This article was originally published on Just Go Grind May 11th, 2018.
I’m joining the MBA class of 2020 at the USC Marshall School of Business, a top 20 MBA program in the country, and I couldn’t be happier.
The journey to get here?
That’s been quite the ride.
Since deciding to go back to school I’ve had numerous people reach out to me, curious to know more about the process and if I thought they should get an MBA as well.
While I can’t speak for everyone who decides to get an MBA, I can speak of my personal experience, having recently gone through the application process, and I wanted to share a few of my thoughts.
Inception – An Idea Grows
A year before actually deciding to go back to school to get my MBA I toyed with the idea, looked into it for a day or two, even talked to my boss about it, but decided it wasn’t for me.
With a strong interest in entrepreneurship and having started my own successful side hustle, Just Go Fitness, I just wasn’t sure a graduate degree in business is what I needed.
And that was that…
Until it wasn’t.
I don’t remember exactly what the spark was, but sometime around August of 2017 I decided to go for it.
I was going to do something that a couple years earlier I thought I’d never do – go back to school.
But why?
Why go back to school, pay tens of thousands of dollars, and get an MBA?
Why an MBA?
I’ve answered this question about a dozen times in essays for various schools, but ultimately my reasons for getting an MBA were:
- The people. An opportunity to meet a few hundred driven and ambitious people was something I couldn’t pass up. I really don’t know any other environments where this is possible and this, to me, is the number one reason to get an MBA.
- The learning. There’s a simple idea that “You don’t know what you don’t know,” and I’ve thought about this almost every day since I first heard it. As a passionate learner, I fully understand how knowledge is power, but what if you don’t know what you’re even supposed to know? Business school, will provide me with tremendous resources for learning new things.
- The opportunities. An MBA is a springboard to whatever you want to do next in your career. I view it as a two year experience that will lead to endless opportunities regardless of what I decide to do next. Because of this, it provides a level of security in a career.
The value of an MBA, to me, far surpasses the thousands of dollars it costs to obtain one.
Once I did my research the decision became blatantly obvious.
Which brings us to this point.
What does someone first do when they decide to get an MBA?
Oh yeah, they take an entrance exam.
Entering GMAT Hell
As many prospective MBA students discover, getting back into “school mode” is difficult.
Maybe that’s an understatement…
It’s FUCKING HARD.
Not impossible.
Just hard.
Personally, I’d been writing articles, coaching clients, and working on my side business for the last 5 years on top of a day job, but preparing for a standardized test? That was a whole other beast.
With most MBA programs having round 1 application deadlines of early to mid-September, I scheduled my exam for mid-September, before most of the deadlines.
Now remember, I made the decision to get an MBA in August. At the time I had no idea that these deadlines were in September.
I researched the GMAT, the Graduate Management Admission Test, to get a feel for how long people prepared for it.
Some people spend a month or two, while others spent 6 months preparing of the exam.
By the time I got my study materials for the GMAT I had 4 or 5 weeks to prepare. This preparation included an initial practice exam which I completely bombed, had an “oh shit” moment and promptly dropped any side projects to focus on studying.
It pains me to even think about the GMAT any longer, so I’ll just say this – I studied my ass off for those weeks, got a 660, and left Las Vegas to go on a pre-planned trip. I was happy. Not ecstatic, but happy.
If you don’t know, the GMAT is scored out of 800. The top business schools have average scores of 700+ with the top average belonging to Stanford with 737 as an average.
This of course means some scores are higher and some scores are lower. The 660 at least put me in the game, which is exactly what I wanted.
Choosing Schools – Round 1
There were a few main criteria I used for choosing which schools to apply to in round 1.
First, I wanted to go to a top 25 school.
I knew this meant I’d instantly obtain an incredible network and resources that I’d be able to utilize for the rest of my life. Also, going to a top school carries more weight with potential employers, investors, and really anyone you meet.
Second, I preferred to go to a school on the west coast.
Many people would argue, “Just go to the best school you can” when deciding which schools to apply to and ultimately attend. I definitely heard this along the way in my MBA journey.
However, I’ve always wanted to live on the west coast and having the chance to make friends and connections in the place I’d live long-term mattered to me.
Third, I wanted to go to a school in a big city with lots of business opportunities.
This factor goes back to my number one reason for choosing an MBA in the first place – the people.
I wanted to choose an MBA program in a city with lots of people and lots of business opportunities.
Yes, there were more than three criteria I used to evaluate MBA programs, but these were some of the most important to me.
The MBA programs I ended up applying to in round 1 were:
- University of Southern California (Marshall)
- Stanford University
- University of California – Berkeley (Haas)
- University of California – Los Angeles (Anderson)
- University of Washington (Foster)
I chose not to hire a company to help me prepare my applications, instead relying on Google searches and ruthless editing.
Was this the best choice? I’m not sure.
Would investing in some guidance through the process have been helpful? Probably.
Ultimately, I received interview invites to USC and Washington, was accepted into USC with a scholarship offer, and was waitlisted at Washington.
I was rejected from Stanford, a common theme in my MBA journey, and hadn’t yet heard back from UCLA or Berkeley when my networking brought me to a meeting that heavily influenced the next 4-5 months of the process for me.
The Meeting
As soon as I was accepted into USC’s MBA program I began searching for alumni in Las Vegas, where I’m currently living as of May 2018, to start making connections. In my mind I was 90% sure I was going to USC.
One of the USC alumni I reached out to happened to be the former Assistant Dean of Admissions at USC Marshall’s School of Business with 20 years of MBA admissions experience.
Thankfully, he agreed to have coffee with me one day.
Going into this meeting, what I really wanted was to pick his brain for information I could share in the future on Just Go Grind. It turned into something completely different.
When we started talking I told him about the schools I applied to and how I was going to attend USC.
He immediately asked, “Did you apply through The Consortium?”
I gave him a funny look and said, “The what?”
I had never heard of The Consortium. I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about.
For those of you who also don’t know what The Consortium is here’s their mission, directly from their website:
Our mission, through the strength of our growing alliance and extended network, is to enhance diversity and inclusion in global business education and leadership by striving to reduce the significant underrepresentation of African Americans, Hispanic Americans and Native Americans in both our Member Schools’ enrollments and the ranks of global management across the following sectors:
- For-profit corporations,
- Nonprofit corporations,
- Government agencies and contractors, and
- Entrepreneurial ventures in both for-profit and nonprofit environments.
Also, “The Consortium awards merit-based, full-tuition fellowships to top MBA candidates who have a proven record of promoting inclusion in school, in their jobs or in their personal lives.”
I was told about all of this in that coffee meeting – my mind was utterly blown.
How did I never hear about this before?
After learning about this organization and the opportunities it presents I decided to open up my MBA search once more.
This meant more applications, more essays, and more interviews.
Choosing Schools – Round 2
The Consortium has 19 member schools, with three of them, USC, UCLA, and Berkeley, being schools I had applied to in round 1.
Because I hadn’t yet heard back from UCLA or Berkeley, I decided to withdraw those applications and apply through The Consortium instead.
With USC, since I had already been accepted and received a scholarship, I decided not to apply through The Consortium at that time.
Through The Consortium you’re able to apply to as many as 6 member schools. You also have much cheaper application fees and a standardized application with just an essay or two for each individual school. This ends up saving you time and money in the application process.
The schools I applied to through The Consortium were:
- Berkeley
- Cornell
- NYU
- Michigan
- Yale
When I withdrew my round 1 application from UCLA they essentially give me a second look without officially applying through The Consortium. It was confusing. Still is. But, ultimately, not important.
While I could have stopped in round 2 with just applying to schools through The Consortium, I chose a different path.
My thought process was that if I was going to be applying to more schools anyways, I might as well apply to other top schools to give myself more potential options.
So, besides applying to the schools I mentioned above, I also applied to:
- Harvard
- University of Chicago
- Northwestern
- University of Pennsylvania
- Duke
Let’s just say it was a busy few months with application deadlines in round 2 starting in early January.
After applying to all of those schools I was able to play the game that all prospective MBA students love – the waiting game.
Ultimately, I received interview invites to NYU, Cornell, University of Chicago, and Northwestern.
I traveled to NYU, University of Chicago, and Northwestern to do the interviews in person, while doing a Skype interview with Cornell.
I was accepted into NYU’s Stern School of Business and now had options on each coast.
The Decision
Choosing between two top 20 MBA programs – USC and NYU – didn’t actually turn out to be that difficult.
While NYU has a higher ranked MBA program (13th vs. 20th) and is located in an exciting business city, New York, I chose to go with USC.
Yes, the scholarship to USC definitely helped sway me that way, but there was so much more.
USC, with its location on the west coast in Los Angeles, was a better lifestyle fit for me while also putting me closer to the epicenter of entrepreneurship.
Most importantly, however, was the USC network, a resource I’d heard about and experienced firsthand by talking to students and alumni.
My number one reason for getting an MBA is the people, and USC has some of the best around.
The choice of which school to attend became obvious.
Wait, but what about The Consortium?
While I was accepted into The Consortium, I did not receive a full-ride scholarship.
Initially, I decided to become a Consortium member because of the awesome network it provides and the orientation program it puts on which serves as a jump start for landing internships and jobs after the MBA.
However, just a couple of days ago, I decided to withdraw from The Consortium as I pursue a path of entrepreneurship, going all-in to grow my own company and go full-time in my own business upon graduation.
My dream has always been to run my own company, be my own boss, and I have two years to make that a reality, with the MBA serving as the springboard.
Closing Thoughts
The journey of choosing an MBA program taught me a lot of things.
First, it taught me to do more thorough research and talk to other knowledgeable people when making big life choices.
I had never heard of The Consortium before my coffee meeting and yet this was such a tremendous opportunity. Though I ultimately didn’t become a member of The Consortium it showed me that there are more opportunities available than I realized.
Second, the MBA process taught me to really get clear on what I want. Every application asked deep, thought-provoking questions that forced me to think about my future in a way I hadn’t quite thought about before.
Finally, through the MBA application journey I realized that you really have to trust your gut.
Yes, talk to people and do research, but ultimately you have to do what YOU think is right for YOU. I received all sorts of advice through the MBA application process, but I knew what I wanted and ultimately chose the right school for my aspirations.