WAMBA..what????

Initially I was admitted to the evening MBA program at SCU. My dear wife however convinced me to join the weekend MBA program as it involved commute on Saturdays. At around the same time, I was informed that SCU had substituted the traditional weekend program with an accelerated MBA program (WAMBA for short). The program completes in two years (as against 3 years in most traditional part time programs), a definite plus for me. The other big advantage of this program is that this is a cohort-based program, so the same class will be sticking together for 2 years. The disadvantage of this program lies in its inflexibility in choosing classes or professors. The choice, in effect has been made for you. I was OK with that because the last thing I wanted to do is spend a whole lot of time trying to figure out what class makes sense and what does not. As you can see, I have fairly broad post MBA goals, something that does not need super specialization.

Introduction

Let me start by introducing myself. I, what you may call, come from a pool that is heavily represented in the Silicon Valley. Indian, with a hi-tech background. For interests, check out my profile info. The last time I went to a class was around ten years back in one of the top engineering schools in India. Currently, I am a product manager in one of the big Bay Area software development companies.

I started my journey towards an MBA around two years back when I found myself jaded working as a software engineer (yes, I was in what is called 'development' when I started my quest for MBA) and decided that I needed a change. At that time, many of my colleagues were doing an MBA or planning to join an MBA, and MBA seemed to be the golden ticket out of the rut that I was in. So I wrote my GMAT, got a 700+ score and started applying to part-time MBA schools.

I wanted to do a part time MBA because I was not really looking for a drastic shift in career( IB or MC are way out there for me) , but looking for expanding my understanding of business forces that shape a company, rejuvenate my network and last but not the least, looking for change. There were several other reasons that I filled my application essays with, half I do not recall any more. Living in the Bay area, my options were restricted to HAAS, SCU-Leavey and Wharton Executive. Applied to all three, got wait listed from HAAS & Wharton West and admit from SCU-Leavey. Did some research and found that SCU-Leavey School of Business had a pretty decent alumni network in the Bay Area, though somewhat tech-heavy. That was both good and bad for me. The good part being that having invested a majority of my career in hi-tech and engineering I plan to build my niche in those areas. The bad, industry diversity would have been a plus. As a side-note I have looked at the diversity pie charts from HAAS & Wharton West part time MBA programs, even those are quite tech-heavy.
Anyways..I applied for and got into SCU's weekend MBA program..and this is were my MBA eductaion starts..