Once in Boston: The Student Capital of the World!

Ok so I got to Boston on September 1st, 2013! It was my first time there, and it was going to be my home for one year. I had a couple of huge bags and I wasn't sure on how to get to my place. The thing I did I think is the most convenient you can do: use a cab to get home for the first time. 

It's not like you can't use the T, but for example, if you live in Cambridge, you have to take the blue line 4 stations to Gov. Center and then connect with the green line and go 4 more stations to get to Lechmere. If you live more towards MIT area, you might have to connect with the red line which will be a pain if you try to do it from the airport. Talking clear, the T is just a $2 ride, the cab might be $25 or so, but the pain of having to carry the bags through lots of stairs and getting on and off of the T makes it totally worth it.

Talking about the T, the green line is the principal line and it's always really confusing for new students, check this map out:

The Green line is divided in 4 "sub-lines": the E, the B, the C and the D. They separate themselves after the Copley station. This is important because if you want to go for example to Longwood Medical Area, is not like you just have to take the green line, you have to take the E. Also, If you want to come back straight to lechmere (east Cambridge), only the E will take you straight there, whereas other lines like the B, C or D might take you just to government center or north station. Also, the T is not always underground, so if you see some sort of small train in the middle of the street, that's the subway. It goes under or above ground at different stations.

Back to Boston, the city is amazing. Is one of the oldest cities in the US. I highly recommend you to just walk around the first days to get familiarized with the area. This are some pictures I took the first day I decided to go and take a walk:

Of course, it's very important to go to Fenway Park and see the Red Sox stadium. I'm a Yankee fan so I didn't like it so much, but I must admit is a landmark of the city and of baseball history.

The Hult campus is beautiful. It's just next to the Charles River and it has a really nice park in front. Here some pictures:

One of the first things that really caught my attention was that a lot of people were giving away furniture and used equipment in the streets. That's because most of the people graduate from their programs in summer and they start moving out of their apartments. New people start coming in and clean everything, leaving stuff on the streets that sometimes might be useful for other people who want them. This is an example:

It says: "Free, take me home". The couch was in really good conditions!

There are so many things to do in Boston...I have been in more than 5 amazing concerts in different places, the sports teams are also something very important in the city: the Bruins, the Red Sox, the Patriots and the Celtics are the four main teams that everyone roots for in the city. Go to a game of each is mandatory during your stay in Boston!

Talking about weather I can say that each season is fairly different than the other, winter can get incredibly cold and summer incredibly hot. I really like that because there are so many different activities to do in each season that you never get bored. This is a picture I took in four seasons at Boston:

There are many excellent restaurants in the city, but so far you must go to Top of the Hub at Prudential Center. The view is simply astonishing and the food is really good.

Finally, you should totally go to Harvard and MIT as the biggest and perhaps most prestigious universities in the world. 

Well, I hope these comments can help you out to feel more prepared to go to Boston and enjoy all the incredible things the city offers. Anyway, if you ever feel like you have seen it all in the city, you can always take a bus 4 hours to New York with greyhound (www.greyhound.com) or just rent a car and go to New Hampshire (where is incredibly cheap to shop because there are no Value Added Taxes) or go to Maine during Fall to see all the trees changing colors (which is supposed to be one of the most beautiful things to see on the east coast). Anything you do just remember that part of your program is not just classes but living in an amazing city and having fun!!

In the next post I will talk about the first day at Hult (integration day) and later on I will start the posts for each module! stay tuned!

Where to live in Boston? Logistics for New Students!

Hello again!

As you already know, I decided to go to Boston for my Master's degree. However, I had no idea about where to live, I had never been in Boston before and I barely knew something about it!

It's very easy to get lost using Craigslist (http://boston.craigslist.org/) but it might be a good idea to sort out prices (beware of spammers in Craigslist, it's very common to receive automatic mails from people who don't exist, so always reply and make sure the person is real). There are other sites but aren't so good, the best option you have is to ask someone who already lives in Boston for some advice. 

If you'll study at Hult, the closest areas are East Cambridge and Charlestown/Bunker Hill. But to give you a quick idea, I live in East Cambridge and my room (which is one in a three bedrooms flat 10 minutes walk from school) costs around $800-$900 a month excluding utilities such as internet, gas or electricity. Including all that, you can get easily to $1000 to $1100 depending on the season, because in winter it gets really cold. Check out this picture I took after the snow storm "Nemo" in December:

You can see in the right the window to my room:

This means one thing: you'll spend a lot of money in heating your apartment. But anyway, it will be offset in summer where things look much better and the temperature will be around 24 Cº (or 82 Fº). Something like this:

Coming back to the location spot recommendations, I will show you a quick map from where I live:

This is just to illustrate the fact that you should make sure to have everything close by (school, supermarket, laundry place, the subway --in Boston is called the "T"--, pharmacy, and liquor store -for some of you-). You might think that 30 or 40 min from the nearest supermarket is no big deal, but when you're at -24 ºC (or -11 ºF) every minute in the street counts!

Here's a Google Map for you to understand where's the school located in relation to Boston:

View Larger Map

If you can visit the apartment before moving in it would be perfect. If it's furnished then it's even better, otherwise you might have to go to IKEA to buy stuff and that will mean renting a car and taking a 40 min trip to buy everything you need. If you have never been in IKEA before, is a very interesting experience, the place is a maze but you can find literally everything you need to be 100% equipped! Click here for more info about the closest IKEA store to Boston!

Cambridge and Boston are separated by the Charles River. However if you want to live in Boston, you can access Cambridge through the green or red lines of the T. The closest stops if you want to go to Hult are Community College (Orange Line) and Lechmere (Green Line) - Check the T lines clicking here! (I also recommend you to download an app called Boston T). Usually, when people see you getting off the green line for the first time they are like:

But is not so bad!

Finally, I must say that living in Cambridge is cool because it's quiet and residential and you have Boston nearby using the T, however living in Boston itself (Back Bay, Fenway, North End, Beacon Hill, Brookline, etc.) is much more active and close to the city's main attractions. It will most likely be more expensive too, but you can always find good deals, I have a friend that lives just 5 minutes from my place and pays around $650 per month!, I also know people that pay over $2000. It all depends on how much do you research and what your standards are. Keep in mind that the best way to find what you need is to talk to friends or people who already live there and are probably moving out or know someone who will do so (first networking exercise of the year!)

Anyhow, once you have chosen a place to stay (please beware if you will have roommates, try to really get to know them through Facebook, LinkedIn or just by talking to them before closing the deal). You are ready to start knowing the city. I can tell you that Boston has a lot of things to see and enjoy, in my next post I will talk about the city and the things I liked and disliked, giving you some tips to get the best out of it! stay tuned!

Choosing the Home and Rotation Campuses, getting ready to go!!

Hello! I think I left you guys wondering about the campus selection and rotation at Hult. As I mentioned before, the School has campuses in Boston, London, Dubai, Shanghai and San Francisco. At first, I decided I wanted to go to London. Why? basically three reasons:

1. I have never been in the UK before, so it was a nice chance to get to know an amazing place!

2. I love Europe, so it was a great location to move around and travel to a few additional countries.

3. London is perhaps one of the most important cities in Europe. A financial hub and a great place for networking.

I talked to my recruiter and told her that I wanted to go to London. But that's not the end of the story. I ended up changing my campus selection. I know what you're thinking now...

Well, yeah...there were two things that made me change my opinion: the living expenses and the fact that I can't work in the UK after finishing my studies. In addition to this, I have family in the U.S. but I have no one in the UK. I know this sounds a bit trivial but you don't realize the importance of having family close to you until you go away.

After talking to my dad and mom, I decided to choose Boston. It's a great place for networking, for learning, for living, and it was the closest campus to where my dad lives. I called my recruiter and told her about my decision and she told me that I had to pay my tuition fast because it was filling up quickly, especially because in Boston there's only one MIB cohort (class of aproximately 70 students). I know what you think now...how do I know how many cohorts are in each campus? well, the answer is: you don't know. So I will tell you what I found:

- In Boston there's only one MIB cohort and three MBA cohorts

- In San Francisco there are 4 MIB cohorts (yes, don't ask me why), one MBA cohort, one MSE (Master's in Social Entrepreneurship) and one MIM (Master's in International Marketing) cohort.

- In Dubai there are one MIB , one MBA, and one MIM cohort.

- In Shanghai there are only one MBA cohort and one MIB cohort 

- In London there are two MBA cohorts, two MIB cohorts, one MIM and one MSE cohort

Ok, maybe this was confusing and you're like:

This information is just referential so you get an idea of which programs are in which campuses and also you can get an idea on how big each campus is. It's important to note that each campus is expanding significantly so probably more cohorts will be added in the near future, but these were the numbers for 2013. At the end it's really important to know as much as possible in order to choose a rotation campus. Each city has particular industries where they stand out. Some of them are:

- Boston is strong in Health Care, Consulting and Finance

- San Francisco is strong in High Tech and Marketing

- Dubai is strong in Luxury and Operations

- Shanghai is strong in Trade and Operations

- London is strong in Finance and Insurance

You can also rotate to Sao Paolo or New York, but those are really small campus and only for rotation. They offer very specific courses and are fairly new.

The rotation campus doesn't have to be officially picked up until February, there's a pre-registration at the end of module A (around December) and the final registration is during module B. Each city represents a very exciting place to learn and live!

So it basically depends on your taste and interests. In my case I chose San Francisco because I wanted to have a good idea of the East and West coast of the US. Also because I heard San Francisco was the best city to live in the US. After being here for a month I wouldn't say that, but I will discuss that in another post further on!

I was ready, had the program chosen, the school, the home campus, the rotation campus...everything's set up! in the next post I will talk about choosing a place to live and also about rotation logistics and finally about my first days in Boston, stay tuned for more!

The Business School Decision. A tough one

What people don't want to admit when they go to Business School

My decision to go to Business School was basically the result of a self assessment I did when starting my professional career in the corporate world. In the year 2010, I was a recently graduated industrial engineer in Venezuela, with very little work experience. Then, I applied for an internship at Procter & Gamble in Caracas. The P&G building around my neighborhood was HUGE, it really made you feel insignificant and gave you the feeling that the company was actually a giant in the country, check this picture:

P&G Venezuela is one of the biggest markets for this consumer goods giant. It had huge offices really close to my place and offered a nice opportunity to start my corporate career. After three years working there, I decided to quit. When I told my family and friends about my decision, almost everyone thought I was crazy. Living 5 minutes from work, working in the biggest company in the country, earning good money in comparison with the average salary, certainly sounded like a nice deal.The company had really clear rules to get promoted, but I wanted faster growth. Usually people don't like to admit that they were very ambitious or selfish at some point in their career, but actually this hunger for success is the main driver to take risks and key decisions in life. At least from my perspective.

I decided to quit my job and apply for a business master's degree to learn the know how and theory behind business management. Of course I saved enough money to pay for my graduate studies, neither my dad nor my mom had the economic means to sponsor me a master's degree abroad. All this with the objective to launch my career to new heights.

Which program? Business education is just too broad

I wanted to study business, so what? which program? there are hundreds of options worldwide, so I really had to narrow it down. After a long research, I decided to enroll in a Master's in International Business program. This degree is not very common worldwide, teaches the key things needed in the business environment in any company worldwide, and represents a great cost/benefit for young professionals or students without a long professional experience. Also, a few other reasons were:

1. MIB costs between 50%-60% of an MBA (with subtle differences in the courses offered)

2. I felt MBA programs were somehow cliche, I wanted something different, something that when seen in my resume people will ask: "wow, I haven't heard of that program before, please tell me more".

3. It's easier to study in a highly ranked MIB program than an MBA program because of the demand MBA's have nowadays.

So it was settled, I wanted a MIB program. Now the next question to answer was...where?

The Hult Decision

After doing an extensive research on highly ranked MIB programs, I found three potential schools that really caught my attention: Hult, FIU, and Manchester University. I applied and was accepted in all of them. However, Hult offered the best cost/benefit, I think the things that really distinguished this school from the rest were:

1. The Financial Times and The Economist Rankings for the School:

2. The Global Rotation Program. Hult has campuses in Boston, San Francisco, Dubai Shanghai and London. Certainly is the only Business School that offered the opportunity to study your program in so many campuses around the world. Check out this video to see what I'm talking about:

3. Again, the price. I was paying for my studies, I had to choose the best cost/benefit option according to my budget. The price was fairly good in comparison to other options and usually those other options were lower in the rankings.

So I was set, I wanted to do an MIB at Hult International Business School, next I would have to decide in which campus, understand pros and cons, think on a rotation campus, and prepare everything for the exciting journey that was coming up! I will talk about these topics in my next post so stay tuned for more!