Full-time MBA Blog

3 weeks until graduation – I can’t believe it!

Even though we have a ton of fun senior week activities coming up, I still have a lot of work to do before the semester ends. Even more than getting good grades, I just don’t want to let my team members down! I have a final this week in my Pricing class and three presentations – one in Customer Insights, one in Entrepreneurial Finance, and one in Decision Models. Yikes, so much work!

In this post, I want to write about a guest speaker we had this week. The founder and CEO of Chobani Yogurt came to Stern to talk about his success story. Hamdi Ulukaya said, “I scraped together funding to buy an old yogurt plant in upstate New York in 2005, with help from a Small Business Administration Loan. I didn’t have any concrete plans, and the place wasn’t in good shape — with water dripping from the ceiling and paint peeling for the walls. But when I got the idea to start making Greek yogurt in the U.S., the company fixed the factory up and ran with it, and I basically lived in the plant for five years to get Chobani off the ground.”

He talked about his strategy to focus on a substantial, yet healthy yogurt solution for consumers. He brought a low sugar and preservatives product with catchy packaging to the shelves, and it was a hit from the start. He refused to outsource any part of the process and instead controlled everything from production of the product to it hitting the shelves in grocery stores. He also emphasized his appreciation for his dedicated workers and how they inspired him to do more for the community and give back to people (especially children) of the town Chobani started producing in.

It was an inspiring discussion because it was really about a man that came to the U.S. for the first time with nothing – no job, no money, no future. He saw a need for something in the market and had a very simple idea. From there, it was passion and determination…and now he is a billionaire.

Along with Hamdi, we’ve had some other great speakers come to Stern – people I would never have had exposure to had I not been here getting my MBA in NYC. Some of these speakers include the CEO of Twitter, CEO of JCrew, CMO of Diageo, Founder of KIND Bars, etc. So many amazing, inspiring leaders in today’s changing business world.

That’s it for today. More next week…have a good weekend!

This has been an incredible week. As we gear up for finals here at Stern, it’s nice, albeit challenging, to still have so many exciting events going on. Last Saturday was our Spring Gala at the Gansevoort. Students dressed in their best and danced the night away. What was nice is that I even met some second years I didn’t know already. It was a great way to bond with my classmates and, like almost any girl, enjoy a night of playing dress-up.

The second unforgettable experience this week was when Peter Gelb, the General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera came and spoke to a group of students about attracting new, younger audiences and the how opera must adapt to the digital age. He spoke with humor about his transition from Sony Classical Music to the Met and some of the errors he’d made along the way. He talked about the ways this old institution is striving to innovate and the financial difficulties it faced as an entity that must rely on donations to remain sustainable. Mr. Gelb spoke frankly about the need for opera to infiltrate culture on a wider level, which was his motivation for streaming performances in movie theaters across the globe. As an arts buff, his talk left me wondering how I could use my business education to give back to a place like the Met Opera one day.

The third privilege I had this week was that Ann Moore, former CEO of Time Inc. came to speak at my Leadership in Organizations class. Unlike many of the speakers, Ms. Moore did not allow Stern to videotape our conversation because she wanted to be as open and honest with us as possible. She spoke about the career challenges she faced as a woman and the difficulty she had letting people go during economic and industry downturns. She talked about managing her relationships from the personal to the political to those at work, and she discussed tradeoffs she has made along the way. What struck me most was that Ms. Moore did not have any regrets in her 33 year career at Time. She talked about the ways she had pushed the organization to allow her to change it and how we can all look to do the same in our own careers. Lastly, she discussed the difficulty of integrating digital natives from our generation with other generations, who may not be as comfortable or familiar with technology.

My last two adventures for the week begin now. I am starting my Friday off with a Luxury and Retail Club trek to men’s clothing retailer Bonobos. Then I will present the results of my Stern Consulting Corps project for the NYU Langone Medical Center Department of Integrative Health, followed by a reception. It’s clearly going to be another amazing Stern-filled day, but I wouldn’t want it any other way, especially as the year winds down. I will have to report back on these events next week!

This past Friday, Stern offered me a unique experience. As part of the Leadership Development Initiative, I attended a modified marine training course with some of my classmates. We left from Stern at 8am and headed to the course on Staten Island. Upon arriving, we had little idea what to expect. I was fearful that the activities may be more physically demanding than I was prepared for. A former marine was running the course and I hoped that the sneakers and athletic gear, including helmets, were simply a precaution.

We were put into groups randomly and then proceeded to the first obstacle course. We were given a task and asked to choose a leader for each one. Each obstacle required a combination of problem solving, teamwork, and trust. It was great to work so closely with a new group of Stern students. Even though I didn’t know several group members, I felt we shared a common bond as Sternies. It was comforting to feel like they would support me. I found the tasks challenging – activities such as building a bridge with three planks no wider than six inches, getting a barrel across a “booby-trapped” tight rope, etc. The activities required a lot of giving and receiving feedback. It tied well with the course material from Leadership in Organizations.

I learned I could adapt quickly in unknown situations, even where I didn’t know my team well. It was nice to see how we bonded with ease over the course of the morning. While I was initially hesitant, I’m ultimately glad I participated.

Happy Monday everyone!

This weekend was a whirlwind. It was Pre-View Weekend at Stern for Admitted Students. I wasn’t able to attend in 2011 when I was accepted but am grateful to have had the opportunity to volunteer at it the past two years. The weekend is full of fun and informational activities to help admitted students figure out if Stern is the right school for them. Specifically, I volunteered to speak to admitted students at the Marketing table for the “Explore your Path” session on Saturday. Students interested in pursuing a marketing career came by to find out about what companies recruit on campus, how the GMA helps students prepare for interviews, etc. I also volunteered to facilitate one of the icebreaker sessions, where students sat around a table and answered some funny questions to get to know each other better.

Also, I am sad to say that I am officially no longer a GMA Co-President. Yesterday was our end-of-year board dinner, and we finally passed the torch to the new presidents and board for 2013-2014. It was definitely sad – Jennifer and I have loved every minute of leading the club this year and will dearly miss it. We are so happy to have had the opportunity to make an impact on students with a similar passion for marketing.

Fun week ahead though! Tomorrow, 20 of us are going to the Comedy Cellar for a show after class. We’ve been wanting to go for so long and thought it would be fun to do it on a weeknight when everyone is available and when the place isn’t as crowded as it would be on the weekends. And Saturday is the SPRING GALA! The Spring Gala is our formal open bar and hors d’oeuvres event in April. This year, it’s at the Gansevort Park Avenue. This will be one of the last opportunities to have the entire school together in one venue. We have senior week coming up in mid-May, but that’s just for the MBA2’s obviously.

That’s it for now…will have more later this week or next!

More than 2 weeks have passed since my last post, and I want to apologize for that. We only have 3 more weeks of classes before the finals, and I have been trying really hard not to fall behind; inevitably (and regrettably) the blog took a back seat. I have so much to tell you though!

First of all, Passport Day! Mike and Ashrae have already written about it, but I can’t not mention it, because as part of the Stern Student Government International Committee, I was actually in charge of organizing the event. The two weeks after spring break and leading up to Passport Day were a little crazy for the committee: trying to help out volunteer country representatives with their responsibilities, and promptly answering their questions; marketing the event to make sure all the MBA students could be a part of it; figuring out the timeline for the performances; deciding on the voting system for the “Best Country” competition; setting up the tent in Gould Plaza… There was a lot going on behind the scenes, and it’s never easy to pull off events such as this one, but it’s really worth it when it all goes smoothly (which it did). We finally had the opportunity to relax during beer blast (it was right after Passport Day), and it was the happiest I’ve felt in a while: we had so many of our friends come and thank us for organizing it, telling us they had a lot of fun, and that was the whole point anyway. That sense of accomplishment and contentment is incomparable. Of course none of it would have been possible without the country representatives who volunteered their time to participate in the event, but they were happier than everyone else, and I was so grateful, relieved, and proud.

Next up: my Stern Consulting Corps project for the National Board of Review. We are almost done with our project; in fact, we just sent off our slides to our mentor today, to get his approval, and we will be having a preliminary presentation with our client on Friday. I’m looking forward to it, and I’m really excited to hear what they think of our analyses and recommendations. Hopefully, they will be impressed, and they will want to implement our plan.

Third: office visits to Fab and Etsy through the Stern Entrepreneurs Exchange Club. The visit to Fab was part of the 2013 EEX Entrepreneurship Summit 2 weeks ago, and the visit to Etsy was a stand-alone visit last Friday. It probably does not make sense to compare the two offices, but I’m lumping them together because they both sort of took my breath away—I was overcome with a sense of longing (and belonging, I guess). Tech start-ups have a very different feel—they are typically unconventional in their layout and decorations (random facts: the first thing you see as you enter the Fab office is a Foosball table; and Etsy gives each employee $100 to purchase from etsy.com to decorate their desks), but more importantly, there is an air of acceptance and welcome that’s really tough to put into words. Like I said, they somehow make me feel like I belong there.

Finally, this weekend was Pre-View Weekend at Stern! I’m not on the Torch Committee, so I was not as involved as I would have liked, but I did get to mingle with the new admits at a bar near school on Saturday, and that was really fun. It was kind of bittersweet actually; it suddenly hit me that my first year at Stern is almost over. Graduation is still more than a year away, and I realize that it’s way too early to start worrying about it, but I truly don’t want this to end. I love being a Sternie.

It’s hard to believe that a year ago I was eagerly preparing for Pre-View Weekend at Stern. Truth be told, I was still mildly undecided when I attended. I was 90% certain I would attend since Stern had been my long time front runner. However, as a naturally indecisive person, I was hesitant to make that commitment. That all changed when I met my potential classmates, professors, and faculty over Stern’s admitted students’ weekend. In fact, I remember it distinctively.

The first night we had a cocktail reception at the NASDAQ where Dean Peter Henry spoke. It was a place most people never see, plus we had great views of Times Square that even a native can appreciate. I remember joking with Dean Henry, a UNC alumnus, about my undergraduate school, Duke, and their basketball rivalry. I knew that any school with such a down-to-earth dean would be a great fit for me. I then continued to mingle with my peers before we continued the evening out. I recall not wanting the fun to stop and I looked forward to seeing my new friends the next day.

Even though I knew that moving from the Upper East Side was unlikely, I attended the off-campus housing panel the next day. It provided great perspective for me and confirmed my desire to stay put in my UES studio. I then moved throughout the day meeting more of my prospective classmates. When I would divulge that I had yet to put in my deposit, I was met with overwhelming encouragement and a nearly instant sense of community. I felt that my peers genuinely wanted me to join them in the fall. As someone who values cohesion and friendliness in an educational setting almost as much as academic rigor, I was delighted by their welcoming nature. These experiences definitely pushed me closer to writing my check.

Finally, when I met second year students and alumni, I realized the breadth of connections and quality of careers that Sternies have. Although Stern had caught my attention largely because of the school’s strength in Luxury and Retail, I wasn’t completely decided. By talking to students about their own paths and hearing from alumni, I realized there wasn’t a wrong choice I could make in attending here.

As I prepare to speak on the Housing Panel, participate in the career path discussions, and join some prospective students during dinner, I can’t help but feel excited. Actually, I’m jealous. I would give anything to be in their shoes and be able to start my journey over again. I hope those of you in attendance enjoy the experience as much as I did!

Hello all, it’s me again. I’ve been speaking with a few prospects and a few admitted students, and one thing that has come up a lot is the cost of coming to school. New York is an expensive city, tuition costs a lot, and giving up two years of salary is a big deal. Since the federal government has done away with subsidized student loans for graduate students, the cost of borrowing has increased as well.

These are all true, and all important, so I want to talk a little about how to think about the financial burden of business school, and some ways to mitigate it.

Business School is an Investment

The main reason that business school is such a popular destination for young professionals is not just because it’s an awesome time (see my previous posts), but because it’s an investment with a high return on investment (ROI). Most students see a notable increase in earnings after having graduated relative to their earnings before their MBA. For the Stern class of 2012, the average base salary was $107,875, with an average signing bonus of $32,054 and average guaranteed bonus of $27,773, bringing the mean total to $167,702. As you may have guessed, the average incoming student is making markedly less than that prior to entering school.

One additional important thing to factor into this is that the return is not just a financial one. There are also major non-financial benefits, like the education received, leadership skills developed, and the network built over your time at business school. These may certainly contribute to the financial gains from your first job, but they also bring with them the ability to work across a broad variety of roles and industries, the skills and education needed to advance your career at an accelerated pace, and a strong support network that can help you change companies, industries, or functions down the line. All of these should be factored into your decision of whether or not to come to business school.

It Can Be Made Cheaper

Once you choose to attend business school, there are a few things you can do to help lessen the financial burden on yourself when you arrive.

Many Sternies choose to reduce their loan burdens by taking positions on campus. These could be roles as Teaching Fellows, Graduate Fellows, or other positions, but the basics are generally the same. You work for either a professor, a department, or an administrative body (e.g., Admissions, the Office of Career Development, etc.) and the pay you get goes directly to reducing your loan burden. These jobs are generally not taxed, since you’re not actually getting paid – the school is simply reducing your tuition by the amount you earn. So that’s nice. I’ve taken a few of these roles – specifically, I am a Graduate Ambassador for Admissions, a Career Coach for the Office of Career Development, and a Teaching Fellow for Professor Damodaran’s Corporate Finance course and for Professor Purdy’s Team Communications course.

Other students get positions at companies during the year through internships. A major benefit to studying at Stern is that our location in the heart of Downtown Manhattan provides amazing opportunities to get work experience during their time here, while still taking classes, participating in clubs, and having social lives at school. Getting an internship during the spring or fall semester can not only provide students with a supplemental source of income – it can also help them build their network and work experience in whatever field they are looking to recruit.

Lastly, almost every Stern student spends their summer working in a ten to twelve week internship. These internships span nearly every industry, every MBA-friendly functional role, and the entire globe. A vast majority of these positions are paid, and for a few social enterprise-focused positions that aren’t paid, the school can help with funding through a program called SIIF (Stern Impact Internship Fund). This fund provides a stipend to students working in social enterprise so that they can work in an area they are passionate about, and also afford to eat for the summer.

I hope this helps to ease some concerns about the financial impact of attending business school. When I thought about all of this, it became clear to me that my MBA would be well worth my investment, and since I’ve been here, all of the evidence has verified that. However, it may not be the right choice for everyone. So before you take that big step of investing two years and many dollars into your education, do what you should do before any big investment – due diligence. Read up on ROIs for MBAs going into your target industry, calculate the NPV of your MBA (don’t worry if you don’t know what that is – you don’t have your MBA yet), and figure out what you really want to get from this experience.

You can also check out what Stern has to say about financial aid by clicking here.

‘Successful entrepreneurship is boring by design’- Professor Glenn Okun, Stern Professor of the year.

Entrepreneurship is a word heard often in the corridors of Business Schools. There are certain things about entrepreneurship that can only be learned through experience. However, there are many important tactics, strategies and disciplines that a prospective entrepreneur can learn in the classroom.

Professor Glenn Okun is a Clinical Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship and teaches courses in entrepreneurship, private equity and venture capital. He has achieved much success by investing in early and later stage financing of private companies in various industries. He was recently awarded with the Stern Professor of the Year, 2013.

I am delighted to be taking his ‘Managing growing companies’ class this semester. I highly recommend this class to anyone who dreams of becoming an entrepreneur. A seasoned practitioner, Professor Okun uses his years of experience to take class discussions far beyond the confines of textbooks. He shares his business strategies and entrepreneurial wisdom with the class and calls them his ‘McNuggets’.

Another highly celebrated professor at Stern is Professor Aswath Damodaran. CNN Money recently rated him amongst the top 10 b-school professors globally. I am taking his Corporate Finance course this semester. Professor Damodaran does justice to all of the hype that surrounds him. I find his passion for the course contagious. He claims that his aim in life is to become the Lady Gaga of finance and wants over a million followers on Twitter. His twitter handle is @AswathDamodaran.

The list of highly accomplished professors at Stern is endless. I will try to talk about a few more in future posts.

Until next time,

Ashrae

Bonjour! One of the things I love most about Stern is how motivated students are to organize activities and pursue their interests. Recently, a handful of my friends and I expressed interest in learning or brushing up on our French. We mentioned this to a classmate from France and he instantly volunteered to start hosting a class on Thursday afternoons. While I was excited by the idea and his offer, I was weary as to how the class would actually shape up. Yesterday, I attended my first one and it was outstanding! We covered everything from pronunciation to grammar to conjugation. Everyone was clearly at different levels, but we enjoyed the company and asking each other questions. One of the aspects I enjoyed most was that this lesson was about chocolate. Our gracious teacher even brought us some from one of Manhattan’s finest Chocolatiers, La Maison du Chocolat. Needless to say, the chocolate didn’t last long around a handful of hungry and tired MBA students, but our conversations did continue.

I appreciated that our classmate looked to make these lessons center around culture.  It was clear that he put thought and effort into our afternoon. For an activity that is not a formal club or class, it’s great how dedicated he was to sharing his knowledge with us, although this is not atypical for Stern students. Next week, we are going to focus on wine as a topic of culture and conversation. I think this is a lesson that can’t go wrong. I will report back on how these classes proceed. Until then, au revoir!