Ask Jason@沃顿 (closed)

cannedpineapple

meimei0222>
Sure! Especially since I co-founded the club, the Early Career Club is something I'm very passionate about =) It is primarily directed at students with less than 3 years of experience, although really anyone who feels like they are disadvantaged because of a lack of experience can join. We are working on career services (eg. resume, pitch workshops, and lists of early-career-friendly employers) as well as alumni services (getting early career alumni to mentor us in our careers) in order to help early career students succeed in their internship and job search. We are also organising extra activities like an early-career pre-term day in order to help those with less experience understand how to best contribute to the classroom experience.

The club is pretty new, but we have big plans for it. These that I've mentioned are just the start.. at Wharton, you can shape most clubs in whatever way you want!

风飘飘

Hi jason

I am very interested in your volunteer experince, so would you introduce something to us ?

cannedpineapple

Sure! I did volunteer work in Thailand over 2 summers. One had me teaching English, and another saw me helping to train local youths to develop business plans to help their community. I thought it was very rewarding- I've always liked helping others, and I got more insight into what it was like, on the local level, to help communities improve. Did you have any specific questions?

cannedpineapple

lisese recently asked about the lauder programme, and I thought I'd answer it here:

The question: 从网站介绍上看主攻International business

提供多种语言培训。。。

有了解的同学来介绍一下吧！

教学质量，毕业生的就业前景等等……

Hi Lisese,

Thanks for the question. As the new co-chair of Wharton's Volunteer Admission efforts and a Lauder student, I am happy to answer your questions. As LS mentioned, there is a requirement that on top of fulfilling all Wharton admission requirements, Lauder students are also reasonably fluent, although not native fluent, in at least one of eight languages- Mandarin Chinese, Arabic, Japanese, Russian, Portugese, Spanish, French or German. The idea is that in order to pursue international careers, students must be fluent enough to conduct business in the country that they are interested in. I am in the Chinese programme （珞德国际关系与管理研究所中文部）。

Answers to some common questions: 

1) Lauder students are in fact full Wharton students, who are also taking an additional degree. Hence, when you apply to Lauder, you in fact have to be admitted to both Wharton and Lauder. However you need only submit one joint application.

 
2) The aim of the programme is to train international business leaders. So it is useful for someone like myself, who is not from China, but is interestd to work in China. At the same time, someone already from China wouldn't be able to join the Chinese track, simply because that would not be a productive use of your time.

3) Although foreign language fluency is a requirement, the Lauder programme is much more than a language programme. It combines classes teaching business culture, history, politics, and other "soft skills" necessary for one to succeed in a foreign professional and social culture.

4) Finally, because Lauder entails pursuing a separate masters degree, we must do a research project to graduate. For mine, I am working with a VC partner in Shanghai (who is also a Lauder alum!) to craft a China strategy for a firm that they had invested in. There are a wide range of other interesting projects- some are working with Goldman Sachs to help train women entrepreneurs in the developing world (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122600965065706385.html), some are working with hedge funds and private equity groups in Africa to bring social improvement to agriculture, others are doing research on setting up a consultancy to advice on the building of environmentally green buildings in China and the middle east. These are just a small sample of the projects available to us.

As for our job prospects after graduation, this really depends. A lot of us are looking outside the US for jobs, and that means that we don't really have as much competition (how many MBA students do you know, for instance, might be competing with the Lauder Russian track students for jobs in Ukraine?). However, even those looking for jobs within the US tend to do quite well, because employers recognise that Lauder students, who manage to multi-task two degrees in the already-hectic Wharton environment, bring intellectual rigour, good time management skills, and certainly additional cultural savvy. The last of which is important in this increasingly globalised world.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions!

lisese

Jelt, thanks a lot for the detailed information! I'm highly interested in the programme!

I have two more questions...

(1) Besides Chinese and English, I can speak fluent Japanese (my major in college)...will it be an advantage or just a prerequisite?

(2) Do you think I can use an overdue TOEFL score which was taken in 2000 in the application?

Thanks for your kindness!

以下是引用jelt2359在2009-3-20 12:21:00的发言：
lisese recently asked about the lauder programme, and I thought I'd answer it here:

The question: 从网站介绍上看主攻International business

提供多种语言培训。。。

有了解的同学来介绍一下吧！

教学质量，毕业生的就业前景等等……

        

Hi Lisese,

Thanks for the question. As the new co-chair of Wharton's Volunteer Admission efforts and a Lauder student, I am happy to answer your questions. As LS mentioned, there is a requirement that on top of fulfilling all Wharton admission requirements, Lauder students are also reasonably fluent, although not native fluent, in at least one of eight languages- Mandarin Chinese, Arabic, Japanese, Russian, Portugese, Spanish, French or German. The idea is that in order to pursue international careers, students must be fluent enough to conduct business in the country that they are interested in. I am in the Chinese programme （珞德国际关系与管理研究所中文部）。

Answers to some common questions: 

1) Lauder students are in fact full Wharton students, who are also taking an additional degree. Hence, when you apply to Lauder, you in fact have to be admitted to both Wharton and Lauder. However you need only submit one joint application.

2) The aim of the programme is to train international business leaders. So it is useful for someone like myself, who is not from China, but is interestd to work in China. At the same time, someone already from China wouldn't be able to join the Chinese track, simply because that would not be a productive use of your time.

3) Although foreign language fluency is a requirement, the Lauder programme is much more than a language programme. It combines classes teaching business culture, history, politics, and other "soft skills" necessary for one to succeed in a foreign professional and social culture.

4) Finally, because Lauder entails pursuing a separate masters degree, we must do a research project to graduate. For mine, I am working with a VC partner in Shanghai (who is also a Lauder alum!) to craft a China strategy for a firm that they had invested in. There are a wide range of other interesting projects- some are working with Goldman Sachs to help train women entrepreneurs in the developing world (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122600965065706385.html), some are working with hedge funds and private equity groups in Africa to bring social improvement to agriculture, others are doing research on setting up a consultancy to advice on the building of environmentally green buildings in China and the middle east. These are just a small sample of the projects available to us.

As for our job prospects after graduation, this really depends. A lot of us are looking outside the US for jobs, and that means that we don't really have as much competition (how many MBA students do you know, for instance, might be competing with the Lauder Russian track students for jobs in Ukraine?). However, even those looking for jobs within the US tend to do quite well, because employers recognise that Lauder students, who manage to multi-task two degrees in the already-hectic Wharton environment, bring intellectual rigour, good time management skills, and certainly additional cultural savvy. The last of which is important in this increasingly globalised world.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions!

cannedpineapple

Dear lisese,

Glad to know you're interested. It is simply a prerequisite to speak a foreign language. In your case, Japanese qualifies. In fact, a lot of Lauder students speak multiple languages. A German girl on my Chinese programme, for instance, speaks English, German, Korean and Chinese fluently, and a lot of other European languages as well. Another guy speaks Hebrew, Spanish, Chinese and English. A third speaks Swedish, French, Spanish, Chinese, and is from the UK.. you get the idea =)

As for TOEFL, I am not sure. Feel free to contact the Lauder Institute directly on such issues. They are very keen to talk to new prospective students!

BTW, one last point: none of these Lauder programmes (eg. the extra classes, the fantastic research project, and the great language classes) are available to non-Lauder students.

lisese

Dear Jason,

Thank you for the quick response!

I've become more and more interested in the programme.

Please allow me go for you later if I have more questions...

Thanks!

以下是引用jelt2359在2009-3-21 11:25:00的发言：
Dear lisese,

Glad to know you're interested. It is simply a prerequisite to speak a foreign language. In your case, Japanese qualifies. In fact, a lot of Lauder students speak multiple languages. A German girl on my Chinese programme, for instance, speaks English, German, Korean and Chinese fluently, and a lot of other European languages as well. Another guy speaks Hebrew, Spanish, Chinese and English. A third speaks Swedish, French, Spanish, Chinese, and is from the UK.. you get the idea =)

As for TOEFL, I am not sure. Feel free to contact the Lauder Institute directly on such issues. They are very keen to talk to new prospective students!

BTW, one last point: none of these Lauder programmes (eg. the extra classes, the fantastic research project, and the great language classes) are available to non-Lauder students.

cannedpineapple

No problem! Also just to clarify- it doesn't mean that more languages is an advantage. You simply need to meet one language requirement for entry. Meeting more than one is not an advantage. In fact, if your choice of track doesn't seem to mesh with your career goal, that could be a detriment in gaining entry!

higoingusa86

Hi Jason:

I would like to know more about your Early Career Club. What kind of activities are usually carried out and how many members are there?

Thank you.

cannedpineapple

hi higoingusa86,

The club has about 50-100 members to date. Please see my answer to meimei0222 about the club here:

Sure! Especially since I co-founded the club, the Early Career Club is
something I'm very passionate about =) It is primarily directed at
students with less than 3 years of experience, although really anyone
who feels like they are disadvantaged because of a lack of experience
can join. We are working on career services (eg. resume, pitch
workshops, and lists of early-career-friendly employers) as well as
alumni services (getting early career alumni to mentor us in our
careers) in order to help early career students succeed in their
internship and job search. We are also organising extra activities like
an early-career pre-term day in order to help those with less
experience understand how to best contribute to the classroom
experience.

The club is pretty new, but we have big plans for
it. These that I've mentioned are just the start.. at Wharton, you can
shape most clubs in whatever way you want!