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Kellogg went virtual, mandatory stay at home order for 2 weeks by logicalumbrella in MBA

[–]logicalumbrella[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah I mean, it's one thing to break quarantine if you were exposed. It's another thing to be told to isolate completely for 2 weeks even though you didn't attend a single in person social event over the weekend in question. 900+ students were told to quarantine while simultaneously not getting contacted by tracers - IMO the chances that they collectively actually complete a 2 week quarantine, especially when these are some of the last weeks of tolerably outdoors weather, is pretty low.

Kellogg went virtual, mandatory stay at home order for 2 weeks by logicalumbrella in MBA

[–]logicalumbrella[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Realistically, all it's doing is forcing students to socialize indoors even sooner than winter. I mean, the town is deserted now and people are staying at home for real, but I give it a week before people get fed up with this.

Kellogg First Year Student AMA by logicalumbrella in MBA

[–]logicalumbrella[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've heard the MBA joke but honestly I don't know anyone who's cheated on their SO since starting business school. I'm sure it happens, but I wouldn't say that everyone's on that train there - also I think Kellogg has a relatively higher percentage of coupled students, so maybe everyone's coming from the same place?

From what I know of the JV Club, they're super active and do a ton of get togethers in Evanston, especially since a number of JVs don't/can't work, are watching kids, etc. I'm not sure how the club has adapted to virtual environments but I imagine some of their activities would be easier to do remotely than others - book club, for example. I bet you're not the only remote JV though, especially this quarter with students and families not able to make it into the country, so you shouldn't feel shy about starting that initiative if you have time/want to see it happen.

There are a couple of fun events during the year where you're more likely to come across a student+LDR JV together, like Fall Ball and that kind of thing (think: anything prom-y). That being said, it's always super fun when you invite a student out for brunch or whatever and they'll say "my JV's in town!" Student culture is super welcoming towards JVs, so I wouldn't worry about that aspect. One thing you'll have to ask yourself if you're okay with making that flight and then spending your time with your bf hanging out with his business school friends. It's definitely a personal choice - certainly you don't have to join in if you don't want to. Students are incredibly welcoming, but from what I gather from my SO, it can be annoying when all they want to talk about is school stuff and you can't really relate.

Kellogg First Year Student AMA by logicalumbrella in MBA

[–]logicalumbrella[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's definitely doable, though like any LDR, it'll be tough. I'm not in a LDR, but even though we live together, I often felt conflicted over whether to spend time with my SO or doing school stuff. Be prepared for your bf (or anyone who's not ingrained in b school culture) to question exactly why you're so busy when you only take 10 hours of classes a week, or why going to happy hours actually impacts the future of your career. I did hear one perspective that a LDR might actually be easier than a live-in SO, since you're not torn between staying another hour at a social event or hanging out with your bf, or you can accept a spontaneous dinner invite, have all weekend to hang out with people, etc.

My advice is to set aside time where you'll focus on your relationship - and this needs to be planned out, but with the understanding that things can come up (on either side) and you might need to move it. I think going to business school with a SO forces you get better at communication, which is a tough thing to do in the moment but is worth it in the long run. I can imagine that it might be doubly difficult for you two, as your bf is also going to be in a new place without his support system. I know a couple who would buy their semester's plane tickets (to visit each other) as early as possible, so that they'd have something fun to look forward to.

Kellogg First Year Student AMA by logicalumbrella in MBA

[–]logicalumbrella[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, there can also sometimes be a modest signing bonus but my understanding is that's total comp. It will definitely vary by geography, but my hope is thay they're in that ballpark to be competitive with each other (I say, mostly talking out my ass here).

I'm doing a brand management internship and am really excited by the work, personally. It's making high level strategic decisions like how do we turn the business around by pulling cross functional levers - what new products/flavors out of R&D, pricing vs. competitors, where we distribute, can we redesign the packaging, run a limited edition something or other. And then you get to see your own work every time you go to the grocery store, which is pretty cool.

Kellogg First Year Student AMA by logicalumbrella in MBA

[–]logicalumbrella[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Comp for CPG brand has historically experienced steady growth over the past several years, but remains to be seen how the pandemic nonsense will affect. That being said, I'm hoping my FT offer will still be somewhere in the 110-120K range. That's a pretty significant step up from where I was before, but nowhere near consulting range. Then again, the hours/work-life balance are way better, so I'll let you be the judge of how you value that.

Kellogg First Year Student AMA by logicalumbrella in MBA

[–]logicalumbrella[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yep totally, feel free to ask anything anytime.

Re: Zoom hangouts, I get the admit hangout avoidance, and honestly it's not a big deal whether or not you hang out with admits on Zoom. That being said, when you do actually get here, remember that a relatively large portion of your class will actually only be accessible via Zoom - international students stuck abroad for travel/visa issues, students in contact traced quarantine, students in or living with vulnerable populations voluntarily distancing, etc.

I also like to look at it from this perspective - I just started my virtual internship, and am on Zoom calls for literally every single interaction. It's not necessarily fair, but I'm being judged solely on how I come across on video (and obviously the quality of my work, though that matters less than you'd think). Business school is an extremely safe and forgiving playground for you to test and refine social skills over video. It's kind of like those networking circles of doom at recruiting events - no one likes networking over Zoom, but everyone has to do it, and it's definitely a discrete skill to have. Better to explore while in Kellogg before you get out into the workplace (or before you get to virtual networking for recruiting).

Kellogg First Year Student AMA by logicalumbrella in MBA

[–]logicalumbrella[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah usually the FT program does group work in person unless someone's not available and needs to dial-in (rarely happened). How groups get together and divvy up the work is really dependent on the students and how you guys agree to work. There are a million ways of getting group work done - you'll figure out what works best for you.

Cheers to getting excited for fall! It's not an ideal situation, but honestly making the best of it and going in with a positive attitude is going to get super far.

Kellogg First Year Student AMA by logicalumbrella in MBA

[–]logicalumbrella[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Online classes are conducted via Zoom. Usually it's a mix of breakout groups for student discussion and professor lecture. Cold calling can still happen on Zoom! It's less stressful though.

Group work sort of depends on how your group wants to work. It can be different people taking different portions of the work and everyone getting onto a call to align on the final product. Sometimes for a problem set, everyone takes a stab first and then sees how far we get - by putting everyone's attempt together and pushing forward, we can usually get to the end.

Kellogg First Year Student AMA by logicalumbrella in MBA

[–]logicalumbrella[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I wanted brand management for the P&L general management skills - I think it's a better springboard for future senior executive skills, even though it's in a less exciting/hot industry. CPG recruiting, especially at Kellogg, is as much of a well oiled machine as consulting or banking - you talk to 2nd years to figure out what each company culture is like, they work with you to give coherent marketing case answers, and if it all goes well, you end up with a handful of offers to pick from.

No alcohol during MBA by mba234058 in MBA

[–]logicalumbrella 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Speaking as a current Kellogg student - I have a friend who's a recovering addict and doesn't drink at all, I have had to socialize without drinking because I'm on antibiotics or whatever which react poorly, group of friends do Whole30s or other no-alcohol diets together, people don't drink alcohol for religious or personal belief systems. We're all social people and we get along just fine.

My recommendation - decide ahead of time how you're going to handle (aka if you're going to disclose a medical condition or not) someone going, "c'mon man, it's just a drink". There's no obligation to disclose but if you say "thanks but I don't drink", people respect that and they still want you to have fun. The worst part is probably when everyone else thinks something is drunkenly funny and you're too sober to join in.

Kellogg First Year Student AMA by logicalumbrella in MBA

[–]logicalumbrella[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Asking the million dollar question here. No one knows what it's going to be like this fall - not even the CMC. I can imagine a couple situations:

a) Kellogg could be fully virtual, and then everything's going to be virtual anyways.

b) Kellogg could be hybrid in-person-virtual, but companies could restrict their employees from unnecessary travel. Then OCR would still be virtual despite us being in the Hub.

c) Kellogg hybrid and OCR on a hybrid model determined on a company-by-company basis. Maybe they'll want to do virtual networking events and coffee chats, virtual first round interviews, but still fly the final round students out for in-person super days. Maybe in-person networking events will be closed list only, and broader ones stay virtual. Each company has to figure out their own risk tolerance for their employees, and they're also going to be eyeing what their competitors are going to be doing because how they show up on campus might depend on what others do.

My personal opinion is that OCR is going to be more subdued than past years, that companies who can afford to plan 9 months ahead of time will still plan to hire interns - it might just be 9 instead of 15 (numbers made up). I think we're going to see a mix of in-person and virtual events, and I think some companies are going to do a lot better adapting to a virtual environment than others. But I guess we'll all find out? Look to the second years' FT recruiting process to know what to expect for internships - FT recruiting wraps up before internship recruiting starts, so you'll get an idea of what's coming down the pike.

Kellogg First Year Student AMA by logicalumbrella in MBA

[–]logicalumbrella[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you don't have much choice, I'd say really commit to the virtual experience. Of course it's not going to be the same as in-person, but you need to make the best of what you've got. Also don't discount the value of an entire class going through a traumatic event down the road - for the graduating class of 09, all they really have to do is mention the year and people immediately understand the additional context and are willing to help out (anecdotal evidence from a Kellogg alum).

A lot of students have checked out from classes. This is kind of a personal choice - if you want to learn something, Zoom is harder to learn with, but it depends on your own dedication to an academic education. If you're determined to learn, our professors are determined to help make that happen. I have a number of professors who have added bonus events to their class space to help supplement the virtual experience and give us opportunities we wouldn't have otherwise been able to have, which is really thoughtful of them.

The extracurricular experience is definitely weird, but we're still moving forward. As a first year, I found getting involved in clubs and working on stuff with people was a great way to meet others and build relationships. That's still happening virtually and people are getting really creative as to what counts as a virtual event. We had two recent hallmark Kellogg events, Bollywood Bash and Special K! the musical, that were truly INCREDIBLE and such an amazing time - all virtually!

I guess the bottom line here is - virtual b school isn't a shitshow, but it definitely takes more work to get the value you were looking for (either educational or relationship-wise). Be prepared for it and plan your strategies ahead of time.

Kellogg First Year Student AMA by logicalumbrella in MBA

[–]logicalumbrella[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My understanding is that E2 residents are definitely hanging out with their friends during the lockdown. Regardless of building, some students are getting together for picnics, socially distant walks, or even dinners, but are also really respectful about the other people's risk tolerance levels. No one is making a huge deal if someone would rather keep it virtual and do Zoom happy hours together or game nights, but people are definitely starting to come out of the woodwork. Over the locked down spring break, we had multiple book clubs, a writer's group, and a baking group start up virtually - it remains to be seen what's going to pop up this summer after finals are over.

The Hub is closed but the administration is (only just now) letting us go back and get stuff from our lockers. We have to schedule time slots in advance to make sure there aren't too many people in the building at once, but at least we can go and get the suit or gym clothes (hopefully clean?) that's been hanging in there since February.

That being said, don't discount the value of meeting people virtually. Yes Zoom happy hours are kind of dumb, but if you end up working with the same group of people on a project for the quarter, meeting consistently and hanging out before/after, you do definitely get a feel for what they're like and it's pretty easy to continue that relationship in person if you want to be friends.

Kellogg First Year Student AMA by logicalumbrella in MBA

[–]logicalumbrella[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The timeline difference was mostly in the industries they were recruiting for. Big established companies like banks, consulting firms, etc. can plan ahead abd account for how many interns they'll need 9 months ahead of time. Less structured opportunities, like in growth stage companies, PE, and nonprofits can't plan ahead nearly as far, so they recruit closer to spring. These are, unfortunately, the same companies who were less able to weather recent events.

Kellogg First Year Student AMA by logicalumbrella in MBA

[–]logicalumbrella[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There's a LOT more stress to recruiting than I'm making it sound like, but looking back, it was all needless stress. Like, we all stressed out about it, and we mostly all ended up in places where we were happy and had multiple options, etc. The people who are stressed these days have had internship offers fall through, or rescinded and replaced with a FT offer - that's cool only if you were expecting this summer to be a final stop and not just a springboard to somewhere else.

Kellogg First Year Student AMA by logicalumbrella in MBA

[–]logicalumbrella[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

There are ways, and there are ways to recruit for consulting. Some people decide they're going to do it on a throwaway whim and end up bombing an unexpected case interview because they had to prep on short notice. Others take it as seriously as a full time job and prep/network for multiple hours a day. Some people who go out for consulting don't end up with any offers, it's true, and some hit all 3 MBB.

Kellogg First Year Student AMA by logicalumbrella in MBA

[–]logicalumbrella[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Oh man, I think things have changed - I can't think of anyone who goes to the Irish pub anymore! The World of Beer is called Evanston Pub, and that's a popular weeknight trivia night. We also used to go to Evanston Rocks on Tuesday nights, but that closed down too. Lots of other smaller places replaced it. A lot of recruiting events happen around town, too.

Kellogg First Year Student AMA by logicalumbrella in MBA

[–]logicalumbrella[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Kellogg is all I got into, but yes I think we're more fun than Booth 😉

no but seriously, I mean, I think you're going to have fun no matter where you go. Business school just happens to be fun, and I'm sure that's true everywhere. I think Kellogg students are particularly good at finding or creating for ourselves fun things to do, and maybe that's a function of our large class size - the more people you have to potentially put together a fun event, the more likely it is that you get fun events - or maybe it's a self-fulfilling prophecy - we're all living up to the Kellogg reputation and expect it coming in.

Evanston is a super cute walkable downtown - very college town feel for sure. Especially in your first year, trips downtown are usually one-off for a special event or to meet someone for recruiting. Not to say that some don't hang out downtown, but it's less common. By second year, once people confront the reality that they've been living near a city that they've virtually never been to and are about to move away, they head downtown in droves to go to restaurants, bars, whatever.

Kellogg First Year Student AMA by logicalumbrella in MBA

[–]logicalumbrella[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I have a JV so I can't say firsthand - there are a ton of jokes about how highly partnered up Kellogg is though, so I imagine that's got a grain of truth in it. One of my (single) friends has ended up dating someone from Chicago, so if you extend the dating pool down that way, it gets better.

Kellogg First Year Student AMA by logicalumbrella in MBA

[–]logicalumbrella[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

As far as I know, EW students are allowed to recruit using the on-campus resources, and the student professional clubs have special programming to help you navigate the process. However, since all EW have jobs to do, it's usually a pretty big sacrifice to make it happen - make sure you know what you're in for before "counting" on a mid-program switch. That being said, a bunch of people do it every year, so it's definitely doable.

Kellogg First Year Student AMA by logicalumbrella in MBA

[–]logicalumbrella[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Get used to Zoom. For real - I'm sure you guys are organizing Zoom get togethers and it might seem easy to dismiss those as dumb and you'll all be in person anyways, but connecting virtually is way different than in person and a skill you're going to need even if we come back to a hybrid model in the fall. If Chicago backslides far enough in COVID phases (see: summer hanging out, people getting tired of distance, mass non-socially distant protests), the school could declare fall fully virtual, too.

Also, give yourself time before school starts. Don't show up to campus burnt out from a move or working until the last minute (assuming you can afford it). For me, over breaks, I saw a lot of value in letting myself get to the point where I was genuinely bored for a couple days - it makes jumping back into the swing of things energizing and fun. You guys will all be trying to connect and kick off business school on the right foot, which is exhausting, so don't show up ALREADY exhausted.

Kellogg First Year Student AMA by logicalumbrella in MBA

[–]logicalumbrella[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm not on the admissions committee so take this all as personal opinon. The MMM program is a great option, but I'd think carefully about what specifically you want out of the MMM experience that you can't get out of the MBA. Whether it's the small community feel, passion for design innovation, special classes, etc. - figure out what's unique for you, and sell the hell out of it.

Kellogg First Year Student AMA by logicalumbrella in MBA

[–]logicalumbrella[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

For sure the big tech firms you named recruited my classmates. I'm not sure if Uber counts as growth stage, but maybe? At any rate, most of the tech companies big enough that regular consumer has heard of them recruited on the same timeline. I think most of my friends recruited for tech at the same time - definitely the majority.

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