Owen (Vanderbilt) Class of 2016 Calling all applicants!

@chbr: I have received an invite for interview.

@others: Has any one interviewed with Christie? Do you guys mind sharing your experience?

I did not interview with Christie, but I did speak with her a couple of times on the phone. She was very friendly and helpful. All of the Vanderbilt staff seem to appreciate honesty and just being yourself. In fact all schools seem to be the same on that front. Be humble and don't exaggerate your accomplishments.

Mistablair, out of curiosity would you mind messaging me the scholarship award you received and your profile? Just wanted to make sure mine was similar...

[quote="UFmark":****][quote="mistablair":****]I did not interview with Christie, but I did speak with her a couple of times on the phone. She was very friendly and helpful. All of the Vanderbilt staff seem to appreciate honesty and just being yourself. In fact all schools seem to be the same on that front. Be humble and don't exaggerate your accomplishments.[/quote:****]

Mistablair, out of curiosity would you mind messaging me the scholarship award you received and your profile? Just wanted to make sure mine was similar... [/quote:****]

I hope you don't take this as me being rude.

The vibe I get from your message is that you want to use me as some sort of benchmark/leverage. I do not see what good can from sharing that information, for either of us.

I still look forwarding to meeting you in the summer.

"HEY ADCOMS, MISTABLAIR from GMATCLUB GOT 40K, I WANT 40k BECAUSE MY GMAT WAS 10 PTS higher!!!" - come on now...lol

edit: regardless, I respect your choice to keep this information private.

I interviewed with Christie and found her incredibly engaging. It was honestly an enjoyable conversation as much as anything else. Don't misunderstand--she's really good at her job and has a ton of experience interviewing, so be prepared. As always, make sure you know yourself, your story, and why you want to be at Owen. She is brilliant, experienced, and educated, and she asks great questions. With that said, she is also personable and approachable. I felt like I left the interview having made a friend. Sure, it helped that we had several common interests and experiences, but she is a great interviewer.

So, I'm freaking out a little cause i thought my interview was going well but it only lasted about 20 minutes... did anyone else have a short interview?

My interview was just over 30 minutes. If you felt the content of the interview was good then I wouldn't worry too much.

I just got back from the welcome weekend. Owen is an amazing place. If anyone is on the fence, you have to go visit!

Fun Fact. Out of 22 people between gmatclub and beat the gmat matriculating at Owen the average gmat is 727. That is all the people i could find on the sites pretty freaking impressive. That means if the other 140 ish people could average a 690 we would have a 695 for our class. Basically these 22 people pull the class average up by 5 points. well done gmat clubbers.

I can second this. Was at the welcome event, absolutely loved it, the community is second to none. I have the utmost confidence that Owen will allow me to realize my objectives and goals and have nailed down my commitment. The city of Nashville was great as well.

I third this. The school atmosphere, students, professors and city are all top notch. The Dean is awesome and so is the admissions team. Feeling really good about my decision to go against the rankings and go to the best school for me.

I have been receiving PMs as to why I chose Vanderbilt. I thought it would be easier for everyone to see in one place. I don't have too much time, so I won't go into too much detail.

1) Small -- Rotman is the largest program that I applied to. I also thought it was too big. I want to know my professors and the rest of my class. In undergrad, when I graduated I did not know the thousands of people who were also graduating. I want to know my peers. This leads into..

2) Community/Positivity -- Owen gives off a fantastic vibe. I had lots of contact with Owen: the online chats, interviews, emails, phone calls and welcome weekend. Everyone I spoke to was very enthusiastic, friendly, and intelligent. They really make you feel like you belong. Then, I met many current students. I met many students at other schools, but those were preselected students. At Owen, there were tons and tons of people and they were all very fascinating and genuine people. It also appears that because Owen is a small program they can limit the number of "snobs" they accept. When I was narrowing down the schools I would ultimately apply to, I constantly got a "snob" vibe from the very top schools. That's not who I am and it's not what I like.

3) Professors -- I think that if you go to almost any top school that you will get a great education. Owen has great professors and courses that I'm interested in taking. I can't yet speak to their teaching skills because I have not started yet. I can say that I was particularly impressed by the Dean. He is very silly, but in a great way. You truly feel that he wants you to learn as much as you can and be as successful as possible.

4) Career -- Owen will provide me with pretty much any career I want to get into. No school is just going to hand me a job, but Owen has the contacts to get my foot into pretty much any door that I want to. I currently work in finance and want to continue along that path. When I compared finance career info across many schools, the data was all pretty close and the placements were all similar. If I want to work in corp finance, asset management, or ibanking the opportunity is there for me at a competitive salary. Many schools have their salary data increased because of high consulting salaries. A high consulting salary is of no use to me so I only compared finance salaries.

5) Program -- I know what I like. The school's marketing actually does a great job of representing the schools values. I am competitive, but not cutthroat. I will not play the game dirty just because the other team is. I want to win because I am the best and lose because I was not. The Owen program is very social and "for the greater good" of everyone... not in a socialist way, this is still very much a business school. The Cal Turner program for example takes students from several professional schools at Vanderbilt (Law, MBA,Medicine etc) and they meet up to try to help tackle issues in society as a whole... what our responsibilities as citizens are and what leadership steps can be taken to improve it.

6) Nashville -- The city of the school only became important as I was finalizing my applications. I am moving my fiancee with me, so opportunities (both fun and professional) were something that I knew the school's city needed to provide. Coming from the North, I wanted a warmer climate, smaller city (but not too small), sports teams (Predators, SEC), and culture (music). The campus and city are also very beautiful.

Overall --- I just knew that Owen was one of my top 3, and when I had my interview it moved to #1. I was never someone to follow the herd mentality. Just because I'm told that school X is better than school Y does not mean that it is the best school for me. Owen may not be right for you, but I know I made the right choice.
Make sure you choose a school that will get you where you want to go, but along the path you want to take.

Your post pretty much sums up my experience and feelings regarding why I chose Owen.

My evaluative interview and meetings with the career services staff convinced me that Owen is truly eager to help me succeed post-MBA -- they seem to walk the talk.

Vanderbilt's overall reputation as a university is top-notch as well. Being associated with elite programs in medicine, law, and education along with highly ranked undergraduate programs really enhances Owen's image.

I'm excited to get started this fall!

Just got the acceptance and welcome email with scholarship info. SOO SOO SOOOO happy . Congrats all!

Arriving rather late...but I've come with my game face on.

Will sneak in my application for Rd4.

Anyone else applying during the first week of May?

Congrats Lilou112. Welcome to Owen.