Grant Allen: Who I Am, and Why B-School Is for Me

Wharton is major-based and aggressively academic (though not nearly as much as, say, Chicago, I think), so you really have the opportunity to learn more from a skills perspective than you would in a purely case-based environment. Wharton prides itself on substance, navigating the fine line between textbook skills and the real-world experience that I think this is crucial to attaining both the "CEO perspective" and the operational know-how to control details and be successful at all levels of an organization.

Wharton has also impressed me with its driven community. To a high degree, students mold the experience, driving curriculum change, club formation, career development, and a very full social life that always has you going, talking, drinking. I think our next event is Walnut Walk, where the school goes bar-hopping wearing formal business attire up top and bedtime apparel (boxers for guys, for girls I don't know what) down below.

More dramatic than this re-entry into such a collegiate social life, though, has been re-entry into an academic environment as immersive as Wharton's.

Missing the occasional class is not an option and case preparation is prerequisite; pity the fool who gets cold-called in marketing without adequate analysis in paw. And then there's the equally odd-feeling transition which I can already feel sneaking up on me of re-entering the "real world" this summer and then after school. Assuming an entrepreneurial tech or private equity firm doesn't nab my interest, I'll be moving back into consulting (yes, more case interviews come February!). Ideally, I'd then move into an internal strategy capacity to gain greater operational exposure. My long-term goal is to get into VC and start my own technology company focused on wireless software and emerging applications, but not necessarily in that order, while also keeping up my nonprofit involvement.

Getting my MBA at Wharton is an integral piece of this career jigsaw puzzle. From my $135K investment, I hope to gain a sound set of management skills, a grounding in finance and marketing, a diverse and successful set of lifelong peers, plus personal branding that will follow me as I move from consulting into private equity, business ownership, and wherever else I want to go.

BESTING THE BEAST.  As for applying, begin early, know what you want, and be very ready to answer the question: Why MBA? Why now? Why our school? You need to have these questions down. Yes, you need to knock out the GMAT, get your recommenders prepped to say wonderful things about you, and write about the time you saved XYZ Company from impending disaster while in your ample spare time leading the construction of an orphanage in Zaire. (Of course, you run and win marathons and paid your way through Yale, too, running a hedge fund on your laptop.)

Seriously, the messaging is crucial. You have to sell yourself as a low-risk admit who is self-actualized (not just type-A) and able to get the most out of their specific program. You need to really add to their community. So, know what makes you unique. I thought at first as a Caucasian consultant with an engineering background and scattershot extra-work leadership, I was bland. I then invested considerable time highlighting my uniqueness (work overseas building churches, founding a cancer advocacy nonprofit with my physician father, you get the idea), and saw my unique story begin to bubble to the surface. Only one of my core essays discussed work.

Definitely read your Montauk book, take your Kaplan course, do what you need to. But also take a week or two off, sit on the beach, meditate, swim with the dolphins, whatever. Just take the time to know the WHYS. Unlike law school, there aren't any stats keeping you out of business school, only a disimpassioned individual or an inarticulate message.

Truly, don't be afraid to demonstrate excellence in a niche that excites you, even at the expense of your job. I've seen countless people succeed in the B-school application process without the Goldman Sachs analyst credentials or the McKinsey pedigree. I've seen the 620 GMAT succeed with HBS, heard of a few 3.1 GPAs in my class here, and know that my friend who played hooky in India for a few years (albeit with a start-up tech firm) will soon be making that all-so-hard H/S/W decision.

What differentiated these people was a predilection toward leadership and excellence in whatever they touched. Banking, consulting, NGO, politics, you name it — they took the bull by the horns and made good stuff happen. Then you just have to take that example of impact, tie it to a set of well-conceived future goals, and turn the whole ball of wax into a tight marketing message. Piece of cake, right?

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