Latest / Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast / MBA Wire Taps 352—Stanford or bust? First round targets. Anderson vs Marshall.

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MBA Wire Taps 352—Stanford or bust? First round targets. Anderson vs Marshall. · Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast

• 0:16
  Speaker A: Welcome to the Clearadmit MBA Admissions podcast. I'm Graham Richmond, and this is your wires haps for Monday, May 13, 2024. Are you looking for an MBA program where you'll be more than just a number? Vanderbilt Business offers a personalized learning experience to help each do reach their unique career goals. Whether you're looking to switch careers entirely or accelerate the path you're on, the Vanderbilt MBA program will provide you with the individual support you need to propel your career forward. Vanderbilt is currently waiving their dollar 200 application fee for MBA wiretaps. Listeners to learn more about the Vanderbilt MBA program at to claim your application fee waiver, visit business vanderbilt.edu clearadmit. I'm joined by Alex Brown from Cornwall, England. Alex, how are things going this week?
• 1:01
  Speaker B: Very good, thank you, Graham.
• 1:03
  Speaker A: So by the time you hear this episode or when this episode airs, I should be on an airplane to Chicago, because this is the big week. This week we've got a big event in Chicago that we've been talking about on the show for the last, I don't know, month or six weeks or so. Really looking forward to it. If you're listening to this and you are within driving distance of Chicago and want to come to this NBA fair that we've organized, we've got 21 leading MBA programs. You know, Stanford, Chicago, Kellogg, Harvard, Columbia, lBs. I mean, the list is long. Berkeley, Yale. I'm not even going to list them all. If it's a top school, it's going to be there pretty much. And it's an event that's taking place from five to 830 in the evening. And it's a fair. We got panels, lots of fun stuff. Head of recruiting from Bain's going to be there. So you can sign up at bit ly Cachicagofair. You can't walk in, so you got to sign up. So if you know anyone in Chicago that you want to tell about this, get them to sign up online at that URL. Alex, I'm really looking forward to this. And also a little bit crazed with last minute planning, but it's going to be exciting.
• 2:09
  Speaker B: Yeah. I wish you all the best of luck. This sounds like it's going to be a fantastic event, but I know you guys have put a lot of work into it, so I'm hoping it's going to be equally fantastic.
• 2:19
  Speaker A: Yeah, definitely. And then the other thing is that next week, so on May 22, and then again the following week, May 29, these are Wednesdays at noon Eastern, we'll be doing some virtual webinars where we'll sit down with top programs and talk about their application process. So on May 22, we've got tuck, unc, Uva, Darden and Yale joining us. And then on the 29th we've got Carnegie Mellon, Columbia, Wharton, Insead and lbs. So those should be fun. Again, you gotta sign up for those as well at bit ly caspringwebinars. So yeah, lots going on in the month of May. But Alex, tell me what is going on with MBA applicants right now. Cause I still see some posts happening on the site with kind of this year round three sort of activity and even some waitlist movement, right?
• 3:08
  Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think the activity this year for this time of year seems to be a little bit higher, I would say I agree, than last season, which is quite interesting given we continue to report application volumes. Maybe that's a reason in of itself. But anyway, up next week, decisions, quite a few schools releasing decisions for round three. So you've got Wharton, Marshall, Sloan, Yale, Oxford and Anderson amongst those programs that are releasing. And foster actually. Oh wow. Programs releasing round three decisions. So those applying in round three, as you've experienced, the cycle is much shorter, you'll know much sooner. And we're sort of moving into, we talked about this last week, I think, moving into that sort of summer wait list mode. But yeah, programs still seem to be making decisions off the waitlist. I think we've seen some activity with Columbia, again, a couple of other schools on Livewire. So there is activity. It's not all done yet.
• 4:16
  Speaker A: Agreed. Yeah, still more to come. Yeah, we continue to monitor the wires and try to answer people's questions. Alex, you're the king of that, managing our community. But I've noticed too, more volume than usual. And I'm sure it just seems like there's a lot of people weighing in on stuff, which is great. Speaking of Livewire and the website, we did run an admissions tip, as we often do. We ran one this past week about pre MBA coursework. So this is if you're looking to kind of bolster your background before you go off to business school and even before you apply. And there are basically two reasons that you might want to do that. One is if you have a low GPA and you're looking to compensate by getting a couple, as in relevant kind of business courses. And the other reason would be if you don't have any quantitative background in your undergrad and you need to kind of demonstrate that ability to the admissions reader, you could take a course or two again, get good grades and submit those as part of what we call an alternative transcript. So read the admissions tip. There's lots of details there. And we will run a second admissions tip soon that talks about the different courses that are out there. We talk on this show a lot about business fundamentals, MBA, math, HBS, core. There are all these different programs out there that you can take, many of which, most of which are like online offerings. And so we evaluate those and have a kind of tip that's forthcoming. So stay tuned on that front.
• 5:40
  Speaker B: Very good.
• 5:41
  Speaker A: The other thing is we continue to pump out those real humans alumni pieces. We caught up with Maria, who is a Berkeley Haas grad, class of 23, works at Pepsi as an associate marketing manager. Maria Hale's from California originally and had been working in consumer packaged goods and specifically food and marketing and stuff before business school. So Pepsi was obviously a pretty logical fit, it sounds like. But we did ask her why Haas and, like, what, you know, what led her to attend all that stuff? And she said, there were many reasons. I went with Haas before I knew that business school was right for me. I had always admired UC Berkeley's sustainable food ecosystem, whether it was Haas's annual edible Education 101 course sponsored by Alice Waters, she's a famous chef, by the way, or the Berkeley Food Institute. I knew that both Haas and the broader UC Berkeley community had many opportunities to meet other passionate about food systems. So, Alex, I picked that quote because I think it's a really great example of instances where something quite niche can be driving someone's decision making process and that it could be that. I mean, in Maria's mind here, Haas has really good connections into sort of the food space. Right. And I would not have known that before reading this article. Right. So, very interesting stuff. No, no.
• 7:02
  Speaker B: I think that's absolutely fantastic. And obviously, we've talked again on this show and within clear admit about the importance of sustainability, sort of being more infused into the MBA curriculum and so forth. We have a whole series dedicated to this now, which hopefully we'll be renewing again next season. I think Pepsi, it's great that they're at Pepsi, and Pepsi needs to be very focused on this, not only in the food that they produce in a sustainable fashion, but they need to make sure their customers don't just toss their packages away. That's a big problem for brands like Pepsi. I think they're being sued by the state of New York for that very reason, because polluting the Buffalo river. So, yeah, there's lots of, put it this way, there's lots of impacts that they can have at Pepsi if that's their focus. So that's brilliant.
• 7:58
  Speaker A: Yeah, definitely. Interesting. We also moving on, caught up with Anna who is an IMD grad class of and works at Amazon. Actually at AWS senior customer solutions manager Anna or Anna, I'm not really sure how she pronounced it. I think it's Anna is from Moscow originally and had been working in banking and professional services like audit before business school, but used the MBA at IMD to actually get to Switzerland and work there. And we asked why did you choose to attend business school? And Anna says, I reached the point where I accumulated diverse international experience, but I felt like I was lacking a strong business acumen to be able to make the next step in my career. Coming from a more technical background, I was not savvy with subjects like finance, marketing or strategy. So I had two options, either to continue to learn from experience very gradually or join an educational program to get knowledge in a concentrated way. The second option looked more appealing as it provided me with an opportunity to not only close knowledge gaps but also significantly expand my network. So I thought that was a very well said kind of rationale for like why do you know you can learn things on the job? Sure. But this, the MBA is often a really like supercharged way to get what you need pretty quickly. I mean at IMD especially. Right? It's like only one year, right? So.
• 9:16
  Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
• 9:17
  Speaker A: But, yeah. Interesting.
• 9:18
  Speaker B: Yeah, it makes perfect sense. Maybe it's also, I mean, I hate to say this, but maybe getting more of a very concentrated western experience to get more experience in that sphere of the world.
• 9:30
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. That's fair too.
• 9:31
  Speaker B: Is also an opportunity, but yeah, absolutely. Makes a lot of sense.
• 9:36
  Speaker A: Yeah. And then we did catch up with two other candidates. One is Claudia from Notre Dame. Mendoza, class of 21, works at Microsoft as a senior sales specialist. Claudia Hale's from Peru and had worked in talent development before business school. And we asked her, what about your Notre Dame MBA experience prepared you for your current career at Microsoft? And I thought, she makes a really interesting point here. She says, there's no doubt that a key component of my MBA experience was serving as vice president of the technology and business analytics Club in addition to my search fund role at the idea center. These roles significantly bolstered my confidence and instilled in me the courage to embrace new paths. And I mention this because often people say, oh, these courses or classes help me or my internship, but she's actually talking about club work, the clubs that she was a part of and joining the idea lab at Mendoza. And so these kind of outside of the classroom opportunities probably need not be underestimated, it sounds like.
• 10:33
  Speaker B: Yeah, I think that's a great point. But also, I mean, obviously, I don't know the profile of the candidate when they went to Notre Dame, but this is a really good example of potentially being a big fish in a smaller pond in terms of having access to robust leadership opportunities. If you're sort of one of the top students in the class versus if they'd gone to maybe a top 16 or an m seven, maybe getting that particular type of role would have been a lot more challenging.
• 11:05
  Speaker A: Yeah, that's possible.
• 11:06
  Speaker B: Kudos for them for taking advantage of that and really running with it.
• 11:10
  Speaker A: Yeah, definitely. And then finally we talked with Nina over at Stanford. Well, who went to Stanford, graduated in 23, and Nina works at a company called Mycoworks, which is a biotech company. She's a strategic advisor to the CEO. Nina's originally from San Francisco and had been working in biotech and healthcare type roles before attending Stanford. And we asked what was one thing that you would absolutely do again as part of the job search? Now keep in mind, Nina works for a very small kind of niche biotech company that makes basically sort of organic leather. And I believe they use something to do with mushrooms. And it's crazy. I was looking at the website. It's amazing. I mean, they make fabric and also other kind of building materials, all from these organic products that they're kind of growing. So anyway, really nutty stuff. But I kind of the question we asked her is, what's one thing you would do again as part of the job search? And she said all of the cold outreach I did was tiring and sometimes cringy. But it was by far the most important thing I did throughout my two years. I listened only to myself and what I intrinsically found interesting and reached out to other people who found the same things interesting. I wouldn't have gotten any of the opportunities I had during my time at GSB if I hadn't taken the chance and sent those emails. So it sounds like she networked her way into finding this niche kind of biotech company. And. Yeah. So doing those cold outreach emails is paid off for her.
• 12:36
  Speaker B: Yeah. And I. The other thing I'd add to that, though, Graham, is if you look at these four candidates, they all went to great schools, right? You've got Haas, ImD, Notre Dame, Mendoza and Stanford. But you look at the brands that they're working at, you've got Pepsi, Amazon, Microsoft, and Micah works, which obviously nobody's ever heard of other than those in that narrow niche. But it just goes to show that you get an MBA from Stanford, you can be a risk taker because you've really got that substantial sort of credential behind you. And not only that, getting that credential at Stanford and the network and various other things probably allowed her to do that level of networking and cold calling to really go after what many would consider a much more risky post MBA track. So, yeah, to me, and we talk about this a little bit in one of our candidates coming up, Stanford's top of the heat for entrepreneurship. And this is clearly an entrepreneurial type role. Even if she's not the entrepreneur, she's in a very sort of entrepreneurial setting. Stanford's top of the heat for that. But I'm a big believer that the better the quality of MBA program, the higher the tier, frankly, the more freedom you have to pursue entrepreneurship.
• 14:03
  Speaker A: Yeah, I think that's fair. I mean, I think it also just goes to show that we often look at career outcomes and things, and sometimes some of the very top schools, they don't look as great in some of the regular old metrics of career, like starting salaries. And I think some of that's because you've got some of these grads going off and doing startups and more risky things and maybe not making what you might make if you go to Goldman or McKinsey right out of school. Yeah, it's just interesting in any event. So read those profiles on our website if you want to know more about any of those candidates. It's a great way to learn about the jobs they have, but also the recruiting process that they went through and even what they thought about their time in business school. So check those out on the site. If you have questions or want to contact Alex or myself, send an email to infocleeredmit.com dot. Use the subject line wiretaps. And we do write back. I always say that because I think people don't believe me. But, yeah, send us a note and we'll write you back if you have a question or whatever you need. Alex, do you have anything else, or should we get into this week's candidates for the show?
• 15:04
  Speaker B: Let's kick on.
• 15:05
  Speaker A: All right, so this is wiretaps candidate number one. Our first candidate this week has just one school on the target list, and that school is Stanford. This person has been working in ed Tech, and they want to work in tech or entrepreneurship, maybe even non profit social impact type stuff after business school. They've taken the GRE, have a 325 on that test. GPA from Undergrad is a 3.6, and they have six years of work experience. And they mention in the notes that Stanford is their dream program for multiple reasons, including entrepreneurial focus, location, size, social impact, to the point where they say they are considering doing a Stanford or bust approach to their MBA applications. So with that in mind, they wanted to sort of just think about what can they possibly do to improve their chances. They mentioned that they are 27 years old, american citizen, mixed race, Asian Pacific Islander and white. This is a female candidate currently working as a senior program manager at a public ed tech company. And just some other little tidbits, went to a top ten undergraduate in the United States. And again with that three, six. One particularly interesting item of note is that this person runs a YouTube channel that's both kind of a side gig and an extracurricular. And they, you know, they've had quite a bit of traction with that, which we might discuss a bit more later. They also do volunteer alumni mentorship work with their alma mater, and they do alumni, I guess, admissions interviewing too. They are a, quote, digital nomad. So they've kind of been roaming around. They spent 25% of the year traveling for the last several years, mostly abroad, while they've been working. They also have a bunch of interesting hobbies like improv, comedy, yoga, tennis. And they're kind of wondering, do I mention that stuff in the application or not? And then, as I said earlier, 325 on the GRE. And they're asking whether they need to take that again. They're thinking about trying to do that. And they mentioned that they want to start a larger media brand or company that creates digital education content, or maybe they would work at an early stage startup in a marketing leadership role. So that's. I'll kind of stop there because there's a lot Alex and this person, you know, they. They gave us a ton of info and they also mentioned that they had submitted an applyware entry back in 2020 when they were first started to think about, you know, business school, and they decided to wait. And here they are. So they're going to be applying. What do you make of this? Stanford or bust? What do you think?
• 17:39
  Speaker B: Yeah, I would never advocate Stanford or bust, and I think this candidate may well be strong enough to get into Stanford, but I would certainly be looking at some of the other elite programs on the east coast. Again, it's back to that earlier conversation. If you want to be an entrepreneur, effectively that's what they're seeking. Then look at Harvard, Stamford and Wharton. Obviously there are differences between those programmes, so really understanding fit those programs would be important. But maybe even Sloane, a couple of others, might work out well. If she thinks that she can get a slightly higher gre score, that might be time well spent. She doesn't even necessarily need to be in round one. Right. She could be in round two with the high GRE score. I would say, graham, if this candidate, with their professional profile and a 330 green, 3.6 gpa, I think they're certainly m seven quality. Right. But then you add on this creator stuff, which I think is absolutely fantastic, and that creator stuff is well tied to their post MBA goals. So they want to either work for or create some kind of entrepreneurial ed tech business, you know, through. Anyways, it is also related to their sort of YouTube experiences as a content creator. So I guess my point is, Graham, I think this creator stuff allows them to stand out more so than simply just being a strong candidate for M seven. So that's why I do think that they stand a good, good chance if they come back with a high GRE score, a good chance at the very elite of that M seven, Harvard, Stamford, Wharton. Yeah, I think there's so much to like about this candidacy, Graham.
• 19:48
  Speaker A: Yeah, no, I agree. It's a strong profile. I think she, you know, if she's willing to retake the test and push it up, you know, if she could get a 330, that would be great. I mean, it might open some doors in terms of, you know, scholarship. Not at the likes of Stanford, where it's need based, but, you know, if there are other schools that ultimately end up on her list. Yeah, just on the YouTube thing. I mean, she has over 200,000 followers on YouTube and it's growing quickly. She thinks that she'll have maybe as many as half a million by the time she's applying. And, you know, it's a full time kind of, you know, it's more than just a hobby. She's like really approaching it as almost a job. And it's an educational kind of content channel. Not really sure. I don't know much more about it beyond that, but yeah, so that's, that is a differentiator. The grades are good, went to a good school, goals sound interesting? So, yeah, I just. To go back to what you originally said, though, I would never recommend that someone only apply to Stanford because it's just, you know, the acceptance rate is very low.
• 20:48
  Speaker B: If they want to do that, Graham, apply to Stanford in round one. See what happens. Yeah, but have a strategy for round two if they don't get admitted. Right.
• 20:59
  Speaker A: Right.
• 20:59
  Speaker B: Because they're going to be just as strong in round two. This is a sought after profile so they're not overrepresented. So they don't have to worry about getting everything in and round one like our next candidate does. We'll talk about that in a minute. But for this candidate. Yeah, go Stamford or bust in round one. If they hit bus, then. Well, then they just. But I'd say go Stamford only in round one and then see what happens. And if they're on the waitlist or don't gain admissions, then go after Harvard and Wharton and maybe a couple of others.
• 21:29
  Speaker A: Yeah, no, that's a good strategy. And again, I think we'll see how it works out, but, yeah, we'll see. And maybe she can send some of those 200,000 followers our way to listen to the podcast.
• 21:43
  Speaker B: She could at least plug us on her or give us some advice because.
• 21:48
  Speaker A: We don't really do anything on YouTube.
• 21:50
  Speaker B: Yeah, our 200 followers on a good week. That was pretty good.
• 21:53
  Speaker A: Many have told us that we have faces that were really made for podcasting. All right. But, yeah, best of luck to her. And, yeah, again, it sounds like she's on the right track, but maybe retake the test if she thinks she can eke out some additional points. Let's move on and talk about wiretaps. Candidate number two, our second candidate this week has eight schools on the target list and also wants to start in the fall of 25. The schools they're looking at are Tuck, Harvard, INSEAd, Michigan, Kellogg, NYU, Stanford, and Uva Darden. They have been working in management consulting prior to business school, and they want to also go back into that afterwards. They mentioned that they'd be happy to work at Accenture, Kearney, Bain, Booz Allen, BCG, Deloitte, McKinsey or pwc. They have a 685 on the GMat. That's the new version of the GMAT, previously called Focus Edition, I guess. And now it's just called the GMat. And that equates. In case you're keeping score at home, the Concordance charts tell us that's about a 740 on the GMAT. So very strong score. GPA from undergrad, which was in India, is an 8.04. In India, everything's out of ten. In case you, again, don't know that system, they've got four years of work experience, and this candidate did do chemical engineering from BiTs Pilani, which is, so far as I understand, a pretty good chemical engineering program. They have done, you know, a bunch of management consulting work. As I said, they also did do a brief stint in the oil and gas industry, but then kind of since then, I've just been in consulting. They mentioned that they led a TEDx club when they were at university and have done some volunteering experience during the pandemic especially. They also been doing some stuff around building. Sorry, planting trees and, you know, kind of trying to deal with rehabbing areas that were impacted by climate change or environmental damage and stuff. So, one last tidbit, Alex, that I wanted to float out there. This person mentions they are also a french citizen, so indian engineer living in India, working in India, but has french nationality. And they're saying that they're thinking about taking another shot at the GMAT and applying to the m seven schools in round two, while focusing on the other schools in round one as sort of a safety strategy. So what do you make of that plan and this candidacy? Overall?
• 24:26
  Speaker B: I really like the candidacy. I think the plan is dreadful. So we can leave it at that, but we can continue on. So, I mean, this is back to our previous discussion. This candidate is potentially going to be perceived as overrepresented, even if they have a french citizenship. I think they need to take the approach that because they have India heritage and all their life experience is probably India based, that they're going to be considered overrepresented with a sort of tech background, etcetera. I mean, obviously they're chemical engineers, so they're wicked smart. Their GMAT is reflective of that. I think their GPA is probably very good, actually. 8.04. We usually see it in the sevens for candidates. So I really think this could be a really strong profile. Graham. And I think if they're targeting m seven, which I think is viable, they need to do that in round one. That's really, really important. If they target m seven in round two and apply to their quote unquote safeties in round one, which is, I think, how they qualified their strategy for round one, they might well get admitted to all those programs in round one, but they won't get admitted to the m seven in round two. Or at least the m seven programs in round two won't be as accessible to this candidate as they will be to this candidate in round one. So that's the key. And, yeah, they've got a 685 gmat. So if they're pushing their m seven to round two because they want to take another go at the GMAT. I don't know if the value of a few extra points when you already have a strong GMAT score overcomes the additional level of sort of hard, the more difficult admissions process in round two for an over represented candidate. Our candidate in our first candidate that we talked about today, not overrepresented, go Stamford or bus round one and then see what happens if they've got to do anything. Round two, this candidate, potentially overrepresented. Get your applications in round one to the extent that they can, even their safety program. So I wouldn't just flip it and do m seven only in round one either, because if they miss m seven, they might miss the next tier in round two.
• 26:59
  Speaker A: Right. Right.
• 26:59
  Speaker B: So good mix of programs in round one for this candidate.
• 27:03
  Speaker A: Yeah, they need to apply to about six schools spread across, you know, the sort of top 20, I would say, you know, probably top 16 at minimum, maybe even top 20. But I think, again, I like their chances. I think this is an interesting candidate. Good hobbies, decent work experience, really good grades, rigorous undergrad. But my one thing is, hey, that 685 is apparently, if you put it to scale with the old test, it's like a 740, which is going to be above the average at all the schools they're applying to. I'm not worried about that test score. I would rather they apply in round one. So that's my advice to them. Just apply round one, apply to all your schools in round one. And, yeah, that'll probably do the trick.
• 27:40
  Speaker B: Now, if they're planning to retake the GMAT ahead of round one, and that was not the issue at all, terms of why they're delaying some applications to round two, then go ahead. I mean, if they can get a high GMAT score, that's always better. Right, than a lower GMAT score, even though it's already a very, very good score. But don't let retaking the GMAT push your applications to round two in this case.
• 28:04
  Speaker A: Yeah. So. All right. Well, I want to thank them for sharing their profile. Hopefully, this advice puts them on the right course to getting those apps together and in for round one. Let's move on, though, and talk about wiretaps. Candidate number three. So our final candidate you've taken from a decision wire entry, and this person applied to UCLA and to USC, just the two schools, and they ended up doing quite well. They got into both programs. They have a full ride at UCLA Anderson, and they got. It sounds like nearly a full ride at USC. They want to start school in the fall, or at least that's the current plan. And they want to work in venture capital, private equity or asset management, like hedge funds and stuff. And they mentioned some companies, Excel partners, Anderson Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Blackstone, KKR. So some of the big guns there in the kind of finance universe, PE universe, they had a 770 on the GMAT and a 3.8 gpa. They're located in LA, which I guess explains they're kind of looking at those two schools in their backyard and they just ask the question, is it possible at these schools to pivot into finance? Or should I wait a year and apply to m seven? Or is the gap not that big and I should just go kind of thing? So, Alex, what do you make of this? Because they want to not just pivot into finance, but it sounds like they want to get into kind of upper level finance. Yeah. Like venture capital, private equity. Right. So. But, yeah, what do you make of this? They have like free ride practically at both of these two excellent programs, top 20, you know, even. You know, I mean, these are good programs. So. But what should they do?
• 29:46
  Speaker B: I think that is the challenge, though, isn't it, Graeme? I mean, if they're going a lot of this by side finance, whatever it is, then will these programs allow someone to pivot from a non finance role directly? Buy side? That could be challenging, right?
• 30:03
  Speaker A: I think it could be challenging even at other programs.
• 30:06
  Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So definitely the better the program you get in, the more accessible that is. If they were just looking. Not just. I shouldn't say that, but if they were looking to get into investment banking first, then you would probably say, right, Anderson Marshall, our pathways to get into investment banking from someone that's not a finance person coming in, obviously they've got to show strong quant chops and so on and so forth. They got extraordinary GMAT score and obviously their GPA is really, really strong, too. So if they were looking more into the I banking, I'd say, yeah, I would go to Anderson. Anderson's giving them a full ride, giving them more money than Marshall. So that might well be the choice. I would want to know, did this person really only apply to the two LA schools? And have they now decided that their MBA strategy should be adjusted a little bit? Did they go in late? I'd like to know a little bit more about that. And, yeah, what is their current experience? If they're getting a full ride at Anderson and obviously a lot of money at Marshall, they've got these great numbers. As long as they're living and breathing at work and doing something interesting outside of work. They're probably an m seven type candidate and if that is the case, I would want to know. All right, how long have you been working? So if you're reasonably early in your career and you can spend another six months or another year in a role that continues your progression and development and so forth, then it might well make sense to come back next season and readjust the targets. But if they're, let's say they've got seven or eight years of work experience and, you know, things are moving along a little bit, then it might well make more sense to kick on and get the MBA now.
• 32:13
  Speaker A: Yeah, I think. Yeah. And who knows, maybe they, as you said, maybe they applied to some of these top schools this year too and just didn't mention that here. And if they did and didn't get in, then I would be more inclined probably to take one of these offers. The last thing I want to add though is that we keep talking about, well, which of these schools can they make this pivot and stuff? But I just want to remind this person that the most likely pivot that they would be able to make at any of these top MBA programs in the world really is from, if they're not in finance, would be into investment banking and then perhaps onwards and upwards into PE or VC. It's harder to jump in with no finance background unless they've already started and sold their own. You know, they've been an entrepreneur and have some experience starting and selling companies because that sometimes allows folks to sort of jump the line a bit and get into PE or VC. So in any event, obviously, as we always say with these decision wire entries, you've been picking out kind of champagne problems. They got free rides at two top programs in their home market.
• 33:13
  Speaker B: Not quite a free ride at Marshall, I don't think.
• 33:15
  Speaker A: Not quite. But it's like they put $5 signs. So I don't know what that means. But yeah, in any event, I think UCLA takes the spot here if they're going to one of these two. But as you say, if they're young and didn't apply to any other top schools this year, they might want to think about waiting and trying to go to a school that can really position them best for private equity or venture capital or at least banking.
• 33:38
  Speaker B: We've done a great job. We've not given them an answer as usual.
• 33:44
  Speaker A: So in any event, we've done it again. 30. I don't know how many minutes we just spent going over these candidacies and all the latest news and notes from the NBA front lines. But always a pleasure, Alex. And I guess, as we said before we came on air, we'll record the next episode while I'm out in Chicago. So I'll let you know when we record that, we'll have some news, hopefully from life in Chicago. Hopefully it'll be spring like there. I've been hearing some birds chirping in your neck of the woods today, so I'm hoping I get spring like weather in Chicago next week. We shall see.
• 34:12
  Speaker B: Yeah. And we're actually recording this on Wednesday, May 8.
• 34:17
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 34:17
  Speaker B: So here's a quiz for anybody. What is the great festival of May 8? It's actually a holiday for me. That's your only clue. And then next week's wiretaps. I'll let you know what it is. But I was able to take a few hours off to enjoy it, but then I came back and recorded this podcast.
• 34:37
  Speaker A: Interesting. All right, well, stay tuned next week, everybody. All right. See you next week, Alex.
• 34:42
  Speaker B: Very good. Take care, everyone. Stay safe.