The Tulane MBA

What's Great About Tulane

In my last post I had talked about my experience in Hong Kong, and also promised that I will write a little bit more about our strengths.

So here we go:

1. Experiential programs such as Darwin Fenner and Burkenroad: These two programs are great and give you a hands on experience of the real world. In Burkenroad you work as an equity research analyst and follow a real company. In Darwin Fenner, the students manage around $2 Million of the University endowment. I am taking both of these courses now, and it’s a great experience. We also have a state of the art Trading Room, and experts come in regularly to conduct training.

2. We have a great Finance program: Yes we do. Things build up over the two years and there is a well thought out logic in which you take courses. At the end of two years, you should have the necessary skill set to handle real jobs.

3. Unique opportunities for Entrepreneurs: We have a very active Entrepreneurship club and members have been working hard to improve it every year. New Orleans is kind of a melting pot for social entrepreneurship, now that rebuilding after Katrina is in full swing.

4. Very approachable professors: Before I joined Tulane, in this very blog Joel Yarmon(founder of the blog) talked about how accessible the professors in Tulane are. At that point I had no frame of reference. But after 1.5 years and a semester aboard, I would definitely agree. With several professors you get a reply to your email within one hour! They are here to help you out.

There are several other great things about the Tulane MBA, and if you have any questions, feel free to drop me an email.

Karthik Mahadevan ; mkarthik01@gmail.com

School + Super Bowl + Mardi Gras = Time Crunch

This is it.  I have never seen New Orleans like this.  The Saints are in the Super Bowl, and Mardi Gras is two weeks away.  As a Louisiana native, I never ever though we’d see an actual Black and Gold Super Bowl.  Since the Saints got in the game last Sunday, the city has been on fire.  Normally, this is a busy time of year, with Mardi Gras parades, parties and concerts.  Multiply that times 10.  At least.

Oh, and don’t forget - school isn’t taking a two week Saints/Carnival break.  We have an accounting test Wednesday (which most of us acknowledge will take a considerable amount of study time), and assignments for other classes scattered through the next few weeks.  Most of us are realizing that the mid-weeks are times for school work only right now.  This is so that we can enjoy all of the weekend festivities that it seems like the entire rest of the city is taking in also.

This past Saturday, a few b-school friends and I headed to a party to watch the first real parade of the season, Krewe de Vieux.  This extremely irreverent parade rolls through the French Quarter each year, with very clever floats and costumes.  For my Northern friends, this was quite a sight to see.

This upcoming weekend, parades roll just a few blocks from campus on Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday afternoon.  Then, the Super Celebrations begin.  Some local schools have canceled class for the post-Super Bowl Monday.  This is a town that likes to party - and Saints pride is the name of the game.  Add those things together and we are all thankful to be in this city at this time.  What an experience.

Louis David

ldavid@tulane.edu

Financial Times Rankings are In

After a wild night in New Orleans celebrating a Saints victory, we were greeted with more good news today.  We received a congratulatory message from our Dean this afternoon highlighting our jump in the most recent Financial Times rankings. Feel free to read his message below.

This is a truly historic day in New Orleans.  After 40 years, the New Orleans Saints are going to the Super Bowl.  As I’m sure you know the Saints won a nail-biter with a field goal in overtime to beat the Vikings.

OH YES, THERE IS ANOTHER REASON WHY TODAY IS SO IMPORTANT. Last year, the Freeman School was not ranked by the Financial Times because we didn’t get enough of our alums to complete evaluations, but this year we made it back to the rankings.  In 2008, we were ranked 80^th in the world, and 45th in the United Sates. This year we did a bit better.  We were ranked 61^st in the world and 35^th in the United States. These are historic highs for the Freeman School and reflect the hard work that everyone here has been doing.  You’ll hear more details about the rankings (where we did very well and where we still need to improve) over the coming weeks, but for right now, I wanted let everyone know the good news as soon as possible. And, before I forget – GO SAINTS!.

-Eric

A Semester in Hong Kong

I recently spent a semester in Hong Kong as an MBA exchange student. It was an absolutely amazing and fantastic experience. This is one of the wonderful opportunities that Freeman school gives you when you join the MBA program here.

My friend and I were the first students to go on exchange to Hong Kong after hurricane Katrina. There were a lot of procedural details to be worked out, and I was not sure until the very end whether I would be going. After completing my internship in NOLA, I headed to India en route to HK. The partner university is HKUST, and the program there is highly regarded. In all, there were a total of 55 incoming MBA exchange students ! There were students from all around the world, and the international exposure I had at Tulane came in handy.

I chose to stay on campus which is 45 minutes from the center of the city. [ HK is a very small place ] Staying in the dormitory made me feel young all over again. I got a chance to interact with all the first years, and tried to make them more aware of our program.

There are a lot of places to visit around HK, and throughout the semester, I tried to go to as many places as possible. Many students also travelled to neighboring countries, but I chose to stay in HK. China is the next rising super-power, and I would recommend all students to learn more about the region. Tulane also has a mandatory China course and trip during the last semester, which is think is critical in today’s changing world. I took a few China specific courses, and it was engaging to interact with the local Chinese students.

By the end of it, both my friend and I were totally in love with HK. But we also honestly missed all our friends back here in NOLA. I was sad to leave HK, but at the same time, Change is the only thing constant !

During my trip, I could see the strengths of our program more clearly. I will talk about them in my next post.

Karthik Mahadevan

Working While in School Full-Time

Before beginning school, I was entertaining the idea of working part-time while carrying a full course load. As you may have gathered from one of my earlier blogs, I quickly realized that working was not a good idea…at least for me. I know of a few classmates that are working part-time, and I am impressed with their time management skills! At first, I felt like I didn’t have a free moment for myself, much less for a job. After getting into the swing of things, however, we have all found ways (translation: shortcuts) to not be studying all day and night. Even now that I have some free time, I choose not to look for a job. When else in my life will it be excusable to not be earning a paycheck? When else will I have three day weekends to travel if I want?

Several students are volunteering in the community during their free time. Since last semester, I have been volunteering once a week with Animal Rescue New Orleans. I also know that several students are working closely with The St. Bernard Project, a local organization rebuilding homes of Hurricane Katrina survivors. One of my groupmates was working for The St. Bernard Project before beginning the MBA program and continues to work there part-time.  He has done a wonderful job getting Tulane and its students involved in their mission.  There are countless organizations throughout the city that need help and even though our class comes from all over the country, many of us have taken steps to get involved in the local community. Speaking of local community, did I mention since moving to New Orleans I’m a new convert to the Who Dat Nation? Geaux Saints!

-Sarah

a fellow volunteer at ARNO with a new born puppy

Guest Blog: Back to the 9 to 5

So, I asked my good friend and classmate, Ishaneka Williams to guest blog because she finished her MBA program last week. Ishaneka was able to finish early by using the Masters of Global Management program as her concentration. Below is her perspective on what it’s like to be done.

Amina

Upon entering b-school your ambition is high and your focus is intact. You mainly want to get the three letters behind your name and hopefully that will translate into a higher pay grade. But then you go through b-school.

The experience has been a gratifying challenge to say the least. I never thought that I could analyze so many cases, goodness the never ending cases, refer to a WACC or EBITDA and actually understand what it means or better yet appreciate the amount of teamwork required.

The MBA experience opened up so many opportunities that I never imagined. In one year I have been to over five different countries (and yes layovers count!). I’ve worked with people from all over the world, met some of my best friends and had some of the most memorable life experiences. This, all in two years!

It’s such a bittersweet moment to be at the end but also at a new beginning. Okay so I didn’t mean for this to be a sappy post but it really has hit me - the program is ending!

Ishaneka Williams

iwilliam@tulane.edu

Semester 2

So the spring semester is here. It’s strange to be back after a month of doing basically nothing. The break was great and well deserved but now we get back to business.

I’ve chosen to pursue a dual concentration in Strategic Management and Leadership and Marketing so this spring I’ll be taking 7 courses, 4 core courses (Internal Reporting, Process Modeling and Marketing Planning and Implementation, and European Union) and 3 electives (Corporate and Cooperative Strategy, Environment Society and Capitalism, and Consumer Behavior). Overall I’ll be completing 17 credit hours this semester. The first 2 electives count towards the concentration in Strategic Management and the last towards Marketing.
So far, the schedule looks less intensive than the first semester. I can’t speak for the workload though as I’ve only had 3 days of classes. I’m sure eventually I’ll find myself putting insane amounts of hours into homework and studying just like before. I also have the summer internship to worry about. Everyone has to move fast to secure an internship that’s worthwhile and so far not many of us had had much luck.

No matter what happens, I’m happy to be back in New Orleans with all my friends and I’m ready to tackle another semester.

Juan

Final Semester

Headed into my fourth and final semester I thought I would give you a list of the classes I will be finishing my Tulane career with.  This semester I will have Negotiations, New Venture Planning, Leadership and Ethics, and Global Leadership. New Venture Planning, Leadership and Ethics, and Global Leadership are all core courses so everyone in the second year MBA class is taking them.  It kind of takes us back to the days of our first semester in business school when we were all taking the same classes.

I just completed an intensive Negotiations class last week so technically I’m down to three courses.  The class is a one week class that is only offered the week before fall semester and the week before spring semester. Thus, last Wednesday through Sunday I was at school from 9:00-5:00.  The class dealt with the negotiation process, allowed us to complete numerous individual negotiations, and we also completed a team negotiation on the final day.  To those of you headed to Tulane, I highly recommend this class.  Negotiating is an incredibly important skill and we really learned a lot in this class.

New Venture Planning is a half-semester class and we basically go through the entire process of creating our own business plan.  Many of the students in our class are focused on becoming entrepreneurs so this is particularly exciting to them.  I plan on creating a business plan to launch a school bus company in New Orleans.  We’ll have to wait and see how that turns out.

You can pretty much guess what Leadership and Ethics is about so I won’t blab on about that.  This class is a full semester class and should allow for some great discussion.

Global Leadership is a half-semester class and we won’t start that until March.  All I can tell you is that it will focus on the challenges of doing business in Asia.  Also, as part of this class, we will be traveling to Beijing, China during our spring break. It will be the last of our three global trips and I’m pretty sure most people in class are very excited for this trip.

-Eric