A Tale of Two Cities: Part II

This week I visited Duke. A few things worth noting: 1) It is much more difficult to know where you are in North Carolina. There are trees and hills everywhere, and no mountains to keep you oriented. 2) It is totally worth it because it is beautiful. 3) The Duke campus is better than I imagined. You will see some pictures below. 4) The chapel on campus made me feel like I was in Italy again. 5) When I walked into Cameron Indoor Stadium had this euphoric rush. I have never even been a huge Duke fan, but there is a very cool feeling there.

Overall it was a positive experience. I enjoyed the students, the faculty, the campus, and the area. Here are a few pictures.

Pretending to teach in one of the MBA case rooms.

Just inside the Fuqua School. The stairs take you down to the PhD students area. 

A few of the Duke basketball trophies.

Pretending I am shooting over Jabari Parker to win the game.

A Tale of Two Cities: Part I

I was accepted into the PhD in Business Administration program (strategy group) at both Washington University and Duke. So this last Thursday I flew out to St. Louis to meet with faculty members, check out the campus, and see the city. I have to say that St. Louis might be one of the most underrated cities in the U.S. Favorite aspects of St. Louis:

• Forest Park, right across the street from campus. This place is 1,300 acres, 500 larger than Central Park in New York. It has a free zoo in it! 
• The arch, see the last picture.
• The architecture. At least from what I saw around campus, there are a lot of old mansions that have a lot of character. 
• The Cardinals. I am not a huge MLB fan, but I could be. 
• The Mississippi River. I don't know why, but being right by the Mississippi feels important. 

The campus was beautiful, as you can see in the pictures. I felt like the faculty would be great people to work with, and they current students were nice. Wash U just built a ginormous new business building as well, which could be nice to work in. 

I am flying to North Carolina next week to check out Duke, at which point you will get Part II. I will have a couple of weeks to make a decision after that. Depending on how things go at Duke, it could be a close call. I imagine both could be great places.