I'm writing this blog post from South Bend, Indiana, a few miles away from the University of Notre Dame campus. We started out in Boston Saturday morning on our cross-country road trip to LAand have been averaging about 450 miles a day. So far the Honda Civic has been holding up surprisingly well, even loaded full of suitcases and clothes. Apart from driving, audiobooks, iPod shuffle playlists, and lots of Starbucks coffee, here's what the first two days of my trip has looked like so far:
Watching the Anderson pre-orientation Accounting modules: the Parker Career Management Center has provided all incoming 1st year MBA students with a pretty helpful primer on basic accounting concepts and financial statements. They are self-paced and include self-evaluations every few days, as well as a PDF workbook to follow along with Professor Henry Friedman's video instruction. 'So far, I've only got to Day 3 out of 10 of the videos, but they've been extremely helpful for someone coming from a non-traditional background with very little exposure to finance/accounting.
Getting the keys to our new apartment(!): in relatively convoluted fashion, we finally got our apartment keys when we met up with our landlord at a Dunkin Donuts in New Jersey, where she had just finished helping move her daughter into college. Our landlord and her husband are definitely very old-school, "people-centric" property managers- they wanted to meet in person to sign the lease and even walked into UCLA Anderson's financial aid office to confirm with Ji Choi, Anderon's Director of Financial Aid, that I was indeed an incoming MBA student. Biggest takeaway from looking for an LA apartment when you cannot physically be in the city until close to September (like me):
- start early and be patient: the process will likely take longer and be more complicated for you than for people who have the luxury of physically visiting the apartments and meeting the landlord in person beforehand. You have to take into consideration the time it'll take to mail checks, scan applications and documents, etc.
- call, don't just email, and name drop: as with most people, LA property managers seem much easier to get ahold of if you pick up the phone and actually call rather than simply copy and paste emailing a generic template message. Also, the Anderson name carries some weight- it definitely helps boost your credibility as an applicant, so find a way to casually (or maybe not) drop the name of the business school you happen to be attending.
Finding UCLA is everywhere: Since we're on the road for a majority of the day, I've been making it a point to find basketball courts at every stop we make to stretch out, get some shots up, and play some pickup. If you're a college basketball fan, you'll know about John Wooden, the legendary UCLA coach who won 10 national championships in the 60s and 70s. His "Pyramid of Success" is frequently used in coaching, education, and business, and was the first thing I saw when I walked onto the South Bend YMCA gym. Not a huge deal, but a pleasant reminder for me that I am not only joining a group of future business leaders when we arrive on campus at Anderson, but also a larger global UCLA community that is at the forefront of not just business, but medicine, education, athletics, and so much more.
