10 reasons why I love Business School - by Vishal Srivastav, 2nd year student at Ross School of Business, UMich

Team getyourMBA spoke with Vishal Srivastav, second year student at Stephen M. Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, to find out why he's loving his time at Business School -

 

In Vishal's words - 10 reasons why I'm loving my time here:

1.  Connections – Business school creates perfect conditions to build lasting connections with smart, qualified and talented people. These are the people you would rely on, professionally and personally, in your post MBA life. You go through a concentrated experience together and that helps forge strong connections.

 

2.  Alumni network – Your class mates are only the tip of iceberg. The real power of B school network lies in its alumni base. Your alumni often serve as your recruiters and internal advocates for you to get your dream job.

 

3.  Fun – This is an important element of life at B school. Fun complements the craziness of B school.

 

4.  Academics – Class contributions of your friends from different backgrounds and industries will help you develop a holistic way of solving problems. Focus on learning, assimilating different points of view and developing a structured thought process, not grades.

 

5.  Diversity – Business school is training ground for working in teams with people from different backgrounds and culture.

 

6.  Efficiency – In an effort to juggle many things at once, you learn how to prioritize and become more efficient. It helps not only in school but in your life outside of work as well. You eventually conquer FOMO and become adept at deciding between competing priorities.

 

7.  Leadership – Barring class lectures, everything else in schools are completely student run. There is more than ample opportunity for every student to gain leadership experience and create an impact on the student community and the school at large.

 

8.  Collaboration – If you feel that your previous job didn’t allow you to collaborate enough, business school would come as a pleasant surprise. You spend a significant time with your study group, project teams et al and develop team and collaboration skills as a result.

 

9.  Entrepreneurship – It is one of the least marketed features of business school. Business schools offer a lot of opportunity and resources (monetary, academic, research, VC/PE network) for entrepreneurs.

 

10. Discomfort zone – B school constantly pushes you out of your comfort zone, which in my opinion leads to real learning. If learning is a motivator for you, B school will help you push yourself in a safe environment.

 

 

Get inspired! Few tips that can help you

Our co-founder talks about the importance of feeling inspired when writing your essays.

Most of you must now be in the thick and thin of writing your essays (if you’re not and are planning on applying this year, it’s time to get cracking!). All of you must have also realized by now that writing essays is no piece of cake. How do you make your story “flow”? How do you write what you are feeling? How do you convey what you wish to convey?

I struggled with the same questions when I was in your shoes a few years back. And yes, I came close to giving up because my essays were just not coming out :) Fact is – Business Schools are looking for folks who can dream big. People who really aspire to change the world. Who have the courage to imagine the impossible, and then make it happen.

And like it or not, they want to see this reflected in your essays.

Now how does one go about doing this? How does one get into that mode when you are truly “in the zone”, imagining yourself to be this all powerful human being who is destined to make a difference? :)

In my case, I believe that looking for sources of inspiration helps. Things that motivate you, make you believe in yourself, realize that there are bigger things to strive for in life. And this inspiration can come from anywhere – from activities you engage in, to things you read, to even the music you listen to. The idea is to get into that “special place” where your essays “just flow”.

Here are a couple of things that I’ve seen work for people. Of course, each individual has his/her own preferences!

1.     Reading biographies – reading how your idols have made it to where they are can be a big source of inspiration. Think Richard Branson’s “Losing my Virginity” or Randy Pausch’s “The Last Lecture”.

2.     Reading news magazines – Magazines like the Economist, The New Yorker, etc., can again help open your mind.

3.     Try fiction – Many folks swear by fiction and comics like Calvin and Hobbes! :) There are many pearls of wisdom hidden in these pieces of literary genius that might resonate with you.

4.     Commencement speeches – try listening to some famous college commenecement speeches. Usually given by folks who have made it big in their respective fields, they can provide a different perspective on how you view life. Some great speeches to begin with – Steve Jobs’ speech at Stanford, JK Rowling’s speech at Harvard, Bill Waterson’s speech at Kenyon college.

5.     TED Talks – I love TED talks for the sheer breadth of intelligence and creativity they bring together in one place. It is impossible not to find a talk on some topic or the other that won’t make you marvel at mankind’s genius! Visit www.ted.com to find out.

6.     Engage in that hobby you love – Don’t just write about it in your essays! Whether it’s photography, hiking, film making, listening to music, cooking – do it. This is what relaxes you, this is what brings out the creative being inside you.

7.     Talk to people you know and admire – whether it’s your manager, your team lead, or even your dad! Talk to them about how they did it. Learn and get inspired :)

8.     Spend time thinking – Believe it or not, this really works for some people! Having a blank mind with nothing to focus on for some time can really work wonders.

9.     Help others – Spend some time helping others selflessly. Whether at office, or your friends, your maid, your maid’s children, or even by volunteering at a local NGO. Doing work to bring joy to others is one of the best uses of your time, and cannot fail to inspire you.

10.  Be happy and believe in yourself – More than anything else, be happy and keep smiling :) Make others happy around you :) Things will happen for you and whatever happens is for the best, so make sure you believe in yourself!

And if the creative juices are still not flowing, find a mentor - someone who can look into your past and suggest ideas from your own past experiences to address in your essays, who can identify your strengths and weaknesses, and push you in the right direction.

All the best!

An important thing to ask yourself when applying to Business School

“Will I be able to get into this school?” This is a common question that most candidates ask themselves, their friends, their admission counselors, when they’re applying for their MBA. For the most part, they’re mainly trying to maximize their chances of getting in.

This is definitely an important question to ask. After all, if you’re sure you want to do an MBA and are spending so much time making your applications perfect, you may as well ensure that you’ll see the light of success.

However, just as you ask yourself “Will I get into this school?”, have you ever asked yourself, “Does this school deserve me?”

Think about this for a moment. You are going to be spending 2 years of your life at this school. This time is going to come from the prime years of your life. You’ll be spending a great deal of money in getting this education. You’ll be living far far away from your loved ones. You could be doing other things with this time – a great job, starting a company, getting married, traveling, anything. Instead, you’ll be giving 2 years of your time to this school. That’s a lot of stuff.

It only makes sense then that as much as the schools are selective about which students get in, you should be selective about which schools deserve you. Does the school have the right resources? Does it attract the kind of students you’d like to hang out with? What professors does the school have and what research have they done? What teaching model does the school follow? What values does the school and its student body espouse? What’s the culture at the school like?

These are hard questions to answer and it is easy to ignore them. Yet, the answers to these questions can make all the difference between a good and a life transforming experience in these 2 years at Business School. As Indians, it is easy to get sucked in the mentality of “I need to get XYZ education”. You are now old enough. You are making a conscious choice. Make sure it’s a choice you will be proud of for the rest of your life.

A typical day in the life of a business school student

As you all take the GMAT and work on your Round 1 apps, we thought it might be a good idea to give you a glimpse into what a typical day in the life of a typical business school student is like J Team getyourMBA asks a current student at Wharton.

7:00am – Wake up

7:15am – 8:00am – Work out at the gym

8:00am – 8:35 am – Get ready

8:40am – Catch the bus to campus. Get into a cab in case you’re late which is often! J

8:55am – Grab coffee (large atleast!) from the café. You NEED it if you hope to stay alert in class.

9:00am – 10:15am – Global Supply Chain Management. We discuss a case on Mattel, Inc. and how they were forced to recall a big lot of toys due to lead traces that could be poisonous to children. Great discussion in class on how best to control quality in your supply chain, especially when each player is not directly a part of Mattel.  Should you punish wrong behavior or incentivize good behavior?

10:15am – 10:30am – Check your mail folder - An offer from a tailor to get your business suit made at a discount for the upcoming interviews, Pricing Policy assignment graded and returned, an invitation with some goodies to the Winter Ball. Walk over to another building for next class

10:30am – 11:45 pm – Venture Capital and Finance of Innovation. Great class discussion on top 5 things investors should look at when deciding whether to invest in a company or not and why – Team? Market Size? Product? Target customer?

11:50am – 1:30 pm – Lunch meeting with Learning Team to finalize marketing case report. Team has 2 Americans, an Indonesian, a German, a Brazilian and an Indian. We are pretending to be Gillette and we have to figure out how we can increase the sales of our razors in Indonesia. How can we do that when many of the men there use scissors to cut their beard?

1:30 – 3:00pm – Mergers and Acquisitions. Great discussion on when to acquire, when to form an Alliance, when to form a Joint Venture.  We discuss Morgan Stanley – Dean Witter merger. Power politics at play!

3:00pm – 4:00pm – Meeting with photography club leadership team to finalize upcoming events and schedule.

4:00pm – 6:00 pm – Grab something to eat and get some work done in the student lounge.

6:00 pm – 8:00pm – Attend a talk on Leadership by a Mountain Guide who has led many expeditions – when do you lead from the front? When do you lead from the back? And when do you lead from the middle? Brilliant talk.

8:00pm – 8:20pm – Walk back home

8:30pm – 10:00pm – Dinner with the ladies of Women in Business Club. A junior wants to recruit for consulting and gets tips from second years.

10:00 pm – 11:00 pm – Celebrate student’s birthday at local pub.

11:00 pm – 2:00am – Prepare case for next day’s Entrepreneurship class on how Red Bull managed to make a dent in the beverages market despite goliaths like Coke and Pepsi in the market. Finish Corporate Valuation assignment of selecting which firms would form good comparables for a given company and why.

2:00am – Sh*#@* forgot to call home again, 3rd day in a row! Mom will kill me. What time is it in India anyway?  Man, I just don't care. Maybe tomorrow, I'm just too damn sleepy right nowwww...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Am I a Leader?

An applicant recently, was worried that his profile does not show any leadership experiences so would that affect his chances of MBA admission. And surely he is not the only one with such doubts. Perhaps many of you may have the same fears – ‘I am just a team member at work. I might get to lead a team only after another year or more’. So should you all wait till you become team leaders in your careers before thinking of applying for MBA?

Well look at it this way – most MBA aspirants are in the first few years of their working careers so very few might have had the opportunity of formally leading their teams. Some others might have been Captains of their college football or some other teams. But the large majority would be neither team leaders at work or past captains of sports teams. So where does that leave us? Are all Business Schools filled only with those who were team leaders at work or past sports captains?  NO? Then, if it is true that all Business Schools want students with leadership qualities, where do all these leaders who fill their classrooms each year, come from?

To find the answer, take a look in the mirror my friends. Do you recognize the leader you see there? Because they all come from amongst you. They are just like you for the most part. And leadership? Well, leadership qualities assume many different forms in different people. Leaders are not only those who actually lead teams – whether at work or on the sports field or elsewhere. Leaders are people who take initiative. Leaders motivate others. Leaders are passionate about what they do. Leaders are prepared to take risks. Leaders work hard. Leaders persevere when others have lost hope. Leaders do ordinary things – extraordinarily. Leaders step up to take charge in a crisis. Leaders are persuasive. Leaders also make mistakes but they learn from them, move on and improve. Leaders think out of the box for innovative solutions. Leaders have self-belief. Leaders are not afraid to admit their mistakes. Leaders have the courage of conviction to defend their beliefs and opinions. Leaders are not scared to take sides rather than just sitting on the fence. Leaders see opportunities where others might see only an obstacle. Leaders also fall down but they just get up and start all over again.

One candidate narrated this story. At a cousin’s wedding the previous year, a typical north Indian wedding where the Baraat (bridegroom’s party) dances its way to the marriage venue, just as the Baraat was about to reach the entrance to the venue, it was discovered the bride was not yet back from the makeup parlor and, there being just the one entrance to the venue, it would be rather awkward for her to walk in after all the guests had arrived. Amidst frantic phone calls and counting of minutes to reach, this guy stepped out to where the Baraat had reached – about 200 mtrs from the entrance, and challenged those dancing to dance against him, knowing full well that he was a lousy dancer. A few minutes were spent in confusion as the dancers sized him up to decide whether they could accept his challenge and a few more while it was debated who would dance first. Well, he lost the bet within three minutes flat thereafter but had already bought the critical few minutes to allow the bride to walk in unseen and save major embarrassment. Surely this was smart out of the box thinking and he took the initiative to carry it out. That too is leadership!

Most of us have experienced some events when we did something different and many of these instances might illustrate some leadership trait. So these are the events to dig out from your memory in order to show you have what it takes to be a leader. Did you ever motivate a friend not to be depressed over some failure but to take heart and move on? That was the leader in you showing through. Did you step out of your car at a jammed intersection to direct traffic for a few minutes to clear up the jam? That too is leadership.

So, rather than losing sleep over the fact that you were never the real leader of a group of people at any time, use your energies to think of various events and instances where you demonstrated traits of leadership. Make a list of all these. Take your time over making this list because many such instances might be lost in the mists of memory. And once your list is made, you might find that some of these instances were really too small or too ordinary to really add value to your profile. So you need to sift through your list to pick up those events where your actions had some impact on those around you. And then use these events in your application to illustrate to the Ad Comm that you too have leadership qualities so that they will recognize you as the candidate they are looking for, among all those who have applied.

WHAT ARE THE OPTIONS FOR ZERO WORK-EX FRESH GRADS, TO GET AN MBA EDUCATION?

HOW MUCH WORK-EX IS DESIRABLE TO HAVE BEFORE PROCEEDING TO AN MBA EDUCATION?

HOW MUCH WORK-EX DO VARIOUS BUSINESS SCHOOLS REQUIRE ME TO HAVE BEFORE APPLYING?

WHAT ARE THE OPTIONS FOR ZERO WORK-EX FRESH GRADS, TO GET AN MBA EDUCATION?

As far as the first question above is concerned, the Jury, as they say is still out on this one, basically because there is no single ‘one size fits all’ answer to it. Perhaps the only one answer that can correctly address this question is “Apply when you feel you are ready for it”. But does that help? Or does it only lead to another, equally puzzling question “How will I know when I am ready?” The only one thing that seems to be clear is that the correct time to apply is different for different people. Some might be ready early in their careers whereas others might be better off waiting a few years more. But what exactly is the way to determine the correct time for any one individual? Well, as I said, the jury is still out on that one.

So, let us get another opinion on it. Business Schools, who actually teach the MBA curriculum are surely the best ones to advise on this. So what do they say? Unfortunately, here again we do not find the consensus which might lead us to the right answer.

Take for example the IIMs in India. They have from the beginning been open to taking early career students for their flagship PGDM programs. The majority of students at the IIMs continue to be fresh Graduates and most others are in the 1 to 3 years category. And the 5+ yrs workex students at the IIMs are still only a small minority. And are the IIM graduates as good at managing businesses as their counterparts from US Business Schools where the avg workex tends to be 4+ yrs and where it is the fresh grads who are the small minority? Well, looking at the track record of IIM grads over the decades, it would certainly seem so. Graduates of these institutions have done as well as those from any other institution, whether they pursued their careers in India or abroad.

On the other hand, most Business Schools in the US for example, do seem to prefer students with more workex. Even though many of them state as a policy that workex is only desirable not necessary, the class composition at most schools tells the real story because very few students at these schools are fresh from college and the average workex is 4+ years.

Coming to the last two questions of the topic for this post – How much workex do Business Schools require me to have before applying, and what are the options if any for fresh grads – you know already that IIM’s in India have no requirement for workex, though they too do give some weight to workex in their selection process, ISB in India asks for 2+ years and most business schools in the US also prefer at least 2 years, even if they do not always say so.

So what are the options for fresh grads? I wrote already in an earlier post on this blog, about MIM programs offered by an increasing number of Business Schools in the US. But what if one wants to join a regular MBA program? Well there is now an increasingly visible trend even among US business schools that some of them, including some top schools, are encouraging fresh grads to seek admission directly out of college. Notable examples are:

·         Harvard: The HBS 2+2 program – you apply while still in the final year of your UG program, get admission and defer enrolment for 2 years, acquire workex during these two years with an assured seat at their regular MBA program after two years.

·         Stanford: Deferred admission program - Here again you get admission while still in college, defer enrolment by 2-3 years and use this period to gain workex, with a reserved seat at the regular Stanford MBA program.

·         Yale School of Management: Silver Scholar Program – This is a total 3 year MBA program where you join the regular Yale MBA class directly after college, complete the first year of the MBA curriculum and then take a one year break from studies to take up a full one year internship before heading back to Yale to complete the remaining one year of their regular 2 year MBA program.

·         MIT Sloan: Sloan simply encourages college seniors to apply directly to their regular MBA program itself, without any workex. As an incentive, they even waive the application fees for these applicants. About 20% of the Sloan MBA class is composed of students without workex so that tells you they are serious about it.

·         ISB: YLP and Early Entry options – Our indigenous ISB has not one but two options for students with less than 2 years workex. The Young Leaders Program (YLP) requires you to apply while still in the pre-final year at college whereas the Early Entry Option is for graduates with less than two years workex. And both options allow for deferred enrolment.

Likewise there are many other business schools in US that offer either deferred enrolment option or accept significant accept significant proportion of the MBA class without workex. While it may not be clear yet, whether these Business Schools are in fact veering towards younger students, maybe they are only experimenting with the idea for some time to determine what works well, the point is that options are available at US Business Schools even for fresh graduates.

A Master's degree in Management from a US Business School - without work-ex?

I am often asked what is the right amount of work-ex one must put in before taking up the MBA. Many, still in undergrad college, feel it is unfair for Busines Schools to give so much weightage to work-ex that they almost deny students who want to get in straight after their Bachelors degree.

Well, it is true that most Business Schools attach serious weightage to work-ex when evaluating candidates. And so, even though the stated position is that work-ex is only desirable, not compulsary, and even though a few candidates do make it to these schools without work-ex, the truth is that those who do are really a very small minority and most schools prefer candidates with varying lengths of work-ex.

But there is another interesting development lately. An increasing number of Business Schools are offering a Masters degree of Management , admission to which is open to candidates without work-ex. And I'm not talking about the "Deferred Admission" options like the 2+2 program at HBS, or the YLP or Early Entry options at ISB. Those are only different routes to their regular MBA program, wherein these schools pick out exceptional candidates while still at undergrad college and promise them deferred admission after they complete a prescribed duration of work-ex.

Rather I'm talking about the MIM (Masters in Management) program being offered by many universities in the US and which is available with little or no work-ex.

So does this represent a change in thinking on part of the B-schools? Are they now accepting that work-ex is not really important for graduate education in Management?

Actually, NO. These schools differentiate clearly between the MIM and MBA program. You can get a clue from the name of the program itself. While the MIM is a Masters in Management, the MBA is a Masters in Business Administration.

Very simply put, the MBA equips students to manage and run Business enterprises. The curriculum is much more practical. The cases discussed in the classrooms are all real life problems. The data students analyze while learning various techniques of analysis is real life data and so on. And admissions to these programs are still weighted heavily towards candidates with work-ex.

By contrast, the MIM student studies the science of Management. These programs may also use some real life data but the focus here is much more theoretical. Graduates from these programs often pursue further study of Management to a PhD level or go into academia. Those that do join the industry after the MIM program, do so at a level junior to their counterparts from MBA programs, who might join the same businesses.

So those of you wanting to pursue Management education but not keen to work before heading to a university in the US, have the option of the MIM program. But unless you are keen on studying Management as a science and continuing in research and academia, my personal advice would be to choose the regular MBA programs, though it means you will have to wait a few years while getting some good work-ex under your belt.

So let us examine why B-schools give importance to work-ex while admitting students to the MBA program. The obvious answer of course is that the various theories, analytical and decision making techniques that are learnt at a business school are more easily learned and absorbed by candidates who have faced typical work environments and who have had exposure to the workings of a Business Enterprise before coming to schools.

But there is another, and a more important reason. Students in a typical B-school classroom learn as much from their fellow students as they do from the teachers. Each class has students from different industries, geographical regions of the world, different cultures where business practices differ from eachother as does their language. And when the diverse group of students get together to discuss a Business case or a theoretical management idea, the wealth of real life experience that they bring to bear on the subject adds immensely to the quality of the discourse. Every student thus gets the benefit of the experience of every other student in the class.

So be clear what your objectives are from your Management education and choose the program that works best for you. The important thing is to know that both options are available.