What did you guys do the day of the test to prep?
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Apr 29, 2009 14:08
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MikeyKins posted:Writing the GMAT today. I scored between 630-650 on practice tests pretty consistently (outside of one I did last night while also watching hockey when I plunked an awesome 520, I may not have been paying full attention). Honestly, I rolled out of bed, cleaned up a bit, and went to the test center and got a 680. I think it's likely different for everyone, but seeing as I wasn't 100% sure of where to go to take my test, I needed a little extra time to get there and get situated.
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Apr 29, 2009 14:37
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SiDeath posted:Honestly, I rolled out of bed, cleaned up a bit, and went to the test center and got a 680. I think it's likely different for everyone, but seeing as I wasn't 100% sure of where to go to take my test, I needed a little extra time to get there and get situated. Yeah, I've never been to the testing centre, but I called on Monday and found out what room it's in and I can't imagine it's particularly difficult to find. I imagine I'll be there about an hour before I write to make sure everything goes smoothly signing in and getting them the ID they need. I know they take a photo of you when you sign in, but does it actually matter if you look like crap? Do they attach it when they send out your score to schools?
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Apr 29, 2009 15:16
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MikeyKins posted:Yeah, I've never been to the testing centre, but I called on Monday and found out what room it's in and I can't imagine it's particularly difficult to find. I imagine I'll be there about an hour before I write to make sure everything goes smoothly signing in and getting them the ID they need. No, as far as I know they use the picture solely for identification purposes. You also should get finger-printed. If you're worried about the photo, I dressed up a little bit for my exam and you could consider it as well, but most of the other people there were dressed professionally. There were nurses taking exams, engineers, and other white collar professionals, generally easy to spot by what they were wearing. I doubt anyone really cares what you look like except for you. In the event that you have a very small testing center, they'll probably remember you anyway and you'll see your picture when you take it and when you sign out. The security for these tests is nuts but I'm glad they do it (so far as I can gather) uniformly, because it makes me more secure that my score has genuine value.
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Apr 29, 2009 17:11
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MikeyKins posted:Yeah, I've never been to the testing centre, but I called on Monday and found out what room it's in and I can't imagine it's particularly difficult to find. I imagine I'll be there about an hour before I write to make sure everything goes smoothly signing in and getting them the ID they need. An hour is probably overkill (unless you are totally unfamiliar with the area). 15-20 minutes should give you more than enough time. If you really feel like it's important to show up that early I'd reccomend bringing some last minute study materials, because you are going to be bored.
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Apr 29, 2009 22:14
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Y'all forgot to tell me to load a shotgun that I can swallow after my mediocrity was confirmed. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go drink myself to sleep. 570.
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Apr 30, 2009 02:05
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MikeyKins posted:Y'all forgot to tell me to load a shotgun that I can swallow after my mediocrity was confirmed. I thought it would be safe to say that the test is hard. WAY HARD. I know I'm going to retake it soon, maybe you'd be well-served to do so as well, especially if you're unhappy with your score.
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Apr 30, 2009 02:46
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Don't feel bad. I actually scored exactly average when I took it. 530. I didn't study enough, but in talking with the admissions officer at my college, that score combined with my GPA was easily sufficient to admit me to the program so I didn't bother retaking it. For reference I go to Western Washington University. I did feel a bit bad when I loaned my study books to a friend, he ended up having to move his test date up to make the admissions deadline and scored a 680; cold with no studying!
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Apr 30, 2009 03:10
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Welp, one year in the books. I get the results of tonight's final tomorrow, so we'll see how I did. The GPA is merely a 3.05 right now, up from a 2.67 opening semester. Last semester's hurdle was the Calc prereq and this semester's was a professor whose exams were completely from the text and lectures on whatever the hell he wanted to talk about that day. The midterm and final were mysteries.
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Apr 30, 2009 03:29
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ANyone have any experience with Ohio State or Otterbein? I'm working on getting into one of them and I know OSU has a pretty decent reputation, but I'd like to hear some opinions.
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May 1, 2009 20:39
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How accurate are the practice tests on the CD they send out? I just did a 620. Unrelated note: Anyone else scholarship shopping? Know any good sites?
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May 3, 2009 00:56
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LactoseO.D.'d posted:How accurate are the practice tests on the CD they send out? I just did a 620. The practice tests were slightly harder than the real thing.
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May 3, 2009 02:46
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LactoseO.D.'d posted:How accurate are the practice tests on the CD they send out? I just did a 620. My practice test scores from the official GMAT practice tests were pretty consistent with what I scored on the real thing. They are definatly the best gauge of what you need to be studying.
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May 3, 2009 04:15
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LactoseO.D.'d posted:How accurate are the practice tests on the CD they send out? I just did a 620. I scored higher on my practice tests than on the real thing.
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May 3, 2009 15:53
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I ended up trending about 20 points lower on the practice test than I did on the real one. However I studied a fair amount more after I took the last practice test, so maybe it pegged me and I just got better.
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May 3, 2009 17:54
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I practiced for the GMAT for about a month and got scores about 150 points lower than what I got on the actual test. I got an almost perfect quantitative score though.
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May 4, 2009 04:00
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Took it today, got a 610. Scored 620 and 660 on the practice tests. I'm not sure if the practice tests use the adaptive structure, but it seemed a lot more apparent when I was taking the exam.
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May 7, 2009 22:20
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LactoseO.D.'d posted:Took it today, got a 610. Scored 620 and 660 on the practice tests. I'm not sure if the practice tests use the adaptive structure, but it seemed a lot more apparent when I was taking the exam. The ones that you can get from MBA.com (or their CD) are exactly the same as the real tests, they just use old questions.
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May 8, 2009 04:17
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I got exactly the same score on my practice and real GMATs. The adaptive math questions bothered me a bit. I would get a string of easy ones and then a stumper that would take longer than two minutes to figure out, so I'd just guess in order to finish on time. I found time pressure to be a significant factor in the GMAT, unlike most other standardized tests I've taken. Oh, and I got a lower score than I expected on the essays. I'm almost sure it was because I only included two or three good reasons/examples for each question; I think they were looking for more quantity and less in-depth explanation. I otherwise followed the recommended "formula" that the computer grader supposedly likes (yuck).
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May 11, 2009 10:55
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Got a 3.2 this semester. Boom goes the dynamite.
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May 12, 2009 02:14
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My plan is to hop into grad school for an MBA once I get done with business undergrad at Penn State. poo poo's not too hard so far, probably getting out of here in another year and a half with around a 3.5+ GPA provided I stay focused. Any benefits to double majoring in terms of grad school apping? I'm doubled up with Economics & Intl Business, but I'm probably dropping the I. Biz and gettin out a semester earlier with just the Econ. Relevant Backstory BS: Will be ~27 by the time I get out of Penn State undergrad, have several years lovely retail banking/mortgage experience, not interested in anything except making up for half a decade of wasted time.
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May 12, 2009 03:43
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Leathal posted:Any benefits to double majoring in terms of grad school apping? I'm doubled up with Economics & Intl Business, but I'm probably dropping the I. Biz and gettin out a semester earlier with just the Econ. I think Econ carries itself well. I don't know anything about Int. Business but I think it's generally regarded as a business blow-off major.
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May 12, 2009 04:36
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Leathal posted:Any benefits to double majoring in terms of grad school apping? I'm doubled up with Economics & Intl Business, but I'm probably dropping the I. Biz and gettin out a semester earlier with just the Econ. however, international business in general is a big fat joke major.
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May 12, 2009 17:31
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I work in international business and no one I work with (here or overseas) has a degree in international business. My boss is a CPA/MBA.
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May 13, 2009 02:35
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I am currently working as a high school history teacher, but I want to get a MBA in order to change careers. Will my work experience in education hurt me when applying to business schools?
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May 14, 2009 02:13
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jlr5559 posted:I am currently working as a high school history teacher, but I want to get a MBA in order to change careers. Will my work experience in education hurt me when applying to business schools? Work experience is never going to hurt. Best thing you can due is figure out what stories you want to give about your work experience. Did you learn how to facilitate meetings? Handle stress? Analyze things? Ect. Ect. Ect. How does your teaching experience set you apart from other candidates.
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May 14, 2009 04:20
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I recently realized that I really, really dislike my job and at some point need to get out of there. I studied for the GMAT in a weekend, took it the following Thursday, got a 650, and set my sights on going to Oklahoma for my MBA. However, I'm having some second thoughts, as people usually do when they rush into decisions. I hope that some people looking at this thread can provide an outside opinion or some constructive criticism of my situation. I guess I'll start from the top. I am an economist for the federal government and will have been there for three years in another month or two. It's been a pretty decent job for right out of college (I'll be a GS-12 in July, and our salaries are indexed to inflation), but it is not what I want to do for the rest of my life. I basically took the job to gain enough experience to eventually get into business school, and I feel like I'm rapidly approaching the point of leaving. Clearly I could have picked a better time to decide that I NEED to get out of my job, considering that most application deadlines were April 1. I've looked through the remaining schools that are still accepting apps and Oklahoma seems to be the best one. Although I haven't finished my application, conversations with their admissions department lead me to believe that I should be a clear admit with a good shot at getting scholarships or additional funding. (Here are their most recent class stats.) A few of the criteria that I find attractive at OU are the low tuition (I'd be paying out of pocket and through loans), the small class size, their interest in and proximity to the energy sector, and their internship program. I can't find the link to the internship stuff, but basically nine of their students can go to New York for the summer, take a class at NYU, work at a company there, and have it all paid for. Similarly, four students can do the same thing in London through a program associated with the LSE. I consider my odds of being accepted to either program much higher than they would be if I was in a large program. Now, for the doubt part. In addition to sending my scores to OU, I also sent them to Purdue, which is my alma mater. I don't really want to go to Purdue, but I sent them anyway. Purdue sent me their application materials (due May 1... heh), and the difference in quality of materials between OU and PU was astounding. It was the difference between a major league ball club and their minor league affiliate. Now I'm worried that OU is a joke program and I'd be throwing away a lot of time and money by going there. I'm not Ivy League material, but should I hold out for a better school? I plan on working my rear end off wherever I go, as I will be much more appreciative of the post-secondary education process this time around. Moreover, there is the current economic situation we find ourselves in. Would it be foolish of me to abandon a secure job on a rather impulsive decision to go half way across the country for a somewhat mediocre MBA from OU? Should I grind it out for another year in my current job, realizing that I will have an additional year of savings and work experience under my belt when it comes time to apply next year? If nothing else, posting in this thread has helped me gather my thoughts about the whole process! Any thoughts or criticisms would be much appreciated.
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May 14, 2009 23:52
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Go to the highest ranked school that you can get into. That gives you more options than going to the one school that's still accepting applications.
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May 15, 2009 00:45
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econdroidbot posted:Should I grind it out for another year in my current job, realizing that I will have an additional year of savings and work experience under my belt when it comes time to apply next year? Unless you hate your life, yes. You should.
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May 15, 2009 03:22
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econdroidbot posted:(Here are their most recent class stats.) Not a single consultancy or ibank or even commercial bank on the list? Caveat emptor! edit: you are an economist for the federal government and you want to leave your job for a bad school, don't do it. either lateral into another position in the private sector, get into a way better business school, or continue working up the ranks at the federal government. how did you get your economist job? was it after or during your years at purdue? ion fucked around with this message at 03:51 on May 15, 2009 |
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May 15, 2009 03:45
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Metashack posted:Work experience is never going to hurt. Best thing you can due is figure out what stories you want to give about your work experience. Did you learn how to facilitate meetings? Handle stress? Analyze things? Ect. Ect. Ect. How does your teaching experience set you apart from other candidates. As someone on the same path he is I was told by a school I was rejected by that teaching was not a real job. Certainly not in those words but I was told that I had no relevant work experience.
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May 15, 2009 04:18
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While not specifically MBA related, I'm looking at pursuing a joint Masters in Accounting and Finance at different schools, if not a sole Masters in Finance. I have incredible penis envy about some of these programs and I daresay I feel like I might as well not even apply to some of them. The pool is so small for MS in Finance and it shrinks further if I want to pursue an accounting degree as well. Thinking about doing a school in the New York area because I want to be placed in a trading environment, but who knows what will happen now?
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May 15, 2009 15:07
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ultrafilter posted:Go to the highest ranked school that you can get into. That gives you more options than going to the one school that's still accepting applications. Thoguh posted:Unless you hate your life, yes. You should. Heh, you guys are in agreement. I was kinda hoping someone was going to tell me to forget about the rankings and just go for it, but logic is too cruel a master! I guess I don't hate my life enough right now to throw away a bunch of time and money in a lovely program just because I had the impulse to do it. Now I wish I took a little longer to study for the GMAT. I bet a couple extra points would come in handy. ion posted:Disney? For serious? I laughed at their list of hires too! To be honest it didn't bother me too much because I'm not at all interested in banking, but I can see the problem of not placing your grads within the most competitive and lucrative field. Your suggestion for switching jobs is a good one, and I have looked into it already. My bureau was in a hiring freeze for a while (which included transfers), so my options were limited. We've started hiring again, but options in my geographic area are still on the short side. I'd relocate for school, but not for a one year job. I guess that makes me lazy. As for your question about getting the job, I basically just applied for it. I'm not trying to be a smartass or anything, but I was looking around usajobs.gov for jobs with the word "economist" in the title, found a few, and ended up applying to a handful of them. I got a call to interview for three different positions in the same bureau and was eventually offered a job. This was all during my senior year of college, in case you were wondering about that. I can give you a more specific account of the process if you want. Send me an e-mail at econdroidbot at gmail dot com if you have specific questions. Well, thanks to anyone that read this. It really helped me to put everything in one place and to see what a rash decision I was in the process of making. As a side note, what do people think about Rice? It's now my new target for next year.
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May 16, 2009 00:57
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econdroidbot posted:As a side note, what do people think about Rice? It's now my new target for next year. Rice is an up and coming type program that has a strong science and engineering alumni base. I don't have the school rankings in front of me, but usually people regard the school as a whole well. I don't really know what their MBA gets accolades-wise, but the stuff I receive on them is usually very positive. It certainly beats OU.
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May 16, 2009 02:37
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econdroidbot posted:If nothing else, posting in this thread has helped me gather my thoughts about the whole process! Any thoughts or criticisms would be much appreciated. As a Purdue alum, have you considered Indiana-Kelley?
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May 16, 2009 20:35
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propecia posted:As a Purdue alum, have you considered Indiana-Kelley? I haven't really given them too much consideration, but it's not because of PURDUE VS. IU RIVALRY HURRRRRRR. It's a great school (I've always wondered how the state of Indiana has so many awesome universities in it). However, I would like to escape the brutal winters of the midwest and to also get into the energy sector. The southwest, particularly the state of Texas, seems to be a pretty solid place to accomplish both goals. Although, now that I think of it, I don't know as much as I'd like about energy. I know that you can make a lot of money in energy/petroleum and that Houston is the epicenter of that whole scene. Does anyone have any insight into the industry? What I'd really like to do is get involved with my friend's research group. They've developed a solid state hydrogen fuel cell that could have a wide variety of uses and applications. The company they created to sell their technology isn't really doing a whole lot. Ideally I could get an MBA, gain some experience in the relevant field, and come in as a manager of some sort. They had some really great press a few years ago, but I get the impression they've lost momentum. If you're interested, here's a few links about their work: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18700750 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2670963545434823142&q=cnn+hydrogen (this one's kinda funny once you get past the lovely video quality and Glenn Beck madness. Prof. Woodall comes off as a little kooky) http://archives.chicagotribune.com/2007/jun/05/science/chi-tue_fueljun05 http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/jun/28/it.guardianweeklytechnologysection1 http://www.motortrend.com/features/editorial/112_0806_technologue/index.html
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May 17, 2009 18:42
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