Life at Stanford GSB

MBA
1

Good day Everyone, As many of you would know I am a class of 2008 MBA student at The Stanford Graduate School of Business (I’ll refer as GSB from now on). I have been requested by a few PGites to start a thread about my day to day life and …

2

Good day Everyone,

As many of you would know I am a class of 2008 MBA student at The Stanford Graduate School of Business (I'll refer as GSB from now on).
I have been requested by a few PGites to start a thread about my day to day life and varied experiences at GSB.

I have never done such a thing online before. Nevertheless, I do keep a personal diary and pen down my thoughts/experiences, a few of which I'll put down here.

If any of you like me to change this format just post back on thread.

PS: I realize that I'm two days late already, but better late than never.:)

3

Hi Senapati,

Congratulations on getting into GSB......
Yes it would help MBA aspirants if you tell about your experiences and abt GMAT.....

Good day Everyone,

As many of you would know I am a class of 2008 MBA student at The Stanford Graduate School of Business (I'll refer as GSB from now on).
I have been requested by a few PGites to start a thread about my day to day life and varied experiences at GSB.

I have never done such a thing online before. Nevertheless, I do keep a personal diary and pen down my thoughts/experiences, a few of which I'll put down here.

If any of you like me to change this format just post back on thread.

PS: I realize that I'm two days late already, but better late than never.:)
4
Good day Everyone,

As many of you would know I am a class of 2008 MBA student at The Stanford Graduate School of Business (I'll refer as GSB from now on).
I have been requested by a few PGites to start a thread about my day to day life and varied experiences at GSB.

I have never done such a thing online before. Nevertheless, I do keep a personal diary and pen down my thoughts/experiences, a few of which I'll put down here.

If any of you like me to change this format just post back on thread.

PS: I realize that I'm two days late already, but better late than never.:)

Congratz pal.
Sure ur experience and thoughts helps lots of ppl.
5

Hi Senapati,
One more great thred in the making for sure
How about starting ur "Life at Stan GSB" with a briefing about the campus, the people, the orientation classes, and anything else that u might find worthy.

I'm sure ur having a great time @ GSB.

Iday

6

Gr8 senapati. this is wrt our PG-Allwins diary.
1. pls post personal gaps you feel vis-a-vis international students in stanford. gaps as in knowledge, experience, application, skills, extracurriculars and so on. wud have helped if u had prior knowledge and skills.
2. also your opinion on what qualities someone should possess to compete successfully in the hyper compititive environs of stanford GSB.
3. how you handle the info overload and workload/schedules, time management. how best you manage the resources--classes, library, databases etc
4. cultural issues like communications/behaviour and related with internatonal community
5. day-to-day life like food, exercises(if at all), parties, leisure time--your exp and advise. cost-of-daily-life and expenses also, broadly.
6. your aspirations and how are working towards achieving them..choosing courses, electives, mentors, alumni meets etc in a long term basis.

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This thread is gonna be a super hit! Seeing how you carried off the other thread - I have no reservations in mentioning I'll be a regular on this thread!

Happy GSBing .. now that you're in the US .. lets talk sometime soon :)

Cheers,

8

Awesome! I have been looking forward to this thread and shall be a regular visitor here 😃

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Yummy! Now for a few live snapshots from hell

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Likewise!!... add me to the growing fan base of this thread!!

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Funny that many people who have posted in the thread are never going to do an MBA from GSB, but still everyone is damn curious to know

All the best for the next 2 years. Hope to catch you again when I visit the West Coast (hopefully before 200. And yea - add me to a regular who will read this thread everytime its updated

Arun

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Psychodementia Says
Funny that many people who have posted in the thread are never going to do an MBA from GSB...

How do you know that for sure?
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Funny that many people who have posted in the thread are never going to do an MBA from GSB, but still everyone is damn curious to know
thanks for the good will dude
if i get a ding - it is all because of u and u only 😞
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thanks for the good will dude
if i get a ding - it is all because of u and u only :(


thanggod i didnt post here before psycho..:satisfie:

@iday: i dont think if theres anything like orientation (i mean ragging..) there..
ohk let Senapati ji speak up.


dear senapati,
that was the most awaited thread... once started by Allwin i was expecting the similar from you..Aim-W. S. is gonna get clear picture because of you guys thanks in advance.
YOu are hero!!!
thumbsup!
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Funny that many people who have posted in the thread are never going to do an MBA from GSB, but still everyone is damn curious to know


Arun


Its like anybody who does an MBA from a W or S or H is a celebrity on this forum....and naturally everybody is interested in knowing the everyday details of celebs....:)

Have fun Mr. Senapati!

-Nitin
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Good day Everyone,

As many of you would know I am a class of 2008 MBA student at The Stanford Graduate School of Business (I'll refer as GSB from now on).
I have been requested by a few PGites to start a thread about my day to day life and varied experiences at GSB.

I have never done such a thing online before. Nevertheless, I do keep a personal diary and pen down my thoughts/experiences, a few of which I'll put down here.

If any of you like me to change this format just post back on thread.

PS: I realize that I'm two days late already, but better late than never.:)


Congrats once gain dude...waiting for the first article from ur side....remembered Snap Shots from hell...wrt GSB>..

Cheers
Shankar
scmhrd
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Funny that many people who have posted in the thread are never going to do an MBA from GSB, but still everyone is damn curious to know


I scrolled down to see bizskool - who seems like a gyaanbaba , pagalguy - already at W, convolutedsignal from IIMC, arkusceaser from IIFT .......... AND moi Missed Iday !! My apologizes. Now that we have a S/W on this forum, how about you starting a "Life at HBS" next year ? :wink:

Senapati - keep the ball rolling

Arun
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Missed Iday !! My apologizes. Now that we have a S/W on this forum, how about you starting a "Life at HBS" next year ? :wink:

Okie - u kind of made up for that earlier statement of urs with this one.
Chalo - u r forgiven :wink:
19

Till last week

left Mozambique. Packing, souviniers (painted ostrich eggs is a fine collection) and went to Vancouver, Canada (where my elder sister and jijaji lives)
stayed there a month doing
1) ebaying/amazoning books
2) practicing driving
3) meet classmates/seniors/alumni in the Vancouver/Seattle area
4) taught my excellent cooking facilities (sea-food) to my sister and cooked for parties
5) traveled extensively to the most natural beautiful places in North America
(Pacific Northwest)
6) went to library and got through books to get a feeling of pre-term and 1st year my choice of subjects

reached Palo Alto (near Silicon Valley, San Jose, San Francisco). my helpful sister drove me down (advantage of having a sibling nearby) last Thursday.
moved into Schwab. (dorms)
calling them dorms would be a understatement of the year. got my own room, restroom, and a shared kitchen/living room with the other occupant of apartment. barbeque machine, plus walking distance from classes. if I get too tired to cook, there's the Stanford version of mess nearby

And another thing here guys. no ragging. seniors well either they are still internship/vacationing or keeping to themselves.
plus there's seems to be lot of my IIT friends in this area, not to mention people I came to know about through sister/cousins.
One thing though, it seems there is a prepondrance of desis here. Maybe not in the MBA program but certainly in the university/ general Palo Alto/San Jose area.
Another thing guys: if you're coming to GSB you better have a car (or pool in with someone to buy a 2nd hand car) unless you just want to study and get the 4 GPA. Business school is about networking and you have to visit people, companies, presentations..... plus the public transport in this area sucks to be frank. you get good Japanese cars around 2.5K-3K and if you search around you can get good deals even
last Friday was the d-day: my driving license test. I was more nervous than during my JEE. drove carefully, tester tried to bluff me by asking to turn into a one-way street, but i managed to look through it. after the drive, i went through 40 seconds with bated breadth for him to pronounce the result. And he said "you have passed". I just felt I have achieved nirvana. Now I'm gonna enjoy my GSB stay.


PS: Guys, I know you are waiting for the real thing, will post tomorrow/during weekend about pre-term, classes, roommates

20

Let me discuss Stanford syllabus and how academics is structured
In GSB what we have are "quarters". So we have the fall quarter, winter quarter,spring quarter...
First quarter we study 7 GM courses (that's right 7 of them) including topics like accounting, critical thinking, ethics, global mgmt, finance, managing teams/groups, organizational mgmt, strategic leadership. There are 8 I listed and 1 can be taken in 2nd quarter. (unless you are so bold to take 8 courses in first quarter)
From the 2nd quarter we discuss with academic advisors and take either basic courses in areas we are not familiar with or advanced courses we're familiar with. areas such as IT, Finance, Financial accounting, managerial accounting (don't ask me difference between two, I'm not clear as yet)
HR, Marketing, Macroeconomics, Modeling, non-operations starategy, and for me the most important Operations.
You get waived for courses if you can show previous coursework, certifications and sit with 2nd years for advanced courses in those areas.

Of course there's the required international trip to be taken either in Christmas and/or in the end of spring quarter (just before internship)

A few interesting things w.r.t to companies coming to campus.
GSB Administration makes sure that companies can't come to campus (or post job postings for 1st year) before a certain time so that we can concentrate on academics, building friendship with classes.
This is in light of a few of my colleagues in other b-schools telling me that some companies are coming to their campuses for interviewing interns.

GSB feels that 1 month (or 1 week in case of GSB) is just not enough for a student to successfully present a good case in front of a prospective employer. In my belief, this helps international students who are not familiar with interviewing/networking while coming into program so it gives us a chance to catch up. Of course if you want to start-off immediately and have some unusual career path, you can start-off on your own and consult career services with a plan. But having companies coming in with presentations in the first quarter when we are overwhelmed with studies/courses is a BAD idea.

PGbhai, how's it in Wharton? when do companies start with presentations/interviewing?