From TESC to my dream school (Okay... not QUITE my dream school)

[Yanji]

As most of you don't know, I've decided to attend the full-time MBA programme at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University to study marketing this August. FT ranked Kelley as the #2 B-school for marketing in the world this year, so I'm extremely excited to attend. :coolgleam: I wanted to keep everything under wraps until I decided on which school I would attend in August. I applied to 7 schools ranked between 10-25 overall in the US and the #3 school in Europe and I received interview invitations at half of the schools. Fortunately, IU was my first choice and they later accepted me.

I just wanted to share just a bit of my experience with you because I know many people worry that they won't be able to get into a good graduate programme from TESC but if you have the right background, good GPA and can sell yourself to the school, you can get into a great school, even your dream school. Yes, I have non-trad credits! I also can't stress how important the GRE/GMAT are... there is a vast variance in educational quality in the US and standardised tests are one of the most important tools schools can use to compare applicants with each other and if you're an older applicant, make sure you still "have it" in terms of mental horsepower. If anyone is considering applying to an MBA in the near future, I'd be happy to try to give you a hand in your quest by PM. And for the young guys out there (early 30s or younger) who are thinking of an online MBA... seriously give a F/T MBA a thought. You'd be surprised how accommodating business schools can be towards applicants with families/major life commitments and the opportunities you'll gain with a good F/T MBA over a P/T or online MBA are huge.

[NAP]

That is fabulous! Congratulations! I'm sure you earned it!

Thank you for sharing this with us. We love to get this kind of encouragement, while we make progress with our undergraduate studies.

[brian23]

Congratulations on being accepted to one of the best business schools in the US! I am in the process of transferring to TESC and hope to graduate next spring. The plan is to do an online MBA, or a Masters in Accounting but I m curious as to what you mean by business schools being accommodating to students with families. I have a family and a mortgage and there is no way I could go to school full time unless the school wants to pay me to attend.

[Daithi]

Congratulations Yanji! Nice job.

Would you be willing to let us know what kind of score you had on your GRE/GMAT?

How about your GPA? Did you test out of a lot of courses or did you have grades for most of them?

Once again, congratulations. It is really cool to see one of us non-traditionals make it into a top school.

[Yanji]

Congratulations on being accepted to one of the best business schools in the US! I am in the process of transferring to TESC and hope to graduate next spring. The plan is to do an online MBA, or a Masters in Accounting but I m curious as to what you mean by business schools being accommodating to students with families. I have a family and a mortgage and there is no way I could go to school full time unless the school wants to pay me to attend.

If you really nail everything in the application there are many schools which are known to give full ride+stipend packages. Wisconsin, Florida, Texas A&M and Arizona State are a few of the good business schools I know which offer decent stipends to their best students. I've run across people who've received stipends in the range of $20000/yr from ASU. Stipends tend to either vanish or get very small (think $3000/yr) once you start climbing the rankings above Wisconsin. But really when I mean "accomodating", I mean that at many top schools there are many students with families who make a sacrifice for a couple of years to attend business school but the school has support networks for those students and their partners to make the transition easier. It all depends on your finances, your spouse/partner, your kids, etc. Sacrifice sometimes means having to sell the house and renting an apartment for a couple of years while you go through B-school. Many students like to go to college town schools like UNC or Michigan to save money on housing costs while they bite the bullet for two years but I think most students with a family try to go to a city school like NYU or USC so that their spouse/partner can work to help relieve the financial burden. Also, during the summer between your two years you'll do an MBA internship, which usually pay ~$30-50 an hour, which will help offset your expenses a bit. And of course, there's merit-based financial aid; some schools are more generous with financial aid than others, like Notre Dame, Carnegie Mellon and Indiana.

You know the specifics of your situation best; there are fine online MBA programmes out there in several states. If your commitments are too big to make the jump into a full-time programme, that's what online MBAs were made for. Oh, and if you're older I'd pass on doing a F/T MAcc/MSA because of relatively low RoI and a typical average age of 23-24... not the most comfortable place to be if you're in your late 20s-early 30s. I think UConn and UT Dallas offer (rather expensive) online MSAs if you're looking for the best.

Would you be willing to let us know what kind of score you had on your GRE/GMAT?

How about your GPA? Did you test out of a lot of courses or did you have grades for most of them?

I got 720 on the GMAT; 49 Quant and 40 Verbal... I'm a good test taker and I'm pretty good with numbers so didn't really need to study too much. I'd strongly recommend taking a practice test or two and downloading the official test prep software. The test prep software can usually predict your score to within 10 points; I got 730 on both of the official practice tests and 720 on the real thing. 700+ is pretty much imperative at some schools (top 10 + Yale and maybe UVA) but 670ish will be okay at top 10-25 schools. Duke, Michigan, Indiana, Georgetown and Vanderbilt are all known to be friendlier to lower GMAT scores (620-660ish) in one way or another.

My GPA is 3.37 (zero coursework from TESC; all transfer from another 4-year school), and I don't know exactly how many graded credits I have but I'd put it somewhere between 36 and 45. It's not a lot to go by (although they were mainly "serious" courses like Biology, Research Methods and Calculus) so I'm certain that the good GMAT score was very important in my case. I would say that public schools tend to be more open to non-trad students than privates, especially schools with online MBA offerings like Indiana and UNC. Cornell, NYU and Columbia are particularly unfriendly to non-trad students in my experience, unless perhaps you studied at the likes of NYU SCPS or Penn LPS. Super academic schools like UVA may also look dubiously upon part-time/evening/online education. Illinois will not consider anyone for a graduate programme if you haven't taken at least 45 graded credits in residency at the university which granted your degree. Testing out will not kill your chances at getting into a top school, but you will have to be more strategic when it comes to choosing which schools you might have a shot at. Hope that gives people something to think about!

[taylor]

Congrats! A 720 GMAT score and getting into f/t Kelley B school tells me you're sharper than most, including me lol. I think your achievement in getting into a top MBA program with a degree from TESC will show current students and future ones that it is possible to get into a top tier graduate program.

Good luck and looking forward to hear about your progress!

[NAP]

Since I don't think I'm the only one who lost access to the forum over the weekend, I'm bumping this thread to be sure others get to see the great news.

[rebel100]

Congrats! And I agree with everything you said in your OP. I really do believe that a top MBA program or the best MBA in your home state is the first choice, especially for a younger applicant (though I don't think 30 is too old by any means). Your points about stipends and accommodations are well taken.

Great thread!

[Yanji]

To add some info regarding scholarships, I just received my admit package and was awarded a fellowship worth $10000/yr and a GA position worth about $34000 over 2 years. (~12k stipend, 22k fee reduction) That brings down the total cost of the F/T Kelley MBA down to ~$36000 + living expenses. I was only expecting maybe ~$20k of total aid so to get $54k is amazing... I'm actually happier today than I was when I got in!

[namwen]

Wow! That is amazing!