The information reception last night went better than I expected. I had set up an informal interview with a rep from University of Rochester Simon School of Business. I did this for a number of reasons. First, it has been a while since I’ve been on any type of interview and wanted the experience. Second, Simon is well known for finance. Third, I am familiar with the city of Rochester, since I did my undergrad at another school there. After some initial confusion (I was waiting in the 1st floor lobby, while he was on the 2nd), the interview itself went smoothly. We talked for a good hour about my life, work experience, interests and he made his case about Simon. For some reason, he kept comparing Simon to NYU Stern and Columbia. Did he hear something about me? Does he know about my plans to apply to those schools? Does he read this blog even though I try to keep it as anonymous as possible?? It doesn’t really matter anyway. It’s only common sense and fair that I’ll be applying to other schools. In the end, I think we left quite an impression on each other. The rep seems really genuine. Simon might just end up to being my #3. Of course, I sent him a follow-up “thank you” email this morning. It’s only appropriate and polite. It was a good interview experience for me if only for practice sake. I think I may need to fine-tune and tweak my story a bit more for Columbia’s interview *knock on wood*.
After the interview, he had to go set up for the reception. I had about half an hour to kill before the start of the reception. So I went to explore the hotel and discovered that they were holding an NBA conference on the 5th floor. Would have luved to stay and check that out. But the MBA reception started right on time. The format was like that of a trade show convention. Every school had their own individual tables set around the room. I think there were about 14 schools or so that represented – mostly 2nd tier. No surprise that Harvard or Wharton were not there. It’s funny how the best schools don’t need to work as hard as these other schools to attract applicants. The first 20 minutes or so were for mingling and checking out the different schools.
The first table I went to was Simon – just to say “hi and thank you” for their time. The second table was of course NYU Stern. There was already a line formed when I made my way over there – I hate lines! Anyway, after a bit of waiting and reading through the brochures, I had a quick five minute chat with the Stern rep. The first question I asked her was why Stern was at the reception in the first place. I mean the school itself is in NYC and potential applicants who are interested can just go to the school and have a more personal visit. To me, it didn’t make any sense. She kinda laughed when I asked that. But she simply answered that it was good for networking purposes and to get the name of the school out. Fair enough. I also asked if I should use the optional essay to address why I’m applying to their full-time program this year when last year, I applied part-time. She said definitely, because it would show my commitment to the school. So I’m going to use the optional to address not just why the switch but also why my application is much stronger this year – gmat-wise, experience-wise, extra-curricular-wise, etc.
After wandering around for a bit, I made my way to the food tables. They had a pretty decent spread, mostly finger food. My favorite was the crab cakes – mmmmm – I could eat a hundred of those. The drinks were pretty good too. The fact that it was open bar was just too tempting. But I tried sticking to OJ. Afterwards was the Q&A segment. Reps from four schools took the spotlight and addressed the room. It was no surprise that most of the questions were about the economic and recruiting situation. Most people were rightly concerned about the current value of the MBA in today’s market. But I think the reps handled the concerns well. They basically said that their schools are aware and are proactive about the current market place for MBAs and will continue to address these issues as they developed. After 20 minutes of Q&A, the reception broke into a free for all again – more mingling and eating. I went around the room but since the lines were quite long, I didn’t feel like waiting again. Everybody seems to be doing their own thing, so I really didn’t mingle. I ended up hitting the crab cakes for a second round. Like I said, I could eat a hundred of those. After I was done, I finally gave in and headed up to the 5th floor, where the NBA conference was held. Sadly, I was too late. They were done by the time I got up there – booo. All in all, I’m glad I went. It was an informative night if only to break the mundane routine of sleep, work, exercise, repeat.
Read the full article: InsideMBA.com‘s Information Reception in New York City