美国人在中欧的mba学习

usdusaj

from businessweek,Tyrrell Levine(US citizen) CEIBS Class of 2005

Throwing raw eggs across a field with 115 strangers, I started wondering who among these yolk-spattered knuckleheads would be the future tycoons of China. It was hard to imagine since my new classmates and I all looked pretty ridiculous in our identical blue orientation week t-shirts, playing games, catapulting eggs, running around blind-folded or tied together. Were there really future CEOs among this crew?

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And what was I doing there? Just seven weeks earlier ?after most of my classmates had already been accepted ?I'd started applying to business school. Not the suggested way of applying, I know, but here's how it went:

I began by studying for the GMAT. I bought the Kaplan and Princeton Review books, went through the latter one in three days, took a PR practice test, and scored a 730. Ecstatic, I immediately signed up at the Shanghai test center for a test one week later ?a morning test since the afternoon and evening sessions were full. I didn't want to be groggy for the exam, so I decided to sleep later and later each day until the day of the test, working my way back around the clock. Because my editing work had flexible hours, and because I didn't have any wedding jobs that week, I was able to actually do this. The following seven days, I slept as much as I could, waking up later each day. I also spent a lot of time that week working through the Kaplan book.

I've heard that people generally score lower on Kaplan tests than on other tests, and this was my experience. I got a 670. Then I tried Power Prep (the sample tests put out by the GMAT itself) and a couple more Princeton Review tests, scoring in the low to mid-700s each time. On test day, I woke up at 2:30 a.m., fully awake and alert, and 10 hours later scored a 740.

After the exam, I started reading BusinessWeek Online's message boards to look for tips on the application process. The best thing I discovered was the "Ask Sandy" thread. I went back to the beginning of that thread and read over a thousand messages. That guy is the best. He dispenses a lot of wisdom, jokes, and cynical remarks that are possibly entertaining even for people not applying to business school.

At that point, I was still considering other places besides CEIBS. I was especially interested in some of the one-year European programs like INSEAD and Oxford. But I kept hearing that CEIBS was good and that it was the best in China, so I went to visit.

CEIBS is on the east side of the Huangpu River, a 20-minute drive from Shanghai's financial center. Psychologically, it's a lot further away: It's adjacent to some empty fields and a ramshackle village where people live without running water (but with DVD players). The school is also on the edge of Jinqiao, a fast-developing area of Shanghai that is home to a lot of wealthy expats, international K-12 schools, western restaurants, and a Carrefour (the French equivalent of Wal-Mart). So, in one direction there is poverty, in the other direction great wealth. CEIBS definitely belongs on the wealth side. The campus is newly built, and a lot of money was clearly spent on it.

When I first visited, it was Saturday night, and the place was deserted ?most people had gone home for a week-long break. My girlfriend and I started walking around the reflecting pools in front of the library. Really nice! Then a security guard saw us and asked us to leave, explaining that the school was restricting visitors due to SARS.

As we walked out, we ran into a Chinese student coming back from a jog. He said he was happy with the school and urged me to apply. Based on that conversation, I started to get a little excited about the place. I went back on Monday morning and this time the guards let me in. I took a tour and met with the MBA director. Although the application deadline had passed, he decided to let me apply ?mostly because SARS had already scared off several international students. Ultimately 12 out of the 24 international applicants who accepted offers this year decided to cancel or defer because of the virus.

I quickly contacted a couple of old bosses to ask for recommendations, wrote a few essays, filled out the application, ordered some college transcripts, and then waited for the documents to arrive. In the case of my transcripts, the school was willing to accept faxes ?on the condition that I eventually provide official versions. (CEIBS is serious about verifying the credentials of all accepted students. They call recommenders, and they check records. They also warned me that I'd be kicked out if I falsified anything.)

I then had a casual 20-minute phone interview, and a few days later, I was accepted. I never did apply to other schools for three reasons: First, I was pretty sure I would get in to CEIBS. Second, I had become very impressed by the school after visiting and talking to current students. And third, I wanted to stay in China.

On the first day of orientation, the new class gathered in the auditorium to hear a speech by one of the school's top Chinese officials. The international students were given ear pieces so we could listen through an interpreter. What we heard went something like this: "You must study hard. Very, very hard. Do not disappoint the Motherland. Do not disappoint the Party. Do not even think about not studying hard." When this inspirational speech was over, several international students were ready to get back on the plane and head home. Luckily, things got much better from there.

The next day, we played orientation games, including the aforementioned egg catapulting contest. The following days were more academic, but still fun. We learned about cross-cultural team-building, and some basic MBA concepts like McKinsey's 7S model. I liked just about everyone I met, and I was very happy with the quality of the orientation program. The activities were interesting, the teaching was excellent, and my classmates all seemed excited to be there. After that opening speech, everything started looking really good.




Okay, I admit it. I was pretty damn scared. I was standing in a heavy black robe and all eyes were on me. Beside me were several burning candelabras and a small choir. In front of me was a chapel packed with hundreds of Chinese people. They were there to see a wedding-not a real wedding, but a mock ceremony staged by my employer to advertise its grand opening. Models posed as the bride and groom, and I was playing the pastor. Everything was about to begin. There was just one problem: I wasn't ready.

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I'll say more about that in a minute, but let me first point out that among the large crowd were reporters from 13 news organizations. What's newsworthy about a fake wedding? Well, our wedding company was apparently the first in China to offer Christian-style ceremonies to the general public. People were curious, and they were carefully watching me, the only foreigner in the room. As I stood there at the altar waiting for the bride and groom to enter, and as the TV camera guys made last-minute adjustments, I looked around the chapel and wondered, "How the hell did I get here?"

It's fair to say that I didn't move to Shanghai to become a fake wedding pastor. My real goal was to be a newspaper reporter. I've always been drawn to journalism because of the opportunities to see new things and interview interesting people. I have worked at a small newspaper in Massachusetts (near my hometown of New Bedford), then as an editor at an investment bank in Taiwan, and, most recently, as a case study writer at Harvard Business School. Along the way, I got a master's degree in International Relations from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) and a B.A. in Politics from Oberlin College.

I had been in Shanghai for about a month, doing freelance editing work and trying to learn enough Chinese to be a full-time reporter, when I saw an ad in the paper seeking a part-time "pastor-performer." No experience necessary!

When I got the job, my bosses gave me a 20-page wedding script (80% of which was in Chinese), and told me to memorize it-in six days. Oh how I labored to meet their delusional expectations! Imagine trying to perform a half-hour monologue after only one week of practice. Now, imagine trying to perform it word-for-word in a foreign language. As I stood before the crowd, I sensed that failure was close at hand.

Then something strange happened: My nervousness disappeared. I started smiling. I suddenly felt great. In that moment of clarity, I realized two things: First, it didn't matter one way or the other if I screwed up. I would try my best, and that was all I could do. Second, I loved the weirdness of the situation. If I could keep finding other, equally-strange things to get involved with, I felt I would always be happy.

I began: "We have gathered here today to celebrate this marriage? I probably mangled a few Chinese words here and there, but for the most part it went surprisingly well. Driven by panic, I'd been able to memorize large chunks of the script over the previous week, and the rest, well, I just read straight from my text. When it was over, I felt reborn. I vowed to take more risks. And I also began asking myself: Do I really want to always be watching and reporting on other people, instead of being reported on? I thought of a speech by the great U.S. president Teddy Roosevelt:

"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; ?and who, at worst, if he fails at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat."

If I remained a journalist, I would always be a spectator, instead of the guy with the dust, sweat, and blood on his face. And there was clearly no future in being a pastor-performer, though I have now performed more than 40 weddings (and still perform them part time). I needed to switch careers, and I saw an MBA as the best way to do it.At Oberlin, getting an MBA was just about the last decision I thought I'd ever make. I remember flipping through career guides and ruling out almost every job in the private sector. They all sounded boring. But my attitude toward business changed in 1997, after I took an incredible accounting class at Columbia. While working as a case writer in Boston for Harvard Business School, I grew to like the private sector even more. At Harvard, I researched and wrote about a dozen strategy case studies under the supervision of some excellent professors, especially Michael Rukstad. It was fascinating. At times, I was sure I was getting a better education than the business students (and getting paid for it, too). But there were some big gaps in my knowledge, especially in operations and finance. Part of why I want an MBA is to fill these gaps. I also want the kind of career flexibility an MBA degree can provide.

The problem was that it was already April. Most people had started and finished the application process months ago. But I did have one advantage: I'd written a Harvard case study on business education in 2001, so I'd already done a lot of research on the field. I knew I wanted a short, international program. And, while living in Shanghai, I kept hearing good things about CEIBS, which is both short (17 months) and international. I went to visit, and was impressed with the friendliness of the staff and students.

The application deadline had already passed, but it was a strange time in Shanghai-everyone was worried about SARS. A bunch of international students who had accepted offers this year had already decided not to come. Given the unusual circumstances, the MBA director was willing to let me apply (Thanks, Gerry!). I had about three weeks to get everything together-the essays, the recommendations, the transcripts-so it was a race against the clock. I had already taken the GMAT (about a week before, after 10 days of self-study), so that was not a problem, and the school was willing to accept faxed photocopies of my transcripts until the real ones arrived by mail. I would definitely not recommend any of this as an intelligent way to apply!
go to http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/mbajournal/03levine/2.htm for more.

catcherintherye

It's really funny to read th bizweek mba journal artciles this guys wrote: how he perceives the best b-school in mainland china, especially the part describing the speech during his orientation given by a senior chinese official telling students to study very very hard and study for the party.

rhod

是的，看到那里，笑到不行...


这个老美很能写的，尤其是自己为什么读MBA的那段陈述，和Roosevelt那段话的引用.