Dear Duncan and friends,

I have been on this forum for a while and now it is my turn to seek your advice.

A little bit about me. I graduated with a degree in Computer Science from a former English poly technique scoring borderline a first class degree. While working full-time I continued to study part-time and earned a Master in Information Systems equivalent to what MBAs call IT Management. In the UK, I worked for the NHS and a consultancy listed in FTSE100. I moved to Singapore to work in IT for a bank and now in an emerging country in Asia serving as IT Manager of the foreign bank. In total, I have 5-6 years working experience with some interesting voluntary and leadership activities.

I haven?t taken the GMAT yet but the test score is slightly above 700 range.

As an IT guy, I love my field but find it a bit repetitive and want switch to investment banking/management to leverage my programming as well as technical skills in for example modelling. However, since switching career nowadays is tough, I am fine going into more senior roles in IT as well. So I am looking for programs strong both in finance as well as IT or quantitative subjects such as Analytics or Operations Research which rely a lot on programming.
I love to travel and try out new things so I don?t really consider going back to UK or Singapore unless given my background doing an MBA in either of these countries will mean a higher chance to move into investment banking and with better ROI. At the end of the day that is all that matters.

My priority is to do an American MBA but open to any other wild and extravaganza suggestions as long as they lead to first better ROI and second and less important switching to investment banking.

1. Please suggest a few programmes that I can look at and probably my chance of getting into them so I can prioritize

2. I see a few accelerated 12 month MBAs in the States. For a career-switchers are these programs really handicap my opportunity to switch careers?
How about Emory and Notre Dame, are their 12 month MBA suitable to my aims?

Thank you my friends,

To switch into IB you will really benefit from a 2 year programme because of the internship, and it would be great to boost your GMAT. The top US schools for IB are listed below in declining order of average GMAT: they all have average schools of at least 710
Harvard Business School
Wharton
Booth
New York University
Northwestern
UCLA
Columbia University
University of Michigan

Then there are three non-US schools who send a lot of people into IB firms:-
London Business School
INSEAD
University of Mumbai (Interestingly!)

If you cannot get over 700 then I would suggest:
Duke
Cornell
UT Austin
UNC Chapel Hill
CMU
USC
Georgetown
Rice.

Personally, I would look very closely at Cornell and CMU.

These programs all have concentrations in finance and average starting salaries over $90K, which is a good proxy for effective placement.

Thanks Duncan.

1. Can I clarify that these schools are inferior in sending their grads to Wall St
MIT, Tuck,Berkeley and Darden compared to the ones in your long list "Harvard Business School Wharton Booth New York University Northwestern UCLA Columbia University University of Michigan"

2. I am also interested in the UK, after LBS, appreciate if you can list some decent choices for Canary Wharf
Said > Judge > Cranfield > Manchester > Imperial probably?

3. Is INSEAD ok to land a job in London? I went to a couple of events of INSEAD in Singapore and was pretty impressed with so much can happen in only 10 months.

4. Yes, I have looked at CMU and Cornell, CMU has very strong quant concentrations such as financial engineering as well as Cornell. If have to pick maybe Cornell has the sight edge with its Ivy League snob

Of course these are strong schools for IB, but they send fewer people into IB than the others, and will attract less recruiter attention as a result. I spent a term in the MBA at Tuck and did a short course at Darden, and my feeling is that these are more like general management schools.

Of them, I'd put them in this order: MIT > Dartmouth > Darden > Haas. Yale, BU, Georgetown and UNC are also quite strong for finance. Cornell and CMU are very different. Cornell is the least snobby of the Ivyies.

Top schools for IB placement in the UK are not all UK schools. INSEAD selects a special type, already very able:
London Business School
INSEAD
Cass Business School
Columbia University
Imperial College London
Wharton
Booth
University of Cambridge
Manchester
New York University.

Outside the US and UK, I would also take a look at NUS, IESE, IIMA, HEC and Melbourne.

Hello Duncan,

So if my GMAT is slight below 700 let say 690 then Duke Cornell and CMU are within reach?

Also if I score 700-710 then please help give 3 4 realistic schools.

Honestly, I am not so sure that my former poly technique degree is that highly regarded. My experience as you can see is by no means exceptional. NHS is the largest organisation in Europe and not Apple. Singaporean banks are OK in Asia but it is for sure not even Lehman Brothers.

Yes, I'd say you have a good chance of getting one offer if you applied to four or five schools like Duke or Cornell.They are competitive schools, of course. The main issue is timing: apply as early as possible.They are not exactly stretch schools, but they are very competitive: they will have a donho shaped hole in the class, but maybe only one or two. If you are the first one in, and have a strong application, you will be the one.

If you were a client, I think I would be suggesting:
University of North Carolina--Chapel Hill (Kenan-Flagler) (NC)
Emory University (Goizueta) (GA)
Indiana University--Bloomington (Kelley) (IN)
Georgetown University (McDonough) (DC)
University of Texas--Dallas (TX)
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities (Carlson) (MN)
University of Iowa (Tippie)

These are less selective schools, but still quite good ones, and a 700 GMAT would be above the average. if by chance you had a Jesuit connection, then Georgetown or ESADE would be wide opn to you.

This is a good list from Duncan. I'd just add that you can look at the recruiting reports for these schools to see where graduates ended up. For instance, Citigroup recruits from Tippie, and companies including Barclays and Deutsche Bank recruit from UNC - Kenan-Flagler.

Similarly, you can often find the companies that recruit interns from the schools - e.g. Goldman Sachs recruits interns from Emory.

If you were a client, I think I would be suggesting:
University of North Carolina--Chapel Hill (Kenan-Flagler) (NC)
Emory University (Goizueta) (GA)
Indiana University--Bloomington (Kelley) (IN)
Georgetown University (McDonough) (DC)
University of Texas--Dallas (TX)
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities (Carlson) (MN)
University of Iowa (Tippie)

Thank you for your suggestions friends.

I have been observing but not giving as much input as I would like to.

Being the focal point of responsibility is tough and it is when you have to make decision and weight the options that when you grow your leadership, persistence and ability to get things done.

I feel like to grow a lot in the role and that is is just so good of an opportunity to rise to the challenges.