<p>If you had a choice to go right into a top MBA program from undergrad or to go for a Fulbright, which would you take?</p>
<p>Fulbright…</p>
<p>Yes, Fulbright.</p>
<p>Gazillions of people get an MBA. Darn few get a Fulbright.</p>
<p>You can always get an MBA later. Anytime.</p>
<p>Wouldn’t most top MBA programs allow you to defer admission until you completed the Fulbright? If you’re wondering which to apply to, I suggest both.</p>
<p>It’s likely a non-starter. Very, very few students are admitted to top MBA programs these days directly upon completion of an undergraduate degree, and with good reason.</p>
<p>If I were accepted to the MBA program and also won a Fulbright, I’d take the Fulbright, no question.</p>
<p>If you’re wondering which to apply to, I’d say both.</p>
<p>Fulbright, no question.</p>
<p>If you have the stuff to get into a top MBA program now, you will have the same stuff but more after a Fulbright, even one for teaching English. </p>
<p>Think of it this way: With the globalization of business, what admissions committee wouldn’t find an applicant more attractive because (s)he lived outside the US for a year or two? Even if you did an undergrad year abroad, a Fulbright experience would be different and attractive.</p>
<p>Fulbright Bonus: It goes on your resume and makes you even more attractive combined with that later MBA. Employers love international experience.</p>
<p>They are not mutually exclusive, as other posters have said. If you can get a Fulbright, take it. After you return, you can always go to MBA school.</p>
<p>And as others have said, most of the best (as well as many of the not-quite-the-best) MBA programs admit very few, if any, students straight out of undergrad. They want you to have experience first. A Fulbright is a great experience and will only help you get into the MBA school of your dreams.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Fulbright. Always time to do an MBA, and Fulbright is a once-in-a lifetime opportunity.</p>
<p>Fulbright hands down.</p>
<p>It depends on the Fulbright. </p>
<p>A teaching Fulbright? Go get the MBA. </p>
<p>A Fulbright to study at a top foreign U? Take the Fullbright. </p>
<p>Most Fulbrights are projects though–and in that case, it depends on what your project is and if it relates to business, assuming that’s your ultimate goal.</p>
<p>I disagree with Jonri–he’s right that a teaching Fulbright is less prestigious than a research one, but:</p>
<p>a) most people don’t know the difference and having Fulbright on your resume is a good thing.</p>
<p>b) Living in another country and becoming proficient in another language is great.</p>
<p>c) Most MBA students will be several years older than you if you go straight through. Doing something else for a few years could help you socially and in the group projects b-school requires.</p>
<p>So I agree with everyone else–apply to both, and if you get them, try to defer b-school for a year to do the fellowship.</p>
<p>Mini’s right. There are very rare exceptions to the rule that no one gets into an MBA program without at least 3-5 years of work experience.</p>
<p>If you have been starting a company or doing something entrepreneurially or otherwise incredible, you are quite unlikely to get into an MBA program.</p>
<p>My recollection from other posts–haven’t gone back and read them–is that “returningstudent” is NOT 21-22 years old, but rather someone who worked full time and went to community college part time , then transferred to a 4 year college and is going to school full time for the last two years of college. </p>
<p>It’s one thing to go off to Korea and teach English for a year or two when you are 22. It’s another to do it if, as I suspect, the OP is over 25. It may be unfair, but you get to the point that people expect you to “grow up.” </p>
<p>So, in this case, I do think the KIND of Fullbright matters. I might have given a different answer if I thought this person were 21 or 22 and was unlikely to get into a MBA program. This is just a different scenario.</p>
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<p>Sorry, should’ve said: If you have NOT…</p>
<p>But getting into a top MBA program may actually be facilitated by getting the Fulbright and then coming back and kicking *** and taking names. This depends a lot on what the work was on the side, I’d say…</p>
<p>my niece husband did a Fulbright at age 30 (?), and after 5 years of working and after a MA degree.</p>
<p>I’m a business school professor. I do not know of ANY top MBA program anywhere that would take a student straight from undergrad. I can not think of a single school in North America that is considered ‘good’ that doesn’t require at least 2-3 years of work experience. Even if you got in without work experience, you would not get your values’ worth without that experience as a basis on which to build your classroom knowledge.</p>
<p>As a general rule starbright is correct. We are thinking Wharton, Harvard, Northwestern, etc. plus many other solid programs in this answer, if I may put words in starbrights response.</p>
<p>Fulbright.</p>
<p>MBAs are a dime a dozen, but the Fulbright experience will really set you apart from the field. </p>
<p>If, down the line, you feel like you really need an MBA you can always get one later.</p>
<p>“I can not think of a single school in North America that is considered ‘good’ that doesn’t require at least 2-3 years of work experience.”</p>
<p>Uh, Harvard Business School takes people directly from college. I know from firsthand experience. So do Stanford and Chicago (and Wharton seems to be peer pressured into it). </p>
<p>But this is, admittedly, a recent development.</p>