Everyone admitted into the Oxford MBA program is immediately granted online access to the incoming-student intranet site. As time passes, more content is added. The intranet site is the primary way that administration communicates with us regarding scholarship winners, college availability, and student Q&A. It is also the best way to learn what Facebook page(s) have been created for each MBA class, so that students can begin to network, and get to know each other more informally.
Roughly two-thirds (158/240) of the incoming Oxford MBA class is on Facebook. Over the summer, many students have posted pre-MBA “meet-up” events in London, Mumbai, and New York. In fact, I helped organize the event in New York where I met two other Oxford-bound MBAs. Between the three of us, we worked at Barclays, Goldman Sachs, and Smith Barney. In addition to working in finance, two of us owned our businesses (one of which has secured a patent). From meeting other alumni I have learned that there will be two others joining us. That makes five of us from New York, which is about 10% of the US intake!
Make good use of the networking while you can. Many good schools offer solid MBA programs, and some students even skip the MBA altogether, and instead study for the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation. The difference lies in the people you meet, and the relationships you build, especially at a school like Oxford, which sets a very high threshold for admission.
In some of my earlier posts I mention that Oxford is divided into three terms (Michaelmas, Hilary, and Trinity). The first term begins on October 5th, and consists of six mandatory core courses: Finance I, Decision Science, Financial Reporting, Strategy I, Managerial Economics, and Marketing. MBA Students, however, must arrive on September 30th for compulsory orientation. Unfortunately, college accommodations usually don’t start until October 1st, which means that early-arrivers will have to pay a modest £18 per diem to move in earlier.
Come Hilary term, students get to choose three electives, and six more electives for Trinity term. To give you a flavor of the different electives available, the following classes were recently posted on the intranet site for Trinity term (I’ve highlighted the ones I’d like to take). If you feel like a kid in a candy store, then maybe you should apply to Oxford:
Business History, Business in China, Capital Raising, Cooperative Strategy, Corporate Valuation, CSR & Ethical Marketing, Customer Insight, Derivatives, Design Leadership, Environment Organizations & Sustainability, Financial Risk Management, Leading Strategic Change, Managing Complexity, Managing High-growth Companies, Managing the Project Portfolio, Marketing Innovation, Mergers Acquisitions & Restructuring, Negotiations, Private Equity, Real Estate, Retailing, Social Finance, Social Enterprise Design, Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Taxation Finance & Business Strategy, and Trading & Market Microstructure.
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