First Week in LA

Thank you for the comments and welcomes guys~ It's very exciting to be in a totally new place and starting a totally new life... from scratch! The first day I move into Weyburn (the graduate student apartment where a lot of Anderson live), my room is EMPTY... without any furniture. After several days of furniture shopping, groceries shopping, then furniture assembling, I finally got to sleep on a real bed the day before yesterday and cook a real meal (Chinese dishes, yummy!!) yesterday for lunch! Big progress in just one week time~ And thank god I got a very cool roomie who is a Taiwanese and loves my cooking^^

School wise, I've met majority of our Greater China students body and am starting to meet more and more Anderson ppl (even bumped into one when I was getting my Bruin card...) A lot of ppl ask me how I feel about LA, I think I love it so far except for the hot wave which reminds me of Shanghai. Another thing is I just found out LA is so big after I moved here, it's like normal that you drive over 10 miles to go shopping or visit a friend... It's been really painful that I don't have a car (I had one in Shanghai tho I don't need it to go to a lot of places)... But thanks to my nice classmates and roommate who have been driving me around!

Alright, so much for the first week, Ciao~ (I learn the line from Diego haha)

In LA, finally!

I haven't been able to update this blog when I was in China. Now I'm in LA finally!

Guy Kawazaki on The Art of Innovation

Was linked to the Zentation.com site by Presentation Zen, a blog about everything related to presentations, and discovered this very inspirational presentation given by Guy Kawasaki on the book "the Art of Start". In case you don't know Guy, you should read his blog. Or maybe if you want to be a banker, then you can skip this. Guy is such a funny person (I hesitated about using "guy" here), and every time I read his blog, I can feel the entrepreneurial passion inside me. That's because his blog is called "How to change the world", haha~ Anybody ever thinks about starting something should listen to this!

Guy Kawasaki - The Art of Innovation 55:38 Guy Kawasaki at the 2007 Event Marketer Conference

Macbook Or Not?

Is not a problem for me. Coz I already have one, and I will not and cannot get a new laptop in one year at least. I'm writing this for those who are still struggling between macbook and thinkpad. But I guess except for Apple and Google, there won't be many other companies who will give u a macbook for work laptop, so this might be your once in a lifetime chance to own and work on a cool chic computer and with a cool chic operating system. So think about it;)

First, Pro or not? If you have the money and you can lift heavy stuff, you should definitely get a pro. The screen looks better and the keyboard feels better. Besides, the chip is faster and I guess if you work with a big RAM the system can be very powerful. I don't have the money plus I don't like carrying heavy laptop, so I just got a macbook, white. So the following points are based on my experience with my little 13" macbook.

Second, upgrade the RAM! Now the macbook comes with 1G RAM out of box, while when I bought it, it was 512MB and I had to upgrade it to 1G. Still I feel that 2G will be even better considering I sometimes like to listen to iTunes while working on Photoshop. Actually the upgarde is much cheaper than it was, plus you can find some provider on eBay who offer 2G RAM for around $110. So why not?!

Third, Office 2004. Office 2004 seems so advanced comparing to Office 2000 I had on my previous work laptop. But MS never stops taking money out of pocket so here comes Office 2007 (for Windows, released) and Office 2008 (for Mac, beta testing). I have seen macbook+free Office 2004 at a local Apple store in Sydney but not sure whether that's valid for US as well. If it is, then it might be a good deal. One thing I'm not sure is how Office 2004 and 2007 interacts, becoz I've had some problem with different versions of office file don't work together. Considering there will be a lot of teamworks and exchange of files in B-school, that might be a problem.

Fourth, Windows & Mac Side by Side. You'll still need Windows, surely. Coz some of the softwares required by B-school can only run on Windows. But, with the help of Parallels/Bootcamp/VMware, it's pretty easy to get Windows and Mac OS to run side by side. Personally I'm running Parallel and am pretty satisfied with it.

Finally, softwares I love most on Mac: Quicksilver(totally change the way you launch applications), Adobe Creative Suite 2 (still thinking about whether to upgrade to CS3 or not), Adobe Lightroom, iSync (sync your cell phone via bluetooth), iCal(D calendar you ever need). Last but not least, Mac OS, it's nothing like Windows, trust me.

McK Reception

McK held a reception at their Shanghai office for this year's MBA admits this Thur. Their new office is in this building called the Platium, which is very close to my old office. I had to say their office is gorgeous! You can overlook the busiest business district in Shanghai through the glass wall. The venue for the reception is in a cafeteria inside their office, and if it's not IN their office, I would think it's some high end restaurant. But the finger food they served definitely needs to be improved...

We had one senior partner and many associates joined us, answering our questions. But as one of my friend call it, "Brain Wash", McK delivers very strong message about their values and their impacts. I talked to one associate who has served in McK for 8 years, and he obviously believes in the McK values very strongly. McK provides the best quality of service in consulting, McK does what's best for clients, McK recruits the most talented ppl and McK never forces you to work long hours or on projects you hate... Not sure how much of these are true, but even half of them are, then McK must be worth working for at least for a couple of years. And it's also impressive that they reach out to future MBAs at such an early stage.

What's Been Keeping Me Busy

Thanks guys for all the compliments on my photos! Really the best thing a photographer can have is people say you take great photos^_^ So now I'm gonna reveal a little more about what I've been working on these days -- Photoshop.



I PSed this photo I took on SF street using the techniques in this tutorial by Chuck Anderson, the guy behind No Pattern. I've always been a big fan of him, so it's really cool to learn his tricks.
The original photo here

What do you guys think? Love it or hate it?

So Tired of Waiting =.=

Have changed my ticket to Sydney to June 5th. I don't think my I-20 will arrive before my May 29th visa appointment, but let's see. If not, I'll just get my visa in Aug when I'm back from Syd. I'm so tired of waiting and not being able to set the schedule... The US embassy in SH is so busy, that the next available date is June 29th already. I won't wait a month just for a stupid visa interview so let me just deal with it later. Finally, Sydney I'm coming!

Beautiful B-school Photo Contest Winner!

I might not be the best of blogger, but I do shoot beautiful B-school photos, haha~ I uploaded the photos I took at Stanford to Accepted.com, and guess what, I won the first prize! Seems the result has been out for a while but I only got the news when I checked my email today. Almost missed my $200 amazon coupons, oops... This is the first time I ever get rewarded with money for the photos I take. Now I can tell my mom, maybe I can make a living just taking pictures^_^

The Unknown Schedule...

Updates since last post: I've left my work, and begun my long summer vacation. Everything is great, sleeping to noon, cook stuff for myself, play station & some korean tv series to kill time. Except for one thing: I haven't got my I-20 yet considering my visa appointment is only two weeks away...

I only found out last week that my English test score report never reached Anderson... and they only let me know by then...-.-b Then when I went to resend the report, the staff gave me "It needs to go thru a process so we can only send out next Thur" which is May 17th. And guess what, the score report is the reason why the UCLA graduate school hasn't let me fill out that intention to enroll form online and they wouldn't even process my I-20 without me filling it first!!! So far I still haven't got access to that form and thus, the date for me to receive my I-20 is still unknown... I will have to postpone my visa appointment to an unknown date in the future, and the same for my ticket to Sydney...:S I got really bad luck with score reports this year, what can I say...

Horrible... :S

What happened at Virginia Tech this Monday was just horrible... I can't understand what this kid is saying, that he must do this, for his children, brothers and sisters... Maybe he's just mentally ill.

But when the news first came off this Monday, there was a local newspaper reporting that the shooter is a Chinese student, who went to US with a visa issued in Shanghai! Then Foxnews also cited that reporter and said the source is quite credible. That news was BIG among Chinese students and all the future MBAs here, becoz ppl are worried that this might affect the student visa policy towards China. When the authority announced the shooter was from Korea, we were all relieved... But still, it's quite irresponsible for that reporter to make a wrong accusation in the first place! Maybe Asians look similar, but a visa issued in Shanghai?? Where does that story come from?

I hope this incident won't leave a bad impression of Asians in the states... Actually I can assure you that majority of Chinese students have not even seen a gun before! Guns are banned in China, maybe they should be banned in US as well...

I Am Bought

It's official, I have accepted Anderson's offer. I paid the $1000 deposit last night, and now ready to embrace the Californian sunshine~

Update: UCLA vs NYU: My Discovering:

- Both are reputable finance schools, but if you wanna work for IB/on wall street, go to NYU! NYU has the unshakable advantage regarding jobs on wall street, proved by that 60% of the students go into financial services sector after graduation. On the other hand, ppl say UCLA has an advantage in PE/VC in Silicon Valley, but you need to compete with Stanford and Haas guys for this handful of job openings... But really nothing is impossible!

- NYU seems to offer a good career service to students, especially international students. But a lot of companies out of financial service/consulting/tech area DO NOT recruit international students becoz of visa issues. Then I guess there's nothing the career service can do about that... The problem with UCLA recruitment is school starts at Oct 1 here, which is one month after most other schools. But the companies don't treat Anderson differently than other schools, so students at Anderson need to really work hard to catch up on the schedule, especially for those wanting a summer internship at financial service/consulting... Plus, some companies don't fly to west coast to recruit, therefore Anderson ppl might need to fly out for interviews.

- I saw somebody asked about entertainment program on another blog, and the answer was that NYU's program focus more on TV networks, while UCLA's program focus more on film companies.

- Since I am also considering consulting as a possible career choice after MBA, I consulted an alumni who worked for AT Kearney after Anderson. He said that there might not be as much big firm opportunities as in east coast, but there are a lot of boutique consulting firms focusing on particular industry or functions. It's not hard to land a consulting job in those firms. Plus, BCG, AT Kearney are among the big recruiters at Anderson.

- People from both schools are nice, with no attitude. I was especially surprised by the NYU ppl, coz I thought NYC ppl are snorbish (most of ppl there still are... but Stern ppl are different somehow). Anderson ppl are quite laid-back, and cool, seem to enjoy life a bit better than New Yorkers :P

- Living wise, I might have to say I would love living in LA better, coz I'm really really afraid of cold weather :S Plus, apartments around NYU are much more expensive than around UCLA (of coz one is downtown, and the other is just a suburb). At NYU ppl don't drive, they take subways all the time (driving would be expensive in NY and cabs would be hard to find when you need them.. kinda like Shanghai). While at LA, you have to drive, or you won't get to anywhere by yourself. I prefer owning a car, it's like owning your freedom!

That's it from me I guess... Pls feel free to add more if you know anything about the two schools. I'm sorry I'm gonna miss NY fashion week, but then I can join LA fashion week. Or maybe I should fly over to see it anyway, if anybody can give me access :P

Update: Thanks anonymous Anderson student for posting the comment to supplement my discovering about Anderson. I'm attaching it here for reader's convenience.

First: UCLA is not in surburb :)) LA is a different city to NYC. NYC has large downtown while LA has just a small downtown. The location of UCLA is not surburb either.

Second: recruiting

Finance: UCLA has pretty good placement on the street. All top banks come to recruit and this year they recruit almost 70 students here considering the class size and very diversified interest, this is very good ratio.

Consulting: I agree that UCLA is not strong in this area. McK didnt come to campus this year but AT BCG Deloitte came. However, I would say that the chance for consulting guys still can not be compared to finance guys here.

Living and food: You will fall in love with LA for sure. :)

40K from UCLA! Gee...

Just when I thought I have made a decision, I received this: Congratulations! You have been selected to receive a fellowship from UCLA Anderson. And the amount is $40,000 over 2 years! Argh... This msg on Sat morning has been keeping me boiled during the whole weekend...

I would say Anderson ppl must have read my mind, and gave me this msg right after I was shocked at the high cost of living in NYC... Some fellowship money is much appreciated now! Now for me, it's money vs potential career opportunities in NYC... any oppinion guys?

Oh, PS: I'm so thrilled to be nominated as best of blogging at ClearAdmit! I wouldn't say I'm the best blogger coz I feel I've learned so much from other fellow bloggers and they obviously write better articles than I do. But it's really a great pleasure to walk this journey with you guys~ It's almost like a virtual community here ^_^

Now The Game Is OVER

At this point of time for me, my whole MBA application process is over. I got in NYU and UCLA, got dinged by Columbia, MIT and Stanford. 2-3. I think that result pretty much tells what kind of person I am, and what kind of schools I fit. I'm still trying to do something different, and I swear to god, no matter how tempting the wall street job looks, I won't do Finance!

So far, I'm 90% sure about going to NYU. Mainly because of the opportunities to be closer to big Fashion/Retail companies. I have begun to dream of sneaking into a Fashion show during Fashion Week... :P The other 10% of me is still in love with the Californian weather and beach. These days, I've been asking myself whether I chose NYU becoz of him, but my answer is the city is a lot more attractive than this guy. Now I'm really looking forward to the new life I'm gonna start in the big apple!

the Expected and Unexpected

Something expected happened on Apr 2: I got dinged by MIT. Since I was not a big fan of Sloan at the first place, I wasn't that surprised to be rejected. The decision letter said there were well over 3,000 applicants this year, competing for 324 seats. That's really a tough war!

Something unexpected happened on Apr 1: me and my bf broke up. Don't ask me why or how, coz I myself don't exactly know. But I guess, long D doesn't work, after all...

It's interesting how life always give us something while taking something else away from us. But somehow we always reminisce our loss more than appreciate our gain.

Now I'll try to be cool with my heart broken...

Admitted by UCLA Anderson

I just got admission Email from UCLA this morning, so now I have a really tough decision to make...

UCLA vs NYU on Entrepreneurship, any advice?

Submitting LOR

LOR=Letter of Resignation... Yes, I've finally got to this moment. I just sent out an Email to my boss, set down the last day as Apr 30 and thank him for his support. I had a conversation with him the week before, and he was very supportive. He also thanked me for notifying him early, so that he could prepare for it.

Finally, it's time to leave my first job. Why do I sound sad? No, I'm very glad about that! Imagining the next two months vacation in Sydney~~ Sweeeet~

Dinged by Columbia

First ding for me came in last Friday... (actually Sat morning for me) I'm pretty sure there'll be more coming (Stanford, MIT...) coz I haven't heard from them ever since I submitted my application. Anyway, I'm just not made for them.

UCLA interview

Went to the interview at the alumni's office near my college. He turned out to be an undergrad alumni of mine too. He is a very nice person, we started chatting in Chinese. He asked me how well do you know Anderson? So I told him about my visit. Then he also asked what are the other schools I visited. I was kinda nervous, but still told him the truth. And I did emphasize that I love California very much, mostly becoz of the weather, and the life style there. Next, we switched to English and started the official interview. The questions he asked are as follows:

1. Walk me through your resume (he interrupted me to ask about one of my job functions in the company)
2. What's your strength/weakness
3. Is there a time your boss doesn't agree with you? Example?
4. Example of teamwork experience
5. What's your career aspiration?
6. How's your experience at current company related to ur future career goal (since my aspiration is entrepreneurship)
7. What do you think is the essential thing for the success of an entrepreneur?

Finally, I asked him whether he could share his experience with Anderson. It turned out that he has been working in IT consulting, MC, and financial services in the past, and has only joined the current company (an internet startup) for several weeks. The current company was started by his friend, also a Fudan Alum. When I asked him how helpful he thinks the Anderson experience is in working for a startup, he said he never imagined himself working as an entrepreneur before, even after graduating from Anderson. But the entrepreneurship atmosphere has affected him bit by bit, and finally took him to his current position. He also strengthened how much he loves about living in California. ^_^

He walked me to elevator after the interview, and told me to call him whenever I have a question. Overall speaking, the experience is very pleasant. No tough questions, very relaxing.

Stern Admission & Anderson Invitation

Received my Admission via Email last night, just before I got totally beaten up by jetlag! Nothing beats the first admission~ ^_^

And this morning, I received Anderson's alumni interview invitation. They say good things come in three, wondering what the third thing might be... Anyway, it's great to have an admission on hand, and knowing that I'll be able to study somewhere in Fall. Besides, Stern is definitely not just somewhere. Judged from what I saw from my visit, I have a lot of reasons to love the friendly and vibrant community. Though NYC is dirtier and more crowded than I thought, it still has its charm. If I get admitted by UCLA also, I would have a tough choice to make... But it's already lucky for me to have that chance to choose, isn't it?

Next step, I'm going to call my boss and tell him I won't be working here for long... Hope he can take it well...

Stern Interview

Had my Stern interview on Mar 1 afternoon on campus (there's no campus actually, just in the Kauffman building). The whole interview went on for 30min, and the questions are pretty standard. The adcom was very friendly, and she encouraged me to talk about my past work experience, and what I want to do in the future. It felt just like those conversations I had with my friend when I told them why I want to get an MBA.

The question details as follows (there are some other small questions but I can't remember exactly):
1. Tell me about your past work exp
2. What do you like about your job
3. What do you want to change about your job
4. What activities do you want to join after you come to Stern
5. How do you choose schools
6. If you come back to give a speech at Stern in 10 years, what would be your achievement

I think these questions have already appeared in Clearadmit wiki and Accepted DB.

I also sat in a class in the morning and had lunch with a current student. The class was a case based, and the prof was very interesting. Another impressive thing is Stern students seem very nice and friendly, several students came to introduce themselves and wished me and another prospective student good luck in the interview. I finally met Rubeo boy in NYC, and he is such a fun person to hang out with^_^

the Pursuit of Happyness

Just watched the movie "the Pursuit of Happyness" today, and I think it's very inspiring! It's a movie about how Chris Gardner, a homeless single father, struggled from the bottom of society to the top. What amazes me is, he never quit pursuing his dream as a stock broker, even when he was in the worst situation. Working during the day w/o being paid, and trying to find a place to sleep every night? That's something I couldn't even imagine.

There was a scene, when Chris went out of jail with dirty jacket with paints all over it, and ran directly to an interview. He came in and said, "I couldn't make excuses about why I dress like this... I'm the type of person that if you ask me a question which I don't the answer, I'd say, I don't know. But I know how to find out that answer and I'm gonna find out." He said it as he was so sure about it, that impressed the interviewer. I think that's some amazing interview skill.

While we think we're working our ass off to complete the MBA application, this movie is a good reminder that there're other ppl in worse situations and working even harder than us. At least, I don't have to worry about getting my ends meet or raising a kid. Yet I think, the strong spirit of pursuing dreams and happiness is universal. I just wish I have the same spirit to pursue my MBA and my dream as an entrepreneur.

Planning a US Trip & NYU interview

Got through my visa interview yesterday. It went very well and I got my visa in just 5 min. I waited for two hours before the interview tho... Now I'm planning a trip to US from Feb 23 to Mar 11, which is after the Chinese New Year. I plan to visit Bay area, New York and maybe Chicago.

What's even better is I received NYU's interview invite today. Will try to schedule an on-campus interview and sit in a class. I'll also visit Stanford and Columbia, will wait and see if they'll give me interview invite before my trip. This is exciting, finally get the chance to see these great schools and sit in MBA classes. Plus, I get to meet my boyfriend and a lot of other friends. Really looking forward to it~

Now on the waiting bench...

I'm finally done with all the apps! But it doesn't feel so relaxed as I expected... Seeing all the people reporting admissions/interview on businessweek/chasedream just make me anxious... On the other hand, things at workplace is pretty hectic...

I'm thinking about the next step, such as whether I should quit my job to take a break in Sydney? It might be risky to quit before I hear anything from the schools, but I really think I need to change a job... I'm also planning a trip to US in end of Feb or early Mar, to visit my bf mainly. I also hope to visit some schools and sit in some classes. Would be even better if I can get an interview or two. But first, I need to deal with the visa interview...

Stanford Submitted!

Finally! Stanford application is the one I look upon to a lot. It is my dream school, meaning I would trade anything for an admission at Stanford. Thanks to David, Malana who helped a lot on the essays at the very moment when I was lost. Thanks to my honey, you're my inspiration^_^ I am satisfied with the apps now, and I think it does reflect who I am from all perspectives. Next I can just wait and see whether the adcoms agrees with my point or not.

Only MIT to go now! I'm a little tired of writing about myself, so soon I'll see an end to it. Yeah!

The Approaching Deadline, The Broken Internet

First of all, Happy New Year everybody! Wish all of us a lucky 2007, and some admission letters^_^

Last week, because of an earthquake in Taiwan, the optic cables connecting Asia Pacific to US were broken. Therefore a lot of applicants in AP region had problems accessing the school websites and the online application systems. This morning, MIT has sent out an email reminder of a postponed deadline of Jan 26 for applicants in AP. That is a truly great news! MIT is the first to postpone their deadline for the network problem. Hopefully other schools would consider this too. On the other hand, according to the news this morning, network is back 80%, and it is proved by that I can open UCLA's online application and Stanford's website now, just very slowly. Considering Jan 3 is UCLA's deadline, (and no sign of postponing), Anderson's applicant should be grateful to the people trying to rescue those cables on the sea now.