[Editor's Note: The following is the first in our new series Business School Diaries, written by Alexandra Bochicchio, a first-year at a top business school (which we'll call "XBS").]

I officially have finished my first semester of business school!  After living, breathing, and talking XBS for the past three and a half months, I am looking forward to a one-month hiatus.   While school definitely has been fun, it has not exactly been the vacation my friends and colleagues told me it would be.  Specifically no one warned me about the emotional rollercoaster: I fluctuate daily among self-doubt, apathy, gratitude, and excitement.  While I by no means have it all figured out, I do want to share a few things I wish I had known in September.

You’re no different from anyone else. Because I am introverted and hoping to make a career switch out of finance, I immediately thought I was different from my seemingly networking-loving, super-social classmates.  However, over the course of the semester I have realized that we all are at turning points in our careers and slightly nervous to have made the decision to step off the professional treadmill and go back to school.  While people show insecurities in different ways, at the end of the day we all want to be accepted by and learn from one another.

Differentiate yourself. I used to stand out as the smart, former college athlete who worked in finance.  However this now describes 90% of my classmates (just swap out “consulting” for “finance”).  Therefore, I need to find other ways to distinguish myself.  One of my best decisions was applying to be the first-year writer for the XBS parody show.  Although I applied because I thought it would be fun, writing for the show has led to a disproportionate number of conversations with classmates and potential employers.  Graduate school allows me the time and resources to explore things outside of the core curriculum, and I need to make sure I take advantage of this.

Be vulnerable. One of my biggest fears is looking stupid or weak, and I used to live by the philosophy that it was better to remain silent and be thought a fool than speak out and remove all doubt.  However, I have made the best connections with classmates when I let my guard down or am not 100% politically correct.  There is so much pressure to be professional in business school that it is easy to forget how friendships actually are made: I (while not too inebriated) share something personal, you share something, and BOOM! a little trust is formed.

You were let in for a reason. Sometimes a dumb comment in class can lead to a downward spiral: Why did I say that?  That was dumb.  I am dumb.  XBS was dumb for admitting me. This is cockamamie.  More often than not no one notices my stupid comment or action (however, the same can be said for the few times I thought I made a brilliant contribution).  Because admissions are so competitive, schools take it very seriously, and no student is accepted because of a fluke (one exception – is the school currently constructing a library in your name?!).  The sooner I accept this, the sooner I can stop the downward spiral and instead concentrate on trying to say something brilliant (a work-in-progress).

Keep your eye on the prize. My classmates and I asked about twenty-five questions during our last finance class in hopes our professor would let slip a nugget of knowledge which would give us an edge on the final exam.  And XBS doesn’t even give grades.  Our professor said it best when he pointed out most of us have worked for a number of years and some even have families; being overly stressed about an exam is, well, silly.  The stakes in business school are relatively low – I would much rather mess up my net present value calculation on an exam than during an important board meeting (warning – I may be rationalizing a bit).  Although it is a constant struggle, it is essential to maintain perspective and remember everything will work itself out.  This philosophy has served me fairly well thus far; there is no reason to think it won’t in the future.

–Alexandra Bochicchio

Are there really cultural differences in how we approach money and success? Giovanna Pang Garcia came to the U.S. from Hong Kong at the age of 16 with no friends, no family, and barely speaking English. She later taught herself how to build a computer, started a custom computer sales business, and became a self-made millionaire before the age of 40. She says the reason why Chinese women don’t go broke has to do with a mindset: more farming, less drive-through. I recently spoke with Giovanna about her experiences and upbringing, which led to her book, Chinese Women Are Not Broke.

After high school, you say you lost your way for a time. What turned you around?

It’s the kind of story that happens a lot. I was on my own, and started working immediately after high school to survive. I found myself in an abusive relationship, was married and divorced by the time I was 20. After my divorce, I was working at department stores, doing retail sales, and was always among the top 10 sales clerks. But I needed to do something more. Growing up in Hong Kong, I’d worked in my parents’ family business. I saw working for somebody would only get me so far, and felt I deserved my own shot at the “holy grail”, so to speak.

A really interesting post on Huffington Post yesterday proposed that journalism schools should close down. The writer, Richard Sine, argued that in essence, journalism school is a waste of money and a bit of a fraud: Students are paying up to $70,000 a year for what amounts to vocational training they could get on-the-job, and so-called media contacts with professors that are former journalists who are really no longer in the media mix.  Not to mention the fact that the newly minted MS’s have little shot of actually getting a job, as newsrooms and editorial staffs are cutting jobs left and right. 

The article, I think, also speaks a to a larger conversation about the cost-benefit of advanced degrees nowadays. Going to grad school has somewhat been in fashion for some time now.  Let’s face it, for as many Gen Xers and Gen Yers that pursue advanced degrees because they have “always wanted to be” X profession, there are scores more who go to grad school because 1) their parents really wanted them to; 2) they’re not sure what they want to do; and/or 3) they want to take a “break” from (or postpone) the work world.  Clearly if you want to be a doctor or lawyer or other traditional “profession”, you do need a specialized degree and training– but as many Go-Getter Girls shared for the book and in recent conversation, what happens if you decide later on that the career you got the degree for isn’t the career you really want? 

As many have discovered, grad school isn’t always the answer– especially when it comes to following your professional dreams. Sometimes the experience you gain in the field is better than any degree (one of my fave chapters in the book is “The best education is self-education”). Sometimes if you just work a little harder and get more aggressive, you can find the job you want without going back to school to get the right “contacts.” Sometimes, as one wise GGG told me, just doing a few informational interviews or spending a few days interning with people who actually work in the profession you are thinking of going to school for can teach you more than years-worth of an academic curriculum– and save you a lot of money in the process! Point is, whether its journalism school, law school, medical school, or another program, it’s always good to evaluate the potential ROI– return on investment. 

What do you think? When is grad school worth the investment?