The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. For reference, here's the class profiles for Wharton/Harvard/Stanford:Voyager wrote:I think you are way overestimating the work pedigrees top MBA programs require. I have seen all kinds of backgrounds. And they are not all F500, MBB people. Not by a long shot.dabigchina wrote: Problem is you can't just go out and get experience at a f500, consulting, banking (not going to mention big4 accounting because that will get you laughed out of town). There's a reason those jobs are so coveted. For your run of the mill student at a mediocre state u with a 3.7 in history I'd say law school/biglaw is much more attainable and reasonably lucrative.
Ex-military, non-profits, nurses, programmers, analysts in various corporate functions. Hell, an assistant manager from Target would probably be highly sought after! Why? Because MBA programs want a class with diverse backgrounds. It makes the discussion more interesting.
In short: I disagree with you. I think that a decent undergrad kid could go work in commission sales for 4 years, go kill the GMAT and get in to any number of top MBA programs.
http://www.wharton.upenn.edu/mba/admiss ... rofile.cfm
http://www.hbs.edu/recruiting/mba/data- ... ofile.html
https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/programs/m ... ss-profile
A few things that stand out as relevant is that about half the class or more come from consulting or finance, and about 3/4 of the class have business/finance/STEM undergrad degrees. And the median amount of work experience is four years.
Now obviously that doesn't mean that 50% of the class comes from Goldman or McKinsey, but it does suggest (to me at least) that incoming MBA candidates are all already successful.
I know it's anecdotal, but in my personal experience, top-MBA candidates are already successful, whereas most top-JD candidates are not (at least not in their careers).