2011 In Review

In 2011, I....

• Decided what business school I would attend
• Hit the quarter-century mark!
• Ran my first half marathon
• Left my job and did a pre-MBA internship
• Learned about financial aid and took out my first major loan
• Ran my last Bay-to-Breakers for a while
• Celebrated my 5-year anniversary with H
• Traveled to Thailand and HK
• Moved to NYC
• Started business school!
• Organized and led my first b-school new initiative
• Brushed off my volley-ball skills for Cluster Cup
• Performed the bhangra in front of a live audience during Dwali
• Got my first few interview invites for summer internships

It was a truly amazing year for me and I am so appreciative of all my friends, family and H for being so supportive this year. Next year is probably going to rock even harder, so get ready :)

Happy New Years!!!

Cheers,
Vi

Happy Happy Holidays!

Happy holidays, everyone! It's great to be home in California and seeing all my friends and family. Even though NYC is great, there is nothing quite like home <3

This winter break, I'm spending about 3 weeks at home before I head back to NYC. For first-year students, winter break is cut a little short as internship interview season starts just after the new year. For the finance (banking) and consulting kids, on-campus recruiting interviews start the first/second week of January, while the rest of the students have until the third or fourth week before the interviews really start to pile on. I have a few consulting internship interviews so I'll be starting interviews in early January, though the bulk of my interviews will probably happen a little later.

Next week is the Healthcare West Coast Trek, the result of a semester-long's worth of planning! This is actually the first time that the school has hosted such a student-led trip, so I'm very happy and proud to have spearheaded it. We're visiting whole bunch of the top healthcare operating companies in the Bay Area for a whirlwind of networking, internship-information gathering and just repping the best b-school out there!! I think it's going to be awesome and hopefully it will be part of my legacy at CBS :)

After spending this weekend seeing my parents in San Jose, I'm headed back up to SF tomorrow to hang out with H and friends! So excited!

My best to everyone this holiday season... and to all a Happy New Year!

Cheers,
V

That's a Wrap!

And just like that, I'm done with my first semester of business school!!!! It's a truly bitter sweet feeling --  I'm glad we're done with the first semester (it's supposed to be the toughest academically) but at the same time that means I'm already 25% done with my b-school experience. CBS has been one of my best life experiences so far and I wish it could last for longer (PhD in Business Administration, perhaps??).

Finals were intense, but now I'm heading to JFK for my flight back home. I'm am so excited for break to see friends, family and to eat all my favorite San Franciscan food!!!

Happy Holidays!

Love,
V

Premature Nostalgia

Today was my last day of class for 2011. I can't believe that we're (almost) done with the fall semester and that 25% of my b-school experience is over!! The next two weeks I'll be taking exams for my core classes - corporate finance, operations, accounting and marketing. While I'll be really happy to be done with accounting (hopefully forever), I'm excited to take more classes on the subjects that I found more interesting, like operations and even finance.

At Columbia, we use the bidding method to sign up for classes. In theory it makes sense - student bid for courses based on their desire to take them... but in reality, there is crazy point inflation for courses because, as you can imagine, b-school students are super competitive. It then becomes a game of "how many can I win" versus "what am I truly interested in". Bid inflation was rampant this year and rumor is that the administration is thinking of ways to tweak this methodology because there were so many complaints from students. As for me, I was able to get into the finance course with the teacher I wanted (Capital Markets) and at least one healthcare class (Pharma Strategy in Emerging Markets). There's still another healthcare class I'm interested in picking up, so hopefully I'll be able to win it during the next round of bidding, or scoop it up during the "add/drop" period.

Bidding aside, the past few days I've been reflecting on how happy I am to be at business school. Part of it is just the fact that I'm in school now, instead of working (though I do miss having income). But I think the majority of it is that the whole experience is built around your own personal development. I mean, it's a two year break from reality where everyone is trying to help you answer and to become "what do you want be when you grow up". How awesome is that!!

So far, I'm really happy with my experience and I hope that everyone who is interested in getting an MBA decides to go for it! The application process is grueling, but once you've gotten in - the hard part is over and the fun begins! :)

Cheers,
Vi

The Final Stretch

Now a few days after my cleanse, I feel like I'm back to normal! I eat normal sized portions and crave fast food. The only notable differences are that my pants fit me a little looser now (woohoo!), my constant thirst level and resulting increase in fluid intake, and my aversion to anything that sounds "really greasy". All in all, I think it was a worthwhile experience and I may possibly consider doing it again in the future.

This week is our final full week of classes for this first semester. It completely boggles my mind that we're already here now -- time is just flying by! After this next week, we go into finals, which stretches over a week and a half... and then it's time to go home for winter break! I'm looking forward to the break and seeing everyone at home.

This week have a final presentation for one of my elective courses, Strategic Innovation Management. It was a pretty interesting course about how companies look at innovation and how they manage it within their product portfolio. The content was pretty interesting, but I'm excited to wrap up this course this week so that I have time to focus on the finals for my core courses.

Many times this semester, I felt like I was just barely managing to stay afloat in a lot of my classes, but retrospectively, I really have learned a lot. Before August, I would have no idea how to find the optimal debt to equity capital structure for a company, how to calculate a WACC or know what a COGS is. Regardless of how finals fare, I know that I've learned a whole new skills set that I'm proud of and eager to use.

Anytime, time to get back to get back to my operations homework!

Love,
V