Originally posted May 29, 2005 8:35 AM by Zachary (e-mail)
I attended the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan from August 2003 through April 2005, when I graduated with my MBA. This weblog is my attempt to describe the full-time MBA experience, the things that make Ross unique, and the fun of living and studying in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

During my 22 months here, the Ross School of Business received the largest alumni donation of any business school in US history, changed its name, was ranked #1 by the Wall Street Journal, and announced plans for the construction of a new building. I made tons of friends, successfully transitioned from IT into a sales and trading career, travelled to Ireland on an IMAP, saw a lot of football, and, oh yeah, learned a bit about business.

I hope this weblog proves a useful resource for prospective students, applicants, and other interested parties. Please remember that it is just one student's view, my own, and others would have different stories to tell about the school. I would encourage applicants to attend a Michigan event, visit the school, and contact some of the student ambasadors with questions.

Go Blue!
Zachary Emig

Posted 9:30 AM by Zachary (e-mail)

Post-MBA Wrapup 5: Post-MBA Life
This ten week patch between graduation and the start of my job will be coming to an end in a couple weeks, when I start my career as a fixed income trader. On one hand, I'm grateful for having so much time off (I feel sorry for my Chicago GSB colleagues, whose late graduation date must put a lot of pressure on their post-MBA schedule)--time enough to pack, move, unpack, and take a nice vacation. On the other hand...G*D DAMN am I read to start work again!

Hence, my summary of the pros and cons of resuming work life:

Pros of Working Again
1. Life returning to a normal, regular routine.
2. Sense of purpose/role in society.
3. Paycheck.
4. Competition. Focus. Drive.
5. Meeting new people.
6. Weekdays are no longer filled with annoying little errands.

Cons of Working Again
1. All (?) those annoying errands are now packed into the weekends.
2. Can't attend movies during weekday afternoons.
3. ?

As you can see, for me, the pros far outweigh the cons.

Posted 8:18 AM by Zachary (e-mail)

Post-MBA Wrapup 4: Move to New York
If I had to grade my experience of moving, using U-Haul, to Ann Arbor back in 2003, I would give it an F- - - - - - - - - - - - -. If I was in a generous mood.

Well, the move out here to Brooklyn, with so much potential to turn out worse, ended up working out well. Thanks to Handle With Care movers, the full-service movers I hired this time. Sure, they probably costed a bit more than trying to do the move myself, but they work worth every penny: on-time, courteous, quick, and hard-working. A solid B+ in my book.

I've moved to Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, and have fallen in love immediately. Ann Arbor was nice and all, but here I can reach good Thai, Japanese, Italian, French, Tex-Mex, reaturants; a fresh fishmarket; a movie theater; all within a short, five minute walk. Not to mention being a seven minute subway ride from Wall Street. Of course, I'm paying through the nose for it.

Here's my first Brooklyn BBQ photo, from my private backyard.

Posted 7:52 AM by Zachary (e-mail)

Post-MBA Wrapup 3: Beach Vacation in St. Martin
Like many other new grads, I took advantage of the ten week gap between graduation (late April) and the start of work (mid-July) to take do a little travelling. Since my goal for these ten weeks was to have as relaxing and tension-free a time as possible (and moving to New York at the same time), I aimed for a beach-oriented trip rather than my usual sightseeing travels.

French St. Martin was the perfect choice. St. Martin is a small island in the Eastern Caribbean, between Antigua and St. Barths. The interesting thing about St. Martin is that it's partitioned between two countries: the southern side (with the main international airport, SXM) is Dutch, and the northern side is French. I stayed in the small town of Grand Case, on the French side, which contained little more than a beautiful beach and a string of great French restaurants started by Parisian chefs on their winter getaways.

If you're looking for a vacation that involves nothing more than sunbathing, swimming, snorkeling, and eating well; and if you're looking for a vacation that's not painfully expensive (St. Martin is pricy compared to much of the Caribbean, but is not crazy like St. Barths); I can't recommend St. Martin enough. I would recommend the French side, which (to me) had a more European feel than the Dutch side (which seemed full of American fast food shops, chain stores, and casinos). My stay at the Grand Case Beach Club (photo above) was lovely.

Notes:
1. US dollars were accepted everywhere we went.
2. English is a little less prevalent on the French side, but, at least in Grand Case, all the hotel workers and restauranters spoke it.
3. The weather in late June: mostly sunny, highs in the mid-80s, lows in the mid-80s. There were one or two 5-minute squalls that passed by during my weeklong stay.

Posted 7:44 AM by Zachary (e-mail)

Post-MBA Wrapup 2: Facing Terrorism
As this MBA blogger mentioned, yesterday's viscious attack on London brought up memories of the morning of September 11th on the island of Manhattan.

It was a strange coincidence that yesterday afternoon, as I was unpacking the last few boxes, I came across a small "emergency kit" that I put together and carried around in the wake of 9/11. Nothing fancy--flashlight, pocket knife, dust mask, eye drops, bandages, etc.--just things that I'd want to have on my person if I were 1. unlucky enough to be in the vicinity of an attack, 2. lucky enough to survive, and 3. possibly trapped in a small/dark space in the aftermath. Maybe this sounds kind of paranoid, but we forget that in the days and weeks following 9/11, everyone was waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Considering that 1. I'll be working within a stone's throw of both Ground Zero and the New York Stock Exchange, and 2. I'll be commuting on subways every day, maybe it makes sense to throw that emergency kit into my backpack. I'm sure many Londoners would've appreciated a flashlight yesterday.

Posted 7:28 AM by Zachary (e-mail)

Post-MBA Wrapup 1: UM Golf Course
After my handful of lessons last fall and a half-dozen visits to the driving range this Spring, I finally, finally, played my first round of golf in early June.


After hearing so much about the University of Michigan Golf Course, a friend and I got a tee time on June 10th (it's very inexpensive for students and alums) and I got to see it first hand. All I can compare it to is the small piece of the PineView Golf Course that I could see from the driving range, and by that measure the UM course was both beautiful and quite hilly/twisty.


I was pleased with my final score: only one lost ball, on my way to shooting a 75. Over nine holes, that is.

The experience didn't turn me into a golf fanatic, but it was really enjoyable--the challenge of the game, being out in the sun, competing against the course, yourself, and your companions. I only wish I had taken more time out to play while I was a student.

Posted 9:10 AM by Zachary (e-mail)

Stafford Loan Rates go from 2.8% to 4.7% in July; Consolidate Now!
Passing along some useful information I received from the Michigan financial aid office. It seems that the Department of Education resets the student loan interest rates every July, so if your Federal Loans are floating rate, you'll get a huge rate hike in a month. That is, unless you consolidate to a fixed rate loan now.

The details:

This is a reminder that you have only until the end of June to consolidate your Federal Direct Stafford Loans in order to lock in the current
in-school/grace period interest rate of 2.78%. We recommend that you apply for consolidation by June 27, 2005 to ensure your application will be processed before the July 1, 2005 interest rate increase. Rates at that time will increase to 4.7% for the in-school/grace period rate and 5.3% in repayment. By consolidating NOW, you can SAVE UP TO 10% over the life of your loan!

HOW TO APPLY:
Consolidation is combining your variable rate Direct Loans into one loan at a FIXED INTEREST RATE (you may consolidate even if you have only one loan). Apply for consolidation online in as little as 8 minutes at the U.S. Department of Education's Direct Loan Servicer website:
http://www.dlssonline.com/consolidatenow/welcome.asp.
There is no charge to consolidate. To complete the application, you will need to refer to your monthly loan statements and your borrower account information; see the View Student Loan Summary page of Wolverine Access at https://wolverineaccess.umich.edu.

Consider this a friendly public service announcement to the other Class of '05ers out there.

Posted 1:09 PM by Zachary (e-mail)

Updated: Cell Phone Ordering: LetsTalk vs WireFly
Since both my wife's and my Verizon Wireless contracts expired on Monday, we both got new cell phones, a new carrier, and ported the number. We haven't had any major problems with Verizon Wireless, but, with probably three or four international trips--work and personal--on the horizon, we wanted GSM tri-band phones that we could used in Europe and Japan (what is GSM? see this article).

In the US, that limited us to T-Mobile or Cingular, since Verizon Wireless and Sprint don't sell GSM phones. I chose T-Mobile because 1. I'm a satisfied T-Mobile HotSpot customer, 2. in my image, T-Mobile has the better network abroad, 3. both offer good coverage of New York, and 4. they had the phones that we wanted.

As it were, WireFly.com offered the phone and service plan I wanted for free, while LetsTalk.com offered the phone and service plan my wife wanted at the better price. Here's how the two very similar looking sites stacked up:

	LetsTalk.com	WireFly.com
Site Ease of Use	Very good	Very good
Phone & Price	Motorola A630 $99	Blackberry 7230 Free
Time to Port Phone Numbers	2 hours	2 days
Time to Receive Phones After Order	1 day	3 days
Time to New Phone Activation After Order	1 day	6 days
Irritations	None	FedEx misplaced my delivery, adding an extra 3 days to the delivery time. The WireFly.com customer service rep was not friendly when I called about getting my delivery fee reimbursed.

The conclusion I'd draw from this is, if the prices are the same on the two sites, LetsTalk.com will get your new phone up and running faster.

Update 1: In fairness, not 30 minutes after FedEx told me I wouldn't get the package until Monday, it showed up [Friday afternoon]. That doesn't change the fact that the WireFly.com customer service rep was kind of ornery.

Update 2: In first impressions, when comparing my new Blackberry versus my wife's new Motorola A630, I feel like I chose the boring, efficient engineering tool and she chose the sleek, cool jukebox. I was surprised and disappointed to find the Blackberry still doesn't have polyphonic ring tones (it's stuck with beeps and flat tones); I had so wanted to download the Michigan Fight Song as my ringtone.

That said, after a day of use, I'm starting to warm up to the Blackberry. It was a cinch to set up email accounts, and the screen and keyboard size is ideal for messaging. With all its bells and whistles, the interface for the Motorola is more confusing, and we still haven't gotten email working on it.

So, although it lacks the sex appeal, I think the Blackberry will prove the better choice for business and personal use in the end.

Update 3: Donate your old cell phones! Call to Protect is a group that "collects wireless phones to benefit victims of domestic violence. Proceeds from the sale of phones help fund agencies that fight domestic violence and are also used to support the educational efforts of the Wireless Foundation. Other phones are refurbished and become lifelines for domestic violence victims when faced with an emergency situation."

Since we're now up to 5 old cell phones sitting unused in our apartment, I'll be making a donation shortly.

Posted 11:29 AM by Zachary (e-mail)

Sweet and Sour
The past week, my mornings were filled with:

Although it's not the closest golf course or driving range, I usually make the fifteen minute drive East to Ypsilanti's Pine View Golf Course. Reasons: 1. the driving range isn't crowded (important when you're a beginner), 2. it's away from town, and thus more peaceful, 3. the driving range is less expensive than others, and 4. habit--it's where I took my first golf lessons last Fall.

Of course, the rest of the day is spent at home, packing boxes for the move. After several false dawns, I do think that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now. Really.

Sigh.