Kelley In Focus weekend at Indiana University

This is a recap of my experience at Kelley In Focus, the recruiting event directed toward perspective minority applicants.

My Kelley In Focus experience started on Friday, October 12th at 10am with an interview. Definitely a nerve-racking way to start my weekend! I decided to make this my official Consortium (I’ll talk more about this in another post) interview, so I was especially anxious. My interviewer put me at ease, though, and I think the interview went well. It was a blind interview (I hadn’t even applied yet) but he did have my resume. The rest of the day included a tour, and a Career Leader session. By the way, Career Leader is an assessment tool used to help individuals find the career that suits them best. Apparently I’m supposed to be a marketer.

The first day concluded with a nice reception and the start of the free food, lol. This was also my first chance to meet some of the faculty and student body. Most of these interactions were positive; actually the conversation I had that stuck out the most was with a professor who kept asking, “What more can I tell you?” Her openness gave me a good feeling about the rest of the weekend.

Saturday began with a mentor breakfast. Our mentors were student volunteers who answered our questions from a student perspective. Mine was great and we actually kept in touch after In Focus.

Next up was “The Kelley Advantage”. The Chair of the MBA Program told us all about the program. There was a lot of ‘internet stuff’ discussed, but I definitely learned about the program. Besides that, the Chair is an interesting guy so that made it enjoyable.

The next event was “The Kelley Classroom Experience”. The Dean of the program walked us through the (apparently) famous chicken contact lens case. This was the highlight of the weekend for me. Dean Smith is a GREAT teacher, and he made me really excited about Kelley and business school in general. Case-based learning is new to me but I think it will really help me learn because it’s contextual. I’m sure I won’t be asking myself “When will I ever use this crap?” as I sleep through class, lol.

After lunch, we headed to the “Graduate Career Service Roundtables”. This event was split into a talk by members of the career service office and a miniature version of a similar event that the school puts on for their full time students. We spoke with representatives, all Kelley grads, from Proctor & Gamble, Delloitte, and Sears. The reps told us about their jobs, how Kelley prepared them for their careers, and about their experience at the school. I learned a lot and I got free stuff…. that’s a win/win.

After a talk with Financial Aid, we had our closing dinner. I continued my conversations with some of the faculty, and I was impressed that many remembered me and even brought some literature for me to keep. Plus, Dean Smith gave one of the best speeches I’ve heard in a while.

Overall, I had a great time (if you couldn’t tell). At one point I even asked a student to tell me something he didn’t like about the school. He struggled with an answer. Please use the comments to ask any questions you may have. Because I’m sure I left something out. Thanks for reading, and I’ll keep you updated with my MBA progress!

Not every RBG can dunk...

but I could once, lol. This is actually the only dunk I've ever done that counted for two points in an actual game. I'm just glad this was actually caught on film. That's my uncle talking in the background by the way.



They used to call me 'Young MJ' in high school*.






*No they didn't

Mr. 700 - How I studied for the GMAT

So I thought it might be helpful to tell you all how I studied for the GMAT. Before I get started, you should be aware of www.beatthegmat.com and www.gmatclub.com. Both of these sites gave me A LOT of help for the GMAT, and I’m sure they could help you as well. Both of those are forums with a ton of members who share insights on all three sections of the test and business school in general.

Besides the sites mentioned above, I also used the Cracking the GMAT by the Princeton Review and the Official Guide to GMAT Review. The Princeton Review book is written in a very understandable way, and they only focus on what’s important. The second book has a ton of info, but it’s written for scientists I think so I really didn’t find it helpful. The second book is made by the people who made the test, though, so you know the practice questions are just like the ones on the test.

The test has five sections: math is broken into Problem Solving and Data Sufficiency questions, and verbal has Critical Reasoning, Reading Comprehension, and Sentence Correction. Examples of all the problems are located on the sites I mentioned above. I did a few of each question to find out which ones I had the most trouble with. In the end it turned out that my list from hardest to easiest looked like this:

• Critical Reasoning
• Data Sufficiency
• Reading Comprehension
• Problem Solving
• Sentence Correction

I studied the first two sections for two weeks each, and the rest for only one week. “Studying” included reading the entire section in the Princeton Review book and completing 15-20 questions from either book or a set of questions I downloaded from beatthegmat. I would look at the ones I got wrong and study the type of question that was asked. The test has a lot of recurring elements, so understanding what is being asked is key. The Princeton Review book did a good job identifying each type of question that the test throws at you.

Before beginning each day I would do about 10 review questions from the previous section. By the end, I had done about a million of the questions that I thought were the hardest. Truthfully, I spent about an hour on the writing part of the test, and got a 4.5. Pretty average score I guess. Overall, I scored a 700 on the test. I scored a 43 on the math section and a 42 on the verbal.

So that’s how I prepared for the test. Use the comments link below to share your stories or ask questions. I’ll be checking back regularly and hopefully I can clarify any questions you have to help you out. Good luck!

-The RBG

The First Post...

First of all, thanks for visiting the RBG Road to an MBA. I’m Joe, the RBG. What is the RBG you are asking yourself? That’s the Regular Black Guy. I started this blog because as I researched the GMAT and business school in general, I found that a Black perspective on the MBA process is severely lacking. Of course this site is for anyone who is/was considering an MBA in the future, however, I think a lot of the blogs that exist are those ‘super applicant’ nerds that most people can’t relate to. I like to think I’m pretty cool, and I will try to entertain you and give you a realistic picture of what it’s like to get an MBA.

I’ve already taken the GMAT and applied to my schools so future posts will detail those processes in detail. For now, let’s just pretend that I’m about to start this process with you.

You can expect a lot of posts on the MBA application process (obviously) and business school life (once I get there). But, there certainly won’t be any interesting developments everyday so I’ll fill that time with things I fine entertaining or funny. The first of which will be the New Hampshire presidential debate that took place today. In case you couldn’t tell, I’m Black, and as such I want Barack Obama to win. I think he’s as qualified as any other candidate, and I’m intrigued by his message of change and promise to make the government more ‘see-through’ and accountable. Plus…he’s Black, lol.

I think he did well enough today to keep his momentum going, but he didn’t come off as engaging as I hoped he would be. I think Hillary helped herself out today, and Edwards looked really energetic. He also seemed like he wanted to be Obama’s VP (anyone notice him tag team with Obama against Clinton?).

Ultimately, my man Barry (as my friend calls him) will come out on top because I think his ‘breath of fresh air’ approach is coming at the perfect time. I think it’s safe to say that EVERYONE hates George Bush, so the further we get from him the better…what’s further than a young, engaging, Black guy? Thought so.

I want to hear what you think though, so use the comments to agree, disagree, throw out new questions or whatever.

Welcome to my blog and please come back. I’ll keep the updates coming and give you some good information about the Master’s of Business Administration.

-The RBG