Wharton MBA Program for Executives - Essay Example

There is no question that fitting the Wharton MBA Program into my schedule will be a challenge.  However, given an almost identical experience that I had in the past, plus the support of my family, friends, and company, I am confident that I will be able to satisfy the demands of my upcoming busy working life, my educational studies at Wharton, and my personal life.

            As a preliminary matter, it must be said that time management will be the key to achieving multiple goals at the same time:  pursuing a rigorous educational program, succeeding professionally at work, and balancing my personal life at the same time will require careful planning and dedication.  Fitting a rigorous academic program into an already vigorous professional and personal life, however, is not a new or novel experience for me.  From 2002 to 2004, I managed to study and finish the MSc (Investment Management) program at the HKUST (Hong Kong), while working full-time at my company.  To be sure the challenge was tough; my time was taken up with extensive readings of technical textbooks, long hours in discussion with my classmates on group projects, a heavy workload from a typical Asian audit firm, as well as frequent travel between Hong Kong and cities in China. 

In the beginning, I felt challenged in keeping up with all the demands from both sides.  However, I gradually realized that by applying better time-management skills, I could manage both of them rather well.  I don’t view time-management strategies in the abstract sense; quite the contrary, I utilized concrete time-management strategies such as listing out all the tasks for study and work, prioritizing these tasks according to different criteria, and focusing on the important issues rather than becoming bogged down by minor details or peripheral matters.   In the final analysis, I managed to succeed in handling a busy schedule.  The experience that I attained from these two years will be a very valuable tool as I prepare for my studies at Wharton; indeed, I feel extraordinarily confident that time management will be one of my strengths rather than a weakness.

            Aside from my personal experience, the support of my family will also be a very important factor for me to handle the busy schedule.  My girlfriend is also an MBA graduate.  She fully understands the heavy workload of an MBA curriculum, the demands to be made upon my time, the fact that short-term sacrifices will yield long-term gains, and that this is what I need to do at this stage of my professional life.  Having a close friend with a similar experience as my biggest supporter will be a definite positive contribution to my success in the Wharton program.