Posted 7:09 PM by Zachary (e-mail)
More Career Counseling
I had my second Pre-Admit counseling session with the career center this morning, again very useful. Changing careers as I am, the hardest part is reorienting my resume away from what is important to IT managers (projects, technologies, deliverables) to what is important to a trading desk (skills, business exposure, experience).

After the first session, I redid my resume from the ground up. The big structural change was to switch from project-based bullet points to action/skill based bullet points. I got 70% of the way there, in the sense that my bullets no longer were titled as projects and were more skill-focused, but still there was a one-to-one relationship between project and point.

This session achieved to things. First, it did away with the one-to-one relationship for good, as I broke several projects into multiple points. Second, it helped me step back and reflect on the message I was trying to convey with each point. This meant shorter points, covering more variety, and getting the message across in a smaller space.

So far I having nothing but kudos for the Michigan Office of Career Development.

Posted 6:53 AM by Zachary (e-mail)
Michigan Financial Services Panel and Networking Reception
There was great turnout for last night's gathering, which took place at the Morgan Stanley headquarters in midtown. Over 200 alumni, students, and soon-to-be students came to network and participate in the panel discussion, which is astounding when you consider that it was originally planned for 50. Kudos to the ever-growing and all powerful New York alumni club, and its dynamic chariman, Cecil Shepherd.

The night broke into three segments: meet-and-greet (from 6:30 to 7:30), the panel discussion (7:30 to 8:30), and more overt networking (8:30 to 9:00+). The most rewarding segment, for an incoming student, was the panel, which included the head of Fixed Income at Lehman Brothers, the former President of the University of Michigan (? of was it Dean?), a Managing Director from TIAA-CREF, and an executive from American Express.

As befits my interest in trading, I focused most on speaking with the Lehman Brothers guy, trying to get a sense of what their recruiting perspective is for the coming year. Lehman is one of the biggest Investment Banking recruiters at UMBS, and they recruit only for summer interns (with the expectation that most of them will come back for a full time position). (From speaking to members of the finance club, the other big on-campus recruiter is JP Morgan, and students have also landed positions at Bear Sterns, Deutche, and Morgan Stanley).

The one point that all the panelists echoed was how incredible the turnout was, and how reflective it was of Michigan's rising alumni strength in the New York financial services industry. Joe White, the former UM President, mentioned that ten years ago you couldn't have gotten ten alumni together from financial services. This is my general impression as well, and I get the sense that Michigan grads, a tight bunch to begin with, will more and more make their presence felt in New York and on Wall Street.

Posted 9:14 PM by Zachary (e-mail)
Moving Truck Options
For a one-way truck rental from Maplewood, New Jersey, to Ann Arbor in early August, I got the following quotes online:

U-Haul - $2176.00 for a 26' truck for 4 days
Budget - $1194.00 for a 24' truck for 4 days
Penske - $1619.31 for a 25' truck for 4 days
Hertz, Ryder don't do one-way rentals

I'm pretty sure a 24' truck will be sufficient for us, coming from a 3 bedroom house, so it was a no-brainer to reserve with Budget.

Posted 11:27 PM by Zachary (e-mail)
Renting versus Buying
There has been some discussion of renting versus buying on the Michigan MBA class of 2005 mailing list. I considered both options when moving to AA, and will elaborate on why I chose to rent.

First, a bit of background. In the Spring of 2001 we purchased a single-family home in Maplewood, New Jersey, about 20 miles west of Manhattan. At that time, housing prices had increased steadily for several years, mortgage rates were near a historic low (of 6.00%!), and the economy was still in okay shape. We bought a home that we really liked, would enjoy living in, and planned to reside in for the next four or five years.

Had I known, at that time, that two years later I would be headed for business school, I would have been very reluctant to buy. Furthermore, had I known that New York would be attacked in a few months, America would fight two wars over the next two years, Wall Street would continue to hemmorage money and jobs, I would have flat out refused to buy a home. Depite all this, we are selling our home at 30% over the 2001 sales price (knock on wood--it just went on the market). My point is that I'm counting my lucky stars to be selling at profit after only two years.

There are two main ways to make money on housing: by paying off principal and by home value appreciation. If you own for only a short amount of time, very little principal is paid off, meaning you're counting on property appreciation to make money. But with ownership, you're already starting at a loss: there are the closing costs to paid--usually a couple percent of the sales price--when buying, as well as the realtor fees (in New Jersey they are generally 6%, paid by the seller). So, to break even, you need your property to appreciate 8% or 9% during the time you won it.

We got very, very lucky that, despite much negative news, interest rates dropped further and the housing market kept roaring. Who knows, maybe housing will stay hot for the next two years, making it possible to profit on a property. Being the conservative sort that I am, I wouldn't count on it. At the first signs of a sustained economic recovery, interest rates will rise, and mortgage rates will accompany them, the result being (I think) a large drop in demand for housing. That is my personal belief, and I don't want to risk graduating from school being under the money on both a mortgage and a student loan, and struggling to sell a house in a soft market to boot.

One other benefit of owning over renting is the federal interest rate tax deduction. Alas, since I won't have much income over the next two years, that didn't play a role in my decision. While we're on the subject of taxes, people need to be aware that, unless you've lived in a residence for at least two years, you will face Federal taxes on the sale of the property (see the IRS website for info, including this handy guide to home sales). So were I to buy in August, I would face a tax liability were I to sell at any point before August 2005. That's an extra couple of mortgage payments, down the drain.

There are many other smaller reasons that we chose to rent instead of buy. I didn't want to have the responsibility of mowing the lawn, shoveling snow, painting walls, fixing stuff, etc., all the "hidden" chores of home ownership. We wanted to live in a newer property, which we couldn't afford to buy. We wanted to be live near other students. In the end, it was a very, very easy decision for us, and I'll be glad to give up home ownership in the coming months.

Posted 9:20 PM by Zachary (e-mail)
Housing Search Summary
Coming from the New York area, housing in Ann Arbor is spacious, modern, and inexpensive. Based on our own experience, I would say that most incoming students could probably find a place within a few days of being in the area, if they do their homework ahead of time. I'll write a bit about the process my wife and I went through in our search, and how we settled upon Woodland Meadows.

The two questions that all incoming students need to ask themselves are 1. how close to campus do I need to be and 2. how much space do I need. In my mind, there are only two real answers to the former question: "close enough that, in snowy, sub-zero weather, I could walk to UMBS in under ten minutes" and "commuting distance". That is, once you pass a certain threshold distance--which I'd put at two-thirds of a mile or so--you might as well be two or three miles away, because on most winter days you won't want to walk.

Since we own a car and have no problem commuting, I immediately gravitated to the "commuter" option. Those choosing to live near campus need to deal with paying more for a lot older and smaller housing stock, as well as with the abundance of undergrads living in those areas (which would make certain blocks pretty noisy on weekends).

The critical factor for my wife and I was size. We currently own a three bedroom house, which means both that we're used to plenty of room, and that we have a large amount of stuff. Unless we were going to rent out a storage unit, that meant we were looking at large apartments, townhomes, and renting private houses.

Below are the housing complexes we visited on our recent trip to Ann Arbor (roughly in the order we saw them), with some comments of mine. We also saw some homes for rent, but never found one that was big enough, nice enough, and in our price range to justify the extra burden of maintaining a home.

Harbor House
This apartment complex was at the top of my list, but when we showed up they told us that they had literally no two or three apartments available and didn't forsee any opening up by August. In addition, they already had a few names on the waitlist in case such an apartment opened up.

From the short time I spent around there, HH seemed like a nice, big complex. The quality of the buildings seemed to vary a bit--I noticed a few with peeling paint jobs. One nice feature was that many (all?) of the units had parking directly underneath them. HH is located in southwest Ann Arbor, a few miles from campus, in an area containing several of the newer apartment and condo complexes. The complex is about twelve years old, we were told.

Woodland Meadows - website
Disappointed by Harbor House, we jumped in the car and drove across the street to Woodland Meadows. The Woodland Meadows complex is actually divided in two by a stream, with one side containing more of the apartments and smaller townhouses and the other containing only larger townhouses. All of the buildings looked a lot newer on the outside, despite the complex being completed in 1988, and we were eager to get a tour.

Woodland Meadows had two two-bedroom townhouses opening up in July and a three-bedroom opening in early August. We were able to take a tour of a two-bedroom model, and it was very nice--modern layout, open, airy, and spacious. The biggest pluses were an attached garage and an unfinished basement, promising tons of storage space. At $1350 a month for the 2BR, I really think that Woodland Meadows is a great deal, especially if you need the basement space for storage. We ended up going for the 3-bedroom townhouse, just because, well, we've been spoiled by the space and were willing to chip in the extra couple hundred of bucks for it.

Woodbury Villas - website
Though very impressed by Woodland Meadows, we continued on to see other complexes. Further south, along the Eisenhower Parkway, is the Woodbury Villas complex. In my mind, it offered a nice mixture of clean, modern (built in 1990) apartments at very good prices.

For us, having just come from a townhouse, it was starting to become clear that apartments, even three-bedroom apartments, weren't going to be big enough for all our stuff. If we didn't have the boxes of books, the chests and drawers, and the canopy bed, the Villas would have been in the running. One other concern was that it bordered highway I-94, meaning that during the daytime there was considerable background highway noise.

Briar Cove
A little further west along the Eisenhower Parkway is Briar Cove, which came across as a slightly, slightly more modern and slightly more expensive version of Woodbury Villas. Completed in 1989, Briar Cove had one of the better kitchen layouts that we saw. Again, the lack of townhomes and/or storage space, as well as the highway noise, ruled Briar Cove out for us.


Ponds at Georgetown
By the time we reached the Ponds at Georgetown, our minds were pretty much settled on a townhouse, and hence, on Woodland Meadows. The Ponds had only apartments, so we left after only a quick tour. Overall it seemed a lot like the other apartment complexes--sort of falling in between Harbor House (for the size) and Woodbury Villas (for the layout). Not surprising, since it was built in 1989, about the same time as the other complexes.


Other Complexes
One of the newest apartment complexes in Ann Arbor is Lake Village. We visited it during the Go Blue Rendezvous, as our student host lived there. Out of all the places we saw, it had the cleanest, newest, most modern layout, and really nice kitchens. Having already visited there, and knowing that it doesn't have any townhouses, we skipped it on this trip. But if you're looking for nice living, and aren't afraid to spend a bit for it, it should be on your list to visit.

For unrelated reasons, we also dropped by the University Towers, a large apartment complex just a couple blocks from campus. With University Towers, the tradeoff seems to be convenience for smaller, older living quarters. It would be worth a visit for students who don't own cars.


Lastly, a very large percent of the MBA student body lives at Woodbury Gardens, for reasons I'm not too clear on. We visited Woodbury Gardens during Go Blue Rendezvous, and found it to be a lot older and smaller (the rooms) than some of the other complexes listed above. The advantages it boasts is being closer to campus--but still, at over a mile away, it's not close enough for walking (on most cold weather days). For us, the shorter commute and proximity to tons of other students was not worth the lack of space and age of the complex. My vague impression is that, as other complexes have been constructed over the past decade, Woodbury Gardens has declined in popularity, although it still houses a huge MBA contingent.

Commuting
So how do most students living away from campus commute to school? Here are the three options, in order of popularity. First, many drive for a few minutes over to the (free) State Street Commuter Lot, and then take a (free) shuttle bus up to campus. Since parking in UM lots is free after 3pm, the students will often take the bus back to the lot in the afternoon and drive their car to campus then. Second, some students rent parking spaces near campus. I hear they go for up to $100 per month. Third, it's possible to take an Ann Arbor city bus into town and walk to campus, though few students that I talked to took this option. We'll probably take the first choice, which would mean a morning commute of twenty to thirty minutes, door-to-door.

Resources
In our housing search, the following resources proved most helpful:
Housing Map - The map of Ann Arbor listing every apartment and townhouse complex, included in the admissions binder, was the starting point for figuring out where things were and which complexes to see.
Housing Ambassadors - Included in the admission binder is a list of housing ambassadors for several of the complexes. These are students who volunteered to answer questions about the places they live. I literally e-mailed each one of them for feedback on their complexes, and got several leads that way.
ArborWeb - The classified section of this newspaper has fresh housing ads every week.
The University - U of M also maintains a large database of housing listings, for those thinking of renting a house or condo. Several of the homes we visited came from this website.

Posted 9:19 PM by Zachary (e-mail)
Off-Campus Housing Resource
The University of Michigan maintains a fairly extensive listing of off-campus housing options, as posted by landlords. Very useful.

Posted 6:17 PM by Zachary (e-mail)
New York UMBS Happy Hour!
Wednesday evening there's a "Welcome to New York" happy hour for UMBS alums, summer interns, and admitted students. See the New York alumni club website for details. Also note that RSVP is required for the June 19th financial services panel and networking reception.

Posted 11:42 AM by Zachary (e-mail)
Pre-Term Schedule
Michigan has a pretty active pre-registration schedule that, combined with its early start date, really cuts into the end of the summer. The official activities are:

Week of August 11th - M-Treks (optional)
Week of August 18th - M-Treks and Quantitative Skills Workshop (QSW) (both optional)
Week of August 25th - Leadership Development Program (LDP) and Orientation
Week of September 1st - Registration and classes begin

I plan to work through Friday, August 1st. My wife and I would then spend the next week moving to Ann Arbor and closing on the sale of our house. Since I plan to participate in the QSW, that means that my only free week before LDP and orientation is that of August 11th. Because of the tightness of this schedule, and because I'd like to spend some time relaxing with my wonderful spouse (before she and I embark on our graduate studies), I'm not going to sign up for an M-Trek.

That's a minor disappointment, because the M-Trek program looks like a great way to have some fun and meet future classmates. M-Trek's are multi-day outings, organized and run by second year students, to various points around the country (and the world). Ranging in length from four days to ten, in locale from upstate Michigan to South Africa, they come highly recommended by all the students I've spoken too. If by a stroke of luck we're able to close on the house earlier than I expect, I might try to get into one of the shorter treks.

I am using the Quantitative Skills Workshop to kill two birds with one stone: brush up on some of my math skills while meeting some future classmates. There are two QSWs offered--a 4 day program ($425), for those in need of a serious quant review, and a 2 1/2 day program ($300) for those who just want a refresher. I'll attend the latter, mainly to brush up on the calculus and statistics.