Rewinding Those First Weeks

"So far, I believe I made the right decision coming back to business school fulltime"

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David Thanairongroj
Texas - Austin
MBA Class of 2008

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As I write this journal, I am on a flight from Austin, Tex., to New York to visit nine companies in the next three days as part of a multifunctional trek organized by our school, the McCombs School of Business. Some of the companies we'll be visiting are GE (GE), Unilever (UL), PepsiCo (PEP), American Express (AXP), and ESPN (DIS). Unfortunately, since my trek will not officially begin until 7 a.m. tomorrow, I won't be able to share highlights. But I'll definitely summarize this experience in my next entry. In the meantime, I'd like to rewind a little, and share some more insight on the admissions process and give a peek on the activities and emotions you might go through during your first few weeks of class.

Concerning the applications process, the best advice I have is to start as early as possible. Ideally, if I could do it all over again, I would take a GMAT prep course in early June to prepare for the test in August or September. This also gives you the opportunity to retake the test in October to get the best score possible.

Next, I would spend the next two to three months preparing the applications (i.e., filling them out, getting recommendations, requesting transcripts, and writing essays, etc.). Yes, the GMAT is important, but this is your last chance to stand out from the crowd. Work on those personal essays and make them memorable!

Brush Up Your Quant Skills

Finally, be prepared for the interview. If possible, do a mock interview with one of your friends and see how you respond to questions like "Why have you decided to come back to business school?" or "Can you tell me about a time when you were involved in a conflict and how did you handle the situation?" For more examples, try referencing the different schools' essay questions. These may not be the exact questions asked, but you'll be much more prepared for your interviews.

While waiting for your acceptance letter, one extra tip I highly recommend for non-business majors, even if you're an engineer and are good with numbers, is to take a financial accounting, managerial accounting, and finance class at a local university or community college before school starts. More than likely, you will already be at a disadvantage against a third of your smart classmates who have business degrees. I can guarantee that you'll be better off having some background in these courses rather than learning this material for the very first time in a very fast-paced environment.

Hopefully, after this entire process, you will get several phone calls congratulating you on your acceptance. Again, this is just how I would have liked to schedule my time if I could do it all over again. But the point I hope to make is that this process takes time; and the earlier you start preparing, the less pressure you'll put on yourself.

Dollars and Sense

The brief summary above is just half the battle. Now that you've been accepted into B-school, how are you going to finance it? I just quickly read over my first journal (see BusinessWeek.com, 11/28/06, "MBA From Deep in the Heart of Tech") and saw that I already talked about applying early for financial aid. But, in addition to that, I hope the following tips will help you save or make more money.

First, to possibly save thousands of dollars on your health insurance, find out if your current employer has a leave-of-absence (LOA) policy. In larger corporations, employees might be able to take an extended, educational LOA without salary but still keep their current health plan.