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AUGUST 2003 MBA JOURNAL: B-SCHOOL REVIEW Sucharita Mulpuru: Reflections on the Overall MBA Experience "My peers were all so kind and gifted, my professors were magnanimous and brilliant, the administration was supportive and open-minded, and the university was so full of energy and inspiration." In two days time, I'll be heading off for post-business school peregrinations in Europe and Asia. It's hard to believe that my two years at Stanford Business School have gone by so quickly. My time at the GSB was incredibly enlightening, educational, and entertaining, and I can only hope that the years to come will be as inspiring. My final thoughts were too disparate to create a cohesive parting piece, so I decided to conclude with a list of what I thought were the unique experiences that made Stanford so wonderful: 1. The Core Curriculum. Cruel, convoluted, crazy – it has been called many things, but the core was my reintroduction back to academics after a hiatus of nearly seven years. First and foremost, it was functional and quickly (and uneasily) brought me up to speed in many subjects -- such as finance and operations -- in which I had absolutely no background whatsoever. Perhaps a more compelling reason why I have such fond memories of Stanford, is the opportunity it gave me to meet so many of my favorite classmates -- and of course to learn from and about them. One of the school's best features is its culture of collegiality, something that from Day One in my core classes really helped me to quickly befriend so many fellow students. Largely to bolster the perceived rigor of the school, the administration keeps promising to implement measures to increase the workload--and consequently classroom competitiveness -- but I hope that doesn't happen. It would be a true shame to lose one of the best parts of the GSB experience. 2. My 390. "390s" are independent research projects where students work with professors and companies to develop a set of recommendations for an organization with a real problem. This was one of the many opportunities at the GSB to explore real-life ideas. During my first year, I worked with another student and helped to create a marketing plan for the Zagat Guides in the San Francisco Bay Area. It was a phenomenal way to draw upon the experience of a professor and work with a company to address a strategic issue. Without a doubt, our final paper was one of the school projects I found most fulfilling to work on. 3. The Cuba Study Trip. Every year, Stanford sponsors several trips to foreign countries during which students meet with various businesspeople, politicians and academics. My ten-day trip to Cuba was an opportunity to spend time with more than two dozen schoolmates, as well as numerous residents of Cuba. It proved to be one of the most eye-opening experiences of the last several years and was something that I would certainly not have had the opportunity to do without the resources of Stanford. Visiting Cuba from the vantage point of an American business school student was a fascinating experience that gave me an unprecedented critique of our capitalistic society. 4. Small group dinners. A packed social calendar was one of the most memorable parts of school, and the closer we came to graduation, the busier we all became with a flurry of cocktail parties, dinners, and formal events that quickly took over our lives. Some of the bigger productions, such as our class trip to Vegas, were once-in-a-lifetime (thankfully) occurrences, for me. But I most enjoyed smaller dinners where we had the chance to sit, eat, drink, and chat with a more intimate group of about a half-dozen people. Those discussions were often the ones where I had the chance to get to know classmates in ways that a class discussion or massive party never allowed. 5. Year 2 electives. While the core curriculum is emblazoned in my memory for the frequent futile and frustrating moments it engendered, second year was, as promised, much more gratifying academically. A whole slew of the classes I took taught me lessons that I'll carry for years to come – primarily courses in managing people and starting new companies. One of my favorite professors was Irv Grousbeck, the founder of Continental Cablevision. His class on entrepreneurship was one of the most popular in the entire school and he ran it like a workshop, simulating role plays on challenging real-life dilemmas like firing employees, extending offers, managing investors, and much more. He described it as a class in "making choices" and it was subject matter that, while arguably among the most important we would ever learn, is rarely taught anywhere else. 6. Other Stanford classes. Of course, one of the fringe benefits of being at Stanford Business School was the access to the other incredible professors and departments throughout the university. Classmates took creative writing, public speaking, history, international relations, and engineering courses, to name a few. I loved the opportunity to be back in an academic setting and took full advantage of the curriculum "across the street," as non-business school classes were called. I took such classes in four of my six quarters, spanning everything from Hindi to photography to golf – wonderful contrasts to my business requirements in subjects like accounting and human resources. 7. Northern California. The Stanford campus and school activities alone were more than enough to keep me busy, but my experience would never have been the same were it not for day and weekend trips around the Bay Area. Whether it was wine tasting in Napa, dining in the city, hiking in Tahoe, horse-back riding in the central valley, Northern California had far more beauty and entertainment to offer than what I could ever take advantage of during the two years that I was there. At first, I was surprised that so many students have chosen to put down roots in the Bay Area, given the steep housing costs. But once I had a taste of all that the region has to offer, it became more of a mystery why people would decide to leave!8. Summers and the golf course. While classmates went around the world for their summer internships between the first and second years of school, I stayed local and worked at Silicon Valley software giant Intuit. My GSB summer was fabulous in no small part because of the community around me – there were dozens of other classmates who stayed in the area as well and we all frequently gathered together to socialize. In some ways, spending time together proved to be even more fun in the summertime because we did not have looming deadlines, schoolwork and exams in our lives. A big part of the Stanford summer is also the incredible access that we had as students ($20 per round!) to the famed Stanford golf course, which seemed to be even more popular during the summer months than during the school year.
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