Hello everyone! Most MBAs aspire to be entrepreneurs. But there are also quite a few entrepreneurs who aspire to gain a MBA degree! And preferrably from a reputed B-School. The reasons could be plenty - to change their career path due to prio…
Hello everyone!
Most MBAs aspire to be entrepreneurs. But there are also quite a few entrepreneurs who aspire to gain a MBA degree! And preferrably from a reputed B-School. The reasons could be plenty - to change their career path due to prior failure, gain corporate experience, develop and grow their current business...
This thread is for those MBA-aspriring entrepreneurs (MAEs). This thread can help exchange dialogue between these MAEs and MBA admits and/or alumni of reputed B-schools. MAEs can post their profile alongwith their questions. And MBA admits and/or alumni can help highlight the importance of having entrepreneurs, if there is :smile:, as their peers while pursuing their MBA, identify the gaps which might exist during the application process in case of an entrepreneur (reco letters, salaries) and so on and so forth.
As you must have already guessed by now, yes I am one of those MBA-aspiring entrepreneurs. 
Just a brief about myself. I have over 10 years of entrepreneurial experience - IT, jewellery, education and hospitality. One of my major reasons to pursue MBA is to gain corporate experience. Europe is my choice for location, owing to the shorter duration of course, its rich culture and some personal reasons. At the moment, my choice of universities include LBS, INSEAD, IESE, Imperial and Cranfield.
And I also had a few questions -
a) The ideal recommender is your immediate boss. In my case, there was none and there is none at the moment. Who, then, should be my choice of recommenders?
b) Will the expected GMAT score lower owing to my experience?
Hope this thread will prove to be helpful.
Cheers, Sumit
Two threads for the same thing.. Are there too many entrepreneurs around?
http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/gmat-and-related-discussions/23739-entrepreneurs-businessmen-willing-pursue-mba.html
😃 Excuse a newbie. But do post your invaluable comments and insights to support the thread! Thanks.
And I also had a few questions -
a) The ideal recommender is your immediate boss. In my case, there was none and there is none at the moment. Who, then, should be my choice of recommenders?
b) Will the expected GMAT score lower owing to my experience?
Hope this thread will prove to be helpful.
Cheers, Sumit
a) The recommender in your case could be a business partner/associate, a client or a customer - anyone who can demonstrate he/she has substantial knowledge about you as a professional. Perhaps one partner/associate and one client/customer, if possible. Different schools, however, may have different opinions on this, so it is best to ask each school what they want.
b) Given that a business school's decision to admit you is based on a large number of factors, one can expect that one strength can counterbalance a potential weakness. A relatively lower GMAT score, in simple terms therefore, may suffice if you have substantive experience. Mind you, though, greater experience in terms of number of years does not necessarily equate to better experience. You must be able to demonstrate the strength of your experience, if you have a lower GMAT score.
Having said that, though, focus on what sets you apart from the rest of the applicants, i.e., how your experience was different from that of the typical applicant pool - once the basics are covered (decent GMAT score, minimum experience, decent essays, decent extra curriculars, etc.), this is what may well decide whether you get through in the end.
Thanks Alok. Was really helpful.
Could you tell me more about your profile? It will help me trouble you a bit and ask you a few more questions. 😃
Seeing the dismal response to the thread, and presuming the absence of MAEs (MBAs aspiring entrepreneurs) at this forum, one can conclude that MAEs aren't commonplace, atleast not at this forum. But this definitely raises one serious question - whether it is viable for a businessman to pursue MBA? Or does being self-employed make MBA redundant?
Fill in your views guys.
Cheers!