Professor Anderson School UCLA During his 16 years at the Anderson School, Professor Bill Cockrum has become known as an entrepreneurial finance guru. His students have honored him with an "Outstanding Teaching" Award eight times, but his reputation transcends the UCLA campus. A 1996 Business Week survey recognized him as the top entrepreneurial professor in the nation. Cockrum also teaches business ethics and investment management at this top ten school.

Become a Student Again On average, first year students will have been out of school for three to six years and they are going to have difficulty just getting back into the practice of being a student. They need to make an adjustment getting back in the routine of schoolwork, doing and turning in homework, and so on.

Ready, Set, Compete! A student attending a top ten business school will likely be exposed to a more competitive environment than they saw in either undergraduate school or in their work environment because of the selective admittance process. At the Anderson School, our average student is in the 92nd percentile on the GMAT exam and earned a 3.5 GPA from a top-drawer school - the top 25 or 30 schools academically in the U.S. And that's the average student.

Be Prepared to Work in 'Zero Time' Most top ten schools try to teach students how to cope with demands on their time. How to sort out what's important and what's not. You're going to be confronted with more work than you can possibly do, and you're going to have to determine what's important. That's a big part of being a success in management.

Getting In: Stand Out or Sit Down It just doesn't cut it to be smart, have good grades, score well on the GMAT, work in a tough environment, and have a boss that says you're great. All of that is expected. When talking about admittance to a top ten school, you're going to have to partake in some activities between your undergraduate degree and your MBA application date that will make you a unique applicant. Expand your horizons. Instead of going to the beach or doing whatever you do on the weekends, do something unique in either a business way or a management way, or even in a community way.

Suck It Dry The most common mistake made by first year students is not researching their school and all of its opportunities before setting foot on campus. Students procrastinate in discovering what the school offers. That doesn't only apply to coursework. A lot of things in school are experiential -- activities where you can learn what it's like to be an entrepreneur, understand what international companies want, or discover what it's like to be an investment banker. If you want to execute a career change from working at a magazine in Boston to becoming an analyst in New York City, you have to ask, "Is there a student club at my school that can help me understand that?"

Promote Teamwork We think it extremely important that students learn how to be good team members because we believe that teams do better than individuals when solving problems. And you don't have to be the team leader to have good results. I'd rather be on a team with you to study a problem than do it alone, because I think two of us, with two heads, will do better than one. But the teamwork at Anderson goes on in a way that discourages internal competitiveness among the students and encourages support. For example, when a prospective employer interviews at Anderson, our students will share the information gained from their interview with classmates in order to get more jobs for UCLA. You will not find that culture at most of the top ten schools.

Get the Skinny on UCLA If you're coming to UCLA, you're going to learn how to think, and that's something you may never have learned before -- we can teach that if you're open to it. We can help you understand, appreciate, and probably embrace the concept of teamwork. You're going to face a very challenging set of intellectual rigors, and you'll graduate with three things that I think are important.

First, you'll master basic analytical skills that will serve you well for the rest of your life. Second, you'll gain the experience level of a 60-year-old person who has not been to a top ten school. And third, you'll be exposed to the most current techniques.

But be forewarned, those techniques will be obsolete in less than a decade, so you'll have to constantly reeducate yourself. All in all, you'll be a smarter individual upon graduation.

Student - Anderson School UCLA

Though initially unimpressed with the celebrity and smog of Los Angeles, East Coast native Jay Devivo says he has since learned to appreciate his adopted homeland. Since migrating from Boston last year, Devivo has devoted much time and energy to Anderson's Entrepreneurial Ventures Club, which works closely with area startups.

Meet, Greet, and Sometimes Delete In the beginning, you should open yourself to everything. Get a little crazy in first few weeks, and then narrow down your interests to a few. Generally, students have one primary activity and a few supporting activities at which they are not the main point person.

Networking is by far the most important aspect of business school. The classroom is a distant second. If you want to be an investment banker or a consultant, you had better get a 4.0. GPA, but even those employers like to see that you are doing something outside of school. For the people who don't want to go into either of those fields, networking is paramount.

I'm involved with the Venture Developing Program, which places MBA students with a team of entrepreneurs and allows them to work together over the summer. The MBA students help flesh out strategic issues and a business plan with the goal of going after venture capital or angel financing. This is really our last chance to try things without any serious consequences.

At the end of the day, the most important thing you take away from business school is your network.

Succumb to Peer Pleasure I spent between 10 and 35 hours a week studying on my own. During finals that number went up to 40 hours. But far outweighing that independent study time is the amount of time spend in group studies. Everything is group related. Even in statistics class, you have groups. How do you have groups in math? You do. If it's not a group project, it's a study group so you can go over things together. I've been in 16-hour group meetings.

This is why choosing the right business school is so important. You'll see these people more than anyone else remotely associated with your life, so you had better like them.

Learn to Share Before finals, students will send out study guides for the whole section. I've also seen people say, "I have information about this employer, do you want it?" In terms of anything academic, there is almost no competition.

In our core classes -- which comprise 90 percent of the first year - there is an enforced curve and people are still willing to give you all they know. If everyone shares information, the pool of information rises. At the end of the day, you want to actually learn something. Whatever arbitrary grade some professor gives you really doesn't matter.

Embrace IM You have to have a Palm Pilot. Maybe not specifically that brand, but you have to have some kind of organizer. You're always scheduling to meet and do things with various other people. I used to keep my appointments in a Day Runner, but it just gets too messy with paper.

Anderson is a very wired school. We have T-1 ports in all the classrooms, so a laptop is a necessity. During some classes, you sit in the back and Instant Message people all day. It's also always good to have a cell phone, as well.

Make Friends With Second-Year Students It's important to talk to second-year students to find out who previously interned at the companies you are researching. Fall recruiting is mostly for second-year students, but it never hurts a first-year student to sit in on sessions.

UCLA is ranked #1 for entrepreneurial studies. In order to find jobs and internships in that area, you just have to be creative. That is where the UCLA Venture Development Program

comes in. There are plenty of groups in the L.A. area attract entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. Internet things are happening in L.A. Startups don't normally recruit on campus, but they do get in touch with our career center, and there is always email coming through looking for potential recruits.

Professor and Vice Dean - Columbia Business School "Columbia is not just a network of people to know in various businesses and various industries," says Vice Dean Safwan Masri. "It is really a group of friends that you will keep for a lifetime. That is what students appreciate most."

Learn Each Day's Lessons As a professor, I'm looking for enthusiasm in my students. I'm looking for high energy and evidence that they really appreciate why they are in school. People need to reflect on where they've been and where they want to go in life, and focus on learning as much as possible in two years. Being in school is not only about learning theories and concepts. It's not only about networking or finding the right job. Most importantly, it's about personal growth. Students have as much to learn from one another as they do from the faculty members who teach them. When you think of a class of 60 students with an average age of 26 or 27 years old, that's roughly 1,600 years of collective experiences.

Follow Your Heart Once MBA students get through the required core courses, they have the opportunity to start selecting electives. I advise students to take courses with professors who stimulate them. In other words, before making any decisions, do your homework: talk to people, read the evaluations and the descriptions of the courses, ask the faculty for a syllabus. A person is much more likely to learn in a class if they find that course intriguing or if it is taught by a faculty member whom they see as inspiring.

I also advise students to make the most of Columbia University as a whole and to not limit their studies to business classes alone. The MBA program enables them to take two or three courses outside the business school; they can enroll in classes such as a law, media, international affairs, or even film. A well-rounded education will be far more valuable than one that was narrowly focused on just one specific field. Believe me, you'll gain the expertise anyway once you're on the job.

Examine Your Study Habits Preparing for exams should be a very easy thing, if you are doing what you're supposed to from day one. If students complete the readings and homework, attend class, and grasp the concepts on a daily and weekly basis, then exams are just an opportunity to review material they are already familiar with. There's one simple rule: Do not leave it all to the last minute. You cannot properly prepare for an exam by cramming the night before. It's far better to go over your notes and class outlines regularly, then work through practice problems before the exam so you feel comfortable with the material. And, of course, you should always get a good night's sleep.

Don't Fall Into a School Daze One of the biggest challenges for MBA students is adjusting to being in school again. Most of them graduated three or four years ago, and they've become accustomed to the world of work. They were on an entirely different schedule, one that probably didn't require them to sit at a desk for hours at a time and take lecture notes. They also forget how to study. At Columbia, we offer a pre-term program for incoming students affectionately known as "Math Camp." It's an optional thing, but an increasing number of our students are enrolling in Math Camp. Not only is it designed to help them brush up on their math skills, but it also serves as a great way to socialize. Math Camp helps them get used to being a student even before they officially arrive.

Devour the Big Apple As I'm sure every knows, time management is key to succeeding in any graduate program. Students are inundated with assignments and reading from all their courses, and we constantly have guest speakers and corporate presentations coming to campus. Even though recruiting is very important, it should not be the primary driver of students' schedules. In addition to all the curricular activities, students also have to juggle the dozens of clubs, associations, and other social outlets that are available to them. This is, after all, New York City, and there are many things going on each and every day that could distract students from studying. But we try to remind students at orientation that they have come to Columbia primarily for the academics, and that for 99 percent of them, this will be their last chance to learn at the graduate level. Student - Columbia Business School Colin Johnson was drawn to Manhattan and Columbia University's Business School after working as a project and assistance engineer at Delphi Automotive in Lockport, New York for four years. Now concentrating on "learning from good professors," the Stanford University graduate says he hopes to either launch his own high-tech company or begin a career in finance. In the meantime, here are his words of wisdom for B-school novices...

Know Why You're There If you're clear about your career goals, you can determine whether earning the highest grade in class is worth the stress. Balance is key. Business school is not only about academics, it is also about the people and education outside the classroom -- speakers, projects, etc. Your classmates constitute one of the most dynamic, accomplished groups of people you may ever meet. Getting to know them over the two years will likely contribute as much, if not more, to your long-term success than memorizing random factoids. Everything works out in the wash. Don't forget to enjoy yourself while learning.

Pack It In An acquaintance once calculated that he spent about 55 hours a week outside of class on academics. If you think about the break down, a typical schedule might include 55 on studying, 15 on attending classes, 15 on the job search, 10 on club activities, 18 on

socializing, and another 55 for all that is left over like sleeping and personal hygiene. In a week of 168 hours, 55 hours for "other" means eating, drinking, and sleeping squeezes into fewer than 8 hours a day.

Forget the Curve Grading in the core courses is curved around a range of A to C [referred to as H (Honors), HP (High Pass) and P (Pass)]. Because performance is measured relative to one's cluster mates, one would think that there would be cutthroat competition. Instead, the amount of collaboration, teamwork, and willingness to help classmates succeed is extraordinary.

Only the career changers trying to get into banking or those interested in working at McKinsey worry about grades more than the rest because they fear it will come up in their interviews. The rest realize that when the curve is relative, it is not necessarily a measure of absolute achievement. When you're in a group of super stars, even the last in the pack is doing pretty well. I think this accounts for the strong esprit de corps.

Protect Your Reputation Your reputation follows you through school and into the workforce. Unethical behavior or taking advantage of others will ruin your reputation. A person with lousy personal skills or who has no scruples will find him/herself alone when it is time to do team projects. As in business, being alone when the work requires a team can be very unpleasant.

Know Thyself The pace in business school is too crazy to "find yourself" as some people could do in undergraduate. Instead, take the time to consider, based on your past experience, what you want from your next career. You may not be able to identify a specific job, career, or company that will offer this, but it will allow you to better filter through all the different temptations on campus. There is no way to go to all the presentations of all companies in all industries and still maintain your academic standing. Fight the temptation to join the herd.

Location, Location, Location

Because we are in Manhattan, we have a chance to regularly visit the firms located here in which we are most interested. To be able to jump on a subway, travel 25 minutes, have an informational interview with a contact or an alumni member, turn around and still make your afternoon class is a huge advantage.

Look Beyond Standard Recruiters While the list of respected companies coming to campus to recruit grows daily, there are many that do not have formal recruiting programs. The Career Services Office has substantial information resources about non-traditional companies that hire MBAs. Fight the temptation to be spoon-fed only the typical companies who show up to interview. There is great support for those who don't find a perfect fit with the employers who come to our door step and who wish to conduct an individualized job search. The staff is at your service. Use them.

Escape It New York City is not just the mecca of business, it is the city of stimulation. If burned out by accounting or finance, Riverside Park and Central Park are common decompression areas. St. John's Cathedral on 112th and Amsterdam (3 blocks down from the New Business/Law Building) is one of the most awe-inspiring man-made spaces in world. One step inside and worries tend to evaporate. New York City is great that way. A different world is only several blocks or a train-ride away.

Nurture Your Personal Life The all-consuming lifestyle and intensity of business school can leave significant others feeling neglected. They even joke about breaking up with boyfriends and girlfriends at home over Thanksgiving to beat the Christmas rush. To stave off these developments, a couple precautions have been known to work.

Before the business school experience begins, a heart-to-heart about the intensity of the first year is critical. The partner will not likely understand, or even be able to imagine, the demands that a typical first-year student experiences. The more space a partner can give, the better. Communicate, communicate, communicate.

Incorporate your partner as much as possible. Business school is intense, but it is also fun. All social events are open to significant others, and we encourage bringing them. It is sometimes difficult to include them in inside jokes or business lingo, but the harder we try, the more successful the survival rates.

Judge for Yourself 7:30 a.m. -- Alarm goes off.

7:45 a.m. -- Realize that the fire alarm ringing in my dreams is not a fire alarm, but actually the alarm clock.

7:50 a.m. -- Stumble out of bed in half stupor, and turn off alarm. "What day is it? Wednesday? No, Thursday. Damn, 9 o'clock group meeting?"

8 - 8:35 a.m. --- Shower, shave, dress.

8:35-8:45 a.m. -- Walk to school reading the Wall Street Journal.

8:50 a.m. -- Buy a cup of coffee at the Uris Deli in spill-proof mug.

9 a.m. -- Arrive at the library to meet my study group and put the final touches on a Finance case before class. I'm the first one there. I log on to the network and check my email. 45 messages received since midnight. I start responding to messages as people trickle in.

9:15 a.m. -- All are present and accounted for. We work for 45 minutes in mad rush to finish.

10 a.m. -- Swing past the printer to pick up our case write-up and dash to class.

10:05 a.m. -- Find a seat in class, plug my laptop into network and power up. Arrange papers and answer a couple emails as the professor opens class discussion.

10:24 a.m. -- Break into cold sweat as the professor scans the room for someone on which to cold call. Eyes scan across, and land on neighbor. Breath sigh of relief. Discussion continues. Future cold calls bounce to other parts of the auditorium.

11:20 a.m. -- Class breaks. Scramble to catch classmates to arrange meeting later in the day to brainstorm speakers for an upcoming conference to be hosted at the Business School. No one seems to have a common time free. Arrange for 10 p.m. Monday night. Four out of five isn't bad. Pull out PalmPilot and check to see what presentations are scheduled for today: five corporate brown bag lunches, a speaker sponsored by the Columbia Entrepreneurship Association on starting one's own vineyard, the Dean's Forum, a faculty presentation on Social Responsibility in Business. Hmmm. Can't do it all. Weigh options.

11:35 a.m. -- Check in with one of the brown bags. Grab a boxed lunch. Decide it doesn't look as appealing as the vineyard presentation. Change rooms and stand at the back behind the last row of chairs. Listen for 15 minutes about grapes and oak barrels. Decide to catch the Dean's Forum and slip out. On the way over meet a friend who persuades me to join her in the presentation on Social Responsibility. Change course and squeeze into lecture hall. Become enthralled with tales of Fair Trade artisan coops in West Africa.

12:45 p.m. -- Make way to accounting class. Congregate in the hall outside the door with colleagues from cluster as we wait for the lunch presentation held in the classroom to let out. Chat about homework assignments and the latest conquests day trading. Confirm that most are planning to attend Happy Hour at 6 p.m.

12:55 p.m. - Find seat in class and boot up computer. Check email. 33 more emails. Answer a couple. Class starts.

2:20 p.m. - Class lets out. Leave Uris Hall and walk down to the New Business/Law Building across Amsterdam Avenue. Pull out cell phone to arrange an informational interview for the following day at 10 a.m. in Midtown. Look for study group in the breakout rooms of the new building. oon everyone convenes. Work on assignments until munchies hit. Send one of the group down to Hamilton Deli next door for snacks and Snapples. Check email. 25 more messages. Progress on the project proceeds slower than expected. Discuss alternative meeting times. Two of the group have Friday internships in the City and can't meet. Agree upon 8:30 a.m. Saturday morning in the same building. Have got to get in early to capture the room with the best window. As I write the new plan into my PalmPilot, realize that forgot about a presentation from the CFO of a major Media Company that afternoon that I had wanted to see. Curse quietly to self.

6:19 p.m. - Leave to head back to Uris Hall for Happy Hour. Peak into Joe Miller's office, the Director of Student Activities. Ask if he minds keeping a bag in his office. Persuade him to join the group at Happy Hour. The highly publicized "Video Game Happy Hour"

features random mid-Eighties classics. The sponsoring bank was particularly generous. Get a glass of wine from the server. Don't recognize her. Realize that she's not a B-School student. The bartending staff has been hired from the outside. Getting kinda snazzy these days? Bump into a couple of professors and numerous friends in other clusters who I don't see during the week. Laugh. Cry. Let hair down.

9:12 p.m. - The first dancing begins. The energy grows and grows.

10:30 p.m. - The Happy Hour is finally brought to a close, and most of the crowd moves out to a Post Happy Hour venue on the Upper West Side.

10:45 p.m. -- While sorely tempted to follow friends out for the night, I decide that the informational interview the next morning calls for prudence. Go home. Check email. 36 more messages. Buckle down and start answering the day's messages. Despite best intentions to go to sleep early, spend hours clearing out the email inbox.

2:10 a.m. -- Collapse with exhaustion. Sleep 'til morning.

Professor - Fuqua School of Business Joel Huber colored outside the lines before joining the Fuqua faculty 21 years ago. After completing his undergraduate degree at Princeton, Huber continued on to the Wharton School for his MBA. Contrary to custom, he then began teaching high school mathematics during the Vietnam War era. Ultimately, Huber returned to higher education with teaching stints at Purdue and Columbia before moving south to Fuqua. "Business school has changed so radically in 20 years," he says. "It's been very exciting to be part of that change."

Juggle Heavier Balls Fuqua adheres to a term system. Basically, we have divided a normal semester into two terms. Students here take three courses each term, or six courses in the same amount of time that students at other business schools usually take five. The balls are heavier here, but there are only three in the air at one time. We did that because we found students were getting lost when they had five balls in the air.

Now, students are learning to be very quick studies -- starting up and closing down in record time. All our courses have pre-assignments because we have only basically seven weeks to teach each course. We think this system is very similar to what happens in business. When a project is over, it's over.

In some ways, the core curriculum at Fuqua is like boot camp. It's extremely hard, and very fast. Students don't think they're going to make it, but they do. Once they learn to be soldiers, we teach them how to be smart soldiers, and how to specialize their skills outside the core. Once they learn to take orders, they can learn to give orders in the business world.

Adapt to Upheaval At the beginning of the first year, students are assigned to a study team that Fuqua enforces for two terms. After the second term, that team is dissolved and students are given a new one.

We dissolve the teams because after the second term, teams tend to suffer one of two problems. Some teams are dysfunctional and haven't conjured up a solution. The team from hell either doesn't get along, or it has a free rider or an incompetent member. Sometimes those teams are fixable, but often they're not. The other team fault is excessive efficiency -- and that's much more common. For example, a team with a good writer may rely on that person to do all the writing, and the remainder of the team may find themselves unable to speak knowledgeably about the paper they just turned in. If a student's name appears on something, they should know it inside and out. Truthfully, we could care less how many papers the teams produce, we just want them to learn.

Consider Summer School Students who have avoided quantitative activities since taking undergraduate calculus need to refresh those skills. Similarly, those who have done very little writing since freshman English need to build their communication skills. Courses such as financial accounting move very fast, and a person who has not worked with accounting numbers should do substantial preparation.

As part of the admissions process, Fuqua gives students substantial advice about the areas they need to develop before school begins. We also offer one-week computer and math camps to help our students get up to speed. And for the 34 percent of our students who are not US citizens, we offer a five-week intensive language course designed to get them up to speed.

Do Everything in Moderation The most common mistake among first-year students is demonstrating a lack of balance. Some students spend 80 hours per week on courses, neglecting their job search and personal life. Others spend almost all their time on the job search, and focus too much on courses that develop short-term skills helpful in the first job. Too often, students fail to realize the value of developing strategic and interpersonal skills that will not pay dividends until five or ten years after business school. These skills include learning from and helping other students, providing leadership for clubs and activities, and taking courses that develop their skills as general managers.

Polish All Skills Equally Students need to explore different ways of approaching problems and different management styles. It is not enough to be an outstanding financial analyst, future managers also need to be able to communicate and sell that analysis to people who do not understand it. It is not enough to be able to execute market plans beautifully, managers also need to be able to train people to take over for them. It is not enough to recommend an appropriate

restructuring plan, they also have to implement it. Thus, the successful manager needs to have a broad range of talents and the wisdom to know when they should be applied.

Don't Expect Uniformity in Curriculum Fuqua does not have any standard teaching method. Professors try to use the method that best fits the learning goals. For example, statistics is taught by problem sets and carefully crafted cases. Marketing is taught by a combination of readings and broad-based cases. Finance begins like statistics, with a focus on particular quantitative skills, but by the time students take the capstone Restructuring course, they are required the apply those skills to complex cases. Finally, entrepreneurship is taught by a combination of readings, mentor experiences, and business plans.

Student - Fuqua School of Business at Duke University Kulwadee Wangkeo believes in life without limits. Born in Bangkok and raised outside New York City, she has devoted herself to breaking down the cultural barriers that stand between domestic and international students at Fuqua. This fall, Wangkeo and one other classmate are launching the International Student Involvement Committee, which aims to better integrate foreign students into American culture and the business school lifestyle.

Wangkeo worked in commercial banking for several years before enrolling at Fuqua and concentrating her studies on general management. This summer she interned at the Exxon Corporation in Texas.

Help Mold Your International Community People who come from other places in the world oftentimes find our culture very different and very assertive. Some of these students have a hard time finding jobs and summer internships in the United States because they are unaccustomed to "selling themselves." Some have come from cultures that believe good grades should lead to good jobs, and that's not how it works here. These students, I have found, don't participate as much in school activities because they feel intimidated or different.

Although Fuqua is an international school, it's not enough to just have the numbers. Thirty percent of our students may come from around the world, but that means nothing if those people don't participate and join our community. So our student government started a committee called International Student Involvement.

My philosophy is that you sometimes have to trick people into doing things. For that reason, we are not organizing any boring seminars. Instead, we are planning social activities and taking steps to facilitate interaction through international film nights, cooking classes, and a venting session after term one. Fuqua's long-standing international buddy program will also become an integral part of our committee's work.

Shake Hands With World Leaders Grades are not the only important aspect of Fuqua. Students should concentrate on making friends, and learning how to work them. That's one of the big bonuses of going to a school like Fuqua: you get to meet the future business leaders of the world. Ten years from now, you are not going to remember what grade you got in corporate finance, but you will still value the friendships you made in business school.

Make It Yours Fuqua is a very small school. A lot of second-year students mentor and tutor the first-year students. A lot of the administrative processes are done by students as well. For example, Career Fellows help the career office prepare students for their corporate interviews. And all of our admission interviews are done by second-year students. That very close involvement gives us the sense that this is our school, and we can change things if we want.

And that is one of the reasons we want to get international students involved, because we don't want them to think this is just an American school. Along those lines, we try to make sure that international students participate in the admissions process. We also now have one student in the Career Fellows program who is devoted to just international students' issues. He helps with VISA problems, contacting foreign alumni, etc.

We are making an effort to set ourselves apart, and we want to make this an international school.

Constantly Reassess Students come here to reassess themselves and change careers. Some of that is through classes and some takes place through the career process and the job search experience. Many second-year students are now returning from their summer internships to say, "Oh, I would never want to go back there again!" There are big discoveries about self and career all the way through business school.

Tackle Group Problems Everything in Fuqua is group work. Every single class. During the first year, you are broken down into sections with 60 students. Last year, during our orientation -- or Integrated Learning Experience -- everyone was randomly broken into groups of five or six students. Some professors assigned people to stay in those work groups throughout the year. Other professors allowed students to choose their own groups.

There was some criticism last year. Because everything is so team orientated, you can't just throw people together randomly. Some groups fail, and others work together wonderfully and never, ever break up. We would like for the minds here to churn around a bit more. So this year Fuqua has assigned a faculty advisor to each team to help manage problems, spread around the work, and act as a resource.

Evaluate Your Educators Every term we evaluate our professors, that information goes into their employment files.

Through our feedback, Fuqua has changed teachers for core courses, replaced some professors, and hired some new ones. Fuqua also tries to train the teachers to student specifications. Some professors are even video taped and analyzed because they just aren't good at presenting their material effectively. Also, the staff here is small, and students know most of their professors, so they often feel comfortable just going in their office and talking about problems.

Student - Harvard Business School

A member of the class of 2000, Karl Schade came to HBS from the private equity field. His working lifestyle was stressful: "I worked non-stop. I never saw my wife. I was destroying myself physically and emotionally from work." For him, school has presented a unique opportunity to diversify his talents, make friends, and rediscover the balance between working and living.

Build a Social Network I was very surprised by the diversity of the HBS student body. I personally thought that it would be a room full of ex-consultants and ex-investment bankers, but that hasn't been the case at all. It's fantastic to meet students with experience in a wide range of industries -- what a great learning experience.

Every person presents an opportunity to network later down the road. Let's say I'm doing a deal in the telecommunications industry. I can call Martha, who knows about the industry, because I sat next to her in my HBS class. If I'm looking for a CEO for a company I'm going to buy, I could ask her if she knows of any good people.

Trust Yourself You really need to arrive with confidence in your own abilities. Keep in mind: You've gotten to that point for a reason, and you'll likely get beyond that point for the same reasons.

Grow Comfortable With Public Speaking One of the idiosyncrasies of Harvard Business School is the so-called "cold call." That's a situation in which the professor starts class by randomly selecting one student and asking him or her to present the case. Some people were completely anxiety-ridden about cold calls and about class participation in general [which can comprise half of a student's grade]. I think that the more confident you are in your ability to speak in public, the better off you will be. If you worry about that, try to do more speaking in your job before leaving for B-school, or even consider joining a public speaking program like "Toastmasters."

Don't Overstudy Twenty hours a week is roughly the time, you will have to study. Prior to exams that time commitment may increase, of course. But don't exaggerate! In B-school you get the chance to meet many different people. It's an opportunity to appreciate other aspects of your life that you may not have explored in the professional world. You will miss a large part of this

experience if you study day-in and day-out. Besides, I think people who over-study tend to panic on finals.

Define Your Academic Goal At Harvard Business School there is a forced curve [about 15 percent will get the top grade, about 70 percent will be issued average grades, and about 15 percent will be issued 'under-average' grades]. You should define your ultimate goal early.

Do you want to be among the top five percent of the class? If so, you have to get the top grade in almost all your classes. And that means you have to show very strong class participation. You also need to write a fantastic final, which means you must have a good grasp of the material and be very good at communicating in the written form.

Or do you want to just do fine? I personally didn't come to school to be the top academic performer. I had done that all my life and didn't want to do it any longer. Making this mental commitment is integral to the B-school experience.

Beat the Onslaught There's a lot of value in researching companies prior to the onslaught of on-campus recruiting season. During my undergraduate years, I started very early and had already met with a lot of companies prior to the on-campus interviewing. That proved very helpful because I had a lot more focus by that time and therefore was able to push forward faster.

Research. Contact. Interview When you start researching employment opportunities, narrow down your job search. I did this first in terms of the industry, which in my case is the private equity and venture capital industry; second, in terms of the geography. I then compiled a list of companies that I was interested in and did some thorough research. I read a lot of articles on those two industries. I knew many of the people to whom I sent a cover letter and resume. But I also sent out resumes to people in the HBS alumni database or at companies with which I had no prior contact.

In these two latter cases, I sent my material blindly. A few weeks later, I followed up with phone calls. This process requires a lot of persistence, because often people are too busy to call back. But if you persist, they will eventually respond.

Professor - Kellogg Graduate School of Management Professor Anthony Paoni boasts a 28-year career in the computer industry. Just as retirement began to loom on the horizon, he was offered at teaching position at Kellogg. He took it, despite a gnawing sense of skepticism. Soon after, that skepticism turned into enthusiasm: "It is so invigorating to be around these students," he says. "I've been telling my wife day in and day out that this is probably the best job I've ever had. It's an incredibly rewarding experience, and it definitely keeps you young."

Get Connected and Stay Connected The most powerful resource you have is the social network. Find students with whom you will be working. Utilize them while you're in school. And stay connected after you leave.

Live and Die by Teamwork The curriculum at Kellogg is designed so students must work in different groups: for instance, one study group for economics, another for marketing, and yet another for organizational behavior. This constant collaboration helps them not only survive, but thrive in a teamwork-based environment. We emphasize teamwork because it emulates the business world. It's the common technique to get things done, regardless of whether the project is exciting or mundane.

No Control Freaks, Please Come with the notion that you are going to be a useful member of a group or a team. If you are a student who is incredibly bright but essentially wants to do it all yourself, you're going to have a hard time at Kellogg. Instead of trying to control all the work that's going to be done for a project, take the time to sit down and ask yourself, "OK, how do I leverage the team?"

The Tech-Prep Books I Recommend

The following books might help interested students to prepare for classes in e-commerce:

• Unleashing the Killer App: Digital Strategies for Market Dominance by Larry Downes, Chunka Mui, and Nicholas Negroponte

• Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy by Carl Shapiro and Hal R. Varian

• Net Profit: How to Invest and Compete in the Real World of Internet Business by Peter S. Cohan

• Net Gain: Expanding Markets Through Virtual Communities by John Hagel and Arthur G. Armstrong

Learn to Surf Spend some time learning to become an efficient researcher on the Internet. It's not that difficult: Go to the portal of your choice, and take the tutorial, which can be found under the help button. As simple as that sounds, most people miss the tutorial. It's a very useful place where you can learn how to use the Internet effectively.

Grasp, Don't Memorize During the first year, students take midterm exams and then, of course, the final. To prepare for these tests you have to sit down and understand the material and its applications. That

means hours and hours of preparation. The key is to comprehend the application of the theory -- don't focus so much on the becoming an expert on the theory.

"Teaching is like lighting a spark," says Professor Mohanbir S. Sawhney. "When students tell you that you changed their lives, that's possibly the most satisfying thing a teacher can hear. You can put them on a career path that they may not have considered, which makes it a pretty fine job."

Free Your Mind You shouldn't be asking every day, "How is this going to help me on Wall Street? How is this going to help me make money?" Business school is a unique experience. You're exposed to new horizons, and you can discover new things about yourself and your interests. I've seen so many students come in and say "I had no idea that I wanted to go into marketing" or "I had no idea that I wanted to go into high tech, but I took a couple of classes and my attitude changed." So take a chance.

Mingle with People Unlike Yourself Even though it may be tough in the beginning, avoid the temptation to seek out familiar folks: same university, same country, same culture. That's a mistake. Diversity is one of the most enriching experiences at b-school. Build relationships with people who are different. You eventually will learn more from them.

Be Yourself People who come to Kellogg are very smart. Most of them are individuals who are accustomed to being at the top. But not everybody can be at the top here. It's very important to not let that affect your self worth. Grades are not everything. Business school offers an ability to grow on many different dimensions. You might not do as well in academics but you might be a great student leader. So, be comfortable with where you stand and come to terms with your abilities.

Test the Water Do a summer internship. Especially if you want to change your career, this can give you the relevant experience. Today, for example, more and more students want to work for startups. Most of them have never worked in a startup. That's why a summer internship is extremely valuable as a stepping stone toward your career goal.

Have the Courage to be Different That's especially important when recruiting season starts. Don't let peer pressure overwhelm you when colleagues entering the consulting or investment banking route get job offers with big signing bonuses. Wanting to try something different can be unsettling.

But don't feel intimidated, and have the courage to strike out on your own. In the long run, it's not all about money -- it's also about the satisfaction your job gives you.

Student - Kellogg Now wrapping up a three-month internship at the Chicago office of a major US consulting firm, Kelly Ladiges arrived at Kellogg with an undergraduate degree in economics. That background provided a welcomed boost during her hectic first semester: "I knew that the work was going to be really hard. But I wasn't afraid of being academically overwhelmed. I was more worried about all the other distractions."

Create a Study-Friendly Environment Get organized before you hit the ground. Become familiar with the classes you are going to take and the expectations for those classes. In addition, make sure your home is all set, and that you are completely moved in. Eliminate the little nagging things that you shouldn't worry about when classes start.

Focus Think about what you want to get out of school. Where do you want to take your career? Two years is not much time, and there are a billion things you could do during business school. But if you try to do all of them, you won't do them well. So, think about your goals and then select the most suitable activities.

Prepare Wisely For every hour of class time, you should expect to prepare two hours on your own. For example, if you have four hours of class, you should expect to prepare eight hours a week for that clas. The average total preparation time is approximately 32 hours. But there are always ups and downs. Generally, the classes that require a lot of group work are more time-consuming because you're trying to coordinate the teamwork.

Enjoy Healthy Competition The classroom is a very safe environment where anyone can say what they think. You don't need to be afraid of looking stupid or being slammed by your classmates. And for the most part my classmates are my friends. There's a healthy level of competition that makes everybody strive to do better. It's not a forced curve, and people want everyone to do well. For example, if students put together a page of test notes prior to an exam, they are generally happy to share those notes.

Sap the Second-Year Students One of the best ways to gather information for your job search is to talk to second-year students about their summer internship experiences. Of course, Kellogg's career center has a lot of resources. But that's primarily information published by the companies themselves,

so it's not always the straightforward. Second-year students are probably the best source because they give the most honest, candid answers.

Professor - MIT Sloan School of Management

After receiving his Ph.D. in operations research, Robert Freund followed a path less traveled when he went to work for a consulting company. After three years, his longing for academia grew too strong to ignore, and he joined the faculty at MIT. Since 1983 Freund has been teaching management science ("Everyone's favorite subject," he says sarcastically) at one of the nation's top schools.

Mix and Match MIT represents a strange combination of being practical, and yet very research and innovation driven. We set out to develop the theories that are going to drive tomorrow's best practices. We believe that if we put the best minds to a task, they can define the future.

MIT people are generally pretty happy and not very class-conscious. They're too busy having a lot of fun to think about who they're being seen with or how they're dressing. It's like we put a bunch of brains together and let them play.

Motivate Yourself The biggest mistake people make is worrying about competition with their fellow students. Students should set their own standards for performance because the best manager is internally motivated, not externally motivated.

Carpe Diem Students should regard business school as their last opportunity to be on a college campus, to learn both in the classroom and from fellow students, and to make friends with some of the brightest and most dynamic people in the world - Bright and dynamic -- that's exactly what I think Sloan students are.

Diversify Choose at least some of your elective courses in areas you might not naturally gravitate toward. When you grow into your career, you're going to be a general manager and you'll be expected to dabble in finance, marketing, and operations. You've got to look at the big picture.

Give and Take Learning outside the classroom is substantial. Students get together in study groups, bust through their assignments, and if they have problems we notify a pilot. A pilot is a fellow student who understands the material and is willing to help others. Collaboration is at the heart of business school - one person concentrates in marketing, their best friend concentrates in finance, and they learn from each other. It's just part of the culture.

Student - MIT Sloan

Phil Regnault has already left an impressive footprint on the MIT Sloan School of Management. Last spring, Regnault and several partners in crime unveiled the school's first annual E-Commerce Awards -- a Wow! Project that required countless hours and boundless energy.

Aside from organizing this year's awards ceremony and heading the student senate, Regnault -- who interned this summer for Sprint in Kansas City, Missouri -- continues to pursue a career in the high tech industry.

Create Opportunities Last year, I helped found a new club at Sloan called the Sloan ACT -- the Adventure Challenge Team. We organize group sporting events, like mountain biking rides, mountain climbing, canoe racing, and different outdoor events that bring people together.

Last January, we also organized a real course -- an academic course -- on winter resort management. Don't laugh. About 30 people drove up to Killington, Vermont and participated in case studies on ski resorts. People from the Killington Resort business office spoke to us. It was a lot of fun.

A friend of mine came up with the idea. We proposed it to the program office and they were surprisingly supportive. We got one of the more prominent professors on campus to be our sponsor. He led group discussions a couple of nights prior to our field trip. We only had room for 25 people, and 50 people signed up, so we had to hold a lottery to decide who would go.

One of the great things about Sloan is that we have the whole month of January off. It's called Independent Activities Period. During this time, you have the opportunity to take wacky courses like the one we created. We thought there was a gaping hole in winter-resort management, so we filled it up.

Resist the Temptation to Slack It may sound kind of nerdy, but don't fall behind in your work. It's not like being an undergrad where you can slack off for the first month and then catch up. The workload piles up so fast and furious that getting your books early on is a good idea. Usually you can find out what books are necessary in advance. You can then order them cheaply over the Web, and have them arrive before classes begin.

Another reason to keep up with reading is so that you can achieve something of a balance. If you fall behind, once late September or October comes around, you'll only be focused on academics and nothing else. If you don't get too stressed out by just keeping up with academics, then it's really important to take part in as many social events as you possibly can. The first month or two is really when most of the friendships are going to be forged, so

take part in everything. Go out of your way to be around the other students because these are relationships you'll have for life.

Flex The students who were successful both academically and personally during the first year were people who demonstrated flexibility, and were able to adapt to a very different environment. People have worked hard before, and they're going to work hard in business school, too -- but it's a different kind of work, a different kind of schedule. You're going to interact with people whom you may not normally interact with and you'll encounter many different personalities. Anyone who's been admitted to B-school can survive it, as long as he or she is not too rigid in their approach.

Be a Comrade At Sloan we have a very high degree of camaraderie. It's really awesome. I could not have designed a better atmosphere. People are competitive in their own right -- they're high performers, and they're all smart people, but they're not cutthroat competitors vis-a-vis each other. In fact, people are very eager to help each other. I've never been turned down for help.

Grades are just not considered that important here. People want to perform well, but there are no rankings or anything like that. I think basically 40 percent of the class will get As and the rest will get Bs. Learning is more important than grades.

Ask Around For me, the greatest surprise at school last year was the diversity of my fellow students, and the wealth of information I could get from them. At first I didn't have a firm idea of what I wanted to do after graduation, but I just talked to people and was able to find out what their jobs were like, what their careers were like, and how they balanced those things with their other interests.

To further narrow your focus on an industry or a job, I suggest the career development office, the CDO. It's a great source for information on companies. You can get listings of alumni at specific companies and arrange to meet with recruiters in the fall. For me, the bulk of the real research was done after I decided which companies to interview with. There's just so much information out on the Net, it's ridiculous. You couldn't possibly absorb it all.

Gear Up You're expected to have a computer with Microsoft Office, which we use to do our email. You're expected to be online. Laptops are preferable, but they're definitely not necessary. In addition, I have a cell phone and a PalmPilot. As my first year progressed, more and more people were getting cell phones because they are very helpful during recruiting season. They are useful when you're spending a lot of time at school and want people to be able to get in touch with you.

Spend Significant Time With Your Significant Other You've got to institutionalize certain rituals like always having dinner together or always

spending at least one weekend day together. Also, there are lots of social events organized for students and their spouses or significant others. It's a great idea to invite your significant other because then they have a chance to meet the people that you study with and their significant others, too.

Maintain Passion and Revolution You go through a lot of change and hard time in business school, but if you have enough passion for what you're doing and remember to have fun, then you're going to get through it just fine. You just really have to love it.

One way to keep that passion alive is to remember that right now there's a revolution going on in business with Internet technology. Now is the greatest time ever to be studying these subjects and preparing yourself for that revolution.

Professor - Stanford GSB

In many ways, Sherrie Taguchi is the face of Stanford's Graduate School of Business. The author of a regular column in the GSB corporate-relations newsletter, Taguchi offers insight, advice, and thoughtful warnings to thousands of MBA students a year.

A survivor of Stanford's MBA program herself, Taguchi spent nine years working in the human relations field with BankAmerica, Dole Packaged Food, and Mervyn's Department Stores, where she concentrated on global recruitment, management development, organizational change, and new product introductions. "I love the intellectual firepower at Stanford," she says, "This is an environment that fosters collaboration and teamwork, risk-taking and innovation."

Jump These Obstacles From my perspective as a Stanford MBA (1989) and a senior manager at Stanford for the past 5 years, I believe there are three obstacles facing first-year students: 1) Many new students don't give themselves time to step back and think about what it is they really want to do with their career. 2) Everyone needs to acclimate themselves to student life again. 3) Students must choose strategically how to spend their time given the plethora of opportunities (courses, clubs, jobs, speakers, etc.) at business school.

Explore Before Orientation The Stanford GSB provides resources on academic preparation over the summer and before school starts. Our Intranet resources, which appear on a specially created Web site for students who have been admitted to the program, include a space for book suggestions from faculty as well as information about pre-enrollment courses for international students and anyone seeking quantitative preparation. In addition, it explains our "pre-term curriculum,"

which is taught by faculty and includes about 12 summer sessions covering areas like ethics, managing through mutual agreement, and modeling and analysis.

In the non-curricular dimension, students have access to the MBA program administration, student orientation committee members, and Stanford representatives who can answer pre-term questions. Aside from our formal orientation, key groups such as the Career Management Center, Management Communication Program, Student Affairs Office, and Computing Services Department offer separate orientations to help the students understand the resources and expertise available at school.

Just Do It Be ready to work hard but have fun. Be open to encountering a diverse group of people, experiences, and perspectives. Be willing to take responsibility for an incredible amount of learning both inside and outside the classroom. Also, try to remember the bigger picture -- life beyond your MBA.

Just Don't Do It Don't alienate staff, cohorts, and others by acting arrogant, being overly demanding, or having an entitlement attitude. Don't neglect to follow up on what you say you will do with or for recruiters or study groups, club team members, etc. Don't think you know it all and have little to learn from the richness and diversity of your colleagues. Don't take lightly the studying, academics, and learning. Don't hesitate to ask for help or share your feelings with others. Don't overextend yourself with too many extracurricular and social activities early on. Don't focus on summer jobs too early without exploring many possibilities.

Keep This in Mind

• Life is short; work hard but have fun • Friendships developed at B-school are a great source of sustenance during the program. • Take responsibility for gaining new knowledge and skills to build your repertoire. • Keep your eyes and mind wide open. • Do what you love and love what you do. • Serendipity can bring some of the best opportunities. • Learning can come from mistakes and failures. • People make the biggest difference. • A team comprised of people from different backgrounds. with different skills and perspectives will always outperform one that is too homogeneous. • B-school broadens your horizons and expands work-life opportunities. • You REALLY do use and apply what you learned in B-school. Associate Dean - Stanford Get Serious

My first piece of advice to MBA students coming into our program is to take it seriously. The Stanford MBA program is a full-time job that will put demands on you. By design, the Stanford MBA program is something of an intellectual overload, the same kind of phenomenon you will face throughout the rest of your career.

Exercise Your Mind Develop your appetite to think broadly about management education. The core courses that fill your first year are designed as a foundation that will give you the fundamental knowledge that every successful executive must be familiar with to work in today's competitive, global environment. Think of the first year as basic training -- calisthenics for a serious athlete. The core is designed so that the rest of your academic career and your managerial performance will be executed at a very high level of quality.

As you begin to select elective classes, you will face a predictable dilemma about whether to pursue electives that add to your strengths or shore up your weaknesses. Be adventurous and serious. You need to take intellectual risks to make the most of this program.

Participate Take advantage of the diversity of the school. Your classmates come from a wide range of backgrounds and this intellectual and personal diversity is a defining characteristic of the Stanford Business School. Class discussions are richer because of the experiences of the people who participate. The contributions you and your classmates make are a valuable part of the experience here.

Professor - Chicago GSB

An expert on higher education in the Midwest, Donald Martin has served as director of admissions at two of his Illinois alma maters -- Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and Wheaton College.

Martin came on board at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business in 1993 as director of admissions and financial aid, and was named associate dean in 1998. He now oversees each business school student's metamorphosis from recruit, to applicant, to first-year student, to campus veteran, to alumnus.

Here is his checklist for survival:

1. Determine your priorities and stick to them. 2. Involve yourself in life outside the classroom as well as inside. 3. Focus on friendships and relationships as well as networking for career purposes. 4. Remember that enjoying your job over the long haul is much more satisfying than earning top dollar.

5. Keep in mind that the acquisition and application of knowledge is important, but that people skills are even more important. 6. Allow yourself to get a B, to take a break, to make a mistake, to say, "I'm sorry." 7. To paraphrase Calvin Coolidge: Education, talent, and genius are helpful, but persistence and determination ultimately make the difference. 8. Learn to be content despite unanswered questions, unsettled situations, unsolved problems, unresolved conflicts and unfinished business. 9. Remember that it's far easier to do your homework than not to do it. 10. Operate on this principle: "The measure of my character is what I do when no one else is watching."

Student Chicago GSB Truly a wonder woman in the rude boys paradise, Corinne Martinez recently finished an internship with the Microsoft Corporation in Washington state. Though not terribly far away from her hometown of Winters, California, Martinez says she discovered a brand new world among her fellow interns -- all bright MBA students at esteemed universities across the world. This fall she will return to her editor responsibilities at the B-School's student newspaper, and her studies in strategy and marketing.

Lighten Up Be sure to find your sense of humor. You're going to need it. School can be a very serious thing, especially at the University of Chicago, which has a very academically rigorous program. Also, remember that the view from the balcony is very different from the view on the dance floor. Try and spend time in both places. Perspective is very important. Remember what's going on here in the great scheme of things. And then put yourself ten years out and look back on it. You might make some different decisions.

Know Your Herd The biggest mistake first-year students make is following the herd. If you're going to run with a herd, make sure you know where it's headed. Make sure you know what you're doing. People get caught up in doing something because everyone else is and they forget to take stock of their priorities and their objectives. Sometimes they go down a path that ends up either pushing them into a class that they didn't need to take, or it has them interviewing for jobs that they really don't want.

Some people go to school because they want a new job at the end of it, so they are very focused on only two things. First, they attend as many presentations as possible because their objective is to learn about every potential employer. Secondly, they worry about their grades because a GPA is very important in some professions.

However, some people are going to school to learn and to advance their career. The first job they get is not a life or death situation. I would put myself in that category.

Manage Yourself Don't assume someone will let you know that you need to do something. A lot of times, students assume that because they're coming to this institution, the school will do whatever it takes to make each individual educational process work. Even if your school is guiding your educational process, you might not like what they're doing. Involve yourself.

Utilize Orientation Time The University of Chicago has two weeks of mandatory orientation, with a week of optional activities preceding that. During that orientation time, the objective is to meet your fellow classmates and learn all the branches of the school. Learn who Career Services is, who Student Affairs is, and try to get a pulse on the lay of the land.

Once classes start, the priority is time management because you are just bombarded with course work, sometimes even pre-class assignments, which people usually don't do because they think they are unnecessary. After the first week they realize they're behind. Also, every student group is pitching you, setting up booths, and organizing events trying to get you to join their group. The company presentations start for recruiting purposes, and there's an event you could go to every lunch and every dinner every day of the week for probably three weeks.

This is a different type of time management than you would encounter in a work setting, where someone else is dictating your priorities. Once you get to school you need to decide those things yourself. Is it a priority for me to go meet someone from the company doing a presentation today? Or is it more important that I get my homework done?

Fight it Out Together My classmates all have a great deal of mutual respect for each other's talents. We try to build the best of what everyone has to offer. Having said that, there are competitive people. Everyone that goes to business school is competitive to some extent, but I never felt like I was competing against another classmate when we were supposed to be working together.

You always compete against them from the standpoint of grades, particularly at Chicago because, unlike some schools, we have a forced grade curve in every class during both years. Someone is going to get a "C," so from that perspective you feel like you're competing. But I've never felt like people were not sharing information in order to get a leg up.

Professor - Michigan Business School

Allan Afuah has made the rounds of higher education. A graduate of MIT's MBA and Ph.D. programs, he migrated to the Midwest in 1995, and hasn't looked back since. "I could

have gone anywhere after MIT," says Afuah, who has been a finalist twice for UMBS's Student Award for Teaching Excellence. "I came here because I think it's a cool, globally minded place."

Remove Road Blocks Have an open mind. Lot of students arrive and they have taken an MBA class somewhere or have some work experience, and they think they know it all. They may have taken a strategy course somewhere or worked in a strategy planning group somewhere, so they start off with a closed mind. When the professor trys to teach a concept, or when their classmates speak out, they don't take them seriously.

You are now learning from some of the best brains in the world. Listen to your professors because you are going to learn a lot from them, and that is going to save you time. And saving time means survival around here.

Learn Co-opetition People think competition is the name of the game. Of course, competition is very important and we teach that here at business schools. But there is also something called "co-opetition," which means cooperating and competing with people at the same time. When you get to business school, you need to work very hard to practice that

Let's say that four of us meet to discuss a case and I already know 80 percent of the material, and the other three people only know 20 percent in return. We meet, and I end up giving them all the 80 percent of the material they need and I only get 20 percent from them. Some people may say, "My God, I'm giving away everything. Why do they have to rely so much on me?" Then they may decide that they don't want to participate because they think the other people are too far behind.

Well, guess what happens? If you don't work with a team you are stuck with the 80 percent that you already know. If you do participate, you are going to learn that 20 percent and ultimately end up with 100 percent. All of you are all better off.

Build Brand You When you help teammates achieve 100 percent, they're not going to forget who you are. Eight, nine, 10 years down the line these guys are going to call you when they need that top executive, when they want that one person they can really depend on.

You may be very knowledgeable. You may have everything in your head. You may be wonderful. But you have to somehow get it into people's heads that you are the one person that they can depend on. You are the one person they should call on. There is no better time to start building that brand than during an MBA program, because your classmates are the ones who are going to go out and spread the word.

Suffer Now, Succeed Later Some students arrive here and say, "My God, the work load is so heavy. Let's try to get away with whatever we can." Well, it's great to network, but when you divide up work in order to survive, you are only avoiding immediate pain. When you graduate you are going

to find out that you really should have paid a little bit more attention or worked a little harder when you were in school. If you don't pay now, you're going to pay later on.

Have the Talk If you have a significant other, prepare them before you even start the MBA program. Students bring a spouse here and the spouse thinks they are going to have fun Fridays and Saturdays frolicking in the Great Lakes. But the workload doesn't allow for a lot of time with loved ones.

You must tell them, "Honey, it's going to be very hectic there, but there is a reason for it. We are both investing a lot of money and time in our future." If you don't prepare them, you may find your relationship going to pieces.

Become a Problem Solver We see a fast changing world where the Internet plays a critical role and where globalization plays a critical role. We are also looking at an economy that is more knowledge-based than the capitalist world has ever seen before. UMBS believes we ought to prepare our students to be very good problem solvers so they can excel in this environment.

One way we do that is through a program called MAP -- Multi-Disciplinary Action Project. Toward the end of their first year, students spend several months actively involved in projects at different firms all over the U.S. They work in groups literally solving problems at firms that require them to use the multi-disciplinary skills that we've taught them. The firms love it. Our students love it.

Student - University of Michigan Business School

Laura Cooke is mastering the art of balance at UMBS, where she is not only a student, team member, and recruitee, but a wife as well. After finishing her first year of business school in May, the Ohio native shipped off to Germany for a three-week course on international business. From there it was on to Chicago for an internship at Kraft Foods. What comes next? Another stimulating, exhausting year at UMBS.

Take Advantage of Fridays Since we don't have class, Friday is a group work day. The University of Michigan Business School also has what's called executive skills workshops on Fridays. Presenters come in for half-day or all-day seminars on things like speed reading, networking, and presentation style. The seminars give you a chance to refine personal skills that you may not flex during class. Those things make a difference in the work force.

Explain Yourself It's absolutely wonderful to have an international perspective. My study section is about 40 percent international. Not only do they have a unique perspective to add to the team, but as

you are explaining American business customs to them, you are learning yourself. You're forced to explain things we take for granted, so as you're explaining it, other team members jump in and explain it, and you learn it a little bit more than you knew before.

Cut No Throats The majority of our work is done in groups. That's actually one of the reasons why I chose Michigan, because it represents what the real world is like. We're all Type A personalities, we are all in business school because we want to get ahead and because we have lofty goals, but when we come together in a team environment the competitiveness really leaves and it becomes much more of a congenial teamwork attitude. It's cutthroat in the sense that everyone wants to do well, not in the sense that everyone wants to push someone else down to do it.

Search Your Soul Some people's goals are to get the best grades. Some people's goals are to get really involved on campus. Some people's goals are to get as many job offers as possible in recruiting. It's important to figure out what your goals are and what you want to be involved in, because the minute you get on campus you will be presented with so many activities, you may get easily overwhelmed. One friend of mine decided global citizenship and academics were the most important things to her, so she worked on community service and grades. It's much more rewarding at UMBS to pick a focus and try to be president of that club, rather than spread yourself too thin.

MAP Out Your Future The UMBS MAP [Multi-Disciplinary Action Project] program allows a randomly generated team of five to seven students to work for a specific company as consultants for seven weeks. I did mine at American Express. UMBS gives you a goal, then they give you some project objectives, and you go into the company and treat it like you are outside consultants. By the end of the project you have interviewed people, worked on site, looked through company files, and then compiled recommendations and presented them in both written and oral form to senior management of the company.

It's an amazing experience from a teamwork perspective and from a learning perspective. It provides important exposure to the consulting world. It's a pure team dynamic experience where you learn how to complete a project with nobody acting as supervisor. You elect a team leader, but beyond that everybody is equal. Some team members are operationally focused, marketing focused, finance focused. It's a varied learning experience.

Students who have worked in consulting before can apply for IMAP -- a global project in one of 16 countries in Europe, South America, Central America.

Send SOS Signals I've been married for four years. My husband moved to Ann Arbor with me, and one of the biggest selling points here for us was the Significant Others and Spouses Club -- SOS.

It is a great network for spouses and significant others. They have social events almost once a week, they have job fairs, they help each other locate different types of employment in

Ann Arbor.I have made lifelong friends here, and so has my husband. And if you ask me, he got the better end of the deal! While we're in study groups all night, SOS has Monday night football, Tuesday night movie events, Wednesday night bike rides, etc.

Professor, Director - Wharton

After graduating from Wharton a decade ago, Bob Alig says he had no inkling that he would someday return as a faculty member -- in fact, the faculty member in charge of seeking out and weeding out the best of the best for his alma mater. But today Alig is doing just that as director of MBA admissions and financial aid.

"I have lived and breathed Wharton personally as well as professionally," he says. "In my view, the real value of the education at Wharton is the opportunity to learn from your fellow classmates with the support and guidance of an extraordinarily committed faculty and administration."

Volunteer Your Experience Probably 80 percent of our nearly 8,500 applications in 1999 could handle the workload here at Wharton and be successful in the classroom. But we only admitted about 12 percent of our applicants, so there's obviously a huge disparity between the admissible students and those students we actually admit. Oftentimes, those students we admit are the ones who demonstrated that they're really committed to giving something back, that they want to contribute here, and share their experiences and background with their fellow classmates.

I can tell from a student's background and attitude whether they've always been committed to doing that. I see leadership in their undergraduate experiences. I see a history of getting involved and making an impact. When I see clear enthusiasm for the same type of contribution here at Wharton, I want that person here.

Log In, Sign Up, Speak Out From very early on Wharton provides students with a lot of support and resources to help them find their way. Students actually received their admissions decision electronically this year for the first time. A student could log in from anywhere and check the steps of their application and actually get their decision online. A week after that, they also got a handwritten note from one of the admissions officers on my staff basically welcoming them to Wharton and providing a private phone number for them to use at any time.

Immediately after students get their admittance package, they can log on to e-talk, which is an electronic chat room where admitted students meet one another, find roommates, and talk about course choices that they're making. Our second-year and our first-year students log on and provide advice and mentoring for classmates as they post questions or notes.

Wharton's Welcome Weekend has now become a reunion event because all of these admitted students have gotten to know each other electronically first. The come to Welcome Weekend to meet each other face-to-face and become even closer.

[On Tuesday, September 7, the Wharton Admissions Office introduced an online system that allows MBA candidates to schedule on- and off-campus interviews from anywhere in the world. During its first eight days, the "Interview Schedule Module" served 13,000 potential students in 38 countries and 22 domestic cities. Bob Alig says 1,800 candidates have registered for interviews in locations ranging from Bangkok to Barcelona to Boston. In fact, 155 interview slots in Seoul, South Korea, were snatched up via the Web in record time, and Alig says he couldn't be happier.]

SPIKE it One thing that's extraordinarily important and really sets Wharton apart is the Intranet that we've designed called SPIKE. It's become the lifeblood for our students. They use it to stay in touch with each other, to interact with faculty, as a scheduling mechanism, and as a way to constantly be aware of what's going on on campus.

It's really changed the culture of this place. You don't have to go to four or five different sources to find out that we have nine student-run conferences every year, a constant stream of speakers, and all kinds of extracurricular activities. Students literally log on and check SPIKE 10 or 12 times a day.

Embrace Pre-Term Many Wharton students arrive in early August for what we call pre-term, which is basically the great leveler. We bring in students from all kinds of different academic and professional backgrounds, and pre-term allows them to get up to speed before the start of the regular academic term just after Labor Day.

If a student has never had accounting or statistics, they might take the introductory level accounting or statistics class to get better prepared. In addition to the academic component, this has become a really significant part of our culture -- the socialization is almost as important as the academic preparation during pre-term. Classes don't officially start until the Wednesday after Labor Day, but the vast majority of our students were here by the second week of August.

Introduce Yourself The single most important thing a student can do upon arrival is meet fellow students from every possible background, perspective, and culture. Students at Wharton are not just simply learning about accounting or statistics or micro-economics, they're learning about the backgrounds and perspectives of all their classmates. That's where the real education takes place.

Tailor Your Education The first year at Wharton is what we call the core curriculum. Every course during the entire first year is waivable, except for the leadership course -- Foundations of Leadership and Teamwork. So if you have background in marketing, or if you took statistics as an

undergrad, you can waive that course in the core curriculum and then take another upper-level elective in its place. The hallmark here is that you tailor this program and this experience to meet your own needs, and you don't duplicate something that you've all ready had. We have a menu of over 200 electives, and the typical student chooses about 10 of them.

Get Outside the Box The teaching method here is variable. Faculty members are given the latitude to teach in the method or manor they deem most appropriate. In general, about 55 percent of the instruction is classroom discussion and lecture-based, and maybe another 25 percent is case-based. The remaining 20 percent is what we call experiential learning, where students are living and breathing a real-world situation. They're out consulting as a group to a small company or a company is coming to campus and presenting a situation for the students to evaluate. Wharton's a little bit more practical and hands-on than perhaps some of our peer institutions and our students love the opportunity to get out and actually participate in a real world situation.

We also have what's called the Field Application Project, which is the capstone course to the first year and the core curriculum. The idea is for students to apply what they've learned throughout the core curriculum in a setting of their choice. Students decide on a project with their learning team members, and it might be helping Procter & Gamble with the roll-out of a new product in Tokyo. Students sometimes travel and do a lot of field work. Other projects are less field-intensive. But it's completely up to the students.

Relish the Community Students sometimes think this is just going to be a two-year opportunity, but actually you're getting a lifetime of resources from this community. What I valued about being here were the people I went school with, and that's what drives me in my current job. This fall I'm traveling with the rest of the staff to 38 countries to host receptions, conduct interviews, and communicate what this place is all about.

I get to learn about these applicants' backgrounds and experiences and gauge how they could make Wharton stronger by being here. And I don't mean just by being students here, but I think more importantly by being teachers here. That's what keeps me going.

Student - Wharton

Once a week, Christian Tate kisses his wife goodnight, dresses in three layers of long underwear, and slips into the darkness for a midnight game of ice hockey. A member of the illustrious Wharton Hockey Club, Tate says extracurricular activities help relieve stress and form bonds between colleagues.

This summer, Tate interned at Sun Microsystems in Northern California, where he worked on product marketing for network storage products. He says that experience has enhanced his Wharton studies concerning strategic management and new product development.

Be a Sponge, Not a Cowboy You need to have the right mindset before starting business school, and, as crazy as this may sound, you want to emulate a sponge. The ideal state of mind is one that is completely open to learning and ready to absorb all the information that you'll soon be exposed to. Try to get rid of any preconceived notions of the people you might meet or of the program -- because those ideas are probably wrong.

Some first-year students also make the big mistake of coming in with a cowboy mentality. They arrive with their guns shooting, trying to take of control of the situation before they even realize what the situation is. Cowboys don't want to be team players; they don't want to share information. That's an attitude that doesn't fly in our community. At Wharton, we're all in it together. If anyone's having trouble, the whole class is there to help.

Share the Load There are about 1,500 to 1,600 people attending Wharton, and it's easy to get stuck in a clique where you talk to the same five or 10 people every day. When first-year students arrive, they are split into what we call "learning teams." Each learning team has five people in it, with at least one woman and one international student. These are the people whom you're expected to do all your work with, whether it's a specific group project or not. There's really no way a person can go out on their own and expect to get everything done that's expected of them; you have to determine who in your learning team is best at what aspect of an assignment, and then divide up the work load accordingly. It's a real sort of company mentality, where each person has a specialty.

Build a Strong Infrastructure Meet your peers. That's the most important piece of advice I can give. And by that I don't just mean talking with your classmates, but also getting to know people who aren't in your classes. These might be people who are very different from you, who have different backgrounds, different perspectives, and different goals. Constructing this infrastructure may be time-consuming and tedious at first, especially when there are so many other things vying for your time and attention, but having this group of friends to rely on over the next two years will be crucial to your success and your sanity.

Revel in Being the Cream of the Crop One aspect of Wharton that really influenced my decision to enroll was the fact that there are no grades. Classes are only pass/fail. Even when I visited, I could tell that the students here had excelled in their professional lives and on their standardized tests, that they were doing well in class and aggressively pursuing their interviews, and that ultimately they would accomplish many successes in their careers. When students have the added pressure of grades and rankings, our competitive natures sometimes surface, and that's a negative factor of some business programs.

The only grades that are published here are those of people who are in the highest five or ten percent of the class. There are some really, really bright people at Wharton, and it was surprising to me at first that everyone I ran into could easily have been a friend. There's a shared sense of values that runs through the class. I think that's because the school gets around 15,000 applications, and Wharton then can choose the best people. I'm surrounded by some of the smartest people I've ever met, and we don't worry about who did better than whom on the latest exam.

Take the Takeaways Three things that I learned over the course of my first year are as follows: First, mastering time management. It's an understatement to say you'll have a lot of information thrown at you, and more opportunities to pursue than you could ever find time for. The biggest non-academic monopolizers of time are the hundreds of companies that come to campus looking to recruit graduates. If you end up accepting the invitation of every consulting and banking and tech firm that offers you dinner and drinks, you'll never find time to learn. The best thing to do is to pick and choose the companies that fit your interests; that way, you'll still get plenty of time to schmooze, but it won't be a waste of time.

The second takeaway is to recognize the power of networking. Get to know the second-year students, your professors, and your peers. These are connections that will be useful, not only in the future, but also at the present.

The third, and maybe most important, would be to absorb the problem-solving framework that Wharton teaches. Once you understand this framework, you can address any problem. It's not like a magic elixir or a black box that you dump a few variables into and out comes the solution; the framework is a way of thinking that helps you tackle any issue - it's a very efficient and effective tool.