The Knock List

Ah, the great process for choosing schools.  I’m sure people before have compared it to dating.  You look fresh to death and you get shot down.  On the other hand, you look like a hot mess and make it rain.  I’m pretty happy about my list of schools.  I’ve done the research, made a few bootleg visits and have created the following list in no particular order of preference

1. Stanford GSB
2. HBS
3. Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth
4. University of Virginia Darden School of Business
5. Chicago GSB
6. Kellogg School of Management

Now the why

Stanford GSB: Man, I really love this school.  At first, I was just jocking them because of name recognition.  However, I saw that they were the real deal after an info session in Nashville.  Honestly, it wasn’t anything really fancy, but they are all about following your passions and the alumni that I met were phenomenal, down to earth, and wildly enthusiastic.  It also didn’t hurt that I was an avid reader of http://marquisweblog.blogspot.com/ this guy is a legend and I followed him for while now.  Very entertaining stuff.  Realistically, Stanford GSB is the most selective school and really strives to put together a diverse class.  So who the hell knows if I will get in or not.  I have decent stats and a pretty good story.  So I loaded that all up and threw the choosing haill Mary.

HBS: Again, amazing brand recognition and reputation.  I also coupled that to the fact that one of my mentors graduated from there.  I have two friends currently there and one friend that recently graduated.  They all had nothing but great things to say.  It would be an honor to go, but I’m not convinced on the case method.

Tuck:  This place reminds me of undergrad www.rose-hulman.edu remote location, great academics and reputation, but not quite the name recognition of Stanford or HBS. I checked them out and they are on their p’s and q’s.  I really like the idea of having a small class and getting to know everyone.  Whoever decides to accept me will get a networking machine when I step on campus.

Darden: I’ve had the opportunity work in Virginia a few times in the last few months and really grew to appreciate it.  Virginia is a beautiful state of Darden is supposed to have an awesome campus.  Their admissions team is doing a really great job promoting the school and I feel like it’s a real up and comer.

Chicago GSB:  This school is a real legend in my mind.  I have wanted to go to the Chicago GSB, even while I was an undergrad.  I like the way that they are positioning the school and I would look for to reengage with the Northwest Indiana/Chicago community.

Northwestern:  great school, outstanding reputation.  Personally for me, It doesn’t invoke the same excitement as the  Chicago GSB, but I’m not crazy, I would love to go there.

You know, as much so one to get my MBA at one of these schools It won’t be the end of the world if I don’t get accepted.  I’m keeping my expectations low, as I know this is going to be a crazy competitive year because of this ridiculous economy.  I also believe that each school will get me where I need to go.

Crusade Against The Ridiculous

 

 

I have a good friend that complains about virtually everything.  His latest tirade was against one of his local radio stations over music selection.  In fact he wrote a one page letter to the station expressing his distaste.  Who actually writes to radio stations?  However this did get me thinking about things that I find ridiculous, unacceptable, annoying, unexcusable etc.  One specific event prompted this deep search into my soul.  Recently, I was in a hotel elevator and a lady walked in pushing a pink stroller with a little canopy over it.  I even made a point to hold the elevator door for her.  Babies are cute, so I decided to take a peek into the stroller to see the baby.  Overcome with shock, there was this little Taco Bell dog sitting in the stroller.  The only thing that I could say was “Wow, I didn’t know they made those.”  Now, I appreciate caring for your animal, but sometimes people are doing way too much. 

My next ”enabler” of the downfall of America is the intelliear.  I’m sure you have seen the infomercial for this waste of plastic, but if you haven’t, I’ll give you a quick run down.  Imagine a bluetooth headset that is actually just a hearing aid/sound amplifier.  If you can’t hear, get a Miracle Ear.  Those things have to be minuscule after all of these years of development.  If you are thinking about buying an Intelliear, just stop and think about the direction that your life is headed.  You probably won’t like the answer!

The final contender is the wearable towel.  Honestly you can group this on the annoyance level with the Snuggie.  This waste of material is a towel that you wear like a dress, because you are too lazy or too incompetent to operate a regular towel to dry yourself off after a shower.  Either way, you need to be flogged.

I’m off my soapbox, but the sad thing is that somebody is actually buying this stuff.

Pharma

Just learned that I have secured an interview with a well known pharma company for a 2010 summer intern slot in corporate finance.  They are supposed to be sending a “biotech” assesment quiz, which I’m very curious to see.  Hopefully, I can wow them with my photographic recollection of the periodic elements chart.  If that doesn’t work, I’ll show them my first place ribbon for my middle school science fair. BAM!

Consortium Orientation Program

Tomorrow, I wrap up my first Consortium OP.  It’s been a fantastic experience, and I’ve met a ton of interesting and very accomplished folks along with a few “unique” folks.  For, the people applying for the class of 2012 do not let the perceived ranking of a school affect your decision to apply.  There is a wide spectrum of talent in each of the member school classes, with a wde variety of undergraduate institutions, majors and pre-mba employers.

From what I hear, the amount of companies participating in the career fair was down from past years, but there was still a fair number of companies that were actually hiring.  In my opinion, brand management was the runaway career of choice from this Consortium class, and luckily there seemed to be a great deal of cpg/brand management opportunities.  On the finance side, not surprisingly, most of the investment banks were only there for informational purposes.   However, there still seems to be major opportunities in corporate finance.

It’s always interesting to hear from the career shifters.  The investment bankers that hated the career, the wannabe bankers that would do anything for a shot in banking, the finance folks that want to do brand management, the consultant who wants to do corporate finance and the list continues.  The overall theme, was to do what you love, but don’t be stupid and turn your back on a potential career because you want to be a career switcher.

There were career panels throughout the weekend and they were perfect for people who were clueless, had an idea and wanted more information, or knew exactly what they wanted.  The speakers were talented and knew how to touch everyone’s level of interest/knowledge.  Big shout out to Patty Phillips-Executive Director of Career Management at the Simon Graduate School of Business, at the University of Rochester, who gave a great finance primer.  The students at the Simon School are lucky to have her because she really broke down all of the differences between the branches of finance.

On the networking side, I was able to connect with a few people that have the same passion and career goals that I do, and we will definitely stay in touch.  Also, I met the founder of MBA Jumpstart, who is a Indiana and Duke alum.  Very cool guy.  Overall, this was a fantastic experience.  If you have the chance to attend OP, do it!

Making it Rain Every Month on Schedule

I recently had a good conversation with a dear friend of mine over our MBA choices.  He was at my throat for not going to one of the originals on the list and I challenged him on his decision to go to the Stanford GSB (I helped him with his essays so I take full credit).  Long story short, he’s extremely talented, currently works at a large tech company and wants to start his own business (probably in tech) in the future.  It’s silly to tell someone not to go to Stanford, but he absolutely loves his job (not the case for me), loves the industry, and is around other very smart people which he could probably launch a company with.  Personally, I couldn’t think of a better environment.  He made the decision to go to the GSB, but that is a huge investment, for an ultimate goal that I think he could handle for free, seeing that by and large most people don’t start companies straight from B-School.

An MBA is a major investment, and I don’t think you can blindly ignore cost when you are $120k (plus or minus) in the hole. Think of that monthly payment. .. Big Car, House Payment, Vacation other investments anyone??? It can definitely influence your decision making.  A friend of mine at HBS interned at P&G, but hates giant corporate bureaucracy, and swore that he wouldn’t take a full-time offer there.  The economy tanked and guess where he is?  I asked a friend graduating from Wharton who has some big loans if it was worth it.  His answer?  Ask me again in 10 years.  That is an interesting answer.  Those of you who work in a large, non-investment bank, know what bonuses and pay are really like when you start out, and you can do the math to see the payback time can be substantial.  Don’t get me started on companies that hire, but don’t pay for MBA talent.

Of course, I didn’t get into HBS or Stanford as my friends did so my opinions can definitely be discounted.  However, what I can say is that if I did, I still think that decision considering the offer I received from the Kelley School of Business would not be a slam dunk knowing what I know now.  (Throw in Corporate Buzz words) … I believe in my personal brand.

Check out this recent article in Businessweek, on a related subject, to see some professional writing instead of my rambling.

Student Loans Suck

Headed To Charlotte

Yes, it’s time for the Consortium’s annual Orientation Program, for all students at Consortium schools.  I’m still not totally sure about what to expect, but I know that there will be some primers on the basic classwork that can be expected within an MBA program, an introduction to careers in finance, brand management, energy etc, but the most important thing will be the networking opportunities.   If you mix hundreds of students and a generous amount of company representatives, good things are bound to happen.

I’ve been spending the last week or so doing interview preparation, even though many of the banks that will be there won’t be interviewing at this particular time.  I plan to make some good contacts and get the ball rolling for fall recruiting.  So far, the student representatives at the Kelley School have been phenomenal.  We’ve had weekly preparation sessions on resume prep, networking, interviewing and conducting valuable company research so that you don’t look like a clown at OP.  Basically, if any member of our class isn’t prepared it’s our own fault.

Looking Forward

Last night, I went to Dave & Busters to watch the Magic and Cavs fight to the death.  If you’ve been there, you’ll notice on the dining tables have this little “speaker box” that allows you to hear the game at your table while watching it on the big screen.  The only problem is that the speaker is not even remotely loud enough, and since each table has one the room sounds like a giant echo of game sounds.   So you either put the speaker up to your head, or listen to the chamber of echoes.  A couple of thoughts popped into my head.

1.  If you are the salesperson selling this thing, you know it’s horrible but you sell it anyway.  How do you sleep at night?

2. Who at Dave and Buster’s actually “field tested” this thing and decided to deploy it nationwide?

Maybe I’ll learn these things in business school.

Back to business school, which is why all four of you read this crazy blog…

Things have been a little crazy of the past two months.  I was accepted by two of my seven schools and kept on the dreaded waitlist by another.

[Toss in corporate buzzword here i.e. "At the end of the day"]  I’ll be attending the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University in the fall.

They made me an offer that made my eyes pop out of my head (literally) and equally as important, I felt that I would have a legitimate shot to break into finance.  The community at the Kelley School was fantastic on my visit and the professors seem genuinely concerned with the outcomes of the students.  Also, the Academies provide a very unique opportunity for in depth immersion, which I’m sure I’ll be talking about in the future. Last and definitely not least, I will be a member of the Consortium of Graduate Study in Management, which will provide tremendous opportunities.

There you have it.  Honestly, I didn’t think this process would be so long and unpredictable when I started.  Who could have predicted the implosion of the economy (except that professor at NYU) and the ensuing volume of applications.  2.5 out of 7 ain’t bad, and I look forward to documenting my next two years in Bloomington!  After doing a quick search, I have only seen one other Kelley blogger.  Time to make it rain.

B-School Prep

With all of the horor stories that I heard from each of my visits concerning accounting, I figured that I needed to step up my prep before school starts.  On a similar note, it seemed like team group members with a basic grasp of finance and excel added good value. There is no need to be a scrub, when you have a few resources.  So, I did a little search on Amazon and purchased “Principles of Finance with Excel” by Simon Benninga (Wharton) and “Accounting” by Horngren and Harrison(Stanford/Baylor).  Both books had excellent reviews.   Right now, I’m focusing on the finance book, and I’ll let you know what I think.

Adele Concert

A few days ago, I had the opportunity to check out the Adele concert in Nashville.  Even though I couldn’t understand anything that she was saying in between her sets, due to my positioning and her accent, she was absolutely amazing.  There are a handful of artists that I would pay to see in concert, but she is definitely one of them.  She sounded equal to if not better than her album, which is extremely rare.  My friend didn’t think she was as good as Corinne Bailey Ray, but I think that they are both great.  The funny part about the concert was that I could have sworn that she had just rolled out of bed before getting on stage.  Seriously, her hair was all over the place and the clothes were a hot mess.  Luckily she has an amazing voice.

Love Letter Pt. Deux

Just a little update.  I sent UVA, a cute little update letter to further enlighten them on what they’re missing out on in their upcoming class.  Namely Moi (Dropping a little culture on you today)!  I’m still confident about my chances there partly because a few people that I know that were accepted don’t really want to go there.  Different Strokes for different folks.   On another note, I’ve also applied to the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University.  The only reason why it didn’t apply to Indiana University initially was because I thought that personally, I might grow a little bit more by attending school in another state.  Bloomington is a great college town and IU has a beautiful campus, which  was a much welcome respite from Terre Haute.  The Kelley School of Business also has very cool “Industry Tracks” that allow you to become a genius in your chosen profession.  The obvious downside is that while Kelley is a solid top 15 school, it doesn’t have the name rec that UChi does.  However, I don’t know how much that is worth, which I’m sure I’ll talk about later.  IU:  Beautiful campus, excellent school but Indiana has been the soul source of my education so I wanted to diversify.  The grass is always greener….. maybe not.  Another dog in the hunt never hurts especially in this economy.  The plot thickens

Lastly:  A big congratulations to my friends JC and Brian on their acceptances to NYU and Duke!!!!!

Tuck Doesn’t Want a Donation

I had to snap out of the twilight zone and produce and update.  I can’t say it was a lack of motivation, but maybe more of a lack of good things to say.

The biggest news in this long sabbatical, is that the admissions crew in the frigid Northeast denied me and invitation to New Hampshire for the next two years.   I really wanted to like Tuck, but it wasn’t meant to be.  I even had plans to transform myself into a world class slalom champion during my 2 years, while becoming an expert on maple syrup.  Green isn’t my color, even though I do look pretty good in my 1987  family reunion hunter green skin tight shirt!    However, I did hear that there is a Rose-Hulman grad there.  We are coming up in the world.  In the event that I was accepted, I planned to bring a force unknown to Hanover, shake things up, challenge ideas, become the most famous alum and eventually make a size-able donation down the road.  Now, Roger McNamee is going to have to continue to carry the torch in the near term.  Let’s just hope he doesn’t jinx the launch of the Palm Pre.  Of the fellow applicants I know, none were accepted into Tuck.  Fortunately, one of us was able to secure a spot on the waitlist.  However, I want to congratulate everyone who did get accepted.