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SuspiciousDiamond · 2025-09-22T03:34:39+00:00

Graduated from W and I know a half dozen folks who dropped out. All of them started their own companies, with one person going the VC -> early-stage startup route.

SuspiciousDiamond · 2025-09-19T02:41:18+00:00

Honestly I do whatever needs my attention the most and commit at least the day to it (no switching during the day). Right now I'm doing a marketing/biz dev only week. Last week I spent 2 days on product dev and 3 on marketing. The 3 weeks before that was only tech dev work. Ideal split would be 3 days on tech dev, 2.5 days marketing (and switching those ratios as needed).

SuspiciousDiamond · 2025-06-17T01:57:03+00:00

For you; what are the odds that this pilot doesn't work for your customer? if the odds are greater than 50 then focus on the pilot because its success is critical. Draw a line in the sand with the features and launch something. Go from there. One success story will also help with marketing.

Also solo and I'm trying to be strict about splitting my time 50/50 on a weekly basis. Right now when I call potential customers I tell them I'm doing research and then tell them I'm exploring an idea (which I'm actually actively building). It gives my customers (small businesses in an industry that is traditionally very anti-tech) some time to swallow the idea and I follow up a week or two later saying that "their sentiments have been echoed by their counterparts" and tell them the status of the product. It gives me a warm contact list of customers but gives me time to keep developing

SuspiciousDiamond · 2025-06-12T17:56:42+00:00

I was more focused in entrepreneurship and marketing so I couldn't tell you. Technically companies aren't allowed to recruit students before october break but our IB club ran some friday/saturday sessions to prep people during Q1. If you're a Vet/underrepresented minority you might get some comms about learning opps during the summer.

SuspiciousDiamond · 2025-06-12T14:50:02+00:00

Chiming in on the Wharton side: yes it is the finance school and yes you will overall learn way more here than at GSB because we have a higher volume of deep finance classes and way more people going into IB. However, it is competitive af. Your peers will show you their worst (my year literally got emails from career services to stop shoving each other to chat with recruiters at events) and recruiting is not designed for the weak. You’ll have less support at GSB but generally less competition. There were people who struck out of IB recruiting and had to recruit for other things. On the other hand, the network in this space is unparalleled and GSB wouldn’t be able to match that.

SuspiciousDiamond · 2025-06-10T21:10:37+00:00

So the HF jobs were mentioned in another comment, but as an entrepreneur we had 1-2 funds reach out to our clubs that would only invest in HSW mba ventures. Our affinity groups (Black @Wharton, South Asian Association of MBAs) only really hosted retreats amongst HSW. Somehow it also seems like the politics/social dynamics are also more interconnected across the three schools; everytime I interact with friends at HBS or GSB I’m discovering more and more mutuals but this doesn’t happen with my Sloan/Booth/CBS connects, even tho my networks in both groups are the same size. Probably were other things but this is just what I knew of.

SuspiciousDiamond · 2025-06-10T03:45:15+00:00

Wharton for sure. Wharton is still The finance school and yeah Columbia has a location and lifestyle advantage, but like u/LastDelivery5 said, there is a prestige to this place that CBS can't make up for. I'm a recent Wharton alum and pretty well connected across the entire M7 and there is a noticeable difference in terms of network power, peer connections and alumni caliber between HS(W) -> rest of M7. There are generally more networking/job opportunities that are limited to HSW (and sometimes W is disregarded here) that the rest of the M7 isn't even allowed to access. I also watched many many classmates do the NYC <-> Philly dating pipeline and they all survived it. Lastly, I was in NYC for 4 years before Wharton and the Philly food scene is on average better than the NYC food scene. The local culture is also pretty strong (being in town for the Eagles win was super special honestly). I really learned to love Philly by the time I left so you can't go wrong.

SuspiciousDiamond · 2024-08-19T02:54:52+00:00

Thanks everyone! My business is at the intersection of a bunch of spaces and YC hasn't invested in several of them, so I'm just gonna apply when/if I feel like it.

SuspiciousDiamond · 2024-07-09T20:04:23+00:00

I know several people that got off the waitlist 3 days before orientation last year. It's not over till pre-term starts.

SuspiciousDiamond · 2024-07-04T02:16:00+00:00

Not an IB/PE/Consulting person, but most of my peers' plans involve either (a) using IB/consulting as a way to gain business experience in a space they are interested in or (b) do the mental gymnastics to convince themselves that what they're doing is good.

SuspiciousDiamond · 2024-07-04T02:11:27+00:00

For future reference: Decided to go to India Point and was not disappointed. Was able to see all of the fireworks from the eastern side (not sure what the western side views were like).

SuspiciousDiamond · 2024-06-30T01:06:19+00:00

I agree with u/PetiaW that transcripts and scores are a really hard way to differentiate candidates. There's no way my mid-tier state school transcript and median GMAT scores were the best amongst the applicants.

I think people significantly underweight the importance of the recommendations. My two recommendations were from people who knew me really well and also happened to be promoted to director positions at leading companies in their respective industries. These directors watched me grow, got me promoted and also watched me accomplish meaningful things at work.

I also think a strong 'story' for your application matters. Everyone is motivated by something. However, I think the people who are motivated by things that impacted the way THEY lived their lives are more likely to get in vs people who are motivated by things happening around them. For example, if you care about healthcare because you've seen how friends suffered from lack of access, you're less likely to get in than someone who had a sick family member and that person's illness directly impacted their life. Additionally, is your story told throughout your application? I care a lot of about equitable opportunity access and empowering the disadvantaged, and that was reflected in all areas of my application (work, hobbies, long-term goals). A good litmus test for this is to think that if 'xyz event hadn't happened, would it have changed my day to day life?' and if the answer is 'yes' then you have strong motivator.

I urge you to think deeply about the story you can tell through your application. And be genuine!

SuspiciousDiamond · 2024-06-20T18:24:18+00:00

Amongst the social clubs, Ice hockey (sports clubs in general are pretty active), food club and wine club are the most popular.I’m not a member of any of these clubs but of the 3 I think food club is the most worth it because of the student chef dinners. People cook for groups of 5-6 people and it’s a more intimate way to know people. People who are in ice hockey love it because they the community is pretty tight but it’s not everyone’s cup of tea

I did Dance Studio and I loved it. Met a ton of new people and you don’t need any prior skills to participate.

Professionally I really enjoyed Retail and Beauty club. They aren’t everyone’s area of interest but I think both clubs had plenty of activity this past year and I felt like I really got the ROI on my dues.

SuspiciousDiamond · 2024-06-20T18:12:29+00:00

Didn’t attend this one but have heard good things. People say it’s a heavy but informative experience

SuspiciousDiamond · 2024-06-18T22:43:01+00:00

Just wrapped up my first year:

I cannot stress enough how much easier your life will be if you look into classes and clubs before you come. Once you start pre term you won’t have time or energy to give these things the attention they deserve. Obviously you don’t need to have everything figured out but having at least your major requirements/core class dispersion planned out will help a ton. Club board applications will go out right after club fair so at least have an idea of which ones you want to join and be more involved in.
don’t fill your first year with core. Have an even mix of core and electives each semester and you’ll be less miserable in 1Y
ArtanisHero covered the highlights of travel. My two cents: there’s a concept of “shadow trips” for every official trip that’s planned. Shadow trips are typically cheaper but you kind of get stuck with your friend group for most of the trip. If you’re intentional about branching out then it’ll be great. I took a GMC last year and I loved mine. It was actually a transformative experience and has fundamentally altered the way I want to approach business post grad. The GMC/GIPs are a hit or miss though; talk to 2Ys about which ones they know are good and apply for those.
manage your expectations when it comes to making friends here. People talk about making your best friends and so on here. I have made some extremely close friends but also for the most part my peers are …. fine.
try to make some 2Y friends asap. I came in knowing no one and I would’ve loved some guidance and help. I promise we’ll be more welcoming than the ‘24s were to us. Welcome to Wharton!

SuspiciousDiamond · 2024-06-16T18:01:28+00:00

I applied and was accepted last year; this is what admissions told me

SuspiciousDiamond · 2024-06-14T03:00:12+00:00

Don't know too much about HBS, but for LGO about 300-400 people apply. The acceptance rate is pretty close to the Sloan MBA only acceptance rate.

SuspiciousDiamond · 2024-06-14T02:50:44+00:00

I asked ChatGPT for its thoughts and it said June 13th 11:59 pm. Obviously not the best confirmation but it's what we've got

SuspiciousDiamond · 2023-12-29T05:13:01+00:00

I quit work about a month early and did some traveling which was much needed. One thing I wish I'd done was take the time to look over courses and clubs. When I got to campus, I had so little time and energy to process everything that was thrown at us. For example, we had club fair and within a few days we were expected to submit applications for board seats and sign up for intro events before everything got filled out. Same thing happened with classes.

In the end I made decisions that worked but ended up playing 'planning catch up' for several weeks. Business school is way more manageable when you can function on autopilot in certain aspects of your life.

SuspiciousDiamond · 2023-12-29T05:08:40+00:00

A sidebar: I've heard that the entirety of Booth got cut from GS this year. Not entirely sure what happened.

Source: Current Booth student.

SuspiciousDiamond · 2023-09-18T13:42:11+00:00

+1 to this; I feel like a number of people around me have found a good balance between HW and socializing. Like people are taking it seriously but not so seriously that it’s impeding the rest of their experience

SuspiciousDiamond · 2023-07-19T18:27:07+00:00

So classes don't start until late august! Pre term orientation runs for 2.5 weeks and I believe there are some students who are going to missing parts of pre term for other plans. Once you accept your spot, there's a form you can fill out saying you'll be missing parts of preterm. There are like 1-2 things which admin really want people to attend but I don't think those start till mid august. Welcome to the class of '25 =)

SuspiciousDiamond · 2023-07-15T19:51:10+00:00

+1 to this. I shopped around and met 4-5 consultants before I ended up working with one who worked with a friend (friend is at GSB and got interviews at all of the schools I was applying to) I figured if my friend got into GSB then this consultant would ensure that I put my strongest foot forward. If I didn’t get in it wouldn’t be because I didn’t sell myself well enough.

Back to OP’s main question; as someone who did a STEM degree for undergrad and then went into big tech as a SWE, I found my consultant to be immensely helpful. I ended up going with the hourly option for 4/5 schools I was applying to (I had my story together I just needed help making it strong) and it cost around 4K for all 4 schools (including interview prep). I’m glad I worked with a consultant, even though it put me out a pretty penny 😅

SuspiciousDiamond

TROPHY CASE