The MBA Tour

For those of you who were unable to attend The MBA Tour in NYC this past weekend, let me say this: you didn't miss much. It had some interesting moments, but if you were looking for information that couldn't be obtained in the brochures and websites, you might have been disappointed.

A few comments on the event:

• The lack of PowerPoint slides to work from seemed to flummox many of the B-school representatives. We were in small rooms, and they had about 25 minutes to talk about their school and take questions. There wasn't enough time or space -- there wasn't even a podium for the speakers to stand behind. I was surprised that many of these people, ostensibly professional speakers, didn't handle the situation well.
• The speaker for MIT was not good. Maybe it was too early, and he warmed up as the day went on, but I was at the first session, and it wasn't pretty. He misunderstood several of the questions he was asked. He mixed metaphors and confused several similar sounding words. And he strayed far from the topic at hand, always coming back to "Mens et manus" (MIT's motto) whether it was applicable to the answer or not. There was murmuring among some of the prospective students, and a few left early. My impression was that he hadn't been at MIT long and couldn't really answer questions with a depth greater than what was printed in the brochure. I didn't feel that he knew much about the school, and this was disappointing to me, as MIT is one of my top choices.
• Poor Carnegie Mellon. Only a few people showed up for their talks. Wharton and NYU however, drew crowds. I guess that makes sense, considering the number of prospective i-bankers in the crowd.
• The AdCom from Chicago (sorry, I forget her name) was very impressive. I'm not applying to "the GSB," but if I were, I would feel that my application was being carefully and thoughtfully considered.

On a final note, the worst parts of these MBA fairs are the questions asked by the attendees. 50% of the questions could be answered with a glance at the brochure or website. One guy raised his hand to ask MIT how many admissions rounds they had. Thanks for wasting our time with that question! Another 40% of the questions are covered repeatedly in the Montauk book, the forums, and every guide to admissions out there. My favorite example of this is the ever popular "How much weight do you put on the GMAT score?"

Luckily, the remaining 10% of the questions were actually insightful. This gives me hope that there are still plenty of smart, sane people applying to B-school, and made it worthwhile to get up early on a Saturday to attend.