Tag Archives: mccombs

The Magic of Austin

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I initially became interested in the Texas MBA program because, once in the working world, I began to meet quite a few people from Austin and I loved each and every one of them. I started talking to them about Austin and become very curious about this burgeoning city in the middle of Texas. When it came time to decide where to apply to business school, I thought I would look at McCombs, based on the fact that I had never heard anyone say a bad thing about Austin.

4 weeks after moving here, I can honestly not find a bad thing to say about Austin – they were all right! Let me explain, the magic of Austin…

Within my first week of living here, I toured Texas wine country in Fredericksburg and learned how a ‘Texas Red’ differs from a California merlot. In addition, I went tubing down the Guadalupe and found out that one should never wear flip flops while tubing…because one will never see said flip flops again.

Home of my Texas two-step lessons!

In the true spirit of Texas, I made sure to learn how to two-step! While Austin is the least ‘country’ city in Texas, there is no shortage of country bars. And what better excuse to break out my cowboy boots! I was lucky enough to share a dance with some real, southern gentlemen.

Last week we had the Cohort Olympics where each of the 4 first-year cohorts competed in some friendly, field games at Zilker Park. I did my best in the egg relays and tug-of-war and loved watching my classmates in the wheelbarrow race and dodgeball game! Afterwards, we caught our Academic Advisor, Chris Johnson, playing bass in a band at a bar nearby!

Lake Austin

The now familiar view of Lake Austin

Beyond that, I’ve tried many a BBQ and Mexican restaurants, as well as uncovered the joy of a breakfast taco. I’ve spent time cruising in Lake Austin and running along the trail at Lady Bird Lake.Needless to say, there is no lack of things to do in this wonderful city and it is awesome to try all of these new experiences with my McCombs classmates! When we’re not in the classroom, we are doing everything we can to take advantage of our new home. I have many more new adventures planned for the upcoming semester including boating on Lake Travis, my first UT football game and plenty of concerts. It is easy to understand how so many people fall in love with Austin and I think I can now add myself to that list!

Metamorphosis: A First Year to Remember

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Love from our first year Operations dinner at Benihana

Year ONE of MBA is done.  Finals, final papers, final presentations. The one thing that remains on my plate is the 10 day trip to Argentina and Chile, definitely a to-do I’m excited to do. I’m still trying to summarize all my emotions about the past year, but it’s hard.  Some mixture of relief, nostalgia, happiest moments mixed with hair graying stress, and everything in between.  I’m sad to leave my classmates for the summer and even sadder that our amazing second years are graduating and dispersing around the globe (CONGRATULATIONS CLASS OF 2011!!!). But I’m also looking forward to a summer in New York, working at Unilever, and having wicked fun with a new group of friends.

Paintball with GBAT

McCombs MBA has pushed me to do more than I ever thought I could.  Interesting cases, quirky professors, and late nights in Carpenter working on presentations (go team Deloitte!).  Valuing companies (DCF, ACF, CCF, or am I just getting an F?) and valuing Ford’s online marketing strategies. Operations and the bottleneck always lead to amusing conversations while waiting in line.  Of course there’s the amazing Austin food and many firsts.  First time ever tubing.  First time paintballing and first time getting shot with paintballs.  First time craming a trip to Vegas between finals (go Cohort 1 ladies!).  First time to SXSW.  First national career fair. First case competition. First international night.  And so many activities I would have forgotten had I not just Facebook stalked my own albums.

McCombs has pushed me to be better.  To never be satisfied with the status quo.  To understand the strategic management frameworks but then push beyond them.  To question all the valuations cashflow analyses and figure out the right numbers for the right situation.  To always overcommit and somehow work through all the deadlines.  To be at awe over the individual and cummulative brainpower in our classrooms, and to be at awe again when those same people can party like a rockstar and still make it to Mackey’s class at 8 in the morning.

I couldn’t be happier to have chosen McCombs as my home. 

Bacon, maple syrup goodness at Gordough’s

Goooo team Six Pack Attacks!! Beer Olympics.

Girls weekend in Vegas!  Yeah baby! :)

Have a great summer to all my fellow MBA classmates.  If you’re a prospective student with any questions and/or if you’re in New York/Jersey/Philly and want to grab coffee or introduce me to the best hole in the wall ever, please say hello. :)

Spring Break, Texas Style! Part 3

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Hello and welcome to the third installment of spring break, Texas MBA style.  Today’s featured student: Nando.

Also a special shout out to the Preview Weekend students who are at McCombs and in Austin this weekend.  Keep it weird.  Keep it real.  Have fun!

1. Where did you go?

I hopped around nomadically for two weeks sleeping on any couch I could find.  I started off back home in Brownsville, Texas (most commonly known during hurricane season).  I then spent a night in Houston where I met up with friends and we set off toward Gulfport, Mississippi with a one-night stay in New Orleans on the way.

2. Best single moment of the trip?

At a club in New Orleans, one of my friends performed a choreographed dance to “Firework” that cleared the entire dance floor. She’s not part of a dance troupe or anything, just choreographs dances to current music…apparently.

3. Most delicious food? What was it, and did you take a picture?

Homemade shrimp gumbo was a highlight in Gulfport; it was followed closely by beignets at Café du Monde in New Orleans.

4. Who did you go with?

(Warning: movie reference following) You might not know this, but I consider myself a bit of a loner. I tend to think of myself as a one-man wolf pack. But when I met my best friend a few years back, I knew he was one of my own. And my wolf pack… it grew by one. So there… there were two of us in the wolf pack… I was alone first in the pack, and then my best friend joined in later. And a few weeks ago, we traveled with his fiancé and some of her friends, and I thought, “Wait a second, could it be?” And now I know for sure, I just added four more people to my wolf pack. Six of us wolves running around the Gulf coast together in New Orleans and Gulfport looking for casinos and hurricanes. So tonight, I make a toast!

5. Favorite tourist spot you visited and why?

Rue Bourbon, even a week after Mardi Gras, was pretty fun: plenty of drinks, good music, and great people watching.

The Beginning of the End: My Last Semester

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It is three weeks into my final semester at McCombs. Even as I type this sentence the words do not seem real. I cannot believe the journey I began in March 2008 when I sat down and took the GMAT is almost over. Sometimes I feel like I just moved to Austin!

Whitsundays, Australia

After the hardest semester of my McCombs career I boarded a plane with four of my classmates. Our next stop was Christchurch, New Zealand. We were rewarding ourselves for surviving John Doggett, Reuben McDaniel, leadership commitments, and the other land mines we so confidently set for ourselves during fall 2010. Our trip was highly anticipated and minimally planned. A little crazy since our feet weren’t scheduled to touch down on US soil again for five solid weeks. The trip was filled with “pinch me” moments, moments where we had to remind ourselves that we were not asleep, and this was indeed real life. Perhaps the most notable “pinch me” moment was when I launched myself out of a perfectly good airplane attached to an absolute stranger over Airlie Beach.

Out and about in Melbourne

As incredible as our trip was, nothing could have prepared me for how “pinch worthy” this last semester at McCombs has been so far. In the last two weeks I’ve passed the GBC President torch, bought a plane ticket to South Africa for my Global Connections trip, and started writing my final paper for my research project with Reuben McDaniel. While this semester has so many exciting things in store for me and my classmates, I can’t help but get sad when I think that this is the last one.

My classmates and I returned from Australia with a thirty item bucket list to complete before we each go our separate ways.  Some of the highlights include: Brunch at Moonshine, Chicken Sh*t Bingo, concerts at Stubb’s and La Zona Rosa, Hamilton Pool, and coming up with a brilliant skit for MBA review.  It may be the beginning of the end, but I am prepared to take this last semester at its fullest!

State of the Union: Notes from My First Semester

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After making it through the first semester, it is crazy to think that I am finished with 25% of business school.  There were a lot of highs and the occasional low.  Overall, here are my do’s and don’t’s for any prospective students’ first semester:

Do…

…Remember that everything is on a curve.  If the test was hard for you, it was hard for everybody.

…Learn to speak the lingo like, “Yeah Garrett looked terrible out there”, “Love Doc’s on Wednesday”, “West 6th later for sure”, and “I am not crying I swear”

…As much stuff as you can (even if you feel overwhelmed).  I am involved in case competitions, the McCombs Admissions Committee, Venture Fellows, and went to as many company meet-and-greets as possible.  If you are at school like me to give yourself as many options as possible, then do not be afraid to take advantage of them.

…Remind every family member, significant other, friend, or co-worker that it is not personal when you do not acknowledge them for days (or weeks) at a time.  Love you Mom.

…Take advantage of the MBA+ program.  I did an MBA+ project with a consulting firm and used the coaches to practice for interviewers.  It is much better to have  a communication coach (with a PhD) tell you that you say “um” too many times than to have an actual interviewer never tell you at all.

Don’t…

…Expect to experience as much of Austin as you originally hoped.  Austin was one of the biggest draws for me to come down here, but after having as much delicious Mexican food as I wanted, playing tennis and basketball, walking South Congress, and running around Lake Travis during the first few weeks, the reality of 12 tests in four months and endless reading put a damper on that quickly. Luckily I have 3 more semesters to work on exploring the city.

…Be afraid to fail.  Whether taking part in the Texas Venture Labs Investment Competition or participating in the MBA “Pitch Party”, you might as well put yourself out there.  Getting accomplished entrepreneurs from Austin to question a business idea I developed two hours before the event was useful.  And humbling.  And funny in a “that business will never happen” funny sort of way.

…Forget your professors are normal people too.  Whether it was one professor inviting everybody over to his house for dinner, to another one of my classmates seeing a professor at a Girl Talk concert, the dynamic is much different than what you are probably used to.

So far so good – and looking forward to a lot more to come.

Movember Madness and End of the Semester

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Quarter of my MBA: done!

Success of converting friends into mustache-toting Movember supporters: absolute!

Bacon chocolate: a must!

I’m not going to sit here and pretend that I had oh-so-many opportunities to party during my last half of the first semester.  It’s just not true.  The second half has been filled with graduate club elections (Co-President of OUTsource and VP of Women in Business Leadership Conference 2011… just to toot my own horn :) ), finishing up MBA+ projects including presenting at Adobe headquarters on Monday, marketing projects, recruiting, and somehow finding enough time to study for finals.

But in between the hectic was supremely fun. We raised money for prostate cancer awareness during Movember by selling fake mustaches. Tempura ice cream at Crave (on Guadalupe and 21st) is the perfect pre-final meal. There was the inevitable making of bacon chocolate (not pictured below for your protection), and lots of late night dinners including the deliciousness that is potato soup @ IHOP. As you can read, food in Austin is clearly not a scarcity, and after four days of straight finals, we had some mandatory partying at Abel’s on the Lake and later at Donn’s Depot.  All in all, it’s been a crazy, yummy, friend-making, friend-bonding, fiendishly busy and wild semester. I can’t wait to do it again in January.

Now, I wish everyone an amazing holiday and new year. I’m going to park my behind at a beach somewhere and grab some well-deserved rest.  Cheers!~

What do you do when you need a study break? Mustaches + camera.

How many minutes does it take for MBA students to eat Tempura ice cream? 5 students… about a minute and a half.