What’s up, readers. As you can tell, I’m trying to get to more of my reader emails lately, so I’ll be posting a little more regularly to cut down on the backlog. This entry is my response to a reader who is pretty young, but has a strong desire to apply to business school anyway. I’ve answered a few questions like this before, but, as always, I’ve tried to provide some decent general advice here.

Also, before I close this out, I thought I’d give a quick reminder about the MBA Action Plan that my man Jullien developed during his own MBA journey. With this year’s crop of new MBA1′s about to start school, I thought some of the readers out there might find this document useful. You can find more information about it at this link –> Jullien’s MBA Action Plan

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SC wrote:

“Dear Marquis,
Thank you for reading my mail.
Your efforts really help people in need of it. Congratulations!
You are doing work. A consultant indeed.
I am currently working with the back office of a [NY-based Hedge Fund] in [India]. Have worked here for the past 10 months with the Financial Research Dept (we are the data team at the Dept – like we work on Data validating so on – a few interesting projects here and there).
I have done my Bachelors in Commerce from Bangalore University (3 years). My academic -
(10th – 76%
12th – 86%,
B.Com average – 76%). I have 15 years of education.
*Senior prefect at school (12th).
*Best Outgoing student from college.
*Best organisers award at college.
*I have been a very active quizzer at college and have won many regional quizzes.
*Have taken part in many extracurricular activities at college and at school.
I really wish to do something by myself as an entrepreneur and aspire to do my MBA from Stanford for the same reason.
Many say that there is no point even applying to these schools without sufficient work experience. After going through GSB website I have learnt that this is not true. (http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/mba/admission/college_seniors.html) — Inputs on this please!
I have not appeared for my GMAT yet but will do so by end of June – I hope to perform well and am aiming at a score of above 720. I want to chalk a plan to get to Stanford GSB and then execute it accordingly. I am planning to apply in R1 in October this year. Will try for the scholarship ( http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/mba/financialaid/reliance.html#admission1) – really need this one – advise on this?
I have tried to sketch a rough picture of my profile. I want to be an entrepreneur and a young entrepreneur. I do not want to spend my time in getting work experience and then doing my MBA. An MBA will help me meet likeminded people. Being with similar mind sets will help generation of synergy. I have learnt that apart from the GMAT what makes the difference is the essay that you send with your application – I was looking at your inputs on this. Your reply to Harish will be very helpful when I will write my essays. I don’t want to be an investment banker or a consultant – I want to come up with an idea and I want that idea to earn my living while I get the next idea. This is exactly what I want to do. I have my life plan chalked out for the next few years.
MBA by the age of 24, get back to India and set up a venture and I want to get married early. I wish to celebrate my success with my children and want to celebrate their success when I am young (personal goals). My point here being – I am 21 now. Am I being unrealistic in my wanting to be in one of the Best B Schools without much to back me up? Would be grateful if you could tell me what you think about this and your opinions and just anything that you think will help me. Thanks again. Much appreciated.
Awaiting your reply.
Best,
SC”

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My response:

SC,

Thanks for checking out my blog and thinking of me as a resource for information. I’m not really sure if I can give you the type of specific information you’re looking for because I’ve never worked in the admissions office at the GSB or any other business school. I’ll do my best to give you a general response, but please remember that it is only MY opinion and I suggest that you seek out others to ask these same questions to.

Your first question was about the Reliance scholarship for Indian students and, unfortunately, I had never heard of it until seeing it in your email. So, I don’t know if my advice will be very helpful here. From reading the description of the scholarship, it looks like the only part of the evaluation criteria that differs from the standard admissions criteria is a commitment to developing India. That said, I’d suggest that you think about distinguishing yourself in regards to that in your application. For example, you said that you’d like to become an entrpreneur, so, perhaps, you can tell the story of how the companies you start will help India (ex: through new jobs, injecting capital into the country, etc). I can’t get too specific on this one because you’ll have to figure out the story yourself, but that’s how I would go about it if I were in your position. Also, I don’t know if you know anyone who works at Reliance Industries Ltd, but, if you do, I’d suggest reaching out to those people and asking if they know anything about the scholarship. I’m sure that they’d be able to give you more insight on it than I can.

Your next question was about whether I think you’re being unrealistic about wanting to go to a top business school so early in your career. In short, I’d say that you’re being 100% realistic IF you REALLY believe that you are ready to both learn from and contribute to all aspects of the business school experience. I know several people who matriculated into top B-schools straight out of undergrad and after only a year of work and each of them faced challenges in doing so. It’s not as simple as getting admitted and then having the diploma in hand two years later with no problems or struggles. The big question you’ll have to be prepared to answer is why you want to get an MBA now, as opposed to waiting a few years and getting some more experience. I’m not saying that this isn’t a valid aspiration, but you’ll have to give a compelling reason for wanting to do this or else it’ll seem like you’re applying on a whim. Most people would advise you to wait a while longer to apply, but, if you want to be finished with your MBA early, why wait?…especially if you believe that you can handle the rigors of an MBA curriculum in the near term. I’ve always wished that I had applied earlier, but I likely wouldn’t have been ready for it all if I had.

It sounds like you want to be a serial entrepreneur, so you’ve got to weave that into a story about what you’ll be doing in the process and how an MBA will help you do that. Further, you’ve got to make the schools see how you will contribute both in and out of the classroom in order to show that you should get an admit letter. I’m not going to go deep into describing how to do this because I’ve written many entries about this before, but I hope you get the idea of what I’m saying. As I’ve written several times before, it is up to you to convince the admissions officers that you deserve a spot in their incoming business school class. If you put in the effort to develop your story well and articulate it convincingly, I don’t see why you wouldn’t be able to get into a top B-school, whether you’ve got 1-2 years or 10-15 years of work experience.

Good luck with your business school applications. I’ll ave my fingers crossed for you. Take care.

-Marquis