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[quote=Anonymous]I have an MBA from a top 20 program (depends on the ranking service used).

It might help to know:

1) your gender (if you are F, I may have diff't advice)
2) your post-MBA career aspirations (the real ones + what you will say on your apps if you think your dream job doesn't make sense)
3) a few of the schools you are considering

You would be better served asking questions on a board with many MBA applicants and recent grads.  Your peers are not on here.  Also, DC is not an MBA-heavy town compared to NYC, Chicago, LA, etc.  (I left DC to get an MBA and never went back because of the HCOL ratrace.)

Here are a few starter thoughts.

1) Sorry to be cynical but Corporate Strategy is b.s. After sitting through 2 years of MBA school, I figured out that Advanced Cost Accounting was actually more rigorous and meaningful as a subject matter area than Corporate Strategy.  I got my MBA before "Analytics" and "Data Science" became trendy but I bet those are also useful.  Corporate Strategy classes often review case studies with no right answers where people just debate points in class (kind of like poetry interpretation).  My concentrations were technically in Marketing and Corporate Strategy but in reality, my choice of electives by department mimicked the core pretty well.  That's partly because I lost respect for Corporate Strategy and took other things like higher-level Operations Management, Cost Accounting, and a Europe-based research project class where we traveled over spring break.  I also have worked in Corporate Strategy type roles.  There is no magic there.  They mainly integrate data from other corporate functions and fight about the true nature of strategy.

2) If you have an Ivy econ degree and you go to a good MBA program, odds are you're headed for consulting (if only to help pay off your loans).  I thought I was until I got to school and learned about how much of consulting is about selling and spinning vs. adding real value.  And elite consulting is up or out.  That means in 5 or so years you'll need to burrow in with a client or specific industry anyway.  Why not skip the extra steps?  That's my opinion. I went directly to a client industry.  I have yet to run across any strategy consultants whose projects were worth the money my company paid them.  It's actually kind of disconcerting.

3) if you plan to have a family, how does your MBA and career path fit around that?

I do think it's a plus that you say you are in a niche business.  That may help your app.  The schools get tons of cookie cutter applicants (Wall Street, IT, and consulting analysts, etc.).

Have you made good use of the site below?  This is the only one that I have read recently that I believe is highly popular.  It has an MBA ranking that combines several popular and flawed rankings into its own popular and flawed meta-ranking.  Still worth looking at.

https://poetsandquants.com/

Before you go any further, I suggest that you get very clear on what your post-MBA job objectives are, and whether you need an MBA to reach them.  That will help you make effective decisions and craft your app.

Good luck! Ask any follow-ups...[/quote]

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