3月14日与牛津MBA面对面：你会选择已知的现在，还是不确定的未来

2022年3月23日是牛津大学赛德商学院MBA课程的最后一轮申请截止日期；立即注册参加3月14日的线上公开日，为你的申请助力。

在此之前，先从在校生的博客中感受下在读牛津MBA究竟是怎样一种体验吧：

选择不确定的未来：对第一学期的思考 

VICKY SHI

2021-22届牛津MBA在读

赛德基金会学者

“你需要在已知的现在和不确定（却可能更好）的未来之间做出选择。” 

我们的组织行为学教授迈克尔·吉尔站在教室前，身后投影着一张空无一人的白色房间的照片。他描述了一个场景：如果我们从现在的生活中醒来，却发现自己一直生活在虚拟世界中，会怎么样？假如可以选择继续沉浸在眼前的虚拟生活中，或者永久地离开设备，去看看“真实世界”的样子呢？他告诉我们，34%的实验参与者选择了虚拟世界，这体现出来现状偏见——对自己生活满意的人，倾向于保持现状。

面对这个决定，我们教室里的许多人选择了拔掉电源。这一结果不难理解。毕竟，我们很多人都离开了朋友、家人、工作和故乡，来到牛津——为了寻求更好的机会。

当第一学期进入尾声，这是分享一些我选择不确定未来后的思考。

The final stage of application to the Oxford MBA will close on 23 March 2022. Join us on 14 March for our MBA virtual open day. 

Before doing so, why not have a taste of what it is like to be studying for an Oxford MBA from this blog article of one of our current students:

CHOOSING THE UNCERTAIN FUTURE: REFLECTIONS ON THE FIRST TERM

VICKY SHI

Class of 2021-22 Oxford MBA candidate

Saïd Foundation Scholar

“You need to make the choice between a certain present and an uncertain – potentially better – future.” 

Our Organizational Behavior professor Michael Gill stood at the front of the classroom, with a picture of an empty white room projected behind him. He’d described a scenario: what if we woke up from our life as we knew it – only to find that we’d been in a simulation this whole time? What if we were then given the choice to stay hooked up to our simulated lives or permanently leave the facility to see what the “real world” had in store? He shared that 34% of participants in the experiment chose the simulation, an example of the status quo bias: those who are comfortable with their lives want to keep it as is. 

Faced with this decision, many of us in the classroom chose to unplug. And doesn’t that make sense? After all, to come to Oxford, we’d left our friends, families, jobs, and homes – for the chance of something better.

As I wrap up my first term, here are some reflections from choosing the uncertain future.

我体验收获了两个世界的精华：既有商学院又有整座大学。

在课堂之外，我参加了赛德商学院不少令人难以置信的活动，活动中聆听了联合利华首席执行官和牛津-阿斯利康疫苗开发者等多位领袖的真知灼见。在商学院之外，我还经历了很多不可思议的活动，比如见证希拉里·克林顿宣布牛津将设立以她名字命名的具有历史意义的“女性历史教授”席位，或聆听国会议员在牛津大学辩论社的唇枪舌战。每天，我的书院满足了我与其他专业学生们结识交流的愿望。我住在赫特福德学院12人宿舍（没错，12 人）的房子里——他们的专业包括环境变化、数学、国际关系、考古学、中国研究等等，我是这些研究生中唯一的MBA学生。有一天，我在分析课上学习到无监督学习中的聚类算法；当天晚上，我的室友，机器学习专业的博士生，就向我们展示了一部他通过无监督学习编写的电影——这可是我刚刚几个小时前在课堂上才学习到的。

我随性尝试了很多新爱好。

我一直是个夜猫子；然而，为了赛艇我居然早上5点半起床。我在严寒中骑自行车到船库，试图忽略我麻木的手指和因为总握着船桨而起泡的手掌——但当看着河上的天空染成粉色，而我们在基督堂赛船会上赢得比赛时，这一切都值得了。我参加了一个马球体验活动，努力做到没有从马上摔下来。我报名了萨尔萨舞课，甚至进入了初学者的交际舞队（但最终决定无法腾出更多时间——我正在慢慢学习如何不让自己分身乏术！）。我去了一个辩论学习班，在那里我试图跟上那些优秀大一辩手们的伶牙俐齿。我也保持着以前的爱好：我把所有热爱艺术的朋友组织起来，在果酱工厂举办了一场写生活动，在那里我与20名同学一起享受素描的平静。

我广泛旅行——虽然并不容易。

每次我在厨房看到我的舍友，他都会问：“你这周末又要去哪里？”我利用几个周末去探索英国：去康沃尔冲浪，在布里斯托参加派对，在伦敦看朋友和艺术博物馆。还有其他周末，我出国旅行：去波士顿参加我最好朋友的婚礼，在布加勒斯特庆祝考试结束，去里斯本参加朋友的30岁生日派对，在波尔图参加大型MBA游学之旅。我曾担心新冠疫情和距离主要机场的距离会使旅行变得困难——老实说，确实困难且昂贵，但仍然可以做到。话虽如此，我还是庆幸自己不需要办很多签证，也有一些闲钱能拿来旅行和做额外的新冠检测。

I GOT THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS: THE BUSINESS SCHOOL AND THE BROADER UNIVERSITY.

Beyond the classroom, I attended incredible SBS events, where I heard from leaders like Unilever’s CEO and the creator of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. And I experienced amazing events outside of SBS, like watching Hillary Clinton announce the historic Women’s History Chair in her name and listening to Members of Parliament duke it out at the Oxford Union. And day-to-day, my college has been everything I’d hoped for in connecting me to students across disciplines. I live in a Hertford College house of 12 (that’s right, 12) – and I’m the only MBA amongst graduates in environmental change, math, international relations, archaeology, Chinese studies, and the list goes on. There was one day when I took notes in Analytics class about the clustering method in unsupervised learning; that evening, my housemate, a DPhil in Machine Learning, showed us a movie he’d coded via unsupervised learning – what I’d heard in class a few hours before.

I TRIED OUT A LOT OF RANDOM HOBBIES.

I am an eternal night owl, and yet, rowing got me up at 5:30 am. I biked in the bitter cold down to the boathouse and tried to ignore my numb fingers and blistered hands gripping the oar – all worth it to watch the sky turn pink over the river, and for the race we won in the Christchurch Regatta. I attended a polo taster session, where I managed not to fall off a horse. I took salsa classes and even made it onto the beginner’s ballroom dance team (but ultimately decided I couldn’t make the time – I’m slowly learning how not to overcommit!). I went to a debating workshop, where I tried to keep up with the banter of brilliant first-years. And I shared my old hobbies, too: after finding others who love art, I organized a life drawing event at the Jam Factory, where I enjoyed the calm of sketching with 20 classmates.

I TRAVELED A LOT – BUT IT WASN’T THE EASIEST.

Every time I saw my housemate in the kitchen, he’d say: “So where are you going this weekend?” I took some weekends to explore the UK: Cornwall for surfing, Bristol for partying, London to see friends and art museums. And other weekends, I traveled out of the country: Boston for my best friend’s wedding, Bucharest to celebrate end of assessments, Lisbon for a friend’s 30th, and Porto for a big MBA trip. I was worried that COVID and the distance to major airports would make it difficult to travel – and to be honest, it was difficult and expensive, but doable. That being said, I recognize the privilege of my American passport, and of having the extra cash to drop on travels and COVID tests.

我也经历了一些艰难的日子。

分享一些幕后的故事：当第一次来到牛津时，我们中的许多人都在与冒充综合症作斗争。我申请的前两个课外项目都被拒绝了，在热烈的课堂讨论中感到胆怯，并佩服地看着似乎样样全能的同学。我曾开玩笑地说，牛津不是一个能在街头落泪的地方，因为你随处都能遇到认识的人。但反过来好处是：处处都会有让你依靠的人。因为每次我分享这些不安时，都会发现有朋友能理解我，愿意借我肩膀，或者逗我笑。（旁注：我最终成功进入了Impact Lab的第二班，这是我最初被拒之门外的项目之一！）这引出了我下一个标题……

我比预想更快地找到了一个互相支持的社群。

在开学的第一周，我在电话里跟我最好的朋友抱怨很难结交新朋友。但在接下来的几周里，无论是课间闲聊、河边散步、凌晨3点的微醺谈天，还是公路旅行拼车，我都找到了可以信任的人。我不会假装他们是非常了解我的多年老友，但很感激这些新朋友让我感受到的熟悉和舒适：他们会加入我临时起意的旅行，总是在我需要时及时回应我的信息，为我煮新鲜的意大利面，一起去散步来治愈伤心，也会在咖啡店里一边学习一边八卦，陪我疯狂参加派对。

这就是我的当下，在第一学期即将结束之际。让我想起大约一年前，我在纽约北部的一间小屋里度假，活在充满确定的生活里：家人生活在几小时车程的距离里，一群青梅竹马的朋友，一个支持我的伴侣，一份忙碌的自由职业，一套不错的纽约公寓。当时的我面对着电脑，大木桌另一边坐着我的伴侣，我拿出信用卡支付订金，正式接受了牛津大学的录取通知。

剩下三个学期，我将继续追求不确定未来的可能性——沉浸在新体验带来的兴奋中，努力调节伴随变化而来的情绪，并以开放的心态迎接未来的惊喜。

I HAD SOME ROUGH DAYS.

Here’s a peek behind the curtain: many of us struggle from imposter syndrome when we first get here. I was rejected from the first two co-curricular programs I applied to, felt timid in lively class discussions, and looked in awe at classmates who seemed to have it altogether. I’ve joked that Oxford’s not a good place to cry on the street, because you’ll always run into someone you know. But maybe the flip side is: there will always be someone you can lean on. Because every time I shared these insecurities, I found people that related, offered a shoulder, or made me laugh. (Side note, I ended up getting into the second cohort of Impact Lab, one of the programs I was initially rejected to!). Which brings me to…

I FOUND A SUPPORTIVE COMMUNITY MORE QUICKLY THAN I EXPECTED.

During the first week of school, I stressed over the phone to my best friend about the struggle of making new friends. And over the weeks, whether it was between-class chats, walks by the river, tipsy 3am talks, or road trip carpools, I found people I trust. I won’t pretend it’s the same as the years-old friends who deeply know me, but I’m grateful for the familiarity and comfort I have with relatively new friends: ones who will jump on a last-minute trip with me, who always respond to my needy messages, who cook fresh pasta for me, who go for walks to heal our heartbreak, who are down to half study, half-gossip at Gail’s, and who party a little too hard with me.

So here we are, at the end of Michaelmas. Almost one year ago, you’d have found me vacationing in an upstate New York cabin, living in my certain present: family within a few hours’ drive, friends I’d known forever, a supportive partner, a busy freelance career, a nice NYC apartment. You’d have seen me on my laptop, sitting across the large wooden table from my partner, as I put down my credit card for the deposit to officially accept my offer.

Three terms left, and I’ll keep pursuing the possibilities of this uncertain future – soaking up the exhilaration of new experiences, trying to temper the emotions that accompany change, and staying open to the surprises to come.

下周一，参加牛津MBA招生团队举办的线上公开日

如果你有兴趣更多了解有关牛津MBA和牛津 1+1 MBA的信息，请即刻扫码，免费注册参加3月14日举办的线上公开日，不仅能全面了解课程，还有现场问答，为你的申请助力。

日程安排：2022年3月14日（星期一）

国内时间下午5-6点/英国时间早9-10点 

对话招生副主管利亚姆·基尔比

聆听招生主管介绍牛津大学赛德商学院概况、学院的宗旨以及希望招收到的MBA学生具备哪些素质。这是直接对话MBA招生主管，深度了解牛津大学学习经历的绝佳机会。

国内时间晚6点半-7点半/英国时间上午10点半-11点半 

在校生分享 

聆听本届牛津MBA在校生的分享，了解他们的背景、职业规划以及为什么选择学习这门课程。

国内时间晚8点-9点/英国时间中午12点 - 下午 1 点 

认识我们的就业辅导团队

你将有机会在互动问答环节向我们的职业发展团队提问

国内时间晚10点-11点/英国时间下午 2点 - 3 点 

1+1课程学生和校友交流环节 

牛津“1+1 MBA”课程的在校学生和校友将介绍他们的背景、职业目标和他们学习该课程的体验。

我们的问答环节充满互动，非常期待与你会面！

Next Monday, join the Oxford MBA Recruitment and Admissions team for our virtual open day.

If you are interested in learning more about the Oxford MBA and Oxford 1+1 MBA, scan this QR code now to register to attend our virtual open day on 14 March and join us for our series of live Q&A sessions exploring all the programme has to offer.

Programme: Monday 14 March 2022

5-6pm (China time)/9-10am (UK time) 

In conversation with Associate Director, Liam Kilby

Hear from Liam about Oxford Saïd, the School's purpose, and the profile of candidates we're looking for. This is your opportunity to put your questions about the Oxford experience to our Associate Director of MBA Recruitment and Admissions.

6.30 – 7.30pm (China time)/10.30 - 11.30am (UK time) 

Current Student panel

Hear from a panel of current Oxford MBA students about their background, career goals, and why this was the right programme for them.

8 – 9pm (China time)/12 - 1pm (UK time) 

Meet our Careers Team 

A chance to ask your questions to our Career Development Team in an interactive Q&A session.

10 – 11pm (China time)/2 - 3pm (UK time) 

1+1 Student and Alumni panel

Hear from a panel of current Oxford 1+1 MBA students and alumni about their background, career goals, and experience of the 1+1 programme.

Our Q&A sessions are designed to be interactive so we hope to see you on the day.

你将从牛津MBA中学到什么

牛津大学历来有培养全球领袖的悠久传统。在这一传承下，牛津大学赛德商学院的MBA课程，不仅为学生打下核心商业知识的坚实基础，更帮助学生拓宽思路，深刻领会商业在社会发展中所扮演的角色。

通过不断挑战、深度钻研感兴趣的领域，你不仅能收获战略技能和视野，也会迎来更成功和更具使命感的事业发展。

观看视频，全面了解课程特色。点击文末阅读原文，立即注册参加线上开放日。

What you will learn from the Oxford MBA programme

Oxford University has a rich tradition of developing leaders. Masters of Business Administration (MBA) programme at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, builds on this legacy, providing you with a solid foundation in core business principles while developing a broadened mindset and understanding of the role of business in society.

You will be challenged to delve deep into the areas that interest you most and gain the strategic skills and insight to lead a successful, purposeful career. 

Watch this video to know more about the programme.Go to 'read more' link at the bottom of this article to register to attend the Oxford MBA virtual open day.