Memories of a Time Long Gone

My parents are moving in less than two months.

You may not care about that, but since I will not be heading home until after they move, it meant a Skype date with my sister as she held up every single possession of mine that is in my parents' home to ask whether I would like to keep it, trash it, or sell it at a garage sale.

Some items were no-brainers - books that had no sentimental value, a bottomless pit of office supplies, and a couple of laundry baskets that wouldn't be worth shipping down to Boston.

What was hard to throw away were all the little knick knacks I'd collected over the years. I mean, who really needs a Veggie Tales eraser? (Bob the Cucumber and Larry the Tomato, anyone?) What about the pack of mints I bought at Hoover Dam? (Best Dam Mints) Or the San Francisco key chain with my name on it?

As I went through all of these items, it struck me how much my identity used to be tied up in the things I chose to like. There was a lot of penguin, Veggie Tales, and travel paraphernalia. I had huge posters of my favourite band (Switchfoot ;-) ) and collages of special seasons of my life.

Though I didn't have to do the physical throwing away (thank you Becky!), it was still hard to let these things go. In fact, I took screen shots so I could remember. But the reality is that I no longer have any use for my "I Hate Cuddling" button or my "Boys Are Smelly" grape-flavoured candies. Not only do they not represent who I am any longer (though don't get any ideas about invading my personal space), I have also moved on to someone who keeps the mementos to a minimum. Perhaps that is the function of being about to head to live in my third city in as many years.

I'd also like to think that as I mature, that my identity is found less in my "Chicks Rule" key chain and more in the way that I carry myself and interact with others. Of course, despite all these thoughts, the truth is that I'm glad is was my sister and my I who had to throw away all of that stuff!

Storms, Lilacs and Transitions

There's something hanging in the air, and it's not just the scent of lilacs wafting through the courtyard or the feel of rain waiting to pour.

It's the impending feeling of Change. Life chugs along normally as I sit in classes and prep for them, head out for coffee and attend regular meetings. Yet despite this normalcy, the underlying current of knowing that all of this will essentially be over in two weeks hovers relentlessly. Conversations stray toward trying to figure out whether we are excited or disappointed about moving on, and I think I find myself with a mix of both. I have spent much of my life living in and planning for the future, and this period is no exception as I read the Lonely Planet guides to Iceland and the UK and spend hours checking out Boston apartments.

At the same time, I am keenly aware that this phase of life is a huge gift. I am focused on learning and am surrounded by amazing people. The weather couldn't be more amazing (despite the two tornado warnings we've had in the last few weeks - okay, i guess the weather could be more amazing) and the spring flora in Cville is beautiful. And so I find myself challenged not to stress over the logistics of moving or start focusing too much on the walk score of various Boston apartments. Instead it's time to forget about how limited my remaining time is here and just relax and enjoy it. It's been a crazy ride over the last year and a half, and now it's time to enjoy it!

Why Thank You!

As it turns out, I've been nominated for an award.

Well, not ME, my blog... but since I write my blog, it equates to about the same thing as me being nominated for an award.

Every year, Clear Admit (an MBA admissions website) runs a "best of blogging" competition to determine the best MBA applicant and student blogs. I have been nominated, along with a whole host of other Darden student bloggers. (I think there were about six or seven of us nominated.)

If you are a ClearAdmit fan and wish to vote: follow this link for details.

Pure Bliss

This quarter, I'm taking two reading classes, so the bulk of my class preparation consists of reading two books before Monday every week. For my literature class in particular, the books are acutely enjoyable.

Spring has finally decided to make an appearance in Charlottesville, so I'm sitting outside on my balcony reading The Imperfectionists.

My friend and I were discussing the "good seasons" in the places we've lived and dream of living. While I can't handle the summer heat or the winter grey/brown down in VA, spring and fall are undoubtedly seasons that top most seasons anywhere else I've lived. (which is really just the Canadian Prairies, which all has a similar climate) If you don't live in Cville, I would recommend heading down to Virginia at some point in the fall or spring. I am treated daily with the slow unveiling of flowered trees and my favorite flower - lilacs. The weather at this time of year is around my optimal 70F (22C) and life is just generally blissful.

It doesn't hurt my enjoyment at this moment to know that, as per Facebook status updates, it has snowed back home in Edmonton...

Second Year, Q4

The end is near.

It's a dramatic way to say it, but graduation is a mere six weeks from tomorrow.

There's been a fundamental shift from the beginning of first year to this fourth quarter we've found ourselves in. Everyone has shifted from being hopeful, eager, stressed-out students and job hunters to calm, relaxed golfers, hikers, fitness freaks, you name it. While I don't mean to diminish the plight of my classmates who are still on the hunt for full-time positions, the collective tension in the air has relaxed.

We now participate in class because we genuinely feel we have something to contribute, not because we feel the desperate need to get a participation "point" for the day. Our relationship with professors has become much more like friendship than like the typical teacher-student relationship. It doesn't hurt that two of my classes are taught my guest lecturers and not by the professors, and that we join the professors for lunch after class. On Monday night, my literature class group (yes! literature class - I just finished reading The White Tiger) will be joining our professor and his family for dinner.

This last quarter is a lot about tying up loose ends. While my reading classes offer the opportunity to think philosophically on success and great leadership, the speaker classes I am taking tie together everything we've learned in a tactical manner. Rather than discussing in broad generalizations what it's like to deal with a union, speakers will say "okay, let's have that conversation. When are you going to have it? What are you going to say?" It puts a lot more reality on the business world we will be entering in just a few short months.

In addition to finishing up my academics, my focus has turned toward preparing for my upcoming move to Boston. I'm in the process of setting up appointments with realtors and building managers while trying to figure out exactly what my summer will look like so I can book some plane tickets. Many classmates are doing the same and, as can be expected, I've heard of many exciting plans for the next few months.

Happy Steak

If you've ever read Omnivore's Dilemma or seen Food Inc., you've heard of Polyface Farm. Without getting into all of the details, Polyface is essentially a farm that seeks to produce food in a sustainable way that heals the land, and just generally produces healthier food. As a quick example, most of the beef produced in the US comes from large "concentrated animal feeding organizations" (CAFOs) which feed cows corn and, well, other cows. Corn-fed beef is less healthy for a variety of reasons, the most important being that cows are supposed to digest grass... and all of the complications that come from attempting to feed cows corn produce less than healthy beef. Basically, the idyllic picture of cows standing in the grass is really just an old image in the US. Unless, that is, you go to a farm like Polyface, which seeks to raise animals the way they were meant to be raised.

Anyway... Saturday was a crazy busy day, but when the opportunity to visit Polyface Farm came up, I knew that I had to take it before heading away from Charlottesville. While there, I got to see where they have the chickens and the pigs and the cows... and spent a bunch of money on delicious grass-fed beef and piggy bacon. I've included some pictures for your viewing pleasure. Most of them are self-explanatory (chicken, pig, cow), but the last is part of the "Egg-mobile," which is part of the plan to move chickens around behind the cows so they can eat up the insects that come from having cows in the area and start to churn up the grass so it can re-grow.

Jet Lag Rant

China is exactly 12 hours ahead of the Eastern Time Zone.

So when I woke up at 5 a.m. this morning, it was 5 p.m. in China.

How does that make sense as a time to wake up? I mean, I understand going to and from Europe, where 3 a.m. = 9 a.m. and that would be a normal time for the body to wake up. But 5 p.m.? And why does this start four days AFTER I get home?

The good news is that by the time my alarm was set to go off, I'd already gotten in a good workout. (Yeah... I don't recommend scheduling your first 5k the week after you finish a break where you don't run for two weeks...) The bad news is that I'll be about ready to crash by the time my first class starts.

*end rant*

Also, *end China posts*

Longest Day of My Life

Thursday, March 24 will go on record as the longest day of my life. It started for me around 8 a.m. in Beijing and ended as my head hit the pillow 28 hours later at midnight in the Eastern time zone. In the days since then, I've fended off a cold and jet lag, but am glad to finally have the opportunity to blog about my experiences in China.

China has long been one of those places which I've simultaneously wanted to visit and been afraid to visit. Since coming back, I've told people that I was glad to go, but am glad to be home. Part of my anticipation of the entire China experience hinged on China being a significant (and growing) part of the world economy. It's impossible to ignore an economy that both accounts for a significant number of sales worldwide and is growing at a faster rate than most other countries. To not have any clue about China is akin to an ostrich burying its head in the sand.

At the same time, I had been told to prepare to be shocked. All sorts of stories and tales prefaced my China visit, and the scariest fear of all was that I didn't speak a lick of Mandarin - nor could I piece together meaning from root words and recognition of letter combinations.

As it turns out, China was as shocking as it was familiar. People were manually digging holes as we walked out of the very modern subway. Everywhere there are signs of growth and a modern economy amongst remnants of an agrarian society. I got the impression from "talking" with a gentleman on the train that most Chinese people work in factories. (I use "talking" because I didn't speak Mandarin and he didn't speak much English, but through a combination of charades and the phrase book in my Lonely Planet guide and his limited English, we managed to communicate. Also, it seems obvious that everyone works in factories, given that pretty much everything is made in China these days, but it's not something that you see if you don't visit a factory.) At the same time, the Chinese people that we really hung out with were those we'd come to know through various MBA programs and exchanges, so they all had corporate marketing jobs.

What surprised me is that it wasn't the language barrier or cultural barrier that made me eager to leave China. As is the case when I visit countries where I sort of know the language, my Mandarin improved over my time in China, and I'm sure that with more time, that frustration would have gone away. Even though there were many subtle cultural differences (well, and obvious ones!), we grew accustomed to the way things were done and adapted accordingly. It's these subtleties that make travel fun and add a rich texture to visiting new places. If all you are seeking is to see the Great Wall or Forbidden City, there are certainly museums that will accomplish this... travel is about finding a way to be immersed in the culture.

In fact, what made me eager to leave China was the pollution and the cigarette smoke everywhere. The other thing that became wearisome was that even though I love Chinese food, I got tired of ordering primarily off of pictures on a menu. While I am sure that I will eat Chinese food again soon, I was definitely excited about ordering a sandwich after landing in JFK.

All in all, I'm glad that I went to China. I'm glad that a friend had already booked the flight and I wasn't tempted to head off on a tropical vacation or yet another trip to Europe. I'm glad that I went when I did - when there were classmates to meet up with and exchange students to show us around. Most importantly, even as I was there, I saw tremendous signs of growth and worry that the China of today may not be there in the next few years. I remember talking to a lady who moved from China six years ago... when I asked her if she missed it, she said that the China that is now is not the same China she left.

Guest Blog!

Classy Career Girl runs a great blog on everything career related, and she recently asked me to write a guest blog on my Darden experience. I highly recommend checking out her blog, and while you're there, you may as well read my post: Advice from a Current MBA Student.

Hard Sleepers

Adventures.

Some adventures are amazing while you're in the midst of them. Others... Well, you do them because they make for a great story after the fact.

I'm in the midst of one of the latter kinds of adventures.

I could have taken a plane from Xi'an to Shanghai yesterday and be spending this moment curled up in a soft bed at the Shangri-La, awaiting a steaming fresh shower and opulent breakfast.

Instead, I left my cheap hotel by bus (not taxi) yesterday afternoon, waited in a crowded train station where my friend and I were the only white people in sight and just woke up from a fitful sleep in the middle bunk of a train's hard sleeper car. Rather than anticipating a hot shower, I am trying to figure out how to angle my blanket so I can carve out some private space to apply deodorant. I've avoided drinking water on the ride because while I can deal with squatter toilets on solid ground, I'm somewhat of a prima donna about using one on a moving train. And instead of an opulent breakfast, I've got some hard-boiled eggs that I picked up from a street vendor yesterday.

The friend I am traveling with says he likes traveling this way because it's more adventurous, it keeps him grounded, he sees the real China and... Let's be serious, we are saving a ton of money!

While I am currently longing for a shower and toilet, I think this really is a better way to travel. Even more, the way we are traveling is even opulent by Chinese standards, and while I didn't see the hard seat section of the train on my way to my relatively posh sleeper cabin (though not the nicest - the last train ride we took, I lucked out because only soft sleepers were left and that was much more pleasant!), I heard that they were crowded, with people lying on the floor.

I may not be traveling in style, but as I travel this way, I realize that I am immensely blessed to have choices and as I see people sleeping on the streets throughout China, suddenly a less-than-cozy night crammed in a somewhat noisy train may not actually be so bad.

Sent from my iPhone

Walking the Wall

Today was a big day.

Today I got to check something off my bucket list: walking along the Great Wall of China.

After a few iterations of our original wall plan (hike from Jinshanling to Simatai... both of which are currently closed), we settled on hiring a taxi to take us out to Mitianyu.

I'm not sure what I was expecting, but you can see from the picture above that this section of the wall is long, steep, and definitely a little restored.

Interesting tidbit about the Great Wall: the steps are designed to be uneven as a way of making it more difficult for enemies to traverse. Unfortunately, in this case, us tourists are lumped in with the enemies and it definitely makes for some interesting walking.

Another interesting tidbit: several weeks of incline training on the treadmill should have been swapped for the stairmaster. We climbed this set of stairs and another long set afterwards. It was the good workout I was hoping for, but boy was it exhausting! I'm pleased to report that I beat everyone to the top who started up the stairs at the same time as me, except for my travel buddy.

The scenery is rugged and beautiful. It's hard to believe that a wall was even necessary for guarding China (or whatever subset of unified states were in existence), given the rugged terrain. As it turns out, the wall never actually served the purpose of keeping the enemies out, since sentries could be bribed, but the lighting signals in the towers let the country know when to mobilize for war and also served as an "elevated highway." (This fact courtesy of my Lonely Planet guide; the previous one courtesy of my travel buddy.)

Anyway... the Great Wall was absolutely amazing and the drive through rural China was very interesting. I saw a lot of things I'd never seen before: people working the fields manually and making bricks in the sun. Jet lag is currently winning as I fight to keep my eyes open long enough so I don't wake up too early tomorrow morning.

There's Something to be Said for Low Expectations

When I was about to book my flight to Beijing with Air China, my friend who lived in China for three years said that it was a terrible idea... of course, because it was the cheapest and the friend I was travelling with had already booked a flight with Air China, I went ahead and did it anyway.

Over the next few months, I heard many, many warnings about Air China. They included things like: children will be peeing in the aisles, there is no in-flight entertainment, they wake you up when it's time to eat, and a whole host of negative reviews on the Internet. Even as I sat getting a manicure in JFK (those massage chairs they put you in are AWESOME between flights; I'm not high maintenance, I promise!), my manicurist added two additional warnings: there isn't enough food (so buy a sandwich) and they stop serving beverages a few hours into the flight, so you should go help yourself.

Anyway, given all the warnings, I made sure to prepare for the flight, dutifully buying a sandwich at the airport and stocking up with movies on every portable electronic device I have with me, buying a book at Borders, leaving my guide book reading and even going so far as to purchase a portable game of Settlers of Catan.

When I started boarding the plane, I got the impression that the warnings may have been a little extreme, as the plane was nice and new and there was even a decent amount of leg room. While, as promised, there was no personal in-flight entertainment, the movies shown on the common screen alternated between Chinese and English, so I could have gotten a good six hours of entertainment from that. The food was actually the best airplane food I'd eaten (though the novelty of Chinese food on a plane may wear thin by the trip home...), and while the flight attendants did stop serving a few hours in, you were welcome to walk to the back of the plane and help yourself. (This turned out to be mostly a good thing --- you could drink lots of water and the aisles were clear to stand and stretch your legs; on the downside, one of our fellow passengers took it upon himself to down an entire bottle of wine and got belligerent... but hey... free entertainment?)

Anyway, all in all, it was either my low expectations that made for a good flight, or the fact that maybe Air China is not that bad?

In other news... I landed in Beijing tonight and while I am crazy jetlagged (yet writing this blog despite a need for sleep), it's been good thus far. Despite having complete and total language barriers, we were able to get to our hotel (I had printed off the address in Chinese!) and order dinner (yay for pictures on the menu). Tomorrow we are off to the Great Wall and I'll probably post some pics!

Switching Gears

It's Spring Break.

I probably shouldn't say that, since there are probably still people out there plugging away at exams and papers, but having just completed my last deliverable for the quarter, I'm in celebratory mode!

The only thing on the agenda for the next two days is having fun and packing. On Monday afternoon, I fly from Dulles (airport at Washington DC) to Beijing. With "walking along the Great Wall" on my bucket list, I figure there's no better time than right now to head over there and check it out. What makes NOW such a great time is that a) I have someone to travel with, b) there will be a group of Darden students also in China, along with a Chinese-speaking professor who has given us his phone number in case of emergency and, most importantly, c) exchange students from China have volunteered to either hook us up with friends over there or drive us around. So with all of that, what better time to travel to a country that is wholly foreign? It will definitely be an adventure since all my travel to date has been to countries where I have at least a small amount of knowledge of the language.

As you can well imagine, I am not the only one headed off. As I mentioned earlier, there will be a group of students in China for the GBE (Global Business Experience), and similar groups will be in Barcelona, Brazil, Mexico, Sweden, Argentina and Dubai*.

Beyond that, I know of people headed to Turkey, Colombia, Greece, Cold Lake (in Alberta! Yay homeland!), New Orleans, Zurich, Costa Rica, Vietnam and many other corners of the globe. The break is so long that I know of many people heading to two completely opposite locations over the two-week period.

Anyway, I will strive to keep my blog updated throughout my time in China... While I am fairly certain Blogger and Facebook are both blocked, I think there may be ways to get around that... If that doesn't work, I'll try to post some photos and stories when I return in two weeks.

*There were GBEs scheduled for Egypt and Bahrain, but given the recent turmoil, Egypt was cancelled and Bahrain rerouted to Dubai.

Dinner With the Profs

Darden has the best professors of any B-school.

Now, I know that technically, since I haven't attended every B-school, I can't say that conclusively. However, after I tell you about my evening yesterday, I'm fairly certain that you will come to see that I have good reasons to make that claim.

So every year in April, Darden participates in a charity program design to fix up houses for those in need in the Charlottesville community. It's called, appropriately, Building Goodness in April. In order to raise the much needed funds for all these projects, the auction teams run a series of auctions throughout November and December, and this year I was lucky enough to win a bid for a Danish dinner with my finance and decision analysis profs.

The dinner was last night and it was amazing. Our finance professor and his wife hosted the dinner. I would say that it was amazing to see all the artwork and the non-finance side of our professor, but the truth is that I already knew a lot about the non-finance side as we discussed architecture in Barcelona and I went to see him play bass in his Charlottesville band. The thing is that it's not at all unusual at Darden to be exposed to the non-academic facets of our professor's lives. Our section had even met his daughter previously when she came to play soccer with us for Darden Cup last year. So it was just a warm, welcoming evening.

As I was grilled by my DA prof's husband on how I would actually use the class she teaches and went into details on the value of an MBA (really, I told him he should just read my blog!), we warmed up with a traditional Danish appetizer - buttered bread, covered with all sorts of delicious toppings: shrimp and lemon, liver pate, grapes and bleu cheese. Following the first course of appetizers, we learned the traditional Danish method for drinking schnapps. (You look someone in the eye, say "skoal", do the shot and regain eye contact.) By then, the conversation had evolved away from justifying my education to urban sprawl and the issues with the American health care system. (My DA prof's husband is British.) The next appetizer was Danish dumplings... Not only are they delicious, they come with a game; whoever finds the "dough ball" (no meat) gets a prize! My DA prof was excited to win only to discover the prize was another shot.

From there we moved on to the dinner table and enjoyed a rich variety of discussion topics along with the fish course and an amazingly tender roast beef for the main course. The food was delicious, the company was amazing, and I enjoyed connecting with some of the first years and with my profs and their spouses. I truly think that Darden is hands-down the best school in this regard... which is probably why we were recently ranked #1 for professors!

Leadership Transitions

It seems like just yesterday that I was meeting with the DCF President from the Class of 2010, learning as much as I could about the club and eager to take over the reins. Today, we had that very same transition meeting, but rather than taking the reins, I was handing them over to a new president.

Last year, around this time, I remember remarking to then-second years at how quickly first year had passed. They told me that second year would go by even more quickly and as I have a week plus a quarter left in my MBA education, I understand just how true that statement would come to be.

The biggest shock to the system is this whole leadership transition. I'm really happy with the leadership team we have going forward, and also feel happy that we did make some improvements this year that they can build on, much like the team before us was able to make.

Over the past few years, I've had rapid role successions. In 2008 to 2009 as I was applying to schools, I remember reaching out to current students to learn more about the programs. When I became a student, I started reaching out to second years and alum, while entertaining calls from prospectives telling them about my experiences. Once second year hit, my calendar filled up with meeting requests from first years wanting to learn about my internship experience as I scheduled more calls with alum to hear about their company experiences. The reality of this current leadership transition is that I will soon transition into the role of "alum" and field calls from new students eager to get into the world of consulting.

It's funny. I remember very distinctly a video from Follies that came out as I was preparing to move to Darden. It was called "Don't Make Me Leave Darden" and I remember thinking that the time to leave would likely come sooner than I expected. Now here I am, with that reality not too far away.

Oh... Hey There, Bandwagon!

The theme of the first semester in the first year of Darden seems to go as follows: no time for gym, eat way too much pizza and other unhealthy food at company briefings, gain weight.

After reading two of my fellow student bloggers' posts in the last two days ("I hate your workout program" and Crossfit), it seems that the final semester of second year brings with it a new trend: work out lots and lots to lose all the weight gained over the previous year and a half.

Seeing as how I'm now halfway through February, I think it's safe to say my own fitness exploits are now a true semester-long effort and not a doomed attempt at a New Year's Resolution. While my roommate drags herself out of bed every morning for a 7:30 a.m. P90X workout session, I've taken a different route: personal trainer. My goal is to work with my trainer to develop a plan for staying fit within what will become a very busy work schedule come August. Although I am currently working through the machines, we will eventually move to free weights which should be feasible to do in my apartment if there isn't a gym nearby.

Other than the personal trainer, I'm also proud to say that I'm well on-target to beating the total distance that I've run in a week and in a month since landing in Charlottesville (already beat the per day record!), though I'm ashamed to admit publicly how many miles per month it works out to... ;-)

And I have to say, given all this recent workout activity, that it's far easier to simply not eat calories than it is to burn them off! (Case in point: 1/2 cup of Ben & Jerry's ice cream - 220 calories + time required to eat - 10 minutes; time required to burn off 220 calories on the elliptical - 20 minutes... so you can save yourself 30 minutes in the day by simply choosing to eat healthier!)

Rankings

With another email coming out to the student body regarding Darden's latest position in whichever ranking was most recently released, I feel the need to go off on a slight, (tame) rant about B-school rankings.

I almost wish that all the magazines and websites didn't even bother to produce rankings, since they are actually not useful for anything more than students being able to say, "I attend a top X school." (X being one lower than whatever the highest ranking achieved by the school happens to be) People comparing Wharton to Yale, for example, are bound to be disappointed. Yes, it would be easy to say "well, Wharton is ranked #3 and Yale is ranked #15, therefore I should attend Wharton." However, if the potential applicant preferred something like non-profit management, then Wharton might not actually be the better choice.

So there's really no substitute for actually visiting schools, finding out how the courses are structured, getting a feel for the student body and making sure that the firms/companies you want to work for recruit from that school. If you do this, you may actually discover that the comparison of the Top 20 B-schools is more of a comparison of apples to oranges to pomegranates, rather than apples-to-apples.

Lunch with the Dean

So, first of all, I've been asked to set the record straight. The students who showed up, respectively, at 7:31 a.m. and 7:39 a.m. on seating chart day were actually there as a joke. My fellow b-school-mates are not quite as dorky as I may have led you to believe in my previous blog post. (Though it is true that a substantial number of the good seats were taken by the time I arrived at 9 a.m.)

Moving along.

Today I was lucky enough to have lunch with the dean after he spoke in our class. Besides being a great opportunity to talk about Darden with the dean, there were two things that really stood out to me. First of all, he knew the lady serving us by name, but even more importantly, he told our entire table about the four ladies (all of whom he named) who stayed over night to ensure that the snowstorm would not keep them from serving breakfast to all of the executive education students. I found it incredible that the leader of the school would take the time to honour this woman whose role is so often taken for granted. Of course, Darden does have the most amazing serving staff I've ever met.*

Secondly, and more selfishly, I was impressed that the dean knew MY name. After lunch, he came over to shake my hand and wish me best wishes as I move to Boston.

Anyway, I could go on about the merits of the Darden dean, but I'm running late for dinner. All I want to finish with is a link to his new year's blog post on integrity, which I strongly encourage you to check out!

*Anyone who goes to Darden knows Theresa, the cashier/server who is always, always smiling. Today, when I saw her at lunch, I told her how much I appreciate how much she smiles, and she told me that one of her supervisors once told her that her uniform wasn't complete until she smiled. It's amazing what a difference it makes! She won the Friend of the Students Award this year.

Seating Chart Day

Today is the day we set the seating chart for the rest of the semester for one of my classes.

I felt really silly showing up at 9 a.m. for a class that doesn't start until 10 a.m., but I really wanted to claim my ideal seat: sky deck, slightly off center.

I felt silly, that is, until I realized that a good portion of the sky deck and all of the center aisle seats were already taken. One of my classmates was complaining that another classmate had showed up at 7:31 a.m. to steal HIS seat.

By 9:45, all that was left was the front row.

So I guess seating charts remain important even after high school.

The Value of an MBA

Naturally, being the nerdy business student that I am, I calculated the risks and NPV (net present value - essentially the values of future cash payments minus the current amount which must be shelled out) of an MBA before I took the plunge to head down to Virginia. It was a very important calculation for me, given that student loans for international students had outrageous interest rates, the job climate was inhospitable, and the risks of investing in an education without getting a payback were very real.

As I was chatting with a friend from undergrad over break who is thinking about doing an MBA in a few years, also wondering whether going down to the US for an MBA is worthwhile, I told her about all my analysis, and she suggested writing a blog post about it. So here it is... a few different ways to look at the value of an MBA.

First... calculate the NPV of the increase in salary garnered by an MBA. Take the following assumptions:

• If you consider that the average salary of a student pre-Darden is $50,000 (pulled from this oh-so-reliable source), and
• the average salary coming out of Darden is $102,000 (pulled from the 2009-2010 employment report), and
• the average age at graduation is 30 years old,
• you can calculate the difference each year between a salary that starts at $50,000 (no MBA) and a salary that starts at $102,000 (MBA), each growing at 2% (in this case, the difference in the first year would be $72,000; in the second year the difference would be $53,040).*
• Over 25 years (assuming early retirement at 55), at a 10% discount rate, this value comes out to over $550,000.
• For an international student, the cost and fees comes out to ~$100,000, plus $100,000 in lost salary.
• The NPV of an average MBA comes out to over $350,000.**
• Technically, this is a really conservative estimate, since most people who do MBAs tend to get salary increases higher than the rate of inflation. Also, if you consider that at 25 years out, the no-MBA salary is $80k and the post-MBA salary is only $165k, the differences in salary likely increase more with an MBA.

Another way to look at it would be to look at the payback period (for loans or "opportunity cost").

• If you take the above assumed costs as the loans required for an MBA ($200,000... though this would be on the high side!)
• Pay them out over the remaining life of the career (25 years)
• And assume an interest rate of 8%
• You are looking at paying back around $20,000 annually in loan payments. Thus you could land a job at only $70,000 to "break even" with an MBA and essentially live the same lifestyle you had before doing an MBA.
• Note: To pay back the loans in only five years, you would need the average MBA salary of just over $100k.

Anyway, the math is crude, but I know when I did the calculations, it made sense for me to take the risk. Without divulging any personal details, I figured that at the very least, my old company would likely take me back at a rate that would sustain my loan payments.

And of course, the other drawback of trying to quantify the value of an MBA is that it doesn't take into account the intangibles: the opportunity to meet international students, go on courses that are taught internationally, get exposure to companies who never would have looked at me before. Plus there is the value of the Network... which in some ways is as intangible as the great friends I have, but in others could be very quantifiable - support in launching new ventures, access to jobs or people to hire, contacts for expertise.

Everyone has their own way of looking at the decision to get an MBA, and I'll admit that it's definitely not for everyone, but for me it was a no-brainer.

*Yes, technically, you would have to grow the pre-MBA salary for two years before comparing it, but since this difference is immaterial, I ignored it.

**Any astute fellow students who have learned about the "flaw of averages" will tell me this is inapplicable, but I figure it represents a fairly conservative estimate of the value.