Getting a second MBA

I’m here to speak with those of you who already have an MBA and are looking to get another one. This is common for people from India who might have gone right after undergrad to one of the IIMs. It’s also common regionally in the U.S. You might have gone to a local program that recruited you straight out of undergrad. For any of these situations, you walk away without much of a network, without much professional support, not really feeling like you have the global contacts that you want and you would get out of a reputable U.S. program. If you’re now targeting top-15, here’s what you need to do. Number one, figure out who will actually accept you because you already have this other MBA. Some schools- like Haas, Tuck, and Columbia- say no- we’re just not going to take you on [for the full-time program]. Other programs say it’s fine. You can, but you need to tell us why it’s important that you get a second MBA, because you already have one. In those cases, you need to be clear about how that first MBA didn’t prepare you professionally for what your end goal is. Maybe it’s that you were just too young and you didn’t have the professional experience or maturity to take on all of the different resources that that program had. Or it wasn’t global in scope, it didn’t have recruitment options attached to it, and how this second MBA has all of the things that you’re looking for. Be judicious here. Be thoughtful, and make it clear why you belong in a top program.