How do top U.S. business schools look at work experience in banking? I work in the front office of a largish bank and have worked in this role since graduating from college 3 years ago. I have my sights set on Booth and Wharton with my end goal of getting into investment banking. I've heard that it can be hard to get into an MBA with this kind of career goal unless you already have IB experience. True or not?

I don't think that's necessarily true. B-schools will mainly be looking for the quality of your work experience and whatever career arc you can demonstrate - so you'll need to show them how much you've progressed from when you started working and why an MBA is important for the next step in your career.

Thanks. Have you ever heard of somebody going banking --> MBA --> I-banking?

I'm sure that happens pretty regularly. Scour LinkedIn for people in the industry and see what they did before starting their MBA.

Thanks! Besides Booth and Wharton, do you know of another good school? I would like to apply to three business schools total, in the US only.

I'm also looking to get into I-banking, and I applied to Wharton. I have some good friends who used MBAs to basically specialize, having worked in other financial services roles previously. I understand it's important to network during the program and meet with the firms you are interested in. It's not a huge world, investment banking, which is both good and bad.

That's great advice. Especially in investment banking, this is a case of 'who you know,' rather than 'what you know.'