Dear Class 33,
Assuming you got the admission letter, you are about to embark on a fantastic voyage on your way to getting a Wharton MBA. I couldn't resist taking a few minutes to write down a few of my thoughts about some advice I've been giving the dudes that have been visiting our classes in Term 3 that are trying to make decisions on which program to attend.
Some common questions I get:
1. Are you that "Chairman P" guy that writes the blog? Answer: Yeah, well, that was me before I started the new job in Jan and stopped blogging for a while.
2. Should I accept Wharton or Berkeley-Columbia or UCLA? Answer: Well, if you don't want an MBA lite and you want to be in the #1 EMBA program (see ranking links to the side, as well as my thoughts last year on why I chose WEMBA), then Wharton is for you. It really is the best. Just make sure you know what you are signing up for; it is a TON of work.
3. What stuff should I buy before I start WEMBA? Answer: Here's a top 10 list of stuff that I found useful to buy this year.
Top 10 Things to Buy Before Starting WEMBA:
10. Buy a Laptop or a USB Drive. A laptop is not as necessary as you think it is, as most professors ask you not to have your laptop open during class. For a while, I got excellent mileage out of carrying a 1GB USB drive around and just plugging it into the computers at school and work. Guess you could say that you could "Go Bedoin" for a while. If you aren't familiar with the term, here's a link to a most excellent blog about the recipe for it from my old CTO: link to Going Bedoin. The deal at the Penn Computer Store isn't as good as you might think it should be, so shop around. You'll learn why when Smetters talks about price discrimination.
9. Buy a Business Calculator. Your handy dandy HP 17bII+ business calculator that Wharton recommends. BTW, f you have an old HP scientific calculator from your undergrad or grad days, you probably don't need to buy one.
8. Buy a Scanner. If you are a frequent traveler, then there is no way you can take all the papers and books with you on your trip. So if you have an administrative assistant, then have them scan in all your stuff. If not (like me), then a scanner will save you some papers to carry around on airplanes. I have a small text scanner for the handouts and my notes that scans document text into an MSWord file. It's great for cheatsheets.
7. Buy a Case of Red Bull and Subscription to Pete's Coffee Delivery. You'll find yourself drinking at least two additional Red Bull's and 4.56 cups of coffee per day. Might as well drink Pete's.
6. Go On a Quality Vacation. Go on a long vacation way before you start the program. Oh yeah, and make sure you do the pre-term reading before you start, otherwise you will be a big hole for Term 1. The first week is a killer BTW because of all the stuff that is crammed in all at once.
5. Find Some Loans. If you find yourself in need of some capital, you'll need to shop around for the best deal. The official orientation isn't that useful, as they can't really recommend anything for individual circumstances nor give data on what other students have done. I ended up with a combination of a small student loan and Prime-1.01% HELOC.
4. Cancel Your Newspaper. You won't have time to read them, so you might as well save some time recycling them.
3. Buy an Extra Duffel Bag or Suitcase. It is highly useful to keep a bag with some extra clothes in long term storage at the Le Meridian; that way you don't have to lug all your stuff every class session.
2. Get a Smart Phone. Blackberries are the weapon of choice while sitting in class, as you can read email while looking like you are sitting there paying attention. If it has IM, then even better. I have the Blackberry Pearl, which sucks for typing but has a small form factor and is a decent phone. Professors are more tolerant of typing on your Blackberry while sitting in class, and your boss will appreciate the fact that you reply to selected emails on Fridays that you have school.
1. Buy a Duplex Laser Printer. If you have one at work, then you don't need to worry about it. If you don't have one at work, then I recommend getting one. Here's why: your notebook will be filled up with all the bulk pack readings and slide notes that you have with all the classes, and by the end of the term you can't fit all the paper into one notebook unless you use duplex printing and two or three pages per sheet page layout. I bought the HP Laser 2605dn, which is better than the printer that my startup has.
-Chairman P
Thursday, April 05, 2007
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4 comments:
ChairmanP.
I appreciate you posting the top 10 list. I'm curious about the financing though. I thought as an admit, financing is guaranteed for tuition. But you seem to have taken a differet approach.
I'm a recent class 33 east admit. I have been following your post over the last months and they have been helpful. Keep up the good work.
Sure thing, glad you find this useful.
Regarding financing, I took a different approach for a number of reasons:
1. The rate I got on my HELOC was Prime-1.01% through US Bank, with up to 5 locks. This beat the rates I got through Wharton by a large margin.
BTW, I did get a student loan for a nominal amount to give me some flexibility in financing. But my HELOC loan is my primary source.
I realize that not everyone is a homeowner with enough equity nor will everyone get a rate like I did. But it certainly worked out for me.
Hey Chairmanp
Thanks for this blog. I am one of the Wharton West admit. I find your blog very useful. Can you tell me what scanner you bought that converts into word document? I think it will be very useful for me.
This is the hand-held scanner I bought:
http://www.amazon.com/IRIS-Pen-II-Executive-Scanner/dp/B0000636X5/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3/002-3564427-6047205?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1177129383&sr=8-3
It's best for scanning in lines of text and then outputing them into your Windows app of choice, which can be MSWord. it does not work well for greek letters BTW.
For PDF scans, the copier at Wharton is really really good. It's fast and will scan your job (even does duplux) into PDF onto the LAN. Great for those who have to travel and don't want to lug around the big notebook full of papers.
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