Sunday, December 20, 2009

Accepted into Wharton!! and commentary on IRIS

Japanese version of this post: http://peacej.exblog.jp

This ends a long journey of MBA apps that was much more painful than college apps. It definitely took up hundreds of hours of time, not to mention the anxiety. So glad that it's over with and that I got into my top choice! w000000000t!

I got accepted into the Lauder program (around 60 student per year) at Wharton, which is a dual degree program: an MA in international studies with focus on a specific country/language (japan in my case) and the regular wharton mba. I have to complete both degrees in almost the same amount of time (25 months instead of 22 months) so it's going to be really intense. really excited about it tho. i'm gonna study my ass off and make the most of it~

So my schedule will look like this:

Now until May 2010 Keep studying Korean in Seoul
May 10, 2010 Start studying at Wharton for 1 month with other Lauder students
June/July 2010 Go around Japan visiting executives of big companies and taking classes on culture/history/language. Most of the time will be in Tokyo and Kyoto

August 2010 Start pre-term at Wharton
Sep 2010 Start first term at Wharton
June-Aug 2011 Do internship in Tokyo
June 2012 Graduate from Wharton and move to Tokyo.

I got rejected from Harvard and MIT Sloan. Haven't heard from INSEAD. Would I have gone to Harvard over Wharton if I had gotten in? I admit there's a good chance I would have, but it would have been a hard choice. I think Harvard still has a better reputation (especially among non-business people and especially in Asia... my parents hadn't heard of wharton until i told them) but Wharton is better in reality in several regards (e.g. international programs/diversity) and much better fit with me personally. So if I had gotten in to both schools it would have been a choice between reputation (which would be sort of copping out on myself in a superficial way) and fit (the true better choice). Anyway, Wharton's reputation is still amazing, ranked #1 in the world in the financial times, etc. so I can't really complain about the reputation

One question that some people have is, why am I studying more Japanese if I'm already fluent?
Well, actually you have to be already fluent to get into the Lauder program. The goal is to become even more fluent. I have to totally and utterly pwn in Japanese. Heheh. Since I am planning to spend most of my life in Japan, it's going to be worth it. Just like with English, actually sitting in a class and learning how to write essays, analyze literature and newspapers etc. will give you better language skills than just using the language in everyday life. I haven't written a formal report/essay in Japanese in ages.

On life in Seoul...I think Korea is awesome and I think Seoul would be the 2nd favorite place for me to live in the world after Tokyo. It basically has all the cool places/stuff you would ever want in a big metropolitan city except it's cheaper than Tokyo and the economic growth prospects of Korea are better so people are more optimistic about the future. Not to mention Korea has the #1 broadband network in the world, the #1 electronics company in the world, and amaaazing pop stars, movies, and celebrities. Korea is also doing a much better job internationalizing itself than Japan (for several reasons.. maybe i'll analyze in another blog post). I just have been blown away by how good Korean pop has become and how well it's produced and the choreography and everything. I would say out of my 10 favorite pop songs of all time in the world maybe half of them are Korean now. I'm almost having trouble now deciding whether I like Jpop and Kpop more and for those of you who know me you know that this is a pretty big deal. From an overall perspective though I would still have to say Japanese music is better because they have awesome artists in several genres whereas Korea is mostly just pop. you could point out, though, how two of my favorite Jpop artists, Verbal (from m-flo) and BoA are actually Korean..

As I said a couple years ago... the world is only beginning to realize how cool Koreans are.

On a totally different note, Final Fantasy XIII just came out! Over 350 people lined up in the Tsutaya in Shibuya to buy it even tho it costs like 110 USD. I think this might be the best game ever made in the history of mankind. The goal is to take the scenes from Advent Children and turn that into actual gameplay, which is ridiculous! I wonder if I will ever have time to play it haha...

This blog post is getting way too long and way off topic, but mad props to Korea (again) for producing the drama IRIS. This is maybe the best TV series I have seen in my life, in any language. The drama stars Lee Byung-hun and Kim Tae-hee and I think they're the perfect actors for their roles. Basically there's a secret organization called the NSS which is like the CIA except it's so secret that even the Korean president doesn't know about it. NSS basically sends people to carry out missions to gain intelligence and assassinate people etc. Then there's an even MORE secret organization called IRIS, which is based in North Korea but they have members secretly in the North and South Korean Government, even secretly in NSS... and it's a freaking TERRORIST organization that goes around pwning people.

Basically after a while everyone in the world is trying to kill Lee Byung-hun but he always manages to survive in the most pwnage way possible. Meanwhile the love story between him and Kim Tae-hee is one of the best love stories out of any movie or drama I've seen; the love story is even better because both of them are constantly surrounded by pwnage and people trying to kill them.

Seriously, I usually am unable to empathize with movie/drama characters when they cry but this drama is different...

I think it is pretty cool that I can watch this drama without subtitles...although some parts are still hard to understand..