My name is Swastika. It's a common woman's name in India among Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain households. The male variant Swastik is also common.

My name has nothing to do with the Nazis or Hitler. Swastika is an ancient Indian name derived from the Sanskrit word and ancient Hindu and Buddhist symbol going back thousands of years meaning "well-being" or "fortune." It is entirely divorced from the 20th-century Nazi misappropriation of the symbol and word. In fact, the Swastika symbol is even today commonly seen in India, Japan, Nepal, and China in Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist temples.

In America, is it okay to use my name? I genuinely really like my own name. I think it sounds beautiful and has a wonderful meaning. So do I really have to use a nickname or change my name? I am aiming for a T15 or M7 MBA to do bulge bracket investment banking in NYC or SF, so I would hope my future classmates are educated and open minded enough to understand my name. Same for post-MBA employer and co-workers, whom I'd assume to be quite highly educated either through a top MBA or attending a prestigious undergrad.

But I want to know the truth. My preference is not changing my name or using a nickname. I hate my nickname "Swati" that some friends call me, but it might have to be my only option...

Know this is a weird point, but I currently attend an M7 full-time program, and lots of folks are following the Olympics closely. I'm Chinese-American myself, and view Eileen Gu as a traitor to the US.

I'm not a Republican, I'm a liberal. Eileen was born and raised in San Francisco, lives in San Francisco, and attends school at Stanford, trains in America. She's a natural-born US citizen. Yet competes for a country who by their own book shouldn't allow her to. China doesn't allow for dual citizenship and she hasn't given up her American citizenship.

If she wants to compete in freestyle skiing for China, fine. She should then renounce her US citizenship and move to China. Not continue living in the Bay Area and rarely visiting China.

She's also icky because she has the gall to criticize the state of American politics while being completely silent and feigning ignorance of China's atrocities such as the genocide against Uyghurs. Eileen Gu is majoring in international relations at Stanford so she 100% knows of the genocide but is choosing to be silent.

My parents came to America to escape the CCP. I love being Chinese-American and my heritage, and follow many Chinese customs, but the CCP is a disgrace to humanity.

I'm not going to be obnoxious about my views or impose them onto others. But if asked, will it be socially acceptable to publicly remark that I'm an Eileen Gu hater? I honestly think she deserves full social ostracization in America.

BTW, Eileen Gu's mom got an MBA from Stanford GSB, this might all be a very calculated business decision...

I got an MBB internship by the way.

Finishing up my first year at an M7, and while our business school has been semi-isolated from the Israel/Palestine protests popping up, the conflict has still managed to invade our MBA program. You have fellow classmates on both sides spam their Instagram Stories with stuff on the war, as well as several joining on-campus demonstrations, We even had a few MBAs join the encampments. The war has caused lots of drama on our class Slack as well as WhatsApp groups.

But I'm going to be brutally honest and admit that I just don't care about Israel/Palestine.

I'm neither Jewish nor Muslim, so I don't have a personal connection to the people fighting on either side. Yes, killing and deaths are wrong. But so much bad shit happens across the world all the time and those issues often don't get the same attention. I'm not super political, but if I were to be, I'd rather focus on US domestic politics that affect my life directly. And even with that, local and state policies are more relevant to my actual life than national American politics.

Mainly, I'm not here to start political drama and alienate lots of my classmates. I just want to get a job. Finally after grinding it out, I landed a strategy internship at a tech company for the summer. I'm glad I spend my time this year recruiting instead of wasting it sleeping in a dirty stinky homeless tent on our undergraduate campus quad while screaming unrealistic demands like a banshee.

Met a bunch of people on a pre-MBA trip and got pretty close with them because we were all staying in the same house. There were maybe 15 of us in the group text chat afterward.

A month into school, one of the guys just removed me from the chat. I saw him in person later and asked what happened. He tried to be vague at first, but when I pressed him he basically said the group didn’t really think I fit in anymore.

Apparently I initially came across well on the trip, but once people spent more time with me they started feeling that I was not on their level socially. Bad timing in group conversations, being too loud and then barely talking, weird eye contact, not really keeping up with the banter. All this made others feel uncomfortable.

He said there were times where we’d be trading jokes and everyone would laugh at what others said but when I would joke, nobody really knew how to respond. I didn’t say anything offensive, but I do have a stutter and struggle with coming up with stuff on the spot. So I'm guessing maybe my tone or execution was off to them.

He also said I just have a different lifestyle from most of them. They ski, go to festivals/EDM shows, travel constantly, party a lot, and the guys are very comfortable going out and talking to girls. I’m much less experienced with all of that.

One thing he brought up was a party where people were doing coke and molly and I genuinely didn’t realize what was happening at first. I asked someone what they were doing, which apparently became a thing afterward because people thought it was weird that I didn’t even recognize it.

He said some stuff about social media - that people found my Instagram stories to be cringe and uninteresting. I like to re-share memes or reels I found funny or interesting, and he said I post too many stories every day, and a lot of people in our class have muted me. He said most other folks much fewer stories and it's about cool things that they're personally doing.

There was some other stuff about me not really having the same “vibe” as everyone else, but that was basically the conversation.

He said he’s been in my shoes before, back in high school when he was awkward but he improved, basically saying that I wasn’t socially advanced or socially experienced enough to hang with them. I get it though, everyone else in that group would naturally fit into a “cool” or “jock” clique if this were a high school. They're all super well dressed, fit, charismatic, attractive, funny, well-liked, confident, and popular. I have never, ever been that guy and was never popular in high school or college, I was friends with the nerds and did marching band in high school.

I know friend groups naturally change, but being explicitly removed and then basically told people found me awkward was rough. He did say I seem like a kind guy and hopes I find other friends. My school has a big class size, and I just started a month ago. I have two more entire full years to go.

But this happening has been really messing with my confidence way more than I expected.

Like, couldn't they have at least had the social courtesy to secretly make a new chat but not include me instead of explicitly removing me? Isn't that what people usually do in this situation? I could have happily lived in ignorance then. I feel on their part, explicitly kicking me out was unnecessarily cruel and aggressive, and doesn't live up to the high EQ that group thinks they have.

I'm an international student at an M7 who is from a third world country. While my personal family wasn't the poorest, we also weren't the most well off. However, immediately around me I saw dire poverty, starvation, low illiteracy, disease, inadequate health access, gang violence, suicide, etc. AIDS was widespread in my town. As was human trafficking, sex tourism, and slave labor. Racial and religious conflict is real.

In my country, many live in absolute poverty, lacking essentials like drinking water (let alone clean water), food, healthcare, and shelter. Infrastructure is often poor or nonexistent, with limited access to stable jobs or education. Women face severe oppression, with honor killings, dowries, and child marriages still prevalent. Child labor is widespread, and nearby areas are war-torn, forcing many into sweatshop labor. Political corruption, instability, and conflict make escaping these conditions nearly impossible, creating hardships worse than those in even poor areas of developed countries like America, where basic systems and resources, while often deeply flawed, are more accessible.

Even as one of the relatively more "fortunate" ones, my family still struggled with these issues. Most of my family ended up in blue collar roles, and I was the only one to go to a university. One good thing about my country is that thanks to our education system, people from backgrounds like mine can experience social mobility if you work extremely hard. If you score well on university admissions exams, you can place into good universities and land decently paying jobs in fields like engineering. After my undergrad, I lived in a major city and worked for a multinational corporation in a white collar role before finally getting to America to pursue my M7 MBA.

Yet, when I get onto campus, so many people claim to be "marginalized" and having been victims of "oppression." Especially people who are part of the Consortium. But I can't take it seriously at all. It epitomizes the performativeness of victimhood in elite settings.

The vast majority of people are from upper middle class to upper class American backgrounds. They are of WASP background or Jewish, as well as East Asian or Indian. A minority is black and hispanic. The more well off ones grew up with money and traveled around the world frequently with their families as well as went on ski trips and ate at Michelin star restaurants. And even the upper-middle class ones have parents who are doctors, lawyers, or engineers, and grew up in upper-middle class suburbs with high quality public education.

I know Affirmative Action was technically struck down by the Supreme Court, but the vast majority of "URMs" are from upper middle class to upper class backgrounds. When people describe the "oppression" they've faced, at most what they're talking about is experiencing "micro-aggressions." For example, we had an Asian-American classmate who said she felt "traumatized" and "oppressed" by white kids in elementary school making fun of the lunch her Asian parents made. She grew up in an upper-middle class suburb. Meanwhile, I've personally seen people die from hunger.

Surprisingly, a lot of the Consortium members are white, male, or ORMs.

I'm not discounting that you can face discrimination if you're LGBT, black, hispanic, or a woman. Or if you have some sort of disability. I don't discount that there are legitimate issues where these groups can fight for more rights. Yes, I know Muslims faced discrimination after 9/11, But I think my classmates vastly exaggerate the struggles they've had to face or overcome especially compared to what I grew up seeing firsthand. There is a widespread victim mentality at play.

Even back in the village I grew up in, where people faced horrible true oppression, people didn't claim victimhood. Many people tried to be happy and live a simple life, and be grateful for what little they had. I often felt they had a right to be more pissed and want for more. But it's my already privileged classmates who falsely feel shafted and want more. They grew up in a bubble of privilege. Yes, people do suffer in America but 99.9% of my M7 MBA classmates are not from those inner city or impoverished rural backgrounds.

And I feel half of these people have no self awareness and think they legitimately overcame huge obstacles, and will continue to think so even if they land MBB, IB, or tech and make $200k+ a year. Or they know they're exaggerating but doing so it because it plays well to admissions essays or earning brownie points in class discussions. DEI hiring is a racket too by selecting the most privileged people within marginalized groups.

I’m writing this from a burner because I don’t want this tied back to me or my school. I’m not trying to trash my MBA program. I’m also not trying to write one of those fake inspirational LinkedIn posts about “growth,” “community,” and “finding yourself.” This is just the honest version of what I wish someone had told me before I started a top MBA in a very expensive city.

The first thing you need to understand is this: the MBA starts before the MBA starts.

When I arrived, there was already a social trip before formal orientation. People booked houses, went away for a few days, drank, partied, mingled, and started forming early friendships. Then orientation week hit. From morning to evening, you are in programming, classes, events, introductions, panels, social gatherings, happy hours, and dinners. It sounds fun, and parts of it are fun, but it is also intense in a way that is hard to explain until you are inside it.

You get pulled into the current very quickly.

And this is where a lot of people make their first mistake. They think this early period is just for partying, meeting people casually, and easing into school. It is not. This is when people start forming impressions. This is when early friend groups start forming. This is when people quietly start figuring out who is serious, who is prepared, who is sharp, who is social, who is awkward, who is all talk, and who seems like someone they would want to work with, introduce, or recommend later.

I am not saying don’t drink. I am not saying don’t party. I am not saying be fake. But do not sleepwalk through the first few weeks. Talk to people properly. Remember names. Be normal. Be kind. Don’t act desperate, but also don’t disappear. The MBA social machine moves very fast, and if you are not paying attention, you can feel like everyone else already knows each other before you have even found your footing.

Then September hits.

If you are recruiting for investment banking, consulting, or any other highly structured path, September and October are train tracks. Once you are on them, you are moving whether you are ready or not.

For investment banking specifically, the pace is brutal. You have core classes. You have assignments. You have attendance requirements. You have club events. You have finance association sessions. You have bank presentations. You have networking events that run for one and a half to three hours. Some days you have multiple events. Then coffee chats start getting sent out, and suddenly your calendar looks insane.

You are constantly in a suit. You are walking from class to events to coffee chats to another event to someone’s birthday to some other social thing you feel you should attend because these are your new classmates and you are trying to build a life here too.

On a practical note: for banking recruiting, navy blue and charcoal grey are the safest suit colors. Get at least two proper suits in those colors if you can. This is not the moment to experiment with loud patterns, weird colors, or “personality” through your outfit. The goal is to look polished, serious, and appropriate for the room. Also, do not cheap out on shoes. You will be standing for hours. You will be walking everywhere. Cheap uncomfortable shoes will make you hate your own life. This sounds like a small thing until you are on your fifth event of the week, your feet hurt, you are trying to sound intelligent in front of a banker, and you still have a coffee chat the next morning.

The real point is this: you do not have time to “figure it out” once school starts.

If you are coming from banking, corporate finance, consulting, strategic finance, or something adjacent, you already have an advantage. You may not feel calm, but at least the language is familiar. You know what a transaction is. You know what EBITDA is. You know how people talk about companies. You know what an LOI is. You know what a pitch or a deal process might look like. You have probably seen some version of this world before.

If you are a career switcher, the game is different.

If you are coming from a totally different background and trying to pivot into investment banking, private equity, venture capital, or anything finance heavy, you cannot wait until August to start learning. If you start in August, you are already late.

That is not meant to scare you. It is meant to save you.

The 400 question investment banking guide is not magic. It does not become more understandable because you are sitting inside a business school building. You could have downloaded it months earlier. You could have started in January, March, May, or June. There is no secret switch that turns on during orientation. No one magically injects finance into your brain between August and December.

You have to go through it question by question.

You have to learn accounting, valuation, enterprise value, equity value, accretion and dilution, DCFs, merger models, LBO basics, and how to speak about transactions. You have to get comfortable with the mechanics before you are under pressure. Because once recruiting starts, time disappears.

And there is no excuse anymore. There is so much free material online. You can use YouTube. You can use ChatGPT. You can use Gemini. You can take any question from the banking guide and ask for an explanation like you are a beginner. You can ask for examples. You can ask for a mock interview. You can ask why the answer works. You can ask what happens if the assumption changes. You can ask for a simple explanation, then a technical explanation, then an interview style answer.

The key is time.

Give yourself time.

That is probably the biggest advice I can give to someone like me: be kind to yourself by preparing early.

If you are serious about banking, PE, VC, or another competitive finance path, give yourself two to four months before the MBA starts. Not because you need to become a finance genius before school. You don’t. But you need enough familiarity that the first time you hear these concepts is not while you are sleep deprived, overdressed, socially overwhelmed, and running between three coffee chats and a class assignment.

Pick an industry you like. Pick a recent M&A transaction. Read about it. Ask an AI tool to explain the transaction. Ask what the buyer wanted. Ask what the seller got. Ask what the risks were. Ask what questions you could ask about it in a coffee chat. Ask what a banker might have done on the deal. Ask what the valuation logic was. You may not understand everything at first. That is fine. The point is not mastery. The point is exposure.

Because the most dangerous part is not knowing what you do not know.

When you arrive at school and everyone looks polished, it is very easy to assume they are naturally smarter, calmer, or better suited for this path. Sometimes that is true. Usually it is not that simple. A lot of them just had more exposure. They have heard the language before. They know what to listen for. They know how to talk about a stock. They may have defended stock pitches before. They may have worked on transactions before. They may know what questions bankers ask because they have already been close to that world.

If you do not have that background, it does not mean you cannot compete. But you need to respect the gap.

The first semester burnout is real. And in my opinion, a lot of people do not burn out because they are weak or incapable. They burn out because they are trying to learn the industry, learn the technicals, build a network, attend classes, make friends, manage social pressure, and recruit all at the same time. That is too much. Anyone would feel trapped.

So here is my blunt advice for incoming MBA students, especially career switchers:

Do not wait for school to start.

Do not assume orientation is when preparation begins.

Do not think the school brand will carry you by itself.

Do not underestimate how fast recruiting moves.

Do not spend the first month only partying and then act surprised when everyone else seems ahead.

Do not be embarrassed if you are behind. Just start earlier.

Before you arrive, learn the basics. Read the guides. Watch the videos. Practice talking about deals. Understand what the job actually is. If possible, do a pre MBA internship or some kind of project in the space you want to recruit for. But even if you cannot do that, at least build enough knowledge that you are not hearing everything for the first time in September.

The MBA can be an amazing opportunity. But it is not a reset button. It is an accelerator. And an accelerator only helps if you have pointed yourself in roughly the right direction before it starts moving.

That is the part I wish someone had said more clearly.

I've been on campus for 2 weeks and have not been enjoying the experience at all. As I expected, the classes are incredibly intense; however, the participation-based grading scheme means that everyone is constantly on edge to make a comment, leading to discussions feeling more like a race to raise one's hand and regurgitate some bs case fact than a thoughtful learning / academic environment. Profs haven't even finished speaking and people are putting their hands up to get a comment in... The work load is also absurd - 2-3 cases per day requires 4+ hours of independent study (even with liberal AI usage) to be in a position to not make a fool of oneself during a cold call. Classmates are already becoming insanely judgmental, talking shit about who has "good" or "bad" insights during these performative discussions.

On top of this I'm realizing that the case method is a really poor way to teach the more technical subjects (accounting, ops management, etc.). It feels like they're trying to teach 2 weeks of undergrad curriculum in a day using a contrived "real world" scenario to teach something like journal entries. There's no way I'm retaining any of this information with the pace things are moving at.

Outside of class, the drinking culture is nonstop. I'm all for having a couple beers and enjoying oneself, but it seems like every night people feel the need to be blackout drunk. All in all, as an introvert, I would describe the experience as exhausting.

You're going to say "should have done your diligence on the program", "buyer beware," which is fair. I knew the culture fit wasn't ideal for me, but I decided to take HBS over lower ranked programs for career and financial reasons (I got $0 at a lower ranked M7 program and would feel stupid to turn down HBS for no scholarship).

Are any of these dynamics going to improve? ECs I've talked to have said first semester is shit, but if I feel the way I do currently in a couple of months I'd seriously consider taking a leave of absence or just dropping out and going back to my old job.

First few weeks have been a garden salad of buzzwords like social impact, non-profit, equity, vegan.

The loudest voices on the campus are a bunch of privileged kids telling everyone how oppressed everyone is, how profits are bad (fed up of &society already), and how things need to be sustainable.

None of my friends from other T15s have had an experience like this. Other schools seem to be more pragmatic and less hypocritical.

I hope this is just a loud minority and the rest of the school is actually focused on getting well-paying jobs and concerned about paying off student loans.

I truly hope people are open to debate and discussion and leave the lecturing to professors and politicians.

This is probably going to rub some people the wrong way, but one of the biggest pieces of advice I’d give to incoming MBAs or anyone recruiting for client-facing roles is this: try to be the most conventionally attractive version of yourself that you reasonably can be.

Yes, it’s shallow. But business is a shallow world. Appearances matter more than we like to admit. Especially in consulting, banking, and other polished, high-expectation industries. A sharp, put-together person is going to get the benefit of the doubt more often than someone who looks sloppy, even if the latter is more competent.

I've seen it happen over and over again. Some of the smartest, most capable people I knew missed out on MBB or top finance internships because they just didn’t present themselves well. The most common offenders were international students who underestimated Western grooming/fashion norms, or introverted quant-heavy types who thought competence would speak for itself.

If you're going for consulting or finance, you need to be on top of your grooming, wardrobe, and general presentation.

It's almost mandatory to wear clothes that actually fit and get a proper haircut. I'd recommend staying up to date on professional fashion trends.

If you’re overweight, it’s not inherently a dealbreaker, but you need to know how to dress your body well, such as by wearing striped shirts. That said, the vast majority of people at top MBA programs are physically fit and do regular workouts. Obesity was extremely rare at my M7, and whether people want to admit it or not, being visibly overweight often sends negative signals in high-prestige business settings.

Clients, bosses, and recruiters prefer people who look good. Not necessarily model-level attractive, but clean, sharp, and professional. Haircut, skin, posture, scent: it all adds up.

The only people who can afford to dress like slobs are tech founders or people with insane technical leverage. The rest of us are being judged constantly. So make it easy for people to take you seriously.

Felt fake. Forced. Everyone trying to sound smarter than they are

Then one prof at masters union told me this: “Ask someone about the worst day at their job”

I tried it at one of our mixer events, asked this alum casually if they’d ever had a moment they wanted to quit She paused. Then told me about getting publicly blamed for a failed pitch 30 minutes later we were swapping stories

That one question? Changed everything

It stopped being “networking” Started feeling like a real convo And yeah, I followed up. She helped me prep for a case round later

Not a networking pro now But at least I don’t walk in trying to be someone I’m not

Indian couple: we both got admitted to an M7. Been together for 5 years, and been childhood friends for 17 years. We’re really good family friends too. FML.

We’re both incredibly ambitious and academic, and last year were offered serious money at 2 M7s and 1 T10 to come and attend, despite me being ORM.

After dating since undergrad, when we both got in our MBAs, we got engaged. All these years, we were totally in love, we travelled a lot, clicked a million photos, had a great sex life and did all those gooey mushy things you expect spouses-to-be to do. First year MBA was basically a breeze. No matter how hard it got, she was my rock & I was hers.

This summer, we had to part ways for our internships: I got an internship in Chicago and she went to NYC with our classmate- a typical American 6’3” athletic frat boy. Yesterday I got to learn that throughout their internship they were hooking up. And our other classmates who were interning in NYC knew. I was told a lot happened publicly when they all went out for drinks and my fiancée & that American guy were kinda an item. They all hid it from me for 2 months.

Basically while I was working 85-90 hours a week trying to make whatever little money for our wedding and honeymoon, I was being cuckolded in front of my entire batch of 800 (by now everyone knows our situation). But NOBODY said a word.

She’s told me she wants to break up with me, call off our wedding after having an engagement ceremony and reception in front of over 300 relatives and friends. Why?

Apparently because sex with that guy was out of this world and I am not in the same league. This is not even my insinuation, she explicitly said this. Wtf. I mean of course, I’m aware that physically, Indian men are great at brainy stuff but aren’t the best in the bedroom, but this is just so shallow and heartbreaking man. What do I even tell my parents and friends?

I’ve lost all faith in humanity, and I just want to end my misery.

EDIT: I came back after 2 days to read the comments. Thank you for your support. For those calling this a troll post, I don’t know what to say and I really don’t want to spend whatever energy and willpower I have left to convince you otherwise. Yes, I wish it were a troll post too, but such is my life. Sorry. :)

I am a second-year MBA international student at a top 15 program. Before arriving here, I held the belief that America was a country riddled with racism, as that was the impression I had garnered from news and social media. However, now that I am here, my perspective has shifted, though not quite in the manner I initially anticipated.

In my humble opinion, America has embraced diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives to an extent that appears excessive. To elucidate further, last year, my class saw roughly 20 students secure internships at MBB consulting firms. Approximately half of these individuals gained these opportunities through early recruiting, and remarkably, to the best of my knowledge, the 20 students included only two white males. It is worth noting that our class profile states that Under-Represented Minorities constitute a mere 16% of our cohort. What's more, the only classmate I am aware of not to receive a return offer was one of the two white male students. This revelation shocked our entire class, as we collectively regarded him as one of our most brilliant peers.

I recognize the imperative of addressing America's historical systemic racism, but, from my perspective as a European, it seems that these efforts have been taken to an extreme. Upon reflection, I've come to realize that my own country and continent are not without their own deep-seated issues of racism. In Europe, it is not uncommon for footballers of color to face abhorrent incidents, such as having bananas thrown at them or encountering fan bases vehemently opposed to signing players of color. Open racism often goes unpunished, while here I have to create a throwaway account for fear of being called a racist for simply voicing my opinion. Thus, I find it somewhat perplexing when my classmates, who have clearly benefited from early recruiting, lament the supposed racism in America. They express grievances about their challenging experiences and inquire why others are not as involved as they are, without acknowledging the substantial advantages they have enjoyed due to early recruiting and the fact that they more or less have a two year vacation.

Once more, I am cognizant of the historical difficulties faced by minorities, but I believe America has reached a point where these initiatives provide a significant advantage, and some individuals are reluctant to acknowledge it.

Hi Friends,

This is a serious post. I tried finding answers online but I can't get a clear consensus. My girlfriend goes to a T15 and she very often goes MIA without explanation.

I never get a preemptive "hey I'll be busy with XYZ for the next few hours", it's always going ghost and then explaining it the next day.

The reason why I am bringing this up here on Reddit is because I don't know how legitimate her reasonings are, and I figure y'all would know best.

She doesn't use reddit so I think I'll be safe, but I'll obfuscate a few details for the sake of privacy and/or being called out by her.

1. Recruiting is over, she landed a role (away from me/our hometown, close to her campus), but she says there are still coffee chats, career related networking events, and mandatory onboarding / pre internship activities that she must do. This one I can kind of buy? But they sometimes end at 2/3am and "that's just how it goes".

2. I thought an MBA was a very academically relaxed program. For the sake of this discussion, I have independently confirmed that it is not a rigorous program. Anyhow, would there be any extenuating circumstances where someone might have a heavy course load 2nd semester year 1, even after they have landed an internship already?

3. I honestly do not believe in the number of social outings she goes out to on weekends. There's almost always some club event (like campus club, not night club), and again, they end very late.

4. She's been pushing (dictating) that she'll go to an overseas spring break trip, and while that is reasonable, I would think she would want to spend time with her boyfriend and our 3 year old. Yes - we had a baby out of wedlock, sue me.

I want to trust her, but at this point I have to be realistic, any thoughts on the legitimacy of these claims?

And yes, I spoke to her already, and having been cheated on in all my 3 past relationships, similar signs are there.

So I go to an M7 (not in California). I'm now in my 2nd year. During first year, I successfully recruited for MBB consulting and landed the summer internship. During 2nd semester, I went to Coachella with some classmates. I was caught by an undercover police officer for doing ketamine. Keep in mind this wasn't out in the open, this was midway in the crowd at one of the stages. Yet I still got arrested for illegal hard drug possession.

I have been fighting to get it expunged/off my record, but it's a multi month long process, potentially takes up to a year. However, this came up in my MBB criminal background check when the summer internship started. They gave me a chance to explain it, and I did honestly, but they rejected my appeal and I got kicked out of my summer internship.

I ended finding last minute unpaid volunteer strategy work at a no-name startup and they're allowing me to call myself an "intern." My arrest is on track to be finally expunged soon.

But just wanted to warn things that this can happen and to be EXTREMELY CAREFUL if you're breaking the law, even for something as MINOR as doing ketamine at Coachella. There ARE undercover cops and narcs around at these things who WILL ARREST YOU. And the consequences can be harsh, such as getting fired from your summer internship.

Let’s say I get into an M7 MBA, how am I supposed to fund actually going to it? My goal is to network, have a very social life and enjoy the overall experience. If I am going to take out the biggest loan of my life, I might as well enjoy it. I am an international student wondering how can I afford that

Basically the title. Are there any purchases that significantly improved your quality of life during an MBA. It can be anything

I'm a RC (first year) at HBS and can confirm that most of my peers aren't that bright. I was expecting to be in a cohort of ambitious, high achieving, brilliant peers. People are professionally successful and well rounded, yes, but many genuinely lack brains.

George W. Bush and Steve Bannon are not outliers.

I knew going in this wouldn't be an MD, JD, or PhD. But I'm genuinely surprised at how outright dumb my classmates are. You'd think high GMAT scores and GPAs would filter out stupidity, but they don't.

Because HBS focuses heavily on the case method, the idiocy of classmates becomes quickly apparent. People contribute just to gain participation points and give the most nonsense, BS answers.

Usually the more economically privileged folks as well as certain internationals are the dumbest. Indian & East Asian internationals seem to be the smartest so far.

I swear to god my peers in my 10th grade AP & IB classes were legitimately smarter than my late 20s/early 30s peers now. Went to a school in the realm of CalTech/MIT for undergrad and everyone there was brilliant. HBS is not that.

1st year at a top MBA with a smaller class. It was my birthday over the weekend and I let people know a few weeks in advance. It was a chill hang at a bar in the evening.

What happened was a much more popular student threw a house party (not even a birthday) at the exact same time as mine. And with only a few days' advance notice.

10+ people told me they'd come to my party. They all ditched it in favor of the popular kids' random house party. I was not invited to that.

The MBA is starting to feel very much like high school again with all of the cliques, gossip, and popularity contests. I feel very unpopular and socially rejected :(

I don't think I did anything wrong, I've been a kind, normal person. Maybe I'm just boring and not cool enough.

Anyway, might just treat myself to a nice solo vacation somewhere or go back home to catch up with my real, non-MBA friends. Even if I'm lonely hopefully I'll make some good money after the program.

Cocaine use is pretty normalized at my T15 full time MBA program. It's only a minority of the class, but still widespread and accessible in house parties and other contexts. People will frequently do key bumps, and lines of coke are common as well.

But I look down on my classmates who do this. In my view, cocaine use is for losers in life and junkies. I don't care if you worked in investment banking, you're a lowlife who should be socially ostracized.

First off, you can literally kill yourself because of how often cocaine is laced with other lethal hard drugs. Fentanyl yes, but other stuff too. I'm not convinced everyone is testing their bag rigorously.

Second, even if the cocaine is pure, using it too much is dangerous as fuck. Ask any medical professional and legality aside, they'll tell you to never touch that stuff. These are the same doctors who might say it's probably okay to do shrooms, acid, marijuana, and even occasionally MDMA.

My older brother worked in bulge bracket investment banking after a T10 undergrad. He, like many others, developed a coke habit in NYC to deal with the extremely long hours and stress.

Yes, he had a lot of short-term fun while partying. But guess what?

His cocaine was pure, not laced. Still, after a few years of use, he ended up GETTING A HEART ATTACK. AT AGE 28. That's not supposed to happen! He's way too young! Was completely healthy before and we have no family history of heart issues.

This happened all because of cocaine use.

Now this has changed his life forever, he has be to far more careful and cautious, and his risk for long-term cardiovascular issues has skyrocketed even though he's mainly doing okay in the short term. He's on long-term chronic medication for his heart.

So to those of you who do coke, stop. You'll end up destroying your body for some short term fun. Just do vodka shots instead.

And yes, I'll judge you for being a loser and a lowlife junkie. Don't expect any future job referral from me even if I don't say anything now. You're a loser.

As an international female student who’s more on the nerdy and introverted side, no one warned me how insanely social the MBA experience would be. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever experienced, even more intense than high school. I do have a STEM background though. Now, I'm attending full-time at a top school and finishing up my first year.

When I applied, I thought the MBA would be a balance of academics, recruiting, networking, and some socializing. I imagined things would be evenly split, with socializing mostly happening over one-on-one coffee chats, club leadership positions, or the occasional happy hour. Maybe a few birthday parties here and there.

Instead, what I’ve experienced has been completely different.

Now that we’re nearing the end of our first year, most people have checked out of academics. At the beginning, people took classes seriously, but once they realized the grading curve is generous and grades don’t really matter because of grade non-disclosure, they stopped caring. The focus shifted to recruiting, with everyone doing interview prep, case prep, and all that. But after recruiting wrapped up, the entire energy shifted toward one thing: having fun.

I am not exaggerating when I say that the thing people care about most right now isn’t school or career networking. It’s about what the next party is and what costumes they are going to wear. People go all out with elaborate themes like 90s parties, Great Gatsby nights, and Mardi Gras masquerades. It’s not casual either. People size each other up based on how cool or creative their costumes are. That is basically the social currency here.

These parties usually involve heavy drinking. There is a lot of binge drinking, shots, and sometimes hard drugs. Outside of the parties, there is also a big focus on fun extracurriculars. Ski culture is massive, and people use it as a way to socialize. Many classmates also organize bike rides, hikes, or sign up for local half marathons together. There are weekend camping trips, bar hopping weekends in other cities, and both domestic and international trips that are more about partying than anything else. One of the biggest social events is Yacht Week in Croatia, which is basically a week-long party on boats where people drink heavily and live like they are in an episode of The White Lotus.

When I first heard about these international treks, I thought they would be focused on learning about business culture in other countries, connecting with startups, or building professional networks. That has not been my experience. It is entirely about partying and having fun. People are sized up by how cool or fun they are, with brownie points going those who are conventionally attractive, charismatic, and fashionable. Social hierarchies definitely exist.

The social scene here honestly reminds me of the stereotypical American high school you see in TV shows and films. That or American Greek life in undergrad. There are cliques, there is constant gossip, and nonstop drama. People hook up or date all the time. I have seen so many people throw up from drinking, even in Ubers on the way home.

Everyone seems to be Type A and extremely extroverted. Even the more nerdy people are still highly social. They might prefer board game nights or movie marathons, but it is still very social and constant. People really care about building friendships and pursue that by being hyper-social.

For me, it has been exhausting. Back home I used to think I was fairly social for an introvert, but this experience has made me realize I have hard social limits. I eventually moved out of a shared living situation because I felt socially overstimulated all the time, especially with my roommates frequently hosting loud EDM-themed drinking parties. I needed my own space to decompress, to read, or to watch TV without anyone around.

Yes, these events are technically optional, but there is immense social pressure to attend them. People say it's important to get plugged into informal networks for friendships and job opportunities. FOMO is rampant across campus, with people being deemed less cool for being left out socially. The socializing is is nonstop and utterly relentless.

I knew the MBA experience would be social and a bit of a two-year vacation, but I thought people would still care about learning or professional connection. That has not been the case so far. It has been non-stop socializing, and I honestly did not sign up for this. Sometimes I wonder if I should have gone to a program like Darden that has more of an academic or professional focus. Even 1:1 coffee chats and club activities have devolved into purely having fun.

I know I am not the only one who feels this way. There is a section in Susan Cain’s book Quiet where she talks about an introverted HBS student who described the experience as hell because of how much social energy it demanded.

If anyone has advice on how to manage this and protect my peace while still being part of the community, I would love to hear it. Thanks. I'm going into a product internship at a tech company for the summer, so I hope that's a better cultural fit.

There are so many posts on this sub arguing about Yale SOM, M7 prestige, and the myth of the "elite employers" who will sneer at your T20 MBA.

Let's get a few things out of the way.

• There is no such thing as an "elite" employer. There are only MBBs, B4/T2s, BBs, and EBs. That's it. The rest is unstructured recruiting which 100% comes down to your ability to network and ace coffee chats. There are literally some high schoolers on this sub who think the illuminati is recruiting from HSW to topple third world governments. Seriously.

• If your MBA has consulting and banking recruiting, you're good. You're in. M7 doesn't matter. T10 doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is are there on-campus info sessions from consulting and banking. If they're on-campus, you're in the game. The rest is up to your resume and technical interviewing ability. If you think HSW will save you from messing up a case study, you are dead wrong.

• MBAs are not prestigious in general. Stop arguing about Cornell or Dartmouth being false prestige despite its layman appeal and name brand. Nobody cares. University of Nowhere Medical School has a 4% acceptance rate. Do you think those guys care you got into Stanford's 7% acceptance rate MBA? And that's the lowest of all MBAs. Being proud of your MBA prestige is a losing battle.

• A lot of you need therapy. The majority of this sub are Asian/Indian teenagers and young adults who live and die by dinner table prestige. I'm sorry, but your auntie will never accept your elite MBA because your cousin just got into medical school. She will also never know the word "M7" and thinks "Kellogg" is her cereal. MBA prestige is one big massive cope.

• This sub is inundated with LARPers who have no idea what they're talking about. This sub constantly gives out horrible and bad advice. A teenager in Hyderabad is rating your profile and telling you to give up on M7. Tip to spot a LARPer: anyone who introduces themselves as "HYP" and "I work in PE/VC/HF/AM" and uses acronym soup is lying their ass off. I had my summer internship at a bulge bracket in NY where I hung out with the global head of M&A. No one talks like this in the real world. Anyone with an actual, successful career in MBB/BB does not have the time to be on this sub arguing with you about M7. It's just common sense.

I used this sub voraciously for the past few years to get myself into an M7. Once I finally entered that world, I realized 99% of the advice on this sub is absolute bullshit. Nobody here actually understands the top-tier MBA's culture and the majority of you are teenage LARPers role-playing on this sub. It's weird and sad af

Don't sweat the prestige, get into the best school you can, and start interviewing prep months before you ever enter campus.

I feel like I am losing my mind here and I want to sanity check if this is normal or if Kellogg is just uniquely unserious. Am a 1st year attending full-time.

Classes are an absolute joke. The curves are insanely high so most people completely slack off. We technically do not have grade nondisclosure. Instead we have this grade optional disclosure policy that everyone treats as full grade nondisclosure anyway. That was a given coming in, fine.

What I did not expect is that literally everyone just parties all the time.

It feels like high school or undergrad except grades actually mattered back then. This place is a nonstop frat party. People are constantly doing house parties and themed costume parties for stuff like birthdays or holidays in Evanston. People care more about having cool costumes or knowing how to make fancy cocktails than anything business related.

There are nonstop bar crawls and trips into Chicago to dance. Knowing how to dance with another person is the most important skill. There is a massive amount of alcohol involved all the time. Shots, keg stands, shotgunning beers. Beer pong. Also the casual bump or line of coke too. People have gotten blacked out, collapsed on the floor, and thrown up in Ubers.

People care a lot about fashion, outfits, and aesthetics. Big hookup culture too. A social hierarchy and cliques absolutely exist. Many people straight up have social anxiety or FOMO about not being socially popular or not getting invited to a birthday party or trip. It's sad to see late 20s & early 30s people act this way.

Everyone is going on domestic and international treks constantly. Ski trips across the country now are really popular. Or visiting national parks. The trips to other countries are 90% partying, 10% nice food, and 0% culture or history.

99% percent of coffee chats start with professional background and recruiting goals and within five minutes devolve into talking about Lollapalooza, Coachella, EDC, Tomorrowland, where we are traveling next, which treks we are doing, celebrity gossip, reality TV, concerts, comedy shows, the Super Bowl, the NBA, Michelin star restaurants, EDM music, cooking TV shows. Or gossip about our peers.

The only time people get remotely serious is consulting or tech case prep. That is it.

Even the entrepreneurs just party and want to have fun. No one wants to actually talk about building something or thinking deeply about business. We have a book club but it's 90% fun books.

Why will no one have serious conversations? I came to my MBA to have fun yes but also to grow, learn about business, and expand my network. Instead this feels like a never ending vacation. It is too much fun to the point that it feels hollow.

People told me ad nauseam how liberal top B-schools are. Started my first year at Wharton for the MBA, and while there are plenty of liberals, there is a surprisingly large number of centrists as well as even open conservatives.

The general vibe of the campus also isn't super liberal. I'd say the vast majority of folks were horrified at the Charlie Kirk assassination, which in my view is the correct response. But a lot of people also have mixed views on things like trans rights, DEI, affirmative action, etc. Lots of people have "offensive" humor while drunk. Many want to join the Adam Smith Society, which is a libertarian group. So many people are "fiscally conservative" and want lower taxes and regulations. Guys are generally into working out and being "traditionally masculine." People mostly speak positively about the police and military.

I'd say people seem like moderate Republican types. Likely pro gay marriage, pro marijuana legalization, and pro abortion types. But they believe in climate change, vaccines, and aren't necessarily MAGA. Many are pro-Israel. People seem in favor of deporting violent illegal immigrants, but support a path to citizenship for DREAMers, and are mostly okay with legal status for nonviolent undocumented people. All while strengthening the border. I've seen anti-gun sentiment to be high though.

They might have voted for a Democrat for president, but it's not their preference, and would flip back to the GOP if an establishment figure like Nikki Haley or Marco Rubio was the nominee. Most people are anti-tariffs and like free trade.

Woke virtue signaling also isn't a thing on campus now. Just a big surprise because I always thought MBA programs would be super liberal.

X

I go to a T15 MBA full time as an Indian international male student. I and the other Indian internationals have generally gotten along well with the class, except for one group.

That group is white liberal women.

A lot of these people openly post pro-DEI, pro-ESG, pro LGBTQIA, and anti-racism stuff on their personal social medias. However, they have their all white cliques where they do Pilates, Americanized yoga (Corepower), and expensive ski trips together. They don't really mingle with the rest of the class socially, except for the fratty white males of course.

All of that would have been fine if they didn't perpetuate casual racism against Indian males, especially internationals.

In my study group, we have a white woman who decided to leave the "cool white women" clique because she's a little more nerdy and didn't vibe with them. She's also Jewish and didn't fit as well in with the blonde WASPs. She said among that group, casual racism against Indian males was widespread.

The white women who were nominally in favor of liberal social causes openly called Indian males smelly. They would say they hate going into Uber rides if the driver had an Indian or Middle Eastern name. Apparently part of the reason they avoid getting to know Indian males better is because of negative experiences of smelling the BO of Indians in their previous jobs. They also find the Indian accent tough to understand and associate it with phone scams.

This is despite the Indian internationals at my program having good hygiene. I and the other Indians shower daily, and use deodorant/antiperspirant. We all speak English clearly. Yet the cool white girls completely ignore us if it's not forced collaboration during class case study.

On top of that, the white women have described Indians as being creepy and socially awkward. Some of these women post about destigmatizing mental health & a few are open about neurodivergence (ADHD though, not autism). I do agree rural Indians are often creepy toward women on the internet, but most Indians at T15 or M7 programs are highly educated, have EQ (they're screened via interviews), and show respect.

But there is zero tolerance for males who don't have rock solid social skills, which excludes some East Asians and Indians who grew up in a different culture. Many would say they'd never date an Indian or East Asian guy, or even a Black guy, despite many of them having posted the black square on their instagram a few years ago. My Jewish female friend said these women claim they want to date sensitive, caring guys but in practice go for white muscular fratty boys, including Republicans.

My views are fairly liberal and while I'm not American, I'd vote for the Democratic Party and Kamala Harris. Back in India, I oppose the right-wing BPJ and Prime Minister Modi. This isn't me shitting on liberals or Democrats. However, it is me shitting on the hypocrisy of white woke women at my program.

I've gotten along well with liberals of other races, both men and women. Most of my campus is outwardly liberal. As well the conservatives (usually the American veterans) - most are non judgmental even though I might disagree with them in terms of being pro-choice on abortion or wanting universal healthcare.

But the popular white women clique seems to be the most exclusionary and "mean" despite its members professing liberal views. They're the ones who most often virtue signal about social impact, environmentalism, etc., despite still gunning for the typical capitalist post-MBA positions in management consulting and investment banking. A few are going for CPG Brand Management, with a minority interested in tech roles like Product Marketing or Management.