13 replies to this topic

[sev-mard]

I'm with a company that will reimburse me for tution spent on job-related study. So a supervisor/mentor/close friend is steering me toward a MBA in Finance or Accounting. I have a B.A. but must admit I'm green when it comes to these matters. Any of you taking/have taken the GMAT? And are in an MBA course, or are applying for one. If you could give me some advice, tips, stories, books, courses and the like that helped you get on your way.

Is the GMAT as hard as some say?
What are some good schools in the So Cal area?
Any funding options?

I am of course doing research as well, but I feel it's always good to get help from others whenever you can.

In advance, merci dzer zhamanaki hamar,

[sev-mard]

MosJan, Nairi and other Mods, anyway this could be like a temporary sticky? For like a week or so, just so a good cross section of people could see it?

thanks

[Sip]

UCLA has one of the best MBA schools in the nation .... Anderson School of Management. It is very hard to get in, but if you can, then it is the place to be. I have never taken GMAT but I know Azat will be able to help you out.

At some point I was considering doing my MBA and PhD in Computer Science together so I looked into these things. But the more I thought about it, the less it made sense since I knew I was heading into academia and research.

I temporarily stickied the thread for ya

[sev-mard]

Yeah I know of the UCLA school, might be tough. I mean i'm not apoosh bayts, I don't know if I have those kind of qualifications. Thanks for sticking it to this post!

[Azat]

Sev-mart jan, I have a MBA. It was a LONG time(12-13 years) ago when I took the GMAT and from what I remember it was super easy. At that time we were allowed to take it 3 times and you could keep the highest score(I think now it is the average) and I went to take it the first time for practice and scored 96 percentile so I never retook the test.

There are many good books and even practice centers(maybe even online) that you can use. I strongly suggest that you do not do the bonehead thing that I did and take it without practice as a low score on the initial will hurt you now.

As for schools, UCLA is the best(in my opinion) and I think Seapanchik agrees. Marshall School of Business at USC is great as well. Graziadio School of Business ar Pepperdine is very good as well. Claremont is top ranked as well. A bit of a distance but Stanford is probably top 3 in the country and Hass school at Berkeley s probably up there as well.

Then you have the UCI, CSUN, and San Diego State and Chico and bunch of others that are pretty highly ranked as well, but they do not have the prestige that the top schools have plus most importantly do not offer you the opportunity to network with the right people who will make a huge difference for you in your career.

Good luck. If I can be of any help please feel free to contact me.

[Sip]

Wow Pepperdine has a good management program? Sev have you ever been to Pepperdine? If not, gots check it out dude (Malibu)!!!

[sev-mard]

Thanks guys, great info Azat. Yeah I'm definately going to study for the GMAT, i have a friend who is going to Long Beach State now so i'm going to get with him because obviously he just went through the process. Thanks for info on the schools as well.

[Twilight Bark]

I am not an authority on the subject, but ...
Sev Mard said that he lived in Japan, and has some knowledge of Japanese language and ways. That makes him a good fit for USC, whose specialty is the Far East. His background would make him a desirable candidate there. USC's GMAT expectations are probably not super-high either, I suspect. So USC should be on your short-list of schools on which you should work extra hard, Sev Mard. Good luck.

[sev-mard]

Wow, thanks a lot, i didn't know that, and i already work right up the street from USC. I'll definately look into that.

[Boghos]

Hello sevmard,

I think an MBA is a necessity today in spite of the fact that:

- the present value of this degree has been falling and in some cases it has even become negative (that is in the case that you stop working to study and thus have to compute the cost of missing wages and tuition, and add the additional that you make by having the degree), of course these are averages and may not apply to your case, if you can do it part-time I think it is a great degree to have.

- you don´t necessarily learn much of interest when compared to a MA in History, or Poli Sci, Econ and so on.

But as it has become a sort of "must have" to anyone contemplating a career in the corporate world it seems that it would be a wise choice to go for it, especially if it is company funded.

As to the GMAT I also took it a long time ago but my wife took it recently and the sheer number of CD ROMs and manuals on it is astounding. There are also the courses and so on. I think it is mostly a matter of concentration. As I recall it it was a not much more difficult than SAT.

Edited by Boghos, 26 February 2004 - 04:45 PM.

[alpha]

Boghos I tend to disagree with you about MBA being a necessity. It's not the degree that counts, it's how value added you are to the firm. I work with a lot of Wharton and Harvard MBAs, and I don't see they are more value added than most of the crew here.

A lot of my friends took the Kaplan GMAT preparatory test and most of them are really satisfied. It's about $2000 I think. You should definately take it. They offer courses in downtown LA and in UCLA.

Also, if you are thinking of an MBA if it's not a top 25 school than it's really not worthed. Try to aim for Stanford, Haas, UCLA or USC. The culture at USC and UCLA are diagonally different from each other. USC is mainly based on case studies, while Anderson gives you a lot of quantitative technical knowledge. If you want to be in Financial Services industry than I wouldn't recommend USC (although I went there). USC is a very "Corporate School", while Anderson is very enterpreneurial. I think if you can get in there you'll enjoy it very much. USC is too oriented toward Far East Asian market. They take you to China and Japan for a case study. In terms of price and reputation I think Haas and Anderson are the best options. My brother goes to Haas and he is having a blast, and the atmosphere is very academic unlike most business schools. There is agreat European community there, a lot of Spaniards, Brits and Italians.

But before you get into it, ask yourself why do you want to do it. Just because you want to have the initials on your resume than it's definately not worthed.

[Sip]

You guys seen that new Fedex commercial (I think it's fedex) ... nerdy looking guy first day at work sitting behind a desk. Big black lady telling him what he has to do. She says "You are in charge of shipping these ... it's really easy ... just use the web" (or something like that).

Guy looks at her and says "Shipping? But I am an MBA"

And the lady says: "Oh, in that case I'll just show it to ya".

[sev-mard]

Ouch

[Hye_Acher]

You guys seen that new Fedex commercial (I think it's fedex) ... nerdy looking guy first day at work sitting behind a desk. Big black lady telling him what he has to do. She says "You are in charge of shipping these ... it's really easy ... just use the web" (or something like that).

Guy looks at her and says "Shipping? But I am an MBA"

And the lady says: "Oh, in that case I'll just show it to ya".

Oh yeah I know what you’re talking about. I’ve seen that commercial but it was long time ago. Its really funny… thanks for reminding LOL