Are MBAs from Top Schools So Different?

"Students at every school are largely modular. We seem cut from similarly ambitious, overachieving cloth, and share common skills."

By Jonathon Scott Feit

Jonathon Scott Feit
Carnegie Mellon
Class of 2010

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Ahh, 2009. Time for rejuvenation, a rejiggering of resolutions, and that age-old MBA pastime called "hunting internships." It's painful, pressured, tedious, and trepidatious under the best of circumstances—and as Wendy Hermann, director of student services at Carnegie Mellon's Tepper School of Business has said: "This is not a normal year."

Just a few days ago, I returned from on-site interviews with a biopharma company for which I'd enjoy working, and the general feeling among my fellow interviewees was hopeful. Indeed, it was cordial—even friendly. That got me thinking.

Among the most interesting discoveries I made on this trip was that at most every business school worth its brand, the same key lessons are learned; the same standards of excellence prevail.

Linchpins of a Network

In attendance at the interviews were students from Kellogg, Duke, Indiana, Dartmouth, Tepper, Washington University, USC, Thunderbird, Michigan, and Columbia. I couldn't shake the feeling that every one of my fellow candidates could step up to the employment plate and soar—which would increase competition for every position while simultaneously equalizing our institutions. In the end—and herein lay the revelation—the diminution of difference is a good thing, because a hallmark of business school (in general, I think, and certainly at Tepper) is the recognition that we collectively comprise the linchpins of an extensive professional network.

Programs may specialize by subject—say, entrepreneurship (Babson) or operations (Tepper and MIT-Sloan) or finance (Chicago and NYU). Yet after two Minis (read: one semester) and cross-school comparison, I can safely declare that "core" classes are core for a reason: accounting is accounting is accounting, and so on, substantively identical at BusinessWeek's No.1 school and its No.30. Beyond the blatant marketing hype—like how many Fortune 500 recruiters and executives stop by to chat from time to time—the students at every school are largely modular. We seem cut from similarly ambitious, overachieving cloth, share common skills and passions, and could likely succeed equally well across a bevy of MBA programs.

So in looking back on the first semester of B-school with an eye toward the upcoming internship chase, here's my question: Why do prospective employers not see the same fact of the matter, that whether a students winds up at Harvard or McCombs or Anderson (and so on) probably has something to do with one's GMAT score and essay-writing, sure—but at least as much to do with luck of the draw and the reviewers' subjective judgment about the significance of one's professional past? That where the rubber meets the road, we can each hold our own—and that sometimes the ideal candidates spring from the unlikeliest places.

Put another way, as one of my dearest friends asked while we bandied about this very conversation: "You don't think a different class of people apply to Harvard as opposed to the University of Georgia?"

Ready to Manage

Unequivocally, my answer was "No, I don't." If the first semester at Tepper has done anything, it's to underscore a lack of distinction among MBA candidates for a simple, unavoidable fact: Our backgrounds are so diverse and individual, and most classes are made up of such a wide swath of students, that weighing "better and worse" or even "more prepared for business school" becomes impossible while keeping a straight face.

In terms of readiness to manage people post-MBA, is it "better" to have worked at the top of a five-person family business, or in the treasury department of a multinational bank? Can you even compare the two?

Looking at the schools themselves, the various rankings—including sets by BusinessWeek, U.S. News & World Report, The Wall Street Journal, and the Financial Times—provide a boost in cachet.