Applying to Business School | Customers, Etc.
All the minutiae of applying to an MBA program, for the curious
I remember the first time I thought about grad school. If you recall from last week, I spent most of my college years studying to be a priest. When I finally discerned that the priesthood wasn’t for me in the final semester of my senior year, I left the seminary program and had something like two months to figure out what I was going to do with my life.
“I know", I thought, “I’ll go to grad school.” I was majoring in philosophy, and I actually really enjoyed studying philosophy, so why not a Masters in philosophy? Maybe I could stay at Franciscan for a year or two and then go get my PhD somewhere else?
I sort of talked myself out of it on my own by virtue of the fact that I didn’t want to go on to become a professor of philosophy, which is sort of the only reason why you would go pursue a PhD.
But really, the person who talked me out of it was a priest I had been seeing for spiritual direction while I was a seminarian. “Ben”, he said, “you have to get off this hill. Take at least a year off. After a year, if you still want to return to Steubenville or get your masters somewhere else, fine, but you need to spend the next year doing literally anything else.”
When it comes to making big life decisions, the people we trust and who know us well are incredible sources of wisdom to guide us in our discernment. That was true for me the many times I decided against grad school, and it was definitely true for me in my current decision to pursue an Executive MBA at Georgia Tech. This week I’m going to go into the weeds of the application and decision-making process.
Thinking out loud with friends
My decision to get my MBA started when I reached out to a leadership coach I’ve worked with for the past seven years. When we connected over the phone, I was surprised to get a positive nudge in the direction of getting an MBA. We didn’t come to any big decisions, but I got off that call encouraged and excited about what going back to school might mean.
The next thing I did was connect with a close friend who knows me well and also knows how I work. I wanted to ask straight up if an MBA would be helpful and additive at this point in my career. Not only was he also nudging me towards an MBA, but he also was able to provide opinions on the MBA programs in the Atlanta area. This is where I first started formulating my goals for getting an MBA.
Not everyone pushed me in the direction of an MBA (though to be sure, no one I spoke with actively discouraged it). Multiple people I spoke with who are experienced in the tech/start-up world shared how an MBA does not factor into hiring decisions. In tech, direct experience is much more valuable than a business degree. This helped to temper my expectations a bit.
As a result of these initial conversations with friends and people I trust and respect, I was able to broaden my understanding of what I was looking for in an MBA. My approach fundamentally shifted in three keys ways:
I broadened my options
I considered self study
I began valuing the alumni network of an MBA program
While I had originally only considered Georgia Tech, one of the people I talked to strongly suggested looking at Emory. He also suggested I do a little bit of self-study to make sure I would find the material engaging1—if I found the material mind-numbingly boring, it might not be worth it. Perhaps the most important bit of advice he gave was to value the alumni network, just as much if not more so than the program itself.
These initial conversations gave me the confidence to move forward towards the application process.
Researching
At this point, I’ve got a few books ordered from Amazon and I’m starting to look at Georgia Tech and Emory’s websites to see what I can learn about their programs. Even though my perspective would become clearer over time, it was hard to get a feel at first for the programs themselves and if I was a fit.
One of the most important steps I took in this initial phase was scheduling an initial call with admissions staff at both schools. While functioning like recruiters, these initial conversations were incredibly helpful. The question I was seeking to ask was, “am I a fit?” I didn’t want to waste a weekend applying if it was clear I wasn’t a fit. And I honestly didn’t know. It’s been so long since I’ve been in school, I have a hard time calibrating on who is the type of person who goes back to school for an MBA.
The biggest part of my research ended up being the alumni I spoke to, and I’ll get into that later, but first, we have to look at the different types of MBA programs.
Full-time, Evening, Executive
One surprising thing I learned when researching MBA programs and having conversations with people is that “getting your MBA” can mean many different things. “Getting an advanced degree in business” is only a small part of what it means, and depending on who you talk to, you’ll get totally different answers as to what getting an MBA might mean to them.
The type of program you’re considering—full-time, evening, executive—will drastically change how you think about even just talking about an MBA. I wish somebody had spelled this out for me early in the process, so I’ll spend a few paragraphs sharing my perspective on what I’ve learned.
Full-time MBA programs are usually for students two or three years out of college. They usually take about two years to complete and they strongly signal that you’re looking to make a career change (I mean, you’re literally leaving your job to go to school full time—what stronger signal could you have?). The MBA programs of top tier schools are considered “career launching”. Because of this, a common recommendation is to pick the best school you can get into because it has the best shot of launching your career in a positive direction.2 These programs are also usually hella expensive.
The top tier programs are so good at filtering for top talent, they essentially become fertile ground for recruiters from the highest paying firms and businesses in the world. Several people I spoke with who had attended top MBA programs said that recruiting started practically on day one of school. Fellow students were so focused on launching their careers that they seemed to be less attentive in the classroom. That said, because of the strength of the cohorts and the value of the alumni networks, these often became sources of future job opportunities down the road.
Evening MBA programs will see students with an average of five to seven years of work experience. Students will tend to be early in their careers, but with enough momentum to where it doesn’t make sense to stop work and pursue a degree full time. Not everyone in an evening program is looking to make a career pivot and launch their career. Classes are offered in the evenings during the week and the programs usually take two to three years to complete. You’re not necessarily in the same cohort with other students throughout the program. Part of what’s attractive about evening programs is that it’s the exact same degree as a full-time MBA, but with more flexibility.
Executive MBA programs will tend to have students with around fifteen years of work experience. Because executive MBA students tend to be further along in their careers, it’s not usually seen as a career-launching or career pivot opportunity (some of the alumni I spoke with changed jobs as a result of the program, but not necessarily industries or roles). These programs tend to educate students in cohorts, where everyone begins class and graduates at the same time. A popular model is to offer classes on weekends, usually Friday nights and all day Saturday. This makes it theoretically possible to fly into town on the weekend for class and fly home on Sunday3. This also means the programs can be completed more quickly than evening MBA programs.
The cohort model also allows for greater collaboration and networking throughout the course of the program. Executive programs will often have lengthy international residencies and catered meals on class days. These provide ample opportunities to network and get to know fellow classmates.
Even though I considered an evening MBA, average years of experience ended up being a major deciding factor for me, pulling me towards the executive programs. At the end of the day, I wanted to be in the classroom with peers who had roughly the same amount of work experience as me.
If you’re talking to people who have gotten their MBA, pay attention to the type of program they completed as they share their experience. Especially if you’re looking at getting an MBA yourself, remember that there’s a major difference between the different types of programs. You might talk to one person who says they didn’t have the best experience getting a full-time MBA and then talk to someone else who said they had a blast getting their executive MBA. Anecdotally, I will say that the people who said they enjoyed and got a ton on of value out of their MBA tended to be those that got their MBA through an evening or executive program later in their careers.
Applying
Once I made the decision to apply, I set aside an entire weekend to just do everything and get it done.
It’s important to remember that MBA programs are academic institutions. I’ve been in the business world for so long that I’ve forgotten what it was like to be in college. They’re going to want things like transcripts and test scores and essays and letters of recommendation.
As for test scores, the most common test I encountered for MBA programs was the GMAT, but both Emory and Tech said you could apply without submitting a score and they would let you know if you needed to take it. (Emory also lets potential students take an Executive Assessment—also optional—which is shorter than the GMAT). I decided to apply without taking the GMAT, because, how do I put this, I didn’t want to spend a month of evenings studying for an entrance exam if I didn’t have to? It really was that simple. Actually, it’s worth mentioning the GMAT because that’s probably another differentiator between the types of MBA programs. Test scores are likely going to carry more weight in full-time and evening programs where students have less of a career history to lean on.
Both Emory and Tech had written essays as part of their admissions process. Emory has three short essays while Tech has one giant essay that serves as the GMAT waiver. I found Emory’s essays in particular to be incredibly clarifying in understanding my goals for my MBA. Emory also had a video essay, which was fine, but also kinda stressful because you had one minute to riff on a topic and you only had three tries.
Both programs had an interview held virtually. I was probably a lot more nervous about the interviews than I needed to be, but I enjoyed the process. I wore a suit4, which is sort of weird because I’ve never worn “business professional” in my entire career.
There’s also an application fee, which I viewed as “purchasing an option to make a decision at a later date.”
Deciding
Tech surprised me. I was expecting to take the month of April to do research and try to decide between the two programs, but they called me the very next week to tell me I had been accepted. I was incredibly excited, but I also had to wait to hear from Emory, and I had to continue my research. Thankfully, they were able to extend the deadline for my deposit.
Networking, networking, networking. I’m burying the lead here by putting this as like the eleventieth paragraph in this newsletter, but the very most important part of the decision-making process was networking with current students and alumni. Even before receiving an official decision from Georgia Tech, I was already being introduced to alumni.
When asking the admissions staff for introductions to alumni, the conversation went something like this, “This is my story and these are my goals for getting an MBA—can you introduce me to someone who has a similar story?” Meeting people whose story and goals were similar to my own made a greater impact than any other part of the decision-making process. I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunities to have met so many wonderful people throughout this process, all of whom were very generous with their time.
Which, this brings me to an important part in the process: actually making a decision. Just because you’re accepted doesn’t mean you have to stop your research. I used the momentum from my acceptance at both schools to do additional research and meet more people. In addition to alumni, I met faculty and/or program directors, giving me a diverse perspective of what to expect from the MBA programs themselves.
It’s also worth mentioning that I attended several virtual information sessions and a virtual class from each school (I didn’t actually attend a class at Georgia Tech until after I had committed, but I definitely would have had I known about it). These were great for providing a high level perspective of what to expect. In the end though, it was the networking that was the most important.
Throughout this entire process, my goals became clear, which was incredibly helpful in finally making the decision to commit to Georgia Tech.
Networking, by the numbers
I can’t make an HTML table in Substack, so here’s a plain text version of all my calls, events, and networking.
+------+-------+
Calls with staff | Tech | Emory |
+------------------------+------+-------+
| Admissions / Admin. | 3 | 3 |
+------------------------+------+-------+
| Faculty / Program Dir. | 1 | 2 |
+------------------------+------+-------+
+------+-------+
Events Attended | Tech | Emory |
+------------------------+------+-------+
| Virtual Info Session | 3 | 2 |
+------------------------+------+-------+
| Virtual Class | 1 | 1 |
+------------------------+------+-------+
+------+-------+
Students / Alumni Met | Tech | Emory |
+------------------------+------+-------+
| Full-time | 0 | 0 |
+------------------------+------+-------+
| Evening | 0 | 3 |
+------------------------+------+-------+
| Executive | 7 | 1 |
+------------------------+------+-------+
My Network
+------------------------+--------------+
| Current FullStorians | 5 |
+------------------------+--------------+
| Former FullStorians | 3 |
+------------------------+--------------+
| Leadership Coach | 1 |
+------------------------+--------------+
So many calls! The numbers aren’t mutually exclusive, e.g. one of the Georgia Tech Executive MBA alumni I spoke with is also a current colleague at FullStory. These calls took place between the end of March and early May.
Final thoughts
One of the biggest takeaways from applying to business school is how much I learned about myself in the process. What started as a conversation with my leadership coach on “should I get an MBA?” evolved into a deep look at my life and career goals. I ended up having more networking conversations in a short period of time than perhaps any other point in my career outside of going to a conference.
If you’re considering going back to school to get an MBA, talk to people who know you well and will challenge you. My inbox is open. If an MBA is something you’re thinking about, reach out.
I ended up picking up several used “do it yourself” MBA books and flipping through them. One I can recommend is The Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman. I don’t think it’s a substitute for actually going to school, but I think it provides a decent high level overview of business concepts.
I’m sharing this as a thing I’ve heard. I’m not sure this is advice I’d actually give because I could never imagine going over $100k in debt at the age of 24 for an MBA. I tend to be pretty risk averse, though.
You know, just like an executive. Ahem.
and jeans—it was virtual and I wanted to be comfortable.