The Riordan Programs

SDSU to pay new president one third more

I know this will definitely cause controversy....especially among students struggling to pay/attend the school now.

 

On the same day that California State University trustees are expected to boost tuition by 12 percent, they are also set to makeSan Diego State University’s new president the highest paid in the system.

Some see an inconsistency in the two actions scheduled for Tuesday’s meeting in Long Beach.

“At the same time they’re telling us they’re losing millions, at the same time they’re voting to hike tuition,” said Peter C. Herman, a professor of English at SDSU, “they’re voting to give the new guy 33.3 percent more than the previous guy. That sends the wrong message.”

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/jul/11/sdsu-to-pay-new-president-one-third-more/

 

 

Underrepresented Populations Drawn to Entrepreneurship

I hope/expect to see some of this great talent come to one of the best entrepreneurial programs in the country --> UCLA Anderson's Price Center

 

Entrepreneurship is a popular specialization in graduate management programs, and interest in self-employment is even greater among African Americans, Native Americans, and Hispanic Americans. Yet converting this interest into program enrollment may be challenging because financial reservations about attending business school are also more widespread among these populations, according to a new GMAC interactive report. US Underrepresented Populations in the Student Pipeline offers an insider look at the motivations, preferences, and choices of these three groups among registrants onmba.com.

 

 

http://www.gmac.com/gmac/NewsandEvents/GMNews/2011/Aug/Underrepresented-Populations-Drawn-to-Entrepreneurship.htm

Student Mobility Report Tracks Emerging Markets for Talent

An interesting article to review about MBA talent world-wide.

 

From Saudi Arabia to South Africa to Vietnam, new sources of business school talent are emerging in different parts of the world. In the GMAT testing year ending June 30, 2010, the citizens of 46 different citizenship groups sent more than 1,000 score reports to global business schools, according to data from GMAC’s GMAT Trends in Student Mobility Interactive Report.

 

http://www.gmac.com/gmac/NewsandEvents/GMNews/2011/June/Student-Mobility-Report-Tracks-Emerging-Markets-for-Talent.htm

Building Your Social Network of Young Entrepreneurs: Spotlight on StartingBloc

If you won the lottery today - what would you do?

What if I told you that you already won - the freedom to vote, access to higher education, and the liberty to pursue purpose driven vocations instead of just occupations.  Many times we take those liberties for granted and feel that we must adhere to the “norm” 8-5 “good paying safe jobs. Even though engineering might be seen as “safe” as-it-gets-profession, it’s actually been my ideal vocation since I immigrated from Bolivia as a kid for it’s ability to “make” things rather than just “think” of things.  When I travelled back to Bolivia at age 16 - the disparity of quality of life between the US and Bolivia had become much more poignant than what I remembered as a 7 year old. For example, the city where I was born, Cochabamba, was known to suffer droughts and thus an underground water tank was built in our front yard by my family to use as storage for “dry days.”  I remember clearly that the “rich” had those water tanks and the rest had to make the best with what they had or had to buy water in limited amounts. I didn’t understand how a city would function without its residents having access to water all the time like in the U.S. Since that trip, I knew that I had to provide a service to my community, thus engineering seemed like the best way to design, create, and execute solutions to real life problems. However,  I felt like something was missing in the equation of my chosen vocation but I wasn’t sure what it was exactly.  

During a freshman seminar at USC, Bill Drayton, founder of Ashoka, gave a speech about “changemakers”  who go beyond just creating solutions to “problems.”  He said something about values-driven innovative solutions to everyday problems around the globe and for the first time I heard the term “social entrepreneurship.”  I didn’t quite understand what that all meant but I remember clearly thinking Ashoka was the greatest thing ever and that engineering was the appropriate professional path for me to pursue.  Years after being in the aerospace industry, that missing feeling came back.   Not to belittle the value of  my previous years of sincere passionate championing of  higher education and community service through my leadership roles in college and in work, I still felt like I was an engineer by profession and a wanna be philanthropist by night.  I couldn’t see how my everyday work was actually creating values-driven innovative solutions to issues that I was most sensitive about like those apparent mostly in developing nations.

Not till I became a StartingBloc Fellow and attended a 5 day high impact social entrepreneurship training surrounded by amazing 130 young, emerging leaders, of which  50% currently run and/or launched their own venture, from 25 different countries, of varied industry disciplines, did I have that same “a ha! moment” that gave me the same goosebumps as Bill Drayton’s speech at USC. This time around I totally understood what this “social entrepreneur” term was - I saw it embodied in  my Startingbloc fellowship class of passionate young leaders. Thus after completing intensive modules on topics such as Transformative Action, Corporate Social Responsibility, Social Entrepreneurship, Cross Sector Partnerships, and Sustainability with some of the most experienced leaders in each of those areas - I knew exactly what was the next phase of my vocation - merging the “doing good, living good” paradox through social entrepreneurship.   After the team case competition segment of the fellowship -  where my team analyzed a sustainability social media case study, developed a strategy, and presented recommendations to board members of a large scientific company - the importance of large corporations genuinely fostering corporate responsibility beyond just going “green” or donating a few bucks to local schools really resonated with me.  

StartingBloc served as a gateway to  a network of  driven and self-reflective young leaders from around the world pursuing sustainable, socially responsible vocations;  a united global community of  1,350+ past fellows to collaborate with today.  Over 50% of my fellowship class launched  and/or started a for-profit and/or non-profit with much success and most importantly with significant social impact in the areas they were most passionate. I also learned how to strategically drive change within large corporations as well as how to build cross sector partnerships. Thus, ideally with the business acumen I plan to gain with an MBA degree, my analytical problem solving work experience, and this global network of social innovators, the opportunity to fund a venture “doing good, living good” seems much more attainable than ever before.

I will be forever grateful to a Riordan Fellow for introducing me to this truly transformative experience called the StartingBloc Fellowship.  In fact, after completing the fellowship in Boston, MA, this past winter,  I jumped on the opportunity to join the StartingBloc LA Board to help launch the first ever StartingBloc LA Institute slated for February 2011.  Grant Takahashi, the StartingBloc LA Co-Chair and past Riordan Fellow(‘09), best sums up the purpose of this fellowship: "I think the Fellowship is valuable in helping direct young people what a conscious career looks like and what is possible.  We're excited to bring the Fellowship to Los Angeles because there is incredible social innovation being done here and a real hunger among young people to get connected to this movement. Students and young professionals who are interested in becoming more effective agents of social change should consider applying to the SB Fellowship. We are looking for the next generation of leaders who will ascend to positions of influence to ignite social change.”

Find out how you can expand your own network and become a StartingBloc Fellow visit: http://startingbloc.org/

Most recently, USC Marshall and StartingBloc hosted an inspiring and educational social entrepreneurship  event where real CEOs shared their pearls of business wisdom through their own successful and not so successful ventures: http://www.marshall.usc.edu/news/all-articles/usc-groups-join.htm

From this past StartingBloc event, I was able to meet Adlai Wertman, professor of clinical management and organization, and founding director of the USC Marshall Society and Business Lab (SBL).  I followed up with Prof. Wertman and will discuss the trends in the curriculum of MBAs towards social entrepreneurship and the business case for these shifts in MBA programs in a future blog.

 Ahh....the power of a network.....

The Engineering Stereotypes

One of the questions I typically ask admissions officers is what are the common application pitfalls that befall engineers when applying to business school.   Often the responses reveal how engineers succumb to conventional stereotypes.   My goal in this blog entry is to identify these stereotypes and offer ways to debunk them so as to distance the applicant from the rest of the engineering herd.  My next blog entry will do a deep dive into the application and reveal specific application mistakes that are illustrative of the overarching stereotypes discussed below.

First I will speak of a stereotype that is mostly an over-generalized misconception:  engineers are often perceived to lack the softer skills that are essential to leadership.  

While an engineer’s quantitative ability can be plainly observed through course work and professional experiences, their ability to communicate with others and to lead teams requires an introspective approach.  Applicants should focus on sharing stories that demonstrate their leadership potential and their collaborative approach to solving problems.  Though some engineering problems can be solved in isolation, applicants should be selective in choosing the most illustrative stories to make best use of the allotted word count.  In addition to professional experiences, these stories may include volunteer work in which the applicant has served as part of a leadership team for a non-profit organization and brought about real change through motivating and guiding his peers.

Stereotypes can also be more firmly grounded in truth and the following two stereotypes are probably more relatable than that discussed earlier.  Engineers typically have less managerial experience than applicants from other industries.   Engineers typically don’t have the high accelerating career paths that other candidates may benefit from.  Let’s explore these in a little more detail and how an applicant can mitigate against these stereotypes.

Opportunities for managing others are very for younger engineers especially those working for larger organizations.  While other applicants may point to an impressive title in their resume as indication that they have strong managerial skills, an engineer may not be able to do so.  With that said, this can easily be mitigated against.  When looking for stories that illustrate leadership potential, admissions officers are vastly more impressed with an applicant being able to motivate and lead a group of peers as oppose to a supervisor delegating tasks to subordinates.  If you can show that you can lead a group of individuals without a formal supervisor role that will squash any doubts as to your leadership potential.  If there is a scarcity of professional stories that demonstrate your leadership potential don’t underestimate the meaningful leadership experiences derived from your extracurricular activities.

While an engineer’s responsibilities may grow, the associated job titles may not.  While it may be nice to have a fancy job title to insert into a resume, ultimately you will be evaluated on how your responsibilities have evolved as a function of time (f(t) if that helps). While you may not be able to speak about managing a 200 million dollar portfolio or a new job title, you can speak to increased responsibilities in recognition of your previous accomplishments.  If you haven’t been extended opportunities, create them!  Start a club at work, volunteer for new assignments, network with individuals from different programs and departments.  Be pro-active.

Round 1 Update and Takeaways

I am writing you from the trenches, amid the chaos that is Round 1! Once October/November comes around, it’s high time to put the final touches on your application as you prepare to submit then. Though challenging, balancing this major undertaking with work, extracurriculars and social engagements has been a major learning opportunity for me.

Here are some of my personal takeaways as I go through the process:

• Start Early: This one is probably the most important! By doing your research early and fully prepping yourself for the process, you ensure that you’ll have a smoother time going through the applications. Once R1 season starts, it is a continuous event, with applications due days apart, week after week. Starting early will help reduce any of those last-minute jams and allow you to fully prepare the best possible application. Most business schools release their essay prompts towards the end of summer (July-ish) and often times will reuse prompts from years previous. Look through these early for all of the schools that you want to apply to and, even if you don’t start working on them right away, have them on the backburner so that you can start jotting down ideas as they come to you.
• Figure out a game plan early: As part of starting early, the earlier you start your business school research, the better. Really invest time in figuring out what you are looking for in your MBA experience and what kind of environment/program you’d really blossom in and go from there. The sooner you start to form your “short list”, the more time you have to devoting to these programs and applications. Also, it’s important to be realistic. Originally, I had planned on applying to about handful of schools, most of which I wanted to do in R1. After working through the first essay set, I realized that it would be a squeeze to get all the applications ready in time. I decided that I’d rather fully develop/polish good applications and spread them out between R1 and R2, then rush. In retrospect, that flexibility saved me a lot of headache!
• Give your recommenders time: Your recommenders are busy people too! I approached my recommenders probably a month and a half before the first of my applications were due just to see if they would be on board in supporting me by writing a LOR. With two “yes’s” in hand, I then started putting together some information that I thought would be helpful for them to have – the most current drafts of my essays (especially the one that outlines my future goals), a copy of my resume, short descriptions of why I wanted to go to each school. Some business schools post up the questions that they will pose to your recommenders as well!  About a month before the first application due date, I sat down with my recommenders and talk through your experiences and brainstorm examples/experiences to highlight. After that, it’s all up to them!
• Give your essays time:  Remember those good old college days where you’d sit down at your computer to start your 10-page paper at 10pm, the night before it was due? That strategy definitely won’t work here! Give yourself ample time to work on your essays, especially the first set of essays that you take on. While a lot of the schools will have similar essay topics, the prompts are never exactly the same, so even if you’ve written a very similar essay for another school, you will still need to spend the time to rework your essay for each of the schools. Personally, it took me about a 4 weeks to nail down my first set of essays, and then about 2-3 weeks for each school following. Have a lot of people review and provide feedback, both people that you know well and those that you don’t.
  

This is not professional advice of course, but definitely things that I worked for me as I went through the process. Hope it’s helpful!

See you on the other side of R1! :)

Cheers,

Vi

An Introduction

Hello blogosphere!

I hope that you are all doing well and want to thank you for taking a peek into my blog. My goal with this blog is to chronicle my experience applying to business school and to reflect on all the joys (campus visits) and sorrows (application essays) that I encounter during this journey.

By way of introduction, my name is Vi Nguyen and I am a Bay Area native. I was a Riordan Fellow with UCLA Anderson c/o 2010 and continue to be involved in the Riordan family as part of the Riordan Program Alumni Association (RPAA). I completed my undergraduate studies at UCSD in 2007, where I majored in Biochemistry and Cell Biology and minored in economics. Since graduation, I have worked in research in industry at companies like Pfizer and Genentech. Currently, I work at a company in the primary market research space, and cover the healthcare space specifically. I am applying to business school this year with the hopes of matriculating next fall.

So the first question that I often get when talking to my peers and mentors about my business school plans are… Why business school? Why an MBA? Business school is, after all, a huge undertaking – two years out of your professional life and a hefty chunk of change – not to mention the possibly need to uproot your life and move to a different city, state, or even country.

For healthcare-interested professionals like myself, there are a variety of different graduate level programs available, such as MPH (Masters in Public Health), MHA (Masters in Health Administration), Masters in Bioscience, etc. It’s easy to get lost in the diversity of options that you have, but ultimately, it’s all about pinpointing the skills set you are looking to attain from your graduate level education experience, understanding what each kind of education each program provides and, ultimately, what your career plans post-MBA.

After business school, I want to go into marketing at a biotechnology firm. My science background has found me work in lab research in industry, as well as to a role where I work with investment professionals and life sciences companies to do diligence on their current and potential holdings. All of it has been very interesting and has helped me realize my career ambitions in biotech marketing and management.

So please join me as I continue to work my way through the B-school application process and pursue an MBA that will enable me to increase my contribution to the healthcare industry!

Cheers,

Vi

P.S. If you have any comments/ideas/suggestions or there is anything of particular interest to you, please feel free to add any comments below! 

Welcome to Tales from an Engineer

This is the first entry from the Tales from an Engineer blog.  My aim for this blog is to explore the MBA application process through the eyes of an engineer (defined as an individual that comes from a standard engineering discipline or a related discipline like math or the physical sciences).  I plan to share insight (hopefully helpful insight) on my journey through the application process as it relates to other engineers that are also aiming to apply to business school.   

There are several factors that make the business school application process for engineers unique and these factors will be the subject o f the next few blog entries.

1)  The various stereotypes associated with being an engineer.  Some stereotypes may be simple misconceptions that don’t relate to many individuals, while other stereotypes may be more soundly grounded in truth and affect a substantial number of MBA-aspiring engineers.  Misconceptions typically center on the 51 GMAT quant scoring engineer working independently in a cubicle - more comfortable with numbers and algorithms than with human interaction.  There are however some generalities that may more realistically characterize a sizeable number of prospective applicants.  For example, engineers typically have less formal management experience than applicants from other industries.  During my next blog entry I aim to share, based on my experiences, how these stereotypes can be debunked or mitigated against by an applicant.

2)  The vast number of engineers that apply to business school.  Some school profiles cite engineers as comprising of nearly fifty percent of their class.  If one assumes that the applicant pool is comprised of a similar representation then that is an awful lot of bodies to compete against.  It becomes important to try to stand out against other engineers.  During my second blog post I hope to build on how the debunking of stereotypes for engineers will help an individual stand out.

3)  Application mistakes of Engineers.   From resume-writing mistakes to mistakes in formulating application essays, my plan is to share some lessons I’ve learned (and continue to learn). 

There you have it, that’s the structure for the next several blog entries.  Though the framework of this blog is structured toward offering insight to engineers applying to business school, I would be happy write on a suggested topic if I feel I may be able to meaningful speak on it. 

Why the Triple Bottom Line...

So you might be wondering  - why the Triple Bottom line is the title for this personal MBA application blog. The term "bottom line" in simple terms means - "is this business profitable or not."    What if major corporations started assessing their social impact on the local neighborhoods as part of their bottom line calculations and overall stock price?   What if nonprofits invested beyond the accepted 10% operational cost margin they are so harshly judged against to improve their infrastructure and increase their staff, ultimately enabling them to increase their social impact? What if the nonprofit and profit sectors merged their business practices to address sustainability issues resulting in innovative and cost effective entrepreneurial solutions?  These are some questions I've pondered through my 5+ years of working for a large government contractor and a lifetime of social service at local nonprofits.  With this blog, I hope to share my exploration of how the MBA curriculum is evolving in these economic times towards promoting the "triple bottom line" philosophy of "profit+people+environment" as performance indicators of innovative businesses.

I believe we are in dire need of more socially responsible and entrepreneurial business leaders in order to solve some of our generation's most pertinent social issues/needs through the application of sharp business acumen that promotes economic development  +  compels genuine corporate social responsibility + and fosters innovative sustainability solutions around the globe - thus ultimately highlighting the "triple bottom line" businesses should measure their "profit" against. 

I'll highlight specific schools, organizations, corporations, leaders, students, and ideas that are examples of such social entrepreneurship in action that have inspired me to pursue my MBA and ultimately share my journey to  B-school with you. 

Some Upcoming Blogs: 

- Day in the life of a "Sloanie" Social Entrepreneur : Spotlight on MIT Sloan School of Management 

- First week at HBS of an Engineer turned Entrepreneur: Spotlight on Harvard Business School  

- Doing Business in the Capital of the Business World: Spotlight on NYU Stern School of Business

- Curriculum Changes of MBA Programs+ Diversity Weekend: Spotlight on UC Berkeley Haas School of Business

- The Business Case of the Society and Business Lab: Spotlight on USC's Marshall School of Business

- Entrepreneurship Week: Spotlight on UCLA Anderson School of Management  

- "Socially Responsible Entrepreneur" Classes at the #1 Entrepreneurship Program  (US News & World Report): Spotlight on F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College 

- Ranked #1 in Nonprofit Management (US News & World Report): Spotlight on Yale School of Management

- Building Your Social Network of Young Entrepreneurs: Spotlight on StartingBloc 

- Doing Business in China: Spotlight on MBADiversity's Global Immersion Module in Shanghai, China 

- Social Enterprise Careers at  Acumen Fund, United Nations, Ashoka

- Real Life Struggles of Young Entrepreneurs 

Other general B-School application topics I'll cover as part of my journey: 

- To Invest or not to Invest in a GMAT prep course 

- First Round or Second Round, Full time vs Part time, Decisions, Decisions...

- Essays and Letters of Recommendations: Holistic view of Me and Not a "Cut and Paste"

- Diversity in MBAs: Spotlight on Consortium, NSHMBA, Forte

- More to come....

Also please feel free to comment and/or recommend topics you'd like me to dig into by emailing me at [email protected]

With that said  - Let the blogging begin!

Applying to Business School Blogs

The Riordan Programs Blog will feature a new series that chronicles the  Business School Application Process, of three Riordan MBA Fellow Alumni.