Peter Regan teaching
MBA Math at Tuck |
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About MBA Math - Board of Advisors
The MBA Math Board of Advisors consists of current MBA students from top MBA programs who used
the MBA Math course before starting business school. As experts in the MBA first year experience, they are uniquely
positioned to provide guidance and feedback on priorities for improving and extending the MBA Math course.
Below, they introduce themselves, their pre-MBA efforts, and their first-year experience.
Rick Bollar, Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, EMBA Class of 2008
Unlike the other advisors, I am enrolled in an Executive MBA program and I have
been out of an academic environment for well over twenty years. While I did
well in Fuqua’s quantitative assessment, I left my interview feeling as if I
had holes in my experience and I wanted to make sure I had prepared as well as
possible for the first semester.
Fuqua offers a quantitative readiness program and while it is good, I felt it
needed to be augmented with additional drills, training and feedback - it also
needed to be a program that could be done in short sessions from anywhere.
That’s how I came across MBA Math. MBA Math allows me to study and practice
when I can between work and family obligations and I find that most of my work
is done in 30 to 60 minute sessions. It’s easy to pop in and practice with just
a few minutes time. In fact, most of my study time has been while I travel,
from various hotel rooms.
I matriculate in May and I look forward to reporting my progress in the first
quantitative classes.
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Kate Canale, Darden School of Business at University of Virginia, Class of 2009
Michael Converse, Anderson School of Business at University of California at Los Angeles, Class of 2009
I have spent the last 8 years, after graduating from Harvard University,
working in feature film production and development for Sony Pictures
Entertainment and Universal Studios. Most recently, I completed an internship
at Comerica Bank. Through my career in the entertainment industry, I gained
experience solving unique business problems in a high pressure environment,
through relationship building, content development, project management,
financial analysis, and creative problem solving.
MBA Math was essential in preparing me for business school. After I passed out
of the statistics requirement at Harvard University as an undergraduate I spent
my time focused largely on humanities-based liberal arts courses. Additionally,
I had been out of the academic world for close to 8 years before I decided to
seek a graduate degree in business at UCLA Anderson. Needless to say it had
been a long time between quantitative courses for me. MBA Math gave me a
structured, go-at-your-own-pace outlet for me to prepare for the first semester
of business school. The early preparation not only allowed me to avoid getting
lost but also enabled me to understand and enjoy more of what was being taught.
I, with my classmates, found the first semester at UCLA Anderson to be
intensely academically rigorous and demanding. I know that being able to
prepare for it in the spare time leading up to the fall allowed me to excel AND
to enjoy the amazing experience.
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Jelka Dasent, McCombs School of Business at University of Texas at Austin, Class of 2009
After college, I joined Price Waterhouse where I worked as an intern and
pursued my chartered accountancy exams, graduating as a Chartered Accountant. I
then went on to obtain 12 years of industry experience in the manufacturing and
banking sectors, where I gained solid analytical and problem solving skills. I
have been responsible for identifying and resolving financial reporting issues,
as well as generating innovative methods to improve processes. Finally, before
coming back to graduate school, I took on a team leadership role, in the
restructuring and sale of the credit card and retail segments of the bank in
which I was employed.
I am now in my second semester, as a first year MBA student, at The McCombs
School of Business at University of Texas at Austin. The MBA Math internet tool
was instrumental to my smooth transition to graduate school. After completing
the first semester and doing very well, I was pleased with the time that I
invested working through the respective mbamath modules. This internet tool
allowed me to learn essential elements of the core that I was unfamiliar with
and to revise topics that I had previous exposure to, all at my own pace.
After completing the first and debatably the most challenging semester, I would
strongly recommend that all incoming MBA candidates use this tool both before
school starts and certainly during the first year, as needed. I guarantee that
students who use this user-friendly learning tool will be at a definite
advantage if the essential quantitative skills are well known.
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Lenika Dorman, McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University, Class of 2008
I am a first year MBA student at Georgetown University's McDonough School of
Business. I graduated from the University of California, San Diego in 2000 with
a degree in Political Science with an emphasis in Pan American Studies. Upon
graduating from the University of California at San Diego, my passion to
enhance my global perspective motivated me to teach English in Prague,
Barcelona and Madrid.
After over a year of working abroad, I was given the opportunity to join
American International Group (AIG) as a Business Development Manager in Boston.
With a strong desire to pursue a career in the marketing field, I left Spain to
embark on a successful, 5 year career with AIG.
My marketing roles at AIG required sharp analytical skills. My responsibilities
included; analyzing consumer purchasing trends and distribution models as well
as conducing risk and financial analysis. While I had gained a great deal of
quantitative experience throughout my professional career, I lacked the formal,
quantitative training that was needed to succeed in a top MBA program.
MBA Math gave me a broad overview of the quantitative skills I would need to
feel confident in the MBA environment. The program allowed me learn at my own
pace and focus on the areas in which I had the most difficulty. The tutorials
were very clear and the content was very applicable to my first year courses.
MBA Math was an extremely efficient way for me to prepare for my first year of
business school.
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Jessica Grote, Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis, Class of 2009
I am a second year MBA student at Washington University’s Olin Business School.
I graduated with a degree in Architecture from the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign where I served as President of the Women in Architecture
organization and studied abroad in Rome, Italy. Before returning to graduate
school, I worked at an engineering firm and was highly involved in my community
as a volunteer for the American Red Cross and United Way. Now at Olin, I am
concentrating in Brand Management and Marketing Consulting/Strategy while
serving as President of the Olin Marketing Association.
As an MBA student with a non-business background, I found MBA Math to be
particularly helpful. The lessons gave me a comprehensive overview of the
quantitative work that would be performed during the core curriculum of the
program. MBA Math is unique in that it provides the flexibility to work at
one’s own pace to meet personal objectives. It’s a great transition to graduate
school.
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Joshua Izzard, Graduate School of Business at University of Chicago, Class of 2009
I am a first year full-time MBA student at Chicago GSB. I hold undergraduate-
and graduate-level degrees from the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory,
which I completed as a concert pianist--so it is true that people from all
professions do go to top MBA programs.
In addition to my extensive performing career, I have many years of experience
in entrepreneurship, finance (most recently as an equities trader) and direct
investment in Russia, where I spent nine years after leaving my native United
States. While my education up to MBA level had been entirely musical, I had
considerable exposure to quantitative material at work and was thus not too
unprepared for the rigors of an MBA.
As I had thought of going into investment banking after business school, I
thought that Chicago GSB would be an excellent school to go to based on both
its reputation in finance and on its placement rates. I have been consistently
surprised by the quantitative rigor of courses at GSB, and have needed Excel in
all of my classes thus far. Calculus has proven necessary in exactly half of my
courses, statistics in all courses (in some form or another). I plan to expand
on these comments on the MBA Quant blog.
My experience during the first two quarters at Chicago GSB has been
immeasurably enhanced by the fact that I spent the time necessary to go through
all of the sections and problems on MBA Math. In fact, I continue to use it as
a reference or reminder of certain things even though we have gone into greater
depth long since. I cannot recommend this course enough.
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David Landers, Kelley School of Business at Indiana University, Class of 2008
With the GMAT and admission processes behind me, I turned my focus to preparing
for the first semester of B-school. Most blogs I came across from current
students at top schools stressed tuning up quantitative skills.
Reading the BusinessWeek forum regularly, I came across several recommendations
for a comprehensive solution: mbamath.com. Given that my work experiences as a
dental hygienist were considered very non-traditional I knew the difficulty in
accurately performing a self assessment.
I signed up for mbamath.com hoping that I could identify my weaknesses and find
a few key takeaways from the web-based lessons. I started immediately and was
pleased with the experience. The lessons were easy to understand, well
organized, and very relevant.
Having just recently completed my first semester of B-school I can say that
mbamath.com was an excellent preparation tool and an outstanding value. If
you’re looking for an edge you won’t find a more efficient option.
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Hugo Lorenson, Rotman School of Management at University of Toronto, Class of
2008
I started my studies at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management
in September 2006. Before this, I had been a lawyer with the Province of
Ontario's Legal Aid Plan for several years, where I provided legal services to
disadvantaged persons. My previous work experiences included my working with a
criminal defence firm, and as an analyst with Ontario's Ministry of the
Attorney General.
Clearly, my professional background was entirely non-quantitative. After I
decided to transition into the business world and enter business school, I
wrote the GMAT as part of the application process. Although my overall score
was serviceable, there was a large discrepency between my verbal and
quantitiative scores. I quickly realized that if I wanted to do well at
business school, I would need to brush up on my math skills.
Luckily, I came across MBA Math after Rotman accepted me and intensely prepared
for my studies over the summer. The results have been very satisfying thus far.
Not only do I understand economics, finance, accounting, and statistical
concepts that otherwise would have confused me, I am doing quite well in all of
the courses. MBA Math was instrumental in positioning me for success at
business school and helping reduce a lot of the first semester anxieties that
are common to first year students.
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Chantrelle Nielsen, MIT Sloan School of Management, Class of 2008
Peter Park, Harvard Business School, Class of 2008
Prior to business school, I spent three years in Eldoret, Kenya, where I worked
with Indiana and Moi Universities on the development of an HIV control system
for western Kenya. I was responsible for ‘income security’ strategies for our
HIV+ patient base, and linked sustainability measures with HIV care and
prevention.
While my work in Eldoret certainly called for sound business intuition, I had
historically been a poet of sorts with a mean non-profit bent. As an undergrad
at Middlebury College, I studied religion and environmental studies, and after
Midd, I spent a year on a non-profit fellowship at Indiana University called
the Jane Addams - Andrew Carnegie Fellowship in Philanthropy. So by the time I
had my admit letters for business school, while I understood the general feel
for business, I still had hardly ever opened an Excel file, and terms such as
‘equity’ conjured up notions of poverty alleviation or social justice or
something.
I am now a first-year student/RC at Harvard Business School, and through some
smart pre-MBA prep, the transition into HBS life has been markedly smooth and
my first semester went really well. While I used a number of resources during
the summer, MBA Math was the cornerstone of my independent preparations for a
number of reasons. For me, I found it to be the best way to become familiar
with unfamiliar terminology early on, the best introduction to the process of
solving problems in Excel, and perhaps most importantly, a painless and
efficient way to learn the essentials. It was definitely a lot more effective
than the books I bought over the summer but never quite got around to reading,
and the reason is that MBA Math is structured in a way that makes it easy and
effective to learn independently.
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Anne Thompson, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, Class of 2009
As someone who hadn’t solved a math problem since high school I owe my
admission to the Tuck Class of 2009 to MBA Math. During the admission process I
relied on MBA Math as an additional indicator of my quantitative abilities. In
preparing for the first year core curriculum at Tuck, going through MBA Math
again provided me with the confidence and the necessary tools to stay
up-to-speed with my classmates.
Professionally I have spent the past six years as a non-profit fundraiser –
first for a small arts-based non-profit in New York City, and then on a larger
scale as a major gift officer for Yale University, my own alma mater. In my job
I relied on Excel more as a recording tool than as a partner in solving complex
calculations and valuations. The MBA Math program helped ease me into the
“language of business school” and allowed me to see the value in developing
basic proficiency in key areas. This is not to say that the Tuck core
curriculum was made easy after taking MBA Math, but rather it was made
manageable and I had a familiarly with the material that allowed me to come up
the learning curve faster during the term. MBA Math, and Professor Regan in
particular have my full endorsement!
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Xiaoming Alex Yang, Columbia Business School, Class of 2008
I read history in undergraduate and earned my master's degree in International
Relations. Pursuing an MBA after nearly 7 years' absence from classroom
environment, I am kind of a poet for the business school.
Having worked in the Financial Institutions Department with the Bank of China
for the past 6 years, I will soon attend the Columbia Business School. As a
relationship manager, I have a good mastery of soft skillls and definitely need
to sharpen my quant skills and get prepared for relevant knowledge to hit the
ground running at my dream school.
To this end, the MBA Math online learning tool really gives me an opportunity
to catch up and crack the nuts.
Comfort and confidence both build up in the process of self-paced learning.
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Click here to view past members of the MBA Math Board of Advisors
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