Recruiting in Asia – 2011

After another long day of traveling, we arrived home late on Thursday night. The weekend was spent doing laundry and raking and bagging the tons of leaves that fall this time of year (at least in Putnam County in New York State). We also spent most of the time trying to figure out what day it was!
At 4:30 am on Monday my alarm clock rang and I truly realized I was home. It’s great to be back at Baruch. As I walked into my office and looked at the piles on my desk, I remembered why I love this job — it’s never dull; it’s never boring; it’s always hectic, and it’s sometimes very frustrating. But I get to work with wonderful, supportive people … and I get to take fantastic trips!
Before I close this blog, I want to take this opportunity to thank all the wonderful people who helped make this trip so great…
–First of all – Zicklin’s Dean John Elliott and Executive Director of Graduate Programs, Frank Fletcher, for allowing me to take this trip.
— Second – the phenomenal staff of Zicklin’s Graduate Admissions office – who keep the office together and somehow always manage to get everything done.
— Third – all the wonderful people from SWUFE who took such good care of us all the time we were in Chengdu – and who introduced us to Hot Pot!
— Fourth – all the prospective Zicklin students I had the pleasure to speak with personally. Whether we spent an hour together talking about your goals and how Zicklin will help you reach them, or whether we spoke for a few minutes as you came up to Baruch’s table at the QS World MBA fair, all of you were a true inspiration.
–Fifth – all the wonderful, helpful people we met throughout our almost three week trip – from hotel clerks, busboys and concierges to wait staff, guides, taxi drivers and all the vendors in Beijing’s Silk Market 🙂 — the people of China, Taiwan and Hong Kong are always so gracious and so helpful.
— Finally – the numerous Zicklin students and faculty who graciously offered to be contacts for anyone I met on the road. Your contact information was handed out many, many times. A special Thank you for all the times you will be communicating with new, prospective students.

With this post, I will close the “Recruiting in Asia – 2011” blog. I have truly enjoyed sharing this adventure with you. For those I met in Asia, I hope that our conversations were helpful. Please feel free to contact me at any time with any questions. And … I hope to be able to greet at least some of you here at Baruch very soon.

Thank You — Fran Murphy

I was lucky enough to be able to arrange an interview in Hong Kong – one final interview before a few days of R and R. Nicole is a wonderful candidate and would truly be an asset to Zicklin’s FT MBA program. She studied in Shanghai and Singapore before earning her BBA from City University of Hong Kong, and has over four years of work experience in Accounting, Real Estate and Finance. We had a wonderful conversation, and I look forward to meeting her in New York soon – as she plans to visit early in the year.

Since we have traveled half way around the world, we figured it would not be right to go home without spending a day or two site seeing around Hong Kong. As you can see below, we got a good start!

We actually did see some sun in Taipei yesterday – for a few minutes. At least it didn’t rain for most of the day. I had an interview at 10 am with a wonderful young lady who, although she is a US citizen, has lived and studied in Taiwan for most of her life. She previously studied Information Technology and Finance is currently doing research in financial and investments decisions. Our conversation covered a wide range of possibilities and options available to her.
Later in the day we decided to get out – and not to walk around a mall! We took the Taipei MRT (metro rapid transit) for about 1 hour and 15 minutes to Tamsui (formerly Danshui) – a sea-side village in the northern part of Taiwan. Taipei has a wonderful, efficient metro system and we had no trouble getting around.
Tamsui reminds me of Coney Island or some of the Jersey shore areas. We walked along the water where, if you look to one side you see great views of the water and the mountains; and if you look to the other side you can find everything from a seaside children’s arcade, to hundreds of food stands. If you walk one block away from the shore you will find what seems like a typical Taiwanese Night Market – with shops of every kind.

This morning we left Taipei on a flight to Hong Kong for the final leg of our trip. Before we left we finally were able to see the top of Taipei 101 from our hotel window!

We arrived at our hotel in Taipei yesterday after a weather delayed flight from Shanghai. I had an interview scheduled for 4:00 pm so I had to rush to get settled and changed. Since we had been at this same hotel last year I was confident that I could find a comfortable corner to do the interview. Little did I know that the hotel is under renovation – so the lobby I remember no longer exists. In fact there is no lobby. Just a very small desk for registration. I was able to find Janice, my 4:00 interview with no trouble, and we were able to find a corner on the fair floor to talk.
Luckily the weather had no effect on the World MBA fair here in Taipei. A steady stream of prospective MBA students flowed through the venue throughout the evening. I was able to speak with a good number of prospects and hope to see at least a few at Baruch in the next year or so.
I ended the evening with a final interview at 9:30 pm. We found a quiet little place on the 3rd floor of the hotel to sit and talk. One hour went by very quickly as we spoke about Baruch and New York City, and Lai Sin’s plans for her future career.
I have one final interview in Taipei tomorrow, so today we had some time to explore. It has been raining quite heavily since we got here – with no hopes of a let up – so anything that involved walking outside was out of the question. Many of the people I met recommended that we visit Taipei 101 – the tallest building in Taipei and home of 3 floors of high end shops. From what I understand – on a clear day ‘you can see forever’ from the top … but not today. We walked around the shops for a few hours anyway – not exactly my idea of what to do when visiting a foreign country – but at least we stayed dry. Hopefully we’ll see some sun before we leave Taipei on Sunday morning.

I began today with a final interview at 10:00 this morning. Today’s prospective candidate, Laura, was as strong and as enthusiastic as many I met yesterday. She came to meet with me early this morning to talk about Baruch and her application for fall 2012. When we finished, she had to run to get to work.
After catching up on some emails, we decided to spend the afternoon doing a bit of sightseeing. We visited Yu Garden – a place we passed last year but never had time to go into. According to Wikipedia, the garden was established in 1559 as a private garden. Over the years, the garden fell into disrepair; the wars of the 19th and early 20th century caused much damage. However, in the late 1950s the Shanghai government repaired Yu Garden and it is now considered a national monument.
We leave tomorrow to travel to Taipei. The QS World MBA Fair will open there at 6:00 pm tomorrow.

Wow – what a great day! Yesterday was the day of the QS World MBA Fair in Shanghai. I started the day at 10 am with my first interview of the day. By the time the fair opened at 6:00 pm I had interviewed 7 wonderful potential new Zicklin students. For the most part, based on their test scores, their resumes, their previous academics and their enthusiasm they would be perfect! They had done their homework and knew a lot about Baruch and Zicklin. One young woman eagerly told me that after she had read Bernard Baruch’s book she knew Zicklin was the place for her. She felt that she and Bernard Baruch had much in common.
During the fair I spoke with over 20 additional prospective students. Most seemed knowledgeable about Baruch, our programs and our admission criteria, and many were eager to move forward with their applications. I ended the day with a final interview at 9:30 pm.
I learned a lot from speaking with these prospects. They find out about Baruch from relatives and friends – many who are alumni, and others who are studying at other schools around New York but recommend that Baruch is a wonderful school in NYC. They also find out about Baruch on line. One told me that she had seen Baruch on a video shot and posted by a current student – and fell in love with our huge pool. Rankings are important here – and US News is the ranking of choice. These students study very hard as undergraduates – and study extremely hard for “the tests”. GMAT scores in the mid to high 600s are not acceptable to them – They apologize for such scores and plan to retake them to reach the 700s. A US degree is still held in high regard, and many feel that coming home with a US MBA or MS degree would get them where they want to be.
It was truly a wonderful day.

We arrived in Shanghai late yesterday afternoon. While traveling between cities usually takes up most of a day, traveling in Asia is almost always uneventful. Trolleys for your luggage are readily available and are free; flights are on time; baggage is at the baggage claim area when you get there; and taxis are always lined up waiting to take you wherever you want to go – just be sure to have your destination written in Chinese characters!
Before we left Beijing, we had dinner last evening with Jolene Gurevich. Jolene is a Baruch undergrad who is doing a one year study abroad program in Beijing. Since Jolene worked last year in the Graduate Career Management Center I had a chance to really get to know her. It was great to see her here and to hear about her experiences since she arrived in late August. She told us that her days are extremely long, beginning with Chinese class at 8:00 am, followed by individual Chinese tutoring. She is also taking English classes and classes on Chinese ethnic diversity. She said she always has tons of homework.
We enjoyed a wonderful buffet dinner in our hotel. While Jolene had offered to take us out for “Hot Pot” we decided on a great buffet of both western and Chinese food at our hotel. Jolene was delighted to get some “real” salad.

The World MBA Fair finally came to Beijing on Saturday, November 6th. I began the day with 3 interviews of prospective Zicklin students. At the actual fair, Baruch/Zicklin was one of more than 50 schools from around the world all there to speak with potential applicants from the Beijing area. I was delighted with the students who came to our table. Most of them were knowledgeable about our school and our admission requirements. Many stopped by because Baruch had been recommended to them by family or friends who are Baruch alumni, or current Zicklin students, or who are studying at other schools in the NY area but know that Baruch has a wonderful reputation.
At one point a very excited young woman came rushing over to the table to tell me that she had just been admitted. She wanted to be sure to meet me and to visit “our school”.

Rachel Lu sent me this picture and told me “It was sooo nice talking with you! I had been looking forward seeing you for days. You look so great! If it weren’t you, my boyfriend was not able to be a Baruch student and he would not recommend Baruch to me. Now I am so thrilled to be admitted to Baruch. We thank you!” I’m not sure how great I look or how much I contributed to her boyfriend’s admission, but, I am sure that Rachel will be a wonderful Baruch student.
I ended the day with one final interview after the fair. I was lucky to be able to interview two wonderful spring 2012 applicants. I hope to meet them again at Baruch very soon.
One final note – for all the students and faculty who offered to be a resource for anyone I met on the road, I just want to let you know that you should expect to be contacted often. With the expert help of Associate Director Tom Lo, I was able to bring a wonderful sheet with all your contact information. It is by far the most popular sheet on my table.
Tomorrow we fly to Shanghai …

We thought it was time to share some pictures to help tell our story. We’ll try to add a few more important pictures soon.

On Thursday we bid farewell to Chengdu and traveled on to Beijing. As usual with travel, the days are long – mostly spent waiting. Although a bit late, our flight was smooth and uneventful; and as is usual the luggage arrived at the turnstile before we did.
Yesterday, we visited the Silk Market in Beijing. Having been there before we knew what to expect — and knew how to keep walking even though many vendors are following you down the aisle trying to sell their goods. When we did find what we were looking for, the negotiations were intense and great fun. At the end I’m sure both sides felt they had gotten a good deal. I left clutching my goods and very happy.
Last evening we had dinner at the Kerry Center Hotel in Beijing. Last year the World MBA Fair was held at the Kerry Center, and at that time we met Michael Shin – the host at the restaurant. For the few days we stayed Michael made sure we had plenty of coffee and a western newspaper each day. Michael had recently arrived in Beijing from Australia – having graduated from school with a degree in restaurant management. We talked about the MBA degree and I convinced Michael to attend the fair.
What a wonderful surprise when in late August I opened an email with the subject “Greetings” and began with “I’m not too sure if you will remember me but I am Michael Shin from the Kerry Centre Hotel Beijing.
We met at that MBA expo.” Michael is now the Assistant Director of the main restaurant at the Kerry Center. He invited us to visit for dinner and was delighted to show us the results of 8 months of fabulous upgrades to not only the restaurant, but to the entire hotel. We enjoyed a wonderful meal and a wonderful evening with a wonderful young man.