GSM News & Summer Reading

Earlier today, I received a nice shout-out from the assistant director of the Davis GSM asking to feature my blog in their newsletter. Of course, I adamantly refused! Haha..j/k. It's pretty awesome to know that what started out as my attempt to re-invigorate my writing skills (while potentially awakening a few dormant brain cells) and chronicle my b-school journey has generated much interest from both prospective and newly admitted MBA students. As I continue this trek, I hope to shed a much more vibrant light on the GSM and highlight the amazing opportunities I'll have along the way. Remember that whether you choose a full-time or part-time program, your MBA experience is truly what you make of it. Getting an MBA is great, but relishing in the experience is priceless! I, for one, intend to take full advantage of most of what's being offered and then some.

On a related note, I am excited that the GSM will welcome our new Dean, Steven Currall, who hails from the prestigious London Business School and University College London. He also packs an impressive background in entrepreneurship and innovation. But I do have to confess that I'm going to miss our current Dean Nicole Woolsey Biggart for a couple good reasons. Firstly, I'm not too familiar with female deans, so whoo hoo! for amazing female business leaders. And secondly, she also has a sociology background, which I find so refreshing to the b-school environment. Last year, she was honored by the Aspen Institute with a Faculty Pioneer Award (dubbed as the Oscars for the business world) for her exceptional commitment to incorporating social and environmental issues into academic research & management education. She even donated her honorarium to Davis' Net Impact. This just goes to show how committed the GSM is to ensuring that corporate social responsibility is not just a fad, but an integral pillar in business education and that the school is also dedicated to educating socially-minded business leaders who will use their MBA to meet the challenges of a strained and vastly interconnected globalized economy.

Nonetheless, I'm hopeful that under Dean Currall's leadership, the GSM will receive a tremendous boost in elevating its global appeal. Already, the UC Davis GSM is the youngest and one of the smallest programs to be globally ranked in the Top 50 for 14 consecutive years by U.S. News & World Report and we're also 25th among public universities! And, according to the Financial Times, we're ranked #2 in the world for Organizational Behavior. However, in my book, the most significant attribute of the GSM is its ongoing commitment to remaining small and intimate. I attended a very large undergraduate institution and I knew that I really didn't want the lecture-style set-up in a b-school; I guess I finally figured out my learning style and the conditions under which I thrive...I know, it's about time!

Another great thing the GSM sent me was their summer reading list. No, it's not mandatory, but purely a compilation of recommendations from the GSM community. In this spirit, I also came up with my own summer reads that I hope to pick up very soon!


1. More than Money by Mark Albion








2. Uncharitable by Dan Pallotta









3. How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas by David Bornstein






4. Forces for Good: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits by Leslie Crutchfield & Heather McLeod Grant

WiLPower at UC Davis

Excited to quench my insatiable appetite for getting involved with the UC Davis MBA community, I couldn't help but commit to attending the 2009 Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in Sacramento with the Women in Leadership (WiL) team at Davis. I met the president of WiL at the campus' Preview Day event months earlier prior to my acceptance and she was super cool. As such, I was invited to join their Team WiLPower on the day before Mother's Day to walk/run for a great cause. Of course, how could I refuse such an invitation, right?

Here's a picture of those of us who bravely woke up bright and early on a Saturday morning to join thousands of others in the fight for a cure against breast cancer. Many thanks to Jackie (WiL's co-pres) for bringing her camera along to document our smiley faces.
It was such an awesome event! I had a great time and it was quite touching to witness all the honorees and survivors walking/running alongside me. Surprisingly, there were plenty of men amidst the massive sea of pink and they couldn't be more proud. Afterwards, I wandered through the race expo and even got a chance to get my free body fat testing completed. I'm also happy to report I'm in the normal range, so whoo hoo! for that.

It's pretty neat to be immersed in a team environment again. Since all of Team WiLPower were finishing up the 1st year of their MBA, they were more than happy to shower me with really helpful advice on making the most of my experience and still maintaining my academic rigor. I guess it all boils down to finding a balance--much like everything else in life.

I was also excited to speak with one of the students who had attended the Net Impact Conference at Wharton last year and he encouraged me to put that on my calendar for 2009 since it's happening at Cornell's Johnson School (little does he know I've already beat him to the punch!). I've got a meeting lined up tomorrow with the president of the working professional Net Impact chapter at UCD to strategize our community involvement plans for next year. I'm thrilled she's given me the opportunity to really help build this fledgling chapter of NI since this kind of thing is right up my alley. Earlier in the week, I saw Wicked in San Francisco and conveniently used the night to also network with some non-profit gurus in the bay..how's that for efficiency?! (BTW: If you are in the bay, go see Wicked...it's just wickedly addictive!)

Right before drafting this post, I also stumbled upon Andrew Choi's top 10 advice for incoming MBA students. I'm happy to note that I'll probably be checking off 4 of those from my own list. So, thanks Andrew for thinking of us who are still on the brink of embarking on our MBA goals. I know you can expect plenty more from my side, so stay tuned:)

A special gift

My sister came over today and surprised me with a little token of her elation on my MBA news. So, what does she get for me? Hmm...the gift was flat, so I think it's a book. I'm not sure I mentioned this in my other posts, but I LOVE books. I think there's a name for people who have this passion (NO, it's not DORK), but it slips me mind at this time. Ever since I graduated college, I've really made an effort to read at least one book each month and believe it or not, I've gone back and started seeking out more children's literature, especially my own childhood favorites. I recently finished Mildred D. Taylor's award-winning books including my all-time favorite: Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry along with other books from her series. It's an inspirational, heartfelt and politically & socially charged piece of historical fiction that chronicles the racial and social injustices faced by an African American family in the rural south of the 1930s. It's amazing that as I was reading the book, this country also elected its first colored president--it all seems so surreal.

Anyhow, back to the initial reason for this post. After meticulously disassembling her lovely wrapping, I gave her a fat hug when I saw this: Fancy Nancy!

I'm such a sucker for colorful illustrations and smart little girls. It's so ironic (and silly) that I get into an MBA program and my sister gives me a children's book (maybe it's because she teaches 3rd graders for a living). Hahaha, but I love it and she knows me so well. I think we all need to smile and relive the inner child in us; it makes for a much happier me and I'll take that any day!

"Just not that into me" paves way for new beginnings

After a restful weekend in Hawaii basking under the golden sun and soaking up the Aloha attitude, I think I'm ready to reveal the final decision for my MBA journey. So, Stanfuuurd, Harvard and NYU were "just not that into me" and I am totally fine with that. Sometimes, things just don't work out and although I was wooed, unfortunately, I was never courted. But every new beginning is some other beginning's end (hmm..I think those were the lyrics to some song).

Even without a decision from Columbia, I am excited that the next 3 years of my life will be at the UC Davis Graduate School of Management with their working professional program (I've already started brainstorming all the opportunities that I want to become a part of (Net Impact, Consulting Corps, Int'l Study Practicum...) After much heartfelt conversations with my hubby and my close friends, Davis really makes me happy. I know I hadn't blogged about it before, but I did attend it's annual Peer to Pier networking event in San Francisco last month and by far, the students & alumni at the GSM are solid, intelligent and extremely down to earth. My ideal post-MBA location to work is the bay area and the GSM boosts its largest alumni contingency in this local, so for me, this is a win-win situation. Besides that, my initial foray into my MBA dreams began with Davis about a year ago after realizing that I needed much more from my current profession. I longed for professional development opportunities, enhanced career prospects and an intense desire to work in teams (something that I considerably thrive under and strive for), all of which, I've found at the GSM.

So, as my run for an MBA nears an end in its initial chapter, I wanted to offer a piece of advice for my readers who are merely at the beginning of their own journeys.
I noticed on the blogosphere that many folks are blogging about other top-ranked b-schools, and I have to admit that made me a bit intimidated at first. But then I realized, how many of us are simply choosing schools based on rankings? I've met so many successful people in my lifetime who have accomplished significant things, but who didn't all attend the top 10 programs in the country. I hope my journey encourages others who are thinking about b-schools to also open their minds and realize that attending a top b-school is not an automatic guarantor for success. Ultimately, it's up to YOU and YOU alone to ensure that success happens. Take the douchebags of Enron and GM Motors who graduated from HBS only to make a complete financial fiasco. The rhetoric and oratory skills of our former president also didn't improve with a polished ivy-league b-school degree. With this in mind, I hope that others will see that an MBA is not an end in and of itself, but actually, a means to an end. Whichever means you choose, I hope you choose wisely and are ultimately happy with your decision. Good luck to all of those who are embarking on your MBA dreams, but before I go, I'll leave you with some cool facts I stumbled upon regarding the UC Davis GSM:

1. Lam Research CEO (HBS alumnus) Gives $1.5 Million to Foster New Business Leaders:
Underscoring the importance of leadership in business education at the Graduate School of Management at the University of California, Davis, Stephen G. Newberry and his wife, Shelley, have pledged $1 million to endow a faculty chair in leadership, as well as $500,000 to create a fellowship that will support MBA students who have great potential as business leaders.

2. The Brass Tacks among the 10 Most Innovative MBA Teams in the World: A team of four UC Davis MBA students advanced to the final round of the 2008 Innovation Challenge, the world’s largest academic competition of its kind produced by consulting firm Idea Crossing and hosted by The Batten Institute at the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business.

3. Net Impact Trailblazers: In 2008, UC Davis' Net Impact won 'Gold' designation, the highest awarded given to a Net Impact chapter. In 2007, the Davis chapter received the Trailblazer Chapter of the Year and the 2006 Small School Chapter of the Year award. Davis Net Impact is ranked among the top 30 MBA programs in the world for integrating issues of social and environmental stewardship into curricula and research by The Aspen Institute's Center for Business Education.

4. Among others, the GSM is also pioneering programs on green technology and will be offering a concentration in public health to prepare MBA students to lead hospitals, government agencies and other organizations.

BTW: I just found out I was nominated for Clear Admit's Best of Blogging for 2008-09..cool beans! Thanks Clear Admit...you guys are clearly awesome! I am quite flattered..I hope this blog has been helpful for you as it has (and will continue to be) for me.

My First Admit

Bright and early at 10am PST, I received a call from an unknown number which I conveniently sent to voicemail. Little did I realize that it was the Admissions Director of the UC Davis MBA program. With a hopeful smile on my face and good thoughts racing through I head, I immediately called back and sure enough, she extended her personal congratulations on my acceptance into their program. Yay! It is such a huge relief to know that my future is filled with much more hope and optimism now. I know an MBA is only a means to an end and wherever that end will be, I'll be equipped with the resources to make it happen! Only last week I was blogging about the wait and now, I have one of my questions answered; it feels amazing, albeit quite surreal, and even as I type this, I don't think it's completely registered in my mind yet. But of course, it will sink in soon enough:)

UPDATE: I received my nifty admit package in the mail on Friday..yay! It's for reals!!

The Wait

I've been slacking on my posts b/c apparently, this waiting game has been excrutiatingly painful. I had my interview with UC Davis a week ago and so far, nothing. Haven't heard back from any of my other schools either, so I'm fearful of not-so-great news coming my way next week--eek! Anyhow, the only thing that's been updated thus far is the HBS director's blog which reads

"Something for Everyone!
Date: March 24, 2009
This is the time of year when we have all three rounds in play, so here is some news for everyone:

Round One Waitlist - We will be extending offers of admission to about 40 round one waitlisters shortly after April 2. We will continue to maintain a waitlist and Eileen Chang will send out an update in early April.

Round Two Notification - April 2 is the notification date. All decisions will be released online - you will receive an email instructing you to check your status. We won't be making any congratulatory phone calls in advance of April 2!"

One can only cling on to whatever hope is left in this bschool journey, but geesh..let's just get the pain over with and tell us, already!

2009 MBA Scholarship: Apply now!

I wish someone had told me about this when I started my process for bschool, so in keeping with my promise to give back, I'm going to encourage all of you who are embarking on your MBA dreams to apply for this awesome opportunity to save LOADS of your own money with the 2009 Beat the GMAT Scholarship. Any of the prizes would be worth it for me b/c you still receive a free Manhattan GMAT prep course, which I highly recommend to anybody preparing for their GMAT. I blogged about MGMAT in my earlier posts in 2008, so browse my archive. BTW: I should add that the contest is open to both U.S. & international students. Anyhow, here's the cool prizes they're offering:

* First Prize ($5490 total value)
o $500 Cash
o One full Manhattan GMAT course
o 1 School Comprehensive Package with Stacy Blackman Consulting

* Second Prize ($2310 total value)
o $500 Cash
o One full Manhattan GMAT course
o 2500-word Editing Service with Stacy Blackman Consulting

* Third Prize ($2210 total value)
o $500 Cash
o One full Manhattan GMAT course
o 1000-word Editing Service with Stacy Blackman Consulting

* Fourth Prize ($2020 total value)
o $500 Cash
o One full Manhattan GMAT course
o Copy of MBA Application Roadmap by Stacy Blackman

* Fifth Prize ($1990 total value)
o $500 Cash
o One full Manhattan GMAT course

The final day to apply is May 8, so get started! What are you waiting for? Besides, it's a great way to jumpstart your application process and be ahead of the game.