On August 25th, 2nd Year International MBA students gave a Presentation and Q&A session for incoming 1st year students regarding Orientation and the 1st few weeks of the program.

The presentation started with a brief introduction by Sherring Shi. In her presentation, she outlined the Orientation timetable, including both indoor and outdoor training sessions. MBA students will be divided into groups and will compete in certain activities against other teams. Orientation helps prepare MBA students for how their first year will be like with different cultures, nationalities, and languages when working together in groups.

James Wemyss then presented a quick photo album of how he came toChinaonly 2 weeks before Orientation. Advice he gave to new students was to make learning Chinese a priority (if they were not already fluent) and immerse oneself into all Chinese organizations, including those outside the MBA program. In particular, James joined the Tsinghua bicycle club which he found by going to the dining hall for lunch during the first few weeks. Other ways to find out about clubs is on the MBA website (www.mbaedu.tsinghua.edu.cn) and e-mails sent by fellow classmates.

The session then concluded in a Q&A session. Questions included:

- What do Chinese Students expect out of the International MBA program?

All Chinese students are different. Some want to have experience working in groups with foreigners. Some want to go on exchange to a prestigious American, Canadian, or European school. Some believe the combination of the MIT affiliation and the high brand value ofTsinghuaUniversitymake the program the best inChina.

- How do we do the HEC dual degree program?

Student must get accepted to HEC and then compete against all of the Tsinghua students that want to do the dual degree program. To this date, no foreign students originating in the Tsinghua program have chosen to do the dual degree program.

- How do we learn more about clubs?

All MBA Clubs will normally send out an e-mail. Most clubs are lead by Full-time and Part-time MBAs. MBA clubs such as the International club and the Networking Club are conducted in English. These club notification will also be sent out by e-mail. For outside the MBA, networking and reading announcements is important.

- Are Most Internships inBeijing? Do any go international? Do any go to other parts ofChina?

Yes. Yes. Yes. The internship program is only 8 weeks compared to 12 weeks in theUS. For Investment Bank type jobs, where applications are due in December or January, you must apply to the Asian region. Some internships are listed all the way until the first week of July (and often are great internships – meaning don’t relax until June to start looking, but do not go into a depression if you have not found anything until May). Please be sure to check the CDC website when you are given your login and password. It is possible to do an internship during the winter break (a 6-9 week break, which can be extended into the summer if it works out). As well, many students do internships their second year (third semester while taking night classes) and some students begin working their 4th semester. For international students looking to work for a company inChina, securing a work visa before expiration (July of the Seconf year) is one factor why international students start the job search early.