Taken by Jian Shuo Wang, on December 12, 2005. First visit to Stanford
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From the March of 2005, many Stanford people entered my life and became my good friends. Many people in eBay graduated from Stanford, either from Computer Science, or from MBA program. The list is just too long to name one by one. Among them, Xiaofeng Jin is an important person. She introduced me to the great network of Stanford. We met for the first time in Starbucks and scheduled to talk for 1 hours, but it turned out to be 4 hours. Xiaofeng highly recommended me to go to Stanford for either Salon or EMBA program and described her wonderful 6 weeks in Stanford - it was very attractive for me.
Today, Xiaofeng did another great thing. She invited me to join Stanford Alumni meal in Shanghai, so I extended my "Stanford network" to many more great people.
The Meal
We had Marie Mookini, the Senior Associate Director of MBA Career Management Center (CMC), the former Director of Adminsion, and Virginia Roberson, from MBA Career Management, Xiaofeng, Raymond, Nisa, and Jane (all GSB graduates)... It is about 11 people - a small group. Just as Virginia put it, Stanford GSB enjoys smaller groups, and the feeling of a family. I like that.
Taken by Jian Shuo Wang, on December 12, 2005. First visit to Stanford
Stanford = Internet?
In my mind, Stanford is an icon for Internet. I first know about Internet when I listened to a lecture in Shanghai Jiaotong University in 1995, and the professor talked about Jim Clark, and Marc Anderson, the two founders of Netscape. They came from Stanford. Not to mention the later Jerry Yang, SUN, eBay, Google... A big part of the Internet industry is something like a Stanford history.
Stanford to me means Internet and Innovation in the first few years. To me, it is just like a university with only one major in my mind - computer science (or Internet entrepreneurship). (Just kidding. I certainly know they have other great departments).
Recently, I found Stanford means more than innovation. I still need time to get used to the facts that B-school of Stanford has a very diversed students, working on many industries, from banking to to biotech, from real estate to energy. How that works with the Stanford innovation tradition still puzzles me.
Anyway, what I learnt most from my friends in Stanford (for example, from Xiaofeng) is, "Inspirational" and "Visionary". I like these two words very much. Along with the word Innovation, they are my most favorite English words. :-) The best place to find the combination of these three ehtics is Stanford. I don't think Harvard offers Inspiration and Innovation as much as Stanford does. To me, Harvard means more like Business. (MIT? I was a very big fan of MIT when I was in university, but later found for Internet industry, Stanford is THE place).
I am feeling the strong desire to learn some business recently. Last time, when ex-Microsoft people (EXMSFT) met, we talked about Meetup: MBA or Not, that is a Question. I don't care the Master degree - (why should I care?) but I do think the skill to speak a new language is important for me - the language of business. I am thinking seriously to get to business school for several months now. Virginia showed us the new campus (not a new building, a new campus!) of Stanford GSB. The campus is to complete in 2010. Maybe at that time, I can go...
S t a n f o r d - this word looks nice.
P.S. Thanks everyone for giving me the permission to write about the event, and sorry that I don't have other's names yet. When you are with this blog for long enough, you know my rule for privacy is not to mention people's name unless 1) I got explict permission, or 2) the person also has a blog.
Posted by Jian Shuo Wang at July 21, 2006 11:49 PM
Copyright: You are free to redistribute this work, as long as you keep this disclaimer
and this link: http://home.wangjianshuo.com/archives/20060721_stanford_dream.htm
Stanford is indeed a top-drawer university but has had a weak football team.
Go Cardinals!!
Posted by: Shrek7 on July 21, 2006 8:13 PMGreat article. I like Stanford too. I toured Stanford last Thanksgiving and we got lost because the campus is too big.
A minor correction: Marc Anderson is a UIUC graduate. He went to Sillicon Valley because he
does not have too much access to VC fund in Urbana-Champion (where UIUC located).
Have you seen this website?
http://edcorner.stanford.edu/IndivRec?author=24&mid=1185
Stanford definitely means internet and entrepeneurship.
Posted by: Mecca on July 22, 2006 12:00 AMLovely Jian Shuo. In terms of business schools, the top ones are usually from Harvard, Duke, Northwestern as well.
At same time, let's remind ourselves what Schopenhauer said, as "Every person takes the limits of their own field of vision for the limits of the world." (ref. "On Vision" from July 6)
Posted by: SSC (external link) on July 22, 2006 12:28 AMJian Shuo, I am glad that you enjoyed the gathering. Stanford has two great programs besides MBA – Salon (http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/sloan/ ) and SEP (http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/exed/sep/index.html ). Stanford does not offer EMBA. When I have more time, I would love to go back to GSB for a more extended program. It is a very special experience.
Posted by: Xiaofeng Jin on July 22, 2006 4:29 PMAs far as I know, atleast 2 yrs work experience required along with a good gmat score.
Is it any different for the EMBA program?
Great article. I like it.
To add some data points in terms of MIT contribution to Internet, if not the 'Internet industry'.
MIT hosts WWW consortium, http://www.w3.org/, where the 'father' of HTML, Tim Berners-Lee, directs. He is also a faculty member at MIT EECS department.
RSA algorithm was described in 1977 by Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir and Len Adleman, at MIT. It was patented in 1983 by MIT.
MIT was the leading one among the institutions who worked together and brought forth the ARPANET in the late 60's and early 70's.
......
The three 'words' to describe MIT are "Innovation", "Learning by action" and "Impact".
BTW,
"The world's first university-based executive education program — the Sloan Fellows — was created in 1931 at MIT under the sponsorship of Sloan."
"A Sloan Foundation grant established the MIT School of Industrial Management in 1952 with the charge of educating the "ideal manager", and the school was renamed in Sloan's honor as the Alfred P. Sloan School of Management, one of the world's premier business schools. "
"A second grant established a Sloan Fellows Program at Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1957. The program became the Stanford Sloan Master's Program in 1976, awarding the degree of Master of Science in Management."
Posted by: Jin on July 25, 2006 6:14 PMObviously Donald Trump isn't reading this blog or you will have had an earful of the Wharton School (of business at U Penn).
Posted by: bigbro on July 25, 2006 10:01 PMLarry Ellison - college dropout :)
Michael Dell - college dropout :)
Paul Allen - college dropout :)
Bill Gates - college dropout :)
---------------------------------
You don't need a degree to make a difference. :)
Posted by: Alex Langos on July 26, 2006 7:27 AMI agree with you Alex. I was not a big fun of school education, however, now, I can clearly see I am lack of a language - financial, or business language to communicate. To learn a language, the best way is to talk with people who know the language...
Posted by: Jian Shuo Wang (external link) on July 29, 2006 12:44 AMit's ok for you to like Standford -for whatever reasons, but with all respect, please... please do not judge other schools like Harvard, MIT, etc.
Posted by: nSigma (external link) on August 8, 2006 12:04 PMhi its good.any one wanna friendship but true call
923226112188
I agree with all that you said, but Stanford indeed means more than internet and entrepreneurship. It has one of the best graduate schools in the world and produces hundreds of academic people. Plus, Stanford medical schools contributed two Nobel laureates in 2006. Holy!
Admittedly, the football team is weak........but Stanford has truly exceptional sport facilities........
Again, thank you for your appreciation of Stanford. ^_^