Simon School Admissions Blog

Pedagogy and the Simon Curriculum

By: Crissi

Most know that the Simon School’s methodological approach to business is analytical and economics-based.  This is likely one of the reasons that Simon is considered a premier institution for corporate finance.  Additionally, Simon faculty has founded and continues to edit eight academic journals including: the Journal of Financial Economics, the Journal of Monetary Economics and the Journal of Accounting and Economics.  But what does this imply for someone sitting in a Simon classroom?

I have completed the majority of the core curriculum for the Simon M.B.A., and I can tell you it means something different for each course.  I am continually surprised at how mathematics – whether derivatives from calculus or logical functions in Excel – pops up in every class.  With the exception of finance and accounting which clearly denote calculations in the curriculum, mathematics seems to sneak its way into every other business competency at Simon. 

My educational background is in the humanities and liberal arts.  Many people ask me, ‘how can you manage a mathematics-rich program?’  The answer is simple: the professors are fantastic educators.  The dynamic way professors convey course material – with passion and real-life examples that exemplify the logic of these assertions –means I barely even notice that we are manipulating a production function. 

Math is easier to swallow if you know what the numbers mean before you start calculating.  Return on Equity is a meaningless fraction until you know what inputs are being calculated.  Clear explanation and logical sequencing of material is where Simon professors excel.  By the time the professor starts writing equations on the board, it naturally follows from the discussion at hand. 

‘What if I just don’t get it?’ is another question I hear.  This one has the easiest answer of all: use the resources Simon has placed at your fingertips.  Work is done in teams; ask a teammate for help.  Mathematics heavy courses have Teaching Assistants and Lab sections; email the TA, any one of them will gladly meet with you for as long as needed to help you understand.  The professors at Simon have an open door policy; they want you to understand and will happily take the time to go over topics again and address your specific concerns.

Simon has taught me to embrace mathematics as a crucial tool for business problem solving.  I encourage you to do the same.  Still concerned?  Please contact me, I would be happy to allay your fears: crisandra.harrison@simon.rochester.edu

Simon School Announces International Student Loan Program

The Simon School has been actively seeking new financing options for recently admitted and continuing students. This program is primarily geared toward international students who may not have access to loan options that require a U.S. citizen or resident as a co-signer.  The loan product currently being finalized is complex, and requires a significant amount of due diligence by both the Simon and University Finance offices, as well at the University attorney’s office.  Although actual terms and conditions are being negotiated and reviewed, we have received final approval to move forward from the University of Rochester senior leadership.  Further details on the terms and next steps will be announced via e-mail within the next 7-10 days to both incoming and continuing graduate students.  We sincerely hope that this will increase access to the Simon School M.B.A. and M.S. degree, especially for individuals who are from a country where access to credit may be limited or inaccessible. 

Record attendance at the Rochester International Jazz Festival

By: Tonya

This past Saturday wrapped up the eighth annual Rochester International Jazz Festival.  A nine-day music event that featured such headliners as: Smokey Robinson, SMV, Jake Shimabukuro, Carolyn Wonderland, the Dave Brubeck Quartet, Michael McDonald, Taj Mahal, and the Susan Tedeschi Band.  An estimated 133,000 people attended over the nine days, exceeding last year's 125,000 attendees.

I had the good fortune of attending Friday night's Taj Mahal and Susan Tedeschi Band performance at a sold out Eastman Theatre.  It was an incredible evening of jazz and blues.  Mayor Bob Duffy kicked off the evening by introducing Susan Tedeschi, a Grammy-nominated blues and soul artist, who amazed with her powerful voice and fearless stage presence.  After a brief intermission, Ursula Burns, the new CEO of Xerox Corporation, introduced Taj Mahal, a Grammy-award winning blues musician who has been singing and performing for over 40 years.  He entertained with his guitar and banjo and had the audience shouting and singing out responses such as "uh huh!" 

The hallmark of the festival is the variety and international flavor -  Columbia, Russia, Finland and the UK were just a few of the countries represented at the festival, with musicians coming from all over the world.  Among jazz enthusiasts, the Rochester International Jazz Festival is considered "top-shelf" and a "must-go" for all jazz fans.

Urban Adventure through the streets of Rochester

By Tony:

 An urban adventure race made a stop in Rochester this past May.  The High Trek Adventure race series is similar to the "Amazing Race" TV show and is staged in major cities across the country such as L.A., San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, NYC and over 20 others.

The race, described as "brains beat brawn", involves a team of 2 people solving 12 clues while running around the downtown Rochester landscape on a beautiful sunny day.

The clues led teams to many landmarks and districts across more than 6 miles of the city (on foot!).  Some notable spots included the Susan B. Anthony park(pictured below left), the High Falls district (pictured below right) with the start/finish line located in the popular East End district.

 

It was an exciting afternoon that continued after the race with all the teams and spectators meeting to share different stories and strategies.

If you are curious, you can Check-out the Rochester Results for the race (9th out of 40+ teams is not too bad!)

A Simon Town Hall Meeting with the U of R President

By Crissi:

University of Rochester President Joel Seligman came to Simon to hold a Town Hall meeting and get to know the Simon student body.  I was surprised when the President began by requesting each attendee to state their name, intended graduation year, post-graduation career plans and one question they had for him.  The President listened intently and commented as a lecture hall full of students shared their introductions.  He sincerely wanted to get to know each attendee and address their queries. 

After introductions, it was clear that the question on most Simon student’s minds pertained to the University’s 5-year strategic plan and how this related to various arms of the University – the college, the medical center and the business school – Simon!  We learned that the University of Rochester is one of few private, research intuitions with a medical center; compared to competitor schools, the U of R has half the student body and fewer faculty.  This opened the discussion: how do you grow a University?  Here, President Seligman revealed the 4 goals of the strategic growth plan:

1. Become among the top 20 Research Institutions
2. Increase faculty, heighten the school’s reputation and students will follow
3. Work with the Rochester community
4. Manage the endowment

Keen to the audience he was addressing, the President framed the situation, challenges and opportunities for the execution of each goal.  This included leveraging new funding lines opened by the Obama Administration as recently as last month.

The beauty of a business education is learning through case method and experiences – typically focused on public, private and corporate firms.  It is rare that students are provided the opportunity to examine the workings of an educational institution and provide feedback and observances from their experiences that go directly into shaping and executing a University’s strategic plan.  The transparency of mission within the Simon and University community is one more thing that makes the Simon experience so unique.  As students learn in Marketing, internal marketing is of paramount importance for brand consistency; understanding and commenting on a University’s growth plan is the most efficient way this can be actualized in a higher education setting.

The Last Leg @ Simon

By: Nidhi, MBA Candidate, Class of 2009

Time flies. We all know this, but we still manage to be taken completely unaware. I find it hard to believe that my time at Simon has practically come to an end; I graduate on June 14.

Just like any other phase in life, I find this to be a phase I am already looking back on with smiles and tears, pride and few moments of regret. I realize the advice I share with prospective and first year students is the same I received when I first came to Simon.  Nonetheless, I will pass along some of my insights here.

Don’t come with preconceived notions about what an MBA program entails – other than a LOT of hard work! Be mentally prepared for that and enjoy the bends in the road. Go with them. The past two years have taught me an amazing amount, not just the finer understanding of hard-to-grasp business concepts but nuances of strong and effective leadership. The best part of it all is I can apply a lot of my learning here to my own life beyond the workplace.

The last two quarters at Simon are imprinted in my memory of colleagues trying to learn all that they could and get to better know their classmates and professors. This is not just to network; social events of all kinds are common.  There is always an excuse to throw or attend a party! In these experiences, I have seen first-hand the advantages and disadvantages of attending a small school, and believe you me, the pros far outweigh the cons. In today’s uncertain and depressing times, it is the close knit community and intimacy that keeps us hopeful. Lifelong bonds are formed not just with your classmates but also with professors and the DEAN! Can you find that anywhere else? People all around me have been motivating each other in the classroom and job search; this support fosters a feeling that you are not alone. I could go on and on about the amazing sense of community at Simon.

I am feeling all misty eyed but the crux of it is that, no matter where you do your MBA from, the end of it is an intense feeling. Graduating from a small school, one as intimate as Simon, I believe makes saying "good-bye" overwhelmingly harder.

My Simon Story!

My first introduction to the Simon School came as I was exploring part-time MBA programs while at my first job after graduating from Georgia Tech.  I was the Logistics Engineer for a division of Carrier Corporations (United Technologies) in Syracuse, NY (about 80 miles east of Rochester).  I enjoyed engineering, but wanted to gain a better grasp of business concepts especially in finance and accounting.  My boss raved about how amazing the Simon School was and encouraged me to focus my attention on joining the top part-time program in upstate New York.  As a non-matriculant, I commuted to Rochester in the evenings and took four courses.  These core courses were intensive and far more challenging than I had initially imagined.  After my fourth class, I decided to leave my position at Carrier and used much of what I had learned from those first courses at Simon to launch me into a consulting career at BearingPoint (formerly KPMG Consulting).  BearingPoint moved me to Mountain View, California to serve large Commercial Banks and Credit Card Companies on the west coast.  I realized throughout my years at BearingPoint how valuable those courses had been. 

Several years later, I decided to return to business school to get an MBA.  I applied to the top-schools in the country and was accepted to two schools in the top-15, but felt that Simon really had the best to offer. I liked the fact that it was the smallest school in the top-25 and that students receive so much personalized attention.  I had visited so many schools that felt pretentious and Simon just felt genuine.  I entered the full-time MBA program in the Fall of 2007 and have loved every minute of it.  I like the fact that you get to know everyone in the MBA program, which creates a very tight community at Simon and a strong network upon graduation.  At Simon, we live by our school motto (“Meliora” – which means “ever better”) so we are constantly looking at ways to improve ourselves, our school and our community.  With this common objective, many people take on important leadership roles to initiate the change and everyone participates in a variety of clubs.  In my first year, I was elected as a first-year MBA representative on the Graduate Business Council (GBC), which is the student government at the Simon School.  The first two quarters are very, very challenging.  It is well known throughout the business school community that Simon’s MBA program is one of the most academically intensive.  This makes it a struggle to balance your career search and social life/family, but it can be done!  Networking takes a lot of your time, but Simon alumni are very friendly.  I believe this is because of the small class size, which creates an alumni network that has higher quality.  Through my networking and informational interviews, I initially believed I wanted to go into asset management.  I secured a great  summer internship at MetLife Investments in Morristown, NJ (just outside NYC).  MetLife Investments is a top-25 Money Management firm in the world and manages approximately $350B in its general accounts.  My internship was in Portfolio Management and it was a great experience, but after my internship I was still not convinced that asset management was the correct field for me. 

In my second year, I was honored to serve as President of the GBC which was a great opportunity to make Simon even better.  I got to see first-hand how privileged we all are to be associated with such a fine institution.  Each year the current and former GBC presidents represent the Simon School at a global conference which convenes the student leaders of the top-50 business schools in the world.  This year, we went to Taipei, Taiwan and were able to develop “best practices” across the business school community.  At Simon, we are fortunate to have the most dedicated faculty and staff.  The Dean is readily accessible and is passionate about the success of each student, which is unheard of at any top-tier business school.  We also have a strong community.  We have great cultural organizations (National Black, Latin American Student Organization, Jewish Association of MBA’s, Simon Association of Women MBA’s, Pacific Basin Forum, Simon United, etc.), sports clubs (Soccer, Tennis and Golf), professional clubs (Consulting/Operations/Technology, Financial Management, Marketing, Health Sciences, Entrepreneurship, etc) and tons of others (Simon Volunteers, UNcorked, Net Impact, etc.).  This makes for a very busy social calendar with excellent programming that develops our professional skills, our career search, and allows us to have a great time.  In addition to all the fun, our second year is also very academically intensive as you dive into your chosen concentration(s).  My concentrations were in Finance, Competitive and Organizational Strategy and Entrepreneurship.  Just as it is a struggle to balance everything in the first year, the second year was even more intensive due to the career search, especially given the economic situation.  I interviewed for a wide variety of companies throughout the winter and decided to return to consulting.  I just finished my coursework and will graduate on June 14^th.  In July, I will be joining Booz Allen Hamilton’s Economic and Business Analysis (EBA) group and will be moving to their headquarters in the Washington DC area.  I am really thankful for my awesome experience at Simon and look forward to being an active alumnus.

 

Charles “Dusty” Riddle

President – Graduate Business Council

Simon Leadership Fellow & 2009 MBA Candidate

Simon Graduate School of Business

Take 21/22 Program

By: Delaena, MBA Candidate, Class of 2009

The Take 21/22 Program allows MBA students to take two additional classes after they complete their graduation requirement of 20 classes.  These two courses are free of charge and designed to allow students to further pursue academic interests as they end their time as a Simon student.

I decided to take Special Topics in Finance (Real Estate) for a couple of reasons. First of all there is no organized and liquid real estate capital market in my home country Ghana. For the most part, if you want to build a house in Ghana, you just buy a parcel of land and develop it on your own. There is a small mortgage industry but it’s at best, a minute part of the economy. I want to learn how real estate capital markets work in the U.S. and then hopefully apply the useful (not the reckless sub-prime mortgage industry or the 125% Loan to Value that mortgage lenders doled out to borrowers at the height of the housing bubble) aspects of it to Ghana's fledgling financial markets.

Secondly, real estate constitutes about 11% of U.S. GDP and it’s a critical component of the U.S. economy. It played a significant part in the credit crisis that led to this recession. Essentially, the inflated property values during the bubble, allowed mortgage lenders to securitize sub-prime mortgages (bundled with other fixed income asset classes with predictable cash flows) into collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), sliced them into different tranches and sold them off to banks and investors in order to provide liquidity to issue more mortgages. With the bust of the housing market, home equity vanished overnight, sub-prime borrowers who couldn’t afford mortgages in the first place defaulted on their mortgages and the CDOs went from being illiquid pieces of paper to being worthless. Of course you don’t realize it’s a bubble till it busts so it’s often difficult to see these things without the benefit of hindsight; but I hope to learn from this class the lapses within the industry that led to such loose lending standards and how such a bubble could be avoided if at all possible.

The lecturer, Mr. John Anderson is the President of Northern Capital Group Inc., a real estate development and investment company based out of Rochester, New York. With over 25 years of industry experience, Mr. Anderson was Vice President (from 1985 to 1989) of Citicorp Real Estate Inc., Citigroup’s main real estate banking vehicle providing financing for large real estate developers and owners on a worldwide basis. There couldn’t be a more qualified person than him to bring real world experience in the industry to the classroom.  I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to learn from such an industry leading practitioner, so I took advantage of the Take 21/22 Program.

Simon Career Center hosts "Talk to the Top" events

By Tony:

One of Simon's strengths as a smaller top-tier b-school is the close-knit community among those associated with the school.  This community atmosphere was portrayed again this month as our current students and alumni met on May 8th and 15th for "Talk to the Top."

 

The "Talk to the Top" events hosted by the Simon Career Management Center gave students the opportunity to meet with Simon alums in a 1 on 1 setting. The event pairs a group of 4 current students, 4 alums and one staff host for a lunch discussion about professional advice, career tips and networking.  The May 8th session included alumni from Simon's Executive Advisory Committee and the session on the 15th included Simon's Alumni Council.

 

I had the privilege of hosting a table at both events and experienced how the informal conversations with alumni offered relevant insight.  Students were eager to share what personal goals they would like to achieve through a chosen career path; while alums offered any advice, humor or personal connections to help students pursue their goals.

 

 

Sustainability vs. Bottom Line Lecture

By: Crissi

Sustainability is highly relevant to today’s business world  and many students and prospective students want to know what opportunities the Simon School offers to learn more about this topic.  Professor Harry Groenevelt of Operations Management recently presented in the lecture series Sustainability vs. Bottom Line: The Role of Reverse Logistics.

Reserve Logistics is the ‘after-life’ of a consumer product.  Products are born through the conversion from raw materials to fabrication of parts, assembly, distribution and purchase by the consumer.  After the initial consumption, each stage of the product ‘life’ may have channels to incorporate the product’s used components again, known as reverse logistics.  After a consumer purchases a product, they can then resell the product, say on e-bay, and this is seen as a secondary market for recycling the original product.  The same product may also be returned to the company, for example a product exchange or upgrade, where the initial product is refurbished and placed back in the distribution channel.  Further down the line, a used product can be remanufactured, or cannibalized for its valuable parts which then go back into the assembly line for incorporation into a new product.  The last stop before the landfill is recycling; reprocessing parts of a used product to incorporate into the fabrication of new parts, i.e. melting down plastic components to form parts for a new product.

A fascinating example of this process is disposable cameras.  Companies like Kodak and Fuiji reuse the components - circuit board, battery, lens, plastic shell – of single-use cameras redeemed to develop the film.  The cost to the companies to produce a single-use camera from scratch is around $10 or more, yet they sell for around the same amount in retail stores. How does Kodak or Fuiji turn a profit on these products?  By developing a return process for film developers to mail used cameras back to their plants, Kodak/Fuiji can refurbish the same camera – or reuse its pieces – up to ten times.  Unusable parts are melted and reformed, thus recycled at the fabrication level.  At this rate the cost per camera goes down by more than 50%, making a seemingly unprofitable product, a good business proposition. 

If you find these topics as interesting as I do, take a look at Simon’s classes in Operations Management, or email the Admissions Office to get in touch with a Simon professor or current student at admission@simon.rochester.edu.