Saturday, October 21, 2006

I think I've found D Guy

Not much progress on the Application side during the past week coz i've spent a lot of time on SMS, MSN and phone with D Guy. After several months of just keeping our feelings to ourselves, we finally decided to speak up, which is a really good start for a relationship^_^ The only downside is he's in NYC and I'm in SH, so we have to live up with the time difference... but that just gives me one more reason to go to Stern or Columbia~ Can I put that in my essay? =P

Saturday, October 14, 2006

Big Name Schools In Town

Follow up my last post, I went to the MIT and Stanford info session in SH on two consecutive nights and saw some same faces on two consecutive nights... interesting~ But these two schools are like no other, and I can actually sense the difference between them thanks to the info session, I'll talk in more details in the following.

MIT Sloan
MIT's info session is in Fudan U, my alma mater, which is a little far from downtown. That's also why there were only 40-50 ppl in the hall that day. The presentation given by the Assistant Director of Admission is awesome. This guy knows Sloan very well, and he actually told us a lot about the history of Sloan and the great faculty there. As for the the application, one point worth noting is that he literally said: don't put ur long term plan in the cover letter, cause your plan before MBA might very likely change to something else after MBA. Then there were three alumni to answer the questions. All three are pursuing some form of entrepreneurship right now, that kinda shows that MIT is a school of entrepreneurship spirit.

Stanford GSB
Stanford's info session is just downstairs of my office, that worked great for me. The venue belongs to a company making office furnitures called HAWORTH, and their workspace is like super cool~ basically it feels more like a lounge:P And Stanford, very kindly, offers food for participants:D But there were so many ppl, almost 150 i guess... The presentation is mostly about the academic experience, the new curriculum, and the class size. It actually is the first time I finally start to understand the new curriculum, coz either i'm too dumb, or the website didn't explain it too clearly... That two Stanford alumni are both very funny guys. When talking about one great experience in school, one guy said he organized a Latin Chinese BBQ to bridge the two somehow isolated student communities, and he's proud of it. LOL. Then I asked them to describe the difference between young students and old students, the other guy told me he didn't actually know who's younger or who's older. Only different thing is between married and unmarried students, which married students often go home early, while unmarried ones go party till dawn:P As for application, one indication for the 'what matters most' essay is there have been and will be too many people writing about their family, so if you're planning to write about your family matters to you most, maybe u should think deeper. (i've been to that stage...)

I'm applying to both, but I have to admit that I love Stanford better coz the atmosphere there feels more relaxing and the weather is better. But both are great schools with good entrepreneurship spirit, going to either one will help me in launching my own business. (like I'm really deciding between them....-.-b) But now I really need to get these essays done!

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Upcoming Events

This week, a lot of US top schools are having a China tour, making applicants' schedule very busy here.
Yesterday was Stanford's info session in BJ.
Today MIT's in Tsinghua University, BJ.
Tomorrow, MIT info session in Fudan University, SH.
Friday, Stanford's info session in SH, as well as NYU's session in BJ.

I'm going to attend the MIT and Stanford sessions in SH, but it's a pity that NYU won't come to SH. Another event I would be missing is Zagna's Fashion Show held tomorrow night! My friend at Citibank got me this exclusive VIP pass to the show, but I just have to hear out MIT, so I gave the pass to a friend who got super excited over it. Shit, still can't believe I have to miss the fashion, the runway, and hot guys... MIT better give me some magnificent presentation, or i might run half-way to join my friend :P

Monday, October 09, 2006

Back from Sydney

This blog has been quiet for a while, that's because I went to Sydney to visit my parents. But this trip turned out to be very unpleasant: My parents' customer in Aus refused to pay for the latest production because they suspect one of the factories has stolen their brand and sold their products online. But the weirdest thing is, my parents never subcontract to that factory directly, and those products being sold online is not included in our contract. The customer has been pretty ridiculous, and even sent out a letter by her solicitor requiring my parents to be responsible for this. I can say that's a nightmare for small business. So I had to visit several solicitors in Sydney with my parents, and finally we found one who we think would be able to speak for us. But those legal expenses are hell expensive in Syd, can't imagine if we're really going to court with this customer. Why can't she just calm down and make some sense?

From another perspective, this is actually a good lesson for us. My parents used to run business without any legal protection, that's why this customer can take advantage of us. While we try to keep cost low when running a small biz, legal cost is actually essential. We never realized that till now. The industry has become more complicated than when my parents first started, that's also why they feel incapable of dealing with it any more. Hopefully, after MBA i can continue their business and make it even better.

On the Application side, I just got my TOEFL score yesterday, it's a 113. Weird enough I got 30 in all sections except speaking, but only 23 for speaking! That's very unbalanced...:S But i'm generally told by people that I speak good English, so I don't know what's wrong... Hope those adcom can give me an interview so I can make this up.

As what I said in last post, I've decided to postpone most of my applications to R2 except for NYU. Plus, I've decided to apply for Columbia also, after so many sweet things been told about it, and my strong desire to go to NYC. I'd better be in New York if i'm starting a fashion brand right? So, for the next few weeks, I'm gonna work aggressively on those essays. Hopefully I'll get all drafts done before Nov.

Wish me good luck!