Betsy Kacizak, Director of MBA Admissions and Recruitment, and Brad Chandler, Director, Nicholas Center for Corporate Finance and Investment Banking at the Wisconsin School of Business of University Wisconsin-Madison, discuss what makes the Wisconsin MBA unique, the school's admissions process, career opportunities and more.

Program Highlights (10:45) | Admissions (29:56) | Scholarships (45:32) | Careers (49:08

About Our Guests

Betsy Kacizakis the Director of MBA Admissions and Recruitment at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Betsy excels at walking you through the admissions process, including helping guide you toward the specialization that best fits your passions and career aspirations. She has expertise as a leader in the field of graduate admissions. She has worked for the Wisconsin School of Business for 11 years and worked for seven years at Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC).

Brad Chandleris the Director of the Nicholas Center for Corporate Finance and Investment Banking at the Wisconsin School of Business. At the Nicholas Center, Brad is responsible for both administering the Center's specialized programming focused on MBA and undergraduate students and teaching a number of its core courses. Prior to joining the Nicholas Center in 2017, Brad was a Managing Director in the Investment Banking Division at Morgan Stanley in New York City. While at Morgan Stanley, Brad advised corporate and private equity clients on mergers and acquisitions, shareholder activism and defense, leveraged buyouts, debt and equity financings, restructurings, and fund-level financings. Brad successfully executed over 55 transactions representing over $225 billion in transaction value. Representative transactions include advising Dow on its merger with DuPont, advising Axiall on its hostile defense against Westlake Corporation, advising Agrium on its proxy contest victory over JANA Partners, advising Dresser Rand on its sale to Siemens AG, the Trinseo and Sensata IPOs, and numerous financings for Bain Capital, Advent Capital Management, Clayton Dubilier & Rice, CF Industries, and Eastman Chemical.

What is unique about the Wisconsin MBA? What are its key advantages?

• The Wisconsin MBA asks applicants to select from 10 career specializations at the time they apply: Brand and Product Management, Marketing Research, Corporate Finance and Investment Banking, Applied Security Analysis, Real Estate and Risk Management and Insurance, Operations and Technology Management, Supply Chain Management, Strategic Management, Strategic Human Resource Management, and Arts Administration
• Wisconsin MBAs start taking courses and doing applied learning related to their specialization from very first semester
• Center Directors running Wisconsin's 10 specializations play a big role in admissions, curriculum design and career advising, as they connect students to alumni, recruiters and thought leaders in the space
• Wisconsin offers a tailored and customized approach to 80 students
• Wisconsin was one of 3 founding members of the Consortium in 1966

Episode summary, show notes and more at: http://touchmba.com/wisconsin-mba-program-admissions-interview-betsy-kacizak-brad-chandler 

Guest Host Sabaina Kamara, Michigan Ross MBA '19, invites her section-mate Sheela Lal to share her experience applying for internships, founding DrunkShrub and securing a full-time job post-graduation. Listen to get a real-time, inside look into the MBA experience at a top b-school like Ross.

Questions

• Sheela's background and reasons for getting an MBA (0:47)
• Sheela's approach to landing an internship (7:20)
• Sheela founds DrunkShrub (10:33)
• How Sheela took advantage of Ross' resources to further her business (14:43)
• How Sheela navigated running DrunkShrub and looking for full-time employment in consulting and government affairs (19:30)
• Sheela's advice to applicants about applying to business school and entrepreneurship (23:55)

About our Guest Host

Sabaina Kamara is currently an MBA student at University of Michigan's Ross School of Business. Prior to starting her MBA, Sabaina worked in as an HR Analyst at a management and employment law firm, focusing on HR compliance for diversity and inclusion. Sabaina will work in consulting for Deloitte Strategy & Operations in New York City after she graduates.

About Our Guest

Sheela comes across as someone who knows a lot, but really, she's just incredibly good at regurgitating things she's heard on any of the 30 podcasts she listens to. Her current favorites are Detroit Today, Splendid Kitchen, and The Foreign Desk, which reflect her long term interests - in-depth state government engagement, food science and chemistry, and lastly, very sassy international news analysis. Sheela has worked in Missouri politics on and off for 10 years, between congressional and local campaigns, the state house, and at Progress Missouri (a cousin to Progress Michigan). She founded Drunk Shrub, an alternative social beverage company, this summer, and worked in Sri Lanka and India for two years before returning to Missouri. She's found business school to be a surprisingly liberating experience - with very few expectations of appropriate post-graduation steps, she's free to explore her creative side.

Episode summary, show notes and more at: http://touchmba.com/starting-a-business-during-your-mba-sheela-lal-michigan-ross-mba