Help with Business School, Careers in Finance, etc.

[Cad]

Originally Posted by Etoille

MBA's are on track to become the next "JD". So many people graduating with them that they're a lousy investment if you have to sink your own money in.

Both MBA's and JD's need to be distinguished as from T1 or non-T1 schools. JD holders from T1 schools are doing just fine, thank you very much. Similarly I bet MBA holders from T1 schools are going to get the top jobs they're used to, and the slackers in the programs will get slightly less than they used to.

Now, JD's or MBA's from no-name T2+ schools? Sure. Bordering on worthless. But the good jobs are still out there and the top people at the top schools are still getting them. The trick is going to be realistically identifying whether you are one of those top people or not before you make your investment.

[r3probate]

Originally Posted by prescient63

I didn't think traders needed an MBA. Am I wrong about this?

Maybe he doesn't want to be a trader anymore? That's the only reason I could think of..If I was pushing 6 figures already, 3 years out of undergrad, I don't think I'd be looking to go back to school either, but it's not my life.

[Snagglepuss]

Originally Posted by prescient63

I didn't think traders needed an MBA. Am I wrong about this?

well, yes and no. there are plenty of successful traders out there with only an undergraduate degree. the thing is, most of those undergrad degrees are from ivy league / feeder schools. in my situation, it's going to be difficult to get looked at for a role at a big bank/hf (even though I believe I could do the job), so getting an MBA from a feeder school is one way to get my foot in the door.

Originally Posted by Picasso

My advice is fairly linear when dealing with someone who has a < 3.0 gpa in finance

End your life.

mine is a unique circumstance... I put forth essentially 0 effort throughout my entire college career. I played a LOT of eq, partied, etc. for most people, you would be right, but I caught the bubble at the right time

look at it this way: I went to a total nobody school, graduated with only 10k debt, and now make 90k (not an amazing sum by any means, but it's a livable wage) as a trader in new york city. I think that's a pretty decent accomplishment.

Originally Posted by Lyrical

Snagglepuss, given your degree being from North Texas, and GPA, even if you have decent work xp and make decent pay (which they will take into account), you might have to focus on getting into a t2 school.

Yeah, I was going to target Stern, which is top 15 overall but top 3 in finance, and is heavily recruited by the firms I'm interested in. Also maybe CMU, which is kinda underrated and I believe is recruited by GS.

Originally Posted by FulorianC

As someone who also attends the University of North Texas: if he's taken lots of finance classes with Dr. Jim MacDonald, I can totally understand a 2.9 GPA. Seriously, this dude = holy shit wtf hard.

Those classes were actually sort of cool, I liked that teacher. Randy Guttery was another teacher that stood out. I don't think I've ever really been able to apply anything I learned in my finance classes to my career though, so take it all with a grain of salt :P

I appreciate your advice, but it is totally worthless in my case. I work in NYC and do not plan on ever going back to Texas. the schools you mentioned are, for the most part, regionally-focused. you could probably go to rice and land a nice gig in energy S&T in houston though... heh.

[Snagglepuss]

Originally Posted by r3probate

Maybe he doesn't want to be a trader anymore? That's the only reason I could think of..If I was pushing 6 figures already, 3 years out of undergrad, I don't think I'd be looking to go back to school either, but it's not my life.

i graduated late, so i should really be about 5 years out of undergrad and not 3.. heh. but no, i do enjoy trading and see it as a good long-term career, the problem is that i work at the small new york branch of a european bank (no, not deutsche bank). i want to be involved in a more intense, larger-scale, more risk-oriented enterprise. it may be possible, when the economy recovers, for me to get on the desk at a big bank or hedge fund, but I think the chances will be better if I get an MBA from the right school.

90k for a trader is really quite low. and 90k in nyc is shitty.

[Snagglepuss]

Originally Posted by Dumar

there is no value in a phd in terms of money / time. it's useless for making money.

this is an EXTREMELY broad statement, and also not correct. on wall street, some of the most highly-compensated trading jobs are held almost solely by phds in the hard sciences. a phd in math, e.e., physics, etc. is 100% pure gold, and i would guess this type of degree would hold quite a bit of value in a lot of other fields, including energy and logistics.

going from proofs on insane physics problems to writing an options market-making program is swimming FAR downstream, heh.

[Lyrical]

Originally Posted by Snagglepuss

90k for a trader is really quite low. and 90k in nyc is shitty.

I really don't miss living in the area. I remember when a recruiter from a prestigious firm wanted me to move to the area. I looked at a salary comparator, and figured I'd need to make just under $200K to just to MAINTAIN the lifestyle I had making 80K in Texas. No thanks.

[Snagglepuss]

Originally Posted by Lyrical

I really don't miss living in the area. I remember when a recruiter from a prestigious firm wanted me to move to the area. I looked at a salary comparator, and figured I'd need to make just under $200K to just to MAINTAIN the lifestyle I had making 80K in Texas. No thanks.

haha yeah. it's true. 100k in texas and you can live like a king. 100k in nyc and you can live like a bum. although for me, not having to own/drive a car is worth a lot.

[Picasso]

Originally Posted by Snagglepuss

mine is a unique circumstance... I put forth essentially 0 effort throughout my entire college career. I played a LOT of eq, partied, etc. for most people, you would be right, but I caught the bubble at the right time

look at it this way: I went to a total nobody school, I think that's a pretty decent accomplishment.

Putting forth 0 effort in college is a unique circumstance?

I think your second paragraph sums it up nicely, well done!

[Pasteton]

friend of mine is looking into taking this, was wondering if anyone on these boards has taken/done well on it, and what you'd recommend. from what ive seen it doesnt seem like a test that can be studied for, and the scaling difficulty questions seem like it'd make scoring the test completely confusing. but i heard you pretty much have to get 700+ to get into a top mba program so its an important test nonetheless. anyone crush this one?

[Silence]

Originally Posted by Pasteton

friend of mine is looking into taking this, was wondering if anyone on these boards has taken/done well on it, and what you'd recommend. from what ive seen it doesnt seem like a test that can be studied for, and the scaling difficulty questions seem like it'd make scoring the test completely confusing. but i heard you pretty much have to get 700+ to get into a top mba program so its an important test nonetheless. anyone crush this one?

I have not taken it. College buddy was HS/College valedictorian and took a year off of his life to study. We were roomates for a year after college and all he did was study for it and take practice exams. I cannot remember what his score was, but it was so high many schools encouraged him to apply. That was some time ago, but I'd think it is still something that can be very much studied for.

He wound up going to Wharton.

[Burkex]

I took it years ago to get into grad school for my MBA. I can't recall my score but I did well on it. What you gotta do is start studying like a year before the test. You HAVE TO take a Kaplan or Princeton Review course, if you don't you won't be prepaired. There are tricks to the test and they will teach you these and give you tons of timed practice tests. They will give you a bunch of books with pactice tests and lessons and you will end up buying more to take more tests. I think after the course my score went up 200-300 points or so from taking that Kaplan course. BUT, you can't just take the course and just expect to get good score. You must do the homework and do practice tests whenever you can, the more the better. The thing is getting into the top grad schools these days is really hard to do because so many people are applying these days and you really need 3 things to get in. A really high GMAT score, 4-5+ years of job good experience, and a clear cut well defined explination of why you want to go to grad school and what your EXACT career plan is. If just one of these things is bad they toss your app. So yea GMAT is really weighed heavily.

[Dabamf]

I took the gre last year, and though it's a different test, you absolutely can and should study for it. I'm a fantastic test taker, so I always thought it would be a waste of time, but just reading 1 prep book and doin the 5 practice tests bumped my score over 100 points higher (out of 800). I also score perfect on both writing sections thanks to the advice in the book. The prep isn't about knowing the material, it's about familiarizing yourself with the test. And the benefit is abso-fucking-lutely huge.

And though familiarity was the best benefit of studying, the material DID also help a lot. Even reading through the math section, stuff I already knew, helped to make me much faster at answering questions and allowing more time for that one or two that I just wasn't sure of. Don't know the structure of the gmat but on the gre, having a large vocab was ridiculously important. The best way I think to study vocab is find a list of the meaning of every single prefix, suffix, and root possible and memorize them. It's hard to study individual vocab when there are so many possibilities, but if you know the meanings of the parts of a word, you can often piece together the meaning of a word you don't know.

[Silence]

Originally Posted by Dabamf

Don't know the structure of the gmat but on the gre, having a large vocab was ridiculously important. The best way I think to study vocab is find a list of the meaning of every single prefix, suffix, and root possible and memorize them. It's hard to study individual vocab when there are so many possibilities, but if you know the meanings of the parts of a word, you can often piece together the meaning of a word you don't know.

IIRC, my friend studied vocab pretty hardcore for the GMAT.

[CnCGOD]

I used a special vocab method on the SAT in that I knew a basic set of Latin words than used test taking methodology to break down the word lists to a 1-2 possible answers thus making me get words correct I wouldn't know otherwise. (740 was the result). Which surprised me as I expected my Math (710) to be higher and vocab lower lol.

[Tuco]

CnCGOD, got any material that explains your strat?