Tippie School of Management (Univ. of Iowa) Taking Questions

[chiehwu]

I am current student of MBA class 2010 of Tippie School of Business. I knew that in Taiwan, there is not much information about Tippie. Therefore, I would be glad to help answer any questions about Tippie and University of Iowa. Also, I will try to address the current status I feel about Tippie in the next few floors.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions. PM or on board messages are both welcomed.

[chiehwu]

Tippie MBA program is a small program with high quality of students. The admission office is strictly to pick its students. Also, it is its "small" that students could have chance to fully make use of resource.Such as: designated career serivice, 24-hour reply writing center. Also, students in the program are like in a family. I have no idea about other program. But in Tippie, classmates help more than compete with each other.

To begin with, I would like to share the experience of career service.

The career service is quite strong. According to your concentration, you will be assigned a designated adviser. Adviser will discuss with you quite often. They will help you to make a perfect resume (yeah, I know, there is no perfect resume), cover letter. Also, the competitive prep provide the interview practice. Not only phone interview, but also alumni interview. Your interview will be recorded by video camara and the adviser will discuss the performance with you. Even though you are a lazy guy, the career service will make you keep forward.

Also, there are lots of company presentations during all the year - almost once a week. You will have fully chance to build your network. The alumni network is solid and always glad to help. Take our recent alumni activity for example. We will have a "60 Leads in 60 Minutes." The alumni will help to practice you networking skills.

Yes, many people may doubt that Iowa city is a SMALL city. Sure, it is. But it takes only 30 minutes drive to Cedar Rapid. There is a commercial center. Lots of big companies such as Aegon are there. They recruit lot intern and full-time students. Iowa City located between Chicago and Minneapolis. Companies such as BEST BUY are glad to come to school to recruit high quality students and even many company in west/east coast will come to school to interview. So, you will have lots of chance but you have to make effort in advance.

btw, we had 100% internship placement last year. Placement stats can be found at http://www.biz.uiowa.edu/mbacareers/statistics.cfm.

[chiehwu]

Then, I would like to talk about the cost. If your GMAT is high enough (680+) and get admission of Tippie, usually at the same time you will receive the graduate assistantship. This includes 10-hours work per week with pay, scholarship, and qualification to enjoy in-state resident tuition fee. That is, basically, most part of the spending are living expense and won't have to worry about the incredible high tuition. What's more, Iowa city is an university city. The living standard is not as high as west and east coast. The university provides apartment for graduate students. It costs 575 for a 2-bedroom apartment including water, cable, and Internet.The off-campus housing is also not very expensive. So for those budget are limited. Tippie provides a good chance.

Someone might think that Iowa city is in suburb. Well, it depends on what's definition of suburban. For me, Iowa City is enough. There are malls(Coral Ridge Mall), lots of supermarkets(Walmart, Hyvee, Farewell..etc.). Basically, Iowa City provides most of your need for life. It does not as small and suburb as you think. (I knew.. we have lots of corns fields.) The criminal rate here is quite low. People here are quite friendly and nice to international students. For studying, Iowa city should be one of the best place.

[Charlie Wang]

小弟也來分享在那邊的幾年經驗,Iowa City對台灣來的同學們來說,或許會感覺到有明顯的城市與鄉下差別,但像樓主題到的, 大城市應該有的東西Iowa City (IC)都有,許多文章稱IC為麻雀雖小,五臟據全. 只是大城市可能可以在20~30家的華人超市挑,但IC只有3~4家可以選. 如果覺得IC太無聊的話,也像樓主說的,到美國第三大城只需要3個小時,或是到美國第16大都會區的Minneapolis (Twin Cities)也只需要4個小時.

至於樓主說的Career Center,這個Center是Midwest裡最大個Career Center (as of 2007,後來有沒有別家學校追過我就不知道了). Career Center的人都會很熱心的幫助你的resume (CV), cover letter, interview practice. 雖然這些服務,在所有的名校裡都有,但是Tippie的特色就是學生相較其他名校少,所以分享到的資源比較多. 在校的時候學校老師常說,U of Iowa有“one of the best, if not the top, writing program in the world.” 如果在不好好利用裡面的資源改履歷就太浪費了.

至於就業方面,除了Iowa州內許多大公司之外 (Principal Financial, Rockwell Collines), 最多商學院學生畢業會去的城市就是Chicago和Minneapolis. 過去,我知道許多台灣同學都有拿到這兩個城市的fortune 500的面試,也許多台灣同學就直接留下來在Chicago或是Minneapolis的fortune 500工作.

在資源方面,許多同學可能不知道的就是U of Iowa在Chicago有個Office在最熱鬧的Michigan Ave上面. 如果去Chicago面試,需要幫忙都可以去那個office.