Interview with Current Anderson Student

I had lunch with a current Anderson student yesterday. He is also an Indonesian and the UCLA Admission director actually emailed me his contacts so I can find out more about the Anderson's experience

He is specializing in Finance, Operations something (?) and Real Estate. He also said that he loves the whole B School experience and confirmed that the first quarter in Anderson where everyone has to take 5 classes was the"worst time of his life" [verbatim]. OKAY don't panic yet, I asked him why was it the worst time in his life and he said :
1. he has to take FIVE classes ( i think a usual quarter will have 4 classes )
2. he was still adjusting to being a student once more ( he had 3 years working experience before B School )
2. BUSY.. company presentation and networking session started on the second week of the quarter

I asked him the question that my mother had asked me the day before : What can you gain out of MBA? Is it really useful?
He said : Yes! ( of course )
Explanation : In B School, you learned case studies .. You are required to make decisions over these real life business problems. You are also required to present your decision.. He said during exam, he would be given a case study. He would need to work on his laptop, create some financial model (? I thought he said something along this line ) and present it in a Word Doc.

So okay, I'll tell my parents that the next time they ask me.

What really impress me was Anderson students' career progression. So there are 3 Indonesian currently in Anderson. The guy I interviewed worked from Australia before. He then said he was contacted by Booz Allen ( consulting company ) in Sydney because they had come across his resume on the resume books... And in the end, he's offered the position.
Another Indonesian guy is going to work at McKinsey Singapore. Another one has an offer from another consulting company in Asia but will work in corporate finance in MidWest.. I think with AMGEN...

So : WOW!

My question ( was kinda worried ) : Why are most of them offered jobs in Asia? Is it because they are Indonesians or because they had wanted to return to Asia ?
His Answer : Both ways actually.. I was contacted by Booz Allen from Australia and I had planned to return there. The other guy who is going to work in Singapore needs to return to Asia because he is a scholar from an Indonesian company. And the other one is staying in the States.

Question : Are there many people hired to be banker? I heard that we're kinda in a disadvantage for being in the West coast .
Answer : There are about 40 people out of 360 who are going to work in IB
( forgot to ask which part of the States they're going to work at though.. east or west coast?)

Question :How long do you usually stay in school til ?
Answer: about 9am til 4pm

Okay That's about all I could remember from our lunch.. Would write more later on