Nick Carraway goes for an MBA

Closure

2011-03-09T08:47:00.000-08:00

Here it is, four years later, and the story I told in this blog seems like a lifetime ago. I never expected to post again, but I was recruiting at Fuqua last year, and a student there told me about this blog he'd read where some guy had a decision to make between Sloan and Fuqua. I was amazed that anyone still read this blog after I left it, and he was amazed that I was "Nick."

So where am I now? Honestly, I'm exactly where I wanted to end up when I wrote this blog. I work in global marketing for a top pharmaceutical company, preparing to launch a new oncology drug. I've completely changed careers from Wall Street to pharmaceutical marketing (and my timing was good there!). I am happy with my job, with where I live, and what I do. I am challenged every day, and after a couple of years in my role, I truly feel like a marketer.

My Duke experience was tremendous as an education, as a chance to make connections with some lifelong friends, and as a two-year break from the ordinary. And that daughter who was about to be born in my then-final post -- I just registered her for kindergarten yesterday!

Do I have any regrets? Not really. I made the right choice for my career goals. I'm sure I would be in a different place had I gone to MIT's BEP, and in all likelihood, as satisfied with the outcome. It was hard to go wrong there, but you have to pick your path in the woods.

That broader brand equity of a school is no small matter. Duke and MIT have very different brands, and for me they represented different paths. When faced with a lack of detailed knowledge about a school's strength in a particular area, people will fall back on the broader knowledge of the school. This is the essence of a brand, and it's what we strive to achieve as marketers every day. But a brand alone should never steer a person into a couple hundred thousand dollars in debt and a completely different career path.

As an aside, Cornell called me later to offer a full scholarship. When I answered the phone, I was in Durham, moving into my new house. It was a bit late, and by that point, I already knew I'd made the right decision.

A few words of advice from having been through the process, and even now that I'm on the other side of the interview table:

The talented people I've seen were talented before business school. They did well in school, then they continued to be talented people in their future careers. No one is turned into top talent by two years of B-school. Every school has a pool of terrifically talented people, as well as some people that you might not want on your team. In general, the better schools have a better ratio though.
Rankings and such matter only in the sense that they drive the best people toward a set of schools in the "top" tier. Rankings are valid as a self-fulfilling prophecy, for better or worse. But they are certainly nothing to obsess over. They are incredibly inaccurate, and they mainly represent the biases of their designers.
You need to pick the school that is right for you. Ask yourself two questions. 1) At what schools do the companies I want to work for recruit? 2) At what schools will I be surrounded by a critical mass of people who have similar goals to me?
When picking a company to work for, consider that it is generally much easier to move from a large company to a small one. You see people move from big pharma to biotechs all the time. The skills you learn in a big corporation are invaluable, and the resume impact of a "name brand" is huge. Going the other direction is swimming upstream. Excluding people pre-business school experience, I can think of only one person I know of who has transitioned from a small biotech to a big pharma company. And it took him about six years. Don't get me wrong you can learn a lot working in a small company where you have broad responsibilities. I know I certainly did. But when it comes to getting a job, the big company experience is a known quantity.

So there you have it. For a while there, choosing and getting into the right B-school was my focus. Then once I was in school, choosing and getting an offer from the right company was the focus. Now (and probably for the next thirty or so years), executing on business goals, learning new skills, and growing my career are the focus. This is the main goal, the reason we go to business school. It's been a long time since I sat down with B-school brochures and dreamed of where I would end up someday, and now that I'm here, I have to say that it really did live up to my expectations.

Some sane conversation about the MBA!

2006-06-27T11:19:00.000-07:00

I was heartened to drop by the BusinessWeek forums for the first time in a while to find a great discussion/reflection on the B-school experience from "IWannaGetln" (link).

After all the forum hype about essays and GMATs, the fretting about rankings, and the complaining about "my subgroup is being oppressed," it's great to read about one person's real journey and what an MBA did and didn't do for him. Alex's comments about how banking and consulting firms churn MBAs are especially enlightening, too.

IWannaGetln's recommendations about grades not mattering are very true, but it's going to be hard for me to heed them. Grades are such great little meritocratic rewards. Since the third grade, I've been a sucker for getting a gold star. But the advice about maximizing your on-campus interview opportunities and not taking the first offer are also worth heeding.

There are so many piddly things to do to prepare for school. Aside from packing, moving, and having a baby (that was my wife's job!), I've had to stay on top of getting my vaccination records together, getting a parking pass, setting up my Fuqua email, etc. Fun, fun, fun. It's so much more real now. All the concerns I had a year ago (which school would be absolutely PERFECT for me?) seem petty. I am more concerned with making the most of my two years and beginning the transition to a new field (pharma).

Perspective is sometimes hard to gain, but now that I'm committed, it is a lot easier. And any time I might lose it, I've got an infant daughter to remind me of what's important.

What have I learned from this whole process?

2006-05-22T10:04:00.000-07:00

After all the soul-searching that comes with applying to school, deciding, committing, etc, I have to ask myself if I've learned anything about myself from the whole process. The short answer: nothing Earth-shattering, but a few things.

One thing is that I don't have much (enough?) respect for the MBA as a degree. It's a practical, useful, professional degree, and it's going to be a great way for me to change career, but I still understand that it's something of a superfluous degree. To paraphrase Henry Mintzberg in Managers, Not MBAs, you can't be a doctor without going to medical school, or a lawyer without law school, but anyone can run a business without business school. In fact, most of the best businesses are run by non-MBAs!

I started an MBA years ago at Emory (long story), and I'll never forget the moment in economics class when the professor tried to use a very simple derivative to explain something. You would have thought she had poked the class with a stick. "We were told there was no calculus in this class!" all the marketing majors whined. In any other master's program, the (proper) student response would be: "Crap, I'd better go learn some basic calculus." In B-school it's: "I'm the customer here, and don't you forget it!" Granted, you can make your experience as rigorous as you'd like, but I still feel that the MBA doesn't earn you as much credibility as it does connections! I guess that's a decent tradeoff.

Another thing I've learned is that there's a great group of people in the blogosphere who can be very helpful and supportive (most of the time!). It's great that technology can bring people together like that, and it's added a lot to the experience. Much appreciation to Hella for running his site.

It's interesting to compare how I felt at the beginning of the process with how it feels at the end. Last October, I was at the MBA expo in Manhattan, listening to the presentations. I was excited by the idea that I could go back to school for a while and change to the healthcare industry from Wall Street. By December, I was convinced that Cornell was the perfect program for me, but thought that I might retain the option to just stay at my job. By January, I was blown away by MIT's Biomedical Enterprise Program. After interviewing at Cornell, MIT, and Duke in February, I was confused. Fortunately in March, I was accepted everywhere, and even got scholarship money! I first eliminated my original top choice of Cornell, because they don't have a dedicated healthcare program. Then I had the tough choice between Duke and MIT. In the end, Boston killed MIT's chances, despite the ridiculously great prestige in the MIT name. Boston just doesn't compare to Raleigh-Durham in terms of quality of life, weather, and cost. I just wasn't willing to be unhappy with my environment for three years.

Since making that decision, I've bought a house in Durham (mine and my wife's first!), and we are eagerly awaiting the imminent birth of our daughter (also our first!) in a couple of weeks. This has put the whole B-school thing in perspective. It's going to be great, and I'm going to make as much of it as I possibly can, but it is ultimately a means to an end: a way for me to help provide security, and maybe a little prosperity, for myself and my family.

Why I'm choosing Duke over MIT

2006-04-03T07:09:00.000-07:00

I know a lot of people are trying to decide between schools and offers right now, so maybe you'll find one man's internal dialogue interesting. Mine is a classic case of putting the rankings aside and finding the program with the best overall fit. It's also a case where a lot of intangibles add up to something very tangible.

I am fortunate enough to have been accepted at both Fuqua and Sloan. After B-school, I intend to pursue a career in the healthcare industry. Fuqua has an amazing Health Sector Management program that I'm excited about. I was doubly fortunate to be also accepted to MIT's Biomedical Enterprise Program. This small 3 year program involves a Sloan MBA + a Master's from the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences Technology division. (Just writing "Harvard-MIT" makes me want to pause and reconsider this whole decision.) Three months ago, Sloan's BEP was my first choice. Heck, after I interviewed there, I said "If accepted, how could I not go?!" But after weeks of meditation on the subject, it's become a very close call. Here are my reasons why:

1) Boston vs. Durham. My wife and I are expecting our first child in a couple of months. Boston is great and all, but it's not the ideal place to be a poor student raising a baby. Durham on the other hand, offers plenty of new, spacious housing with super low rents. Even better, no lead paint! If I were 26, Boston would be the most exciting place in the world; however, I'm 30, I lived in Manhattan for five years, and my wife and I just escaped to the suburbs -- I'm not exactly going to get excited about Boston's wide selection of bars at this point.

We know no one in Boston, and moving back into a city has no appeal for us now that we've experienced the convenience of car ownership and big box stores. Plus, the Raleigh-Durham area has a huge number of pharma companies. It's not as concentrated as Boston, but there are plenty of opportunities.

2) Cost. I know, I know... don't let the money be a factor. But would anyone go to HBS if it cost $1,000,000? At some point, the money has to become a factor. My number is somewhere around $155,000. Believe it or not, that's the post-tax net difference in cost between the programs for me. That includes the extra year of lost wages due to the BEP's third year, the dramatically higher cost of housing in Boston, and the scholarship money Duke is offering me. (It also factors in the 3rd year fellowship money from the BEP and the value of a second internship there.)

"That's peanuts in the long run," you say. Well, not really. Consider that $155,000 as an annuity -- just put it away in the bank and never touch it. It would pay me $8000+ a year, every year, for the rest of my life, working or not. Granted, I might earn substantially more out of MIT, or maybe I wouldn't. But $155,000 is enough money to make a difference in one's finances for the long term.

3) The Intangibles. Well, they're quite tangible, actually. Little factors, like North Carolina's amazing weather, make a big difference on your overall quality of life. Also, my family is within driving distance of Durham, so my child might actually know her grandparents. Plus, Fuqua has amazing facilities and the most supportive partners program at any top B-school.

They say "Don't make your decision based on the facilities... Or the weather... Or the housing... Or the location." Sage advice indeed, but at what point do all of those things add up to one very important factor? Duke just seems to have them all.

What may have sealed the deal was seeing that Fuqua is ranked in the top 10 in every field by Business Week and several of the fields that WSJ polled recruiters on. Sloan is tops for things like operations, supply-chain, and technology. But Fuqua is in the top ten in just about everything: marketing, international business, technology, healthcare, etc. That sort of broad capability appeals to me.

I know, I know... boohoo for me, having to decide between two top programs must be terrible. But it's a huge commitment of time and money, and you only get to do this once. It really has been a difficult decision because it's such a close call. But I think I'll feel a huge weight off my shoulders tomorrow if I overnight my deposit to Fuqua.

The 6 Stages of Rankings Understanding

2006-03-05T08:24:00.000-08:00

Since this is the time of year that prospective B-School applicants might start looking for resources on the web, I thought I'd try to save them some time in understanding business school rankings:

Stage 1. You're a new applicant, just starting to research schools. You discover that there are several sets of rankings available to help. You also discover the BusinessWeek forums. Harnassing the power of Excel, you create hybrid rankings, averaging the FT, BW, USNews, and WSJ rankings. "It's genius!" you think. Debate ensues on the forums.

Stage 2. You realize that the WSJ and FT rankings are based on bizarre, single-factor criteria. Better to stick to the more reasonable Business Week and US News rankings.

Stage 3. Further reading of forums convinces you that "H/S/W" and "the M7" are the immutable hierarchy of the business school world, given from upon high.

Stage 4. At some point, you begin to realize that the forums and websites are mostly populated by overseas applicants and obsessive-compulsive types. You begin to doubt the wisdom of 24 year olds who have never actually seen the inside of a B-school.

Stage 5. You actually visit some schools and realize that there is so much more to their personality than rankings. Further, you realize that there are material differences that would make certain schools a better fit for you and your goals, despite their lower rankings.

Stage 6. You happily accept an offer from your school of choice. After attending for a while, you can't even remember what the school's rankings are. You meet with prospective students, and marvel at their obsession with rankings. One of them shows you his spreadsheet with weighted averages of different published rankings. You knowingly pat him on the back, then head off to a job interview.

Am I missing any stages?

MIT Sloan Visit and Interview

2006-03-01T13:41:00.000-08:00

Some observations from my recent visit to MIT Sloan:

The Culture
MIT Sloan is a unique MBA program. Not so much because of their curriculum, but because of the attitude and feel of the school. MIT feels different, and I had to think about it for a couple of days before I was able to put my finger on what it is that's so unique. Once I'd thought about it, there were two main things that set Sloan apart. One, they seem to work harder than most B-school students. Sloanies are serious about getting a lot done. Two, they are really smart. I'm not easily impressed by smarts, but there are some super-intelligent people at Sloan. And not in the narrow, nerdy sense, but in a very well-rounded way.

Another surprise was the "make a difference" attitude among students and faculty. There are a lot of projects involving the third world in some sort of big-thinking way. (This is true of MIT as a whole, as demonstrated by their new $100 laptop for the third world.) This has a lot to do with the fact that MIT is so strongly entrepreneurship-oriented, but the desire to make a difference is a strong part of the school's personality.

The faculty at Sloan is also incredible. While most other schools talk about the one star professor they have in each department, MIT has nothing but superstar profs. It's taken for granted at Sloan.

The facilities were not as bad as I'd been led to believe. They just seemed like average classrooms to me. It seems there is a lack of space for students to gather, though.

The Interview
The interview was not as special as I'd expected, either. MIT sends you a 2 page guide to their "Behavioral Event-based Interview" (BEI) before you visit. The key difference is that they do NOT ask you "Why an MBA? Why now? and Why here?" They simply take your resume and application and ask two or three main questions, each with several follow up questions. It is not a blind interview.

It's not as unique as some people claim. It is odd, however, to have an interviewer ask you "...and how did that make you feel?" You feel a bit like you're on a psychiatrist's couch then. The interviewer is also studiously poker-faced. It's not confrontational, but it's also not as warm and congenial as other schools. I tried to make my interviewer laugh, but he just smiled patiently. I agree with others who have observed that they are also trying to get a sense of how strong your committment to attending Sloan is.

Soft Sell
In all my interactions with Sloan, I've noticed that they aren't as interested in "selling" the school to you as much as other programs. Their bright green brochure is typographically bold, but seems to have less content than most. The admissions office personnel are more stoic than any I've seen. Sloan is not a Smiley Gladhands kind of place. They are what they are, and they want you to evaluate whether you'd fit in.

If they're not careful, this can come across as arrogance. Sloan doesn't seem to "need" its prospective students. They have a line of people around the block who would kill to pay $40+k a year to be there, and they know it.

If you're applying, it's definitely a school you have to visit and evaluate for yourself -- I found the reality of the school to be different from what I'd expected, and certainly different from other schools I've visited.

Summary
If accepted, I would have a hard time turning Sloan down. Walking around and talking to people, I could feel the opportunities in the air. It seems that Sloanies have enormous access to companies, professors, and ideas. It was truly unique, and still a bit hard to describe. I also got the impression that most of the students were already successes before they came to B-school. Everyone was of a very high calibre.

The downside: the first time I looked at craigslist to see how much apartments go for in Cambridge! Ugh.

Duke Fuqua Interview and Impressions

2006-02-08T07:58:00.000-08:00

Continuing my series of hopefully candid evaluations of B-schools I've recently visited, I'd like to talk about Fuqua ("few-kwuh").

Arriving
First off, if you visit Fuqua, know that there is a parking lot across the street from the main entrance on Science Drive. Upon checking in at the admissions desk, you'll get a parking decal that will get you free parking for the rest of the day. I made the mistake of parking in one lot, paying $4, then finding out that there is a lot specifically for Fuqua visitors, then paying $4 there, only to get the free parking pass. Don't be stupid like me -- save yourself $8!

Anyway, Fuqua's facilities rock. Everything is new and sleek and modern. As a prospective student, it's hard not to be swayed by this. The admissions office is on your left when you walk in, behind the glass wall. It's a huge office with a waiting area out front. They'll have a folder with your itinerary and some promotional materials. Then you can sit in the waiting area, where there are several very comfy chairs, and even half a dozen computers available so you can check your email. Nice.

Fuqua students volunteer to man the waiting area. There was always at least one student there doing the meet and greet with any prospectives, chatting with them, and answering questions. There were a lot of prospective students there, but it was a nice environment, with the chairs arranged so they face each other.

Durham itself was great, and very affordable. I've spent some time here before, and it's a very comfortable place to live, especially the area surrounding Duke.

Class Visit
My class visit was excellent. I went to a decision modelling class when they were doing Monte Carlo simulations. I was told that I was not in the class with the better professor for that class, but nonetheless, the "lesser" professor was prety good. More importantly, the class was very engaged. Fuqua has a no-laptops-in-class policy, so no one can sit there and surf or check email during class. I have to say that it works. I have been to other schools where this was a small problem - not rampant, but even a few students doing this can be irritating.

Classes are 2.5 hours at Fuqua with a short break halfway through (remember, they do 2, six week terms per semester). The prospectives attend the first half of a class. We were introduced to the professor, and then we introduced ourselves to the class. We were asked to dance or sing, but politely declined. Then the class applauded us anyway in welcome. The classroom, like everything else at Fuqua, was nice and modern. The professor was projecting spreadsheets onto a screen using an integrated projector and computer at the front. Technology is not a problem here. Oh, and the chairs were comfortable, too, which is important if your classes are 2.5 hours long!

Tour
We toured the facilities, which I had already explored on my own that morning. Everyone has lockers in the main hall, and all the organizations advertise upcoming events, etc on the walls of the hallway. They have flags from the country of every current student hanging as well.

The Fox Center is the main student hang out, where there's also a nice cafeteria with stations for salads, grilled items, hot foods, burritos, etc. They have a weird system where you fill out a form describing your choices, then hand it over to the preparers. (Note that admissions does not pick up the tab for lunch at Fuqua, but prices aren't unreasonable.) This scheme seemed like something that an Operations Management class might come up with. It was also a pretty silly way to do things, and it didn't improve accuracy: they still forgot my fries.

Interview
The interviews at Fuqua are done by second year students who volunteer for the task. Mine was very professional, but I still don't feel that I'm being taken as seriously as I would be if I were interviewing with an adcom. I got the impression that the interview isn't a very important part of your application at Duke, and this is confirmed by the fact that they are technically optional. I think it's mainly to show that you're interested, and to get a basic sense of your interviewing capability.

As a side note, I don't understand how any school can make interviewing optional. Your main goal in B-school is to get a job. Recruiters are on campus almost as soon as you get there. Your ability to handle yourself in an interview is crucial to getting a job. Getting a job is crucial to the school's reputation and ranking. But what do I know?

Anyway, the interview is a strict 40 minutes, with 30 for the interview, then 10 for your questions. It was very relaxed, and I had an affable second year conducting, but it was also pretty rushed. She had a long list of questions to get through in 30 minutes, and I'm almost surprised she covered them all. It was very rapid-fire. Unlike the Cornell interview, it wasn't terribly conversational because of the limited time. I wasn't even sure if my answers mattered so much as my ability to handle myself in the interview.

There were the usual questions: Why MBA? Why now? Why at Fuqua? Then a long list of other questions, including:

What the 2 best and worst things about you?
Name the 3 biggest risks you've taken in your life.
Give an example of your performance on a team.
Tell me about a time when your team failed.
What do you do about a team member who won't cooperate?
What is your role on a team?
What do you like least about working in teams?
How would you explain your job to a 6 year old?

As you can see, they are very team-oriented a Fuqua. My interviewer said it was a big part of the culture, but not to think it was everything at Duke. She said people's impressions of the school before they attend probably overstate the teamwork aspect, and there are still plenty of things you have to do on your own.

Summary
Overall, I really loved Fuqua. The students were busy when I was there, and there was an enthusiasm in the classes that I liked a lot. Everyone I met seemed smart and capable. The facilities are very nice, and very large, spanning two buildings (though most of the Daytime MBA students stay in one). I liked the skylights that kept the place sunny. And the weather never gets too cold in Durham.

Fuqua is a great school, especially if you're interested in healthcare. 20% of the students participate in the Health Sector Management program, which is important not only because of its coursework (only a few required electives and a speaker series are required to get the certification), but also because of the number of industry recruiters that it draws to campus. I found this to be particularly enticing as someone who is interested in that sector.

It was a great visit, and Fuqua made a strong impression on me. I just wish they hadn't forgotten my fries at the cafeteria.

Cornell Interview and Impressions

2006-02-07T07:05:00.000-08:00

I got the chance to spend a little time at the Johnson School recently. Here are some impressions for those considering Cornell:

I flew in the night before my interview and stayed at the infamous Best Western University. Actually, my room was quite nice, and the breakfast spread the next morning was excellent. Ithaca was cold that night, but not as cold as it can be.

The next morning, I had a whole array of activities planned at JGSM. I had a class visit, then an info session, then an interview. I found my way over to campus, parked, and walked to Sage Hall. Not 30 feet into the building, the school's character was shown: I stood before a map of the building, looking for the admissions office. A student who was walking by immediately approached me and asked if she could help me find my way. She kindly pointed me in the right direction. The school is super-easy to get around, as it's a square building with a square atrium in the middle.

The admissions office was well-prepared, but surprisingly small. They had a folder for me with an itinerary and lots of materials on Johnson. Every morning, the dean provides coffee, tea, hot chocolate, etc. for the students, and I sat in the atrium and took advantage of this before my class visit.

I only saw one classroom, but my first impression was simple: "Blackboards?!? In this day and age?" The classroom was only mediocre compared to the other B-school classrooms I've seen, and this was surprising considering that everything else in Sage Hall was new and modern.

But we all know that it's the content, not the package, that counts. The class I visited was fine, and the professor knew his stuff. However, I found that student participation was alarmingly limited. Everyone was paying attention, but when the prof asked questions, the same three (out of about 40) people answered almost all of them. Sometimes after he asked a question, there was a long pause before one of the these three relented and answered yet another one. Maybe this is because it was a second year class, I don't know. But I would have liked to have seen the students more engaged.

Then I had an info session with two first years. They spent an hour candidly answering whatever questions we had on the program and were very helpful. A lot of what they said centered on how much the students help each other. They even gave us tips on the interview, and insight into the recruiting process at Johnson. The admissions office pays for your lunch, so I ate a sandwich through all of this.

Finally, I had the interview. This was really a great experience, and the admissions rep I interviewed with was experienced and professional. The interview was very much like a conversation in that she let one answer lead to another question. She was directing the flow of the conversation so that she got the information she needed, but without peppering me with questions. She also talked with me about a few of my answers. In other words, she wasn't just there asking questions. I felt very comfortable, and I felt that I was taken seriously. The usual questions were in there (Why an MBA? Why now? Why here?), but the rest of the questions were further queries about my responses. There were no oddball questions, or cheesy attempts to throw me off guard, just a serious consideration of my work experience.

After the interview, I hung out in the atrium for a while, chatting with students. Whenever I asked a question, I was referred to a student who could best answer it, then that person would hand me off to someone else who had something to say. They were all very enthusiastic about Johnson and the Ithaca region.

My impression of Cornell Johnson was that it's a pretty laid back place, with enormously charismatic students. Everyone seems to be part of a tight community that is looking out for the school as a whole. This character is reflected in where they send their alumni -- they skew toward general management rather than IB and MC (though there's still a lot of that). They're not quants, and their GMAT scores are lower than a lot of similar programs, but they are genuinely personable people. Leadership seems to be a theme at Cornell, and as much as it can be 'taught,' they are trying their best to instill it at Johnson.

I also felt that the interview was a more important part of the application process at Cornell than most schools. They made it seem like it was a key part of the application, and that makes sense, considering the sort of students they appear to attract.

Who should you talk to? Alumni.

2006-01-06T11:45:00.000-08:00

I'm still in the slightly frazzled state of mind that results from the application process. Spending dozens of hours rehashing and rearranging the minutiae of my vocational history for various forms has been somewhat numbing. I'm only applying to three schools, and I'm very glad I chose such a small number. When I have more information on my experiences at those schools, I'll be sure to post them at Clear Admit's Wiki (http://clearadmit.jot.com/WikiHome) -- an excellent use of that technology, by the way.

Recent experiences have led me to a few more observations about this whole B-school thing:

1. Alumni are the best source of information about whether a particular (or any) B-school is appropriate for you. That glossy brochure? That MBA conference? The campus visit? All propaganda. And hell, you don't go to B-school so much for the educational experience. The reason you go for an MBA is the employment that comes afterward. (I'm a geek, and I'm honestly thrilled with the prospect of going back to school. But I don't need to spend $40,000 a year to learn.) So I need to know how others who have gone through this process have done. Alumni can tell you what sort of doors their school opened for them. They can tell you the truth about different industries and careers. If they are 2-5 years out, they are far enough from the experience to give you perspective on the place of an MBA in your life. Alumni can tell you what you need to know. Seek them out.

2. The B-school applicant forums (and blogs) are a sort of hyper, obsessive version of reality. Try to ignore them. You know you read them. We all do. They're filled with all sorts of bizarre pissing contests about rankings, admissions, GMAT scores, etc. Ugh. Yet you can't look away from it all, either. If you were to base your picture of B-school solely on these sources, I think a lot of people would withdraw their applications. From their online personalities, I really hope a lot of these people don't end up as my classmates.

For me, the ugliest part of it all is the "rankings snobbery." A few unofficial "tiers" of business schools have come together in many people's minds, based on the various published rankings. It seems that the BW crowd believes that "H/S/W" are way out front, then a ways back lies a second tier, then way behind them a third tier, and finally the remainder of the top 20.

Unfortunately, this becomes self-fulfilling after a while, driving applications, which in part drive rankings. Nevermind the fact that the finance-oriented schools that send huge percentages to I-Banking will always get a boost in the rankings as long as salaries are part of the criteria. Nevermind that the changes made to the criteria weightings are more responsible for schools moving up and down the rankings than any substantial changes at the schools themselves.

Of course there are better schools and worse schools. But forum discussions would have you believe that the gaps between them are huge. I think this is highly exaggerated.

3. Spreadsheets are your friends. (Is that a sad thought, or what?!) Maybe this is just an obsession of mine, but I've found that over the past few months, I've made dozens of models analyzing the "B-school" vs. "No MBA" scenarios for my future. Regardless of their numerical outcome, the very fact that I made them indicates that I should go to B-school.

4. Why are so many schools interested in what my parents do?? That should matter about as much as my shoe size and favorite flavor of ice cream. So why is it on so many applications? I'm afraid that as someone with parents who make only slightly above minimum wage, I don't like the implications of business schools wanting to know that information.

Are recommendation forms getting too demanding?

2005-12-07T07:12:00.000-08:00

It seems to me that B-schools are demanding more from recommenders than ever. I've had to apologize to my recommenders recently, and I can't blame them for their irritation.

What a recommender wants to do is write one great letter for you and then send that out to all your schools. In an evening of writing, they can cover all the things they want to say about you, and address all the issues that schools are interested in. If they have to fill out a little form with percentile checkboxes too, no big deal.

Instead, many schools now have a list of specific questions, each to be addressed individually. Both of my recommenders had already written a nice letter for me, but when they logged in to submit it, they were faced with half a dozen individual textboxes where they were supposed to address specific questions. I got frustrated calls from them, and I had to tell them to just paste their letter into the first box, then note that all the questions were addressed in that entry. Neither recommender wanted to spend the next two hours dissecting their letter and rewriting the paragraphs so each fit one specific question.

I can see how schools would want to have a separate mini-essay to address each quality of an applicant. It would clearly make it easier to read and evaluate the application. But this is at the expense of the recommenders' time and effort. As an applicant, I'll bend over backwards in pretty much any way I can to accommodate the AdCom, but go easy on my recommenders.

Most applicants probably have only a limited amount of good will to burn with their recommenders. These are busy people, and often, they are not excited at the prospect of losing an employee to business school. They are writing for several schools (and possibly several applicants), so there's no time for each school to require them to write separate essays.

I'm sure that the schools must expect that many recommenders will simply submit a single, generic letter, regardless of what they ask for. And it's fine to ask that certain issues are addressed in that letter. But I feel that they've crossed a line when each school designs unique, and long, online forms for recommenders to fill out in place of a letter.

Essays: Know Your Audience

2005-11-30T07:24:00.000-08:00

It took me a few days of staring at old drafts of my B-school essays to figure out what was wrong with them. I now realize that I was envisioning the wrong sort of reader, leading me to write with the wrong tone.

It boils down to this: I was writing for someone like an undergraduate admissions reader, when I should be writing for someone more like a job recruiter. Business schools need to be sure you can sell yourself and get a job after finishing your MBA. I know this; it's written in every book and website about B-school admissions. But when you sit down to write essays about your experiences, it's easy to forget how you will be perceived on the other end.

I was writing with a tone more like a proud high school senior, trying to incorporate all the accomplishments that were important to me. This leads to unfocused essays, and it makes telling a compelling story, one that will make you stand out, almost impossible.

Once I changed my concept of whom I was writing for, my essays started to read more clearly. I imagined myself talking to a recruiter or a prospective employer, with only a limited time to tell them why I'd be a great hire. So I focused on one or two anecdotes that will sell me and my skills. Sure, I've got ten good stories to tell, but it would be a mistake to squeeze them all in. Instead, I must pick the best two and make them concrete. They will remember one or two stories with specific details. By telling fewer stories, I can make the ones I tell more specific and memorable.

The key is to let go of some of your favorite stories about yourself, the ones that seem so important to you, but really aren't going to sell you to a potential employer. The rules for writing compelling stories are simple: cut, cut, cut. Most of the stuff you think is great isn't. And never forget to "show, don't tell."

MIT's Biomedical Enterprise Program

2005-11-11T13:50:00.000-08:00

For those looking for a biotech-oriented MBA, there are a lot of great options out there. A large percentage of the top business schools offer some sort of biotechnology concentration. In the top 10, I know Duke especially has a highly respected healthcare program.

MIT has a program with a different approach. Their Biomedical Enterprise Program is a three year program that combines a Sloan MBA with a master's in health sciences technology from the HST program (a joint MIT-Harvard endeavor). The classwork looks interesting, covering FDA trials, business law, epidemiology and pathology, with electives in cell bio, pharmacology, etc. To me, this is all fascinating stuff, but I'm a biology nerd.

The big question is, how much will all this help a job applicant, versus having an MBA alone? This is a program that takes an extra year, thus costs an extra year of lost salary and some extra tuition. Will it leave one stranded in the no man's land between legit PhD scientist and a know-nothing-about-science MBA? Will a basic scientific knowledge really help an MBA in most jobs?

I've been asking around, and the answers are mixed, as I expected. Some careers might be well suited to the program -- contract research and consulting companies were suggested as examples. The pharmaceutical industry was proposed as a place where this program would not be as useful. I'll be collecting more opinions as time goes on. And it's hard to discount the contacts that a program like this is likely to create.

The program is small and the information about it scarce. It's only for a very specific group of people. I'm beginning to wonder if perhaps I'm part of that group.

Return on Investment?

2005-10-10T07:04:00.000-07:00

The fun of the GMAT is over, and I'm getting my essays written and my recommendations lined up. I should be happy that things are moving forward, but lurking in the shadows is that deep, dark concern that haunts all B-school applicants: ROI.

If tuition were the only cost involved, getting an MBA would be a no-brainer. Even at $80,000, it would be a great deal. But if you make any sort of reasonable salary, losing almost two years' worth of income can be a collossal blow. For most people, the total cost in lost earnings and tution is around $200,000. (Living expenses aren't part of that calculation, because they are a sunk cost -- you pay them whether you're in school or not.)

Even making tax adjustments, which reduce the amount of salary "lost" by 30% or so, an MBA is still terribly costly. In the end, every spreadsheet analysis I do shows that I need to make an additional $30,000 per year (pre-tax) in my post-MBA career to justify the expense. The spectre of needing to earn that additional money is what scares me the most.

You already know the sorts of careers that can guarantee you huge salaries like that. They are the standard post-MBA careers: management consulting and I-banking. The problem is that I have no desire to do either of those things. I am unwilling to take a job that I don't like in order to make more money and make my MBA investment valid.

I've known investment bankers; they're not a happy bunch. One of them told me after he left his associate position, "I would rather die than go back to that job." The stories of insane hours are true. The way I see it, most MBA applicants make in the vicinity of $60,000 per year, and they probably work about 50 hours per week (these would be averages). By going into IB, they get the opportunity to make $120,000 working 80 hours a week. Hourly, you're not doing much better, but after about 50 hours a week, those next 30 hours are much more costly to your personal life.

The incremental cost of my time
There are 168 hours in a week. You should be sleeping 56 of those. Commuting takes most people an hour each way, so take out 10 more hours. Running a household and a life takes at least 12 hours a week. That leaves 90 hours. Those remaining 90 hours must be split between work and "life." I'm willing to give 50 of those to work, but the other 40 are for my family. The incremental value of every hour over 50 that work takes increases quickly. A 60 hour week means 10 hours less with my family. Those extra 10 hours have a very high value to me. To get another 10, you're really going to have to pay me a lot. The incremental value of each working hour over 40 per week steadily increases.

In other words, it's not a very good deal to work twice as many hours for twice the pay. This obvious idea is reflected in the idea of overtime. But salaried MBAs are less likely to think of it that way.

Intangibles
The ROI equation has some intangibles, though. There is value in the security that an MBA provides, in the fact that you are more likely (theoretically) to land a job with the degree, even in hard times, than someone without the degree. Part of this is due to the contacts one makes in B-school.

Also, there is the value of personal pride in having an MBA, and the knowledge you gathered while seeking the degree.

So the amorphous equation that is floating in my head looks something like this (all values reduced to PV):

Value of MBA = Total increase in income vs. not having MBA
+ value personal satisfaction
+ value of risk-reduction by increased job security
- lost salary for 2 years
- tuition & fees & books
- value of lost quality of life inherent in many post-MBA careers

Given a personally selected range of values, with arbitrary probabilities assigned to each outcome, is the final net value expected to be positive or negative? It's close.

Caution ahead
Looking over the beautiful brochures, I have to be careful that the near-term goal of "getting accepted" doesn't obscure the ultimate goal of "getting an MBA" and all that entails. Getting that acceptance letter can be elating, but long before the letter arrives, one has to decide whether the whole process is worthwhile.

Are you GMAT slacker? There's hope!

2005-09-18T19:10:00.000-07:00

Woohoo! I'm done with the GMAT now!

How I studied
I was terribly lazy studying for the GMAT. I bought the Kaplan 800 book and the "OG," but I did maybe 200 of the 800 problems in the OG, and less than 30 in the Kaplan book. I spent an hour or two every night for a week studying. That's about it. No spreadsheets to track my performance, no Manhattan study guides.

My goal was to get 750+ on the test. Mission accomplished.

There are a hundred blogs and sites that suggest the best method for studying for this test. Here's what worked for me (a certified slacker).

First, I've always been really good at standardized tests. I did well on the SAT, ACT, and GRE, so I had no reason to expect less from the GMAT. If you are a native English speaker who reads a lot, you have a huge advantage on the verbal section.

Second, I studied only the hardest problems in the OG. Don't bother with the easy ones. Start at the last question and work backwards through the section. It's like working with a medicine ball -- by the time you get to the real thing, anything less than the hardest questions seems trivial.

Third, review the answer explanation to each question immediately after finishing it. Rather than flipping back and forth between the questions and explanations, I used the pad I was writing on to cover the explanation, then immediately read it after marking my answer. The 11ed. OG's explanations were almost always excellent.

Finally, I scheduled the test for the afternoon. If you're not a morning person, the ability to schedule the test later in the day is beautiful!

Practice Test Scores
I found the old PowerPrep and new GMATPrep practice tests to be highly predictive. I took both GMATPrep tests, and the scores were 10 and 20 points lower than my actual score. The PowerPrep test I took the day before the test scored exactly the same as my actual test!

The "OG," 11 ed.

2005-09-15T18:20:00.000-07:00

I got the "Original Gansta"...er, uh "Official Guide" to the GMAT a couple weeks ago. I never had the 10th edition, so the 11th is all I've known. The book claims on page 10 that the questions are ordered in each section "from easy to difficult." I wanted to see how true this was, with the idea that easy questions appearing late in a section would indicate the question types that get more value than their difficulty warrants (to me at least).

I decided to grade the questions on a subjective 3 point scale of difficulty as I went through the book, just to test this theory. The scale is simple:

1: the solution should be immediately obvious with no tricks needed.
2: some insight is required to solve the problem, but once you have that insight, actually solving it is straightforward.
3: a difficult question. Not only do you have to be clever to see how to solve it, there are several steps in getting to the solution or understanding the problem. These are the type I would expect to be in the program's "700+" bin of questions.
I allowed myself the occassional '+' or '-' modifier, too. The '3+' questions probably stumped me, and may have even made me angry at the testmaker.

Now, I had grand dreams of rating all of the 800 or so problems in the book at one point, but considering that the test is only a couple of days away, I've resigned myself to the fact that I will have done less than 200 of them by the time I test. That said, I did do some samples to see if they truly do get more difficult as you go through them. Here's what I found:

My rating for the Problem Solving questions, numbers 1-20:
1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 1, 1, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1-

Same section, numbers 200-220:
2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2-, 3+, 2, 2, 3+, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2+, 3, 3, 2, 3

So, yes, the questions do generally appear to get harder as you go. If they are truly in order of difficulty, certain topics (long word problems, standard deviation, and simultaneous equations?) are rated as highly difficult by the computer, even if the mechanics of solving the problem are simple. My guess is that lots of test takers have been intimidated by these question types, getting them wrong more often than other types. That leaves some pretty easy questions in the "difficult" bin if you are not the type to be flustered by those types.

In other words, learning the simple tricks to solve those problem types will give you the most bang for your buck when you're studying.

The MBA Tour

2005-09-13T12:20:00.000-07:00

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.

Who is Nick Carraway?

2005-09-13T11:27:00.000-07:00

Well, obviously, Nick's not my real name. For those of you who didn't read The Great Gatsby in school, Nick Carraway is the narrator. He has a small bungalow nextdoor to millionaire Jay Gatsby's mansion, and he serves as a sort of impartial observer to some of the events in the mysterious Gatsby's life. Nick's major observation throughout the book seems to be that the rich are selfishly careless and somewhat (self-)destructive.

I thought this might be an appropriate moniker for someone seeking an MBA, yet trying to observe and comment on the process at the same time. I hope I can provide some insight along the way, and let's hope the MBA isn't just another green light in the distance.