Student Perspectives: Why I Chose Anderson - The Three P's

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About Meggie: Prior to Anderson, Meggie McDonnell (‘23) lived in New York City and worked in finance and strategy at JPMorgan. Meggie is a first year student at Anderson and is looking to pivot her career into Product Marketing in Tech. In her free time, she likes hiking, beach coffee walks with friends, and trying to find the best skinny spicy margarita in LA.



Applying to business school is a very overwhelming process. The essays, interviews and networking chats can feel like a full-time job particularly when you are juggling multiple schools. Then when you get your acceptances, how do you choose where to go? I am to discuss why when I heard back from the schools I applied to, I chose Anderson.

When I think about the overarching #whyanderson, I think in three different buckets: the people, the place, and Parker.

The People: After speaking to many first and second years at Anderson through programs like Admit Buddies and connections from my network, I realized all that I had read about the Anderson culture was true. These students told me about the events they had planned, clubs they had run, and speakers they had brought on to campus. This school really is student run, and when I thought about what I wanted in business school part of this was the ability to develop my leadership skills further and I could tell this culture would enable me to do so. Another aspect they all seemed to mention was the notion of ‘shared success’. They gave me examples ranging from their classmates setting up tutoring sessions before finals to help classmates struggling in a certain subject, to one woman staying up until 2AM with her classmate the night before an interview running through casing and behavioral questions. Meanwhile, they had both applied for this same position. This value was one that I felt set Anderson apart from other business schools, and I knew I wanted to be a part of a culture that felt so supportive. I knew finding the job I want post business school would be stressful and really wanted a student body that was supportive rather than competitive.

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The Place
: Coming from Northern California, one would think I’ve spent a ton of time in LA with such a short flight between the cities. But because of my dad and grandfather’s disdain for the Dodgers, I had really only been to LA a few times and hadn’t spent much time on the west side at all. In my conversations with students at Anderson, they would mention starting their day with a hike in the Palisades or a surf lesson in Venice before hustling to a 945 class. This outdoor time was what I was missing living in NYC and I immediately knew I needed to visit the area to really get a sense of what my day to day would be like. After being accepted, I took a trip to LA to visit the campus and areas on the west side I was looking to live in. I was immediately in love with the beaches, access to mountains, and constant sunny weather. I also found an apartment in Santa Monica where I didn’t need to get on the freeway to get to school, and so I didn’t encounter the infamous LA traffic. Once I visited, I was sold! Where else would I want to live during a time where I had such a unique and open schedule? I now make it a point to hike once a week, visit the beach often, and make weekend trips to surrounding areas like Santa Barbara, San Diego, or Palm Springs. There is really no place like LA particularly when you have more time to explore and so many new friends to do it with!

Parker Career Center: Beyond the culture and location considerations, business school is an immense investment of time and money that you want to make sure will pay dividends upon graduation. When researching Anderson, I kept reading about Parker Career Center being one of the top career centers in the country. I spoke to current students to understand what that really meant, and they mentioned a few main programming points that set Parker apart. First is the summer into fall Parker Series. This is a required weekly session starting in August and ending in November with career counselors that guide students through the many phases of the recruiting process. Starting with how to set up a networking coffee chat, to your ’30 second pitch’, onto behavioral interview questions. Another program Parker organizes are “ACTs” aka Anderson Career Teams. These teams are led by second years and organized by industry or function. My ACT group focuses on technology and covers weekly tech news, presentations on relevant tech topics, and tech specific recruiting tips. Lastly, Parker also organizes “IPT” aka Interview Prep Teams. These teams are also led by a second year and include 3-4 first year students all recruiting for the same industry. In these weekly sessions, we practice behavioral and casing questions specific to the industry you are recruiting for. This robust programming from Parker was unlike any other school I was looking at and gave me the reassurance that this investment in business school would pay off with excellent career options upon graduation.

Once I articulated these buckets, the choice was clear on my #whyanderson. I am now almost done with fall quarter and can fully attest that all three ‘P’s’ are just as outstanding as I had imagined! [and living in LA is even better than I thought….!]



Student Blogger: Meggie McDonnell


Undergrad: Lehigh University ‘16

Pre-MBA: Finance and Strategy at JPMorgan

Leadership@Anderson: Anderson Admission Committee: First Year Director, AnderTech: Director of Partnerships, Women Business Connection: Director of Community

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