<p>I’m an incoming freshman at Dartmouth College and I’m just wondering if someone could give me some insight on M&A. I plan to major in economics and I want to get an MBA, but is there a certain concentration I should focus on during undergrad?</p>
<p>-Dartmouth has a unique system where I can shift around my school terms (for example, I could get an internship or job in the winter or spring and take my classes during summer term). What are some good firms/companies to pursue if I want to eventually go into M&A?</p>
<p>-What general experience/skills are needed? Is it a popular field for graduates fresh out of college?</p>
<p>-What is the general salary/hours like?</p>
<p>-Other than Wall Street/NYC, where are some other hotspots for activity/high paying jobs? (I’m from San Francisco and wouldn’t mind coming back)</p>
<p>***Also, this is sorta off topic, but I’ve also been considering Medical Practice Brokerage. Is this as lucritive and competitive as some other MBA options? Or how about a healthcare administrator? A lot of doctors don’t necessarily have the business skills to run their private practices.</p>
<p>Thanks in advance and I welcome any feedback.</p>
<p>Early on, if you’re seriously going to limit yourself to M&A, consider interning at one of the companies in IMAP. I, too, interned my freshman year for an M&A consulting company. However, since I had familial relations to rely on, I’m uncertain what the exact probability is for actually getting a job as a college student in a M&A firm. Our company refused to give internship offers to the children of 2 of our clients, so I can say from personal experience that the chances are very low. Nevertheless, it costs nothing to try.</p>
<p>Just warning you that M&A is usually not something that people like to do for a living. You have to have a strange sense of enjoyment to really like doing M&A work.</p>
<p>Thanks for the quick response. Why do you say that M&A isn’t very enjoyable? I’m definitely open to other branches of business, but aside from M&A I’m trying to brainstorm less "conventional"options. Most MBA’s seem to pursue either IB or consulting. One of the reasons I chose Dartmouth over UPenn was because of the opportunity to get internships during the off-season with relatively little competition (most other students compete for summer internships.)</p>
<p>What about the medical/biotech industry? Surely they need business administrators. I don’t know how lucrative it would be to run the business end of private hospitals or a chain of medical practices for a living, but it definitely seems like a somewhat less competitive field than IB. And the San Francisco Bay Area (my home) is the breeding ground for biotech companies and various emerging markets.</p>
<p>Given the current state of the capital markets they may not be doing much hiring soon on Wall Street. Layoff will be coming soon. No money to borrow–no deals. No deals no fees. No fees no Ibankers.</p>
<p>Just a question here. Don’t you think it would be rather difficult for you to complete all the course work in the summer/winter session. Most students that take summer/winter courses stick to 1 or 2 classes at most.? Or did you mean only taking random semesters off when the opportunity for a good internship comes along/</p>
<p>MBA’s do not by any means only pursue consult or investment banking there are many other fields such as marketing, finance, information systems management, economics, decision sciences, statistics, real estate, etc. etc. </p>
<p>To be honest even if you decide to open a medical practice odds are you will want to keep your day job and keep that on the side. An MBA would help you dramatically in operations, and business expenditures. You really can’t do much wrong with an MBA as we say on the east coast “it’s money in the bank”</p>
<p>Dartmouth has what’s called “The D Plan” in which there are four academic quarters (3 months each). Students are only required to take classes for three of those quarters and the other 3 months is up to their discretion. In short, there is year around school and you decide which three terms to take your classes.</p>
<p>It was this flexibility that drew me to Dartmouth. Not only can I take the winter term off (I’m not a fan of cold weather) but I can get a job or internship when no one else will be applying for them.</p>
<p>Sounds sweet. I can see why you would attend that school, seems a lot more practical than things are here in NY. (4 months in spring and fall, 2 summer sessions of 5 weeks each, 1 winter term for 3-4 weeks)</p>
<p>debts going to be expensive for a while, I’d headover to restructuring…</p>