MMS trivia team at Fullsteam.

An important part of being in the MMS program is knowing how to unwind. The program is so fast paced that it’s easy to get swept away by assignments, finals, and the job search. A bunch of my friends and I stumbled upon a great tradition, though.

For luck, we developed a tradition of touching the trivia sheets.

In our third term, Strategy Professor Michael Roach took us to Fullsteam, a local brewery, founded by Fuqua grad Sean Lilly Wilson. The visit was related to a case study on The Boston Beer Company. Before we walked into Fullsteam, we passed a few food trucks selling delicious smelling food, so right off the bat we knew that we’d be in for a treat. The most striking thing about Fullsteam is the atmosphere. I never thought I’d be able to say this about a brewery, but it has a great family vibe. There’s one room dedicated to the bar, another to arcade games, ping pong and darts, and a third giant room with casual picnic table seating. Everyone is welcome — from babies to pets — to just hang out, enjoy themselves, and maybe even celebrate a birthday.

My class was there on a Thursday night, and we discovered that Thursdays just happened to be trivia night, and so, our Fullsteam trivia tradition began. There are usually around 20 or so teams competing for the coveted half-time beers or the winners’ bar tab. Teams get to pick their own ridiculous names and compete in a series of 4 rounds of trivia. Some of the more unique team names include Drawing a Blank, Here for the Beer, Jordy Shore, The God Particle and of course, our rivals, Triple Word Score. The rounds are unpredictable and cover topics from marsupials and presidents to the ‘60s and famous Joes.

As my friends and I returned for Fullsteam trivia week after week, people’s strengths quickly became clear. Anuraag’s specialty is geography, Tim dominates poetry rounds, Siddharth gets Britain and marsupials, and Steph pretty much knows everything about everything.

For the majority of the MMS program, we looked forward to Thursdays as a chance to unwind, and a signal that the weekend was almost here! It’s a ritual that I know we will all miss.

Cathy Johnson (MMS ’10),
MMS Admissions Counselor Says:

The essays have changed a bit this year (and will likely change again next year because we’re not satisfied with the responses we’ve received), but in general we’re looking for:

• Personality — Give specific details about your teamwork experiences or your career goals rather than generalizations like “I’m a strong leader,” “I’m really good at moderating,” etc.
• Examples — Give us concrete examples for the topics we’re asking about. For the teamwork essay, choose a personal situation that you can talk about in detail and elaborate on.
• Self-awareness — What did you learn about yourself in that experience? What did you learn about your teamwork/leadership abilities?
• Writing skills — This should be obvious, but spell check your essays and make sure your essays flow in an easily comprehensible manner.

Steve Misuraca (Daytime MBA ’09),
Associate Director of Admissions Says:

The most common mistake that prospective students make is not investing enough time in understanding the mission, extra-curricular offerings, and culture of Fuqua, and the resources that Fuqua offers to help students achieve both their personal and professional goals. Many applicants use the same approach that they used for applying to undergrad schools, even though it is a completely different process. You apply to many different undergrad institutions, but only a handful of master’s programs, so as a master’s program, we’re looking for a personal touch, and we’re trying to see if you can be a good fit at Fuqua. After four years of undergrad, you should now have more fully developed narratives. We look at things like internships, your involvement both inside and outside the classroom, and your passion to determine your potential impact at a place like Fuqua.

Be yourself, a lot of students think that they have to present a certain type of application, but what we really want to know is who you are, and how you want to make a difference at Fuqua. We’re looking for students who will leave the school better than they found it. At Fuqua, we place a high emphasis on diversity, so we’re not looking for one set type of student.

Maybe you’re asking whether your GMAT and GPA are good enough, or if you’re a good fit for the program. First of all, we don’t look at just any one factor, we look at how all the components of your application and personality fit together. We look at the potential impact you could have on the school. So rather than ask if you are a good fit for the program, we would prefer that you show awareness in your own profile. There are things that you can go back and fix, like a GMAT or GRE score, and things that you can’t like GPA. Having this awareness ahead of time, knowing what the gaps are, and trying to fill those gaps (by maybe taking a class) shows initiative.

Most importantly, we’re looking for students who are going to bring passion and leave an impact.

Stephanie Brookes,
Program Manager for Europe Says:

A lot of people worry about their GMAT score. This is of course tremendously important, however, there are many aspects to an application, and it is important to remember that we include all the criteria for a reason! Please know that every application gets read and read again, regardless of the GMAT score. Therefore, the person you are, highlighted in the most part by your essays are equally crucial. We are not just trying to admit people with the highest GMAT scores, we are looking to admit the best class we can with unique skill sets and personalities who have interesting work experiences and high personal achievements with a passion for life and an interest in those around them (good team players and leaders).

Scott Goldman (MMS ’10)
Project Manager for East Asia Says:

I think MMS is a very individual program and degree. Everyone comes into it with different desires, backgrounds, professional strengths and weaknesses, etc. The more you are self-aware, the more successful you will be. If you look at MMS as an entry to all of the wonderful resources at Duke and actively take advantage of what the school has to offer, than you will be very successful. If you passively wait for jobs, opportunities, resources, etc. to present themselves, then you may not have as enriching an experience as possible.

Lastly, the team aspect of the school and program is very important and wonderful. People really go out of their way to share what they are good at and ask for help in areas of need. Again, going back to the self-awareness piece, I think it is important to understand your strengths and weaknesses so that you can take full advantage of the business school setting.

Dan McCleary,
Regional Director for India & Director of Program Strategy Says:

When I do MMS recruitment events in India, I receive a lot of questions about the application process. The biggest concern that potential applicants have is how the admissions committee will view their business experience, or lack thereof. Fortunately, the admissions committee understands that very few applicants will have business experience or education. The best way to demonstrate that you understand the challenges of MMS is your ability to discuss your translatable skills. You want to convince the admissions committee that your background in humanities, engineering, or the sciences will make you both a well-rounded candidate as well as someone who can connect the dots from their past to a future career.

So, now that you have more insight, do you feel more prepared to apply? Check out additional info online, and send an email to mms-fob-info@fuqua.duke.edu if you still have questions.

Everyone comes to this program from a different background and with different goals, needing individualized guidance, so one of the resources provided are career coaches. There are 3 professional career coaches: Ellen Baker, Helen Crompton, and Madra Britt who help us with elements of our job search. The coaching process started with 3 initial one-on-one sessions during the summer term. After that, we were able to keep in touch through additional appointments and email.

Some of the issues we can talk to career coaches about are:

• Career Path: The MMS program is extremely diverse in a lot of ways, and just one of those is that not everyone joins the program knowing exactly what they want out of it. There are students trying to figure out what field they want to work in, and our career coaches help by discussing options with us.

• Resume Building: Our career coaches worked closely with us when we built our Fuqua format resume, which goes into the Fuqua resume book for recruiters. They spent a lot of time helping us improve everything from the format to wording.

• Cover Letters: Writing cover letters is a big part of the recruitment process, and everyone has to write at least one at some point. My career coach worked with me to improve some of my cover letters. Needless to say, the final product was something I never could have done on my own.

• Interview Prep: We also worked on our interviewing skills. Fuqua gave us access to something called Interview Stream, which allows us to record ourselves in a mock interview. We went over these practice interviews with our career coaches, and they helped us improve our interviewing skills in every way, from our tone and posture to the way we answered questions.

Like most of the resources we’re offered at Fuqua, you get what you want out of it. Our career coaches are available to us as much as we need or want. They are a great source of information and have a lot of coaching experience.

When I joined the program, it felt like I was thrown into a sea of new information and before I knew it, fall recruiting season was approaching too quickly. You have to be prepared to jump into recruitment preparation as soon as you get to Fuqua, and that can be overwhelming, so having a career coach as a guide was a relief.

Decked out for the Halloween festivities.

For Halloween, the MMS Connoisseurs Club organized an eventful party at the Lofts. There was food (cake, cookies, cider, candy and ribs) and a lot of great costumes including two classmates dressed as our Corporate Finance Professor Dr. David Robinson!!

A lot of us international students have never had the opportunity to celebrate Halloween before, so it turned out to be a great experience for us! After the party a lot of people went to Chapel Hill to take part in the parade/block party on Franklin Street. It’s an annual tradition that was started in the ‘80s. There were some crazy costumes and it’s estimated that about 25,000 people were there. It’s one of those things that you have to experience at least once, if you live in this area.

More photos (click for larger versions):

Being touristy at the Statue of Liberty.

Taking a break, on the red steps in Times Square.

By the end of our hectic second semester we were all desperately in need of a vacation, and we couldn’t have been more grateful for fall break! Classmates planned trips to New York, San Francisco, Puerto Rico, Boston, Florida, D.C., and even Canada! The trips were mainly for fun, or to visit friends and family — we just wanted to make the most of our well-deserved week off.

Celebrity encounter! With "Jenna" from 30 Rock.

I was among one of the groups who decided to take the opportunity to visit New York and Atlantic City. It was my first time visiting New York, and I was very excited!! We happened to be there right before hurricane Sandy hit, in fact we were fortunate enough to leave New York the day before all major transportation in and around the city was shut down.

When we arrived, the first thing that struck me as we got off the bus was that Chinatown is aptly named!! The second thing was the number of people! Coming from India, I’m used to crowds, but New York still surprised me. We checked into our hotel, got ourselves some subway cards for the week, and started walking around the area to get a feel for the city. We also wanted to get familiar with the location so we wouldn’t get lost.

At McGee's with my fellow MMS travelers.

We went to Times Square that evening, and the lights and people were unlike anything I have ever experienced. You really do see the most random people there! We left New York the Saturday before Halloween, so we got a chance to see people wandering around Times Square in the most amazing and absurd costumes! Of course we had to do all the touristy things, like visit the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State building, Brooklyn Bridge, Rockefeller Center and the 9/11 memorial. We made sure we had the chance to eat some authentic New York Pizza, and a bagel with cream cheese from the street carts. We went to the Empire State Building at 1 am. The last elevator goes up at 1:15 am and goes down at 2:00 am. We were completely alone up there and the city lights were beautiful!

Atlantic City Boardwalk with Siddharth and Maryam.

At Rockefeller Center, we watched the ice skaters and ate delicious cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery. We even sought out McGees, which is the bar that the show How I Met Your Mother was based on.

Then we went to Atlantic City, where we played a little bit at the casinos, went to the beach and walked down the Boardwalk. It’s heartbreaking to know that we were some of the last few people to see the iconic Boardwalk before it was washed away days later by hurricane Sandy.

We had a great trip, although the destruction that later befell both New York and Atlantic City was tragic. It made me feel an even greater appreciation for my experiences, and I feel so thankful that we were able to leave before Sandy hit. Some of our classmates were not as lucky, and were stranded in New York for almost a week! I know that many were affected by the storm, including Fuqua alumni, and I hope that everyone is safe. My thoughts are with everyone in the Northeast.

Housing

For the most part, I looked up housing on the Incoming Student Website (ISW), which is a secured website that incoming students get access to. The site had a pretty extensive list of housing options, with ratings and descriptions. It was important to me to get an apartment where a lot of other MMS students lived, but you can’t tell much about that from the ISW because it doesn’t have any MMS specific statistics. This is understandable since it’s probably something that changes from year-to-year. But this year, the majority of my classmates live in just a few places: The Lofts, The Belmont, Trinity Commons, and West Village. Personally, since I wasn’t going to have a car, it was really important to me to live close enough to campus to walk if necessary. That’s one of the things that led me to The Belmont (also I was only 20, and both Trinity Commons and The Lofts require their residents to be 21).

Distance

In terms of distance, almost all the apartments I listed above are walking distance to school, they’re not even long walks. In fact, The Belmont is the farthest, and it’s actually a really nice walk, when the weather is cooperating. West Village is very close to downtown, but not at all convenient for getting to school unless you have a car or want to take the bus. The Bull City Connector is a good option.

Transport to School

In terms of getting to school, if you don’t plan to drive there, you can either take the LaSalle Loop, or you can walk. The LaSalle Loop is a bus that goes all around campus. It comes approximately every half an hour, and there is an app called TransLoc Transit Visualization, which you can download on your phone to track the bus in real time. The bus is most convenient to The Belmont because it stops almost right outside the gate. That being said, it’s not inconvenient to The Lofts, Trinity Commons or Erwin Terraces, you just have to walk a bit in the opposite direction of Fuqua to get to the bus stop, so it’s probably faster to just walk all the way to school.

Furniture

Pretty much all of the available housing in Durham is unfurnished, so as an international student without a car, I was very worried about how I’d go about furnishing my apartment. My roommate and I bought most of our stuff from Walmart, and are really happy with it. We did need a car for a few days to transport things around, and we had to assemble all of our furniture ourselves. The other alternative that a lot of MMSers used this year was a furniture rental place called CORT. It is more expensive than Walmart, but you don’t need to worry about transporting or setting up your furniture, or even getting rid of it at the end of the year. Also, from what I’ve seen of the CORT furniture, it’s all really nice. When it came to furnishing our apartment, I think the best thing that my roommate and I did was to get in touch with some of the MMS students from last year. We bought all of their random household supplies (brooms, shower curtains, dishes, cutlery, etc.). The items had all only been used for a year anyway, and it made moving just that much easier.

Safety

Safety is a big concern when you’re choosing a place to live in Durham. It’s not an unsafe city, but safety is not something you can take lightly when selecting an apartment here. Of course, how safe the place needs to be depends on you. My advice would just be to do a little research into the neighborhood. Some classmates had to move to a different apartment after a couple of weeks, either to be closer to Fuqua, or because they didn’t like the original place that they had chosen. Moving twice is not ideal, and frankly, the pace of the program just isn’t conducive to elaborate moving plans.

Banks

There are two main banks in Durham: Bank of America and Wells Fargo. I chose Wells Fargo because it has a branch in the Duke medical center, which you can get to easily via the LaSalle Loop. Also, they have an ATM in the Fox Center at Fuqua, and the convenience charge for someone from any other bank is $3!

Timing

Figuring out Durham and Duke isn’t all that difficult if you have the right information. It is important to figure things out by the first couple of weeks of class though, because the program is intense, and the last thing you want to worry about is moving and furniture while you’re getting your bearings in the program. If you can, arrive in Durham a week or two before the MMS program starts, so that you’ll be completely settled by the time classes begin.