Kellogg MBA Experience

Location

Having the opportunity to attend games at Soldier Field, the United Center, U.S. Cellular Field, and Wrigley Field has been a major highlight of being near Chicago.  Add to that the Ryder Cup at Medinah and BMW Championship at Conway Farms, and Chicago is a great place for sports fans.  The city is great from a quality of life perspective, save for the weather.  Being in Evanston affords convenient access to Chicago, while having its own campus feel and downtown that are both quite nice. 

Academics

During the Fall and Winter quarters of the first year, MBA students are mainly taking the core curriculum.  Beginning in the Spring quarter of the first year, electives comprise nearly all coursework.  There are few constraints at Kellogg except that at least one major needs to be satisfied.  This is typically accomplished with 4 or 5 classes out of a standard 24-course curriculum (revised downward to 20 for future Kellogg students).

A big difference between business schools and undergraduate programs is enrollment in courses.  Kellogg has a bidding system where you are given points upfront in the Fall to last for an entire year.  Winning bids are dependent on the course, instructor, time of day, and maximum capacity.  Some especially popular electives command huge point values (sometimes more than a full quarter’s worth).  Spending a large amount of points for a given class may result in an excellent experience, but the downside is that it reduces optionality across your other 11 classes for the year.  There is considerable research and strategy involved, and certainly some luck as well, but overall I have fortunately fared well enough to get into the vast majority of my desired schedule.

New Experiences

Kellogg has multiple class offerings where students work with companies for academic credit.  For a risk management class, I was part of a 4-person team that learned about and analyzed the dairy industry for Land O’Lakes.  My teammates did an exemplary job and produced a model for dairy farmers to help manage their risks (namely low milk prices and high feed costs).  It was a pleasure working with the Land O’Lakes team, and they provided opportunities for us to visit its Board Chairman’s Wisconsin dairy farm, and present our findings and analytical tool to Land O’Lakes corporate representatives and dairy farmers across geographies.  These experiences even produced an article on the Kellogg website, along with a blog post that I put together:

http://kelloggmbastudents.wordpress.com/2013/12/26/risk-lab-project-teams-up-students-with-land-olakes/

http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/news_articles/2013/12262013-risk-lab-land-o-lakes.aspx

Land O’Lakes Board Chairman Pete Kappelman shares operational experience with the Kellogg Risk Lab team.

Lunch & Learn

MBA students will attend many of these events over the course of a year.  They are typically organized by student clubs and often involve speakers from Chicagoland firms.  Free food always attracts people, along with the opportunity to learn about topics ranging from: boosting international tourism to Chicago, developments in healthcare, improving fast food service operations, private equity trends, increasing statistical analysis of NBA players, and a myriad of other topics.

Golf

A huge golfing highlight for me last year was attending a Masters practice round.  Back at Kellogg, our Golf Club organizes events including scramble tournaments, golf clinics with PGA professionals, a Ryder Cup style competition of Kellogg vs. Booth, and a big golf retreat.  This year we are heading to Whistling Straits, a major championship venue in Wisconsin that is located right along Lake Michigan.  A large group of Kellogg students will plan to play 36 holes in a really fun setting.

Social

My Kellogg classmates are impressive in every way, and I feel incredibly fortunate to get to know them.  There are dozens of clubs that are mainly professional, athletic, or social, all serving as a great way to connect people with similar interests.  There are a wide variety of social activities organized formally through student clubs and also informally.  Chicago is a popular locale for Kellogg students to socialize, though downtown Evanston (10-15 minute walk from the business school) and students’ apartments host the bulk of events.  Business school is also an opportune time to travel, whether it’s during the winter and spring breaks, long weekends, or even shorter impromptu trips.

Kellogg School of Management

Location

Kellogg is the business school of Northwestern University.  Northwestern has their law school and medical school campuses in downtown Chicago, while Kellogg and their undergraduate programs are located in Evanston.  Evanston is located along Lake Michigan, and is approximately 30 minutes north of downtown Chicago.  Evanston is decidedly suburban and Northwestern has a beautiful campus, and balancing that with convenient access to Chicago makes location a core strength of the school.

Academics

Each student takes a core curriculum, and may waive certain courses if he/she has substantial academic or professional background in the course material.  Waiver exams are offered before classes begin.  There is a balance between trying to waive courses to free up taking electives, versus ensuring that you’ll know the material cold before applying core concepts to more advanced courses.  Here has been my class schedule thus far, with a few comments on courses geared for people looking at business school:

-Leadership in Organizations (core class, pre-term)

Fall Quarter

-Accounting (core)

-Marketing (core)

-Statistics and Probability (core) – combined two quarters into one after taking a waiver exam à resulted in more work but freed up an elective

-Strategy (core)

Winter Quarter

-Finance I/II (core) – combined Finance I and Finance II into one quarter to take finance electives in the spring

-Health Care Economics (elective)

-Operations (core) – waived Microeconomics core course which freed up a spot to take Operations in the winter instead of the spring à enables taking upper-level Operations course in the spring

-Strategy and Organization (elective)

Golf

I am fortunate to be an officer in the Kellogg Golf Club, a student organization that facilitates opportunities for groups of Kellogg students to play.  Sadly I only had time to golf twice in the fall, but am hoping to ramp that up in the spring, as there are many nice courses in the area.  There is a Ryder Cup style format between Kellogg and Booth (University of Chicago’s business school), and very much look forward to competing in that event.

Classmates

The people here are phenomenal.  Very hard-working, studious, driven, yet extremely approachable and caring.  A great deal of the evaluation at Kellogg is based on group work, and people are very collaborative academically, with recruiting preparation, and socially.  40% of the student body is international, which is a great way of gaining exposure to different cultures and perspectives on global issues.