Calling Stern/NYU Applicants

NC..I will take your word for it.. ok so a day trip to SF.. and if u r free ..perhaps some dinner

Hey Avi, let me set up a "welcoming party thread" for you

https://www.gmatclub.com/forum/p378260#378260

Heh - I should have clarified. I am at Stern - MBA1. Hopefully I will be on the torch committee, which means I will get to take prospectives for lunch, to class and - if they are lucky and i/v on a thursday - beer blast.

I cannot emphasise enough how much better it is to get to visit schools on thursdays. That's when you can see whether the fit is there. After a few beers, the guard is down from everyone.

Thanks 3under --I will def. make sure i attend one of the TNDC! sessions

I'll be doing a class visit tomorrow. Any tips? Thanks . . .

Kid,

Just saw your post, and I visited Stern on the 2nd. For the class visit, you will probalby be put into a group with other prospectives and an MBA2 will pick you up at the admissions office. I made a point to sit with my MBA2, while the other students did not. He was really cool, and gave some great information--some of which will make it into my essays. Stern seemed to give a lot of opportunities to talk to students (class visit with MBA2, coffee break with MBA1, tour with MBA2), so just take advantage of all the student interaction because they are the most honest when it comes down to it.

Finally, Isser Gallogly, the head of admissions, joined the campus tour. Of course, after the tour everyone bombarded him with questions. I hung back, talked to the MBA2 tour guide, and then started talking with him after everyone had left. It was more a conversation, which, to me, is better than a laundry list of questions. If he is on the tour, make sure you get that face time with him.

Good luck

djhouse81,

Good stuff man. Just a quick question. When is lunch? Do I need to eat before I get there?

That's a great question because I encountered that problem. There is no lunch, so definitely eat before you get there.

I went to Stern on a Tuesday as well, and the night before went to a bar in the city with come friends to watch MNF and eat some buffalo wings. The wings were awful, so I did not feel like eating before I went to Stern. Bad idea. I was so hungry during class. I inhaled a muffin after class, and that held me over. Moral of the story: eat lunch before your day at Stern.

How are you guys getting these ppl to talk to you? I have emailed at least 3 people from different clubs with some questions a week ago and I never heard anything back:( Is it just me or you too? I was in NY last month and could only do a info session as the class visit option was not available.... should I just email my questions directly to the associate director of admissions....hahah and tell her how bad the students are that they can't respond to an email?? I know they are busy with school, but I'm busy too, managing work with apps and 5 hour sleep:(

What are you guys doing with the 2nd essay? No one from Stern is writing back, what should I write about the community and my experience?:'(

Wow, long time no post uvs_mba.

I am having a difficult time with the 2nd essay as well. Not sure exactly what to do. I did have dinner with a second year (friend of a friend). But he's studying abroad this semester and nowhere to be found. I might have to leverage my visit for some business cards.

I'm sure it's difficult for you, but maybe you should do an actual class visit? That might help

Yeah, aweee you remember me:) I actually relocated to Europe last November for work, so was kinda busy settling in the new environment.... its so different from US:( Unfortunately I can't even do a class visit anymore before the first round, as I was only in NY for a week last month and was lucky to do an information session. I even asked one of the admission ambassadors if I could do a class visit and she said no, its not possible, it can only happen once they are available in October.... seriously if I were a student, I would have taken a prospective with me to my class even if the visits were not officially available.....

Where is ur friend? Do you know anyone in Europe, a Stern Alumni or student? I'd love to meet that person for lunch or dinner, usually people wanna take me out for dinner, but I'll take that person out and even pay for his or her dinner...hehe! but I just want to hear her/him talk about NYU:)

I believe he is in Venice. He hasn't even responded to any of my nor my friend's emails! So, no luck there. Perhaps you can contact NYU and ask them to introduce you to some alumni in your area?

Good luck, I'll write a quick debrief of my visit today.

Did you try emailing the the general email for the Graduate Ambassadors? I gave that a shot and within a day I got a friendly reply.

Thanks so much djhouse and kiddreck.... this is exactly what i missed about this forum as people are always trying to help each other and I know that I am not alone in this race.....

uvs_mba,

If you haven't located it, contact mbaga@stern.nyu.com they'll direct you to the right person.

Thanks kidderek, I followed your advice on asking the admissions office if they could get me in touch with an Alumni, but they were a bit iffy about it and said that this is reserved for current students... but they directed me to the GAs and I have emailed them with my questions and the girl tried to answer some of em, so I am a bit happy now:)

How was your class visit btw? Anything interesting? I will look forward to your debrief.....

NYU - just some mental notes

1pm - I arrived at the admissions office, where all of the prospectives were waiting around. There were at least 20 of us.

130p - Class starts. Class started with some discussion about current business news. Then it moved on to game theory. I thought the material was pretty fun. Nothing flew over my head. One student fell asleep, woke up then began eating lunch, which appeared to be two burritos. The two students beside me both had iphones. Maybe it was the lull of the lunchtime hour, but many students appeared lethargic. There was one student who could not understand the concept of a zero sum game. I'm going to use a poker analogy here: He kept wanting to go to the next step to try to calculate pot odds, when all we're talking about is winning or losing.

3pm - Class ends and we meet at the first floor cafe (free large coffee for visitors; no lunch? argh, good thing I ate before thanks to djhouse81's advice) for some chatting with first years. Rather than crowding around for a first year's attention, I received one on one attention from johnnyx9 himself. I know I'm short, but damnnnn johnnyx9 is tall. Johnnyx9, if your consulting plans fall through, try out for the Knicks. They can certainly use you. Also, thanks for your tips on the application strategy. I'll be sure to use some of it.

4pm - We went around the group with a short introduction. Some people sounded really, for lack of a better word, douchey. We then went on a tour of the various rooms (clubs, career development, meeting rooms, reading rooms etc). I can't say I loved the building. Everything is vertical, giving it an office feel rather than a school feel. But what else can you expect from an NYC school?

430p - We were shown a powerpoint presentation. It was pretty useless material if you've been on their website. The meat of the presentation is when the second years fielded questions. One of the second years turned down Kellogg to go to Stern (questionable?), but she wanted to be in NYC. She secured a full time marketing position with AMEX. Another had a position at Goldman. Another one had 5 internship offers, the most by anyone in her class.

Overall impression:
I'm a cynic, so I'll preface this by saying that Stern may have placed their most successful students as tour guides. But all of the second years I spoke with not only did their summer internship at some major firms, but also secured a full time offer. It was beaten into my head that if finance is what you want, Stern is second to none. The placement record of the function that I want to get into was amazing.

I spoke with the president of the S&T club. I busted on him about losing to Columbia in the first round of the Fast Money Challenge and he laughed it off. He was pretty helpful about specific steps I can take now to be in a more advantageous position for recruiting.

Some discussion was had about the third essay. The second years mentioned that over 50% of the applicants wrote plain essays, so don't be too compelled to do something artistic. One second year mentioned she created a passport with her experiences in it.

When I left Cornell, I wasn't disappointed but I wasn't thrilled. It was pretty much what I expected. After my Stern visit, I wasn't blown away but I left with a stronger desire to attend Stern than before.

Hope this helps.