hilary [trek]: part 1, new york

Certainly one of the highlights of the Oxford MBA is the global Treks that take place in April between Hilary and Trinity terms. This year the Oxford SBS Alumni Relations Office recognized ten different Treks. They included China (Hong Kong & Shanghai), Geneva, Germany, India, Japan, Middle East, New York/Boston, Nigeria/Ghana, Silicon Valley, and Spain. Although students organize these Treks, they are supported by both the Alumni Office and the Careers Office. In fact, the New York/Boston Trek that I organized was of such strategic importance that both the Careers director and the Alumni director attended. Well, technically, the Alumni director's flight was cancelled due to the volcanic eruption in Iceland, but still...these Treks are big events!

Any Oxford MBAs interested in "pitching" a Trek next year will typically face a deadline on the second-to-last Friday in January (i.e. Friday, January 22, 2010). During the following week, students actually pitch their Trek ideas with the winners being announced the following Monday (i.e. Monday, February 1, 2010). By this point, you should have already identified a team to help you, a list of students who have displayed interest in attending the Trek, and a list of companies that you are targeting.

Your Trek team will be given 30-minutes to pitch the proposal to a committee consisting of at least the Alumni and Careers directors. At this point, the New York/Boston Trek had "indications of interest" by email from 50 MBA students, of which, ultimately 12 attended the Trek. We had also compiled a 5 slide PowerPoint deck, which identified the dates of the Trek, as well as the flight, hotel, and estimated budget. Of the 15 companies that we had originally identified, we wound up seeing 10 of them, which is a pretty strong success rate. This year all 10 Treks were approved, and collectively over 150 of the 243 students in the 2009/10 class visited 100 companies. Hopefully, next year will be as strong - if not stronger!

Most people flew-in to New York (JFK airport) the weekend before our Trek started. Many people stayed with friends or family to save money. It appears that everyone knows someone in NYC! Those who stayed in a hotel chose "The Pod Hotel" in midtown Manhattan for about $75 each per/night (assumes sharing a room). You can book online, or call them at (212) 355-0300 (info@thepodhotel.com). I think that the best deal they offer is an en-suite room with two twin-sized beds, which for some reason can only be booked over the telephone, not over the Internet. We just missed our Columbia MBA counterparts this trip, but ideally next year we'll able to organize a night-out, or a brunch, to share our "case-study" war-stories.

We tried to cluster our company visits together. For example, on Monday we stayed downtown and visited Citigroup at 388 Greenwich Street, and then Deutsche Bank at 60 Wall Street. The next two days were spent largely in midtown. On Tuesday we visited CBRichardEllis, Credit Suisse, and Barclays Capital. We finished in New York on Wednesday by seeing Sanford Bernstein, SecondMarket, and Pfizer. Similarly, next year's Trekkers should consider visiting no more than three companies each day.

It would be unfair to choose favorites, but suffice to say that ALL of ours hosts had put a considerable amount of time and effort into our visit, and we could not be more grateful. Learning about how the commercial real estate market in New York is structured, and how absorption rates may presage an economic turnaround was absolutely mind-blowing. Other companies were saddled with the Herculean task of finding buyers for hundreds of billions worth of assets. One company shared with us that they knew exactly where every oil tanker in the world was at anyone given point in time by cross-referencing insurance records with maritime weather reporting. Bright people!

Still others spoke to us about the intersection of finance and social welfare through microfinance. Meanwhile a bunch of young and talented hot-shots are fastidiously creating new markets around the world for trading illiquid assets. I wonder if I could buy a PPM (private placement memorandum) in their company through their own trading architecture - that would be interesting!? Finally, the last company on our New York trek brought out an impressive line of managers who deftly answered our questions regarding the effect of Obamacare on the healthcare industry, and how pharma companies compete for market share in emerging markets that are already saturated with generic drugs.

Needless to say, this New York Trek was a real treat for all of us. We are eternally grateful to our kind and generous hosts. We trust that they were sufficiently impressed with us, too, so that they will be willing to meet with next year's Oxford MBA class!

hilary [trek]: part 2, boston

After spending the first three days of the week in Manhattan, we shuttled off to Penn Station, bags in tow, and fresh from our afternoon meeting with Pfizer, to catch our Amtrak train to Boston. I suggest next year's Trekkers to order train tickets in advance, when they can be bought for as little as $48 one-way, as the price can double just a few days before departure. The more adventurous "budget traveller" can take the Fung Wah Bus out of Chinatown for $15 one-way - there is no cheaper way to travel from New York to Boston. In either case, you will want to get off at the Boston South Station (BOS) near the financial district.

Our Career Director really earned his keep during this 4 1/2 hour train ride as he indulged our many questions regarding career advice. We checked-in to the Holiday Inn at Beacon Hill. I recommend this hotel to next year's Trekkers, because it's conveniently located near both the financial district, and the MBTA Red Line, which can get get you to Cambridge to visit Harvard and MIT within a 5-minute subway ride. We booked the hotel through Priceline.com for $95 per/night for a twin room, which meant that when sharing the bill, it cost us less than $50 per/night each. The hotel is located at 5 Blossom Street, and you can reach them by calling (617) 742-7630.

Thursday was our first full-day in Boston. We were scheduled to visit our MBA counterparts, and some Oxford alumni, at the Harvard Business School. As President of the Oxford Finance Club, I reached out to my counterparts at HBS, Co-Presidents Melvin and Larry, who were kind enough to host us during our trip to Cambridge. In return, we offered to host them during their London Trek in late November (during the Thanksgiving holiday). It was a great opportunity to compare notes on what activities our respective finance clubs had planned for the year. Melvin met us outside the Baker Library at 10am, and walked us over to attend our first HBS class. Professor Matthew Weinzierl kindly introduced himself to us. A wunderkind who focuses on taxation issues, the Professor Weinzierl is a hands-down student favorite who teaches the BGIE (Business, Government and the International Economy) required class to first year students.

After class we ate on campus at the Spangler Food Court. Then, we spent the rest of the day discovering Harvard University. I walked down Oxford Street, and found my way to the Harvard Law School where I sat for a while reading under the warm sun, taking everything in - it had been a busy Trek so far! Later in the evening, we met with some Oxford alumni, who were now studying at HBS and HLS, and enjoyed a nice dinner, courtesy of Oxford Alumni, at a highly-recommended restaurant, called "Upstairs on the Square."

Following a nice day of rest-and-relaxation, we visited the last two companies of our Trek on Friday. We started the day at the international headquarters for Fidelity Investments at 245 Summer Street in Boston. Founded in 1946, Fidelity grossed more than $12 billion in sales last year. The nation's largest private mutual fund company, Fidelity rose to prominence when famed mutual fund manager, Peter Lynch, averaged a 29% annual return during his tenure between 1977 and 1990. With over $20 billion in assets, the Magellan fund has now been eclipsed by the Fidelity "Contrafund," which has nearly $60 billion in assets. Each year, Fidelity brings in roughly twice the total number of assets of Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, and Citi Smith Barney combined. In addition to its retail activities, Fidelity also boasts a very strong asset management business. Our host Alison invited Matt from institutional research to talk with us about the exciting things that FRM is doing. Thank you both very much!

Later in the afternoon, we walked down the block to visit State Street Corp at 1 Lincoln Street. Our host Lauren organized a tour de force. Over the course of two hours, we toured the trading floor, met with the head of Talent Acquisition (Richard), the recruiter for SSgA-Global Advisors (Erin), and the recruiter for SSGM-Global Markets (Amy). They were incredibly generous with their time. The head of trading also stopped by to take us through a day-in-the-life of a new hire in the "professional development program (PDP)." Like many other companies, State Street is looking to expand its footprint, and its "global rotational program (GRP)" with SSgA sounds very promising, yet extremely competitive. Thank you for making it a spectacular visit!

Finally, I would once again like to thank Harvard University, Fidelity Investments, and State Street for making our New York/Boston Trek an unmitigated success. I hope that you were as impressed with us, as we were with you. I very much look forward to helping next year's MBA class visit again, and to include other Boston financial firms, such as Putnam Investments and MFS. Now it's back to Oxford to start Trinity term (ends July 3rd), provided this Icelandic volcanic eruption stops already!

hilary [trek]: press release, launch

For the past two-months I've been organizing a cross-Atlantic Trek to New York. Everything is now ready to go! We're visiting ten blue-chip companies in New York and Boston, and twelve MBAs are participating. While we're here, we're also attending alumni events in both New York and Boston. And we're going to meet our fellow MBAs at Columbia and Harvard. It should be great fun, and I'm going to blog about all of it! Let's start with the press release recently issued by the Oxford B-school Press Office:


Oxford Comes to Wall Street
MBAs on business trek to New York and Boston

9 – 18 April 2010

Saïd Business School, University of Oxford

A team of MBA students from Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford will be visiting the USA on a business trek organised by the School’s student network for Finance. The team will be visiting New York and Boston to meet with key companies from the financial sector in order to gain an insight into how business in the sector operates.

With participants from Europe, North and South America, and Asia the trek is an opportunity for students to increase their understanding of the financial markets and business developments in the US, to see firsthand how the financial sector is recovering, and to network with Oxford alumni and corporate contacts. The students also plan to meet with MBA candidates for the incoming class.

One of the organising students Justin Belkin said: ‘‘The MBA class at Saïd is very diverse with participants from around 50 countries worldwide and from a wide variety of different sectors. The School has an excellent finance faculty and many of the class, keen to pursue a career in that sector, expressed an interest in getting firsthand experience of American culture and trade so I decided to organise a trek focusing on different organisations on Wall Street and beyond. We could not have chosen a better time to visit. As the economy recovers, more employers are looking to recruit from the top business schools, and Oxford is a natural choice. This will be a good opportunity to highlight the USA as an attractive destination for a fulfilling post-MBA career.”

The 15 students undertaking the trek are all keen to forge strong connections and to learn from the companies they will meet on their visit including: Barclays Capital, CB Richard Ellis, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Fidelity Investments, Pfizer, Sanford Bernstein, SecondMarket, and State Street.

The Oxford students will also meet with fellow MBAs from both Columbia and Harvard Universities to network and build transatlantic relationships.

While the team is confident that they will hear practical wisdom from these interactions, they hope to reciprocate by engaging in meaningful dialogue and offering consultancy advice on specific opportunities and challenges for some of the organisation’s they visit.

Derek Walker, Head of Careers at Saïd commented: ‘It is good to see the strong interest among our students in working in the finance sector in the USA, and clearly the country presents good opportunities. The students have set up a series of valuable meetings and will also be working closely with our alumni there to maximise their opportunities. The visit is a good way for companies to meet MBA students who are highly motivated to work in the US, are geographically mobile, and who have a diverse range of cultural backgrounds, business specialisms and sector experience. We look forward to a successful visit.’

hilary [week 10]: oxford literary festival

It was time to head into town to reward myself with a nice caramel macchiato. I had just finished delivering a 10-minute PowerPoint presentation on our Darjeeling Tea Single Estate business proposal, and I was in need of some refreshment.

Every Hilary term, MBAs must pass the “Entrepreneurial Project (EP)” in order to graduate. The EP counts for one class, and is broken-up into two parts. The presentation part that I had just completed (40% of grade) lasted 30-minutes in total (i.e. 10m presentation, 10m Q&A, and 10m feedback). The second part of the EP consists of an 8,000 word paper/business plan (60% of grade), and is due on the first day of Naught Week (Trinity Term). The examiners will give us back the first part of our grade as early as this Monday, which coincidentally is the first day of finals.

But before I could start worrying about exams, I was driven by a much more important mission. To wrap my hands around a nice comforting cup of coffee goodness. As I walked through the Broad Street entrance into Waterstones bookstore in the old William Baker House, something immediately caught my attention. I came across an interesting flyer advertising the Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival, which was to start tomorrow.

So, I grabbed a flyer, and made my way up the two flights of stairs to the Costa Coffee café. I couldn’t believe my good luck! I found a new reason to come back to Oxford after I graduate. From this Saturday, March 20 until next Sunday, March 28 over 300 accomplished authors will be speaking across the University.

Each event costs £10 to attend, and they do not offer student discounts (I asked). Most events will be held at Christ Church. They’ve set-up special outdoor tents near the Memorial Garden entrance off St. Aldates that extend into the Masters Garden. Other authors will speak at Corpus Christi College, the Bodleian, and the Sheldonian.

I’ve taken a break from studies to see some fellow Exonians, namely Martin Amis and Philip Pullman. This Saturday I attended “The Fantasy Tradition at Oxford” at 2pm with authors Philip Pullman (Golden Compass), and William Horwood (Duncton Wood). I bought the “Golden Compass” for £7.99 and had Pullman sign it for me. I told him about my blog, too, but he seemed…confused/disinterested.

Next Saturday, Martin Amis will be speaking on his new book, “The Pregnant Widow.” I don’t know much about the book, but it appears rather miraculous how a widow can get pregnant – surely there must be some dramatic way around this?

There are many other fun events that I wish I could attend, but just don’t have the time. For example, the Director of the British Museum Neil MacGregor spoke at the Sheldonian about “A History of the World in 100 Objects.” On a sassier note, Dr. Brooke Magnanti will speak more about her literary career as blogger-cum-author where she recounts her days as a high-end call girl to pay for her doctoral studies at Sheffield.

I strongly urge you to pick up a schedule at either Blackwells or Waterstones, or simply walk down to Christ Church and follow the signs. I look forward to making the Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival a regular tradition for my family.

hilary [week 9]: hello press

I’m a seasoned veteran by now. It’s been nearly 6-months since I arrived in Oxford to start my MBA program. I guess you can say that I’ve reached the “half-way” mark...and I’ve been blogging about it ever since.

I am so interested in recording my experiences here, in fact, that I was one of the first MBAs to respond back in October to a request from the Saïd Business School Press Office to serve as a “Public Relations Ambassador”. They invited me to sit for an interview so that they could write a profile on me. That profile was then neatly tucked away in a desk draw. For nearly a half year that profile has not seen the light of day – until last week.

Apparently, an independent contributor to the Financial Times was writing a story on “blogging, Facebook, and social networking.” The SBS Press Office reached out to me asking if I would be interested in answering a few questions, and that the writer had a strict Monday deadline. A couple of days later I was chatting with the writer over the telephone for a half hour. I followed up a day later with an email to thank him. I also wanted to make sure that he was clear on what I had said during the interview, so I included the following recapitulation:

Introduction...the problem
After heeding the mantra of my previous employer that the future of investment banking was "Dubai, Mumbai, Shanghai, or say good-bye," I crossed the other side of the Atlantic to attend the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford where our class hails from nearly 50 countries. Now I was faced with a new problem...how to stay in touch with a diverse group of 250 MBAs? Facebook emerged as the clear solution - then Linkedin.

Facebook/Linkedin solution...
Facebook was such a popular choice, that the incoming MBA class actually migrated over from the "Incoming Student" intranet site to the new "Said Business School - Class of 2010" Facebook page. Part of the reason was that Facebook not only allowed for richer content, but also proved to be a better vehicle for communicating with past and future Oxford MBAs. Facebook proved so valuable to me as President of the Oxford Finance Club that I even launched a "Finance-OBN (Oxford Business Network)" Facebook page to publicize group events.

Blogging solution...
Nevertheless, as useful as Facebook and Linkedin have been to our MBA class in helping us coordinate and publicize activities, they couldn't quite capture the "human narrative" that old-fashioned blogging filled rather nicely. During the application process, in fact, I derived the most benefit from Googleing "Oxford MBA blogs." This led me to both the "official" Oxford MBA blog (for which I am now a contributor), and all the way to India where I regularly read (and contributed) to Pagalguy.

It became clear to me that no matter how glossy the MBA brochure, nothing could replace the down and dirty nitty gritty narrative of personal experience that others so kindly provided on these blogs. Having benefiting so much from the kind postings of others, I decided to give back to others by launching my own blog called, "Confessions of an Oxford MBA." Through Google Analytics I can see that my blog currently reaches thousands of readers in 45 countries from New York to New Dehli.

*I'm very curious to read this Monday's weekly FT "MBA Report" to see if: (a) they even run the article (b) do they mention me explicitly (quote) or implicitly (c) if they do quote me I hope it reflects well on SBS and myself. I'm sure I'll write an addendum to this blog post if they run the story in some form or another - it was a great experience either way.

hilary [week 8]: hector sants, ceo of fsa

Before choosing Oxford for my MBA, I had visited several other business schools. I was surprised to learn that in just about every instance, other business schools were geographically and culturally separate from the larger university. One thing that appealed to me about Oxford was the fact that the Saïd Business School is an integral part of the University of Oxford.

Many of the people whose names splash the headlines of the Financial Times come and speak at Oxford. In this way the business school benefits from Oxford’s 800-year history of educating leaders. Last Friday was no exception. Fresh from his morning interview with the BBC Today show, Hector Sants returned to his alma mater to deliver the Annual Lubbock Lecture in Management Studies to a packed theatre at the Saïd Business School, entitled “UK Financial Regulation: After the Crisis.”

Having served the past three years as CEO of the Financial Services Authority, Mr. Sants had already handed in his resignation in February, but with 6-months left to go in his term, he had a new announcement that he wanted to make at Oxford. As President of the Oxford Finance Club, I attended the event, and I was also invited to the boardroom afterwards to have dinner.

During the dinner, we followed Chatham House Rules allowing us to speak freely, but on the condition that opinions remained anonymous. We all shared a good laugh when I pointed out the fact that Mr. Sants and I would both be looking for jobs this summer. It just so happens that the FSA is hiring. I was surprised to learn that regulators get more exposure to global capital markets than investment bankers. I also suspect that regulators will be in high demand over the next few years as the financial services industry waits nervously to see what new rules will be meted out.

Mr. Sants’ tenure as CEO of the FSA began inauspiciously in July 2007. He had the misfortune of being appointed just weeks after two hedgefunds at Bear Stearns unexpectedly collapsed. This was followed by the American Home Mortgage bankruptcy in August. During these early days of the recession few had ever heard of collateralized mortgage obligations, or credit default swaps.

It was only a matter of time before the spill-over effect rippled across the Atlantic. The first to fall in the United Kingdom was Northern Rock in February 2008. Next, the British government nationalized part of Lloyds Bank and RBS. The FSA quickly found itself thrust into the limelight.

When the dust finally settled, the FSA received mixed reviews on its handling of the economic crisis. Many viewed the FSA as having too light of a touch for an industry that had witnessed regulatory concerns dating back to 1995 when Barings Bank collapsed. It appears that lax oversight may have once again contributed to a repeat of corporate excess.

To combat these criticisms, Mr. Sants emphasized during his speech that the FSA needs to be more proactive, including intervening earlier. Mr. Sants formally announced tougher consumer protection rules governing the sale of financial products to the public. He declared, “We will now seek to proactively intervene earlier in the product chain to anticipate consumer detriment and choke it off before it occurs.” This new “outcomes-based” approach to regulation replaces the previous “principles-based” regime. The FSA will continue to follow a broad set of principles, but the big difference will be much stricter supervision.

The new FSA approach to regulation ratchets up the dial on government heavy-handedness – perhaps too far. For example, reform on an institutional level will at the very minimum entail annual stress tests for banks. His speech also alluded to a possible “insurance tax” on financial institutions to offset systemic risk. Mr. Sants summarized his position as follows, “Higher capital and liquidity will reduce the probability of failure.” Mortgage companies will also be policed by “mystery shoppers” who will be monitoring lending standards. Many wonder whether the FSA is going too far, or not far enough?

Despite these recent overtures, however, the FSA must still contend with the very real possibility that a Tory victory in the upcoming months may entirely uproot the institution that Mr. Sants has worked so hard to reform. Time will tell whether the money and political will exist for the FSA to succeed.

*At the request of the Saïd Business School Press Office, this blog was posted on the website "BusinessBecause" in an article entitled, Hector Sants Makes FSA Announcement at Oxford University.*

hilary [week 7]: Q&A student panel

Now the tables were turned. Slightly over one year had passed since that blistering cold February night when I set course across the Atlantic with Lisa for my Oxford MBA interview. I strategically scheduled my interview during an “Open Day” to maximize my visit. Now flash forward to Friday where I found myself seated opposite 60 eager applicants as part of an MBA student panel.

Owing to its relatively small size of 250 MBAs, the Saïd Business School interviews every short-listed MBA candidate before accepting them. Granted - some applicants opt for the telephone interview, but I was SO determined to get admitted into my top b-school choice, that I left nothing up to chance - and flew to Oxford to meet my maker face-to-face. Following my interview, I waited four painstaking weeks before learning their final verdict.

Similarly, many of the applicants who had come today were approaching the end of their journey, hoping for the same release. As I walked into the Rhodes Trust Lecture Theatre to sit next to some of my MBA classmates, I felt all eyes descend upon us, eager to glean whatever nuggets of wisdom they could find. First question…

How did you go about picking an Oxford College?

The University of Oxford is comprised of 38 colleges and 6 halls, of which 35 colleges currently accept MBA students. This is quite an impressive statistic – higher than Judge at Cambridge– indicating general acceptance of the newly minted MBA program within the larger University. The three colleges that don’t accept MBAs include Nuffield (alumnus Mohamed El-Erian), Somerville (alumnus Margaret Thatcher), and University (alumnus Bill Clinton). Every college boasts its own history, replete with rich tradition and fabled alumni. Colleges typically provide housing, food, religious service, and a Middle Common Room (graduate community) to MBA students apart from the b-school. You really can’t go wrong with any of your choices.

About one-third of the class becomes members of the de facto business college, GreenTempleton. Colloquially known as GTC, GreenTempleton offers housing right across from the b-school at Rewley Court, making it a popular choice for MBA with spouses, and families. Another 40 MBAs journey to St. Hugh’s where it is rumored to share a border with Scotland due to its geographic distance. Although I must confess it’s difficult to take issue with a college that has its own private-label wine.

For those yearning to become a member of a top sporting college, then you might do well to choose Brasenose. With its entrance idyllically situated opposite the Radcliffe Camera, Brasenose also has new housing near the b-school. In addition, "boaties" proudly display their “black and gold” as they can claim the oldest boathouse in the world (founded 1815).

Referred to as “the House,” few would pass on a chance to join Christ Church where they filmed the Harry Potter dining room scenes. This year we regularly played poker in the same MCR where Albert Einstein spent his time in 1931. But get ready to work. Their novice rowers practice perhaps more than any other college – often 8 times a week! After all, the novice rowing competition held during Michaelmas term is called the Christ Church Regatta.

As you walk down the centuries old Turl Street you’ll discover three very ancient colleges: Exeter (1314), Lincoln (1427), and Jesus (1571). Exeter’s view overlooking the Radcliffe Square has been consistently voted as the “best view in Oxford.” Exeter offers sumptuous en-suite housing, but you have to trek to Cowley to get there. In contrast, Lincoln offers centrally located quarters on Bear Lane (City-Centre). They’re so small and cramped, however, that you would have to travel to Greece to find something more Spartan. Finally, few colleges can out fillet Jesus and its MBA disciples when it comes to best food.

Whiles it’s impossible to profile every college, I certainly recommend taking a walk down Oriel Square toward the old cobble-stone Merton Street where you will pass Oriel before reaching Corpus Christi and finally Merton. All very beautiful colleges, you can often tell how old they are based on whether they kept to the traditional stone slab quads, which Corpus and Merton have, or whether they transitioned to the ubiquitous green lawn made fashionable in the 1850s. Oriel prides itself on having a strong rowing tradition, and this year they took a surprising number of MBAs (circa 15). Whereas Corpus is cozy, Merton is monolithic.

Arguably the oldest college in Oxford, Merton (1264) basks in resplendent glory of having developed the first archetypal “quad,” which was later adopted by the other Oxbridge colleges. Following one of the stranger Oxford traditions, Mertonians observe the “Time Ceremony” every October where they hold hands and walk backwards around the Fellows’ Quad while drinking port in order to maintain the space-time continuum. You might think that after all this revelry it would be difficult to walk straight, let alone think straight. Nonetheless, Merton regularly outperforms its peers academically by finishing toward the top of the Norrington Table every year.

If you believe in the Golden Rule: that he who has the gold makes the rules, then you might want to consider St. John’s, which is the richest of all the Oxford Colleges. This is also where former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair went to school. They are rumored to have the largest wine cellar in all of Oxford. With a rather large endowment in its own right, New College has trained several Hollywood actors including Hugh Grant and Kate Beckinsale. The New College Cloisters, along with its giant oak tree, were featured in the movie, Harry Potter: Goblet of Fire.

Meanwhile the more judicious among us should deliberate the merits of Magdalen College, which has educated two US Supreme Court Justices. Famous for having its own deer park, Magdalen was rumored at one point in its long history to keep the number of deer equal to the number of teaching fellows. This undoubtedly placed enormous pressure on faculty not to defect, lest they be served a never-ending staple of venison. But the biggest kept secret is that Magdalen offers free housing to the one MBA it accepts.

Although the answer I provided during the actual Q&A wasn't so in-depth, I do believe that I communicated the same basic point. There is not one perfect Oxford College. They all possess a unique charm. The larger point to be made is that this collegiate system is what separates the Oxford MBA from other b-schools. And if you find this enchanting, then choose Oxford!

*During the Q&A I was asked many other questions related to jobs, families, work/life balance, etc. Please write a comment below specifying which topic you would like me to address next*