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SEPTEMBER 2002 MBA JOURNAL: INTRODUCTION Amber Clark: Who I Am, and Why B-School Is for Me "Okay, the truth is that up until last October I hadn't even thought about getting an MBA. I knew I wanted to take my life in a new direction - September 11 had convinced me of that." It was time to go in a new direction, and graduate school seemed like a good place to start. I had two degrees already, one in math and one in technical writing, but I'd never really let myself have the college experience. I'd gone to Eastern Michigan University and commuted from home, studying most of the time and majoring in practical subjects that I didn't necessarily like. I put in my time and couldn't wait to get out into the real world. It wasn't until I'd been out in the real world for three years that I realized I had totally missed the point of college. So I decided to go back, this time for the experience and not the degree, before it was too late. The question, of course, was what kind of degree to get, because this time I wanted to do something I would really enjoy. I seriously thought about getting an MFA in creative writing, because I love to write. But that just seemed a little too risky and impractical. Then I investigated getting a PhD in psychology, which sounded both practical and interesting. The only problem was that it would take five years. I was willing to give up my paycheck and become a poor student for two or maybe three years, but five? That sounded like a really long time to be poor. I was wrestling with all of these thoughts last October when I stood up in a wedding for one of my best friends. She was marrying a guy who had gotten an MBA from The Broad School at Michigan State, and practically all of the groomsmen were Broad MBAs. They had all remained friends years after graduating, and I could see why. These guys were smart, funny, and interesting, with dozens of stories about their experiences at The Broad School. By the end of the evening I found myself wishing that I had gone to school with them, and that's when it hit me. Why not get an MBA? It would only take two years, and it sounded like it would be tons of fun, especially at a known party school like Michigan State. Lots of single guys, lots of socializing... sure, there would be a little work involved, but not like getting a law degree or a medical degree, right? I started investigating MBA programs, and quickly decided that MSU was pretty much my one and only choice. For one thing, the cool groomsmen had gone to MSU. For another, it was the only well-ranked school in Michigan that was relatively affordable. Out-of-state tuition was universally ridiculous, and U of M's in-state tuition was still sky high. Sure, I wanted that college experience, but I wasn't willing to go into debt for it. MSU's tuition seemed reasonable, and was touted as one of the best deals in terms of return on your investment. I talked to some of the groomsmen and they convinced me that the relative affordability wasn't due to any weakness in The Broad School. The program was small compared to most others, approximately 120 per graduating class, and they loved the personal attention this afforded. Perfect, I thought. Sign me up. My friends were not so convinced. "Are you sure you really want to go to business school?" they asked. "I thought you were going to get a creative writing degree and write a book." To them, I'm the artistic type. I write, dance, sing, act, compose, and play the violin. I arrive 15 minutes late for everything. I watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I definitely do not read the Wall Street Journal. "Do you even like business?" asked the groomsman I had been paired with at my best friend's wedding. (I had dragged him to a play, the first one he'd been to in years.) "I don't know," I answered. "Then why are you applying to business school?" "Well, for one, I think it would be fun. And also... I want to grow as a person." He cocked an eyebrow. "Business school is fun, but it's about indoctrinating you," he said. "If you want to grow as a person, join the peace corps." I wasn't really sure what he meant, but I decided that I should visit MSU so that I'd have a better idea of what I was getting myself into. I signed up to attend one of The Broad School's prospective student programs, one which had a conference for women in business the previous evening. The conference gave prospective female students the chance to meet current female students, staff and faculty members, and I was very impressed with everyone I met. In fact, that conference made me start to think about the more serious aspects of getting an MBA. Until then, it had been about going back to school and having fun, but the keynote speaker really made me think about what it would mean to me, as a woman, to have that degree. Deep down, I knew that I'd never really developed my full potential, and that if I stayed in the job I was in, I never would. The conference made me realize that getting an MBA would help me to develop my confidence and open the door to new opportunities. The fact that there are four times as many men in MBA programs as women - which seemed like a bonus from a dating perspective - suddenly bothered me. I looked around at the women at that conference and thought, "These women are smart, confident, poised, self-assured... everything I want to be. Getting an MBA is a great idea." I had exactly the opposite reaction the next day when I went to the prospective student program. I'd expected to meet a room full of people like the groomsmen in my friend's wedding, but instead I found myself among some of the most deadly-dull boring people I'd ever met. Everyone's primary concern seemed to be how much money they would make when they graduated. And the program itself sounded like it was going to be a lot more work than I'd expected. All of the current students just kept talking about what an adjustment it was going back to school, and how much work they had to do. It didn't sound like fun at all. Even their social activities seemed to be entirely MBA-related, all networking and case competitions and MBA associations. Did these people have lives? I walked out of the prospective student program thinking that an MBA definitely wasn't for me. So I ditched the whole going-back-to-school notion and decided that I wanted to buy a house instead. Well, to make a long story shorter, after investigating all of my options I came to the sobering conclusion that as a single woman, if I bought a house I'd be treading water financially for a long time to come. This came as a psychological blow, because I had a graduate degree and thought I was making decent money. Suddenly, I started to understand everyone's interest in how much money they were going to make after getting their MBA. I thought back to what the keynote speaker said at the Women in Business Conference, and realized that when she said an MBA would open doors and give you options, that among other things she meant it was one of the few ways for single women to really give themselves financial independence. After that, I started thinking seriously about getting an MBA again, because there were just so many good reasons to do it that I felt I should at least apply. Even my friends who had thought I was crazy to want to go business school had changed their minds and were saying that I'd be crazy not to go. At that point it was late February and I only had about five weeks to take the GMAT, get my application together, and interview. The GMAT was a bit scary. I'd done really well on my SATs and GREs, and I thought the GMAT would be easy. Not! I bought an online tutorial package and scored really low on the practice tests. But then I took the real test and it was much easier than the practice tests, I scored over 100 points better, which makes me think the practice tests are rigged to persuade people to buy more test preparation materials. So my advice is, take the practice tests to get used to the timing, but don't let a low score psych you out and make you nervous about taking the real test. Once the GMAT was out of the way, the rest of the application process was easy--but time-consuming. I know a lot of people find the essays difficult, but for me it was easy because I'm a writer. I just tried to be honest and very genuine. Maybe it's more important to project a certain image and "say the right things" if you're applying to Harvard, but at MSU, the point of the essays and the interview is to give the school a sense of what you're like as a person. I had friends read over my essays for me, and the most significant changes I made were just to make myself sound more confident and positive. Anyway, I squeaked my application in just before the scholarship deadline, and soon received a personal phone call telling me that my application had been accepted, as well as an invitation to a program for admitted students. I went to the program and was happy to discover that the admitted students were very different from the prospective students - interesting, well-rounded, and diverse. Everything I heard from the current students convinced me that The Broad Program is really unique, with a small, intimate atmosphere and an emphasis on team-building rather than cut-throat competition. And a trip to the local bar soon convinced me that these people did indeed have lives! All of my visits to MSU, and my interaction with the students, really helped me feel comfortable about making the decision to quit my job and get an MBA. I sent in my acceptance letter as soon as I got home, and now I am counting the days until orientation. I can't wait to get started!  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  | | SEPTEMBER Learn about your online education options |
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