MBA Program

Student Voices

Donna Zhao, MBA ’11

A time for exploration

After college I went to work at Citi Private Bank as an analyst, working my way up to assistant vice president. I began working with our clients independently, and when I first started the admissions process for MIT Sloan, I planned to continue in private banking. But in the past six months, after speaking with fellow admits, current students, and MIT Sloan alumni—people with such amazing backgrounds and career goals—I realized that I shouldn't limit myself to one area. I am giving myself the freedom to explore multiple options in these next two years and want to leverage all of MIT Sloan's resources.

MIT Sloan really pushes you to go out and try different things. One of the things that impressed me when I was researching schools was the Sloan Innovation Period where you take a break from traditional classes and explore other topics. . There is also the Independent Activities Period during the month of January where you are encouraged not just to sit in a classroom and take your marketing, finance, statistics, and math, but to do more hands-on learning.

I am leaving my future wide open. I don't think I will ever have another opportunity like this to learn and to interact with people who have such unique backgrounds. It just seems like everything at MIT Sloan is very entrepreneurially focused. It's a very hands–on environment. It's about going out there and really experiencing the world.

The global community

While I am at MIT Sloan I definitely want to work abroad, whether it is for a classroom assignment, G-lab, or in an internship. I was born in China and I go there frequently and want to build on my international experience. The world is no longer U.S.-centric and I think no matter what kind of company I work for I will have to be cognizant of international issues. Even in private banking our clients weren't just in the U.S. Spending time abroad will help me become knowledgeable about the world not just in the business context but also culturally, and be sensitive to everything that is going on.

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