Farewell all. This is my last post.
I’m retiring from this blog for a few reasons. Mostly, I would like to write about different topics and feel it’s not relevant to the MBA program anymore.
I enjoyed my program at UIC and met a bunch of great people through the process. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to shoot me an email. Best of luck to everyone!
Posted under UIC MBA Liautaud
This post was written by Jay on April 26, 2010
I like to thank everyone who came up to me during the new student orientation to tell me that they enjoyed reading my blog. It’s nice to get some positive reinforcement and it motivates me to write more entries. So…. on to my next topic:
Why it’s a good time to be a student:
UIC Fitness
Posted under UIC MBA Liautaud
This post was written by Jay on August 27, 2009
UIC MBAA board members at Chicago Care Event
Posted under UIC MBA Liautaud
This post was written by Jay on July 9, 2009
This semester, I’ve been lucky enough to attend a cross-cultural class with one of my favorite professors. Get this (for all the readers of this blog), the professor I highly recommended from the Depaul MBA program, Christopher Barlow, is now teaching at UIC! Random luck and fate heading in the right direction by attending UIC.
Anyways, back to the story. Barlow teaches a class in which he integrates evening MBA students with Chinese students from UIC’s one year concentrated MBA program, CMBA. It’s certainly an interesting class since there are different ideas, cultures and prospectives. During one of the in-class group projects, I was lucky enough to placed in a group with Ed (fellow MBA) and Gavin from the CMBA program. Gavin enjoyed our group and asked for our numbers. He said we should definitely hang out sometimes. I thought nothing of it since it has become a common courtesy in our society to exchange pleasantries. Fast forward to a week later, I was at home making dinner when my cell phone rang. I answered the phone and was surprised to see that Gavin and followed through with his suggestion. He suggested that we eat at the buffet that he had presented in class a few weeks back. Since I had already started making dinner, I declined the offer and went back to cooking. As I was stirring my curry, I thought about the offer some more. Wow, this guy had actually followed through. It wasn’t just out of courtesy that he asked for my contact information and he seemed genuinely interesting. Lesson #1: Don’t ask if you’re not genuinely interested and don’t do something just because it’s the social norm or it’s courteous. When would I get a similar chance like this again? I called Gavin back a couple minutes later and accepted his offer.
As we were enjoying the buffet, I asked Gavin what he did this past weekend. Gavin responded that since they only have a year here in the states, they try to do as much as possible and enjoy as much of Chicago as they can. At first, I didn’t think much about this statement. I finished an enjoyable dinner and left a few pounds heavier. When I got home, I thought about Gavin’s statement even more. These CMBA students has one year to try and enjoy as much of Chicago as then can. I tried to imagine myself in a similar situation and at first, I felt sad for them. As I thought about it more, I realized that most of these students probably explored more of Chicago than I have in 20 years. Not only that, they lived their lives knowing they might only have a year here and took some chance and risks. I realized that I shouldn’t feel sorrow for them. Instead, I was envious of what they accomplished in such a short amount of time and how much they seem to enjoy it. Lesson #2: Live your life to the fullest.
There is a lot to be learned from people with different cultures and backgrounds. They brought different ideas to the table and seemed to do it with more enthusiasm. Sometimes, the most important lessons you learn are outside of the classroom. That, my friend, is what make this program so special.
Posted under UIC MBA Liautaud
This post was written by Jay on April 8, 2009
I recently became a UIC ambassador for the MBA program. Here are some of my duties:
You will enjoy UIC. Its a very underrated business program. Crains ranked in 4th in the city for 2008. Given the current economic conditions, more students and professionals will be looking to get in to a concentration not just in Finance, but also entrepreneurship…They have a top 10 entrepreneurship program…If I were you, I would also take advantage of that…Only reason UIC is not well known is because its a new school when you compare to other major colleges all across the nation and Illinois. UIC is the youngest campus from all the major universities in the states and has come a long way…good luck
Jay Lin,
As a soon graduating student of the Liataud School of Business, I can tell you this much- if you find some friends, make some connections and choose the correct classes and professors, you will have a truly wonderful learning experience. While no one was an absolute “dud”, they have some amazing professors that are simply above the cut, thus missing the opportunity to learn from them would be a shame. Further, many of them have incredible connections, given the schools proximity to the largest trading centers in the world. You truly will have the opportunity to sit in the same room as some of the greatest financial guru’s of the last few decades. While in hindisght I unfortunately did not concentrate on finance, I would venture to say that any publication not placing UIC’s finance MBA concentration in the top ten, would be suspect to conflicting interests. That being said, my concentration on global business and strategy was an amazing experience. Given the tremendous diversity of the program and rigid entry standards, you are subsequently exposed to some of sharpest young minds across the globe. To this end, I would argue as well that while others may be higher ranked, I again would question the actual utility ranking of the programs themselves. Welcome and good luck, and I agree- you did make the right choice. But it probably wasn’t the “easier” one.
Posted under UIC MBA Liautaud
This post was written by Jay on March 26, 2009
