Simon School Admissions Blog

A Great Night Out In Rochester!

By: Jackie

As you have seen us write in blogs before, we are very lucky in Rochester to be surrounded by such a great artistic, cultural, and musical community.  Even though Rochester is a mid-sized city, there is always something great to do and a real variety to choose from...

On Valentine's Day, I had the pleasure of attending the Valentine's Weekend Concert given by the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra at the Eastman Theatre (proudly a part of the University of Rochester!) which included selections from Romeo & Juliet and Carmen (very fitting for this occasion) as well as a concert by the Grammy award winning, Los Angeles Guitar Quartet.  It was a great night out! 

I think that now I have gotten "hooked" on the RPO and I am already going back this weekend to attend "That's Amore!" where acclaimed tenor Tonio DiPaolo will sing popular songs from Italian composers and favorite opera arias will be performed! In addition to that, I am going to go see a Broadway musical tonight, Jersey Boys presented by the Rochester Broadway Theatre League, which will be at the Auditorium Theatre-- there really is never a shortage of things to do and ways to get out and enjoy this great city!

Another great thing to note, is that University of Rochester students regularly have reduced ticket prices available to them-- this is surely one of the great things to take advantage of as a student here! 

Simon students visit San Francisco for "reverse recruiting" trip

By: Jackie

23 of our current students are going to be going to San Francisco this weekend as a part of a trip organized by the Consulting, Operations & Technology Association (COTA), a student club for those concentrating in Operations Management and Information Systems at Simon as well as those interested in the Consulting field.  The COTA officers have put a lot of effort into making this East-to-West coast trip happen in order to take the opportunity to visit some top companies and to learn more about them and in turn, to help them learn about what Simon has to offer. 

Our students are scheduled to meet with such companies as Apple, Oracle, Adobe, Simon Kucher & Partners (a strategy and marketing consulting firm with pricing expertise), Diablo Management Group (a San Francisco based global consulting firm with strong Simon ties), and the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.  They will be meeting with about 2 companies a day and on Monday will be holding a special networking event with Simon alums in the Bay area. 

2008-2009 Travel Season

By: Jackie

Greetings from Simon! It's been a busy summer in the admissions office-- we have been welcoming new students who have already started here as well as getting ready for all of those who will start orientation very soon, we have had many visitors and have started reviewing applications for our accelerated MBA program which will start in January of 2009. In addition we have been planning our upcoming travel for this fall and early winter and I'm excited to report that we will be going to a lot of great cities all over the world this year. In the US, we will be covering a lot of territory from the east to west coast visiting over 20 different locations in 17 states. We'll also be visiting Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Brazil, Japan, South Korea, China, Turkey, Greece, and India between now and early winter and will be in some of those countries more than once! To see specific dates and times you can visit: Simon off-campus recruitment schedule.

We look forward to seeing you in our travels! 

Simon School Commencement

By: Jackie

Earlier this month, I had the pleasure of attending the commencement ceremonies which were held at the Eastman Theatre.  At Simon, we value our small and personal community environment greatly with an emphasis on keeping class sizes intentionally small in order to foster communication and add depth to interactions and opportunities both within and outside of the classroom. Briefly, to give you an example of our class size this academic year--we had 631 students enrolled in the full-time and part-time MBA programs, 154 enrolled in the Master of Science program and 28 were enrolled in the Master of Science Accountancy program.

Before the ceremony I helped out "behind the scenes" and that was the highlight of the day for me. Students were so excited to have achieved their degrees and there were so many hugs and pictures and hand shakes... it was so nice to see how well our students get to know one another during their time here and just how close our community is. 

After being in the office for a few years this was the first opportunity that I had to attend the commencement ceremonies and it was well worth the wait! It was especially near and dear to me because the Class of 2008 was the first MBA class that I was able to work with throughout a full admissions cycle-- from the time of their first inquiry or application and throughout the duration of their program. It was a joy to spend the time with them, to see them develop into our future business leaders, and to get to know them as people. I am confident that our MBA graduates as well as all of the other members of the Class of 2008 will make us proud and I look forward to welcoming a new class of MBA and MS students and to seeing our second year students return! 

28th Annual New York Recruiting Program

By: Jackie

Last Friday, January 18th, our Career Management Center held the 28th Annual "New York Recruiting Program" in midtown Manhattan.  This program is a popular Simon tradition in which both first and second year students go to New York City to interview for full-time positions and summer internships.  It is a wonderful example of how proactive our Career Management Center is in helping our students to find employment opportunities in creative ways beyond that of the traditional on-campus recruitment events that are held here weekly at the Simon School.

Each year, Simon moves it's career "headquarters" to a suite hotel in New York City where our students interview throughout the day with a terrific group of companies.  This year some of our corporate partners in attendance were: American Express, Bear Stearns & Co, Citigroup, Deloitte, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Lehman Brothers, Medco Health Solutions, Merrill Lynch, PepsiCo, UBS, and Unilever, among many others.  Simon students find this to be a nice opportunity to not only go to meet with some of our corporate partners during the interviews, but also to conduct other NYC based networking. 

The event concludes with a co-sponsored alumni networking reception where current Simon students can interact with Simon graduates, staff, and corporate partners in a more social setting.  I had the opportunity to attend this event a couple of years ago and hope to have the chance to go again, it is a wonderful event and a great opportunity for our students to form relationships with some of our most accomplished Simon graduates.  Even though we are not located in New York City, many of our students take advantage of the numerous opportunities there as NYC is easy to get to from Rochester.  With the Rochester International Airport less than 10 minutes from campus and with four airlines offering direct flights at many times each day, there is no reason not to make this 45 minute trek to the city if it is a place where you would like to pursue career opportunities! 

George Eastman House

By: Jackie

Greetings from Rochester, NY!  I am sitting at my desk right now looking out at the snow-covered and beautiful Eastman Quadrangle (take a look at the web cam) which is the main quad here at the University of Rochester and where the Simon School of Business sits.  I just ended a phone interview with an applicant who asked me about I like to do in the city of Rochester and it inspired me to write this blog about the George Eastman House, one of my favorite things about my home city of Rochester.

The George Eastman House combines the world's leading museum of photography and film with the house, gardens, and estate of George Eastman, founder of Eastman Kodak Company.  If you have the opportunity to visit Rochester, a tour of the home and gardens is a must and if you have more time, taking a tour of the museum is a real treat-- with work by more than 10,000 photographers as well as the world's largest collection of American cameras including many that belonged to famous photographers such as Ansel Adams. Taking a tour of the museum, whether to see a current collection on exhibit or to take a look at the permanent collection is always a great thing to do and always a learning experience-- it is especially amazing to see the original of famous photos that you have seen throughout your life (which is sure to happen). In addition, the motion pictures collection is one of the finest in the world and the archives include a motion picture collection of over 23,000 films from 1895 to the current time.  Another interesting feature is the personal film collections of such famed directors as Spike Lee, Cecil B. De Mille, and Martin Scorsese.

As a resident of Rochester, I take visitors here often and go regularly myself to see film screenings in the Dryden Theater-- the screenings are especially fun because they are often presented by the directors, writers, actors and others who are instrumental in their creation. I plan to go there this weekend to see Lawrence of Arabia presented on the big screen and next weekend I plan to go see the Rochester premiere of a 2005 feature film by the actor John Turturro who will be there in person to present it.

The Eastman House is one of many historically significant and great places to visit while in Rochester.  Although we are a smaller city, there is no shortage of great things to do whether it is a snowy or sunny day here on the Quad!   

Broaden Your Horizons-Latin America

By: Jackie

Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend one of my favorite events here at Simon-- Broaden Your Horizons, a program that is put together two or three times a year by members of Simon United.  Each Broaden Your Horizons event focuses on a particular country or region of the world and yesterday the focus was on Latin America and in particular, Peru, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and Colombia.  As always, this event was as educational as it was entertaining.

The event started with a presentation on Peru given by Silvia Torres, the President of our Latin American Students Organization (LASOS).  Silvia gave us an overview of Peru--including Machu Picchu and other landmarks, lovable llamas, and Incan traditions.  We also heard about the tremendous diversity within the Peruvian population, including the fact that about 14% of the population come from a Chinese Peruvian background.  As we listened to Silvia we ate from a sampling of traditional Peruvian recipes that were made for us by a local catering company using recipes from Silvia's grandmother.

Renato Machado, a second year student from Brazil then took us through an overview of his home country, the only Portuguese speaking country in South America and home of the upcoming 2014 Soccer World Cup.  Renato took us from the breathtaking Rio de Janeiro and Carnival to the modern capital of Brasilia to Sao Paulo, one of the five largest cities in the world, and finally to Florianopolis, a popular summer retreat for Brazilians.  To wrap up, we ended in traditional festive Brazilan style as Rentao showed the audience how to make a Caipirinha, a traditional Brazilian drink made with fresh limes, sugar, and Cachaca. 

Lasagna dinner at the Dean's house

By: Jackie

Greetings from Simon!  Last night I had the opportunity to attend the third lasagna dinner for first year students, faculty, and staff that Dean Zupan has hosted at his home in the past week. I felt so fortunate to not only have been able to attend, but also fortunate to have the opportunity to be a part of such a special community as Simon.  As he did last year, Dean Zupan has invited each member of the first year MBA class to his home for a series of lasagna dinners. Faculty and staff are asked to join as well and even help out as servers!  Even though there were about 50 people there it still felt a lot like having dinner at home with friends and family as we sat at dinner tables scattered throughout Dean Zupan's house dining on either vegetarian white lasagna or meat lasagna along with great salads and desserts. In attendance were new students from states such as Florida, New York, California, Massachussetts, and Ohio as well as from countries such as Japan, India, South Korea, and China.

After dinner everyone moved to the living room where Dean Zupan led a conversation in which our new international students each shared advice for our domestic students on doing business in their home country. It was a great exchange, in the room there was a wide variety of work experience (ranging from directly out of college to 18 years!) and a wealth of backgrounds represented from banking to consulting to entrepreneurship and beyond. Students gave advice on what it might take to set up a telecommunications company in India to how to properly present a business card in Tokyo--which trust me, is a great thing to know! 

Update: Gearing up for travel season!

By: Jackie

Greetings from the Simon School! It is now October and travel season is in full swing-- we've had the opportunity to visit some great places all over the world and we've gotten to know some wonderful prospective Simon students.

I just returned from a trip to the West Coast where I started in California, traveling to Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco, and then to Seattle, WA and Portland, OR.  It was a fun week that was filled with many events such as 1:1 informational interviews (Events Calendar) in every city, 3 World MBA ( QS World MBA) events, an Inside the MBA event ( Inside the MBA), 3 Consortium for Graduate Study in Management (The Consortium) information sessions, and a visit to Reed College (Reed College), one of our Direct Admission Partnership Schools (4-2 MBA Options).

Travel to such great cities as those listed above sounds like a fantastic opportunity and it is, but it is not always as "glamorous" as it sounds.  For example, even though I had a chance to spend Friday in Portland, I first had to drive over 3 hours from Seattle to get there, and as I have the past 2 times I've been there, I got lost on my way to Reed College!  For some reason, I tend to have difficulty navigating the highways in Portland! Maybe it is the sudden changes on the highway to "exit only" lanes, the unfamiliar rental car, or the inadequate directions I always seem to print for myself... who knows. Once I got to Reed I had a great visit with current students, faculty, and staff talking about such things as our upcoming Early Leaders Case Competition (ELCC event information)and questions related to doing the MBA right after college or waiting until after you have a few years of work experience (See Dean Zupan's statement on Early Leaders)-- I then left around 3pm and had about 8 hours before my red-eye flight was leaving for Rochester via Chicago so I thought I would try and see some of the great sites that Portland has to offer.

Needless to say, I enjoyed the rest of my day in Portland in spite of getting lost 2 more times before I finally made it to the airport at 9:30 pm just in time to drop off the rental car and check-in for my flight! All in all, travel season is a lot of fun and I hope that we have the chance to see you on the road soon if we haven't already! In some of my upcoming posts I will tell you some more about where we've been this fall and about some more upcoming events.   

Meliora Weekend 2007

By: Jackie

Meliora Weekend will be October 18th-21st this year and like our motto, it seems to be "always better".  This year over 6,000 attendees are expected-- attendees typically include current students, parents, alumni, staff, and friends of the University of Rochester. As a University of Rochester alumna, I always look forward to this weekend to see old friends and to celebrate what a great university this is.

In addition, there are always a lot of great speakers and events planned as well. In years past, the University has hosted entertainers and public figures such as Bill Cosby, The Temptations, Jon Stewart, Chris Matthews, Lewis Black, Ted Turner, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Bill Bennett, and Salmon Rushdie.

This year will be no exception with the keynote address being given by General Colin L. Powell, USA (Ret.), a world premiere performance by Garth Fagan Dance, and a Friday night comedy show featuring comedians from the popular HBO show, Curb Your Enthusiasm.  Personally, I have already registered and bought tickets for some of the events--registration has only been up for a few days, but I couldn't wait!

For the first time, the Simon School will be hosting a Simon Alumni reunion during Meliora Weekend.  The reunion will begin with a faculty symposium in which some of Simon's leading faculty members will discuss current trends and issues within their areas of expertise. This will be followed by a kick-off speech given by Andy Thomas, a 1991 MBA graduate of the Simon School and current President and CEO of Heineken USA.

Other events will follow throughout the weekend and it should be a great opportunity to celebrate the wonderful Simon community, I'm sure that to many it will feel much more like a family reunion than a college reunion!  In the upcoming weeks I'll keep you posted on other events that will be going on during Meliora Weekend.