Hi there,
I will do my best to answer your questions but I am pursuing a career in the high tech industry, so I'm afraid I don't have personal experience with some of the resources in paths you asked about.
1) There are a lot of reasons but I think if I had to call out the major factors: First and foremost, it was the people. I think any of the top business schools will give you a great education and network, so I think it comes down to what culture is the best fit for you. In talking to current students and alumni, everyone I talked to from Kellogg was really enthusiastic about their experience there, and I wanted to be in a place where people were genuinely excited to be there. Kellogg is known for its collaborative culture, and it's very true. Students are open to getting to know each other, really involved in the community at Kellogg, and always willing to help one another. There are a bunch of different clubs and activities to get involved in, and pretty much everyone is involved in something (if not multiple things). I've reached out to students I didn't know who had interned at companies I was interested in, and everyone was really helpful and honest in answering my questions. I've also had similar experiences reaching out to alumni. Even for things like recruiting, where you could imagine students being competitive, we help each other -- there are interview prep groups where students get together to prepare.
I would say the next big thing for me was the MMM program, which seemed like a unique offering and a good fit for what I want to do after business school.
2) There are different avenues for getting exposure to various careers. There is a general alumni mentoring program, where you get paired up with an alum based on your professional interests. You are also able to set up informational interviews with alumni per the alumni database - so you can seek out those in roles or companies you're specifically interested in. I would also not discount the wealth of knowledge among your fellow students - everyone comes from a wide variety of careers so you have easy access to people who have come from the field you want to enter. Many of the industry specific clubs will also provide overviews of career paths as well as bring in industry speakers to talk about careers, companies, and trends in the industry.
3) I am not pursuing strategy or financial consulting so I can't speak from personal experience, but Kellogg has a few different resources. If you go to the Kellogg website, there is a section under Academics called Experiential Learning which discusses ways to get hands-on experience through classes, competitions, or other programs. There are a number of different classes called "labs" in which students will do a project for a client in a specific industry, with support from a faculty member. Many of the "regular" Kellogg courses also have components of client work for real companies. For example, I'm currently taking Technology Marketing and Research Methods in Marketing, and both of those classes have projects that entail you finding an outside client and doing a project for them.
4) I'll tell you my two favorite classes so far and why. The first is Technology Marketing and I like the class because a) it's relevant to what I'm interested in after business school and b) the professor is really good. And by good, I mean the professor has a lot of industry experience (he consults for a lot of major companies in the industry) and he's a great speaker so he keeps the class engaging. The course covers a variety of cases in the tech industry, and you also do a project with a real company so you get hands-on experience as well.
The second is Advertising Strategy, which I enjoy because again, the professor is really good, and the class is really interesting, even though I may not do anything related to advertising in my future career. In the class we learn the strategic frameworks and considerations when developing advertising, and we learn how to critique strategies and executions. I think it's a testament to the classes and the professors at Kellogg that you can really enjoy and get engaged in classes that are not very related to what you plan to do career-wise.
5) Again I can't speak to this personally since I haven't recruited for those paths, but it's a similar question to one I've gotten about the distance factor between Kellogg and the high tech industry being concentrated on the West Coast. Kellogg is a well-known enough school that all the major companies across industries will likely recruit here. The distance may mean that you're doing more phone interviews or have to travel to be on site, but I don't think you're at a disadvantage in terms of whether or not they will consider Kellogg students. A great resource for you to reach out to would be the different industry-specific clubs. You can access the club websites from the Kellogg website, and from there you can contact the clubs to reach students who have personally pursued those paths and can speak better to their own recruiting experience. The Kellogg website also has an employment report so you can see the specific companies where students are going for internships or full time jobs.
6) I don't think there's necessarily a good or bad time to visit campus - it probably depends moreso on what you want to learn and how that fits in timing-wise to your application plans. I would suggest that coming during the school year may be better if you want to be able to sit in on classes or speak to current students. The Kellogg website has a lot of information on what kinds of events you can partake in when you visit, and you can also contact the admissions office if you have specific questions.
Hope that helps!
--Angela
Angela
MBA Student, Kellogg
