Fit and Community

"Being an international applicant, I couldn't get a chance to visit the Stern campus.
It would be great if you could tell me little bit more about the Stern community and how fit a person from technical background is to Stern"

Regarding fit - to be entirely honest, I'm not sure I know how to answer that question. We do have a lot of engineers, but we also have a lot of people from other backgrounds. Stern really tries to get people from diverse backgrounds and also diverse future interests. It's hard to say how many engineers they would end up admitting because it depends on the size and mix of the applicant pool each year.

Regarding community - Now that I am here at Stern, I can say that our community is truly one of our biggest assets, in addition to our excellent faculty (especially in Finance and Marketing) and our location. One of the most valuable things you gain from your MBA is a lifelong network, and I think Stern really helps build and foster those relationships by establishing a very strong sense of community.

When I first visited Stern as a prospective student, I didn't expect to see a tight-knit community feeling among the students, especially because of the New York location and the lack of a typical campus structure. However, when I was at the information session, the 2 guys who were holding the information session seemed to know everyone! People were in groups everywhere, studying or just hanging out, and everyone seemed to know everyone. It was definitely eye-opening. And now that I am here, I can attest to that.

I think the way you build a community is getting together like-minded people and giving them a lot of opportunity to work and play together. And Stern does this very well - in your first semester, you are divided into Blocks of 60 each, and you take most core classes together with your block, but also do a lot of activities together - there are block parties, block volunteer activities (our block volunteered for the Avon Walk this year), and block dinners with each of our professors for this semester. Through these activities, you get to know everyone in your block pretty well by the end of the first semester. Add to this the different clubs that you will be member of, and all the different events and activities (both formal and alcohol-centric) that each club holds, and you can see how your sense of community and your network builds!