Finalizing The School List - aim high, shoot high

After browsing through almost 10 school websites, reading numerous blog entries and forum discussions, I have finally come up with the school list. I don't know if I'm aiming too high, but these are the schools that I do really feel like spending my next 2 yrs and will be proud to call it alma mater in the future.

When I first start picking schools, or first start to think about applying for MBA, I was aiming at Finance. It's nothing surprising that so many engineers and IT consultants are switching to Finance service coz that's where the big bucks are. But as I further dig into the field and start to understand what exactly those bankers do, I ask myself if I do want to be someone among them. And it's not surprising again that the answer is I don't. I have been born with the rebellious personality that I don't like to follow others. Hence working in a big organization where I can't make up my own decision should never work with me. And honestly I've had enough of that in my current job, so no more, thanx!

So I went on and search other fields in MBA, and I got the answer: Entrepreneurship! Yes, I've always had this Entrepreneurship spirit which I might have inherited from my parents. It's been years that I have been on and off my family business, and I have always wanted to start a business of my own. Suddenly everything matches together, my goal, my interest, and my focus.

Besides the above thoughts, my other consideration includes Location (major city), Curriculum (flexible or customizable) and Career (short-term goal in Consulting firms). So here comes the final list of schools:

Stanford R1
MIT Sloan R1
NYU Stern R1
UCLA Anderson R2
Rotman R2 (for my Canadian citizenship, but maybe I'll give that up)

Anyway, aim high, shoot high. I am taking risks, as all the entrepreneurs do.

MBA tour in SH

Been to the MBA tour in SH last Thursday. Not many big brand schools there (you can count them by one hand), and I don't apply to any of them. But there were quite a lot of people attending the fair, even including some expats! The only thing i found useful is the lecture on application process given by a Stanford alumni. Here're some of my "take-away points" from his speech:

1. Before you begin the application, deal with the two big questions: WHY MBA? & Which School? If you don't deal with them on the first hand, they will haunt you during the process.
2. The Selection Process.For the 1st round, all the application will be printed out after the deadline, and will be distributed to every adcom.They'll need to read maybe thousands of applications during a weekend, probably won't spend over 5 min on a single application, so u need to be sure that your application is eye-catching enough to be selected into the pool for second thought.And meanwhile, they won't take your nationality/gender/background into consideration in the 1st round, since each adcom can't sync up with all other adcoms.But they will take those factors into consideration after 2nd round, so apply as early as possible.
3. The Essays.You need to differentiate yourself from other applicants, and the best way to do so is to write about the real you in your essay.Pay attention to those details not just in workplace, but from real life.Tell a good story about yourself.Write a profile to list the experiences that's happened to you, the decisions you've made and the things that's important to you, and most importantly, you need to tell WHY!
4. Manage your recommender.Talk to them about the content that they're going to put into your recommendation.Give them a profile of you so they can reference it.Remind them to submit the recommendation on a scheduled basis.Pick the recommenders who know you the best and can tell the most convincing story about you.

so IB or not?

I read this post on BW forum today, about an intern's experience in a IB in HK. What this guy was telling is really frightening, and it definitely shaked my intention to work in IB after MBA. But what's more frightening is: I totally believe that guy. Those kind of things: long working hour, monkey work, layoff happens in IT industry too, especially when I first joined as a "graduate trainee". But it's really hard to imagine, that I'll do those once again when I graduate from B-school? No way! But somehow I can't help but wonder, is it the case with every industry? At least I've heard similar things happening in consulting firms. Is it like the more you are paid, the longer hour you'll work, and the harsher your colleagues will be, and the more stupid your work content will be?

So IB or not?

TOEFL & MBA tour

Last week, I mailed four schools that I'm attended to apply first/second round, about whether they can accept IELTS score instead of TOEFL, coz my last year's IELTS score is still valid while all my TOEFL scores expired. Standford, Stern and Rotman replied, but only Rotman told me they would be glad to accept my IELTS score. (Are Canadian schools more open-minded on these kind of things?) So it seems that I'll need to take TOEFL again! So I'll probably be the lucky one to take first iBT test in SH~ Good luck to myself~

Chasedream forum just released updated news about the MBA tour that's gonna happen on July 20 in SH. But when I see the school list, I'm somewhat disappointed. Though they do have some big names like Wharton, Chicago, Columbia, but I'm not applying to any of these... So now I'm not sure whether I should still go, since I'll have to leave a training early that day if I am going...