Friday, June 09, 2006

Stern Preview II

Stern held a second Preview last night for admits who hadn't had the opportunity to attend the first one. The number of attendees was far less making it a much more intimate affair. It was also great recognizing people from the first Preview and from message boards etc.

Since the official event was only 3 hours long, there weren't too many activities. There was a welcome address by the Dean of Admissions, followed by a screening of 2 cool ad films from ProMotion Pictures, a short team-building session (which was quite a hoot), and a cocktail reception. There was the usual alcohol-fuelled revelry afterwards, which I skipped.

I felt like this reception was more fun than the one at the NYSE. This might've been primarily because there were fewer people (maybe I should've applied to Yale? :-)), but also because everyone who was there yesterday was definitely attending Stern, instead of being there to evaluate and decide between schools, which made the atmosphere much more relaxed, I think.

As with last time, I met so many people from so many different backgrounds (whatever happened to all the fin guys? I didn't run into a lot of those). Always fun for someone like me whose social circle consists of people from at most 3 industries. I also met a whole bunch of MBA2 Desis, all very cool people. It's especially fun to talk to Indians who went to the top engineering schools around the same time as you and find you know a whole bunch of people in common. Small world!

The other thing that came out of this affair was that after hearing about all the different things that current students are doing over the summer, I'm beginning to wonder if maybe, instead of being so set on IBanking, I should be considering something a bit more exotic (Entertainment Media? Real Estate? Just kidding. Still something within Fin/Tech). We'll see. I'm hoping to start doing some serious research into post-mba career after next week.

That's pretty much it. Oh, and one rant: Towards the end of the evening, I ran into an admit who said something to this effect: "all the NYU schools are great except Stern". WTF? If you feel this way, why did you apply? And at this stage in the game, if you still have a chip on your shoulder about having been rejected by the M7 or wherever, GET OVER IT, or, if rankings matter so much to you, wait another year and reapply to those schools. I think an MBA is too great an investment of your time and money to feel this way about the school you're planning to attend. Not to mention the fact that you're not going to make any friends with that kinda attitude.

Anyway, rant over. It's a gorgeous spring day here in NYC, and I'm off to enjoy a long lazy lunch with some colleagues.

4 comments:

Marina said...

Sounds like you had a great time. Got your email and will write back once I figure out my schedule :)

Hilibilly said...

Congratulations....I'm applying for the MBA2009 and will look forward to reading your Stern experiences and judging if am a good 'fit' or not.

My boss is an old Stern grad, btw and ahem...she's a multi-millionnaire now with yachts in Greece and Chateaus in France...hope that cheers you up after the bitchy admit who claimed other NYU schools are better:-D

FooBarMe said...

Great post. Thanks a lot for filling in my survey.

I actually agree with you on the topic of people wanting to attend B-School but not feeling it. As you said, If someone doesnt like a particular school, they should seriously consider not putting in all the money and reapply elsewhere.

Anonymous said...

Stern is one of schools I would love to attend. Look forward to reading more Stern experience. :)