By Stuart Nachbar
The most selective MBA programs have traditionally sought applicants who have several years of relevant work experience. Their admissions offices rarely considered college seniors. But now there are seven selective MBA programs targeted to college seniors that offer admission that is delayed until the applicant has acquired the required work experience. Apply to these programs, with an impressive resume and academic record as well as top percentile GMAT scores, and if you get accepted, you will have a seat waiting for you, depending on the program you choose.
Selective MBA programs that currently offer deferred admission to college seniors are Columbia, Emory (Goizeuta), Harvard, MIT (Sloan), Stanford, Penn (Wharton), UChicago (Booth), Northwestern (Kellogg), UC Berkeley (Haas), Virginia (Darden) and IESE based in Barcelona, Spain. These programs are a “win” for the schools. The biggest win: each school, excluding Yale, which brings accepted students to campus to start the first-year curriculum after they graduate from college, fills seats at least two years in advance. Competition for the remaining seats in those future incoming classes will be equally—or even more—selective. Each school can also continue to advertise high GPA and GRE/GMAT numbers for each incoming class as well as the average years of work experience that they have publicized all along.
What are the pluses to deferred admission for a college senior, aside from the satisfaction of knowing that you’re in? For one thing, you get to learn, through your work experience, if the MBA is really the degree you want. Suppose you start your own business or non-profit after you graduate from college and decide that you want to continue to grow it full-time? Or perhaps you accept a job offer from an employer who wants you stay on board and incentivizes the offer with an increase in salary or other benefits as well as more challenging assignments. Or maybe, during the deferral period you find another degree program that is a better fit for your future career. Deferred admission offers a chance to back out and move on. And there’s another plus, whether you accept or back out of the commitment: you can save money towards expenses for life after college and reduce some of your student loan debt.
One elite program, the Yale Silver Scholars, is worthy of special mention. This program allows you to spend your first year after college taking business courses at Yale. You work full-time during your second year, possibly longer, then return to campus to complete your MBA. There are many upsides to being a Silver Scholar. First, Yale puts its resources behind your job search. You receive help from career services and the alumni network to find the right opportunity. Yale also offers merit-based aid for tuition and living expenses and also offers financial assistance to help Silver Scholars cover costs towards study abroad to fulfill the Global Studies requirement towards the degree. Want to launch your own business after you graduate? Yale has grant programs that offer seed capital while you are pursuing the degree as well as an Entrepreneurship Fellowship that allows five newly minted MBAs to defer student loan payments for two years.
The reality is that while many college seniors may find these deferred admission MBA programs attractive, they may not have the grades, test scores, and resume needed to be considered. For example, many liberal arts majors who have taken few business courses and have little business experience will not receive much financial benefit from pursuing the MBA immediately after college. They might even be less competitive for entry-level jobs with an MBA than their friends who earned undergraduate business degrees. Specialized programs in fields such as accounting, business analytics, finance, or marketing, among others, might be better fits for these students. These graduate degree programs take less time to complete than an MBA. They are also a better ticket for an undergraduate business student who wants to take advanced courses in their current specialty, or wants to learn another specialty, but does not want to take the other courses required for an MBA. These programs welcome students from a variety of undergraduate backgrounds, as long as they have demonstrated some competency in quantitative reasoning and statistics.
Depending on your resume, academic record, and test scores, college seniors have many more opportunities than you might think. To better understand your options, call Doing College and Beyond for a courtesy consultation now!
