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How to Get Into Business School
Work a While After Graduation.
All good business programs want applicants to have at least two years of work experience after receiving the bachelor's degree. They make exceptions for foreign students and for older students who worked several years before coming to Hollins.
Take Calculus.
Any worthwhile business program requires a year of college calculus, though we have had graduates accepted who have had Intuitive Calculus (MATH 152) instead. Some business schools have strong quantitative programs and they require even more math. You may also want to take more statistics.
Do the Steps Suggested in "How to Get a Good Job."
For graduate school preparation, your grades will have to be even better -- and think about running for a top student government position. M.B.A. programs tend to accept leaders.
Perform Very Well on the GMAT.
Performing very well on the GMAT is absolutely essential to getting into any business school. Performance on graduate exams is often similar to performance on SATs, so it is imperative to remedy any weaknesses you had on your SATs.
Buy GMAT preparation books early in your sophomore year and test yourself repeatedly. You may also consider taking a GMAT preparation course either in the spring of your junior year or that summer. GMAT scores are averaged, so plan to take them early in your senior year when you are feeling well and rested. About half the GMAT exam is math oriented, so it's important to be at ease with the math questions on the GMAT.
For the Class of 2006, things couldn't be better. Among the top 30 schools, job offers were up 20% over 2004, to an average of 2.3 per graduate. And the average salary is up more than $8,000, or 9.7%, to $95,000, with grads from nearly a third of the schools now raking in six-figure paychecks. Women, on average, still make up less than thirty percent of the students in the top thirty MBA programs. Here is a list of Business Week's latest ranking of the top thirty business schools in the nation (October 23, 2006).
The Best M.B.A. Programs
| 1. |
Chicago |
| 2. |
Pennsylvania (Wharton) |
| 3. |
Northwestern (Kellogg) |
| 4. |
Harvard |
| 5. |
Michigan (Ross) |
| 6. |
Stanford |
| 7. |
MIT (Sloan) |
| 8. |
UC Berkeley (Haas) |
| 9. |
Duke (Fuqua) |
| 10. |
Columbia |
| 11. |
Dartmouth (Tuck) |
| 12. |
UCLA (Anderson) |
| 13. |
Cornell (Johnson) |
| 14. |
NYU (Stern) |
| 15. |
Virginia (Darden) |
| 16. |
Carnegie Mellon (Tepper) |
| 17. |
North Carolina (Kenan-Flagler) |
| 18. |
Indiana (Kelley) |
| 19. |
Yale |
| 20. |
Texas-Austin (McCombs) |
| 21. |
USC (Marshall) |
| 22. |
Georgetown (McDonough) |
| 23. |
Emory (Goizueta) |
| 24. |
Purdue (Krannert) |
| 25. |
Maryland (Smith) |
| 26. |
Notre Dame (Mendoza) Babson (Olin) |
| 27. |
Washington University (Olin) |
| 28. |
Rochester (Simon) |
| 29. |
Michigan State |
| 30. |
Vanderbilt (Owen) |
Source: Business Week
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