I was a first year at an M7 and dropped out last week and wanted to share my experience. I moved cross country to attend my program in August. Unfortunately, decided to drop out due to several reasons.

1) The students at my program just did not have the incredible backgrounds that I thought they'd have. There were probably less than 30 students who were in IB, MBB, or Big Tech in the US before the program. For those who were, a few actually dropped out with me because they came to the same realization that I did - the program isn't really meant for us because most students wanted to end up in those roles. I would argue that at HSW a lot more students came from these backgrounds, though, and were using the MBA as a 2 year break.

2) The students honestly just were not that ambitious or smart. There was definitely a lot of diversity in backgrounds but in the classroom, I was surprised how many students did not understand basic math (percent change, expected value, etc).

3) The student body was pretty cliquey. The program was big enough that you'll likely find your people if you're willing to put yourself out there, but people definitely form their groups in the first few weeks and stick with them. There was a post about this yesterday on here from a CBS student and I definitely felt the same about my program. It just felt incredibly performative and did not feel like I was making "life-long" friends/network. It mostly felt like a popularity contest.

4) Recruiting was not very strong this year. A lot more students wanted to do IB this year for the same number of spots as as last year, and a lot more people were getting cut. Obviously, recruiting is still going on so I cannot speak to final numbers but I didn't feel the opportunities were there even outside of banking.

5) A big chunk of students are sponsored in some way. Whether by employer, GI bill, parents, a big percentage of students are having their MBA paid for. This is not something I realized going into the program and made it feel less "worth it" for me, since I was self-funded.

The point of this post is not to convince anyone not to go to an MBA program - I don't think someone's internet post should be able to do that. Additionally, I think there are plenty of reasons to go to an MBA program i.e. get a job in the US (obviously, much harder now for internationals), pivot careers, etc. but if you're already pretty successful in your career, the MBA might not be right for you (HSW could make more sense?).

First-year at a T15. Since August I've been to more employer presentations and recruiting coffee chats than I can count, but until Tuesday I'd never gone to a professor's office hours.

I only went because I was confused about an operations case and couldn't figure out where my numbers were going wrong.

I thought the company had a capacity problem. The professor asked what would happen to the queue if we increased capacity at that particular stage. We spent maybe 20 minutes at the whiteboard, and I realized I'd been looking at the wrong bottleneck the entire time.

Then he asked about my previous job because I'd mentioned managing a customer support team. We ended up talking about staffing problems I'd actually dealt with at work and how they compared to the case. It was genuinely interesting. Not something I needed for a grade or an interview.

Afterward I noticed he still had several open appointments that afternoon.

Meanwhile, I've had to register days in advance for 15-minute coffee chats with alumni who basically repeat the same recruiting advice I've already heard six times.

And I'm not criticizing those events. I'm trying to switch careers, so obviously recruiting matters a lot. I've probably done 30 coffee chats myself.

But it occurred to me that I've spent more one-on-one time with people explaining how to get an interview than with the people I'm paying an enormous amount of money to learn from.

Which is a little ridiculous when I actually think about it.

For current second-years and graduates, did you end up getting much value out of interacting with professors outside class? Or does recruiting pretty much consume everyone's attention until it's too late?

Beyond the admissions marketing, what does each M7 school seem to care about most in each candidate?

The stereotypes I’ve heard are

Kellogg = cultural fit/collaboration

Booth = quant/intellectual curiosity

HBS = leadership/personal story

MIT Sloan = “mind and hand,” or turning ideas into action.

How accurate are these? What would the equivalents be for Stanford, Wharton, and Columbia?

Obviously admissions are holistic, but are there qualities each school places noticeably more weight on? Curious to hear concrete examples beyond admissions marketing.

Started this process early this year. Spent a few months on GMAT, then summer in networking and writing essays. Now gotta prep for interviews and other side quests like Video Questions. Then have to debate about R2, and if lucky get admission and then figure how to pack my life in one city and move to the next.

Been over 9-10 months juggling MBA work with a full time job and life. Feeling quite burnt out. Although grateful for the invites. Sometimes I question if all this work is worth it reading the negative discourse about the MBA (even M7)

Any tips on how to remain motivated and productive in what feels like a never ending process.

Comment time and country when you start receiving calls from darden for Early Action Results. Include scholarship details if any.

Saw a lot of mba interview invite reporting on ClearAdmit. Quite nervous.

Are most invites out already?

Hi everyone!

Just wanted to see if anyone has completed the Chicago Booth video simulation for this application cycle.

Would love to hear how it’s setup, what questions were asked, and if the questions are the same for everyone.

Thanks in advance!

10 seconds to prepare, 90 seconds to respond. So you barely have time to prepare.

Example of questions - a) a time you made an impact in an organisation b) factors you consider before making a decision c) something you once believed and now have changed your mind on d) something you once found boring that's now fascinating.

Make sure you read the instructions very well before you start

Good luck!

What kind of person, not on a resume/piece of paper, would score better on the Executive Assessment? I was never the solid standardized test taker but from what I’ve heard the format is much different?

Has anyone received an email from Sloan for an interview yet?

Only 2 invites and no update on the application. Reading subs seeing people getting invites is freaking me out. Got an unusual invite in just 18 days, post submission. Has Wharton rolled out invites yet?. Is me being an international applicant causing delay?

Is it frowned up or recommend to use Claude to button up my resume on an MBA application?

Not very common, but I was exploring possibilities and mba was always something I’d like to do (maybe consulting) but like research. Some schools like Yale, Stanford maybe MIT has this but other schools definitely do.

Hey all, I'm currently working in Canada at a T2 consulting firm making about $150K (although in 2 years can go up to $170K depending on promotion cycles). I don't want to stay in consulting much longer as I've spent 4 years at the firm since out of undergrad. I have a ~3.6 GPA but my biggest roadblock tbh is the GMAT. I spent 4 months studying but haven't been able to get past a 615 on any of my 5 practice tests. My verbal and DI is great honestly (V85, DI82) but my Quant is so cooked (Q76) even though these last 4 months I've literally only done quant practice online.

I'm also conflicted because as an international, factoring in total cost + lost wages the MBA can be $500K+ for me and I would only ever want to go for M7 anyway. But even in that situation, as someone who doesn't want to go into MBB / IB / PE, I don't know if there's true value in pursuing an MBA.

My career goals are to go into the strategy arm at big tech or a F500 and I know an MBA can't hurt my chances but I'm still not sure if it's worth attempting the GMAT some more and then going through the whole application process only to lose out on half a million.

Thank you!

Anyone applying to Fuqua EMBA? How was the process and interviews ?

Of course, you can argue that good materials are timeless.

But if we are paying big bucks for education, shouldn't we expect access to state-of-the-art materials?

Im an electrical engineer in Spain(23M), is it worth it to do an MBA to work in spain? Or just grew in the engineering sector? I do like finance/business but i also do like engineering as work. Any advise from europe would be cool, thanks.

How realistic is it for an international student to land a sustainability strategy or operations role after MBA at Said BS or even at a consultancy?

Anyone who pursued this path, please share your experience.

hey guys! i recently got a job as a Process Engineer at P&G. I start in november. I just got my BS in Chemical Engineering in May (I have experience in internships/research positions). I was thinking of applying to start my masters in the upcoming spring semester, doing it part-time alongside my full-time position.

The school that I am applying to is the Tippie MBA program, which i know isnt the best program, fits my budget and operation speciality needs. I want to stay in this company for the unforeseeable future, and I’m looking for a way to move up fast so that I have more freedom in terms of which plant I am located at. I also want to lean towards the more corporate side of operations rather than the technical aspect side.

Do you guys think that this is a good idea? I know that the recommendation is for 2-4 years of work experience, but technically by the time I end my masters, I will have at least 2 years. Also, I don’t know if I will ever have as much free-time as I do in the next 3 years. Please feel free to give me honest/brutal opinions! I am also not set on the specific school, so if you have an opinion on that, please let me know! Thank you :)

I am just looking to get an idea if a RSM MBA is realistic for me. I am a 25-year-old Canadian, looking to get into the RSM class of 2028. I currently have around ~2.5 YOE, and expect to have 3 years in April of next year. I have an undergraduate in Industrial Engineering from a smaller Canadian School (mid-rank). I had a 16-month continuous co-op from 2022-2023 with a large delivery company while at school, and got hired on at a major car company while still in school (Dec 2023). I did not like the culture of there and moved on to a smaller construction company where I could have real impact after only like two months of full time work at the auto company. I feel like I’ve absorbed most of what I can from my current position (project manager/estimator) beyond staying here for years learning all the minute details. The mba seems to be the logical next step.

Just to note it, I just took the GMAT and got a 615. I expect my reattempt I should get that up to 640-650

I’ve been experimenting around with AI for my Stanford GSB essay, mostly to sort through my notes and clean up awkward sentences. Some of the edits sound nothing like how I’d actually talk. Everything starts sounding polished in the same boring way, and I’m having a hard time figuring out what to keep and what to ignore.

For those who wrote your essays yourself, did you ever get stuck on this? I'm also curious how people who get feedback from a consultant handled it without letting someone else's voice take over.

I'm an international student at SBU. Planning to get into MBA, not sure if top universities are going to accept me or I'll be able to cover the expenses. GPA is not an issue.

Hence I'm asking for a list of 15-20, maybe more, public universities that are good for MBA. Nothing more, I will do the research later

Please refrain from saying stuff like "MBA is worth only from top 10", just ignore the post if you can't provide a list.