Simon School Admissions Blog

My Summer Internship Experience 2009

2009-11-13T05:09:00-05:00

By: Ameet Chandak, MBA Candidate 2010

Why do a Summer Internship? One of the top questions which one has to answer as an entrant of the Accelerated 18 Month MBA program at Simon is: “How valuable is a summer internship and should I pursue this option?” The hectic pace of the first two quarters which covers 7 core courses is demanding for most students and was no different for me. However, what began as a struggle quickly turned in to an exciting experience where I mastered core management skills across different business functions. Having worked as an IT Consultant with Ernst & Young prior to Simon, I was keen to progress to a broader role as a business technology advisor and use my newly found MBA skills in the real world. The summer internship presented me with the perfect opportunity to do this, and I joined Deloitte Consulting LLP with their Healthcare industry practice at the Boston office.

Welcome to Deloitte. The city of Boston brought a much needed change after a ‘typical’ Rochester winter, and I started my 10 week internship in the 2nd week of June, just days after finishing the spring quarter. As I walked through the corridors of 60 floor John Hancock tower to make my way to the Deloitte office, I felt anxious about how the internship experience would unfold. My first week was dedicated to understanding the overall business of Deloitte, its various services across different industries, the organization structure and firm culture. I was assigned my summer project in the second week and introduced to my team and reporting manager. I was part of a highly visible team which was advising a Healthcare client in transforming a critical business function.

The Simon Difference. As a summer associate, I was assigned the responsibility of planning and developing an overall testing plan to analyze core business functionality of the newly implemented ‘claims pricing system’. My role required extensive data analysis and I was able to use skills from core courses like GBA and Finance to analyze and interpret data. As the weeks passed by, I was able to easily bond with my project team and contribute as a team member, leveraging vastly on my experience of working with diverse teams at Simon.

My Key Takeaways. The summer internship experience helped me expand my professional network which now includes consultants at Deloitte, interns from schools like Harvard Business School and MIT, and Simon Alumni in Boston. The internship also helped me gain further insight into US work culture and business etiquette. The most important takeaway was identifying areas for personal development of my management and leadership skills. I am now using the internship feedback to select relevant courses in my second year at Simon and take on new leadership positions on campus.

The summer internship has provided me with clarity on the industry and function that I desire to build a long term career after the MBA. My new professional network will undoubtedly help me in my full time job search. All in all it was an extremely fulfilling personal and professional summer internship and I would recommend that you explore this option during your studies at Simon.

Simon Meliora Fund Investment Club

2009-11-10T02:14:00-05:00

By: Crissi

Simon is known as a finance school. Aptly, one of its most popular and asked about clubs is the Simon Meliora Fund Investment Club. It has undergone some notable changes in 2009 for the benefit of all Simon students.

For the last several years, Meliora Fund was a closed club with frozen assets. Only a few selected students had access to the Fund and there was no active trading. Starting last spring the current Executive Board started working on the Fund’s restructuring. The main goal was to open up the Fund to all students, start actively trading securities and make Meliora Fund a great learning environment for everybody. At this time, Meliora Fund doesn’t hold any meetings related to security analysis or portfolio management, except educational events for first-year students. The club will now start having regularly scheduled meetings open to all members. For the second-year M.B.A. students there will be many new available positions within the club including: Analysts for those with no or little experience; and, Senior Equity/Debt Research Analysts for selected students with extensive experience who will supervise the groups of analysts and play an important role in the decision making process.

The Meliora Fund is also hosting campus-wide events open to all Simon students. To learn more about stock analysis, this week the Meliora Fund Club is hosting a Stock Pitch Competition. Simon Students are encouraged to participate or attend in support of their colleagues. The event tagline is: 26 different students. 26 different stocks. 26 different analyses. To learn more about the Simon Meliora Fund Investment Club, you can contact its student leaders directly at: SMFI@simon.rochester.edu.

Simon Super Soccer!

2009-11-09T13:13:49-05:00

By James Russell

Last week, your Simon Soccer Club travelled to New Haven, Connecticut to participate in the 20th Annual Yale Cup Soccer Tournament. The tournament brought together graduate student athletes from top educational institutions for a two-day tournament just off the Yale campus. Participating schools included Harvard, Chicago, Duke, North Western, Wharton, Columbia, NYU, MIT, Babson, Carnegie Mellon, IPADE, Dartmouth and Yale. Based on size alone, Simon was placed at an immediate disadvantage before even leaving the University of Rochester parking lots. The size and talent pool of the larger schools could have intimidated a lesser squad, but it only served as a motivator for the Rochester faithful. Severely underestimated by the organizers, competition and spectators, the Simon team approached each contest as an opportunity to show the B-School community the pride, passion and quality of the Simon brand.

The group stage started early Sunday morning where Simon would meet Duke, Columbia Lions, and NYU in Group A match play. Three of the four teams in the group had advanced past the group stage at the Tuck MBA World Cup this past spring (Columbia Lions, NYU, Simon) with Simon and NYU advancing to the semi-finals respectively. Needless to say, this was the proverbial “group of death” breathing fear into the other teams as they waited to see who would advance from this power group. In the early match up against a very athletic Duke crew, Jason Reminick (MD/MBA) used his long throw-in to hit Mike Webb’s (MBA ’10) head deep in the Duke zone. Mike flicked the ball on, surprising the keeper and putting Simon up 1-0. In hopes of preserving the lead, Simon fell back into a defensive mode as Duke pushed for the “equalizer.” Late in the 2nd half their efforts paid off and the game finished 1-1. In the 2nd match-up, Simon took the field against NYU who was coming off a loss to Columbia. NYU came out physical and tough, living up to their “Stern” namesake as they played for their tournament lives. Midway through the 2^nd half, Barry Poechmann (MBA ’09) sent a through-ball over the NYU defense to James Russell (MBA ’10). A step inside the box was all Russell needed to strike home a half-volley to the far post providing an early candidate for goal of the tournament. Again Simon weathered the NYU storm falling into a defensive strategy, but yet another late push by NYU forced a second 1-1 draw.

Simon entered the third game in a “must-win” scenario. Win or go home. The Columbia Lions entered the game attempting to advance as the group winners; little did Columbia know Simon had plans to earn the #1 seed themselves. In true Simon fashion, the club surprised the Lions from The City and with 10 minutes remaining in the first half, Reminick slotted home a strike from 20 yards out; giving Simon a familiar 1- 0 lead. Learning from their previous two matches, Simon kept their foot on the pedal and pushed offensively. Webb made another appearance on the score sheet by netting yet another header off a well executed corner kick providing Simon with some much needed insurance, 2-0 Simon. Breaking the Lions spirits and sealing the victory for the Simon faithful, Brazilian Felipe Samico (MBA ’10) broke through the Columbia defensive core and finished the teams third of the afternoon, ending the game in comfortable fashion, 3-0 Simon. With the victory, and undefeated record, Simon qualified as the #1 seed from Group A, slotted to play the hosts from Yale in the quarterfinals. Despite near freezing temperatures, pouring rain and gusts of wind that were knocking spare nets over, the tournament carried on Sunday morning. After surviving a few Rochester winters over the years, the Simon squad laughed at Mother Nature as she tried to deter the team from getting the job done.

In the quarterfinals against the hosts from Yale, Simon followed the same pattern as they did the day before by scoring early. Leon Pijpaert (MS ’10) netted a screamer from 25 yards out, off a brilliant pass from Sergio Fernandez (MBA ’10). Within minutes Yale had equalized off an unlucky bounce inside Simon’s box. The remainder of the game was played mostly in the Yale end where Simon attacked ruthlessly, yet unsuccessfully. To decide the deadlock at fulltime, the teams went directly to the penalty shootout where Simon’s hopes were placed on the humble shoulders of Vinayak (Vin) Behl (MBA ’10), Simon’s trusted goalkeeper. Vin stood tall in goal (stopping two Yale penalty shots) providing Mike Annechino (MBA ’09) opportunities to eliminate the hosts and bury the winning kick, sending Simon into the semi finals. Goal scorers in the shootout were:

Sergio Fernandez,

Severin Price (MBA ’11)
James Russell (MBA ’10)
Mike Annechino.

The Semi’s placed Simon against long time rival The Blues, Columbia’s top team. The Blues have walked away with first place finishes at four consecutive tournaments, entering the weekend as the #1 overall seed. Facing freezing temperatures, borderline hypothermic players and mud covered jerseys; Simon came out with a burst of energy, surprising the Columbia team early. The relentless attack had Columbia’s coaching staff up in arms at the performance of their “Championship Squad”. Late in the first half Columbia stepped up their play and finished a fine goal to put Simon in an unfamiliar position. For the first time in the tournament, they would have to play from behind. With no desire to leave the tournament early, Simon dug deep and pressed on. The team was able to keep the ball in Columbia’s end nearly 100% of the time as they pushed for the equalizer. Late in the second half, Severin Price (MBA ’11) danced around three Columbia defenders before being fouled badly as he headed towards goal. This set up a free-kick 25 yards from the net for Leon Pijpaert. In what looked like a "bend it like Beckham” moment, Pijpaert was able to swing the ball around the wall of Columbia defenders and into the top corner of the net keeping Simon’s hopes alive for its first ever finals appearance. The goal also trumped Russell’s strike from a day prior as “Goal of the Tournament”. Regulation time ended soon after and the game headed to penalty shots again. Vin did his best to pick off the Columbia penalty shots, but the cold, rainy conditions made his life miserable. Columbia was able to seal the victory on their 5th shooter, eliminating Simon in 3rd place. With this great result, combined with the 3rd place finish at the Tuck MBA World Cup last spring, Simon should be ranked the #2 soccer program among North American schools heading into the Texas tournament in February where they hope to improve on their great results and make the entire Simon community proud. Meliora!

Click here for photos Download WATS - Yale Article
Yale Cup Roster 2009:

Roberto Vasquez ’04, Serge Majdalani ’09, Mike

Annechino ’09, Vinayak Behl ’10, Bakhodir Khodjayev

’10, Mike Webb (C) ’10, Rajesh Sharma ’10, Severin

Price ’11, Sergio Fernandez ’10, Leon Pijpaert ’10,

Alia Tabet ’09, James Russell (C) ’10, Jagger Koerner

’11, Barry Poechmann ’09, Felipe Samico ’10, Jason

Reminick (MD/MBA), Ricardo Medeiros ‘10

What's IN Rochester, anyway? The Company Edition.

2009-10-30T09:00:00-04:00

By: Ariane

When we tell people we're located in Rochester, NY, immediately, some don't know what that means. Many people have heard of it. Some know where it is. A few have been here and know only a little about the city. So, over the course of my next few posts, I've decided to answer the question - what exactly is IN Rochester?

I'm going to start this series with The "Companies" edition. Rochester is home to many amazing businesses, large and small. I promise you, you've heard of more of them than you think!

Let's start with the big guns. Rochester is widely known as a major center for imaging and optics, thanks to three corporations: Eastman Kodak, Xerox and Bausch and Lomb. This has since been supplemented with excellent imaging and optics programs at both the Rochester Institute of Technology as well as right here at the University of Rochester.

Yet, we aren't all flashbulbs and lasers. Interested in Consumer Packaged Goods? You can manage the Robert Mondavi, Svedka, or Corona brands at Constellation Brands. Or, if you're not much of an alcohol drinker, how about the Bird's Eye brand or Heluva Good cheese? You could even try a different vice with the massive caffeine buzz from Jolt Cola, created at Wet Planet Beverages. Come from a science background? You might want to check out Thermo Fisher Scientific, the makers of the Nalgene bottle and Camel Baks.

Other still might be happy to work at 2005's Best Company to Work For (Fortune Magazine), Wegman's. Since 2005, the store has ranked in the top 5 of that list each year. Or would you rather work for "the #1 most satisfying" grocery store in America? Thanks to Consumer Reports, Wegman's holds that title as well, for the second time in a row. If you're more of a behind-the-scenes grocery type, you might want to check out Daymon Worldwide - the "world's leading Private Brand Broker," creating many of the private label brands you see on shelves everywhere. A bonus? The company is employee-owned.

Or maybe you're interested in the world of finance - you could work at DeltaPoint Capital Management, Federated Clover Investment Advisors, or the Trillium Group. Entrepreneurs might want to look into High Tech Rochester, which specializes in new venture development. For those interested in Health Sciences, look into insurers like Excellus BCBS, Aetna, or MVP, or create a career within our own University of Rochester, home to one of the nation's top academic medical centers.

If you still haven't seen anything you like, you could check out Hickey Freeman, a high-end suit brand, Paychex, a leader in the payroll and human resources industry, or Paetec, a business-to-business telecommunications firm started by a Simon alumnus.

In short - where is there to work in Rochester? Rochester has just about any kind of company where you might want to begin your post-graduate career. For a more complete list check out Rochester's awesome wiki entry.

Public Forum on Healthcare Reform hosted by Simon School

2009-10-29T15:42:29-04:00

Posts by Rebekah:

With an ever-increasing focus on expected changes in the U.S. Health Care industry, the Simon Graduate School of Business hosted "The Challenge of Health Care Reform” Public Forum, with over 300 people in attendance. Our distinguished group of panelists included:

Steven Goldstein, President and C.E.O., Strong Memorial and Highland Hospitals
Ronald W. Hansen, Senior Associate Dean for Program Development, William H. Meckling Professor of Business Administration and Director of the Bradley Policy Research Center, Simon Graduate School of Business
David Klein, C.E.O., Excellus BlueCross BlueShield
Clifford W. Smith Jr., Louise and Henry Epstein Professor of Business Administration and Professor of Finance and Economics, Simon Graduate School of Business
Gerard J. Wedig, Associate Professor of Business Administration, Simon Graduate School of Business
Fran Weisberg ’75, Executive Director, Finger Lakes Health Systems Agency
Mark Zupan, Dean, Simon School of Business, Moderator

Panelists discussed the health care reform bills currently being debated in the House and Senate and their similarities and differences. Additionally, they shared implications and consequences for individuals and the insurance and medical industries, and fielded questions from attendees. To hear this panel, visit the following links: Panel Comments - Part 1 and Panel Comments - Part 2

Technology in the Simon Classrooms

2009-10-23T10:46:40-04:00

By: Crissi

The Simon School provides an Economics-based and analytical approach to business education. This format can be intimidating to someone without a quantitative background; however, one thing I have noticed is the positive impact of technology in the classroom for teaching quantitative and theoretical concepts.

I would like to first preface this with the fact that tenured and accomplished faculty teach at the Simon School. Many have authored and contributed to the core textbooks used to teach M.B.A.s at top schools across the country, and these same people are the professors students interact with daily. I say this because often times it is assumed that there is a generational gap in regards to the use of technology. This is simply not true in the Simon classrooms.

Faculty use tablet notebooks in lectures, writing directly into their presentations to elaborate on concepts and go through practice problems. Gone are the days of chalk and dry-erase. The best part of this setup is that through the Simon student website, after class you can download a full lecture with the professor’s notes. This saves tons of time instead of trying to write down everything during the lecture.

One Simon Professor in Operations Management also happens to be a whiz at writing programs for Excel. I have taken two business statistics courses with this professor; in both classes, the professor created programs to calculate many complicated statistical outcomes with the input of a few simple values. Lecture is spent explaining what the outcomes mean and how to calculate them by hand, and when you get to the homework, you can speed right through it by merely imputing the correct numbers (which were identified in class) into the program. This intellectual property is free to all students at Simon, and has helped me countless times for homework and exams. I also recently learned the same professor created another Excel program for the calculation of queuing concepts in the Operations classes. Again, this professor specializes in Operations, not Information Technology.

An Excel add-in program or the ability to reference the professor’s notes makes a big difference when tackling new quantitative material. I know this has helped smooth the learning curve for all students, particularly those who are not innately gifted in understanding mathematical and theoretical constructs.

University of Rochester named “Best Neighbor” college

2009-10-20T12:00:38-04:00

By: Tony

The University of Rochester was recently named one of the 25 “Best Neighbor” colleges in the nation in a survey conducted by the President of Westfield State College.

The Simon School is located on the University of Rochester River Campus, shown above. The River Campus borders the Genesee River to the west and the the inner city of Rochester to the north.

The survey was announced during the “Saviors of Our Cities: A Survey of Best College and University Civic Partnerships,” presentation that focused on the positive impact a university can have on the local urban community. The named universities have “demonstrated and documented long-standing cooperative efforts with community leaders to rehabilitate the cities around them, to influence community revitalization and cultural renewal, and to encourage economic expansion of the local economy, urban development and community service.”

We here at the Simon School continue to be part of the University’s efforts to make a positive impact on the Rochester community through our student involvement. Simon students are continually creating opportunities to engage the Rochester community through the V.I.S.I.O.N. program, Simon Volunteers Club, and Simon’s Chapter of Net Impact.

To find out more about the student clubs and organizations at Simon, you can visit the Simon Community page on our website at: http://www.simon.rochester.edu/why-choose-simon/simon-community/index.aspx

For a complete listing of college "Best Neighbor" rankings, you can visit: www.wsc.ma.edu/top25saviors.

Wine Tasting in New York State

2009-10-16T09:00:00-04:00

By Lilly

“Fill high the cup with Seneca wine!” While Lord Byron might not have used those exact words (he said Samian, not Seneca), I would. It is a lovely treat during the autumn in New York State to go on a wine tour or tasting and I was fortunate enough to spend my weekend doing just that.

In the Finger Lake region, which is approximately a 50 minute drive from Rochester, quality vineyards are blossoming.

There are dozens of wineries and breweries located around the Canandaigua, Keuka, Seneca and Cayuga Lakes with vines planted decades ago. These fruit of these vines are now helping the vineyards come into their own with tasty and unique treats of a wide variety; depending on the individual owner’s preferences and choices in products to offer to customers, you might be able to sample wine, beer, liquor or jellies, cheeses and breads. I was able to go to vineyards that strictly bottled wine, a distillery for various flavored and pure liquors, and a wine compound of sorts that had three vineyards and microbrewery united as one brand.

On a beautiful fall day with the leaves changing colors to goldenrod, crimson and burgundy, one can take a limousine or drive him or herself with friends through the beautiful lake vistas – something that I can attest you will not get in California wine country. This wine region is known more for sweeter wines, Rieslings and Chardonnays mostly, so someone with a passion for dry wine or the more full-bodied reds can expect to sample better whites than the alternative. However, I can say that I was pleasantly surprised by some of my selections as a fan of dry wines and that ice wine is something you should sample if you’re able as it’s unique to this region as well. One of my favorite discoveries for the entire day was trying spiced, warm wine. It was offered at only one or two of the vineyards we visited and was quite comforting during the bright, chilly afternoon.

More often than not, the actual vintner, his spouse or some other relative or close personal friend will be the one serving you your tasting, explaining the process or showing you the inside workings of this chosen passion. The individual tastings range in cost from free to $3, but the price is a steal for the experience. There are numerous routes one can take and information can be found online.

The Simon School is fortunate to have a wine-oriented club on campus begun just a few years ago. The UnCorked Club allows students to sample wines from all over, helping them to learn which wines are appropriate for different food items and generally teaching and encouraging an appreciation for wine. They have recently purchased a wine cellar.

While some are fond of Spanish wine and some of French, I’m quite fond of my new purchases from New York this past weekend and encourage others to take advantage while the weather is perfect and the wine hasn’t sold out.

My Internship Experience: How classes apply to the “Real World”

2009-10-13T06:32:00-04:00

By: Inga, MBA Candidate, Class of 2010

Summers always seem to short, but for me this summer seems to have flown by even faster than usual. I spent 12 weeks in Parsippany, NJ, 45 minutes from the bright lights of New York City, working with consumer-packaged goods company Reckitt Benckiser as a brand management intern. While the name Reckitt Benckiser may not ring a bell instantly, most of you will be familiar with its brands: Lysol, Airwick, Clearasil, Finish (or Eletrosol), Frank’s Red Hot and French’s Mustard, just to name a few.

I was assigned to the French’s Mustard brand team; an interesting assignment considering RT French founded his company in Rochester, NY. Just like everyone that starts a new job, I was overwhelmed at first. Who knew so much information and data existed on mustard? And I thought it was just a condiment, boy was I wrong. Over the 12 weeks with Reckitt Benckiser (RB) I learned that consumers are actually very passionate about their purchasing decision, the packaging and of course the flavor. More than that, however, I was put to work.

When in class, I often wondered how the lectures and projects applied to the real world. At RB, I received a taste of it. On many occasions, I wanted to send a thank you note to Professor Nelson, who teaches the Brand Management Workshop, for introducing me to Nielsen data. Professor Misra’s GBA412 class helped with the vast amount of data analysis I was performing; Professor Albuquerque’s introductory marketing class turned out to be the basis for my final presentation. And finally, Professor Schmidt’s cold-calling and endless questioning prepared me well for the constant scrutiny of upper management.

For all of you who will soon be sitting in my seat in class you may wonder: why the professor keeps drilling you on your reasoning; why you are expected to work with so many numbers and run endless regressions; or why something as trivial as the 4 Ps and 3 Cs appear on your exam. The answer to these questions is that you they are very helpful skills for your internship or career after Simon.

Meliora Weekend 2009

2009-10-09T16:38:34-04:00

By: Stefanie

The University of Rochester is thrilled to be hosting its 9th Annual Meliora Weekend this weekend (October 8-12). This event combines alumni reunions for all schools within the University, Parents Weekend, and Homecoming Weekend. Highlights of the weekend include the keynote address by Dr. Steven Chu '70, '98 (ScD), performance by comedian and author Bill Mahr, a reception and talk with author Malcolm Gladwell, and a golf tournament at the famed Oak Hill Country Club. Most events are open to the entire University family (students, alumni, faculty, and staff) and many are free of charge.

On Thursday, the Simon School welcomed back prominent Simon alumni and friends for its semi-annual meetings of the Executive Advisory Committee and Alumni Advisory Council. It has been wonderful to see the familiar faces of alumni in the Admissions Office the past two days. They are excited to be back on campus (some have only been away for 4 months!) and will celebrate at Simon's All-Alumni Reunion which will take place Saturday evening. There is also a breakfast with Dean Mark Zupan on Sunday.

Meliora Weekend is an event that everyone in the University community looks forward to every year. And if you become a student at Simon in the future, you can take a part in it as well!