Q&A with a Member of the Carnegie Mellon Tepper MBA Class of 2013
May, 24, 2012
Categories: Key Posts | MBA | MBA留学 | Q&A with Students, Alumni, Faculty and Admissions Officers | Tepper
One of my former clients, a member of Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business MBA class of 2013, was kind enough to answer my questions about his experience. CMU2013 provided the following description of himself: “I am a government official, sponsored by Japanese government. I selected Tepper School of Business to brush up my analytical skills based on quantitative tools. Now I am really enjoying my MBA journey with lots of great students and quants!”
In addition to the MBA, Tepper is well known for its Master in Computational Finance. CMU2013 provides great insight into one of the most (if not the most) quantatively rigorous MBA programs.
Adam: To what extent do you think the school’s mission statement has impacted what you learned at the school so far?
CMU2013: Huge impact. Tepper’s mission statement shows several key factors, such as problem-solving, leadership, and teamwork. Based on this concept, Tepper MBA course covers lots of analytical classes, and most classes impose teamwork tasks on students.
Adam: What parts of the program have you liked the most? The least?
CMU2013: I
love abundant analytical classes in this school. There are lots of
opportunities to improve problem-solving skills, especially quantitative
and data-analytical skills. In addition, several dual degree programs
with other schools are possible, including Computational Finance, Public
Policy, and Software Engineering. It takes only two years to get these
degrees if you spend summer break taking extra classes. And, the school
size is small enough (the smallest in the top 20!) to be tight-knit
community. Class size itself is also small, so we can talk with
professor very closely.
Basically
I am really satisfied with this program, but if any, I do not like the
small number of qualitative classes available in this program. There is a
flip side to everything. This school provides lots of quants classes,
so there are relatively not so many qualitative classes.
Adam: What has most surprised you about your first year?
CMU2013: I
was surprised to find that this school provides us with great
environment to nourish cooperative culture. Almost all MBA applicants,
including me, know Tepper as a super hard school. And Tepper is not so
famous for cooperative culture as other schools, but I found that School
itself plans lots of events every week for students to work together,
and of course students also plan many parties almost every day. Event
scale itself is small, and thanks to that, almost all participants know
each other very well.
Adam: How would you describe the culture of the business school?
CMU2013: I can say Tepper school of business is small, tight-knit, cooperative,
and quantitative. Through the first six months, every student is forced
to work together with many other students in almost all classes. Tepper
is proud of this teamwork-based curriculum, in which we learn how to
help each other to optimize the output. In a difficult quantitative
class, most students work together to help understand the concept even
if they are not supposed to do so.
Adam: Do you actually have any time for clubs? If so, which ones are you active in?
CMU2013: Yes,
I do have time. I am active in Business and Technology, Biopharma,
Volleyball, Asian Business Association, and Net Impact. Tepper is well
known for one of the hard school, so club members do not always
participating. As for club activity, if you succeeded in joining club
board, you would have great opportunity to manage club event. Indeed, I
am a vice president of Marketing in Asian Business Association, and
enjoy my work with other board members.
Adam: Are there any common characteristics you find amongst your classmates?
CMU2013: Friendly, mature, cooperative
Adam: Are there any changes coming to the school?
CMU2013: New
dean states clearly that he will change policies to improve Tepper MBA
ranking. I have no idea about what will he change, but this must have
some effects on admission policy. For example, required GMAT score might
change.
Adam: What are you doing this summer?
CMU2013: I will work at OECD in Paris for two months. As a consultant, I will
investigate what’s going on in a global market of alternative fuels,
such as hydrogen fuel, bio ethanol, and electric vehicle. This
achievement will be public in a workshop this fall.
Adam: What advice do you have for those considering application to your school?
CMU2013: I
know many MBA applicants who hold great score at TOEFL and GMAT, failed
to get even interview offer. Take time to make unique, concise, and
concrete essays. Campus visit itself is not sufficient way to get
admitted at all, but it can be great opportunity to get lots of
knowledge to be used in the essays and interview. For example, I was strongly interested in quantitative analysis in this school, so I asked
admission office to show an operation class in my campus visit.
Fortunately, I could join a very popular operation class, and I wrote what
I saw and how I felt in that class. These vivid essays were much more
persuasive to admission office than ones without my campus visit story.
But even if you do not have such experience, you do not have to worry.
Adam is really great and reliable counselor. He knows what you should
next.
Adam: Are there any specific websites or blogs that you would recommend that applicants look at to learn more about your school?
CMU2013: In Japanese only: http://tepperjp.wikispaces.com/
Adam: Anything else you would like to tell us?
CMU2013: Good luck!
I want to thank CMU2013 for taking the time to answer my questions.
-Adam Markus