Yale California Alumni Gala
Last night, I attended the Yale California Alumni Gala at the Hotel Nikko in San Francisco. Before I am accused of being presumptuous, I actually had a legitimate reason for being there. (What that reason is, I would rather not say, as it would easily enable any school to which I applied to identify me. And, while I know that any school with a mind to do so could figure out who I am using the clues that are scattered throughout this blog, I would rather not make it too easy for anyone. :-)
I met an incredible number of SOM alums. What an amazing group of people! Almost all of them were doing something really unique with their MBAs. I love that kind of diversity! There were also a number of Yale College grads there, as well as alums from other schools at Yale. So many people just came up and talked to me. I couldn't believe how friendly and open they were. I kind of expected to feel out-of-place, given that I am not an alum. I should have known that I would meet people for whom networking was second-nature.
Mayor Jerry Brown of Oakland was the Keynote Speaker. He was hilarious. I am good friend's with his brother's daughter, and she has the same sense of humor. In fact, almost everyone I've met in that family has the kind of loopy humor/twisted logic that only truly brilliant people seem to possess. I really enjoyed his speech, even though his politics are not always to my liking.
The evening was something of blur. So many people, so little time to converse with anyone in-depth. So I spent much of my time trying to get to know the SOMers. When I told them that I was on the waitlist at Yale SOM, each of them offered to help me. And I got the impression that the they were being sincere. I managed to exchange information with some of them. In some cases, because we had friends in common. In others, because we had similar professional interests.
Overall, I had a blast. Hopefully, I'll get to attend this event in the future.
I met an incredible number of SOM alums. What an amazing group of people! Almost all of them were doing something really unique with their MBAs. I love that kind of diversity! There were also a number of Yale College grads there, as well as alums from other schools at Yale. So many people just came up and talked to me. I couldn't believe how friendly and open they were. I kind of expected to feel out-of-place, given that I am not an alum. I should have known that I would meet people for whom networking was second-nature.
Mayor Jerry Brown of Oakland was the Keynote Speaker. He was hilarious. I am good friend's with his brother's daughter, and she has the same sense of humor. In fact, almost everyone I've met in that family has the kind of loopy humor/twisted logic that only truly brilliant people seem to possess. I really enjoyed his speech, even though his politics are not always to my liking.
The evening was something of blur. So many people, so little time to converse with anyone in-depth. So I spent much of my time trying to get to know the SOMers. When I told them that I was on the waitlist at Yale SOM, each of them offered to help me. And I got the impression that the they were being sincere. I managed to exchange information with some of them. In some cases, because we had friends in common. In others, because we had similar professional interests.
Overall, I had a blast. Hopefully, I'll get to attend this event in the future.
posted by Jerry Blank at 6:10 PM
1 Comments:
I had a similar impression when I met my interviewer - He is 28, already running a huge security firm in India (~ 500 employees). Can you believe he made it to Yale @ 21. But was given a deferred admit! In the interim he floated this company. Gained a couple of years of work exp after MBA and finally took charge of his business. Quite impressive!!
Post a Comment
<< Home