The MBA Student Voice

The Big Move

This week I will be making my big move to Los Angeles so wanted to share my insights on moving logistics. When it comes to finding an auto transporter, reading reviews is very important. I put my phone number on a booking website and companies started reaching out, most of them pointing to a particular auto transporter review website. After checking out the website it seemed to be carefully monitored by all these companies and I doubted I would find honest reviews. Yahoo, Google and Yelp however gave a good balance of reviews for most auto transporters and the reviews for one company were usually consistent across the different websites. In addition to reading online reviews I talked to people who had moved their cars in the past and heard firsthand about their experiences. I ended up choosing my company based on the experiences of two of my close friends. I am yet to receive my car in LA but hoping it will be a smooth experience.

Moving furniture is pretty much the same deal, reading the reviews online and if possible talking to people about companies they have used in the past. One thing I did learn was that the companies base their shipping estimate on cubic feet. So when they quote you a certain price based on the inventory list, keep in mind that price might go up on moving day i.e. how much stuff you actually take with you. I underestimated the number of boxes I would need by almost half and that ended up increasing the total cost quite a bit. So always make sure you check the cost per cubic feet instead of just item list when comparing prices between companies.

On a general note, I have always gone with a slightly more expensive company if their reviews were better instead of finding the cheapest one. I felt I would be paying for damages and lost items by getting the cheapest option and in the end the total cost would go up anyway.

My next blog will be from California, can’t wait to begin the next chapter of my life and start my Anderson adventure.

Here is a picture of my farewell party from last weekend. See you soon LA!

The End of Two Years, The Beginning of a Lifetime

A little over six weeks ago, I graduated. Almost two years ago to the day, I moved to Los Angeles. 

Wow. 

I felt prepared for business school before I had started - I'd been given advice by recent grads, read blog posts, done some prep work, but there is nothing that can truly prepare you for the transformative experience that takes place over two years. Even by the end of year one, when I thought "Ok, now I know what to expect in year two", I didn't appreciate how much could be packed into the remaining 50% of my time at Anderson. 

Now that I've had a chance to step away from school and decompress a little bit, I wanted to write one final post to share some lessons learned and thoughts, along with a good collection of photos from my Anderson journey. The thoughts are in no particular order of importance, but the pictures start from pre-Anderson and end at graduation.

Enjoy!

Pre-MBA / Starting MBA advice

(Statue of John Anderson at the entrance to school)

If you are considering applying to business school or have already applied, you've probably spent a lot of time thinking about what getting an MBA means in the context of your career. Yes, an MBA is a means by which you can career switch or advance further in your current field, but a full-time MBA is also a two year experience that has a significant personal life impact. 

Time to move again! - Repost from Financial Times

Originally posted on Financial Times MBA Blog - http://blogs.ft.com/mba-blog/2014/07/28/time-to-move-again/

 

The shortest I have lived in a city is six days and the maximum is five years. I was only six days old before my parents moved from Karnal, a small town in northern India to Bangalore, also known as the Electronic City of India. 

Since both my parents were working, I would spend my day with three different families, who were speaking three different languages. Before I even knew it, I had moved to three cities in India and three countries in the Middle East by the age of 12. And that’s how discovering new places and experiencing new cultures became a passion.

MBA application tips for fast approaching deadlines

It is that time again – less than two months until the first MBA application of the year is due! Hopefully by now you are already knee deep in the application process, but if not don’t fret because some careful planning and committed execution can get you into the school of your dreams.

In this post I want to focus on three factors – the GMAT, application essays, and interview.

GMAT: If you have already taken the GMAT and scored in your school’s target range, then stop reading here and move to the next section because retaking it and getting those 10 extra points won’t give you near as much of an advantage as having carefully crafted, articulate essays. If you have yet to take the test, or achieve your target score, then you better rethink what you are doing this Friday night and set a library date with your study materials. My recommendation: select the Manhattan GMAT guides that correspond to your four weakest areas and master one a week for the next month. It is difficult to overstate the importance of the GMAT in the application process.

Essays: In my applications, the essays were by far the most challenging aspect. How could I package my life story into 750 words or fewer? The simple answer is I didn’t need to, and neither do you. What you do need to do is paint a picture for the admissions committee – provide them with a story or a tidbit that will force them to remember you and leave them no choice but to invite you for an interview to hear more. Who are you more likely to remember; the accountant who graduated with high honors and a 750 GMAT, or Caroline the girl who used her passion for accounting and education to help a Brazilian nonprofit locate $200K in misallocated funds that were reapportioned to help build a new school? Everyone has a story that makes them unique, find yours and use it.

The second part of my essay advice is something I wish I had done more of – show the schools that you know what makes them unique….and let me tell you the culture, curriculum, and great professors are not enough! Dig deeper and find something that the students are proud of and use specific examples. At UCLA, our orientation period is extremely important to develop the relationships that make our class so cohesive. And we are extremely serious when it comes to Challenge 4 Charity (which can be seen in our participation and sports day domination this year), so read up on specific topics that interest you and write about them.

Interviews: Once we get closer to releasing interview invitations I will do a separate post on interview tips, but for now my advice would be as soon as you click submit on that application, start practicing for your interviews. Develop a clear, concise story for every question you may be asked, and practice delivering them to friends, family, or the mirror because the interview is now the last hurdle standing between you and two of the best years of your life.

UCLA Anderson doesn't mess around at C4C!

Matt Harris

Class of 2015

Welcome to "The Anderson Family"

"How did you decide which business school to attend?" That is arguably the #1 question I get asked as a current Anderson student. I tend to offer a smile with the answer I share because I know there really is no succinct way to explain all of why Anderson was the right choice for me. That said, when deciding between schools I remember my gut telling me I needed to surround myself with the people at Anderson. The students simply over-delivered on all the qualities I was looking for from my MBA peer group; off the charts intelligence, inspiring work ethics, diverse & accomplished backgrounds, highly personable, grand ambitions, compassionate, and risk-taking. 

But talk is cheap. To illustrate why I'm so smitten with my classmates, I asked them to contribute to this story. And in true Anderson fashion they took time out of their intense internship schedules to share these special moments from their Anderson experience. 

Question: "How have your Anderson classmates supported you in making an impact or be a more meaningful team member during your internship?" 

"I wanted to do strategy and operations work at a startup this summer and was fortunate to land a spot at a cool LA startup, Club W, a wine eCommerce retailer. While my position doesn’t require a sommelier's knowledge of wine, fellow intern, Brooke Matthias, is always available to lend her expertise. Not only does she have an answer for all my wine inquiries, it’s nice to have a friendly face around the small office!" - Kit Swain, Operations Intern, Club W

 

"I was completely overwhelmed in my first week. My project required Excel skills that were above and beyond anything I was familiar with. I asked for help on our Anderson SF FB page and received over 20 responses from classmates offering to help. Nick Evans spent an hour with me after work giving me a lesson in excel formulas and Alexis Lobodocky offered a midday phone call to help me troubleshoot. It made me so proud and happy to be part of such a supportive community!" - Margot Bloch, Corporate Restaurants & Bars MBA Intern, Commune Hotels & Resorts

 

"It's been so wonderful having Jenni Yamamoto here at Nike with me! We have really helped one another to navigate and maximize the Nike internship experience. It's also been amzing to explore Portland with the Adidas interns Jacqueline Gantes, Matt Ferrer, and Joel Ramirez. We have created a fun and supportive Anderson Portlandia intern family!" - Lindsay Shaffer, Global Consumer Knowledge Intern, Nike

 

"I'm not necessarily one to reach out and search for help, even when I desperately need it (often.) Even so, whenever I spoke to one of my classmates during the first several weeks of my internship, they were convincingly quick to thoroughly dismiss any concerns of failure or inadequacy I had and replace them with pointed pieces of feedback full of unwavering encouragement. The belief they displayed in me was both humbling and invigorating. And is definitely going to lead to a $1,000,000 signing bonus." - Dan Brown, Client Development Consultant Intern, Gallup

 

"The Anderson Veterans Association provides a platform in which veterans, who share a deep sense of camaraderie and patriotic responsibility, can impart the knowledge we have acquired through extensive leadership experience to our civilian classmates. In turn, our classmates exhibit a profound degree of willingness to help the student veteran community with business concepts we may be less familiar with." - Brendan Hancock, Strategic Sourcing & Procurement Intern, The Walt Disney Company

 

“The capstone project that I received during my summer internship is closely related to an elective course that I took winter quarter at Anderson. Unfortunately, I did not save any of the class materials that I needed to refererence for this project. I reached out to Arek Santikian and Micah Davis, and within a few hours, they searched their archived files and sent me all of our relevant class notes along with their offer to help me if I had any questions. I can say with great confidence that we all care about each other’s success and I think that speaks very highly of the Anderson community.” - Annette Cheyne, Marketing Strategy & Analytics Intern, Nordstrom

 

"The Anderson family has been amazing this Summer. From offering the occasional (but sometimes much needed) moral boost, to reviewing each others' projects, I feel extremely lucky to be a part of such a supportive family. One week into my internship I reached out to a classmate for guidance on how to best present a report to my manager. I only expected a short response back but instead he went above and beyond, providing me with examples and showing me how to best approach what I was doing. Also, we are currently submitting our materials for conversion to full employment. My fellow Anderson interns at Google offered to review each others' materials before submitting. It's nice to know that we are a cohort that focuses on shared success!" Suzy Crawford, Large Customer Sales - Gaming, Google, Inc. 

 

I'd love to hear your questions and comments regarding UCLA Anderson. Check back in soon for more from me throughout the summer! Cheers!

You can follow Zubin at
Twitter: @ZubinDavar
Instagram: @mr_zubs
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zubindavar

Why Anderson? (Part 2)

This is somewhat of a continuation to my previous post.  As an applicant/prospective student, I know how valuable it was in my decision making process to hear why people decided to attend a particular school.  As a way to pay it forward, I decided to ask some recent graduates, current students, and fellow incoming members of the Class of 2016 the question, “Why Anderson?”  I just wanted to thanks to everyone that responded!  So, here it goes.  (WARNING: This is a beast of a post)

One recent graduate, who played a huge part in me deciding on Anderson said, “I had a great career in New York, and I wasn't sure I needed to go to business school, and if I did, I thought I wanted to go to one of the top five schools. When, I was introduced to Anderson, however, my perspective changed completely. The students were ambitious but supportive of each other, and were the happiest people of any business schools I had visited. From Ivy Leaguers to Iraq War veterans to former male models, the class was more diverse than I thought possible, and I knew I could learn a lot from these people. I decided to go to Anderson over other, higher ranked schools, because it simply felt right. I have never once regretted that decision.”  She continued, "Anderson has been nothing short of a transformational experience. I became incredibly involved early on in my first year, and I have most enjoyed getting to know every one of my classmates through student government, professional organizations, and fun Anderson traditions like football tailgates, C4C Charity Weekend, and Lit Club. As I graduate, I feel lucky to have made such incredible new friends, and I know it is a network of impressive people that will help me for the rest of my life."

Why Anderson? (Part 1)

It looks like Piyush and I are either on the same wavelength.  That or we are both incoming students excited about Anderson!  Anyway, let me get started.  After the long grueling b-school application/interview process, I was fortunate enough to have been accepted to a few of the top schools in the country, including Anderson.  Having poured almost every ounce of my energy over the past two yar into the GMAT, applications, essays, and interview prep, I felt so relieved to know that I would be attending b-school at one of my top choices.  However, I didn’t realize how much effort it would take to decide which one of these school I wanted to attend.

Once I had heard back from all the programs I applied to, I revisted all the research I had done when deciding to apply to these schools.  I made pros and cons lists, read more blogs, visited websites, and spent countless hours discussing my options with my wife.  I was torn.  One day I would feel good about one school.  Then the next day it would be another.  I knew I needed a better understanding of what life as a student would be like at each one of these programs, and I knew I wouldn't be able to get a complete feel of that just by visiting school websites.  I began contacting as many current students as I could.  After talking to a couple students from each school, I was still feeling torn.  However, as time went on, and the more students I talked to, the clearer it became that Anderson was the place for me.

Why UCLA Anderson?

Like most B-school applicants, I applied to a bunch of schools and was very fortunate to choose between top business schools both in US and India. Anderson became one of my top choices as I learnt about the school through current students, alumni, forums, admission chats and the school website.

As an international student, I was unable to visit the school but I recommend all prospective applicants to invest in this exercise. You not only experience the school's culture but also strengthen your application.

I still remember the email and phone call I received from the Anderson admissions team. I struggled to open my application on the tiny iPhone screen and read the admission offer letter multiple times before breaking the news to my friends and family.

Why UCLA Anderson?
For me, UCLA is an awesome school with a global brand and which will give me a solid general management education, not to mention its in southern California so the lifestyle and weather is outstanding. It attracts a broad array of industries in recruiting including top consulting and Fortune 500 firms.

India vs USA
You really can’t compare Indian business schools to schools in United States. The schools are catering to different markets. It’s like comparing apples to mangoes. Since I had to decide between the two countries, I did my due-diligence. India scores more on the economy growth front, job placements numbers, and cost. But, US schools such as Anderson stand out for job readiness, leadership, exposure, diversity and experience.

 

Forte Women's MBA Conference 2014

Aside from Commencement, another exciting event that took place on campus in June was the annual Forte Women's MBA Conference. This was the second time UCLA Anderson hosted the conference (the first time was in 2012).  Among the hundreds of attendees from around the country was incoming UCLA Anderson Forte Fellow Sarah Wolf who shared some insights on the event below.  Read on to learn more!

Arrived in LA!

Hello again! There are so many things to share since my last post, so let me start with the biggest update: I made the cross-continental leap from East Coast to West Coast and will be posting from Los Angeles from here on!

The move went pretty smoothly, but it's not quite complete... Most of our stuff is actually in storage in NY and will follow us here once we move into a permanent apartment in early August. Our cars arrived here separately via truck, in one piece! (The various minor bumps/scratches accumulated from tight, NYC parallel parking "squeezes" are still there - right where we left them!) For now, we are staying at Ruti's parents' place in Central LA. (Because Ruti's parents live here, we decided to do apartment-hunting post-move. More on the apartment question in a bit...)