Yutong Gu, GMBA Class of 2017

The Donald P. Jacobs Center, affectionately known to students as “The Jake,” where most Kellogg classes are held.

One of the great opportunities offered by the Tsinghua-MIT GMBA program is the chance to participate in a semester of exchange abroad at reputable business schools around the world. I was fortunate enough to secure an exchange spot at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, where I enjoyed a fruitful learning experience.

Northwestern University Campus

Northwestern University is located in the town of Evanston, about 20 kilometers north of downtown Chicago, in the U.S. state of Illinois. The university campus is situated along the picturesque shores of Lake Michigan and surrounded mostly by residential suburbs. The town center of Evanston is just beside the campus, where there are numerous restaurants and shops to satisfy daily needs of local students and residents.

The Kellogg School of Management is widely considered to be one of the top business schools in the world and belongs to the so-called “M7” group of elite MBA programs. With a yearly intake of more than 700 full-time students, Kellogg is known for its emphasis on teamwork and collaborative spirit. Kellogg’s strength lies in its marketing and strategy specializations; hence, it is well-positioned to attract top consulting companies as well as multinationals seeking talents to fill key corporate strategy, general management, and marketing positions.

Kellogg MBA students take the majority of their classes at the Donald P. Jacobs Center, also known as “The Jake.” The student dormitory for the MBA program, the McManus Building, is a 10-minute walk from The Jake and only houses Kellogg students and their families. The bustling city of Chicago is a mere hour away from the university campus, allowing Kellogg students to enjoy both the experience of a college town and the hustle and bustle of city life.

The Exchange Curriculum

One semester at Kellogg is relatively short, with 10 weeks of classes and two weeks for exams. The fall semester usually begins in mid-September and ends in mid-December. After arriving at Evanston, the first school event that greeted me was the orientation for MBA exchange students. More than 40 exchange students from top business schools across the world, including LBS, CEIBS, HKUST, and INSEAD, had our initial meeting in a classroom at The Jake. After a round of ice-breakers, the exchange program director spent a few hours explaining to us how to best enjoy our time at Kellogg.

It was a whirlwind semester at Kellogg, given the fast-paced classes and large workload crammed into the short three-month window. I spent the first week auditing different classes and finalizing my enrolled courses. I was especially impressed by the quality of teaching, as the professors in every single class were highly engaging and exhibited a deep understanding of the subject matter.

In Brand Management class, I learned about how to establish and maintain a successful brand, both in terms of the theoretical framework of analysis for marketing and through real-life case studies of successful brands. The most rewarding class for me was Financial Decisions, which is the most popular finance course in the school, taught by a Distinguished Professor of Finance. He was able to simplify many difficult and complex topics. The class taught me about building financial models and using them to make investment decisions, which was very helpful since I was planning on pursuing a career in the investing field.

Interaction with Kellogg and Exchange Students

In all my classes, I had the opportunity to form study groups with the Kellogg MBA students, and their reputation for good teamwork was evidenced in our interactions. All the students I worked with were very friendly, collaborative, and eager to contribute. In addition, the exchange students were naturally very friendly. Particularly, there were about a dozen Chinese exchange students, and we organized a hotpot gathering to get to know each other better. The experience was made all the better by the friendships forged throughout the semester, which I believe are lifelong ones.

Co-Curricular Activities

Given that Kellogg has one of the largest MBA programs in America, a multitude of events, including company seminars, networking events, and talks on a wide range of topics, were organized by the variety of clubs on campus. I may even have learned as much from these seminars as I did in classes.

One of the seminar series I joined was called “Lunch and Learn,” where Kellogg alumni from famous companies would come to explain their daily job responsibilities and share their work challenges as a case study, and free lunch (usually pizza) would be provided for all the attending students. The “Lunch and Learn” seminar provided many insights into different job functions in ways not usually taught in classes.

Parties were also a common occurrence at the large common area of McManus. One popular social event was “Thank God It’s Friday,” where Kellogg students came together on Friday evenings to unwind and catch up.

After the first snowfall of the winter at Evanston, I finished all my exams and left town, parting with all the new friends and the campus of which I had grown extremely fond. The time spent in Evanston this winter was invaluable, giving me a new first-hand learning experience at a world-class institution in the U.S., meeting people from all walks of life, and broadening my horizons beyond China.