Kai

My name is Kai. I am Swedish but I have spent most of my life between America and Belgium. Having spent the majority of my childhood in America I got my Bachelor and Master of Science in Biology from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. I worked for the family business for almost three years where I started off as a Financial Analyst and moved up to Portfolio Manager.

Apart from that I enjoy sports and play ice-hockey semi-professionally. I love the field of education and before working for the family business I was a science teacher in America.

My family owns an asset management company that has over one billion euros in management and quite naturally I went to work in the family business after having followed my passion in the field of Biology. Needless to say, my education did not prepare me at all for working in an asset management company. I wanted to get the knowledge, experience, and network through an American MBA to one day be able to lead the family business throughout the 21stcentury

I chose Cornell as I wanted an American degree as I have really enjoyed my studies in the US so far. I wanted to be in the same environment as that of my future. I was looking for a program that is strong in finance and that is what Cornell offers.

I am dyslexic and also have an attention deficit disorder. This means that unlike a normal person I lose my concentration extremely fast and I get tired very easily. Needless to say, it was a serious handicap when I was preparing for the GMAT. The GMAC offers people suffering from my illness the chance to get into an MBA by lowering the score required for us by 60 percent. However, even this wasn’t enough to help me as I get tired and unproductive very easily.

Dr. Hubert silly and his team worked with me for long hours to help me to get 660 which for a dyslexic is like an 800 for a normal person. Working with Dr. Hubert Silly helped me a lot as he helped me to be faster, teaching me how to play around my handicap and beat it and I can't thank him enough for his help and support without which I definitely would not have been able to get the score in my GMAT. Few people are capable of helping a dyslexic to get such a score and Dr. Hubert Silly is one of them.

Life at Cornell is something quite different from what I have been a part of so far. Located close to New York while not having the disadvantages of being in New York, Cornell has a pleasant environment. Life as such is very pleasant in Ithaca. However, if needed, you can easily travel the one hour distance to New York by train.

The Cornell student body is quite active and one can form networks for life here at the college itself.

First of all, dream big. I am dyslexic and I was able to get 660 and get into Cornell. If I can do that with the issues I faced with concentration and exhaustion it is definitely possible for others too, to get into good programs.

Secondly, a lot of Europeans prefer European MBAs over American ones because they believe that a one year program is more preferable to a two-year program as they find it too long. I believe than an American MBA cannot be compared to a European MBA and that it brings you so much more than what a European MBA can bring to you. The American economy is much more dynamic than the European economy and this also has a major impact on your career and job prospects.

Finally, I can only recommend that you use MBA Center services. I do not think that any teacher in the world could have been able to help a dyslexic person with ADD get a 660 in his GMAT and Dr. Hubert Silly has managed to do that for me and I can't thank him enough for that.