As promised, my session-by-session recap:
Friday- Opening Ceremonies: got a welcome from the DAK execs, Beth F. She read out a list of accomplishments of R2 Kellogg admits. Some of them were pretty impressive. I was surprised at how many of them were sport-related!
- Section Time: hung out with our sections/section leaders and heard a bit about their experiences at Kellogg
- Welcome Address: Dean Jain gave us a welcoming address. I'd heard bits of it before but it was still interesting to hear it all again. He's definitely an engaging speaker. I spoke with him a bit afterwards, and his eloquence isn't just in speeches but regular conversation as well.
- Academics overview: we got an overview of academics by Dean Chopra and this other lady (whose name I can't remember). Much like at Booth's admit weekend, it was a shpeal on why the school's approach to faculty/teaching/etc is the best. Wasn't too exciting but was still helpful to hear. I think a couple of Kellogg admits (like the girl next to me) sorta nodded off during this one.
- Roundtable lunches: I thought this was especially interesting. I went to the healthcare lunch and listened to Prof Dranov (or however that's spelt) talk about the healthcare program. I did a bit of fact-checking when I got back, and the prof was right - Kellogg's offerings in this area far surpass most of the other top b-schools. He was pretty open in recommending that if you had a H/S admit, to go there instead. Afterwards, he was also pretty helpful in speaking with me about the differences between K/Booth and what it means to have a healthcare concentration vs. not in terms of recruiting, learning, etc. He also offered me some career advice based on my current work experience - apparently he could tell that I'm the type that wasn't enamored by the idea of consulting
- Career Services: heard about career services, what they do, etc. They also had a current student on hand to share her experience about finding a job and how the career services office helped.
- Section Time again: just heard from our section leaders about their life at Kellogg, what the social/club scene is like. I think this is where we also had laptop discussion? They passed around the Lenovo that's next year's laptop - it's a tank. A couple of our section leaders had the school laptop, were fans. A couple of them didn't, and thought it wasn't a big deal.
- TG: I honestly hadn't looked at the KWEST booklet beforehand so had no idea what trips I wanted to attend or really where to even start. So I just decided to hang out with my fellow admits and go to a handful of tables.
- Friday night: went to dinner with my dinner section and then the Keg. Hung out with my fellow admits, met riverripper, beat rca215 in flip cup, etc. The Keg was interesting - (sadly) it's like a lot of bars in Madison, with the combination of students/tables for beer pong/cheap drinks/slight element of dive-bar-ness. I called it a night around 1am and headed back.
Saturday:- I skipped the morning panel, since it was repeated later in the afternoon.
- Section Time: went for the group scavenger hunt. Some of my group was really into it and wanted to run around like crazy doing the activities like hugging a dean, teaching a class, etc. Most of us were pretty chill about it and just wanted to hang out instead. They also took our directory photos afterwards - I did find out that if you don't like your photo, you can change it over summer. Also, these photos are used everywhere - if you're a club leader or organizing anything, etc - they stick the photo up there with your name. So make sure you like it.
- Healthcare lunch: listened to students speak about their experiences in finding healthcare jobs. There definitely seems to be a heavy slant for marketing-healthcare jobs. But there were people there that had jobs in bd/strategy/operations/finance.
- Alumni Panel: we had three alums speak about their Kellogg experience. All three seemed to be fairly successful in their respective fields and all had loved their time at Kellogg. (no surprise there, you wouldn't put an unsuccessful alum in front of admits
)
- Housing info session: listened to students describe where they live, considerations for housing, etc. It seems that in the vintage/mixed apartments, there's the most amount of variability in apartment layout and condition. So if you're living there, might be worth it to go take a look at the apt before moving in.
- Kellogg Experience: I have no idea what this was about. Did anyone here go?
I skipped it and instead spent sometime speaking with a couple of the students from the housing panel.
- Club fair: loads of clubs. Just walked around a bit, spoke with some current and admitted students.
- Sat night: took the yellow school buses to the closing ceremony in this really swank space in chicago. Then we took the buses again to Zella's (bar in lincoln park). I sorta didn't pay attention to when the buses were leaving to go home or anything and before I knew it, it was like 3am. I shared a cab back to evanston w/ rca and some other folks (rca has excellent cab hailing skills). Overall, it was pretty fun hanging out with my fellow admits and current students.
Overall the weekend was pretty fun, and went by really fast. I enjoyed meeting my fellow admits, and current students. I think I'm still not a huge fan of evanston (it does feel a bit yuppy-suburby to me) but for two years (18 months really), it could be just fine.
Apr 23
Apr 23
Apr 24
Apr 29
27 Apr 2009, 15:05
Looks like we will each spend a fair amount of time in Chicago. 
