Hey guys- I wanted to get your opinion on the difference between a FT MBA that takes 2 years to complete vs a FT MBA in an accelerated program that takes a year and a half to complete. I have strongly been considering the latter but my one concern is that I will not have the chance to do a summer internship after my first year. How important do you think this internship really is? I currently work in a good job at a small hedge fund doing a mix of accounting and macro research ( its a tiny firm so I get all types of projects from time to time) im also a cpa and just sat for l3 of the cfa. The school i am considering is a top 10 MBA in case that means anything. Please let me know what you think. I appreciate any input. Thanks
northwestern?
no by accelerated i mean 18 months as opposed to 2 years. A lot of schools have this. You basically stary in january and take your second semester in the summer of your first year so you miss out on an internship.
I think a summer internship is like, half the reason people go to grad school. Network Year 1, intern between 1 and 2, mating dance year 2, $$$ afterwards.
Dollarwise: the summer internship payment is usually as good as post-MBA payment if you get in IB or S&Tn or consultancy. If you sign the contract with this company, the sighing bonus is more or less equal to the second-year tuition. Jobwise: unless you don’t want to change industry/ geography etc. it is quite useful. You can get the idea of what the job is like, and make your opinion whether to go for it or look for something else. I knew a girl who got a scholarship from a big name consulting firm, but turned them off after internship, and paid the second year herself
Ok well I’m not too concerned about the money. If I do the 18 mos I will begin Jan 2011 and finish may 2012 as opposed to starting ft in spring 2011 and finishing in may 2013. That’s a whole year of my life I would rather not be in school. Do you think if I don’t have an internship it will limit my career opportunities afterward? I am already working on the buyside so I prob plan on jumping right back in afterwards. I don’t really wanna work on the sellside when I graduate
I also have 2 friends who went to Wharton this year who had a really hard time getting an internship and one of them had to take an unpaid one. I’ve heard about several other MBA students having to take unpaid internships as well
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I disagree on people not being able to get internships. I believe the school teacher to investment banker jumps that were made five years ago are gone so you have people having to 1) change their reach job 2) do nothing for the summer. Its funny how many people choose 2)
THACHARTER Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I also have 2 friends who went to Wharton this > year who had a really hard time getting an > internship and one of them had to take an unpaid > one. I’ve heard about several other MBA students > having to take unpaid internships as well I don’t want to generalize but maybe their expectations were too high? I mean, if you only apply to places like Bain Capital and Blackstone, yeah, you’re probably going to have a tough time. But, seriously, they hand out internships to Wharton kids like doctors hand out lollipops and the place gets more corporate recruiters than actual students.
i disagree. I got emails from two mba’s from penn and deleted their resume after a quick phone call. I dont think either got into their “target” career internship funny but my waiter the other night was a wharton grad
waiter? really?
To the OP - it sounds like you are considering the Columbia J-Term program. This is designed specifically for people who DO NOT want an internship because they are already in their chosen field or have offers at the company they left. The summer internship is an integral part of the MBA program and is critical if you want to look at another job/company/industry. If you’re happy going back to the small hedge fund you currently work at, or can find your way to a similar fund without an internship, then by all means go for JTerm. If not, definitely do the 2 year and get an internship. By way of anecdote, I have one friend doing JTerm who left PE and is going back to PE. He knew the industry and had a few companies that he was already in discussions with before he started school. I believe he had an offer in the fall of his “second year” from the firm he originally left. I also have another friend whos firm is sponsoring her at CBS. She is doing the full two year program, even though she has a standing offer upon graduation, so she can get a summer of experience doing something else (I think in the industry she wants to specialize in) before going back to her firm. Just my thoughts on this - if you aren’t 100% sure that your current job/industry/firm is where you want to be, you should do a two year program and go for the internship (even if they are hard to get).
THACHARTER Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > waiter? really? yeah he was hating on the lehman polo I was wearing. I laughed because avg waiter has not clue who lehman even was so I asked how he knew and he said he had classmates who worked there. really?
Thats exactly what i was looking at. thanks. I think ill have to do a little more research on this. I am happy staying in the same field when I graduate but I may not have the experience needed to come back at a higher level( i will have only worked in this role for 8-9 months when i leave. I was a fund accountant prior to this role) I am going to schedule an info session at the school and see what they tell me.
goldenboy09 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > THACHARTER Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > waiter? really? > > > yeah he was hating on the lehman polo I was > wearing. I laughed because avg waiter has not clue > who lehman even was so I asked how he knew and he > said he had classmates who worked there. really? Lehman polo = skins?
THACHARTER – There is a critical piece of the equation that your posts don’t capture – it’s what you want to do after business school. You’ve talked extensively about what you’ve been doing to date, but I don’t feel that you have explained exactly what you hope to achieve afterward. You say you want to keep working on the “buy-side” but in what capacity? As you know, a lot of people think getting an MBA is a golden ticket to getting into the buy-side – especially at the top business schools – but this is a data point that’s positively skewed by the number of people that had relevant experience. In other words, very rarely will you see someone that worked in manufacturing or biotech successfully transition to a mega buyout fund just because they went to HBS or something. Everyone that gets the mega buyout shops already had prior investment banking or PE experience. My personal reasons for wanting to go back to MBA is because I’m either looking to go back to private equity after business school, or transition into a strategy role at a major company. This makes sense for my candidacy because I already have two years in private equity, and am currently doing a pre-MBA strategy internship at a Fortune 50 company. However, in both cases, I would basically need an MBA in order to jump to the next payscale because very few PE firms offer direct promotes from pre-MBA to post-MBA associates, and there are equally few strategy roles for pre-MBA’s anywhere. Back to your posts, the only specific point you mentioned is that you hope to come back to the buy side at a “higher level”…but doing what? Same type of role? When you look at the other fund accountants, how many of them were doing fund accounting prior to getting an MBA and came back afterward? My guess would be less than 5%. Need to think more critically about this decision. Basically, I think you need more clarity on your post-MBA goals. Yes, maybe it’s prudent to ask the people at the information session what they think you should do, but of course they are going to tell you to apply to business school. Why wouldn’t they? I’m sure they would be happy to take your money. If you want to transition to a money-management role, going to a top MBA school would certainly help you facilitate that transition, but you would probably need to start out on the sell-side first in some capacity. On the other hand, if it’s possible for you to get a buy-side analyst role just through networking and moving up in the company, your ROI would be much better than paying for b-school of any kind. Hope this helps…
I think the summer internship is critical if you want to switch careers. It’s generally a relatively easy way to get good experience at a good company, and it makes you much more appealing to future employers. If you’re not looking to switch careers, then it’s of less importance.