Prepare Early

I will keep this section short—the gist of the message is that you should begin to prepare as early as possible. Ideally, you would begin to create a resume of experiences that would help you get into a top-tier business school in undergraduate school. There is a small problem with this advice and that is that most of us use undergraduate school as the time to consider multiple career options. We like the fact that we can experience a dizzying array of potential career opportunities while we are in college. While I wish that I could say that doing so will have no negative impact on your desire to get into a top-tier business school, I think that the opposite is true. Most people who get into great business schools deliberately (i.e. non-accidentally), make an early decision to get into business. This early decision gives them a distinct advantage over other candidates who discover this later in their life. Those who decided early can work to have business experiences early that others typically achieve later.

I decided my junior year of undergraduate that I wanted to go into business. However, I did a number of things in my last two year that helped qualify me to get into Harvard. I co-founded a student mentoring organization, I added a second major in economics. I started a non-profit organization. I got an internship with a real estate consulting firm in Chicago and applied for internship positions at banks, consulting firms, etc.

I personally feel that you have to explore many different career options while you are young. So, while it is an advantage to prepare early for a career in business, I would only recommend that course of action to individuals who are absolutely sure that they want to pursue a long-term career in business. If you happen to be one of these people, congratulations, you will probably be better positioned to get into a great business school.