Wharton MBA - coffee chat

cerebus

Sorry for the late notice, just occurred to me that some people reading this forum might be interested.

I'm a Wharton MBA student back in Ireland for a while this summer, and have been asked to host a chat over coffee for people interested in finding out more about the Wharton MBA program, life as a student in Philadelphia and US MBAs in general.

We're going to be in the Flux Cafe, in Trinity's Science Gallery, from 2pm-4pm today (Friday August 7th) if anyone is interested in dropping by.

Anyone who is thinking about applying to Wharton, or some of the other big US schools like HBS/Stanford/etc. feel free to come by and say hello. Can't guarantee you'll get anything useful out of it, but you never know!

cerebus

Spent an interesting couple of hours on Friday, can highly recommend the Flux cafe - good coffee.

I'm going to be in Ireland for another few weeks, mostly in Limerick/Cork/Galway. If anyone in those locations wants to take the opportunity to sit down and chat about the US MBA experience while I'm around drop me a PM and we should be able to work something out.

Kevtherev1

Hi That is a shame you have left dublin as i would have maybe gone to talk to you, applied to the place one and didnt get in the whole application process came across as very elitist and full of themselves to be honest.

What you think

cerebus

Full Disclosure: Before I start I'd just like to remind you that I'm a current student, and reasonably happy with my experience at Wharton to date. As a result my perspective may not be the most impartial and will certainly have some bias.

I haven't really been disappointed by the experience or the atmosphere. There are some people in my MBA class who wouldn't be my first choice as personal friends, but I think you would get that anywhere.

Don't forget the people who apply to these programs are pretty much a self-selecting bunch, and probably 80% or so of applicants are good enough to get in. The problem is that they can only admit something like 15% of the applicant pool, so there tends to be a lot of disappointed people.

In terms of elitism, there may be some truth to that. Lots of Ivy League and Oxbridge educated folks, which might contribute to that perception... but there are also muck savages like myself who came down from the mountains of the west of Ireland.

Again, all my opinions and perspective, so keep that in mind.

Afuera

Hi cerebus, how would you rate Career Services at Wharton? Were they helpful in arranging internships? Was there any bias against non-US students? I've heard some stories about foreign MBA students getting pretty bad treatment over in the US when trying to find work this year. Perhaps it is kind of explainable due to the downturn, but I'd be interested to hear if it is as widespread as they were making it out to be. Cheers.

cerebus

My interaction with the Wharton Career Services office was pretty limited.

If a student is looking at getting into an industry with a well structured recruiting process like management consulting or banking then they seemed to be pretty good - lots of events, resources, even well defined recruiting schedules worked out with employers to ensure students have enough time to interview with multiple companies and consider offers carefully.

I was trying to do some more self-directed stuff (moving into private equity/venture capital, where the recruiting process is much less structured - involves lots of networking, cold calls, etc.) so I didn't really deal with the Career Services folks all that that much. Saying that, they were always helpful when I did talk to them.

In general, with the economic apocalypse that was going on it was a tough environment for recruiting for both full-time and summer positions. Even still, most people I know have ended up doing something pretty interesting for the summer.

In terms of a pro-US student bias, it's hard to say if that exists. If it does, I'd imagine it is something being driven more by employers (due to US citizens being easier to hire, no issues with visas). For example, I heard of a few people from outside the US who had secured jobs in investment banking in the US (no mean feat given the state of the industry at the moment) who lost their offers due to restrictions on hiring non-nationals imposed as part of the TARP program - any bank that had taken TARP funds was affected.

CathalMc

Hi Cerebus,

Thanks for offering information, I'm studying in the states myself. What is your situation with financial assistance? And more particularly, what fraction of international students are likely to get it? The financial burden has always been a turnoff for me. I'm unlikely to need the MBA name itself to open doors, but rather the knowledge to bolster a project I'm working on now.

My impression from talking to MBA people at my own school (UCLA), is that a considerable fraction of people take on a large amount of personal debt, or get the opportunity through their current employer.

cerebus

CathalMc wrote:

What is your situation with financial assistance? And more particularly, what fraction of international students are likely to get it?

I think most MBA programs offer assistance/scholarship packages to well-qualified candidates, but I would imagine that most people are paying a significant proportion of the cost themselves. US citizens benefit from low-interest loans (Stafford) for a certain percentage of the required financial outlay. International students get access to loans that don't require a US citizen as a co-signer, but the interest rates aren't great. I think all admits get guaranteed access to financial assistance, but the majority will be in the form of loans rather than scholarships/aid.

CathalMc wrote:

My impression from talking to MBA people at my own school (UCLA), is that a considerable fraction of people take on a large amount of personal debt, or get the opportunity through their current employer.

Sounds about right, lots of people with large student loans or else employer-supported. Anderson/UCLA is a great school, so you'll probably find that people will make the investment to attend based on the expectation that the ROI will be acceptable.