When I applied to business school, last year’s essay topic asked, “Why Duke?” My response was, “Why Duke!” But first, let me backtrack a little bit and tell you about my path to business school. I attended Brandeis University as an undergrad, where I majored in economics and minored in international business. I always figured that business school would be a logical step at some point in my future, but the question was when. After I graduated from Brandeis, I worked in fund accounting in both Boston and New York before I transitioned to an auditor role at KPMG. This was a very uncommon role to have without an accounting degree, and ultimately gave me two options: to go back to school for an accounting degree or to go back to school for my MBA and change careers entirely. After four years, a financial crisis, and lots of contemplation, I chose the latter, and today I am at Duke.
My teammates with a statue of J.B. Fuqua, the father of the school!
So now for the second part of my story, Why Duke! … First and foremost, Duke is a great business school and certain facets about their program really appealed to me. In college, I studied abroad in Madrid, Spain, and that experience helped shape my personal and professional development. Therefore, I wanted to attend a business school with a global business emphasis. Now, almost one third of my classmates are from abroad, my Intergrated Leadership Experience (ILE/first-year study team) teammates include students from Argentina and India, and I will participate in the Global Academic Travel Experience (GATE) Southeast Asia trip in the spring. Additionally, Duke will give me an opportunity to study abroad next year, and potentially intern abroad this summer.
A second reason for Why Duke! was because Fuqua structures their classes in six-week increments, which ultimately gives you the chance to take more elective courses over your two years at school. Lastly, and perhaps the least important, I have always lived in the Northeast (grew up in NJ and went to Brandeis) and I really wanted to live someplace different. Durham is a very nice change of pace from New York City and the city is currently undergoing a huge transformation. For all of you foodies, check out this article from The New York Times.
And lastly, now that I am at Duke, let me tell you about what I am involved with on campus. I am a proud member of Section 3!!! I am on the Admissions Cabinet for the Association of Women in Business and am involved with the General Management Club. I look forward to blogging about my adventures here at Fuqua!
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Thanks Diana, you give me the reason why I should apply MBA program in DUKE! This is Li Wen Jing from Shanghai, China. I am now under my hardtime to choose school of Business. I know I am not excellent in most part such as my score of GMAT is satisfied. But I still believe if I have the dream, there will be the Miracle.
Li Wen Jing from Shanghai, China
Hi Li Wen Jing-
Nice to hear from you in China. Good luck with the business school process and hang in there. Duke is a great place and I encourage you to take the risk and apply!
Diana
Hey i am very keen on applying to duke for MBA. however needed some additional insight on the school, is it ok if we can have a quick chat
Siddharth – feel free to email me with any questions – diana.yarmovich@duke.edu.
Thanks Diana. I heard that here will hold a conference about introduction of DUKE MBA on this weekend in Shanghai, China. I will definitely go there to attend this meeting and eager to understand more about culture of DUKE and so forth…
Nice to hear from your reply!
Li Wen Jing
Hi Diana,
Thank you for sharing your insight about Fuqua… While reviewing my application, posts like this are helpful!
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HI Diana,
This is Nikki from China
So glad to see your informative post.
I am applying to 2013 fall daytime
I went to info session and got great insight about the school and application
But that is no enough
I really want to connect with you and know more about Duke
May i write to you too？
Thank you very much！
Hi
My regular email address is in fact as this one
if you can see it
Nikki from China
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