Tips for MBA Admission (Guest Post)

No comments :
There's a lot of debate about the value and nature of an MBA program. Skepticism about initial investments and ROI is certainly warranted on a broad scale, but I'm still in the camp that firmly agrees with the assertion that the benefits of an MBA often outweigh the risks or negatives.

Unfortunately, for potential students who are asking themselves questions about this topic, making the decision of whether an MBA is worth the investment is only the first hurdle.
Read More

How the Duke MBA Makes Leaders - Strategic Mindset

3 comments :
There was a post in Forbes that asserted the MBA is a waste of time (OK, I can't find it anymore since this post was written a few weeks ago). Sure, I can agree with some of its points. However, there was one that I strongly disagreed with. It said that MBAs were trained to think big picture and this hampered their executional skills. This is bogus.

A company will never pay big bucks to hire MBA talent because they can execute at the entry or middle management level. A company pays for MBA talent to fill future leadership roles – and for that, big picture, strategic thinking is a must. In fact, it’s important to always have this big picture in mind even early on, as without it, you wouldn’t understand how your work is impactful.
Read More

How the Duke MBA Makes Leaders - Entrepreneurship

No comments :
Every leading MBA is talking about its entrepreneurship initiatives right now. It’s a new area of post-MBA opportunity as you start seeing more and more MBAs start companies themselves or join companies that are starting to scale after graduation. I’ve been involved in startups in both years during my MBA at Duke Fuqua, but that’s not what I’m talking about when I mean leaders are entrepreneurial.
Read More

How the Duke MBA Makes Leaders - Communication

2 comments :
I’ll start off with a quote from another blog post I’ve written: “not all great communicators are great leaders, but all great leaders are great communicators.” Being able to clearly articulate what’s on your mind is necessary for – in the most simple of words – getting people to agree to do things. But how does the Duke MBA prepare its future leaders for communication in the business world, and what is it looking for in its applicants? 

Read More

How the Duke MBA Makes Leaders - Collaboration

No comments :
A Duke MBA alum – this is a new title that is going to take some time getting used to. I’m happy to be finally back in the workforce and it’s been interesting seeing how the Duke MBA has changed my approach to things. With the MBA application season starting up soon – Fuqua’s early admission round interviews should be starting – I wanted to get back to blogging and supporting the MBA applicant community.
Read More

MBA Internship Final Presentation Tips

7 comments :
Last year at this time I was an MBA intern preparing for my final internship presentation. The internship was the first time I ever worked in a real business setting and I had never given a real business presentation before (the Duke MBA did give me tons of practice, though!). After my presentation I wrote this blog post to highlight some of my key learnings so future MBA interns can benefit. These tips are based on my experience during the final project presentations and hope they will help as you plan yours.
Read More

Benefits of Getting an MBA

29 comments :
A lot of readers have asked me what benefits the Duke MBA has brought me. The MBA is a huge upfront investment and the opportunity cost is high. Most applicants have decent jobs and 2 years is a long time. Any savvy investor would want to know what return they will be getting from the time and money devoted to completing an MBA.
Read More

The Summer Before the MBA

7 comments :
One question I get a lot from prospective students is what to do in the summer before the MBA program. Like a lot of folks from non traditional backgrounds, I contemplated if I needed to take some classes to prepare for the MBA curriculum. I'll share my thoughts on this question and offer some advice as a recent graduate of the Duke MBA program.
Read More

Recruiting at Duke MBA (Fuqua)

1 comment :
With my MBA journey at Duke Fuqua coming to an end, I thought it'd be a great time to wrap up and reflect upon my experiences in the past 2 years. In an effort to write things that my readers care the most about, a while back I reached out to GMATClub and sought out questions. I plan to answer one of these questions per post over the next couple of months. So stay tuned for more content that have been decided by you, the reader.
Read More

Duke MBA 2nd Year Electives Are Amazing

1 comment :
This is a post I wrote a while back. Sorry that I haven't been good at updating my blog lately. I'm writing again so stay tuned for some new posts in the upcoming weeks! Here goes.

I'm currently about half way through my second year of the Duke Fuqua MBA and have taken quite a few electives now. I've written about Fuqua electives toward the end of my first year at Duke and think it's a good time to give an update on my experience with the second year electives. And as the title states, they have been quite amazing.

Read More

Duke MBA Insights: The Best Time to Get the MBA (Reader Request)

4 comments :
I've been getting quite a few questions from readers on when the best time to do the MBA is. Usually the question is around how much work experience would be competitive as an applicant. Some prospective students are concerned that they do not have as much work experience as others. If you look around, the Duke MBA and similar MBA programs usually have a median work experience of 5 years in their incoming class. Here I'd like to offer my perspective as someone who only had 3 years of work experience prior to starting the MBA at Duke Fuqua.
Read More

Duke MBA Business Improv Course

3 comments :
A year ago when I was still a first year Fuqua MBA student, I saw "Business Improv" when registering for classes and had no idea how it may be useful, so I went back to preparing for my summer internship interviews. Fast forward to the end of the summer, and I was given feedback from my internship's final presentation that I needed to improve my speaking skills.
Read More

Is Getting An MBA Worth It?

9 comments :
Yes, that age-old question: is the $120,000 MBA worth it? Successful business people have both advocated and renounced the degree for reasons you've probably already read or heard about. Now that I'm almost done with my MBA, I figured it would be a good time to start thinking about this question. After all, any investor would want to know what return their getting on their investments. Education should be no different.
Read More