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But wait, there’s more! Other NYU Grad Schools

On March 28, NYU hosted their fourth annual “One Day” fundraising campaign. The University collectively raised over 4,000 matched gifts and the MBA class of 2019 made dozens of contributions to their annual class gift. As a student that has benefited remarkably from NYU’s Tech MBA program with a shiny new job offer, I felt compelled to give back. While I was determining how my gift would be spent, I was reminded of the sheer size of NYU and the academic resources available outside of Stern. Between recruiting, club events, and classes, it’s easy to simply stay inside of the business school and maintain a packed schedule. However, NYU is much more than just Stern, and I want to highlight some classes and opportunities available outside of the business school in this blog post.

There are a couple of core technology classes that are required as part of the Tech MBA program: Foundations of Networks and DevOps & Agile Methodologies. These two classes are graduate level computer science courses taught at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences. If you’re not already familiar with Courant, I highly recommend making a quick Google search to learn about the high-caliber faculty that make it such a competitive graduate school for applied math, computer science, and information systems. If you’re joining the Tech MBA program with a lighter technical background, these classes will be challenging. Nevertheless, the full-time and adjunct faculty at Courant understand they are teaching a variety of skill sets among business students and your more technical classmates will be invaluable throughout the year.

Stern also offers a credit overload program. The credit overload policy at Stern allows full-time MBA students to take up to 3 additional credits. This can be completed as one 3-credit class in one semester or split over the fall and spring semester with two 1.5-credit classes. If you take full advantage of the credit overload system, you will graduate with a total of 54 credits, just 6 credits shy of a two-year MBA from Stern. This is an incredible value considering the Tech MBA takes only 12 months to complete.

These additional credits allow you to take various elective classes, and some are offered outside of Stern. I have taken advantage of this and will be venturing down to the NYU School of Law during my final semester. The class is called, “Negotiating Complex Transactions with Lawyers and Business Professionals” and is comprised of both law and business students. Combining the two sets of students from the different graduate schools offers new learning opportunities, debates, and conversations to take place, in addition to new networking opportunities.

In addition to classes outside of Stern, there is a university-wide event calendar that posts concerts, lectures, exhibits, games, and more happening on or around campus. I hope that if you attend NYU, you make the most out of your time by exploring everything that the greater university has to offer.

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Spring Break!

Work hard. Play hard. I think this is a motto that most MBA students can identify with. While of course there is plenty of work and studying to accomplish in order to earn the degree, an MBA is likely the last time in your life you won’t have a morning commute and boss to report to – and you should take advantage! There are plenty of opportunities to unwind and have some fun throughout the MBA program at Stern, from the weekly Thursday night “Beer Blast”, to the Welcome Back Boat Cruise around Manhattan. But perhaps nothing can match the spring break treks led by some of the amazing affinity clubs at Stern. This year, we had options of heading to one of the following school-sponsored trip locations: Israel, Vietnam, Tanzania, New Zealand, Japan, Himalayas, and Patagonia. After working hard through the first half of the spring semester, the break finally arrived, and I and many of my classmates left New York City and jetted off to different corners of the world.

I attended the trek to Israel, and it exceeded even my lofty expectations. First off, it’s a great opportunity to meet other two-year MBA students. It can be easy to stay confined to your fellow Tech MBA students during your year at Stern, but between classes and events like these treks, there are ample opportunities to grow your network outside of 1-year classmates. After a long flight, we wasted no time in exploring and learning about the country. Throughout the trek, we were joined by a professional Israeli tour guide, who shared his knowledge about the thousands of years of history in the country. Some of the historical stops in the trip included: The Old City of Jerusalem, the Yad Va’Shem Holocaust Museum, a sunrise hike and tour of Masada (seen in the photo above), excursions through Caper Naum and Nazareth, and finally a tour through the old town of Jaffa. But it wasn’t all history – through visits to an Israeli Air Force base, and lectures from a former military Colonel as well as a business CEO, we were able to learn about all the forces shaping Israel and the Middle East today, and how we might want to keep them in mind as future global business leaders. And finally, what would be a successful spring break trip without some fun: from beach parties on the shores of the Dead Sea, to ATV rides through northern Israel, to nights out in world-famous Tel Aviv clubs, this trek offered something for everyone.

For now, it’s back to school and homework, but these last few months of the final semester will undoubtedly offer lots more opportunities for fun and chances to make even more lasting connections with classmates who will be part of your network for life.

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Starting the third and last semester

On February 4th of 2019, we all got back to Stern with a strange feeling, this was to be our last semester and we wanted to make the most of it.

We came back even more united than before thanks to the two weeks of the West Coast immersion trip that we took in January. During this immersion, all the students of the NYU Tech MBA went to Seattle and San Francisco to meet with companies and leaders in the tech industry for three main reasons :

  1. Understand the tech ecosystem of the west coast
  2. Speak about business and tech challenges of today
  3. Discuss the future of tech.

The diversity in company visits was amazing. To give you a sample we had the opportunity to visit the Boeing factory, the Tableau office, and we met with leading VCs of the valley who talked about their portfolio. And that is just a small sample of the meetings we had that week.
We all felt impressed by the time every person spent with us – everyone seemed genuinely ready and pleased to share their journey, their challenges, and even asked our opinion on their business or tech questions.

During the trip we didn’t only learn about tech and business, we also learned about each other – the 31 students of the inaugural Tech MBA class. Because when you spend two weeks, 24/7 with people, you learn more than just what’s at the surface. We got to understand the challenges, fears, life goals and values of our classmates, and we all, as a team, worked on trying to make this trip the best for each other. We made introductions to people we knew and made sure everyone had the chance to speak during networking time and corporate presentations. With empathy and compassion, we made the best out of the trip. We all felt that these two weeks were very special, and it was very hard to say goodbye.

So, here I am in my last semester. This is my third Masters degree, so clearly I have said that sentence a lot, but it never felt stronger than on that day facing Stern. For me, this semester is about getting to know as many classmates as I can. I gave myself the challenge to create a strong network with the MBA1s and MBA2s and try to learn as much as I can. So I picked classes that were not tech focused, and I have to say that I love it. I have a class in brand strategy where we have been working with cosmetic and kitchen tools brands, and it is super fun for me to get out from the tech-focused program and expand my horizons in what takes to create a business.

This semester will pass at light speed, but I know that we will make sure to enjoy the time together as a team, as a class and to get the best out of it.

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International Women’s Day at Stern

In the spirit of International Women’s Day, I want to take the chance to highlight a few female professors I have had Stern. They are not only just teachers to me but also mentors and role models. They inspire me to keep learning, dreaming and charging forward.

Professor Sonia Marciano

I had professor Sonia Marciano for my strategy business core class in the summer. Still adapting to the business mindset at that point, I was completely blown away by Sonia’s class. She is super smart and down-to-earth. She has a witty and straightforward way of explaining concepts – they all seemed so common-sense and obvious yet I would have never thought of them from those angles on my own. Many of the things she taught us not only apply to business situations, but also to daily life situations, too.

First, focus your time and energy on things that are high weight and high variation. She used the example of her daughter’s sock puppet assignment in her English literature class (hence the term ‘sock-puppeting’) – if the outcome between spending 2 hours and 20 hours on this assignment is 2%, it’s probably worth spending the 18 hours on things that will have a bigger impact on grades.  This was definitely a life saver in business school where there are so many things competing for our time and we have to be strategic about how to spend our time.

Second, leverage your strength and be big in a dimension. In business, this carefully chosen strategic position allows a firm to enjoy a monopolistic position in an industry. On a personal level, I pivoted my job searching strategy from looking for product manager position in tech companies (which I have little background in) to looking for strategy position with heavy data analytics component. I received way more response after I changed my job searching strategy and ultimately landed an internal strategy consulting position at IBM.

Professor Anjolein Schmeits

Professor Anjolein Schmeits was our finance professor at the end of the summer. She is very passionate about teaching and cares deeply about her students. That reflects in how energetic she always was in class despite the fact she was teaching 9 hours in a day. Finance is a very quantitative subject and the lecture can get very dry if not thought out properly. With Anjolein’s class, you never noticed that 3 hours went by. All the concepts were explained in an easily digestible way. Her structure was logical and emphasized not only the what and how but also the why. I definitely wished we could’ve had more class time with her!

Professor Amy Webb

Professor Amy Webb is teaching one of the most unique electives at Stern – Predicting the Future of Technology. This class goes through her unique framework of strategic foresight regarding to technology trends – CIPHER – explained in detail in her book “The Signals are Talking”. Amy has an amazing talent of telling stories so her class is always engaging and thought provoking. The ‘moment of trends’ exercise we did at the beginning of every class started my habit of keeping a pulse of news in the technology industry, from announcements of new products to PR of tech companies to mergers & acquisitions in the industry. We were able to apply her methodology in each class on current trends we care about – like what we might do once we graduate. These in-class exercises are what she would do with her executive clients. Did I mention she brought delicious gluten-free, nut-free and dairy-free treats to every class? Also, check out her TED talk on how she found her soul mate using on-line dating platform, the story is being turned into a movie now.

There are so many more amazing female professors at Stern who were essential to my experience this past year. Lastly, I want to give a big shout out to all my fellows at Stern Women in Business (SWIB) and all the male allies. We recently hosted an event titled “Shattering the Glass Ceiling” featuring an incredible panel of executive women. Happy international women’s day!

 

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Advice for Admitted Students

The second year of Tech MBAs is currently being recruited and if you are one of the lucky candidates that got admitted, first of all, congratulations! I have received quite a few questions from admitted students who are planning for the year ahead. Below I will try to answer the most commonly asked questions:

 

How do I best prepare myself for the year ahead?

If you have the opportunity, I would try to take some time off in between resigning from your job and starting the program. Not only is there plenty to organize if you are moving to New York, but also mentally I think it is beneficial to take some time to switch from employee to student mode. Finally, make sure to make time now for your friends and family!

 

How do I find a place to live in New York?

There are two options: student housing or the regular housing market. While the student housing is very close to campus, the Stern graduate housing has similar pricing as regular housing while being shared, so most students decide to find something on their own. Students from our class live all over the city: in Manhattan, Brooklyn and also New Jersey. Where you want to live depends mostly on your personal preferences and budget. The rental market cycle in New York is later than most other cities and typically viewings are two to four weeks before the rental start period. If you prefer to share, some of my classmates met at one of the admitted student events and decided to live together!

 

How do I make the most out of the year?

It is a bit cliché, but I personally believe that if you don’t know where you are going, you will never get there. Therefore, before the start of the program, take a moment to sit down and write out your goals. These can be academic, social, career and personal. An optional way to do it is to imagine yourself at graduation and write what you will have achieved. As the year progresses, look back at this document from time to time. This will allow you to stay focused on your goals, as the year will go by so fast.

 

I’m an international student, what should I do in preparation?

Besides the visa process, moving internationally is a bit more challenging. Firstly, finances: Open an American bank account as quickly as possible as this is often required for housing (often this needs to be done from within the US, with the exception of HSBC). I found TransferWise very useful to transfer foreign currency to my US bank account with low fees. Set up Venmo with your US bank account, which you will use it often to transfer small amounts to classmates etc. Secondly, phone plan: I remember that I received a SIM card from Mint mobile in my international student packet from Stern, which provides good value. Third, housing: You most likely need an US co-signer for renting an apartment. If you don’t have one, there are companies that will be a co-signer for you (for a fee) such as TheGuarantors. I also find that larger real estate companies like Two Trees are easier in the process of renting out to international students than individual land lords. These companies don’t require international students to pay a couple months of rent upfront which many individual landlords do.

 

Can I work during the year?

As an international student on an F1 visa you can only work on campus. There are several job possibilities, although all require an application process: teaching assistant (supporting professors) graduate ambassador for the admissions office, or support on an undergraduate trek. If you are eligible to work in the US you can of course also do internships during the semester. Whether the workload is manageable is a personal question. I have classmates who work 5-10 hours a week with no problem and classmates who say they would not manage that. Typically, the first summer semester is very intense, but the fall and spring semesters have a bit more flexibility as those semesters you will not have class on Fridays.

 

If you have any more questions that are not answered above, don’t hesitate to reach out at mbaga@stern.nyu.edu!