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AUGUST 2001 MBA JOURNAL: INTRODUCTION George Mathew: Who I Am and Why B-School is for Me "After a lot of deliberation, I committed myself to a course of action: I would complete medical school, and training. Then, if I was still dissatisfied with medicine, I would apply for my MBA." It's pretty strange to write this statement, much less make it to other people. I worked at a hospital the last three years, where I made lots of friends, both patients and staff. Of our graduating class, most of my friends are going on to continued specialty training, or eagerly awaiting the opening of their new practice so that they can finally start making an income. When the question comes to me, as to what I want to do, I respond as honestly as possible, "I'm going to Duke for my MBA!" This is invariably followed by confused looks and silence, and followed by a simple "good luck." I can't say I blame anyone for this response. Who in their right mind, after years of education and training in the medical field, would seemingly throw everything away for an entirely different profession? I grew up in Bloomfield Hills, MI, a suburb of Detroit. I went to a local college prep school and did pretty well in terms of grades, enough so that I was accepted into Boston University's Accelerated Medical Program. After three years of undergraduate studies with summer classes, students go straight to medical school. (Imagine being 20 or 21, barely old enough to legally drink, and you're cutting up cadavers!) It was a tough grind, and worsened by the fact I worked part-time jobs at the same time. It was also during this time that I began to wonder if medicine was the right choice for me. Though I enjoyed helping patients, I felt out of place, and with the sheer volume of material and drain on time, I felt lonely, exhausted, and miserable. Finally, personal and financial problems forced me to leave school for a year. It was the first time that I had had to really make my own living, and for the first time in a long while, I actually was enjoying my life. I was sure I wouldn't return to medical school, despite my family's pleas to go back, but I didn't have any idea what to do next. It was actually my best friend, another medical student named Joe, who came up with the solution. Joe was also fairly dissatisfied with his choice of medicine as a career, and had looked into several consulting firms and some of their associates. Joe learned that though most companies valued a graduate degree, they valued clinical experience, more than anything else. He pointed out the surge of physicians getting their MBA's; with the changes in the health care industry and research over the last twenty years, a need had developed for professionals with both healthcare and business knowledge. Many health care workers, including MD's, had gone back to school to get into this market, and even major universities had added MD-MBA programs to their curriculums to fill this need. After discussing it on several occasions, we both decided that we were going to shift gears from medicine to business. For me, unfortunately, this involved the not-too-thrilling prospect of returning to medical school. Again, after a lot of deliberation, I committed myself to a course of action: I would complete medical school, and training. Then, if I was still dissatisfied with medicine, I would apply for my MBA. I'd have to say that the next few years kept me pretty busy. I completed my MD degree, went through the Match process, and landed a training spot in Internal Medicine through Yale University. After moving to Connecticut, I started my residency. I don't know if I can adequately describe what medical training requires of you. All I can say is that after briefly dabbling with the idea of further training, I decided to stick with the original plan of applying to business school. I began to discuss my plan with older physicians, and senior residents, but most had no idea how to advise me down this path. The idea was so alien that many of them could only imagine that I'd go into hospital administration with the MBA, and give up clinical practice forever. With really no one person to turn to, I investigated on my own. I bought or borrowed every book I could find on how to get into business school, and used BusinessWeek's B-School Rankings and message board to help me find out more. (Thanks again to BW Online Reporter Mica Schneider for initially encouraging me!) I came up with a plan of attack so that I could finish up my last year of residency, and adequately complete my applications. After asking around, I signed up for a GMAT course, and then took the computerized GMAT a month later. I obtained the average score at most of the top ten schools, so I happily filed it away and began to work on my essays. Throughout this entire process, my greatest supporter was my friend from school, Joe. He had just completed his Emergency Medicine residency in Philadelphia, and had found a great paying job and apartment in Houston. He even was already planning how he would be applying to UT-Austin as a Texas resident. He had flown back home to visit his parents in Maryland, and invited me down to get ready for a party he was planning for a friend in Philly. I drove down from Connecticut a week after the GMAT's, and began to brainstorm with my friend about my essays. We reminisced about school, and training, and how we both would be getting our MBA's. We toasted ourselves on our future success, and readied ourselves for the party. The following morning, as we were getting up, Joe had a seizure and fell unconscious. His parents called 911, and I rode in the ambulance with him to the local ER. His heart stopped beating on the way there. We coded him for 45 minutes, and then the physician asked me if he could end it. I wordlessly agreed, and then had to break the news to his parents. After a very difficult couple of days, we buried my friend, and then made arrangements to fly to Houston and help close his affairs there. My chief resident arranged so that other residents worked my shifts, but needed me back within the week. I flew back home, emotionally numb, and threw myself into my work as best I could. I couldn't believe that my best friend had passed away in front of me, and that I couldn't do anything to save him. I thought long and hard again about whether business school was the right thing for me. I decided again that it was, and that I had to get into business school this year. This time, however, I was going to do it for both Joe and myself. When the different schools began to offer Open Houses, I tried to sign up for as many as I could. However, I ended up RSVP'ing late because of the funeral, and almost every school turned me down. Almost everyone, that is, except Fuqua. I excitedly signed up for their information session, and attended it post-call on four hours of sleep. The presentation was fairly impressive, but the Health Sector Management (HSM) presentation was intimidating! Everyone was dressed in business suits and dresses, and here I was in a sweater and jeans, with big bags under my eyes. I followed the rest of the group down to the hotel restaurant, and sat fairly quietly as everyone pulled out their business cards and talked about their experiences in consulting or college. Finally, Miss Adele Spitz-Roth, the HSM program director sat in front of me and asked me to introduce myself to her. She then had the Dean and an alumnus sit next to me and talk to me about how my MD could work well with the HSM concentration. The entire time, they made me feel welcome, and I got a chance to see the Team Fuqua spirit up close and personal. I liked what I saw, and at the end of a great dinner, they gave me their information and told me to keep them in mind for applications. More on that in my next entry... After applying, I remember worriedly checking the B-school message board on the morning of March 9, scared that I was going to get a rejection letter. I toyed with the idea of applying even at that late time to more schools, to increase my odds of getting in somewhere. I was in the middle of a patient examination when I received a page to an outside line. I excused myself for a second, walked to the phone, and dialed the extension. It was my interviewer! She happily told me that I was being offered a spot in Fuqua's class of 2003. I screamed so loudly that my patient almost fell off of the table. I had actually gotten into a top five business school! About a month later, I was in Maryland, in front of Joe's grave, still incredulous that I had actually gotten into such a good school. I felt the loss of my friend more acutely than ever at that point, because he wasn't there to celebrate my good fortune with me. Now comes the hard part: The next two years...  To contact George, e-mail him at: gtmbweek@hotmail.com Get BusinessWeek directly on your desktop with our RSS feeds.  Add BusinessWeek news to your Web site with our headline feed. Click to buy an e-print or reprint of a BusinessWeek or BusinessWeek Online story or video. To subscribe online to BusinessWeek magazine, please click here. Learn more, go to the BusinessWeekOnline home page  | | AUGUST Learn about your online education options |
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