The MBA Thread

Originally Posted by calisanfran

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Also, an MBA is probably the best chance in your professional life to change career tracks. So many of my classmates (H/W/S) went from being consultants to bankers, bankers to industry, industry to VC, VC to industry, etc etc. It was almost as if folks were trading jobs, professions with each other.

That's what I see an MBA is. It's essentially my bullet to switch into waht I want to do with my career, and less so about the money. I'll probably end up with a minimal increase in my post MBA salary, if any, and certainly less than if I just stay where I am for 2 years.

And I don't think CS is necessarily about learning how to code, but just knowing how to structure everything and how/if something can work systematically. You can offshore all the actual coding as much as you want, but ime, those Indian outsourcers couldn't think for themselves to save their lives.

Cross-posted: MBA apps are down, admission standards are down, may be a good cycle to apply since there is less competition. http://www.businessweek.com/bschools...014_393850.htm

I didn't make this up but some are pretty funny.

Harvard: Of which Fortune 1000 company are you going to become the CEO and why would you pick that company?

Wharton: Of which Fortune 1000 company are you going to become the CFO and why would you pick that company?

MIT: Draw an ASCII picture of your favorite Lord of the Rings character and describe three lessons that today's business leaders can learn from Lord Of The Rings.

Stanford: Why? (100,000 words recommended)

Chicago Booth: Provide a detailed statistical analysis of why Chicago-Booth is #1 in BWeek and never higher than #3 in USNews. Do the math in your head.

NYU: How badly do you need a vacation from your ibanking job, and what makes you think you will be able to get back into ibanking upon graduation?

Yale SOM: Which nonprofit organization do you plan to run, and what about running a nonprofit makes you feel important?

Columbia: In your opinion, what is the best way to sabotage the Whartonian CFO of your company and become CFO?

UC Berkeley Haas: What makes a hippie like you think you can succeed in business? Use the words 'sustainable' and 'green' at least twice in your response.

Cornell Johnson: Describe how awesome being an Ivy Leaguer would make you feel.

UVA Darden: How badly do you want your ass to be kicked by our professors on a scale of 9 to 10?

Notre Dame: Describe how awesome Irish Football is, and list ten ways we can make our MBA program as well-known as our NFL training program.

London Business School: Answer NYU's essay and use the find/replace function to replace all 'NYU' with 'LBS', 'New York' with 'London' and 'program' with 'programme'.

Wash U Olin: How early are you willing to wake up to serve coffee to our medical students?

UNC Kenan-Flagler: See Notre Dame but replace Irish Football with Tar Heel basketball, and NFL with NBA.

U of Phx (pick 2 of 4): When your boss finds out you have enrolled here, how loudly will he/she laugh? Have you ever wasted a lot of money on something useless before? Would you be willing to appear on a billboard or would you rather keep your enrollment a secret? What is 5+8?

Tuck: Do you remember summer camp? How amazing was that!?!? Don't you wish you could go to camp for 21 months? Attach a letter you wrote to your parents in fifth grade summer camp explaining how awesome it was.

UMich Ross: What was the craziest thing you did while tailgating during undergrad, and are you prepared to tailgate like a pro again? In your essay, try to include the words moonshine, goat, and anus.

Kellogg: Explain why you think good quantitative skills are not required in business and discuss the importance of teamwork in situations in which no one is skilled enough to do the job by himself.

UCLA Anderson: Have you seen that show "The Hills?" Isn't it amazing? Discuss your strategies for getting into clubs to party with the cast of "The Hills" so you can feel important.

Duke Fuqua: What are your short-term and long-term career goals? Begin your essay with the sentence, "My career goal is to provide investment and business advice to the much more successful graduates of the Duke Law and Medical Schools."

Carnegie Mellon Tepper: Draw an ASCII picture of your favorite MIT student and list three things that business leaders can learn from MIT.

INSEAD: List the number of languages in which you are fluent, and explain how knowing a bunch of languages and studying in one of the world's slowest economies for ten months will make you an effective business leader.

CEIBS: Would you rather be upper middle class in the US, or rich in China? Pleeeeeeeease say rich in China!

Originally Posted by newinny

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I didn't make this up but some are pretty funny.

Harvard: Of which Fortune 1000 company are you going to become the CEO and why would you pick that company?

Wharton: Of which Fortune 1000 company are you going to become the CFO and why would you pick that company?

MIT: Draw an ASCII picture of your favorite Lord of the Rings character and describe three lessons that today's business leaders can learn from Lord Of The Rings.

Stanford: Why? (100,000 words recommended)

Chicago Booth: Provide a detailed statistical analysis of why Chicago-Booth is #1 in BWeek and never higher than #3 in USNews. Do the math in your head.

NYU: How badly do you need a vacation from your ibanking job, and what makes you think you will be able to get back into ibanking upon graduation?

Yale SOM: Which nonprofit organization do you plan to run, and what about running a nonprofit makes you feel important?

Columbia: In your opinion, what is the best way to sabotage the Whartonian CFO of your company and become CFO?

UC Berkeley Haas: What makes a hippie like you think you can succeed in business? Use the words 'sustainable' and 'green' at least twice in your response.

Cornell Johnson: Describe how awesome being an Ivy Leaguer would make you feel.

UVA Darden: How badly do you want your ass to be kicked by our professors on a scale of 9 to 10?

Notre Dame: Describe how awesome Irish Football is, and list ten ways we can make our MBA program as well-known as our NFL training program.

London Business School: Answer NYU's essay and use the find/replace function to replace all 'NYU' with 'LBS', 'New York' with 'London' and 'program' with 'programme'.

Wash U Olin: How early are you willing to wake up to serve coffee to our medical students?

UNC Kenan-Flagler: See Notre Dame but replace Irish Football with Tar Heel basketball, and NFL with NBA.

U of Phx (pick 2 of 4): When your boss finds out you have enrolled here, how loudly will he/she laugh? Have you ever wasted a lot of money on something useless before? Would you be willing to appear on a billboard or would you rather keep your enrollment a secret? What is 5+8?

Tuck: Do you remember summer camp? How amazing was that!?!? Don't you wish you could go to camp for 21 months? Attach a letter you wrote to your parents in fifth grade summer camp explaining how awesome it was.

UMich Ross: What was the craziest thing you did while tailgating during undergrad, and are you prepared to tailgate like a pro again? In your essay, try to include the words moonshine, goat, and anus.

Kellogg: Explain why you think good quantitative skills are not required in business and discuss the importance of teamwork in situations in which no one is skilled enough to do the job by himself.

UCLA Anderson: Have you seen that show "The Hills?" Isn't it amazing? Discuss your strategies for getting into clubs to party with the cast of "The Hills" so you can feel important.

Duke Fuqua: What are your short-term and long-term career goals? Begin your essay with the sentence, "My career goal is to provide investment and business advice to the much more successful graduates of the Duke Law and Medical Schools."

Carnegie Mellon Tepper: Draw an ASCII picture of your favorite MIT student and list three things that business leaders can learn from MIT.

INSEAD: List the number of languages in which you are fluent, and explain how knowing a bunch of languages and studying in one of the world's slowest economies for ten months will make you an effective business leader.

CEIBS: Would you rather be upper middle class in the US, or rich in China? Pleeeeeeeease say rich in China!



Awesome, true, and totally credited. Laughed ****** off through the entire thing.

Originally Posted by newinny

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UMich Ross: What was the craziest thing you did while tailgating during undergrad, and are you prepared to tailgate like a pro again? In your essay, try to include the words moonshine, goat, and anus.


GO BLUE!

Originally Posted by newinny

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I didn't make this up but some are pretty funny.


Haha how true are these?

Oh and I really want to get an MBA down the road from Duke Fuqua, how does SF approve?

I was lucky enough to work for a company that paid for most of my MBA. I highly recommended it if you have the resources of time and money. I graduated just last year and now, as an independent contractor and outside salesperson - having the degree allows me to communicate at a higher level. Most importantly, however, I now have the clout to ask for a decision maker’s time in my role as sales person. May I offer a few suggestions for those pursuing an MBA via an online school? 1) Master Microsoft Office Suite. Just trust me! You will require Excel and PowerPoint proficiency as well as Word. Understand macros, formatting graphs, pie charts, formulas, etc. before you begin managerial statistics or corporate finance classes. 2) Treat your girlfriend, partner, family member, or whoever lives with you in your house out to dinner. Explain to him or her that you have committed to an 18 -24 month program of continued education that will require their patience, test the levels of relationship stress and will require exclusive access to a designated and QUITE area. Then calmly but in a serious tone state the following: I will be required to barricade myself in front of my computer for hours upon hours at a time. When I am taking tests or quizzes, I can not be disturbed for any reason (even if the house burns down). No one enters my quiet room for any reason when I am test taking. 3) Have a back-up computer ready for emergencies. Crashes happen during tests and 35 mins before presentation time. (Ask me how I know this...) 4) Have TWO, yes TWO separate backups of ALL your work. Just trust me. Spend $15.00 on two 4 gig thumb drives and ALWAYS back up your work, research, papers and notes twice. Overkill maybe - but it was amazing how many students lost their work due to loosing or accidentally deleting their only copy. 5) Buy the Professors denoted per the Syllabus edition of the textbook for the class. I made the mistake of wanting to buy the newest version of the courses textbook. Bad mistake because the assignments, case studies can be different. Hope this helps... take care, Jason

Originally Posted by inq89

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Haha how true are these?

Oh and I really want to get an MBA down the road from Duke Fuqua, how does SF approve?

I would recommend getting your MBA from the best school you could get into, and work really really hard to get into the best school. Don't get fixated on one school.

Originally Posted by bigj93702

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2) Treat your girlfriend, partner, family member, or whoever lives with you in your house out to dinner. Explain to him or her that you have committed to an 18 -24 month program of continued education that will require their patience, test the levels of relationship stress and will require exclusive access to a designated and QUITE area. Then calmly but in a serious tone state the following:

I will be required to barricade myself in front of my computer for hours upon hours at a time. When I am taking tests or quizzes, I can not be disturbed for any reason (even if the house burns down). No one enters my quiet room for any reason when I am test taking.

Dude, you're getting an MBA, not going to med school. lol

Originally Posted by deadly7

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Dude, you're getting an MBA, not going to med school. lol

It's not unreasonable in some full-time MBA programs to expect to spend 60+ hours a week in school and working on assignments. You can have 14 hour days, albeit with breaks and stuff.

Originally Posted by deadly7

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Dude, you're getting an MBA, not going to med school. lol

I was always a "C" student in undergrad. Grad school required a 'B' average and included statistical analysis, regression theory, and well... MATH. I would be the first one to suggest Medical School is much more difficult to master than business administration. For me the MBA curriculum was intense and challenging.

By the way Deadly7, I love the sarcasm of your avatar!

Originally Posted by Flambeur

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Awesome, true, and totally credited. Laughed ****** off through the entire thing.
+1. Laughed all the way through it. Most were very befitting.

Originally Posted by Flambeur

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I would recommend getting your MBA from the best school you could get into, and work really really hard to get into the best school. Don't get fixated on one school.

I understand, but the reason I'm looking specifically at Duke is because I've always wanted to get a degree from there (grew up around Durham, huge Blue Devil fan without the substance) and I plan on staying in NC. I am in pharmacy school now and my hope is to get into hospital administration eventually. So earning a ton of money or climbing to CEO on Wall Street are not my goals and I have no real aspirations to move outside NC. I am also looking at UNC and Wake Forest too but Duke is obviously ranked higher. This is all still theoretical though and I wouldn't start applying until at least 5 years down the road.

Originally Posted by inq89

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I understand, but the reason I'm looking specifically at Duke is because I've always wanted to get a degree from there (grew up around Durham, huge Blue Devil fan without the substance) and I plan on staying in NC. I am in pharmacy school now and my hope is to get into hospital administration eventually. So earning a ton of money or climbing to CEO on Wall Street are not my goals and I have no real aspirations to move outside NC. I am also looking at UNC and Wake Forest too but Duke is obviously ranked higher. This is all still theoretical though and I wouldn't start applying until at least 5 years down the road.
Sounds like you've made up your mind, and Duke is not a bad choice.

Originally Posted by inq89

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I understand, but the reason I'm looking specifically at Duke is because I've always wanted to get a degree from there (grew up around Durham, huge Blue Devil fan without the substance) and I plan on staying in NC. I am in pharmacy school now and my hope is to get into hospital administration eventually. So earning a ton of money or climbing to CEO on Wall Street are not my goals and I have no real aspirations to move outside NC. I am also looking at UNC and Wake Forest too but Duke is obviously ranked higher. This is all still theoretical though and I wouldn't start applying until at least 5 years down the road.

terrible reasoning