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($) There’s really only a few places we’d consider going to learn entrepreneurship.

by EssaySnark - Discusses

Just because entrepreneurship is hot doesn’t mean everyone knows how to do it. Every single business school in the world has jumped on the entrepreneurship bandwagon. Why? Because it means $$$ — to them, not necessarily to you or any wanna-be founders. Sure, the schools love it when their students are successful and they can…

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School to Startup data

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Bschools everywhere are falling all over themselves these days to serve as incubators forhot new ideas from enterprising students. EssaySnark remains unconvinced that getting an MBA is the best route to launching a company, but we understand the appeal. Universities are resource-rich environments. There’s built-in support, and you get two full years to focus exclusively on your idea (and, well, going to class and getting good grades hopefully, too). We get it. The appeal is obvious. Even though we say if you want to start a company you should just start a company, we know that bschool is a preferred route for many.

We’ve written before about how expensive it is, and we feel that some schools are selling students a bill of goods by dangling all these “opportunities” in front of them — “opportunities” in quotes because it still comes down to the founder’s smarts and sweat and willingness to manage massive amounts of ambiguity and uncertainty and risk. So it was kinda cool when a Brave Supplicant gave us a heads-up about a report published by PitchBook, a company that builds software used in deal finance, that tracks which universities and MBA programs have spit out companies that are worth something.

You can find it on their site here and we’re also preserving it on essaysnark.com in case that link goes dead in the future. [UPDATE: In the time between this post was originally written in Spring 2018 and the time we slated to publish it in near-Fall, Pitchbook released a new version – Business Insider covered it here .]

It’s one of those things that can be a total distraction — you open it up and you inadvertently dump two hours into it — but if you’re seriously thinking about schools for entrepreneurship, and you want to examine them on the basis of past performance and actual outcomes to date, then it’s not a bad place to start.

A big h/t and thank-you to the former BSer who pointed us to this!

And oh yeah: That BSer has now launched into his MBA experience at a great school and if he’s reading this, we’d love to get an update to hear how things are going!

 

Oh hey! We wrote a book about this MBA for entrepreneurship stuff!
EssaySnark's Guide to Pitching Entrepreneurial Career Goals in Your MBA App
If you’re serious about going to bschool to start a business, then you’ll need to pitch that very carefully in your apps. The Entrepreneurial Career Goals Guide will point out the pitfalls and help you craft a solid plan for the adcom to get behind.

($) What does “I want to start a company” mean?

by EssaySnark

This simple sentence can be empowering – or it can really trip you up and even embarrass you depending on the context and to whom you are saying it. If you’re in Silicon Valley and you utter these words, you could get a range of reactions from an eyeroll to a shrug to a look…

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($) Is Harvard good for entrepreneurship?

by EssaySnark - Discusses ,

Sure, if you want to pursue the most expensive way in the world to start a business. EssaySnark is just not a fan of using the MBA to launch a company. And we really don’t think Harvard is the best place to learn entrepreneurship specifically. They were fairly late to jump on the entrepreneurship bandwagon…

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($) “I have a company that I’ll be running while attending bschool…”

by EssaySnark

A couple months ago we talked about pitching the adcom on this amazing idea you’ve had to do an in-semester internship or work a job while you’re pursuing your idea. In other words: You want to work while you do your MBA. Errr maybe not. Well OK fine, what about this company that you’ve got?…

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($) essay critique: Ross career goals!

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Hi EssaySnark, I am currently applying to Michigan Ross and I was hoping you can help review my 2nd Essay before the deadline tomorrow. Best, [BSer] Doh! Yeah, sorry, never gonna happen, not even under the very best of circumstances like right now where there are very few deadlines hitting each week. We simply need…

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($) Short term goal, long term goal, dream job – OH MY!

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Gosh, Columbia has tricked things out this year! Their career goals essay asks this: Through your resume and recommendations, we have a clear sense of your professional path to date. What are your career goals over the next 3-5 years and what, in your imagination, would be your long-term dream job? That’s on top of…

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Who’s a good fit for the Columbia J-Term?

by EssaySnark - Discusses 42 Comments

This was originally posted two years ago. We’re reblahgging it now because a) it’s relevant, and b) it’s timely. There’s some comments at the bottom from BSers who have long ago been admitted to Columbia and other programs. We’re inviting you to post your own comments too if there’s anything we can do to demystify the process of applying to Columbia’s MBA program or whether you’re a fit to the specific program formats and options they offer.

Mostly though we’re reblahgging this because, well, Columbia nis always the early bird. Yes indeedy, the Columbia essay questions are available. Today is our chance to tell you about a one-of-a-kind program offered at Columbia Business School. It’s the J-Term.

The J-Term, in case you’re not familiar, means , as in, you’re starting in January instead of the standard August start. To make that more precise, if you apply to the J-Term, then you’d be starting in January 2018 — or in like eight months from now. Instead of waiting over a year to begin.

Used to be, it was a fairly strict profile type who got admitted to Columbia’s accelerated January Start MBA program. Many years ago, in a different era of admissions at Columbia, we heard an adcom person say, “Don’t apply to the J-Term if you’re a career changer. We won’t admit you.” Yes, they were that black-and-white about it.

That’s changed.

As a broad statement, the profile that’s a potential fit to the J-Term is still the same, because it’s still a Columbia MBA, but this “no career changer” stance has softened, and as a result, some of you BSers these days may be a good fit to this track without realizing it.

The J-Term is the exact-same full-time MBA curriculum and experience as the August Start, with the only exception being that you get through it a lot faster. You skip out on the summer internship and instead take your second term core courses during that three-month period. Then you join up as a second-year student with the cohort of students who started in August just prior to you, and you graduate with them.

So basically, if you were to join the Columbia J-Term this coming January (2018), you’d be the Class of 2019 and you’d graduate with everyone who’s currently gearing up to begin their MBA this coming fall. You’d be graduating with all the rest who went through the admissions process LAST YEAR. It’s kind of like leap-frogging time, in a way.

It’s especially attractive for anyone who missed out on applying this past season (2016-’17) and/or who just couldn’t crack the MBA admissions nut and is looking to be a reapplicant in the coming season.

But it’s not just any old applicant who’s a fit to the J-Term.

It’s really only appropriate to those who don’t need that internship.

So, if you’re making a radical career jump, then it’s going to be a tough sell to convince the Columbia adcom that you can do it without the advantage of the standard internship experience. That’s really the whole point of the internship, you know: To get you ready for the big post-MBA job that you’re angling for. If you currently don’t have much to build on, in terms of industry or function experience, then it’s not going to be so easy to convince an employer to take that risk on you – especially when you’ll be competing with all the full-time MBAs who DID do the internship (both the ones at Columbia, and at every other school that the recruiter is interviewing at).

However, if you’re using the MBA to advance your existing career path, to jumpstart your advancement in your current industry – say, you’re in PE and want to go back to PE – then the J-Term is absolutely perfect for you.

If you’re already in financial services in some capacity, then we can also see a potentially viable pitch to use the J-Term to transition to another niche within financial services.

Or, if you intend to start a business through the MBA experience, voila. J-Term.

And if you’re lucky enough to be sponsored by your current employer and you will be headed back to them after graduation: J-Term.

Someone ready to join their family business after bschool: J-Term.

And finally: Any true go-getter who is a networking genius and is at the top of his or her field already, who knows how to be the mover and shaker and everyday rainmaker and has accrued some valuable research and CONNECTIONS in her intended target sector… We can see how possibly a J-Term pitch could work out for you, too. Though that one is definitely a case-by-case basis sort of thing.

We specifically wanted to offer some advice for anyone who tried for Columbia August Start last season and didn’t make it, who is now thinking that maybe the J-Term is a better fit:

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If you have questions on your situation and whether this might be the program for you, feel free to leave them in the comments section, we’re happy to serve as an initial sounding board.

Columbia candidates, J-Term and otherwise, it’s time to get started!

($) Stanford’s “Save the World” culture

by EssaySnark - Discusses

Yeah yeah yeah, we know the tagline is “Change” the world, not “Save” it, but it sorta amounts to the same thing, right? The GSB is selling a bill of goods that all those lofty-minded students are going to go out and make a difference. Where else do we hear the “make a difference” thing?…

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