To Fall or not to Fall?

And if to fall than when? (Figuratively speaking of course)

 

I have been repeatedly asked by potential students the following two questions: What is the difference between the two cohorts Fall (starting in September) and Spring (starting in May)? And is there an optimal time to start the program? I will try to answer the first question in this post.

I am myself a member of the Spring 2007 cohort, so I might be a bit biased towards our cohort. Spring cohort is advertised to be specifically geared for people interested in getting into the consulting and finance jobs. The main reason Spring cohort is positioned that way are the so called historical recruitment cycles for those two industries. If you think about it, those same employers are actively recruiting from major MBA programs all over North America and are therefore doing it in the beginning of the second year of the typical two year program, which incidentally falls on months of September and October. Those are pretty much the only two industries that recruit a year in advance, meaning that those students who are recruited into those firms would start their jobs in the fall of the following year.

The tricky bit comes from the fact that if you are a member of the Spring cohort you are competing for the same jobs with every other major MBA school in North America. While members of the Fall cohort are flying solo as there are no other major schools that function on the same schedule (at least to my limited knowledge).

Furthermore, from what I understand about finance and consulting jobs, if you are a good candidate you will get hired no matter when you are applying to them. Having said that members of the Fall cohort might have to put in some more proactive work to connect with the firms, and in return will enjoy lack of competition from their peers at other schools. If you ask me, it’s actually not a bad trade-off.

Theory aside, our cohort has tracked much stronger when it comes to finance jobs while the previous Fall cohort enjoyed a good track record when it came to consulting jobs.

In addition there are couple non recruiting differences between cohorts: Spring appears to have a higher male/female ratio (more guys) as well as quite a competitive spirit. It’s probably due to the nature of jobs that people are going after in our cohort. In general there wouldn’t be as many women who are going after the Investment banking and Management Consulting jobs as those types of jobs typically don’t mix very well with a family. Fall cohort has a Health stream mixed into it, meaning that there are 4-5 PhDs and M.D.s in the class, which makes for a very interesting class dynamic. While Spring class shares part of the curriculum with an AMBA stream (Accelerated MBA’s are students with an undergraduate degree in business from University of Western).

Fall cohort starts at the same time as the main university so they get a chance to do a lot more social fun stuff at the onset of their program. Spring cohort, on the other hand, starts when the main university finishes in May and majority of undergraduate students leave the city for the summer. So Spring cohort gets to do a lot more outdoor sports stuff instead.

Overall, jokes aside, there’s no clear advantage of picking one cohort over the other. To figure out if one cohort “fits” you better than the other you might want to consider coming down for an actual visit, sitting in both classes and talking to students from both cohorts.

In the next post I will try to share my thoughts on whether there is a best time to do an MBA.

Till next time,
George