At Access MBA in Chicago, we asked five future MBA students one question: what are you most looking forward to in this next chapter? Their answers kept coming back to the same thing: the people they’ll meet along the way.
Ask anyone why they want an MBA and you’ll probably hear about career growth, a higher salary or new skills. Those all matter. But when we met future MBA students at a recent Access MBA event in Chicago, the conversation kept turning somewhere else.
We asked five candidates, from a university professor to a naval officer, what they’re most looking forward to in their next chapter. Four of the five talked about people before they mentioned a single course. The fifth wants to learn how to lead them.
Here’s what they told us, and why it matters for anyone weighing up an MBA.
Learning from every industry in the room
Rick works as an accountant, and he’s clear about what he wants from business school: a way into something new.
“In the MBA programme, I’m hoping to meet new people from different industries and learn from them as well as from the programme, and then hope to move into a different industry as well.”
Notice how he puts it. Rick sees his classmates as a source of learning on a par with the programme itself. For a career switcher, that makes sense. A cohort with people from finance, tech, healthcare, the public sector and beyond is a live briefing on how other industries work, what they value and where the openings are. The case studies teach the theory. The person in the next seat can tell you what the job is really like.
Networking with a purpose
For Ina, an accounting supervisor, networking isn’t a side benefit; it’s one of the main reasons she’s applying.
“I would say [I’m most looking forward to] meeting new people and networking. One of the main reasons I want to pursue an MBA is to develop new resources and meet new people who can help me achieve my goals.”
Ina’s answer points to something often missed about MBA networking: the best of it is deliberate. She isn’t collecting contacts for their own sake. She’s thinking about resources (people, knowledge, and opportunities) that connect directly to where she wants to go. Candidates who arrive knowing their goals can build a network that keeps working for them long after graduation.
Also read: Ace the MBA Interview: Tips from the Admissions Side
Borrowing other people’s experience
Daniel is a naval officer, and he sees the MBA as a chance to look at careers from many angles at once.
“Next chapter is the networking, meeting new individuals, getting a new mindset, seeing other people’s experiences as they’ve played out for them, as well as just kind of expanding my knowledge and becoming the first individual in my family to actually achieve a Masters.”
There’s real wisdom in “seeing other people’s experiences as they’ve played out for them.” Every classmate brings years of decisions, wins, and hard lessons. In an MBA cohort you can learn from all of them, often without having to make the same mistakes yourself.
Daniel’s answer also has a personal side, showing that this next chapter is about people in another sense too: the family who will share in that milestone.
Finding your people
Sarah is doing a PhD in Environmental Science, so she’s coming to business from a very different starting point. What she’s most looking forward to is the company.
“I’m looking forward to being surrounded by people with the same mindset, learning new things, and gaining a new perspective on MBAs and business operations.”
For candidates from science, engineering or other non-business backgrounds, this is a big part of the appeal. An MBA puts you in a room with people who share your drive, even if they don’t share your field. That mix of shared mindset and different expertise is where new perspectives come from, for Sarah and for the classmates who will learn from her.
Also read: The Interview Prep Most MBA Candidates Skip
From meeting people to leading them
Antonio already stands in front of a classroom as a professor. For his own MBA, he’s focused on a different kind of skill:
“Learning new things, learning about how to be a great leader, how to create a good culture in a team, and how to properly and efficiently manage people.”
Antonio’s answer completes the picture. If the first part of the MBA journey is meeting people and learning from them, the next part is learning to lead them. Building a strong team culture and managing people well are skills best practiced with others, and an MBA cohort gives you room to practice them before the stakes are high.
Your network starts before day one
Five candidates, five very different paths, one common thread. Whether they want to switch industries, reach specific goals, learn from others’ experience, find like-minded peers or become better leaders, each of them sees the people around them as a core part of the MBA.
The good news is that you don’t have to wait for orientation to start building that network. At Access MBA events, you can meet admissions teams from business schools and connect with fellow candidates face to face, before you’ve even applied.
