One of my classmates called me out for slacking off and not blogging, so I am back, and making a new effort to write more often. The first year of LFM is so busy that blogging ends up pretty far down on a list of things to do. Now that I am on my internship, I should have more time to write about what it is like to be in LFM.
For my internship, I am working at Harley-Davidson in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (http://www.harley-davidson.com). Harley-Davidson is one of the partner companies of LFM, and they have hosted 7 internships in the past 8 years. I will be working in their Advanced Manufacturing group, preparing models they can use to develop and implement their international manufacturing strategy. For a company that is an American icon, it is exciting to see how the love of American freedom can extend to people around the world. As many Harley-Davidson employees tell me, it is the only company in the world where its customers tattoo the company logo on their bodies - that is customer satisfaction!
And Harley-Davidson knows how to treat its interns. They are allowing me to take their Rider's Edge rider training class, in the hopes that I will become a rider, like many company employees.
This year is Harley-Davidson's 105th anniversary, and there will be a huge celebration in Milwaukee at the end of August. Thousands of Harley riders will be meeting in 105 points throughout the U.S. and will ride into town to celebrate the long history of Harley-Davidson and the great community of H.O.G. members. And for those who have not heard, Harley-Davidson just opened a museum in Milwaukee, filled with memorabilia and motorcycles dating back as far as "Serial Number One" from 1903. Instead of a ribbon-cutting, they cut a drive chain with a blow torch, in true Harley-Davidson style!
Milwaukee is a great place to spend the summer. Every weekend, there is some type of festival in town, with great food and live music. The largest is Summerfest, which is a 10-11 day music festival held at Henry Maier Festival Park, on the shores of Lake Michigan. The park is a great place to hold a festival - plenty of seating and 12 stages of music to enjoy. This year, I attended a couple of days of Summerfest, and enjoyed the great acts, sunny weather, and free Miller Lite (thanks to my new friends, the Miller Brewing Company interns!).
I also attended Bastille Days, the French festival in Cathedral Square, and enjoyed the crepes, French music, and street performers. Coming up soon are Festa Italiana, German Fest, and many others. There is more than enough to keep any LFM entertained all summer long.
Although I miss my fellow LFM classmates, I do enjoy leaving work at 5:00 and having the rest of the day to do what I want. And the LFM email list is still active, with people emailing out about their internships, travels, and new homes in locations across the U.S and in Switzerland, Scotland, Spain, Mexico, and Canada. For my LFM friends who find their way to my blog, I hope you are having a great time, and I look forward to reading about it over email, or at our Midstream Review in September!
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Applying to LFM
I got my first comment that was not from an LFM! (or at least I hope it wasn't) Someone out there asked about LFM's application and acceptance rate, since it is not something posted on the website. On average, there have been about 200 people applying for the program each year. Simple math tells you that this means that there is about a 25% acceptance rate, which is pretty generous for such a great program and a great school. While we are actively working to up the numbers of applicants this year, it is not likely to get much higher than that in the short-term. So think of this as just one more reason to consider applying to the program!
Part of the reason the number of applicants is low is that it is targeted at manufacturing and operations - so all of the 1,000's of future consultants and investment bankers don't apply. I don't think this self-selection is such a bad thing - it means that the applicant pool has strong interests in a field which I personally feel is pretty fascinating.
The program is very serious about their requirement that admitted students have strong interests in manufacturing and operations. In my interview group, there were many people who did not have any manufacturing experience, but they came prepared with detailed examples of what manufacturing careers they would like to have post-graduation. So don't get discouraged if you are coming from consulting, design, sales, or even the military (we have 3 ex-Navy officers in our class) - you just have to be able to show that you are interested in working in manufacturing in the future and that your previous experiences have taught you about leadership, working with people, and managing processes.
I also have to point out that a 25% acceptance rate doesn't mean LFM is an easy route to getting into Sloan. This year, our average GMAT score is higher than the Sloan average, and in most cases our stats match or exceed the Sloan stats. The biggest benefit is that, if you are truly interested in a career in operations, they take that to heart more than they would in a general Sloan interview, so you can score some extra brownie points. And you get to meet a lot of great people from a wide array of industries, so you learn about manufacturing careers just from the interview process. The people in my interview group were so interesting that I spent all day finding out about where they worked and what they did, that I did not even have time to be too nervous (well, until 15 minutes before the interview!).
If you are applying this year:
I would highly recommend not spending months of your time on the essays. If you are convinced that this is the right program for you (like most of us were), then express that in your essays and the admissions committee will love them. It is not about having the perfect formatting, the most intelligent big words, or the most expensive consultant reviewing them - in my experience, the admissions staff just wants to hear from you about your interests, goals, and what you can bring to this exciting place. Make them look good, but don't spend days writing and re-writing one sentence in your essays. Don't stress!
I think I took a more laid-back approach to my applications than some of my classmates, so they may tell you differently. I knew this program was right for me, and I put my energy into making sure that came through in my essays. I know a lot of you also have questions about your grades, test scores, leadership/work experience, etc. My recommendation is to not focus too much on any one part. A lower GMAT score can be balanced by strong career plans, and a lack of management experience at work can be improved by leadership experience outside of work. Most people in my class have had 3-4 years experience, and many have not managed people yet, so don't look at some of our people with 10+years experience and compare yourself to them (even though we still do it sometimes in class).
Another thing you can do to improve your application is to visit the LFM program (or talk to a student over the phone/email if you live too far away). We love to have visitors to show around campus and to talk to about how much fun we have been having. By seeing the program first-hand, you can find out which parts of the program are most appealing to you, and you can tie them into your essays. It is one thing to find a keyword on the website - it is another to have spoken to a student about our Domestic Plant Trek, our Proseminar course, or many of the other LFM activities. As I mentioned above, the admissions committee wants to know why LFM is a good fit for you, and they don't just mean the coursework.
Good luck on the GMAT and application-writing! And please let me know, via the comments section, if there is anything else I can tell you about the program.
Part of the reason the number of applicants is low is that it is targeted at manufacturing and operations - so all of the 1,000's of future consultants and investment bankers don't apply. I don't think this self-selection is such a bad thing - it means that the applicant pool has strong interests in a field which I personally feel is pretty fascinating.
The program is very serious about their requirement that admitted students have strong interests in manufacturing and operations. In my interview group, there were many people who did not have any manufacturing experience, but they came prepared with detailed examples of what manufacturing careers they would like to have post-graduation. So don't get discouraged if you are coming from consulting, design, sales, or even the military (we have 3 ex-Navy officers in our class) - you just have to be able to show that you are interested in working in manufacturing in the future and that your previous experiences have taught you about leadership, working with people, and managing processes.
I also have to point out that a 25% acceptance rate doesn't mean LFM is an easy route to getting into Sloan. This year, our average GMAT score is higher than the Sloan average, and in most cases our stats match or exceed the Sloan stats. The biggest benefit is that, if you are truly interested in a career in operations, they take that to heart more than they would in a general Sloan interview, so you can score some extra brownie points. And you get to meet a lot of great people from a wide array of industries, so you learn about manufacturing careers just from the interview process. The people in my interview group were so interesting that I spent all day finding out about where they worked and what they did, that I did not even have time to be too nervous (well, until 15 minutes before the interview!).
If you are applying this year:
I would highly recommend not spending months of your time on the essays. If you are convinced that this is the right program for you (like most of us were), then express that in your essays and the admissions committee will love them. It is not about having the perfect formatting, the most intelligent big words, or the most expensive consultant reviewing them - in my experience, the admissions staff just wants to hear from you about your interests, goals, and what you can bring to this exciting place. Make them look good, but don't spend days writing and re-writing one sentence in your essays. Don't stress!
I think I took a more laid-back approach to my applications than some of my classmates, so they may tell you differently. I knew this program was right for me, and I put my energy into making sure that came through in my essays. I know a lot of you also have questions about your grades, test scores, leadership/work experience, etc. My recommendation is to not focus too much on any one part. A lower GMAT score can be balanced by strong career plans, and a lack of management experience at work can be improved by leadership experience outside of work. Most people in my class have had 3-4 years experience, and many have not managed people yet, so don't look at some of our people with 10+years experience and compare yourself to them (even though we still do it sometimes in class).
Another thing you can do to improve your application is to visit the LFM program (or talk to a student over the phone/email if you live too far away). We love to have visitors to show around campus and to talk to about how much fun we have been having. By seeing the program first-hand, you can find out which parts of the program are most appealing to you, and you can tie them into your essays. It is one thing to find a keyword on the website - it is another to have spoken to a student about our Domestic Plant Trek, our Proseminar course, or many of the other LFM activities. As I mentioned above, the admissions committee wants to know why LFM is a good fit for you, and they don't just mean the coursework.
Good luck on the GMAT and application-writing! And please let me know, via the comments section, if there is anything else I can tell you about the program.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Any Requests?
Just a quick note... I know there are many LFM blogs out there, but if there is something you don't see that you want to know about, leave me a comment. I am planning to post in the near future about the admissions process, fall course selection, clubs, treks, etc - but there is so much I can talk about around here! If there is anything specific, let me know!
Two and a half months later...
I know, I know... it has been a while since my last post. Over the summer, I convinced myself that I would have a lot of time to blog, since I had spent so much time reading other people's blogs over the past year. But soon after my first post, we hit final exams for our summer classes, then we had a week off, then Sloan orientation, and meeting new people, and club meetings, and company presentations, and 9 classes... and now I am here. My fellow LFM students have given me a hard time about not writing, so I'll work on posting at least once a week, especially since I know they are checking up on me!
The start of the fall has been a whirlwind of activities, but it has been a great time. The pace over the summer was pretty relaxed, with a few weeks of stress when projects were due. We had time to sit at the Muddy Charles (one of MIT's on-campus pubs) and drink $6 pitchers of beer and eat free buffalo wings (Wedesday nights are the best!). We had time to attend barbecues with the students in the SDM (System Design & Managment) and Sloan Fellows programs. And we didn't have company presentations or club meetings every day of the week, before, between, and after classes. We were pretty pampered - don't let any other LFM's tell you that the summer is tough. It was definitely manageable.
After the summer term ended, two of my friends, Brian and Nathan, came to visit for a week. We spent a few days in Boston doing all of the touristy stuff - Freedom Trail, Quincy Market, canolis from Mike's Pastry (a must-have if you come to Boston). Then we took the Greyhound bus to New York for a few days. If you go on the Greyhound website, you can get a roundtrip ticket to New York for $30 if you click on the "specials" link - it is the same price as the Fung Hua (Chinatown) bus, and supposedly a lot safer. It was a great week to relax before... Orientation!
When we returned to campus, we found ourselves surrounded by 393 new friends - the largest entering class Sloan has had. The Admissions Office had a great year, and most of us jumped at the opportunity to come here when we received our acceptance letters, so our class is a little larger than expected. I'll go into more detail in my next post, but I have to say, the excitement of the start of the fall has not worn off - it just keeps growing!
To put in a little plug for the LFM admissions committee, we have begun our LFM Ambassadors program, so if you are interested in coming to check out LFM and Sloan, please go to the website: http://lfm.mit.edu and click on the "Request a visit or a brochure" link on the right side of the page. You will also receive monthly emails about the program, including application deadlines, admissions events, and articles about students and faculty in LFM!
The start of the fall has been a whirlwind of activities, but it has been a great time. The pace over the summer was pretty relaxed, with a few weeks of stress when projects were due. We had time to sit at the Muddy Charles (one of MIT's on-campus pubs) and drink $6 pitchers of beer and eat free buffalo wings (Wedesday nights are the best!). We had time to attend barbecues with the students in the SDM (System Design & Managment) and Sloan Fellows programs. And we didn't have company presentations or club meetings every day of the week, before, between, and after classes. We were pretty pampered - don't let any other LFM's tell you that the summer is tough. It was definitely manageable.
After the summer term ended, two of my friends, Brian and Nathan, came to visit for a week. We spent a few days in Boston doing all of the touristy stuff - Freedom Trail, Quincy Market, canolis from Mike's Pastry (a must-have if you come to Boston). Then we took the Greyhound bus to New York for a few days. If you go on the Greyhound website, you can get a roundtrip ticket to New York for $30 if you click on the "specials" link - it is the same price as the Fung Hua (Chinatown) bus, and supposedly a lot safer. It was a great week to relax before... Orientation!
When we returned to campus, we found ourselves surrounded by 393 new friends - the largest entering class Sloan has had. The Admissions Office had a great year, and most of us jumped at the opportunity to come here when we received our acceptance letters, so our class is a little larger than expected. I'll go into more detail in my next post, but I have to say, the excitement of the start of the fall has not worn off - it just keeps growing!
To put in a little plug for the LFM admissions committee, we have begun our LFM Ambassadors program, so if you are interested in coming to check out LFM and Sloan, please go to the website: http://lfm.mit.edu and click on the "Request a visit or a brochure" link on the right side of the page. You will also receive monthly emails about the program, including application deadlines, admissions events, and articles about students and faculty in LFM!
Sunday, July 22, 2007
About Aimee
Hi everyone! I am happy that you made it to this site because it means you are either:
To fill you in on my background, I am originally from the Detroit area, and went to the University of Michigan for Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, graduating in 2003. I interned at Cummins Inc., a diesel engine/power generation company, and went to work there full-time after graduation. I spent 2 years in Cummins' Manufacturing Development Program, and then 2 more years as the Process Engineer in Cummins Midrange Engine Plant in Columbus, Indiana. While at Cummins, I finished a Masters in Industrial Engineering through Purdue University part-time, and decided that I wanted to get an MBA full-time. I had heard about the Leaders For Manufacturing program at MIT, and felt it was a great fit because of my interest both the technical and business aspects of manufacturing.
After a reasonably painless application process, I started at MIT on June 4, 2007, along with 46 other classmates. Since then, we have been taking several courses, visiting partner companies on plant tours, and hearing from senior leaders in proseminar presentations. We have also done a fair amount of bonding outside of class, which I am sure you will hear a lot about. Over the next 2 years, I will be completing coursework and an internship-based thesis in order to earn my MBA, along with a Masters in Engineering Systems.
I'll try to post often to give people an idea of what LFM is like, from my perspective. I welcome any questions you may have, and I hope that I can convince some of you to apply to LFM this year!
- a family member or friend checking up on me, or
- a potential applicant interested in finding out more about the Leaders For Manufacturing (LFM) program at MIT.
To fill you in on my background, I am originally from the Detroit area, and went to the University of Michigan for Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, graduating in 2003. I interned at Cummins Inc., a diesel engine/power generation company, and went to work there full-time after graduation. I spent 2 years in Cummins' Manufacturing Development Program, and then 2 more years as the Process Engineer in Cummins Midrange Engine Plant in Columbus, Indiana. While at Cummins, I finished a Masters in Industrial Engineering through Purdue University part-time, and decided that I wanted to get an MBA full-time. I had heard about the Leaders For Manufacturing program at MIT, and felt it was a great fit because of my interest both the technical and business aspects of manufacturing.
After a reasonably painless application process, I started at MIT on June 4, 2007, along with 46 other classmates. Since then, we have been taking several courses, visiting partner companies on plant tours, and hearing from senior leaders in proseminar presentations. We have also done a fair amount of bonding outside of class, which I am sure you will hear a lot about. Over the next 2 years, I will be completing coursework and an internship-based thesis in order to earn my MBA, along with a Masters in Engineering Systems.
I'll try to post often to give people an idea of what LFM is like, from my perspective. I welcome any questions you may have, and I hope that I can convince some of you to apply to LFM this year!
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