Full-time MBA Blog

Another question we often get in Admissions is around housing and what’s the best place to live. As with many other questions, the answer is: It depends!

The great thing about Stern’s location is that you can get here from almost any subway, even if you live uptown, downtown, in Brooklyn or New Jersey. Students who already live in NYC tend to remain in their current apartments as NYU is easily accessible from anywhere. If you are moving from another city or country, there are many options.

One great option is to live in the Palladium, which is student housing. The Palladium offers fully furnished studios with your own bathroom. There is also a gym on site and the location, Union Square, is great – about a 10 minute walk to campus. More information on the Palladium can be found here http://www.stern.nyu.edu/programs-admissions/full-time-mba/students/housing

There are many cute neighborhoods within walking distance of Stern – East and West Village, Chelsea, Lower East Side, Soho, Noho, Flatiron, Union Square and Tribeca, to name a few. You can’t go wrong with any of these areas as they are all close to Stern and have plenty of restaurants, grocery stores, pharmacies, coffee shops, bars, etc. You can get anything from a quaint studio in a walk-up apartment building to a luxury managed apartment with a doorman and elevator. It depends what kind of amenities you’re looking for.

Many Sternies in the incoming class often choose to live together to make friends and save money. Sometime in the spring before school, someone will start a Google doc on the Facebook group and everyone can post and browse for potential roommates. I can think of at least 10 different groups who found their roommates this way including myself! I lived with two Sternies my first year and it was great! It was nice to automatically have friends in my class.  We ended up using a broker and finding a great 3-bedroom apartment in the Village, a mere 5-minute walk from school! No doorman or elevator but you can’t beat the location and the “commute”!

To simplify the NY real estate game, one of our very own Sternies recently launched Zenly, a start-up aimed at making the NY apartment hunt painless (www.zenly.com started by Isaac Palka, class of 2014). The site lists real apartments with video walkthroughs and no broker’s fee.

But no matter where you end up living and who you’re living with, you can’t go wrong as every neighborhood has something to offer and Stern is very accessible from anywhere!

Now that Graduation is behind me and before I start my full-time job, I’ve had some time to reflect on the past two years and what I enjoyed most about my Stern experience.

I realized that it is the close friendships that I have formed with my fellow classmates over the past two years. It is truly amazing to realize that you can become such good friends with people that you didn’t know a few months or a year ago in such a short amount of time. It’s also refreshing to know that at this stage in life you can still meet new people and have new experiences that will change your life and continue to make life-long friends.

My favorite parts of Stern aren’t the stimulating classes, the exciting guest speakers, the heated case discussions, the respected and accessible professors or the breadth of electives (while those are all great). My favorite moments are potluck picnics in the park with my Block (yeah block 4!), traveling to Japan with 60 Sternies and singing karaoke all night, losing my voice at Beer Blast on Thursday nights, celebrating birthdays almost every single night of the year, attending a wedding in the DR with 20 Sternies, throwing a surprise baby shower for a classmate, and many many boat cruises around Manhattan.

While Stern is incredibly diverse, we also all have something in common. Everyone I met wants to be here at Stern and is very open to making new friends. Even people who already lived in NY and had tons of friends here warned those friends they wouldn’t be seeing much of them for two years. I’ve loved the collaborative community and I love that it doesn’t end when school ends. For instance, classmates who are launching new businesses are receiving tons of support from fellow Sternies on Kickstarter. I just traveled to Croatia for a week with two Sternies and we met up with at least three others at various points because they also happened to be there at the same time. One Block just traveled to the Jersey Shore and made t-shirts for the occasion. School’s out and yet we’re all behaving as if nothing changed and that we’ll be back for another semester.

In a few months or years, I won’t remember how many A’s (or B’s) I got, I may soon forget how to account for depreciation and amortization, and I hope I never have to do another case interview, but I’ll never forget all of the friendships I made and that made it all worth it.

This is my first post as an alumna (gasp!) of NYU Stern! I am in major denial right now and I am hanging onto Stern as I continue to serve as a Graduate Ambassador throughout the summer before I start my full-time job in September. I couldn’t bear to leave just yet!

The week leading up to Graduation, Senior Week as we call it, was packed with fun events organized by our great student leaders in SGov (Stern Student Government). We celebrated for a week from Newport, RI to The Frying Pan to the Beach @ the Dream hotel here in NYC. Stern keeps it classy.

Graduation itself was bittersweet. It was really emotional seeing hundreds of students clad in purple robes gather at the esteemed Radio City Music Hall a few Thursdays ago for the ceremony. It was my first time there and it’s a beautiful venue. We all sat with our Blocks, which reminded me of those first days of LAUNCH when we are all just getting to know each other and forming friendships. I know it’s definitely not the last occasion where I will spend time with my block as they are truly friends for life.

We had a few keynote speakers including our classmate David Kuperstein, popular professor Charlie Murphy, and CEO of Mastercard Ajay Banga. Mr. Banga emphasized “doing well while doing good” and reminded us of the symbolic Stern “Torch” that we must carry on. Murphy joked that it was always “better to be rich than poor” and I will miss how he regaled our investment banking class with endless stories from his years in the industry. We capped off graduation later that night with a great party for our entire class

While many of my close friends remain in NYC, some are moving far away to places like Seattle, San Francisco or Colombia. Some have already left NYC for good and last week was filled with goodbye parties.

Fortunately, we MBA 3’s (as alumnae are now called) have started a “Sternies Summer Camp” group for those of us who will remain in NYC and haven’t started working yet so we can continue hanging out with fellow Sternies who are also in denial about graduation.

Just completed the third day of my summer internship at a boutique CPG company (which sells children’s and sports products) here in New York. Unlike some of my classmates who are having the big CPG experience at a place like Unilever, I am the sole intern this summer. It’s a mixed blessing because although as the “only child” (as my boss referred to me) I am getting all the attention and support, I am also on my own in some ways to carve my path through the program. It’s a great test of my leadership and independence (luckily two skills I’ve been able to hone through my first year at Stern).

It’s going to be a great experience. On a per minute basis, I’ve never learned more in my life. It’s one thing to study marketing in the classroom; it’s a whole different animal to be out there doing it. But one that—if all goes according to plan—I will soon tame! I am really excited about the next ten weeks.

And then back for year two! Deadline to pick classes was yesterday so had to do a bit of planning ahead—but looking forward to more challenging classes. I’ve decided to take a computer science class that is wayyyyy out of my comfort zone; but based on my positive experience with Regression Analysis class last semester I’ve decided being out of your comfort zone is a great place to be.

Come to think of it, that’s what this summer is all about as well.

Final exams are among us!

Around this time of year study space is at a premium, when Sternies from both years are hitting the books hard prepping for exams, writing final papers, and working on capstone presentations.

My first semester, where I took just core required classes, was a bit trickier when it came to tests–each of those classes has there own final.  Now, with half my schedule as electives, things are a bit more balanced–I have 1 final, 1 paper, 1 report and one presentation left.  Far from easy, but a good mix of requirements that should take me through the last two weeks of school.

And then…summer.  Hard to believe year one is just about over.  Its definitely been a challenging, exciting, roller coaster ride of a first year.  My classmates and I managed to make it a pretty fun one too–which bodes well for the summer, where many of us will be in NYC with summer internships and looking for any excuse to rekindle that Stern spirit.

In other news, learned recently I’ll be a tour guide next fall… so if you need more Matt than you get in this blog do visit the admissions office and let me show you around Stern’s hallowed halls.  I’ll make sure to keep blogging this summer to keep you posted on my internship.

Enjoy the sun!  Finally!

M

Where Sternies live

What are the benefits and drawbacks of living near or far from school? What about dorm life? I set out to answer these questions as comprehensively as possible and ended up with a great set of insights from my fellow students, which are shared in this post. I think you’ll see that the biggest lesson in choosing where to live is to figure out what lifestyle and conveniences matter the most to you and start searching from there. The vastness and diversity of NYC means that there are neighborhoods to accommodate just about any set of preferences. NYC is more expensive than most other American cities, but based on your choice of neighborhood and amenitites you can find a place to accommodate your price range. Living within a 20 minute walk from Stern puts you in some vibrant neighborhoods like the West Village, Union Square, Gramercy, Chelsea and the Lower East Side. A 20 minute train ride gets you to some really unique places like Harlem, Queens, Long Island City, and various parts of Brooklyn, like Fort Greene.

I chose to live in Harlem because it has some great benefits, which I think are shared among most people who chose to live a 20 minute or more train ride away from Stern. Among the greatest perks are more apartment space and a more residential neighborhood feel compared to lower Manhattan. I have found that the price per square foot is cheaper than more dense areas of Manhattan, like the Lower East Side, and in general the apartments are larger. Likewise, I think its easier to find buildings with amenities, such as in-unit or in-building laundry, a doorman to receive packages, and a fitness center, which are not usually available for the same cost of rent in other parts of the city. I also love Harlem and other further away neighborhoods because they have a different vibe than the rest of the city. Harlem is slightly more mellow, there’s less foot traffic and quite frankly, more sun. Plus, while the restaurant and bar scenes are lively and diverse, they are not overwhelmed with reservations and large crowds. Access to large grocery chains and street parking or cheap garage parking are also things that I cherish about my location. And secretly, I find the train ride provides the perfect amount of time for me to catch up on reading or to plan my day.

Of course, there are also downsides to living further off campus. The biggest one is the pain of waiting for the train late at night or on weekends. During those hours, trains are fewer and further between and there is often construction, which results in a miserable wait time of up to 20 minutes. Second, if you choose not to take a train, then taking a cab can be costly. Usually these issues become relevant after late night study sessions or social events around campus. However, I find that the pain is often assuaged by the companionship of other students headed in the same direction who are either willing split cab fare or engage in lively conversation during the 20 minute wait for the train.

Based on their feedback, it appears the advantages to living close to Stern often outweigh the negatives for Sternies who choose to do so. Perhaps the biggest benefit is that there is virtually no commute. It’s easy to walk to school and cheap to take cabs late at night if you prefer. If you elect to take morning classes, it’s also great to get a few extra minutes of sleep. Plus, most social activities happen around campus. The neighborhoods near Stern are lively and filled with popular and diverse bars, restaurants and shopping as well. It’s hard to get bored with the vast set of choices.

However, the heavy foot traffic at virtually every time of day can sometimes be intense and make it tough to relax. The smaller square footage and higher rent can also be tough to adjust to and amenities that are readily available in apartments further away often cost a lot more around the Village. Many students living in the area choose to have roommates, which helps mitigate the high cost of rent. Plus, there are Laundromats on just about every corner so doing laundry, while not as convenient, is also not too tough. Perhaps one of the most painful things cited was the lack of full grocery stores nearby, which means an overreliance on bodegas or a longer commute to more robust chains and places like Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods.

The Palladium is the NYU dorm that houses some Sternies. The dorm is located a short fifteen minute walk from Stern in Union Square. The biggest convenience of living in the Palladium is that everything is taken care of: rent is added to your Stern fees, utilities are included, laundry is in the building, and there’s also a cafeteria and a very nice fitness center. The biggest drawback is that the Palladium comes with all the quirks of dorm life. The bedrooms are small and include an extra long twin and a small hot plate, microwave and fridge. You have to go to the lobby to check guests in and out, you answer to a Resident Assistant (RA) and, perhaps worst of all, undergrads live on the majority of the floors. However, if you want the ultimate in convenient living, the dorm is still the best option.

So how does living near or far impact involvement in Stern? In my opinion it enhances it. While sometimes I think twice about staying an extra hour at a bar when it’s getting pretty late, I have found that living far away has little impact on my student life. Whether participating in clubs, events, social activities, or even night or morning classes, I continue to be heavily active in all of these areas. I would venture to say the same for most other commuting Sternies as well. There is a vibrant community around campus at any time of the day and virtually any time at night as well. It goes along with the family vibe that’s truly present here. People living close by have the opportunity to run home between classes, but I’ve found that many students choose to hang out and go to lunch together between classes, have happy hour at one of the many nearby bars, and attend club events, among other things. I’d argue that the diverse living situations of Sternies have made student life more interesting. In the last semester alone I attended a house party in Brooklyn, a potluck in Hoboken, brunch in Harlem, a bar crawl on the Lower East Side and a picnic in Central Park, to name a few activities. Sternies use the city to our advantage, making our events just as fun and diverse as our student body. Plus, I can truly say that I’m now familiar with many different parts of the city, not just the neighborhoods where I live and go to school.

Around the start of first semester, the New York Times published a controversial article on gender equity at Harvard Business School that quickly dominated the discourse on what it means to be a woman in business school. The truth is, women are still severely underrepresented, both in MBA classes and in the higher ranks of management. At Stern, women comprise about 38.4% of the student body — and we beat out many of our competitors.

In true Stern fashion, a number of student leaders leapt into action following the article’s publication. A week later, the Stern Student Government and Stern Women in Business organized a lunchtime discussion on gender equity at Stern, which involved students, professors, administrators, and the author of the New York Times piece. The general consensus is that most women at Stern feel empowered to make their voices heard in classes, on teams, and in the ecosystem of clubs and recruiting and consulting projects that make up the student experience. In most of my classes, women are the first to raise their hands for questions, and they hold many of the top leadership positions in the school.

However, the conversation revealed a number of subtler behaviors, perceptions, and stereotypes that govern how men and women interact with each other, both at Stern and in the broader business community. Soon after, a committee of student volunteers came together to address these issues in more depth. One result has been the formation of “Lean In” circles: groups of students, male and female, who come together on a regular basis to discuss gender dynamics, particularly as they relate to Sheryl Sandberg’s recent book and movement. The circles have become a safe space to explore issues related to gender, perceptions, and working environments, and conversations often delve into separate but related topics, like structuring effective teams and navigating aggressive work environments. By establishing a set of norms that includes honesty, candor, and telling it like it is, we are breaking ground on subjects that are otherwise considered too taboo to say out loud.

But beyond having an arena to converse and vent and analyze, these circles have also turned into grounds for brainstorming solutions and developing action plans. Stern’s administration has signaled its support for the movement and is working with student leaders to incorporate the gender discussion in the classroom and into Stern programs like Launch (our signature two-week orientation). Our dean, Peter Henry, recently met with other business school deans at the White House for a discussion on how business education has a role in creating friendlier workplaces for working families, particularly women. Across Stern, women and men, administrators and students, are making the commitment to “lean in” so that we can make true gender equity — both at Stern and in the workplace — a reality.

My best friends and I make fun of each other constantly. When strangers see me with my friends they probably wonder if we even like each other. That is one of the benefits of friendship – being able to poke fun, tease, and even torment someone without them taking it personally. The best part about this is that the better you know someone the better you can do it! When there is mutual love and respect for everyone involved this teasing leads to incredible laughter. That is why I love Stern Follies.

First I should mention that I am one of the co-chairs of Follies, so I am a bit (ok fine… VERY) biased. Second, I should mention what the heck Follies is! Stern Follies is an annual ritual where students put together a variety show of live skits, video submissions, and musical performances that celebrate and lampoon NYU Stern students and faculty. The theme this year, The Torchy Awards, was a faux awards show in which awards were handed out for the Best Reality Show, Best Music Video, and Best Drama. One great element of this years show was the participation of the audience. In true awards show style they all dressed in formal attire.

So who got made fun of this year? First year MBA’s, second year MBA’s, faculty, administrators, other business schools, House of Cards, Breaking Bad, Law & Order, Project Runway, Real Housewives, and me. If you want to see videos you can watch them on YouTube (warning: language can be explicit and there are A LOT of inside jokes). For a quick taste, this video was fantastic and also the only video in which nobody was made fun of: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7EtVKBnXJM&list=PLyUMo7BXSp4Htms6jmKp3oyMvIjp6NQxf&index=16

Ultimately Follies this year was a huge success. People love poking fun of each other, but that is not the main reason Follies is such a hit each year. The best part is seeing your classmates perform and demonstrate creative talents outside of the classroom. The magic lies in rooting for your classmates. It’s a breath of fresh air to take them outside of the classroom and watch them excel in another way. Some people’s skills are known, but far more debut amazing hidden talents at Follies. A few of my best friends at Stern proved themselves to be masterful writers, actors, editors and directors.

A lot of people don’t consider themselves “theater people”. If you are one of these people then buying a ticket to an amateur performance run by business school students probably sounds like your version of hell. However, if there is one piece of advice I can give it’s that you should go to Follies. You will be reminded of all the amazing times you have had over the last year (or two) and are guaranteed to leave with a huge smile on your face.

This past weekend was “Preview Weekend” — where admitted students get to join us at Stern for a few days of programming, dinners, social events, and lots of probing questions about the MBA experience. It was great fun for myself and some of my classmates to volunteer to speak to these students and help them to see what a great place Stern can be.

I ran the Entertainment, Media & Technology (EMT) table and got to meet a lot of potential future Sternies with fantastic qualifications and tons of passion for these fields. Always nice to know there’s a new wave of talent on its way. EMT department head Professor Craig was also at this event, so he was able to answer a lot of the students questions about academics first hand–which I think was really valuable for them.

Ultimately, I made my “final” decision to come to Stern during Preview weekend, so I know its a crucial weekend in the process of applying to and landing at a business school. Hopefully I made a good impression on some newbies who will be joining us this fall!