Author: Joan Daly is a recent graduate of the Luxury & Retail MBA Student and Graduate Ambassador for the program. On campus, she was an involved member of Stern Women in Business, the Luxury & Retail Club, and the Graduate Marketing Association. Joan specialized in global business and luxury marketing during her one year program, and will be moving into a strategic brand marketing role upon graduation.
One of the most frequent questions I received in my time as a Graduate Ambassador was, “what does your day-to-day look like as a full-time student in a one-year program?” This was and is one of my favorite questions to get, because while it is true that not one day was like another, there was some pattern that each semester specifically followed that I could highlight for prospective students. The following details what a typical day-in-the-life looks like for a Luxury & Retail student, but by semester, as there is nuance to each of the three spent in the program that should be highlighted a little more in-depth.
Summer Semester
Ah, summer! This is the semester that kicks off your journey as a Luxury & Retail student at Stern. And when I speak to students about this semester, I highlight that it is the most “different” than a typical semester as a graduate student. The Luxury & Retail MBA is a full-time program, and this first semester takes that very seriously. You are in class for what feels like a typical 9-to-5 workday, mostly highlighted by blocks of classes in 3-hour shifts. For example, you would have Strategy from 9AM-12PM and Finance from 1:30-4:30PM on Mondays and Thursdays of each week. On Tuesdays and Fridays you would have Consumer Behavior from 9AM-12PM. And on Wednesdays of each week, you have a variety of formats for your Luxury & Retail Immersion class; sometimes lectures with professors and working professionals in a classroom, other times visits to companies in the industry around New York City, as well as in-person meetings with your client for that semester’s Immersion project. Below is a snippet of what your week could look like, with time blocked off for studying, project work and homework, as well as some travel and other commitments marked in as well.
While summer is very busy in the traditional sense, you also have time to adjust to student life again. There are social events galore for you to join in on, especially Thursday evening happy hours for the focused MBA students on campus! There are fun weekend trips, like going down the Jersey shore with friends or hiking in the Poconos, that also fill your schedule, so you can plan to have fun together while getting your work done for your required classes. The semester ends in mid-August, allowing you to have a two-week break at the end of summer before diving into your second semester! Time does fly in this semester, so try to enjoy it, even in the chaos!
Fall Semester
After the craziness that is your packed summer schedule dwindles down and you enjoy your well-deserved break doing whatever it is you please, fall semester comes around and settles in. This is the semester for many things, but one of them is recruiting for cyclical hiring, if you’re choosing that path. That means, for jobs like consulting, investment banking, finance, and some rotational programs, you have to start preparing for interviews in late summer, as recruiting ramps up as early as September. But, not to fear; the NYU Stern Careers Center and student clubs both do fantastic jobs of providing students with the resources they need to succeed in this cycle of recruiting. However, most jobs that Luxury & Retail MBA students have sought historically do not start recruiting until the spring semester, so I’ll speak on that a little more later. For fall, just keep in mind that campus is busy with students in suits and corporate attire, lots of presentations between afternoon and night classes from companies looking to hire Stern students, and filled with networking opportunities.
As for classes, think of this semester as your first of two “normal” semesters, reminiscent of your undergraduate days. While the Luxury & Retail MBA still requires some focused-specific classes (Retail Strategy, Supply Chain & Retail Operations, and Luxury & Retail Digital Immersion), the rest of your classes are electives up to your choosing, allowing you to shape your schedule as you see fit and with what interests you. If you take a look at an example of mine from my fall semester, you’ll see I conveniently planned to only have classes three days a week, Tuesday through Thursday. This was by design, but also only because the other classes that interested me fell on days that the required Luxury & Retail classes did. My spring semester was four days over three due to the classes I wanted to take; I always encourage students to sign up for the classes they are excited about, and not just make a schedule based on what days they want to be on campus. That said, my choices worked out to have a three day schedule, and I did enjoy it. But, I lived about 30 minutes via subway from school, so what this meant was that I was rather beholden to campus on my breaks, making my days on campus very long, nearly 12 hours long in some cases. It was all well worth it to take the classes I wanted to, and I always made sure to leave the building and get some fresh air on my breaks!
Here, I made some more time for corporate presentations and some job applications. I decided to be a Teaching Fellow for an undergraduate class as well, hosting office hours for students and making sure I blocked off time to grade those papers and case studies! And you’ll see a healthy smattering of night classes. Famously a morning person, they took some getting used to for me, but I came to really enjoy them because of how much care each professor put into their classes.
Winter Immersion
A bonus sneak-peak here into the Winter Immersion! This week-long trip in January is talked about in more detail in other blog posts, but I thought I’d share a glimpse of what our schedule looked like from when we traveled to Florence, Italy during my program. The focus of our trip was running family-owned businesses in today’s economic climate. It was incredibly fascinating to meet with luxury businesses that have been in families for generations. There were so many amazing visits that I could detail, but I think my personal favorite was the day we spent at the Antinori Winery. This winery has been owned by the Antinori family for 26 generations (incredible!) since 1385! We got to hear about how they still run their business with family-based values today, and what makes a successful global wine business in this day and age.
Spring Semester
Before you know it, you’re onto spring, your final semester as a Luxury & Retail MBA student! This semester is a whole lot of fun, but also, a little bittersweet, as you’re ending the program so soon; time really does fly while you’re having fun!
Not everyone’s spring semester will look alike. For example, I chose to pursue an internship. It was an internship I forged through my own personal connections, and I was excited to work a few hours each week in order to further my existing connection as well as build others. I interned at Ralph Lauren, and got to go into their office during the week. I’d commute from uptown to Hudson Yards then down to Washington Square; to say I was “schlepping” my things around on those days was an understatement! But it was all well worth it, as I treasure the experience I had interning.
You may notice my spring semester doesn’t seem as class-heavy compared to my fall semester. I was able to “front load” some credits into my fall semester, so I could have more time to myself in the spring to either intern, take on more freelance work, and most importantly, apply to full-time jobs and network! This is of course not necessary for students to do, and frontloading is not for everyone. But I personally knew that giving myself more time in the spring to focus on the job hunt would bode better for me, and it even allowed me more time to intern and work on campus as a Graduate Ambassador
A highlight from my time as a student was participating in various clubs and the amazing conferences that they had to offer. In March, the Stern Women in Business club hosted their annual conference, coinciding with Women’s History Month. We heard from amazing speakers and had the chance to network extensively with each other, as the event was open to current Stern students as well as alumni and industry professionals, broadening the scope of opportunity for attendees.
One Amazing, Full Year!
To close, I want to note that not one student’s experience in the Luxury & Retail MBA will look like another’s. That is what makes this program so special, and so truly luxury; it is bespoke, and you will get out of it what you put into it. You choose what you focus your energy and time on, and it will give back to you. A screenshot of a schedule can only tell a little bit of the story, but I hope this proved helpful to visualize how you will spend your year as a Luxury & Retail MBA student at NYU Stern!
