Finding your next career move is not the only thing to hope for in b-school. Some students also find their soul mate.
It’s no secret that business school is a very common place to come across the person you will ultimately marry, and it makes sense. You’re essentially locked together with your classmates 24-7 doing projects, crunching numbers and, well, having fun too.
Business school is tough, and everyone knows that tough tours create deep bonds.
Just ask anyone in the military. That’s why military training is so difficult---they want you to connect with your fellow soldiers. While this is not necessarily the goal of business schools, it’s a natural outcome of working together through a laborious endeavor. Business school is all about teamwork and you really get to know your teammates when you are staying up until the wee hours each night cramming or trying to finish a project.
Business school is also full of impressive, dynamic people.
It’s only logical that you might find someone attractive to you in this mix of hand-selected, thoroughly vetted, high-performing human beings. Because you all selected the same next step in life, it creates natural commonality and camaraderie. People in this kind of intense situation are bound to increase the potential to fall in love.
There are some warnings, however, if you find yourself bitten by the love bug.
Firstly, you must tap into your rational mind and make sure that the reason you feel this way about someone is not solely due to the circumstances. Just like any high-flying mountain top experience, you have to make sure the infatuation will last when the roller coaster ride is over. Secondly, you must have real discussions about your personal plans. B-school opens up some incredible career doors, and a post-MBA career is essentially defined by long hours and nose-to-the-grindstone work ethics. If you are unrealistic about expectations of each other, particularly if those expectations include having children and “settling down,” it could be a very short-lived romance.
The modern “hook-up” culture could backfire badly when mixed with an MBA program.
B-school is only two years, so try to avoid random romance without long-term intentions. Remember that this is your lifetime network, so if you garner a reputation for disingenuous involvement with random partners, you could set yourself up for a ruinous post-MBA networking reputation as well.
Statistically there will be several people in your program who hit the love lottery during a two year b-school cycle. Perhaps it will be you?
For information on how we can guide your business school application process, email us at mba@amerasiaconsulting.com or go to http://www.amerasiaconsulting.com/contact