Getting an MBA after graduating from top undergrad

sakky
Sun, 31 Aug 2008 15:49:44 +0000

sakky, minor point, but that 1-2% who has “no work experience” usually in practice has “no FT work experience as an employee following their college graduation”. In practice, many started and ran businesses during or even before college. At least, the two whom I met at HBS College Day a few years ago both fit that profile, and were clearly smart enough to toast bread with their brain waves.



There are also plenty of them who truly have no work experience whatsoever. Yes - none. But they do have other ‘qualifications’, although it is somewhat debatable how that translates into business knowledge. For example, consider Christopher Wilson-Byrne, who got his bachelor’s in 2007 and is in the HBS class of 2009, a guy who has never held a FT job in his life, although he was a NCAA All-American diver at Boston College. Don’t be fooled by his listed “Citigroup” experience, as that was just a summer internship. Heck, he even discusses why he decided to go to HBS in lieu of getting actual FT work experience.

Initially, Chris intended to defer his admission for a year, but his campus visit convinced him to start his MBA immediately. “If I had worked a few years and gotten on a career track, it might have been difficult breaking away. This is the right time for me to get an MBA.”

[Chris Wilson-Byrne Profile - MBA - Harvard Business School](http://www.hbs.edu/mba/profiles/students/cwilsonbyrne.html)

[Men’s Swimming and Diving Falls To Tufts :: Christopher Wilson-Byrne Wins Both Diving Events](http://bceagles.cstv.com/sports/m-swim/recaps/011906aaa.html)

I can immediately think of another guy, who is not officially profiled, but played soccer at Rose-Hulman, and also got in straight from undergrad.

Don’t get me wrong; they’re nice guys. However, they are clearly living proof that you don’t need FT work experience to get into HBS.



But enough about all that. How about the OP’s question? For non-finance careers, does an MBA really have a much higher ROI than a top undergrad business degree (like Wharton, Hass, Stern)? I mean, there are some top mgmt consulting firms which will promote without an MBA (not McKinsey, but I know people at Bain, Deloitte and Monitor for whom this is true). For them, if you don’t need an MBA for networking purposes (to help source eventual deals as you try to make partner), it’s essentially a 2-year gap in their career which costs them a net, let’s say $150k in cash outlays and another $150 (avg salary $75k at least by that point) in foregone salary.



Well, I don’t think that’s a particularly fair question because you’re presuming that all of those analysts at those non-McKinsey consulting firms are going to get that promotion. I think we can all agree that the vast majority won’t, even those who have elite undergrad business degrees. Heck, I can think of numerous former Wharton, Sloan, and Haas undergrads who went to BCG and Bain but didn’t get promoted. What are these people going to do? There are also many others who went to consulting after undergrad but didn’t like it and so wanted to transition to something else (i.e. Ibanking). Then there are people who went to top undergrad business programs but nevertheless couldn’t get an offer at a top consulting firm at all. Granted, they could usually get an offer at a mediocre consulting firm, but they probably don’t want to stay there for long.

So, sure, I can agree, if you get a consulting offer at a top firm, you decide that you like it, and you also get promoted without an MBA, then obviously you should just take that. But what if you don’t have that? Similarly, if you looked like Brad Pitt, you can probably surely get a date with some truly beautiful women. But what if you don’t look like Brad Pitt?