A common conversation topic is traveling, and how many countries and places we've traveled to. Often times an international student will say they're from X city or country, and people will say "I visited there a few years ago, it was so fun!"

While obviously no one can have visited everywhere, and you shouldn't overly exaggerate about where you've traveled, my brother said it's best to not reveal that we didn't grow up traveling much. I also only made $50k pre-MBA so I couldn't travel much either.

My brother said among the M7 crowd, it's "expected" that you've been to these places at least once: NYC, LA, Las Vegas, London, Paris, somewhere in Italy (usually Venice, but also Rome/Florence/Amalfi Coast), and a few other "must haves" like maybe Spain. And if you haven't been there, you're seen as either a "noob" or "poor." There are apparently "baseline" travel locations you need to meet.

He said M7 MBAs are full of privileged people, especially socioeconomically, and while people are polished enough to be cordial to everyone, outing yourself as "poor" will only other you and make it hard to relate. People may also think you're "uncool" if you don't travel, as that's a given MBA activity.

He's speaking from experience as he was honest about growing up poor, and his classmates thought he was "uncool" for not having travel experiences.

He said I don't have to come off as being a compete wanderlust, but I should lie and say I've been to Paris, Rome, London, NYC, etc., even though I haven't.

Do you agree?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5628416&forum_id=2:#48299482)