Get ‘em while they’re young, stupid and don’t know any better, as Ken Lewis has often sagaciously noted. BusinessWeek reports that a gaggle of B-schools are actively courting college students, hoping to get them to commit to MBA programs before they’ve completed undergrad, sometimes as early as freshman year, or at least before they’ve had the chance to date rape someone. Though admissions officials are doing stuff like lowering age requirements, accepting GRE scores in lieu of GMAT, and sending representatives into first year dorms with the directive to not take no for an answer, they claim they’re just meeting a demand by the youth of America, who are dying to get a piece of this MBA ass, on account of a lack of jobs and harping parents.
The surge in interest in MBA programs from the so-called millenial generation is being driven by a confluence of factors: a weak job market for undergraduates, a growing openness by business schools to younger applicants, and parents urging their children to consider graduate school at an earlier age, says Julia Tyler, a vice-president of the Graduate Management Admissions Council, which administers the GMAT exam
“I’m speculating here, but it may be that parents are at cocktail parties and they hear their friends talk about how their child is going to law school and medical school at 21 and they think, why not business school?” Tyler says. “I do think there is an influence of the helicopter-parent factors here that shouldn’t be underestimated.”
And if you thought this new movement was simply for third tier institutions who’ll take a warm body any way they can get it, think again. Harvard is getting in on the fun via its 2+2 Program, wherein the prospective oath-takers of the world can apply to HBS while still in college and secure a slot in a future class, provided they graduate and get two years of work experience. Likewise, a similar initiative is being considered at Jack Welch’s Online School Of Business applicants, where applicants needn’t provide proof of having yet graduated from high school. As long as they’re hungry enough to educate themselves in the art of how to conduct oneself on-board a corporate jet, under the tutelage of adjunct professor Bartiromo, they’ll be considered.
For the skeptismos in the group, wondering if this will “dilute the MBA experience,” or if, as an older student, you’ll want to gouge your eyes out if forced to attend class alongside a bunch of whippersnappers who wouldn’t know what to do with a secretary if their lives depended on it, do not fear. Apparently everyone is getting along great.
This has not been the case at [University of Rochester's] Simon School, says admissions director Greg MacDonald. The older, more experienced students tend to reach out to the Early Leaders to help them get acclimated back into the academic world, while the younger students turn to their older counterparts for networking advice and industry connections.
“Some of the older students might be critics coming in, but often, many of them will end up graduating as some of the biggest supporters of the Early Leaders initiative,” MacDonald said.
Photo Credit: B&L
Deplorable. You won’t find such practices at business schools that actually place an emphasis on academic rigour.
Kids fresh out of college are generally about 3/4 useless in class discussions, and they tend not to learn very much from their time in business school.
Unfortunate. The people that will do this will by and large be the people buying a worthless MBA.
Minority profiling is blatant racism. Mees and Al and Jesse gonna sue them crackers at G-(UNIT)-MAT
I find it hard to believe any one of the top-30 MBA programs would reach out to college students.
@4 are you illiterate? HBS is doing just that.
as someone entering an MBA program this fall, I have no problem with 21 yo classmates, provided they’re hot chicks.
@6 agreed
“As it turned out, I did not make them a good man at all. I managed to go to college four years without acquiring a single honor. When the annual came out, there was nothing under my picture but the letters — delta psi delta — which was appropriate since I had spent the four years propped on the front porch of the fraternity house, bemused and dreaming, watching the sun shine through the Spanish moss, lost in the mystery of finding myself alive at such a time and place…”
Agree with @6. Spending countless hours culling over DB posts has given me a leg up over less seasoned students fresh out of undergrad.
This is what I love about MBA students, I keep getting older, they stay the same age.
Bess, you complete me.
Does anyone require more evidence that the crash coming to higher education, especially the Ivies, is going to make their endowment losses look like chump change?
so there is a surge in interest, record apps, etc…but the schools are having to reach out to undergrads? Am i missing something?
also i will die if one more person sends me “today @ 12:34:56 it will be 1234567/8/9″
@14 ie the admissions officers are full of shit
so, what you’re saying, is that b-school admissions officers are pedophiles? is that what you’re getting at?
is it bang her in the ass?
@ 16, no, he was buried yesterday.
you got it, HAM!
To Julie Roginsky: are you wearing a disguise? Is today the UAW junior prom?
bullshit. these programs know they are about to have a crash when people realize how useless an MBA really is, and are trying to develop future revenue streams by attracting dipshit undergrads who haven’t had enough experience yet to realize the truth about the degree.
this will further diminish the status of an MBA degree to the already lowly level of the wharton undergrad-mba program
@21 thanks gupta, now get back to installing my haver analytics.
Grad school postings are the equivlent of putting chum in the water. Bess knows how to stir-up comments on a slow news days. And I love her for it.
Bess, Dealbreaker needs to start a youth program too. I’m thinking insulated lunchboxes with the Dealbreaker logo (a droptrou assbanging silhouette). Maybe some genitalia-shaped candies, that sort of thing.
The younger students in my MBA class were very intelligent on paper but when having real world discussions with them their inexperience really showed. It was almost as painful as some of Greg’s posts.
They could only speak to things from their experience reading it in a book or online, rather than actually experiencing it.
Having been gotten by John Thain when he was stupid and didn’t know any better, I’ll forgive KenLew for lying about his age.
I think they are just trying to compete with 2nd tier and comm colleges that have been promoting entering grad school fresh from undergrad with no experience for quite some time now. Considering their severely diminished endowments they can no longer afford to not compete in the market for kids whose parents will either pay grad school tuition or cosign the student loans.
I’m going to grad school (mba) this fall on full scholarship. the way i figure, either i can stay in an industry with slow/0 growth for 2 years or spend a semeseter in australia all expenses paid. I’ll take the latter
28 -continued- I should add: 36 months work exp, same as the lease term on my bmw.
leasing a car? how intelligent of you.
@14
“today @ 12:34:56 it will be 1234567/8/9″
School administrators are reaching out… for cash. The illusion of acquiring prestige through a couple of years at the Ivies requires willing purchasers. Six Flags went bk, so can those other fun ride providers.
@25, you need to read more of Greg’s posts ’cause they are quite painful.
As for experiencing things, ask my secretary’s blanus.
-MCS
which b-school will the chick in the flick be attending?
this would never happen at the university of phoenix-online.
lease depreciating assets, own appreciating assets. deal with it
@25
Exactly. The same kids who didn’t know jack sh*t they didn’t read directly from the textbook during Undergrad are now gonna go straight to B-School? Sheep…slaughtered…etc, etc
@30, yeah, buying depreciation assets at huge premiums rulz!!! you are smart
if you can get a decent money factor, pay no money down, and capitalize the taxes, leases aren’t always bad…
@34- What is an “appreciating asset”?
-REIT manager
c-corps and c-rings making a comeback -exREIT
I work in Texas.
@ 40, Good for you. We care because, why?
at 25
or like pretending to know something about sex if your a virgin…
I can’t wait to work at an investment bank so that I can do big deals. It’s exciting like knocking around big bags of sand.
damn dude what schools do the girls look like this?
@28, are you going to Rochester’s “Early Leaders” program? If so, I’m assuming you’d also be stoked to land a consulting job at E&Y and work your way up the ladder for the rest of your mundane life. This is pretty pathetic…is it sad that I think I’d rather stay at Citigroup than go to Rochester, Olin, or Purdue (as reported in the BW article)…
@44
I’ll give ya a hint, its not at the Ivys
@45 as soon as your pennystock options vest you can afford to spend weekend in the hamptons. By weekend I mean sun-tues, by hamptons i mean fire island. Prepare yourself for a real education in the mundane; working as a low-level gov’t drone for a delisted company. Keep up the good work. -Early Leader
speaking of underage…someone should check the Rye, NY police blotter circa June 27 and then ask John Thain what a bunch of drunk 16 year olds were doing at his house after a wedding beating up a couple of equally drunk Hamilton College students…
@44 they aren’t in states that fought for the union.
@34
keep telling yourself that while you write your rent check
Why would anyone pay for an MBA when they can get a CFA for nothing?
MBA + CFA= MBACFA
52 is obv. not in finance…otherwise he would know it’s MBCFA…and pronounced double youuuuu emmmmm bee cee eff eh.
@44, probably should visit McCombs, Marshall, Darden
limited networking opportunities w/ the CFA. Its almost comical to me that ppl in biz school always cite the networking opps, and rarely ever reference the curriculum.
Have been debating MBA/ CFA for some time. Neither necessary in my line(private client asset management). CFA seems like the better call to me.
@5 – I think it’s safe to say HBS is falling. This is the same institution that is requiring their students to take an “oath.” Right.
I highly doubt other top ranked MBA programs would recruit college juniors.
in my line of work “the knowledge” as been most useful.
Associate Fluffer
“harvard is falling”? say that to my fucking face.
-hbs prof who throws coffee/thermos at people
@59 I’ve been trying to learn from your example. Do you first throw the coffee and then the empty thermos, or do you throw the mug with the coffee still inside for the extra momentum?
Will pay $46k/yr for your tutorial
@57 pretty sure the oath was voluntary
@60
Pretty sure HBS is like 2x that all-in, but yea, tuition/room/board is freaking ridiculously out of hand now
@1 and who does learn a lot from their time in business school?
56 CFA is perfect in your line of work. Gives comfort to the clients, and you can do it on your own time which means you wont risk them walking while you’re gone. And, truth be told, you’ll learn tons from the program.
With their lack of work experience, I hope these kids don’t graduate into a crappy job market. Otherwise, they’ll be very screwed and may end up taking entry level undergrad jobs after their huge MBA debts. The class of 2009 will tell you that many of them are getting hired now strictly for their pre-MBA experience.
@65, This is the way you keep the system alive.
Tell them they need a 200K degree so they are enslaved to the bank / consulting machine where they can work 90 hr weeks and get tossed aside later.
Vicious loop
Man I am just glad I went to the lamest school in the midwest (not the purple faggot school) like EP and now I work 80 hrs a week and only make 1000x that per year.
GAY!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex14LPgWehs
A CFA is not free. It involves a nominal monetary investment and a significant time investment. Hiring a CFA is easier.
This isn’t a reply to the above comment… i just wanted to be at the top of this discussion board to warn everyone that the following comments fucking suck. that is all.
brilliant!