My name is Elliott Kim and I was addicted to power and stimulation.
I’ve been meaning to write this one for a long time. I think tonight, I finally have some motivation to do it. I know it’s gonna be a long one. Like I’ve said before, these posts are mostly for me to organize my thoughts. As a perfectionist, I like to try and keep things objective and to try and keep a record of my thoughts. An added benefit is not only nostalgia and evidence of development throughout the years, but also to prove myself a hypocrite (or not) with actual record of my thoughts.
What a crazy 6 months it’s been. Since the beginning of November 2010, I’ve been consumed by the rigors of applying to full-time MBA programs. One of the essay questions they all ask is, Why MBA? My honest answer then would have been something like, “well, I want to be a good businessman in some field I’m not too sure of. I know the MBA will help me get ready for the long-term future because 1) I’ll learn a lot of things regarding how to be a good business manager. 2) I’ll have an MBA next to my name which will give me instant credibility for any job I apply in the future, 3) I’ll meet a lot of interesting people that will be a great network for the future, and 4) the MBA school activities like conferences and clubs will help me identify which field I want to get into.
But of course you can’t say that, because the MBA admissions will say, “the 2-year MBA program is too short for you to use that process to figure things out. By your second semester, you’re already recruiting for a summer internship. It goes by too quickly. You must have a better idea now, or you’ll be left behind. Besides, everyone else that’s applying has a plan.”
6 months ago, I didn’t really know how to answer the “Why MBA” question. I tried to be as honest as possible, though, and here’s how it all evolved:
== 2010 October:
A. Make a lot of money (don’t know how), retire in 20-30 years and pursue philanthropy later.
B. Make money (somehow) -> Philanthropy
I realized that this wasn’t going to be a good answer to MBA admissions committee, so I searched for a more plausible way of figuring out how I’m going to make a lot of money (without saying I’m wanting to make a lot of money, but simply saying what I’m wanting to do… explaining the means without talking about the end).
== 2010 November:
A. Make a lot of money (entrepreneurship management, hope I get a bunch of stock options and make out rich), retire in 20-30 years and pursue philanthropy later.
B. Business Development -> Entrepreneurship Management -> Philanthropy
This was plausible, but definitely not a guarantee. To make my stories plausible, I researched companies and figure out what they’re looking for in their qualifications for high-profile roles, so that I can write in my essay, “for example, company x, y, and z in that industry requires experience a, b, and c. With UPenn MBA, I can get a, b, and c through classes 1, conferences 2, and clubs 3, which will help me get to those jobs in x, y, and z”. But obviously, I had a hard time finding companies that would hire straight-out-of-MBA CEOs, because no one does that.
== 2010 December:
A. Make a lot of money (via venture capital), retire in 20-30 years and pursue philanthropy later.
B. Business Development -> Entrepreneurship Management -> Venture capital -> Philanthropy.
This was another step in my evolved process. I just added venture capital in there.
== 2011 January:
A. Make a lot of money WHILE pursuing philanthropy through social venture capital. This ended up being my MBA essay, as my applications were all due in 2011 Jan.
B. Consulting -> Entrepreneurship Management -> SOCIAL venture capital (investing in start-up companies that do social good. For example, instead of investing in companies like Facebook in its infancy, invest in companies that provide ambulance services in Kenya).
== 2011 February:
A. Don’t care about money. Go into consulting in social sector for 3 years, go directly into a social company.
B. Consulting -> Social Sector.
THIS is the pivotal point of the process for me. I had the interview with UPenn 2011 Feb 23, and I knew as I walked out that I wouldn’t get in. So during that time of devastated realization that it wasn’t going to pan out, I thought about what really mattered to me. Then I questioned, why help others? Who cares if I help people get a good education? If this universe reaches heat death and maximum entropy as scientists say (or a big crunch, either way a death of all life in a finite future), who the hell cares what I do to help others? Would my life have been that much more meaningful if I helped people get better health care? Hell no. My life is still meaningless. It all comes out the wash the same way in the end. So what matters to me? Well, as a Christian, I believe in heaven and hell. And so if I help someone get better education or better healthcare or better access to water, but they end up going to hell, then I made absolutely no impact. But if I help someone get to heaven, then I’ve made all the impact. Is it possible to help others get better education/health care/access to water AND help them get to heaven?
2011 March:
A. Don’t care about money. Don’t care about social companies. Go make disciples of all nations.
B. Skip all that other nonsense (venture capital, social or not, and entrepreneurship management. Consulting can be very helpful, though). Go directly to Christian social services company.
I had basically gone this route:
1. Money to help others.
2. Money while helping others.
3. Who cares about money, just help others.
4. Who cares about money OR helping others if they wind up in hell? Get people to heaven WHILE helping them.
And that’s where I am now.
I do wish I learned all of this not necessarily 5 years ago when I was still in college, but at least about 2 years ago, when I was 2 years out of college. That way I would have known better how to answer the “Why MBA” question without having to forgo enjoying my Thanksgiving and Christmas/New Years working on my applications. In fact, I spent Christmas AND New Years by myself working on my applications and still barely got my applications in on time. I wish I got to enjoy my Thanksgiving and Christmas, because last year, I only took 7 days off (3 of which was to visit college campuses). And I could have used those last couple weeks in December to refuel. Now I’m just tired and want to relax for a week or two, just go to someplace, relax, read a bit, and just enjoy myself. It’s been over a year since I’ve done that. And if I knew this 2 years ago, I would have started on my M.Div then, and would have applied to a part-time MBA program last year. Basically I feel like I lost a year, maybe even two.
Obviously, this change in my life-plan, or the plan for at least the next 5-10 years, constantly changed rather dramatically for 6 months straight. This was EXCRUCIATINGLY taxing. But I’m very thankful for this whole process which taught me all of that.
My mom then told me about a Christian organization called World Vision. It’s been a very large and well-known organization for a while, but I was oblivious to it. So I picked up a book by the current President of World Vision, Richard Stearns, called “Hole in Our Gospel.” And while reading that book, I became enamored with the mission of that organization and came across SEVERAL interesting companies that I’m now interested in. This process opened my eyes to a whole new world of Christian organizations I didn’t know much about before.
Compassion – Christian child advocacy ministry that releases children from spiritual, economic, social and physical poverty and enables them to become responsible, fulfilled Christian adults.
World Relief – We practice principles of transformational development to empower local churches in the United States and around the world so they can serve the vulnerable in their communities. With initiatives in education, health, child development, agriculture, food security, anti-trafficking, immigrant services, micro-enterprise, disaster response and refugee resettlement, we work holistically with the local church to stand for the sick, the widow, the orphan, the alien, the displaced, the devastated, the marginalized, and the disenfranchised.
World Vision – World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice.
Cure International – Our goal is to bring 100% physical and spiritual healing to children with disabilities in the developing world.
Habitat for Humanity – We are a nonprofit, ecumenical Christian ministry founded on the conviction that every man, woman and child should have a decent, safe and affordable place to live. We build with people in need regardless of race or religion. We welcome volunteers and supporters from all backgrounds.
Opportunity International – Our vision is a world in which all people have the opportunity to provide for their families and build a fulfilling life. Our belief is that small-scale entrepreneurs can be big change agents in overcoming global poverty. Our mission is to empower people to work their way out of chronic poverty, transforming their lives, their children’s futures and their communities. Our method is to provide microfinance services, including lending, savings, insurance and transformational training, to people in need. To do this, we build and work through sustainable, local microfinance institutions. Our motivation is to respond to Jesus Christ’s call to love and serve the poor.
Young Life – Our Vision: Every adolescent will have the opportunity to meet Jesus Christ and follow Him. Our Mission: Introducing adolescents to Jesus Christ and helping them grow in their faith.
Bread for the World – Bread for the World is a collective Christian voice urging our nation’s decision makers to end hunger at home and abroad.
ChildFund International – ChildFund International is inspired and driven by the potential that is inherent in all children; the potential not only to survive but to thrive, to become leaders who bring positive change for those around them.
Mercy Ships – Mercy Ships is a global charity that has operated hospital ships in developing nations since 1978. Mercy Ships brings hope and healing to the forgotten poor by mobilizing people and resources worldwide, and serving all people without regard for race, gender, or religion. MISSION: We follow the 2000-year-old example of Jesus, bringing hope and healing to the forgotten poor. VISION: Mercy Ships seeks to become the face of love in action, bringing hope and healing to the poor. VALUES: Desiring to follow the example of Jesus, we seek to: Love God, Love and serve others, Be people of integrity, Be people of excellence in all we say and do.
World Concern – World Concern provides life, opportunity and hope to suffering people around the world through disaster response and development programs. Motivated by our love of Christ, we bring hope and reconciliation to those we serve, so they may in turn share with others.
John Templeton Foundation – The John Templeton Foundation serves as a philanthropic catalyst for discoveries relating to the Big Questions of human purpose and ultimate reality. We support research on subjects ranging from complexity, evolution, and infinity to creativity, forgiveness, love, and free will. We encourage civil, informed dialogue among scientists, philosophers, and theologians and between such experts and the public at large, for the purposes of definitional clarity and new insights. Our vision is derived from the late Sir John Templeton’s optimism about the possibility of acquiring “new spiritual information” and from his commitment to rigorous scientific research and related scholarship. The Foundation’s motto, “How little we know, how eager to learn,” exemplifies our support for open-minded inquiry and our hope for advancing human progress through breakthrough discoveries.
Conrad N. Hilton Foundation – Guided by the example of his German-American mother and Norwegian immigrant father, Conrad Hilton’s life was grounded in a deep faith in God and country, an intrinsic belief in hard work, and the ability to “dream big.” He was also profoundly influenced by the Catholic Church and its Sisters. Instructed by Conrad N. Hilton to alleviate human suffering, the Foundation’s grantmaking programs and Humanitarian Prize work to improve the lives of disadvantaged and vulnerable people throughout the world. While the Foundation supports many Catholic organizations and institutions, our giving is not restricted to specific denominations or faith groups.
The MBA application has got to be one of the most frustrating applications for a Masters degree.
A. Masters in Arts or Law programs may only look at your test scores and your GPA and care very little about anything else. But the MBA considers your 1) Test Scores and your 2) GPA, but also 3) extracurricular activities, 4) great recommendations, and 5) work experience. It’s a very holistic process.
B. The admissions officers know that people BullS#!t their way to get admitted during this holistic process. Those officers know all the BS but still abide by them.
A. 1. For example, the MBA application may ask what the applicant wants to do, and most people say something along the lines of, “I want to do something great within my field and MBA will help me get there by doing a, b, and c.” But they’ll very often ask the admitted students during the course of their school career if they plan on doing something different, and Columbia for example will say that more than 50% of the students say that they are. It’s a big marketing game, and I’ve never been a great snake-oil salesman.
A. 2. Another example? They all know that many students will write their own recommendations (or have their friends write it for them so that it sounds different), hand it over to their superiors and have them simply submit/sign it. Yet the recommendation is a very important part of the process. Any MBA admissions committee who denies this to be a rampant practice (maybe not majority, but definitely much more like many than few) is a total sham, and I’m afraid to say that almost all of them are.
A. 3. Another is work experience/extracurricular/resume. People fluff out their credentials so much that it’s very unfathomable how anyone could even believe them. For example, I bought a book “65 Successful Harvard Business School Application Essays” just to see who I’m competing against and how to write good essays. I promise you most of them were total BS. “What are your 3 biggest accomplishments?” “Well, I single handedly determined that we shouldn’t invest $60 million in Chile for a certain project.” (3 years in and someone gave you that power?) “I single-handedly averted a certain disaster at the last second when the submarine I was commandeering was on a collision course with another ship.” (4 years in and you’re in charge of a submarine? I mean come on! And even if you were, WHY WERE YOU IN A COLLISION COURSE IN THE FIRST PLACE?) These people get into Harvard…
A. 4. The number of investment bankers. I wrote a bit about this on my Feb 22nd, 2011 entry, where I was dumbfounded by how investment bankers would convince admissions committee why they need an MBA. But they would disguise their true intentions of going to an MBA program because they 1) simply needed 2 years off after having worked 100 hours a week for 3-4 years, and 2) just need a backstop in case their hedge fund doesn’t do well. They’ll be the first to admit that otherwise, most of the courses that an MBA offers does not pertain to them at all. I wish MBA programs would simply deny all these people and put them in a separate Masters in Finance programs. What could they possibly bring to the MBA program that others cannot? I can see why former consultants could be in demand. But 20-30% of admitted students from investment banking? (Harvard MBA stat: Financial Services 14% + Venture Capital/Private Equity 18% = 32%). What the hell for? Put them in Masters in Finance program, that’s what they’ll go back to anyway, and whatever insight they think they can bring, consultants can do much better.
A. 5. a. And finally, the interview process. This is totally the luck of the draw. It’s very obvious and apparent by now that I have a disdain not for investment bankers in general, but for investment bankers who lie their way into 30% of the acceptance pool into an MBA program. To my total dismay, I was interviewed by one at UPenn, who use 2nd year MBA students for these interviews. I suppose they just breed these people differently. And he epitomized everything I hated about those people. How do I know? Well the end of the interview process allows you to ask a couple questions to the interviewee. My question was, almost verbatim, “If I’m fortunate enough to be accepted into UPenn’s MBA program, I want to make sure I take full advantage of all the things that they have to offer. Knowing what you know now, would you have done anything differently when you first started out?” An honest question, which I was actually surprised to say I got an honest answer from. He thought for a few seconds, perhaps (probably?) wondering if he should tell me the truth, and said, “That’s a good question. I wish I took the academics a lot more seriously. I had come from an investment banking background and I just needed some time off. But I didn’t do much my first year, even though I’m very involved in my second year.” So great, I got interviewed by someone who just needed some time off before they went back to investment banking. I’m sure that’s exactly what he wrote about when he wrote and interviewed and got the “Why MBA?” question (sarcasm).
A. 5. b. As for the interview questions and answers themselves, many are also filled with total BS. For example, one of the questions UPenn asked is, “We have many leaders in UPenn and as leaders, we need to be persuasive… tell us about a time you were successful in persuading a team to doing something they weren’t exactly enthusiastic about at first.” So tell me how an investment banker of 3-4 years would answer that question? You work 100 hours a week, so you can’t do anything outside of that (but still, I see people’s resumes saying they do investment banking AND are deeply involved in various extracurricular activities… I mean come on!). But you’re also responsible to VPs. Even my former roommate who got into UPenn this year told me himself, “I’m a peon. I don’t do anything but what they tell me to do.” So how could you possibly get into UPenn with that answer? Obviously, because that’s not the answer they come up with. They’ll usually say something to the line of, “there was a big dispute about where to invest $50 Million, and I built a coalition of analysts, managers, and finally VPs to invest it in this one company that I really believed in. As a result, we successfully closed the deal, and I was right… that company is now worth $1 trillion.” Total BS, but these people get into UPenn, and Harvard.
That is not to say that there definitely are very qualified and very intelligent people out there in these MBA programs. I’ve met a few. But I’ve also met very qualified people in a top-20 programs who should be in a top-5 program. For example, a family friend of mine is going to Duke. He’s the President of Duke’s entrepreneurship club, and I know he’ll be very successful one day. He’s already started a company, even before he got out of the MBA program. He got rejected by Harvard, Stanford, and Columbia. Why? I for one would venture to guess that the admissions committee bought into the whole 1) “his consulting experience prior to MBA wasn’t nearly as prestigious as one from McKinssey.” And 2) “we would rather had ~30% of our class be investment bankers who lie about why they need an MBA.” And because of the 3) same reason another person that is to be profiled here got into Harvard that kept him out of it. I respect this friend greatly and I know for a fact that his skill-set in this broad area is much more well-developed both naturally and systematically than mine ever will be.
I’ve also met very unqualified people in a top-5 program who I think belong in a top-20 program. When I worked at IBM, I met someone working as a Treasury analyst. I was trying to stay in IBM then, in 2008, and wanting to seek employment options within the company. This analyst had just got out of Harvard MBA, which I was applying to at that time, and so I had a lunch with him. Turns out that this guy had barely been accepted into UCLA’s part-time program, flat-out rejected from Berkeley’s MBA program, but got into Harvard. Why? Because he WAS A FOREIGNER. It’s much easier for non-US citizens to get into an MBA program than the US citizens. So Harvard sees this guy, an engineer, who is working at a US company in Los Angeles, who speaks English well, so he’ll definitely be contribute somehow. May not be the smartest guy around, but they need someone who’s smart enough and who can communicate, too. So they look at all the over-represented groups like investment bankers and allot 30% of the admitted class to them. But they also have under-represented groups like women and foreigners (specifically, foreigners who are both smart enough but also can communicate in English). I can guarantee you that if I were a woman born in Chad, Africa, with exactly same credentials and essays and interviews that I’ve had, I would have gotten into Harvard.
But moreover, this guy was doing something that I was interviewing to do, even without an MBA. I would have gotten the same job he had, if the spot had opened up in time for me. I wasn’t very impressed by his intellectual ability or communication skills. I’m sure he’s a smart guy, but I would venture to guess that most of my friends and family are just as smart. With this guy, they were able to fill up the “Countries represented” to 73, and that’s pretty much what got him in.
Another profile is a guy who is currently finishing up his 1st year at Harvard MBA. African American, was a president of some club at Baruch College. Investment banker. He says his Harvard interview was more like a conversation. To me, this just means that Harvard already knew they wanted him even before they interviewed him. Under-represented group, (African American, and they probably don’t get a lot of people from Baruch College applying to Harvard MBA), and Harvard can check off some things that make their stats look as diverse as possible. With him, they can easily check off African American, and Baruch, which allow them to fill up the “Undergraduate institutions represented” to 243 (out of 900 admitted students). This is the same guy who had at least 4-5 spelling/grammatical mistakes in his essays (I know because we traded essays). This is the same guy who, when I spoke with him during his time here in NYC, wanted to let all the banks fail during the 2007-2008 crisis (conversation went like this: “But we would get into a deeper depression than 1929!” “So what? At least we hold people accountable.” “But the collateral damage holds the entire country responsible for the greedy few wall street bankers!” “So?”). This is the same guy who, along with 4 other Harvard MBA students, entered a start-up club contest at Harvard, wanting to make another version of facebook that people would pay for in order to get rid of ads and won’t sell their information to marketers (I emailed him back, saying that I don’t think it’ll work, but that almost all successful start-ups have doubters in the beginning, so don’t take my word for it). Yes, he is smart, got a high GPA and high GMAT (a little lower than mine but very close). But I didn’t think he was EXCEPTIONAL. And I would actually question some of his judgment, just based on a small sample that I have seen of him.
Again, this is not to say that there are NO exceptional people at Harvard and other prestigious MBA schools. I know a friend who is an Acumen Fund Fellow, who has done absolutely remarkable things. I first met him in Berkeley’s MBA program. He was one of the few African Americans in our class, and he for some reason or another always kept to himself. One day, I made it my point to follow him after class ended. He was walking to his next class, and I went out of my way to introduce myself and took a bit of a detour home so that I can spend some more time talking to him. He founded his own DJ company, founded a non-profit agency, was a devoted Christian, not just a friendly guy but also a very sincere man, and a very smart guy. I can see this man, albeit an under-represented ethnic man, to get into Harvard, and I would say, yes, this man deserves to be there. I cannot imagine myself doing anything close to that (and I’m sure Harvard does have its fair share of these people). I am very glad we got to know each other afterwards and still keep in touch. Last time I talked to him was a week ago, because I was asking about an NGO recruitment process that I don’t know much about. He went out of his way to contact people around him who may be more knowledgeable than him and got back to me in 24 hours.
Another under-represented person I know of is a girl who is a VP of a very good private equity fund. Sure, they hand out the term VP like kit-kats in the banking industry, but she is very smart and has some very amazing things. And she’s my age. If she got into Harvard, which I’m sure they have a fair share of, I would definitely have no qualms about that. She would deserve it, although I think she would think that an MBA is a waste of her time and money (opportunity cost). And she would be the first to admit that the only reason she would want an MBA, or anyone from her industry would want an MBA, is to take some time off.
In conclusion (of this train of thought), I was disappointed that I didn’t get into an MBA program this year. But the UPenn interview had gone bad enough that I literally immediately thought, I was walking out the door of UPenn, that I would not be walking back in through that door. So when I got the email saying I was rejected, I was simply relieved that the guesswork was over. I have no ill-will towards Columbia (I wrote a horrible essay), UPenn (at least they gave me an interview), and Stanford (5% acceptance rate means it’s a tough go for anybody). I’m quite surprised, however, that I didn’t even get an interview with my best application to Berkeley (11% acceptance rate, about 20-30% of applicants interviewed). That was by far my best application and even though I have no ill-will towards them, I don’t really understand why I wasn’t even given a chance. Probably cuz I’m an Asian Male doing Finance in New York (all over-represented criterias).
So where do I go from here?
Really, the only thing that got me frustrated is not so much that I got rejected. I never really thought to myself, “OH, I WOULD KILL TO GET INTO THIS PARTICULAR SCHOOL.” So rejections from the schools I applied to didn’t have a particularly big impact on me. What DID have a big impact is the fact that I needed to scuttle my 20-year plan. Get into any of the 4 MBA programs I applied to, and I had a plan to attend an MBA for 2 years, work for a consulting firm for 3-4 years, and spend the next 15 years climbing up the ladder in a social fund. Now, what do I do? Without an MBA, I cannot change industries (because of high supply of more qualified people in consulting which is in lower than average demand now), and I’m in danger of being grounded as “the finance” guy. But I don’t have romantic dreams about doing financial analysis.
I was looking forward to the MBA for the same reasons I detailed on my February 22nd entry. But I think I might still be able to do all of that, and more. I’m highly considering getting an MBA through NYU’s part-time program. It’s a top-5 part-time program.
Here’s the list of things I was looking to get from the full-time program. (with how I think I can still get what I was looking for).
+ I want to move into an intellectual community that will help me transfer my work experience thus far to a different industry. (I might still be able to do this, as I would have an MBA next to my name)
+ I want to become a person of influence in the long-term. (Combination of what I learn in the program + having the MBA next to my name).
+ I want to use the next 2 years in a different setting that is much more susceptible to spiritual growth than what I have now. (I think getting more involved with my cousin Stephen’s new church may be what I’m looking for. I’m hoping it is.)
+ I have some feeling of unfinished business from my undergraduate. I want to really take advantage of 2 years of an academic experience to round out my skill-set for any opportunity in the future. (I’m starting to accept the fact that I’m not going to get those years back, regardless of what I do. I need to do this on my own.)
Here are the positives of the part-time program.
+ My company will pay for a part of it. The tuition is still $100,000 for the whole program, but I think my company can pay for a part of it. Full-time MBA, I would have not earned any money and would have come out with about $100,000-$125,000 in debt. Part-Time, I would have very little to no debt.
+ This means that in 3 years, I could end up in the same place but with very different financial situation. If I applied for a full-time 2-year program for 2012 entry, I would have gotten out in 2014 with that debt. If I get into a part-time program in 2011, I would get out in the same year, 2014, with little debt. But with the MBA next to my name.
+ In 5-50 years, no one will care whether I got my MBA part-time or full-time.
Here are the negatives of the part-time program
– It would be much easier to get into a consulting company. This is the biggest draw. Part-Time programs don’t have dedicated recruiting services available, because people in part-time programs are getting it part-time because they want the MBA but don’t want to change industries/job/companies.
– I’m still stuck in White Plains. I don’t like this place, nothing’s going on here.
– I’m still stuck with my current company.
– Even if the company pays for my tuition in part or in full, they would probably ask for something in return, like, “you need to stick around for as many years as it takes for us to sponsor you.” So if they sponsor me for 2 years, I would (probably) need to stick around for 2 years after finishing my MBA. I don’t want to do that. Of course, there is a possibility this will not happen, as our company isn’t necessarily swimming in cash right now.
One of the things I was looking forward to in the full-time program was meeting smart, like-minded people who are engaged in various social aspects of the business school. But as I read their facebook photos/status updates, I’m beginning to think that it would have wasted a lot of my time.
– People get “leadership” positions putting club events together, such as a Halloween Party, or a fundraising event that pits students in boxing matches. That would have been a total waste of my time.
– Others talk about the 2-week trek they did to some remote region of the world, which I was interested in doing, but not because I wanted to go travel the world (I’ve already been to 30, don’t feel like I’m missing out on much…) but because I want to see how businesses can impact those nations in a positive way. But I’m beginning to learn that it’s more of a “let’s get together and go travel for 2 weeks, and for maybe a day or two we’ll meet with a local VP of an international company and have an hour-long roundtable discussion about the challenges they face.” Again, waste of my time and money.
– People literally update about how business school is SO MUCH FUN! They get out of class on Thursday, go to Las Vegas that same night, come back on Sunday night, and stroll into class on Monday morning! That is not me.
Obviously, the program is basically what one makes it to be, and I’m not saying that would have been the case for me, but I can’t help but think that the majority of MBA people are like that. At least many of the ones I know are like that.
So I think the part-time MBA program might be a better fit for me. It’s not terribly hard to get into. NYU, as an example, is a top 9 full-time program. But because top-5 full-time programs like Harvard and Stanford don’t offer part-time programs, NYU is a top-5 part-time program. The profile of the two at NYU is very different. Just taking NYU’s admissions stat as an example: Average GMAT: (717 full-time vs 675 part-time). Acceptance rate: (14.5% full-time vs 54.9% part-time).
So in conclusion, I’ll get what I wanted out of MBA (learning in classes and an MBA next to my name) without the huge $100,000+ debt, but without the ability to transfer to another industry as easily as the full-time program. I’ll need to find those jobs on my own, which is usually harder because companies designate a number of new-hires to full-time MBAs, and I wouldn’t have that kind of a foot-in-the-door without a recruiting service that part-time programs lack.
Should I still stick with business?
I think so. I think business is the epitome of synergy in all walks of life. You can’t just have psychologists in marketing or creative people in design or tech people designing website or numbers people working in finance. You need a combination of all of that, which you don’t really get in a government setting or education setting or in a boot-on-the-groud non-profit setting.
And what else can I do? I can’t be a marketer. I’m too old to try and get into a computer science program. I’m not an engineer. I’m not a psychologist.
Then, I started to consider what the people around me that I respect are doing. Perhaps there are aspects of their lives that I can take something from.
My cousin Stephen is working as a teacher for now, but he’ll be a head pastor of a church one day. I respect the fact that he is doing what he is passionate about, and what I think he is good at doing.
My cousin Peter is working in urban ministry. I deeply respect him for doing something that he’s passionate about, regardless of pay.
My cousin Elijah is a doctor. And has a MPH (Masters in Public Health) and will be getting his M.Div (Masters in Divinity) soon. I respect that he is doing something he is very good at and something he is passionate about, and having a very concrete long-term vision of operating as an international missionary doctor.
My brother is project manager in Germany. With a combination of his Architecture degree and his natural leadership abilities, he is making a difference in Germany, where he is always in charge of one multimillion dollar construction project or another. He is in charge of several engineers, and he is obviously doing something he is good at and has been passionate about ever since he was little (architecture, building things). And he’s doing a lot of great things with music ministry around Germany. I’m very proud of him.
But my respect for all these things don’t apply to me. For example, my brother’s good at architecture but I’m definitely not. My creative skills just aren’t there. Elijah’s a doctor, but I’m the kid in 4th grade who couldn’t even dissect a worm. Peter and Stephen are pastors, but I don’t have that degree AND I don’t think that’s my calling right now.
So what CAN I take away? I can take away that they’re all doing something they’re good at and passionate about. I thought about going into teaching, as Stephen did, because I’ve always enjoyed teaching via my mentorship program now, or in Tae-Kwon-Do classes, or at IBM. But I don’t know if that’s what I was called to do. I would probably lose interest in a year or two afterwards.
That’s the problem with me. I’m curious about many things. Politics, music, economy, business, religion, education, and health care. And that’s good in getting me engaged in many different discussions, and it’s good in getting me to search for facts in those areas that keeps me intellectually stimulated. But there’s a reason why most books I’ve started have not been finished: I just lose interest after a while.
And that’s why I think my pursuit (probably) of a combination of Masters in Business Administration (NYU) and Masters in Divinity (Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) will be a good fit for me. It will allow a lot of flexibility in terms of maximizing my reach in many areas in meaningful ways. I can be a business leader in a Christian organization. If not in a Christian organization, I can develop relationships in my workplace grounded in my Christian faith. And if I’m called to any ministry, I can imagine many scenarios where my MBA/business management capabilities will be more than useful. Trouble is, how do I get there? Is it A) getting some social industry experience now? B) going into M.Div full-time? C) going into a Christian social goods organization full-time now? D) Am I fooling myself into thinking I need an MBA?
At any rate, I’m very thankful that I still have a job, and that I’m in good physical, emotional, and spiritual condition. I’m only in these trains of thought because I want to do even more. A comfortable life, living the American Dream, isn’t necessarily good enough for me, because it’s not what I’m looking for.