Congratulations on gaining admission to a top-tier MBA program. We are so excited to have you join our family of MBA students here at UT Dallas. Whoosh! The hard part’s over, right? Wrong! This is where your transformation begins.
Before starting an intensive, life-altering program, now is time to take stock of what you are truly looking for—is it a job change, new career skill set, more control over your future, an expanded network—and start working toward the one or two top, personal goals.
You will be surprised at how many people are willing to share their experience with someone who is about to embark on their MBA journey.
For students who wish to expand their network, it’s never too early to begin reaching out to your friends and family to ask who in their network may have obtained an MBA. Start trying to cultivate relationships with individuals who have already been on this journey (LinkedIn can help you with this). Offer to buy them a cup of coffee for 30 minutes of their time. You will be surprised at how many people are willing to share their experience with someone who is about to embark on their MBA journey.
Admitted MBA students who do not have a strong quantitative background will want to take time before starting the program to brush up (or develop this skillset). Between free Khan Academy videos and paid courses such as MBA Math, there are a variety of resources in the market to help you achieve this. Our school also has a quantitative pre-program course, OPRE 6303, which covers all math topics needed for the courses in our MBA Program. For some of you, OPRE 6303, is a required program pre-requisite, but I’ve had other students who come from a liberal arts or music background (or haven’t seen algebra since high school) and love having such a thorough review before beginning their core MBA courses. Any new MBA student is welcome to take this course and we offer the course online to accommodate all our students. Contact mba@utdallas.edu for enrollment information.
Is the world of business new to you? The WSJ is an incredible resource for those new students who do not have a business background, but would like to begin understanding the current business climate. The Economist is also a great read for the same reason. You may find some of the industry jargon a bit foreign, but now is the time to begin catching up!
It may seem overwhelming, but taking the time before diving into your classes to begin expanding your network, brushing up on your quantitative skills, and begin understanding the business world will ease your transition into business school.
