Question from a college senior applying to B-school

What’s up, peoples. The message below is from a college senior who is targeting admission to business school straight out of undergrad. As I’ve mentioned in past entries, it is incredibly difficult to gain admission to a top MBA program right out of undergrad, but there are several spectacular candidates who make it happen each year. This reader is looking for advice from me about whether this could be a possibility for him without telling me much more than the fact that he’s a senior majoring in Mechanical Engineering. I did my best to talk him through my thinking on it, but, given the current application environment, it might be best for him to think about working for a couple of years prior to applying to B-school. By the time he sees this video, he likely will have already figured out what his plan for the next couple of years will be, but I wanted to send it to him anyway…one of these days, I’m going to get my Inbox cleaned out enough to respond to people faster…I promise 🙂

—– LP wrote:

Hello Marquis Parker,

I hope you are doing well. It is a really great website that you are maintaining. It is really wonderful to see how much you are helping people. I have started a blog to tell about how I am proceeding with my MBA applications and also to help junior and sophomore students to make themselves more aware of the early career programs offered by the top business schools.

I am looking to enter into a business school to move on into management consulting. I am currently pursuing my final year in Mechanical Engineering. I have been selected in a boutique consulting firm. I got rejected by HBS (I applied to the 2+2 program meant for college seniors). The next college I am going to apply for is Stanford and it has an optional deferred program for college seniors. Do you recommend me to apply for the deferred programs, or wait for 1 or 2 years and then apply, or apply as an normal applicant itself? Will I be at too much a disadvantage when applying to jobs since I would have limited full time work experience?

Thank you very much for reading my email.

Hoping to hear from you,
LP

—–
My video response:

Question from a college senior applying to B-school from Marquis Parker on Vimeo.

Key points:
– Applying to Stanford GSB’s deferred program for college seniors
–> I don’t see anything wrong with applying for the deferred program at the GSB, but I would recommend realistic expectation setting given the state of the economy and the resulting rise in MBA applicants (i.e. I imagine that very few people get accepted to the program)
–> If not accepted to the deferred program, there is always the option of working for a couple of years to develop a strong set of professional experiences and extracurricular activities on the side to add to the strength of the overall application package

– Moving into management consulting
–> Taking the boutique consulting firm offer would not be a bad look in lieu of entering business school directly out of undergrad because of the opportunity work in a range of industries and/or functional areas
–> The experience gained in two years in Consulting, even at a boutique firm, would provide a great foundation upon which to build one’s MBA application profile
–> When the larger Consulting firms recruit on MBA campuses, they specific look for people with pre-MBA strategy and/or finance/banking experience, so going to the boutique consulting firm could be a great way to secure a post-MBA position at one of the big firms