Imminent failure?

Do you guys think there’s enough time to apply for Part time Stern (May 15 deadline) while studying for Level 2? I have yet to take the GMAT. I’m thinking that attempting both is setting myself up for a big FAIL

“Do, or do not. There is no ‘try.’”

I don’t recommend it.

I think it all depends on how far along you are in preparing for Level II. If you’re working full time, you should probably allot one month to studying for the GMAT and then another 3-4 weeks working on the part-time MBA application. I’ve reviewed some applications for Stern and it doesn’t seem to be that challenging of a process; I’ve seen people get into the full-time program with typos, awkward grammar and some disconnections in their “story”. If that’s good enough for the full-time program, it probably isn’t that challenging to get into part-time, though chances are you’ll need to ask your potential recommenders for their support as soon as possible. With all that said, if it were me, I’d actually say that getting into the part-time MBA is a higher priority than CFA Level II. Why put the rest of your career on hold just to pass an exam which, if passed, will change “Level II Candidate” to “Level III Candidate” on the last line of your resume? Not a very good value proposition if you ask me.

numi Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I’ve seen people get into the full-time program > with typos, awkward grammar and some > disconnections in their “story”. If that’s good > enough for the full-time program, it probably > isn’t that challenging to get into part-time, > With all that said, if it were me, I’d actually > say that getting into the part-time MBA is a > higher priority than CFA Level II. thanks for the responses guys. I forgot to mention that i’m lacking extracurriculars (volunteerwork etc.) Numi, would you still feel the way with that extra info? or would you recommend working on that before applying?

hmmm interesting, numi any insight on some of the other school’s incoming full-time MBA classes? (I’m particularly curious about Columbia and Wharton and how they compare to NYU). Thanks for any insight.

cfajedi, I say you should just apply. It’s unfortunate to hear that you don’t have many extracurriculars – in general, I always encourage people to have a life outside of work and try to demonstrate leadership in other aspects of their life – so maybe it’s something you’ll consider doing going forward. In general, lack of extracurriculars doesn’t necessarily hurt a candidate in my view, but good extracurriculars can be really helpful. For example, I had several of my business school recommendations come from someone I worked with at a non-profit. adavydov, broadly speaking, I think the Columbia class is tangibly stronger than NYU (at least in terms of the finance backgrounds), and Wharton’s class being materially stronger than Columbia’s. My perspectives are influenced by the fact that when I was on the sell-side, we recruited at both Columbia and NYU, so I had seen about 100 Columbia resumes and 300 NYU resumes over the years. The Columbia people seemed to have better work experience, were typically a bit more polished, and definitely had more international students. I think Columbia is a great school but Wharton is universally stronger across the board. Separately, I have seen several hundred resumes from Wharton over the years and it is also one of the schools I’m seriously considering. Again, that’s just my personal opinion, but I think it’s a well-founded one given that I have seen several hundred candidates on paper from each of the schools you asked about. With that said, you can’t go wrong with either, and I’d say that if someone got into Columbia this year but didn’t get into Wharton, I would *not* recommend that they put their career on hold to re-apply to Wharton next year. Life’s too short and the reality is, once you’re 3-4 years out of school, people don’t really care where you went to school. It’s really more about what you’ve done for your employer lately. Pretty much all the major financial services firms that recruit at Wharton will also recruit at Columbia. It’s my personal opinion that the Columbia crowd is not as strong in finance (i.e. if you have a candidate that gets into both, I’d speculate that 9 out of 10 would choose Wharton)…however Columbia does have the better location, so from the recruiters’ perspective, it makes sense to recruit there. From a skill/background perspective, you’re really talking about the difference between a candidate that probably grades an A vs. one that would grade A/A- when it comes to Wharton vs. Columbia, in my opinion. Hope that helps.