Backdoor top 10 MBA

Every year I work with students who want top-10 or top-5, but they don’t have the stats or professional experience to realistically get into those programs. If you fall in that bucket, here is what I would recommend that you do: take a look at one-year programs at those top schools. Columbia has a J-term. Kellogg, Cornell, NYU now have one-year programs. This is a way to get into the back door of that really prestigious and reputable network while forgoing some of the things like on-campus recruiting and maybe even a work visa post-MBA. But if you’re going back to your family business or you’re going back to your home country and your plan isn’t to work in the U.S. or to change function or industry a whole lot and it’s really about reputation and network for you, take a look at those programs. My experience has been that admissions is a bit less competitive and the network is still as strong.