What’s good, folk. The email below is from a Round 1 applicant to the GSB who was applying for the MBA/MA.Ed joint-degree program. Unfortunately, my backlog of emails kept me from being able to respond until now and those decisions went out a couple of weeks ago. I hope he got admitted…
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RH wrote:
“Hi Marquis,
I came across your blog when looking at some older BusinessWeek forum posts, what luck! Lots of really good stuff there, thank you for providing such a valuable resource to the crazed masses.
I interviewed yesterday morning with Stanford and hope to get that call from Mr. Bolton in a few weeks. It’s FAR and away my #1 choice for multiple reasons, one being the joint degree program which, like you, I would add upon matriculation. I did a search in your blog and read the entries related to the MA/MBA but still had a few questions. What would you do differently in retrospect? How was your experience different than that of a typical MBA student? Did you maximize your cross-listed courses? Was it exceptionally challenging?
Thanks much, happy new year!
RH”
————–
My response:
RH,
Thanks for checking out my blog. I know that it’s taken me about a month to get back to you on this and the Round 1 admissions calls were made in the meantime, so I hope my responses to your questions are still relevant. It’s always good to see kids interested in the joint-degree program between the GSB and School of Education (SUSE).
The most straightforward way for me to do this is to attack each of your questions individually rather than trying to weave them all together into some longer story:
“What would you do differently in retrospect?” –> There isn’t a whole lot I’d change about going through the joint-degree program because I learn a lot, took courses that I liked, and gained a new perspective on business principles can inform and improve education. If I could do it all over again, I would have started the joint degree from time I set foot on campus, rather than waiting a few quarters to start it, to stretch out the time that I had to fit in Ed school courses. It was pretty difficult to get all of the Ed classes necessary finish the degree and had to take a full courseload durign my final quarter to make it happen. Part of me wishes that I’d stayed an extra quarter (which is an option for joint-degree students), but I was too broke to put off working for an extra 3-4 months.
“How was your experience different than that of a typical MBA student?” –> I might have answered this question before, but I’ll give something on it here. My experience was different for several reason, including the obvious one of having to take more courses over my time there to finish both degrees. Some other differences are the interactions I had on a regular basis with Ed school students (some great conversations there), the genuine interest/passion I had in those Ed courses (it’s easier to be passionate about Economics of Education than Accounting or Statistics), and the different perspective on business that I got by viewing it through an “education lens”. These responses are probably a lost “softer” than what you were expecting, but they’re the first things that came to mind when I read your question.
“Did you maximize your cross-listed courses?” –> I definitely maximized the cross-listed courses between the GSB and SUSE because I had to do so to finish up both degrees in two years. In fact, those cross-listed courses were some of the most interesting ones I took in my time at Stanford. Aside from the subject matter itself, I found the class discussions to be be cool because of the diverse make-up of the class participants, who came from the business school, Ed school, and some other departments.
“Was it exceptionally challenging?” –> Define “exceptionally challenging”…hahahahahaha! Just kidding. At the time, it felt like it was really hard because I was having to take so many classes each quarter along with all of the activities that I was involved in. Also, the courses that I took always seemed to have a lot of reading and assignments. I liked my courses, so I’d actually do all the readings, which added to the time I had to devote to them. In hindsight, it wasn’t as hard as I thought it was at the time. You’ve just got to make sure you pick courses that you enjoy so you can look back on the experience fondly, rather than as some huge trial that you had to go through. I’m just glad that I wasn’t trying to find a job during the last two quarters there because that would have made it impossible for me to balance all of it together.
I hope these answers are the kind of insights you were looking for. Take care and I hope the admissions process worked out well for you at the GSB.
-Marquis
————–
RH wrote:
“Hi Marquis,
I came across your blog when looking at some older BusinessWeek forum posts, what luck! Lots of really good stuff there, thank you for providing such a valuable resource to the crazed masses.
I interviewed yesterday morning with Stanford and hope to get that call from Mr. Bolton in a few weeks. It’s FAR and away my #1 choice for multiple reasons, one being the joint degree program which, like you, I would add upon matriculation. I did a search in your blog and read the entries related to the MA/MBA but still had a few questions. What would you do differently in retrospect? How was your experience different than that of a typical MBA student? Did you maximize your cross-listed courses? Was it exceptionally challenging?
Thanks much, happy new year!
RH”
————–
My response:
RH,
Thanks for checking out my blog. I know that it’s taken me about a month to get back to you on this and the Round 1 admissions calls were made in the meantime, so I hope my responses to your questions are still relevant. It’s always good to see kids interested in the joint-degree program between the GSB and School of Education (SUSE).
The most straightforward way for me to do this is to attack each of your questions individually rather than trying to weave them all together into some longer story:
“What would you do differently in retrospect?” –> There isn’t a whole lot I’d change about going through the joint-degree program because I learn a lot, took courses that I liked, and gained a new perspective on business principles can inform and improve education. If I could do it all over again, I would have started the joint degree from time I set foot on campus, rather than waiting a few quarters to start it, to stretch out the time that I had to fit in Ed school courses. It was pretty difficult to get all of the Ed classes necessary finish the degree and had to take a full courseload durign my final quarter to make it happen. Part of me wishes that I’d stayed an extra quarter (which is an option for joint-degree students), but I was too broke to put off working for an extra 3-4 months.
“How was your experience different than that of a typical MBA student?” –> I might have answered this question before, but I’ll give something on it here. My experience was different for several reason, including the obvious one of having to take more courses over my time there to finish both degrees. Some other differences are the interactions I had on a regular basis with Ed school students (some great conversations there), the genuine interest/passion I had in those Ed courses (it’s easier to be passionate about Economics of Education than Accounting or Statistics), and the different perspective on business that I got by viewing it through an “education lens”. These responses are probably a lost “softer” than what you were expecting, but they’re the first things that came to mind when I read your question.
“Did you maximize your cross-listed courses?” –> I definitely maximized the cross-listed courses between the GSB and SUSE because I had to do so to finish up both degrees in two years. In fact, those cross-listed courses were some of the most interesting ones I took in my time at Stanford. Aside from the subject matter itself, I found the class discussions to be be cool because of the diverse make-up of the class participants, who came from the business school, Ed school, and some other departments.
“Was it exceptionally challenging?” –> Define “exceptionally challenging”…hahahahahaha! Just kidding. At the time, it felt like it was really hard because I was having to take so many classes each quarter along with all of the activities that I was involved in. Also, the courses that I took always seemed to have a lot of reading and assignments. I liked my courses, so I’d actually do all the readings, which added to the time I had to devote to them. In hindsight, it wasn’t as hard as I thought it was at the time. You’ve just got to make sure you pick courses that you enjoy so you can look back on the experience fondly, rather than as some huge trial that you had to go through. I’m just glad that I wasn’t trying to find a job during the last two quarters there because that would have made it impossible for me to balance all of it together.
I hope these answers are the kind of insights you were looking for. Take care and I hope the admissions process worked out well for you at the GSB.
-Marquis
