What do you REALLY want to achieve during business school?
This is the million dollar question! Before the tuition bills start coming (a time when students tell us that their perspective changes), it is helpful to figure out what you want out of your MBA experience.
What do you want to learn? Are there particular people you would like to get to know? Do you want to establish yourself as a leader in a specific industry? Are you hoping to deepen relationships in a specific geography? Want to make strides towards starting a new business?
If so, your goals might look like this:
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Goal 1: Conduct a thorough assessment of my leadership style and learn three new tools or tactics that I could employ to be a better leader
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Goal 2 Meet person by the end of my first semester.
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Goal 3: Plan intensive experience in country - either an internship, group project or specific study experience, no later than halfway through my second year.
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Goal 4: Decide which of my three business ideas to pursue, find at least one partner to get involved, and participate in the Venture Challenge to determine viability of our plan.
There are also broader goals that students contemplate, particularly those focused on growth. If you are interested in setting broader goals for yourself, they make look something like:
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Goal 1: Sign up for three classes by the end of my first year that make me uncomfortable because of the challenge they represent
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Goal 2: Design and launch an initiative in response to a challenge I uncover in my first three months at business school.
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Goal 3: Set personal health and wellness goals, testing at least three new activities to assess my interest.
What have past students advised?
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Set your goals now. Use our simple MBA goal-setting tool to focus on what you want to achieve. Utilizing the SMART® framework will help you to define goals and, ultimately, increase your chance of achieving them.
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Focus some of your goals on learning. This is a unique, once-in-a-lifetime chance to make audacious goals and risk failure with almost no implications. Determine what you want to learn and how you want to experiment as you’re taking risks.
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Need a jump-start on brainstorming goals? Check out our Quick Start MBA Goals worksheet. We've provided some suggestions to trigger thoughts about your own goals. It may seem like a lot at the moment, but you'll have all of two years to complete the ones you choose!
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