Magic 7 MBA Info Sessions in Beijing (#6 in SF Bay Area)

samwzhang

Yes I was an MBA applicant and no I did not have the resources to visit any of the schools that I was considering. Well, MBA info session provides an intimate if not complete picture of a school's style and the type of people that I will likely meet at the school. So I went to as many of them as I could! Here’s a sum-up of my experience.

Wharton: Great attendance. Huge alum turn-out which demonstrated the school’s international alum presence. Unlike other schools, about half of its alum were non-Chinese, once again a nod to the lauder program and the school’s international presence. The host seemed a bit inexperienced, briefly choking during the presentation. Thank you letter and follow-up questions went un-answered. The main message was: “we are sooooo international.”

Stanford: Held at the top of a tower with an amazing view. Attendance was good. The host was knowledgeable and extremely experienced at handling awkward situations and difficult questions. Alums, however, were less than impressive. Three alums showed up, one came in late. I was impressed by one non-GSB alum, who not only arranged the room for the info-session, but also introduced me to a government official friend of his at the very session. That is very Silicon Valley like indeed. Main message was: California
’s great, and entrepreneurship at Stanford even greater.

Columbia: By far the best attendance. People literally had to fight for seats. Possibly the worst alum turn-out considering the school’s size. Four showed up and one guy appeared quite nervous. Host was a beauty, and was extremely professional. LG sponsored the meeting room, but people had to clear out 30 minutes after the main presentation. The main message was the same old “NYC is sooooo great, and we connect theory to reality.” Alum seemed less than enthusiastic about the school. Email and follow-up questions were immediately replied to.

Chicago: Great Attendance. Pretty great alum turn out. Two hosts seemed knowledgeable. One host talked for 20 minutes about the glorious history of UoC and Booth, during which I almost fell asleep. Some alumni were very friendly and helpful. The president of the Booth alumni club Beijing
chapter suggested that people get real about career expectations after school. Does look like the kind of down to earth school it was rumored to be. Emails and follow-up questions were immediately replied to. The main message was: “oh we’ve got a bunch of noble laureate and we are sooooo flexible.”

MIT: Attendance was good. Hosts were okay. Alumni seemed to have some interesting stories to tell. Thank you letter and follow up questions was relied to, but appeared to have gone through layers of bureaucracy. The message was: we got tons of brilliant tech guys and you guys can easily take advantage of that.

Kellogg: Attendance was good but not as great as some other schools. The two hosts were breath taking. An alum/ MBA admission consultant gave a long speech that yielded mixed result because of a malfunctioning microphone. Alum turn out was pretty good. The message was: team-work.

Harvard: Nope, no info session in Beijing. Yes, that is how confident or arrogant they are. I did have the good fortune to meet four HBS first year students and, yes, you guessed it, all are extremely young (2-3 years of pre-MBA work experience) and supremely confident, to a point that I wouldn't hesitate to call two of them slightly arrogant.

ManInTheMirror

楼主申请了哪些呢？有没有好消息呢？

WendyT

superb thread. useful and entertaining.  lz has the "writer's power of observation". bravo!
btw i thought i was arrogant enough to get into HBS until i was dinged

ManInTheMirror

superb thread. useful and entertaining.  lz has the "writer's power of observation". bravo!
btw i thought i was arrogant enough to get into HBS until i was dinged

-- by 会员 WendyT (2011/2/23 17:45:20)

kind of had the same thought....that i was arrogant enough to get into hbs until i was dinged...

被浮云了。。。

ieric

great post!

tracie

Good job, Sam!

iTiger

I'd like to share some of my personal experience at M7 info sessions in SF Bay Area:

HBS: held at Google. Huge attendance. I was extremely impressed by Dee's presentation and her no nonsense style. She has a "queen" status in this MBA business and I could definitely see some of that She showed a short video about case studies, and repeatedly emphasized that this is not a writing contest. I believed her. HBS has to screen the largest volume of apps under the shortest timeframe. The fact is no matter what you have in the essays, they've already known whether they should admit you based on your profiles (feeder companies, academics etc.) I was very frustrated when she showed the age distribution of Class 2012. There were only 10-20 people who had graduated form college for over 7 years!!! Dee might never say this, but the truth is HBS has a different philosophy of business education: they'd rather train young, ambitious people with relatively more achievements/activities compared to people with similar age. Older admits tend to be ex-military guys, doctors, PhDs, or from an interesting industry/background that diversifies the class. Several alumni showed up at the event, but unfortunately they were not very impressive. HBS has one of the largest and most powerful network in the Bay Area, but apparently most alumni have better things to do than attending this.

Wharton: there were two info sessions, one in SF and one in Silicon Valley, held at Yahoo. I went to the latter one. Unfortunately, this one was very disappointing. A bunch of Wharton alumni who work at Yahoo hosted the event. They did a lousy job selling the school to the audience. Their energy level was low, and they talked too much about the nonsense stuff such as the school's focus on leadership. They completely missed the fact Wharton offers the best trainings in many business disciplines. I always have huge respect to Wharton. In my opinion,  it's still the most well-rounded b school in the world. I just think the alumni should demonstrate something that matches the status of the school. They can't just assume that people from all over the world will apply no matter what. At the end of the day, nobody was really convinced why people should apply for Wharton, but not XYZ schools. I almost asked them "Why do you work for Yahoo, not Google?"

MIT: Great attendance, very dynamic. Probably the best among all the info sessions I attended. It even encouraged the audience to network with each other. The admission staff definitely showed the culture at MIT. The alumni were very down-to-earth, lots of ex-engineers. The school has a strong presence in Silicon Valley tech companies. The strengths of the school were clearly highlighted: tech, entrepreneurship, and operation. The bottom line is if these are the areas you're interested, Sloan is one of the best.

Columbia: it was held on a Saturday morning in a hotel, but still had good attendance. The staff did a good job selling the school, and played the "NYC" card a lot. Lots of alumni were there, from all different industries (finance, healthcare, consulting, entrepreneurs, tech etc.) I knew this wouldn't be the case on the east coast, where CBS alumni tend to concentrate in finance.

Stanford: I didn't go to any of their info session, but I did visit a class. It happened to be a panel discussion about forming new business ventures. I was surprised how easily they could put several big name entrepreneurs together to show up in the class. The bottom line is if you're inspired to be an entrepreneur IMMEDIATELY after school, Stanford is the place to be.

Chicago Booth: unfortunately I missed their info session in SF. I always hear that their admission staff are highly professional. I wouldn't be surprised if they did a good job at their info session. Academic rigor and flexibility must be the focus. I wish I could meet more Booth alumni.

Kellogg: I didn't have the time to attend. The school is supposed to have a collegial culture, so if many alumni showed up, the event should be very engaging.

samwzhang

iTiger, hey looks like we are going to be classmates, haha I know CBSers don't blindly fall in love with a school. Dude your perspective from the SF bay area is interesting indeed. Hope to see you soon!

Tracie, I was looking for you!

WendyT, hey thank you for the comment, I am flattered!

ManInTheMirror, I think you can figure that out by now.

ManInTheMirror

iTiger, hey looks like we are going to be classmates, haha I know CBSers don't blindly fall in love with a school. Dude your perspective from the SF bay area is interesting indeed. Hope to see you soon!

Tracie, I was looking for you!

WendyT, hey thank you for the comment, I am flattered!

ManInTheMirror, I think you can figure that out by now.

-- by 会员 samwzhang (2011/2/24 14:57:00)

yeah, congrats To both LZ and ITiger, Thanks for the post..it's great..