From The Bench To B-School: A Scientist’s Road To Enrollment (Part I)
by Jonathan McEuen, guest blogger
Jonathan McEueun is a Manhattan GMAT grad who is off to Wharton this fall. We asked him to share his application process with us. What follows is Part 1 of 5 posts in a series about his experiences. We hope it gives those of you who are going down a similar path some insight into the decisions, work and thought that goes into applying to business school.
I was wrapping up my doctoral thesis in Neuroscience when I first started thinking about business school. My research had taught me to see the process by which an experiment can grow into a potential drug candidate, and that left me eager to participate in the process of bringing innovations from the lab to market. In addition, I had planted the entrepreneurial seed in my mind back as an undergrad, and by the end of the PhD process, it had grown into an urge to jump back into the business of science.
So Why Business School?
Halfway through the PhD process I wasn’t yet convinced that business school was the best answer for my position. Then, I started working with a student-run consulting group , and consulting opened my eyes to a perspective where data met commercial, clinical and strategic needs in a soup of funding, R&D and logistics. The experience reinforced for me that science and business were like peanut butter and jelly (goat cheese and beets if you prefer a bit more gourmet), and that I had a lot to learn to confidently take a leadership role in the industry.
Shortly after defending my thesis, I applied to and was offered a great position in a life-science consulting company. In accepting the offer, I knew in the back of my mind that business school might still be an option, one that could provide great opportunities and a unique incubator for professional development. I have long-term entrepreneurial goals and, while there are many ways to attack those ambitions, I felt that b-school would help me to develop a network of collaborators, mentors and friends who would go on to become leaders in Pharma and Biotech.
This all sounds good when recited with bravado, but the reality is that these were very specific goals and a niche (albeit a large market niche) that I was trying to learn. Before charging forward into the MBA application, I had to make sure that committing the time and money required to build a quality application would pay off in the back-end. From where I stood, knowing more about endocytosis than MBA curricula and already having a job lined up, this left me with some homework to do.
Getting Oriented and Taking The Dive
I looked to my friends and colleagues first. Some of my new coworkers were MBAs, and I had a few friends from college who had completed either full time or executive MBA programs. I bugged them at work and on the phone; I went to a baseball game with one to talk it over. I would listen to anyone with experience who would speak to me about the pros and cons of a full-time MBA program.
Their responses largely reinforced my concerns: tuition is high, and opportunity cost might be higher; there are no guarantees coming out so it’s up to the student to make the most out of the experience.But they also made me aware of the upsides: bonds with your classmates will be invaluable in your career; you will have amazing opportunities to build critical skills; your program will work to help advance your career; you will have a blast. In addition, I learned about specialized majors and even sub-programs within MBA schools that focused specifically on the life sciences and health care industries, exactly the focus I wanted to keep. I did my homework, and I liked what I found.
With this feedback in hand and a few months before I was going to start my new job, I decided that an MBA would be worth the time and the money required. Not knowing what year I would apply, I committed to starting the process of building the best application I could. My target? To find (and get accepted to) the few programs that couldlure me away from a job I loved with the promise of a career catalyst that would be unique. Read Part II here.
Jonathan McEuen is a Senior Associate at The Frankel Group, a life sciences strategy consultancy in New York and Cambridge, MA. In addition to his work in consulting, he has helped launch a white paper blog for the company, create a social media strategy, and support the development of an advanced degree preparation program. His focus as always been in the sciences; he holds a PhD in Neuroscience and has a background in biotechnology entrepreneurship. He can be found online at http://about.me/mceuen