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Business School Research

Venture Capital – Career Path, Salary and Best MBA

Close to 50% of all deals lose money, 20% make 1-2x the initial investment, 15% make 2-5x deals, and 10% make 5-10x. Just 6% make more than 10x - according to a study conducted by Horsley Bridge, a private equity firm - reiterating the value of 'risk' in gaining a significant return.

The framework and philosophy of risk-taking have attracted a significant percentage of young talent to the industry. Known as a type of Private Equity with a return horizon of 5-10 years, VC offers its investors exit through an IPO, Merger, or acquisition.

Business School
MBA Admissions

McCombs MBA for Military Applicants (Career Planning Analysis)

In the 4th part of the Career Planning Analysis for military applicants, we cover McCombs MBA

The University of Texas at Austin's McCombs School of Business exhibits a commitment to inclusivity by actively engaging and supporting military-affiliated students, constituting 14% of the Class of 2025.

The Notre Dame MBA for Military Applicants (Analysis)

In the 3rd part of the Career Planning Analysis for military applicants, we cover The Notre Dame MBA

The University of Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business has a rich history of supporting veterans, dating back nearly 150 years, rooted in the university's involvement in training naval officers during World War II. Today, Notre Dame maintains strong ties with the military through Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) programs for the Marines, Navy, Air Force, and Army.

Ross MBA for Military MBA Applicants

In this 2nd part of the Career Planning Analysis for military applicants, we cover Ross MBA.

The Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor prioritizes the inclusion and support of military-affiliated students, with veterans constituting 7% of the Class of 2024.

Ross MBA for Military MBA Application – Leadership Development through Action-Based Learning

Curriculum – Full-time MBA

Venture Capital Roles - Salary and Responsibilities

Pursuing an MBA from a top Business School is key to making it big in the Venture Capital Industry if you don’t have any entrepreneurial experience or a Finance background. 

While one could start off as an Analyst or as an investment banker after a Bachelor’s degree and then move on to an Associate position, getting an MBA significantly improves the odds of promotion.

The Career of a VC transitions from Senior Associate to Vice-President or Principal to Junior Partner to Senior/Partner to a Managing Director/General Partner role.

MBA for Venture Capital Career - Curriculum Structure

Almost all top MBA schools around the world have specialization or elective courses that deal particularly with venture capital. This is in line with the significant percentage of post-MBA graduates going into the venture capital industry or working with VCs as product managers and entrepreneurs.

Stanford Graduate School of Business, Harvard Business School, and Chicago Booth have the largest percentage of alumni working as venture capitalists. 

The Jefferson Fellowship Program – Darden MBA’s $180,000 Award

Established in the 1990s, the Jefferson Fellowship Program shortlists outstanding candidates from around the world who exhibit strong leadership qualities. 

The Jefferson Scholars Foundation's measures look closely at instances of ethical leadership, diplomatic intervention and decisive action, a proven ability to translate ideas into action, and a stellar academic record. 

Business School
MBA Admissions
MBA Funding

Oculus Fellowship – The Full-Tuition Award at Darden (Merit-Based)

The Oculus Fellowships, started in 2020-21, recognizes exceptional leadership potential and academic competence in applicants. 

Named after the Oculus, the circular opening in the dome of the hall, the fellowships symbolize the impact of the presence of enlightened students in the university and the MBA program.  

Similar to most cohort-based fellowship programs, Oculus fellows enjoy exclusive access to famed Darden alum and receive mentorship from senior leadership and benefactors to the Oculus Fellowships.

Business School
MBA Admissions
MBA Funding

Batten Media Fellowships at Darden MBA: US Nationals (Merit Based)

Established in 1988 by Frank Batten, the founder of The Weather Channel and the former chairman of the Associated Press, the Batten Media Fellowships at Darden MBA aims to provide professionals with at least three years of experience in the news media with the opportunity to pursue an MBA. The program has welcomed Batten Media Fellows from renowned media outlets, such as ABC News, CNN, National Geographic, and The Washington Post. 

Business School
MBA Admissions
MBA Funding

IMD vs. INSEAD MBA – Curriculum Overview (Analysis)

IMD and INSEAD have structured their curriculum with focus on two different learning objectives. IMD with building skills for those working in the Consulting and Operations functions while INSEAD for those in the Finance and Consulting industries. 

IMD: Four phases are included in the one-year IMD Full-Time MBA Program. 

Skillset for getting a post-MBA Consulting Role in Green Energy Transition

Securing a role in Green Energy Transition Consulting demands a strategic blend of skills. 

Essential competencies include expertise in renewable energy feasibility studies, energy efficiency, and environmental management. 

Proficiency in Carbon and GHG accounting, collaborative work with stakeholders, and a passion for the green transition are crucial. 

Candidates typically require 1-5 years of technical or business consulting experience, with senior roles requiring 10-15 years.

Top 3 MBA - Green Energy Consulting

When MBA applicants discuss about Energy careers, they often share the challenges of not having any resources that captures just ‘Green and Clean Energy’ and not just Sustainability, which also includes inclusive growth, equity and representation of women and underrepresented minorities. 

In this analysis, we have shortlisted three MBA programs that are leading in Green Energy Consulting and Green Energy Transition. 

What are the MBA Joint Degree programs offered at the Stanford Campus?

With 5% of the Stanford MBA Class opting for multiple academic disciplines along with the MBA program, dual and joint degree programs are popular options for the entering class. 

For a Joint Degree program, the credit from a course will be accounted for both degrees. 

A joint degree program is awarded along with Stanford MBA, with just one restriction – you can’t earn more than one joint degree program that includes MA Education, MPP, MS in Computer Science, MS in Electrical Engineering, and MS in Environment and Resources. 

MBA Admissions

NYU Stern MBA - 3 Consulting focused Experiential Learning Programs

Experiential Learning vs. Case Study Method is a deeply debated topic. One goes with the assumption that learning through action is the best form of reinforcement learning while Case Study Method values the power of reflection instead of just experiential learning that has strict limitations on the potential solutions. 

Top 30 US MBA - Median Base Salary (2024)

Stanford MBA program tops the list of Median base salary with $182,500 followed by Chicago Booth with a median base salary of $180,000. 

The third position is a tie among 12 MBA programs with a median base salary of $175,000, which includes Yale, Columbia, Wharton, Kellogg, NYU Stern, Darden, Cornell, Fuqua, McCombs, Tuck, Harvard, and Ross.

MIT remained $5000 behind the average median salary at fourth place.

Paul Merage School of Business and Board College of Business offered the lowest salary among the Top 30 US MBA programs at $120,000.

Winning MBA Essay Guide - A Complete Guide for M7 and Top 15 MBA Application Essays 


F1GMAT's Winning MBA Essay guide will teach you how to transform your essay into a life journey with trials and tribulations that will move the admission team.

+ Over 245 Sample Essays (Read Previews of F1GMAT's Winning MBA Essay Guide Sample Essays here)

+ Top 15 MBA Programs (Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Columbia, Booth, MIT, Kellogg, Yale, Haas, Darden, INSEAD, LBS, NYU Stern, Tuck, Duke Fuqua, Ross)
+ The Art of Storytelling 
+ Leadership Narratives
+ Review Tips
+ Persuasion Strategies
+ The Secret to "unleashing" your unique voice
+ How to prepare and present for the Video Essay
+ How to write about your Strengths
+ How to write about your Weaknesses
 
 

Want to try the individual school Essay Guides before upgrading to the Winning MBA Essay Guide? Try below.

F1GMAT's Essay Guides

  • Harvard MBA Essay Guide (20 Sample Essays)

    Growth-Oriented Essay: Curiosity can be seen in many ways. Please share an example of how you have demonstrated curiosity and how that has influenced your growth. (up to 250 words) 

    Example #1: Persistence Narrative 
    Background Information: The applicant – a design and music talent, shares her journey through several setbacks. She attributes curiosity to her growth.  
    Curiosity: Philosophy  
    Curiosity (Explained): Curiosity as a philosophy is tough to translate into a narrative unless you are from the creative industry or your contributions had an influence on a solution or an initiative.  
    MBA Essay Strategy: I wanted to capture the humanity of the applicant and her influence in music instead of just highlighting how she overcame multiple roadblocks to gain attention as a designer.  
    Theme: Persistence  
    Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Life Starts at NO (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example) 

    Example #2: International Community Building 
    Background Information: The applicant, a Machine Learning (ML) entrepreneur specializing in healthcare diagnostics, shares how his curiosity to learn other ML algorithms’ evolution in diagnosing Alzheimer’s, cancer, and heart disease transformed his platform into a global community. 
    MBA Essay Strategy: I wanted to show the applicant’s contributions in diagnostic from 2020 to 2024 by citing two events. Such examples build credibility instead of engagements that were recent. The evolution of the platform from an AI development community to a community for discussing the application of AI in diagnostics is captured through a ‘curiosity’ angle.
    Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Growth through Collaboration (AI in Healthcare) (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)

    Example #3: Culture
    Background Information: The applicant, an Entrepreneur from India narrates his first entrepreneurial experience – facilitating exchange of stamps in the late 1990s.
    Theme: Culture
    MBA Essay Strategy:  Instead of addressing the biases in the investor community that could turn preachy, I wanted to focus on the applicant and his entrepreneurial journey by citing two entrepreneurial experiences – a platform(club) for stamp collection and his Grocery delivery App.
    Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – The American Dream (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)

    Example #4: Addiction
    Background Information: The applicant – a beneficiary of the foster home system, captures the sacrifice his adopted grandparents made to save him from a path of addiction. Paying it back through early intervention among teenagers and community engagement is the curiosity narrative.
    Theme: Addiction
    MBA Essay Strategy:  My strategy is to capture a gratitude narrative in the first one-third of the essay to demonstrate motivation for starting the venture and dedicate the latter part of the essay to the unique solution
    Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Drug Addiction and Gaming (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)

    Example #5: Scarcity
    Background Information: The applicant, an education major, recognizes that 70% of all students in Kenya don’t have a computer. The curiosity that drives him to pivot from one solution to another is the growth narrative.
    Theme: Innovation
    MBA Essay Strategy:  Often, innovation is captured with a ‘hero’ narrative where the applicant is the sole originator of an idea. I wanted to break that cliché and include a person from whom the applicant learned to use a concept called ‘scaffolding.’
    Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Scarcity (Growth-Oriented HBS Essay Example)

    Example #6: FinTech
    Background Information: The applicant captures a vulnerable moment of a beneficiary to compare his journey of side hustle before a technology giant noticed his talent. Although cryptocurrency is not a flavor for the year, capture niches where innovation is still happening. 
    Theme: Education, Child Welfare
    MBA Essay Strategy:  Empathizing with a techno solution is tough without a strong backstory around the beneficiary. For the essay, I wanted to clearly establish the beneficiary – Rami, before the applicant narrates the similarities to his journey and finally shares the solution that emerged from his curiosity.
    Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – FinTech as a Tool for Good (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)

    Example #7: Learning from the best
    Background Information: The applicant – a Remote Engineer in the Oil and Gas industry, reflects on a value that has helped her learn from the best regardless of her geographical limitations.
    Theme: Learning
    MBA Essay Strategy:  The effectiveness of the case-study method depends on the assumption that peers in a Harvard MBA class will help elevate your learning experience. For the essay, I have highlighted the applicant’s recognition of this value proposition with three examples.
    Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Learning from the Best (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)

    Example #8: Military & Search for IMPACT
    Background Information: The most common narrative for US military applicants is to quote 9/11 and the reaction your immediate family had while watching the events unfold. The horrifying moment is captured as a motivation to join the Military. On digging deeper, most applicants would share that their motivations were diverse.
    Theme: Career Choice
    MBA Essay Strategy:  I wanted to quickly highlight that the applicant had the choice of entering any industry. One achievement to demonstrate his curiosity that I shared in the first half is the invention of a game. Since the game is mentioned in the resume and verifiable through search, I didn’t quote the name. By clearly highlighting the person’s curiosity and career options, the family legacy is used as a factor in joining the military.
    Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Career Choice after a Military Career (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)
     
    Leadership-Focused Essay: What experiences have shaped who you are, how you invest in others, and what kind of leader you want to become? (up to 250 words)

    Example #9: Small Business Values
    Background Information: The applicant - a second-generation Asian American, is familiar with the values of fiscal conservatism, building relationships, and understanding the daily struggles of the community through his family’s department store.
    Theme: Customer-Centric
    MBA Essay Strategy:  The applicant’s role in developing an App for the store is highlighted in the essay at a crucial part of the narrative so that the essay is not all about his father. I have also humanized the journey – by sharing how upset the father was when the revenues fell by 40%. The essay is about the transformation in the applicant’s value from a person chasing productivity and optimization technique to someone who is truly thinking about the customers. 
    Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Small Business Values (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)

    Example #10: Breaking Away from Family Business
    Background Information: A unique challenge that applicants whose parents are public figures or CXOs of businesses or entrepreneurs are the pressure to live up to the parent’s standards or milestones. For the leadership narrative, the burden of legacy is established before the narrative addresses his leadership principles.
    Theme: Authenticity  
    MBA Essay Strategy:  For the essay, I want to capture an entrepreneur’s journey to rise above his entrepreneur father’s image. But I didn’t want to make the entire essay about this complex dynamics. The narrative is around the applicant’s focus on customers and surrounding with teams who keeps him grounded. 
    Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Breaking Away from Family Business(Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)

    Example #11: Creativity and Communication 
    Background Information: When the overall percentage of users with internet access is 62% in South Africa and the inequality accentuated by the rural and urban divide, the applicant endured the lack of digital infrastructure, and spending close to 22% of the family income on gaining relevant information on schools, global exams, and financial assistance. 
    Theme: Creativity, Communication
    MBA Essay Strategy:  The strategy is to share why the applicant values no distraction in a child’s home for optimum education experience. Then I highlight the many roadblocks the applicant’s non-profit faced in receiving fee waiver for their cooperative run ISP.
    Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Non-Profit (Telecom) (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)

    Example #12: Mental Health
    Background Information: The applicant like most didn’t pay much attention to the mental health epidemic until tragedy hit home.
    Theme: Communication, Innovation
    MBA Essay Strategy:  A question we frequently get from applicants is whether they should cite tragedy in the family as a motivation for a venture or a non-profit initiative. As long as you don’t linger too much on the tragedy and offer a balanced narrative, there are no restrictions on leveraging unique stories from your life. 
    Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Mental Health (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)

    Example #13: Trauma, Healing & Finding Authentic Self
    Background Information: The applicant narrates the absurdity of war in the narrative about the duties in Kabul, and the trauma. Instead of wallowing in on the horror, the applicant takes what makes military applicants strong and guides unprivileged children build life and leadership skills.
    Theme: Resilience
    MBA Essay Strategy:  Capturing PTSD in an essay, the healing process, and the cues that helped the applicant are too sacred to be shared in a Harvard MBA application essay. However, with the right motivation and narrative arcs, you can capture the essence of your journey without sharing the darkest secrets. That is what I did by merging two stories – the horrors of the war with a non-profit engagement.
    Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Military & PTSD (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)

    Example #14: Addiction, Setback and Leadership Mantra
    Background Information: In this narrative, the applicant captures Peru’s Silver mining boom of 2006. The growth experienced in her father’s business shifted the family’s economic status to a new stratosphere. Through the changing economic and family dynamics, the applicant finds her voice in a unique way, initially to record her unheard voice but later as one of the youngest subject matter experts in mining and commodities.  
    Theme: Failure
    MBA Essay Strategy:  For the essay, the strategy is to show how life’s unpredictability is a blessing. By narrating two setback events, the essay demonstrates the applicant’s resilience and her acknowledgment of people who made a comeback possible.
    Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Addiction, Setback and Leadership Mantra (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)

    Example #15: War, Immigration and Starting Over Again
    Background Information: Despite a raging war in Syria, the family of the applicant was unblemished by the chaos. The strategic government assets near the applicant’s house would have made the region an easy target, but it was not. The calmness of her journey is shattered in one event. From the privileges of a cocooned life, the applicant is forced to think about survival, her sister’s future, and her future in the US. The second half of the narrative captures the change that was forced on her. 
    Theme: Gratitude, Resilience
    MBA Essay Strategy:  I consciously chose not to start the essay with a dialogue or trauma. Two lines are allocated to set up the narrative before the trauma event.
    Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – War, Immigration and Starting Over Again (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)

    Harvard MBA Business-Minded Essay: Please reflect on how your experiences have influenced your career choices and aspirations and the impact you will have on the businesses, organizations, and communities you plan to serve. (up to 300 words)

    Example #16: Creative or Finance
    Background Information: The applicant starts the narrative with the origin of her talents. The unbridled enthusiasm receives a reality check when in high school, the applicant’s father has a conversation with her about academics. While the applicant picked up her quant skills, she was reaching over 50,000 loyal fans, and her videos captured 1 million views. 
    Theme: Passion, Talent
    MBA Essay Strategy:  Capturing vulnerability is the toughest part for Harvard MBA applicants. For this essay example, I have captured the applicant’s uncertainty about career choice throughout the essay. Here the goal is to show vulnerability in the career choice essay while for leadership and growth essay, I could capture one example each from creative and PE industry respectively to balance the narrative. So don’t follow this example without a strategy.  
    Read: Harvard MBA Business-Minded Essay – Creative or Finance (Business-Minded HBS MBA Essay Example)

  • Stanford MBA Essay Guide (24 Sample Essays)
  • Columbia MBA Essay Guide (21 Sample Essays)
  • Wharton MBA Essay Guide (15 Sample Essays)
  • INSEAD MBA Essay Guide (19 Sample Essays)
  • Darden MBA Essay Guide  (21 Sample Essays) 
  • Yale SOM MBA Essay Guide (15 Sample Essays)
  • Tuck MBA Essay Guide (15 Sample Essays)
  • Haas MBA Essay Guide (18 Sample Essays)
  • NYU Stern MBA Essay Guide (15 Sample Essays + 6 Examples - Visual Essay)
  • LBS MBA Essay Guide (6 Sample Essays)
  • MIT Sloan MBA Essay Guide (6 Sample Cover Letters + 3 Sample Video Statement Scripts + 3 Sample Optional Essays)
  • Kellogg MBA Essay Guide (11 Sample Essays)
  • Chicago Booth MBA Essay Guide (12 Sample Essays)
  • Ross MBA Essay Guide (31 Sample Essays)
  • Duke Fuqua MBA Essay Guide (10 Sample Essays + Two 25 Random Things Samples)
  • Cambridge MBA Essay Guide (12 Sample Essays)

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