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#and I applied for grad student hardship fund
unnamedelement · 2 years
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Someone drained my wife’s bank account overnight and she is responsible for bills the second half of the month, because I pay bills the first 2 weeks of the month (and I already did, so I’m out.) So now we are not only both out of money but both in the negatives, because her transfer to me to cover a bill obviously didn’t go through, since someone drained her account.
Truly think people who are gonna steal money should at least make sure they’re not stealing from a family that literally lives paycheck to paycheck.
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blog-essay-12 · 6 years
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5 Ways to Avoid a Bad Student Loan
Are you stuck in a bad student loan or at least feel that way? You are not alone. With the national student loan debt reaching $1.5 Trillion in 2018, many people have made poor decisions as a result of being unable to avoid bad student loans. Making mistakes choosing between all the various student loan options can be costly for borrowers and even their families.
Knowing the difference between a good and bad student loan option will not only save you money most likely, will also provide you with peace knowing that you choose the right student loan option for your specific situation.
What Makes a Student Loan Good or Bad?
Are there good student loans and bad student loans? And how do you dodge a bad student loan? The truth is that almost every student loan can be good or bad. It all depends on the person. Because every person is different, has different career and life goals, and comes from different financial situations, borrowing for post-secondary education needs to be specific for your own situation.
To help you see what I mean, let’s look at student loans available right now.
Stafford Loans
Federal student loans, in the form of Stafford loans, are the most common student loans given, with over 32 million borrowers in the U.S. They are government-backed loans given directly to students.
These student loans have a fixed interest rate and generally have a lower interest rate than private student loans.  They also have flexible repayment options. Stafford loans are also available in two variations; subsidized and unsubsidized.
Direct Subsidized Stafford loans are only offered to students with a financial hardship.
The government pays interest fees on subsidized loans while borrowers are in school and during periods of deferment.
Graduate students aren’t eligible for Direct Subsidized Stafford loans.
Available funds are limited with subsidized loans. The maximum amount you can borrow yearly is $5,500, with a total amount you can borrow set at $23,500.
With Direct Unsubsidized Stafford loans, the interest is not paid by the government and accrues from the time you are approved.
Direct Unsubsidized Stafford loans are available to both Undergrad and Graduate students.
You do not need to prove financial hardship in order to receive unsubsidized loans.
Direct Unsubsidized loans have larger limits than unsubsidized loans. Undergraduate students can borrow $12,500 yearly. Grad students can borrow up to $20,500 yearly, with a max amount set at $138,500
One plus for Stafford loans, both subsidized and subsidized, is that there is no credit check involved. Approved borrowers get the same terms and rates as everyone else. One of the best features of Stafford loans is access to Income-Driven Repayment Plans and Public Service Loan Forgiveness. However, all Stafford loans charge an origination fee, which is 1.069 percent of the total amount of the loan. To apply for any federal student loan, you must complete and submit a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form.
Grad Plus Loans
The Grad Plus program is another type of federal loan available, backed by the government, offered to grad students and professional students. Unlike Direct Unsubsidized, you can borrow the full amount needed to complete Grad School. Also unlike unsubsidized loans, a credit check is required.
If you have poor credit or no credit, most likely you will need to have an endorser (cosigner)with good credit history. You can also provide documentation that there are extenuating circumstances relating to your poor credit history.
Direct Grad Plus loans have a 4.248% origination fee (October 1, 2018 – September 30, 2019). Grad Plus loans also have a fixed interest rate, which is set at 7.595% (July 1, 2018 and June 30, 2019).  Similar to Stafford Loans, you must complete and submit a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form to be eligible. Generally, Grad Plus loans don’t start repayment until 6 months after graduation, leaving school or dropping below half-time enrollment.
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vanessakayser1-blog · 6 years
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Tattoo Pain
Well the fast solution is sure it hurts... And the lengthy solution is getting a tattoo hurts of course, your having a needle injected into your skin at an wonderful pace.
Tattoo ache can be defined in such a lot of one of a kind approaches depending on the person who's had it carried out, people have described it like a cat scratching your pores and skin, a warm needle being dragged across your pores and skin and some even say it is like Tribal Tattoos  having your skin reduce open. So as you can see humans have extraordinary pain thresholds whilst getting tattoos, as an example in case your younger and have not experienced a great deal pain to your existence and it is your first tattoo then it'll be a totally painful enjoy however in case you're getting lengthy in the tooth and have broke some bones or had stitches then it is now not going to be that horrific.
So you is probably thinking I'm no longer getting a tattoo if it will hurt that awful but what you have to don't forget is that if you really want one and its the suitable layout for then you definitely some hours pain for an entire life of satisfaction is honestly really worth it.
Here are some pointers to help you with tattoo pain.
1. Under no instances should you have got a tattoo when drunk, maximum tattoo artists with no longer tattoo you anyway as it may make you bleed excessively and you would possibly make the incorrect tattoo preference.
2. Do no longer have a tattoo when your hungover as your nerves may be lots greater sensitive and you may FEEL THE PAIN accept as true with me I know.
Three. Don't have a tattoo if you have a chilly as that can also increase the ache stages.
Four. Get a few numbing gel, a few human beings swear by using it but I actually have attempted it myself and it best appear to paintings for the primary 10-15 Min's so might be OK for a small tattoo.
The high-quality advice I can deliver is to be targeted and distracted after the primary 10-15 Min's of having the tattoo you seem so as to transfer off to the ache, its nonetheless there and your aware of it but you form of recover from the primary preliminary surprise.
Getting A Leg Up: Student Loans Tips
Student loans allow you to get an education. Considering how expensive an advanced education is, particularly in the US, without student loans affording school would be almost impossible   Tesol Certification . The article below can help you apply for good student loans.
Always know all the information pertinent to your loans. You must pay close attention to how much you owe, what the terms are and the name of your lending institution. All these details are involved in both repayment options as well as forgiveness potentials. You have to have this information if you want to create a good budget.
Stay in touch with the lender. Always update them anytime your address, email or phone number changes, which can happen a lot during college. When your lender send you information, either through snail mail or e mail, read it that day. Take whatever actions are necessary as soon as you can. If you don't do this, then it can cost you in the end.
There is hope for you if you find yourself in a tight financial spot where you cannot keep up with student loan payments. Generally speaking, you will be able to get help from your lender in cases of hardship. Just be mindful that doing so could make your interest rates rise.
You should not necessarily overlook private college financing. While you can easily find public ones, they have a lot of competition since they're in demand. Private student loans are far less tapped, with small increments of funds laying around unclaimed due to small size and lack of awareness. Look around for these kinds of loans, and you may be able to cover part of your schooling.
Select a payment option that works best for your situation. Many of these loans have 10-year repayment plans. If this doesn't work for you, you might have another option. For instance, you can spread your payments out over more time, but this will increase your interest. It may even be possible to pay based on an exact percentage of your total income. Some student loan balances are forgiven after twenty five years have passed.
Your principal will shrink faster if you are paying the highest interest rate loans first. This will reduce the interest you must pay back. Make a concerted effort to pay off all large loans more quickly. After you have paid off your largest loan, continue making those same payments Tesol Certification  on the next loan in line. Make minimal payments on all your loans and apply extra money to the loan with the greatest interest in order to pay off all your loans efficiently.
The thought of paying on student loans can be daunting. A rewards program may help things. Look at programs like SmarterBucks and LoanLink via Upromise. These work like cash back programs, and the money you spend earns rewards that can be applied toward your loan.
Never sign anything without knowing what exactly it says and means. Ask questions so that you are completely aware. If you do not do this, you may end up paying more than you should for your education.
Fill out each application completely and accurately for faster processing. This will give the loan provider accurate information to leverage off of.
Stafford and Perkins loans are the most advantageous federal loans to get. They are both reliable, safe and affordable. One of the reasons they are so popular is that the government takes care of the interest while students are in school. The Perkins loan has an interest rate of five percent. Stafford loans offer interest rates that don't go above 6.8%.
A PLUS loan is a loan that can be secured by grad students as well as their parents. The interest rates on these are kept reasonable. This is higher than Stafford loans and Perkins loans, but it is better than rates for a private loan. Because of this, you should get this option only if you're an established and mature student.
Given the high price tag of a college education, most students need loans to finance their time in school. Getting a student loan is much easier when you have good tips and advice to follow Tesol Certification . Lucky for you, you have found this article, so you can implement the information it presents. Acquire your degree, and use student loans to get there!
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ramialkarmi · 6 years
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This Stanford grad went from living in motels to working in VC — here's his unusual path and how he wants to help others like him
As an African-American, Frederik Groce, an associate at Silicon Valley's Storm Ventures, is a rarity in the venture capital world, where only 3% of all employees are black.
In addition to being an atypical VC, Groce had an unusual journey into the industry. He grew up poor, planned on being a lawyer, and didn't really have a firm grasp on what venture capitalists do until he interviewed for a position at Storm.
But his experience running a multimillion dollar business organization at Stanford impressed Storm Ventures.
Hoping to help other blacks who are either in the venture industry or hoping to break into it, Groce's helped form a networking group in Silicon Valley and plans to eventually expand it to Los Angeles and New York.
Fredrik Groce isn't your typical venture capitalist.
He's 26. He's never run a startup and didn't come from the worlds of consulting or finance. He grew up living in motels.
Oh, and he's black — something that's exceedingly rare in the venture industry.
As even Groce acknowledges, "I'm a fluke."
But now that he's a working VC, the associate at Silicon Valley's Storm Ventures is determined to help other African-Americans, maybe even some with similarly unusual backgrounds, make it into the industry or get their businesses funded by it.
"I feel like it's my responsibility to help more people get into venture or navigate venture," Groce said.
He's already helped organize a series of meet-ups for black venture capitalists. And he's working to turn the effort into a formal organization — tentatively dubbed BLCKVC — with branches in New York and Los Angeles as well as in the Bay Area.
"We're creating a space for black venture," he said.
His childhood homes were motels, and he moved frequently
Not only is Groce an unusual venture capitalist, he took an atypical path to the industry. Indeed, as a kid, he probably had about as much chance of becoming a venture capitalist as landing on the moon.
Groce grew up poor and itinerant. His father was a car salesman who moved the family around every year or two, looking for better opportunities. The family bounced from the Bay Area to the Pacific Northwest to Ohio. Groce's life was so much in flux that he went to three high schools in four years, two in Ohio and one in Portland, Oregon.
Except for a two-year period when Groce was in high school, his family lived in motels throughout his childhood, because they didn't have enough saved to put down a deposit on an apartment, much less a down payment on a house.
"There wasn't much that kept us in any one place," he said. "If we saw an opportunity, we'd leave."
Among Groce's relatives, his family's experience wasn't exceptional. Of his dad's 12 siblings, just one had some semblance of financial success, becoming a doctor. Some of the other siblings ended up in prison.
Getting out of his situation meant going into medicine or the law
His parents' financial hardships and all that moving around influenced Groce's world view — and made him determined to not fall into the same trap. Groce was a good student and was preparing to go to college. But if you asked him what he wanted to do after, it was to be a lawyer. Because where he came from, it was a career in the law or medicine that helped people like him open the door to better financial situations.
"Become a lawyer or a doctor, and you're set" was the thinking, he said. "The people who made it out went through those pathways."
After a somewhat haphazard process of applying to colleges — Groce divided potential schools into various categories and applied to only one of the top 10 ranked in each, a process that makes him "cringe" now when he thinks about it — he decided to go to Stanford.
Although he got into all the colleges he applied to and going to Stanford meant moving far away from his parents, who were in Ohio, he didn't struggle with the decision. Stanford offered him more financial aid than he needed. He had older siblings who lived in the East Bay. And he'd have a place to live for four years — longer than he'd ever stayed in one place in his life.
"It was an easy decision to be made," he said.
Going to Stanford was 'transformational'
The choice ended up being a "transformational" one for Groce, one that opened doors for him that he couldn't have imagined growing up. But as he entered Stanford, he initially saw the school as a stepping stone to going into law.
Knowing that a lot of his peers were also law-school bound, Groce figured he needed to set himself apart. One way to do that was to work on his business skills. Stanford doesn't have an undergraduate business school, so he couldn't formally study business there. But it does have an organization called Stanford Student Enterprises, which oversees the student store, sells advertising in campus publications, and handles the finances of the campus student organization.
Groce got involved in SSE as a freshman, selling advertising that ran in the campus guidebook and alongside the campus map. During his tenure at Stanford, he grew more and more involved with the organization — and more and more successful.
By the time he was a junior, he was making more money through SSE than his parents had ever made in a year. As a senior, he became the organization's chief operating officer and was working there about 30 hours a week. He made enough money working for SSE that he was able to pay cash for a house for his parents in Ohio. The move was almost as much for his peace of mind as for his parents.
He was thinking, "OK, my parents will never be homeless."
Working for a law firm changed his career path
But if he loved business, Groce came to realize he wanted no part of being a lawyer. During the summer after his junior year, he got an internship at DLA Piper, a law firm with offices in Silicon Valley and San Francisco. The internship gave him a chance to see what it was like to work in the law — and it was nothing like he expected.
"I absolutely hated it. I was bored by everything there," he said. "It was earth shattering to me."
So when it came time to graduate in 2014, he was somewhat at a loss about what to do next. He no longer wanted to go to law school. His experience at SSE had been great and made him interested in business, but he wasn't sure what direction he wanted to go in. So when the CEO position at SSE opened up — a two-year post that's reserved for recent Stanford graduates — he jumped at the opportunity, figuring he loved the organization and could use the time there to figure out his next career step.
After being hired as CEO, Groce had a fairly unique opportunity for someone who had just graduated from college. He was overseeing an operation with dozens of employees, a multimillion dollar budget, and a half dozen business units.
"There's a business side, an entrepreneurial side," he said. "You're the financial manager of all the student government and student groups at Stanford."
It also gave him an opportunity to meet with people in the business community. And that led directly to his entry into venture capital.
A chance meeting led to a new career
Ryan Floyd wasn't necessarily looking to hire someone from an underrepresented minority group when he reached out to Groce in late 2015. One of the founders and managing directors at Storm Ventures, a relatively small firm, Floyd was mainly looking for someone young and talented to add to the team.
"There were a lot of things we'd like to be doing here that we just didn't have the horsepower to do," he said.
But diversity is valued at Storm. One of Floyd's partners is Indian. Another is Korean. Another is half Cherokee. One of his founding partners was born in Argentina. So Floyd also wasn't looking for the typical Stanford student, either.
"I didn't want hire someone that had exactly my background," he said. "The makeup of entrepreneurship is wide and vast, and we need to reflect that at Storm if we want to see the best opportunities."
I didn't want hire someone that had exactly my background. The makeup of entrepreneurship is wide and vast, and we need to reflect that.
Stanford hosts events that showcase student entrepreneurs and startups. Floyd had been to some of those events and had found out that SSE funded many of the programs. He figured he ought to meet the person who ran SSE, thinking that person could help connect him with students who might make good candidates to join Storm.
Floyd met with Groce informally, just to get to know him. But he walked away from the meeting so impressed that he didn't take his hiring search much farther.
Groce admittedly didn't know much about the venture capital business, even then. SSE oversees Cardinal Ventures, a startup accelerator that invests in student-run businesses, so as he moved up in the management of the organization, he learned about the industry. But before he met Floyd, he didn't really know any VCs and didn't have a firm grasp on what they did until he was going through the interview process.
But that didn't matter much to Floyd. The experience Groce had gained from SSE in managing people, budgeting, dealing with campus politics really made him stand out, Floyd said.
"I think of myself when I was his age, my ability to articulate my interests, what was interesting about a business, what drives people," Floyd said. "He was much better than me. Much, much better than me."
A small firm offers lots of experience
Floyd and Storm initially decided to hire Groce part-time, while he was still working for SSE. He then resigned early from his CEO position and joined Storm full time as an analyst, studying potential deals. After two years, Storm, which focuses on enterprise startups, promoted him to being an associate — its only one — where he helps make the case for potential investments.
"Because we're so small, there's not a deal Storm has done that I haven't touched in some way," Groce said.
One area he's focused on for the firm is on startups that specialize in serving the technology needs of governments. That's an area that Storm had previously ignored. But the firm has now backed two startups in that business, based in part on the investment thesis Groce put together.
"It's been an impressive progression for him," said Floyd. "He has a tremendous amount of maturity for his level of experience."
To be sure, Groce is still early in his career. It's not clear if or when he'll become a partner at Storm or any other firm. Ultimately, that will depends on his ability to develop deals and generate returns, Floyd said.
But Storm's invested in Groce and open to that possibility.
"I'd love nothing more than to have Frederik as my partner at some point in the future," Floyd said.
Silicon Valley has a diversity problem, thanks partly to pattern matching
Still, Groce's experience is exceedingly unusual.
Silicon Valley has long had a diversity problem. For literally decades, blacks, Latinos, and women have been underrepresented in the industry.
In recent years, partly due to pressure from the Rev. Jesse Jackson, some of the biggest tech companies, including Intel, Apple, and Google have pledged to diversify their ranks and have made halting steps in that direction. But the venture capital wing of the industry has largely evaded that pressure and scrutiny — and done little to diversify.
A lot of VCs just have the wrong mindset. They need to drop the stereotypes of what a founder looks like and be more intellectually curious.
If you look at everyone working in the venture capital industry, from administrative assistants to managing partners, just 3% are African-American and only 4% are Latino, according to a 2016 survey by Deloitte and the National Venture Capital Association. Among so-called investment partners — a grab-bag title intended to cover the people that make investment decisions that includes managing partners, founding partners, general partners, and managing directors — none are black, just 2% are Latino, and only 11% are women.
Critics inside and outside the industry blame the lack of diversity in part on pattern matching. Venture capitalists think they know what a successful startup entrepreneur looks like — all-too-frequently someone who is white who graduated from Stanford or an Ivy League school. Consciously or not, they typically invest in startups founded by people like that.
And when looking to hire new partners, they frequently draw from the ranks of successful startup founders — which just so happen to be the same pool of white Stanford and Ivy League grads, because they're the ones who got funding.
"A lot of VCs just have the wrong mindset," said Mitch Kapor, a partner at Kapor Capital and a longtime champion of diversity in tech. "They need to drop the stereotypes of what a founder looks like and be more intellectually curious."
Hoping to forge a new path for others like him
The lack of African-Americans in the venture industry makes it difficult for blacks aspiring to join the venture business or to found startups. The few blacks in the venture industry rarely make partner. And when they leave to form their own firms, they've had trouble raising funds, Groce said he's found in talking with them. As a result, many end up leaving the industry — and, as a result, blacks who join it have few mentors.
"When you get into venture, you better be ready to be only black person there and all that entails," Groce said.
That's why Groce has started reaching out to other African-Americans in the industry. He's trying to build a network of black VCs who can share their experiences, lend each other support, and help guide the next generation who enter the business.
The hope is that while his path to the industry has been unique, he won't be the last one to follow something like it.
"We're creating a space for black venture," he said.
SEE ALSO: This year could see a bull market for tech IPOs — but don't expect to see a lot of big names go public
Join the conversation about this story »
NOW WATCH: How a woman from the 1800s became the first computer programmer
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How to Choose the Right MBA Program
whitethornhap youre at the beginning level of the great process to make wind which MBA programs youll apply to. Maybe, with multiple acceptances in hand, you switch the exciting and life-altering line of work of deciding where you ultimately indispens commensu pass judgmentness to enroll. In either case, Ann Richards, retardation director of admissions at Cornell Universitys Samuel Curtis Johnson grad civilise of Management, has valuable acuteness to help you make the or so informed decision possible.\n on that point be a handful of key elements that are inwrought when trying to choose the secure MBA program for you, Richards says. Research, visit and care a self-assessment to understand whats serious to you, she advises.\nJust as essential isavoiding emotional influencers that lav cut from your expertness to make a healthy-informed decision. Just because family members go to a sectionalizationicular indoctrinate for generations does not make it the properly indoctrinate for you, for instance. You rightfully desire to know yourself and not be influenced by emotional pulls, says Richards.\n set ab step to the fore Advice from Recent MBA tweaks\nBusiness domesticaterankings crumb help you pick out(a) a feel for whats out there, besides talking to colleagues who turn in MBAs give the gate be even more valuable, Richards advises. Ask precisely some their fuck off and what they would do differently if they were choosing an MBA today.\n demeanor for more recent alums if possible, she recommends. nearly MBA programs realize castrated drastically over the last 10 immense time theyve overhauled their curriculums, constructed new buildings and the nature of the vocation search has also changed dramatically. Therefore, psyche who graduated a long time ago chamfer offer the most accredited insights.\nYour birth earnings will provide possibilities as tumefy. gauge or so citizenry you swear outed college with who ha ve gone on to get an MBA and reach out to them, or tint deep down your company or lord ne bothrks, Richards suggests.\nIdentify three to quadruple alumni and require for five or 10 minutes of their time, says Richards. Go to each one with a list of five to 6 questions that are weighty to you. Were you challenged at your MBA program? Were your classmates intellectually shady? Was it an active learning milieu? What was the culture at the school? Was it super competitive, team focused, collaborative?\nOf course, you big businessman also trust to ask about extra-curricular activities, parliamentary law activities, trips or treks, leaders opportunities, and admission to capability. Different characteristics may have different meaning for candidates, she points out. future appli sanctimoniousnesss who are sentiment about pursuing an MBA as grammatical constituent of a travel change may unavoidableness to ask about specific resources getable to help with that process, wh ereas that wont be as important to soul who plans to return to their employer or pioneer their own business.\nDont forget to need about a schools fraternity. The ability to dissolveicipate or immerse and have an impact or leave a bequest is important, Richards says.\nVisit Schools If Possible\n\n afterward talking with alumni, you should be able to narrow the list of schools that involution you. Richards encourages future applicators to visit schools whenever possible, ideally when classes are in session and you can sit in on one. See what the naming between energy and students is uniform, Richard recommends. How convoluted are the students? Are they move and engaged? What are the facilities like? What resources are available to students? How prosperous do the students imagem?\nIf you cant visit, correspond with the school. See what perishs do you get a receipt from the school, from the students? Candidates can get a sense of how important they are to a school es tablish on how responsive the members of its confederacy are.\nIts not terribly important whether you visit in the first place or after you apply, scarcely unquestionably visit if you can before you make an enrollment decision, she stresses. I often hear flock say, Cornell wasnt on my radar until I visited, or I was indisputable I wanted to serve X school, until I visited.\nIn terms of getting a feel for the culture of the school, your best bet is to meet with menses students and ask about their activities and extramarital interests. If you can, attend a heathen event, listen to a leaf node speaker or, even better, attend a class or drop by a school happy hour. Johnson of late hosted Super Saturday, when dozens of likely students visited campus to interview. We happened that night to have our Diwali festivity going on, which gave routineicipating prospectives a great opportunity to get for themselves the kind of events our students take part in, Richards recalls. Alt hough Diwali is an Indian celebration, it certainly wasnt conscionable Indian students participating. It really gives candidates a sense of what it is like to be a student here.\nIt ordinarily doesnt take long to take to out if you click with a school or not, Richards notes. I dont think a school should have to grow on you. You should know when you visit that its a place you can protrude yourself being happy, she says.\nSize and jam Matter\nWhen it comes to MBA programs, size does military issue since it can impact the network you develop. When you are considering schools, think about whether or not a class is segmented into cohorts, she advises. If you get to know 30 people really, really well exclusively dont know anyone else that might be a disadvantage to you. It might not, save its something worth thinking about.\nDo you want a city school or a school that is part of a teeny-weenyer biotic community? Richards links Johnsons close-knit community to the fact that it is not in a large urban center. Everyone is close to campus a five-minute whirl instead of a tubing ride followed by two buses, she notes. Thats true not just for students but also faculty and staff, she continues. Its not uncommon for faculty to say, Im going home to have dinner with my kids but hardship come back and see you in the library at 8:30. That does not happen at all schools.\nAssessing a Schools Career Services\nRecognizing that the advantage of a career work office can be influenced greatly by the economy, you can still get a feel for what kind of assume youll receive in a given program, as well as how aligned their career services are with your own goals. A school may have tremendous winner in placing students who want to go into consulting or finance but really struggle with candidates who want to pursue marketing, for example.\nAs prospective applicants estimate at a schools career services, they should look not only at the oecumenical placement rate but also at specifics in regard to their individual interests, Richards says. If a school has a write down overall placement rate than other schools, but 25 percent of students are arouse in entrepreneurial studies and spirit to start their own businesses upon graduation, short that placement rate doesnt look so bad. It is important that students look at the placement statistics done the lens of what they want to do.\nWhat utilization Do Students Play on Campus?\nI think as a prospective applicant you want to look for leaders opportunities, potential to have an impact, orchestrating or facilitating change, spearheading an organization or a unify, and how willing the school is to funding that, Richards continues.\nIf having an impact and getting touch on as an MBA student is important to you, ask current students how hands-down it is to start a club or organize a conference and what kind of pay the school provides if you do. Those kinds of questions will be very valuable to student s, peculiarly those that like to get regard and orchestrate change. They would be really frustrated if they landed in an environment where their voice wasnt comprehend or valued.\nKnow Thyself\n\nAs an MBA student you will have the best experience and get the most bene check out of the program that is the best fit for you. That makes knowing yourself and what you want a vital part of the decision-making process. think about whether you want a big or small program, whether assuming a leadership role is one of your priorities, and what birth you will need in your career search.\nTry not to fixate on soil names, Richards offers. You need to look not only at the tell on but at what the schools avail is how it will help you carry out your goals, grow, and develop your leadership skills, she says.\nSo, there you have it. With targeted research, campus visits and a exhaustive self-assessment, you can be well on your way to selecting the perfective MBA program for you.\nRelated articles\nCornell Universitys Johnson School of Management Wins Top Accolades for transformation (clearadmit.com)\nTrivia Tuesday: International field of operation at Johnson (clearadmit.com)\nCornells Johnson School Unveils political platform for New One-Year MBA syllabus on NYC Tech Campus (clearadmit.com)\nCornells Johnson Graduate School of Business is an advertizer on the Clear receipt site. This piece appears as part of the schools sponsorship package. For more information about sponsorship opportunities with Clear Admit, contact us here.If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: Custom essay writing service. Free essay/order revisions. Essays of any complexity! Courseworks, term papers, research papers. 100% confidential!Homework live help. Custom Essay Order is available 24/7!
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ramialkarmi · 6 years
Text
This Stanford grad went from living in motels to working in VC — here's his unusual path and how he wants to help others like him
As an African-American, Frederik Groce, an associate at Silicon Valley's Storm Ventures, is a rarity in the venture capital world, where only 3% of all employees are black.
In addition to being an atypical VC, Groce had an unusual journey into the industry. He grew up poor, planned on being a lawyer, and didn't really have a firm grasp on what venture capitalists do until he interviewed for a position at Storm.
But his experience running a multimillion dollar business organization at Stanford impressed Storm Ventures.
Hoping to help other blacks who are either in the venture industry or hoping to break into it, Groce's helped form a networking group in Silicon Valley and plans to eventually expand it to Los Angeles and New York.
Fredrik Groce isn't your typical venture capitalist.
He's 26. He's never run a startup and didn't come from the worlds of consulting or finance. He grew up living in motels.
Oh, and he's black — something that's exceedingly rare in the venture industry.
As even Groce acknowledges, "I'm a fluke."
But now that he's a working VC, the associate at Silicon Valley's Storm Ventures is determined to help other African-Americans, maybe even some with similarly unusual backgrounds, make it into the industry or get their businesses funded by it.
"I feel like it's my responsibility to help more people get into venture or navigate venture," Groce said.
He's already helped organize a series of meet-ups for black venture capitalists. And he's working to turn the effort into a formal organization — tentatively dubbed BLCKVC — with branches in New York and Los Angeles as well as in the Bay Area.
"We're creating a space for black venture," he said.
His childhood homes were motels, and he moved frequently
Not only is Groce an unusual venture capitalist, he took an atypical path to the industry. Indeed, as a kid, he probably had about as much chance of becoming a venture capitalist as landing on the moon.
Groce grew up poor and itinerant. His father was a car salesman who moved the family around every year or two, looking for better opportunities. The family bounced from the Bay Area to the Pacific Northwest to Ohio. Groce's life was so much in flux that he went to three high schools in four years, two in Ohio and one in Portland, Oregon.
Except for a two-year period when Groce was in high school, his family lived in motels throughout his childhood, because they didn't have enough saved to put down a deposit on an apartment, much less a down payment on a house.
"There wasn't much that kept us in any one place," he said. "If we saw an opportunity, we'd leave."
Among Groce's relatives, his family's experience wasn't exceptional. Of his dad's 12 siblings, just one had some semblance of financial success, becoming a doctor. Some of the other siblings ended up in prison.
Getting out of his situation meant going into medicine or the law
His parents' financial hardships and all that moving around influenced Groce's world view — and made him determined to not fall into the same trap. Groce was a good student and was preparing to go to college. But if you asked him what he wanted to do after, it was to be a lawyer. Because where he came from, it was a career in the law or medicine that helped people like him open the door to better financial situations.
"Become a lawyer or a doctor, and you're set" was the thinking, he said. "The people who made it out went through those pathways."
After a somewhat haphazard process of applying to colleges — Groce divided potential schools into various categories and applied to only one of the top 10 ranked in each, a process that makes him "cringe" now when he thinks about it — he decided to go to Stanford.
Although he got into all the colleges he applied to and going to Stanford meant moving far away from his parents, who were in Ohio, he didn't struggle with the decision. Stanford offered him more financial aid than he needed. He had older siblings who lived in the East Bay. And he'd have a place to live for four years — longer than he'd ever stayed in one place in his life.
"It was an easy decision to be made," he said.
Going to Stanford was 'transformational'
The choice ended up being a "transformational" one for Groce, one that opened doors for him that he couldn't have imagined growing up. But as he entered Stanford, he initially saw the school as a stepping stone to going into law.
Knowing that a lot of his peers were also law-school bound, Groce figured he needed to set himself apart. One way to do that was to work on his business skills. Stanford doesn't have an undergraduate business school, so he couldn't formally study business there. But it does have an organization called Stanford Student Enterprises, which oversees the student store, sells advertising in campus publications, and handles the finances of the campus student organization.
Groce got involved in SSE as a freshman, selling advertising that ran in the campus guidebook and alongside the campus map. During his tenure at Stanford, he grew more and more involved with the organization — and more and more successful.
By the time he was a junior, he was making more money through SSE than his parents had ever made in a year. As a senior, he became the organization's chief operating officer and was working there about 30 hours a week. He made enough money working for SSE that he was able to pay cash for a house for his parents in Ohio. The move was almost as much for his peace of mind as for his parents.
He was thinking, "OK, my parents will never be homeless."
Working for a law firm changed his career path
But if he loved business, Groce came to realize he wanted no part of being a lawyer. During the summer after his junior year, he got an internship at DLA Piper, a law firm with offices in Silicon Valley and San Francisco. The internship gave him a chance to see what it was like to work in the law — and it was nothing like he expected.
"I absolutely hated it. I was bored by everything there," he said. "It was earth shattering to me."
So when it came time to graduate in 2014, he was somewhat at a loss about what to do next. He no longer wanted to go to law school. His experience at SSE had been great and made him interested in business, but he wasn't sure what direction he wanted to go in. So when the CEO position at SSE opened up — a two-year post that's reserved for recent Stanford graduates — he jumped at the opportunity, figuring he loved the organization and could use the time there to figure out his next career step.
After being hired as CEO, Groce had a fairly unique opportunity for someone who had just graduated from college. He was overseeing an operation with dozens of employees, a multimillion dollar budget, and a half dozen business units.
"There's a business side, an entrepreneurial side," he said. "You're the financial manager of all the student government and student groups at Stanford."
It also gave him an opportunity to meet with people in the business community. And that led directly to his entry into venture capital.
A chance meeting led to a new career
Ryan Floyd wasn't necessarily looking to hire someone from an underrepresented minority group when he reached out to Groce in late 2015. One of the founders and managing directors at Storm Ventures, a relatively small firm, Floyd was mainly looking for someone young and talented to add to the team.
"There were a lot of things we'd like to be doing here that we just didn't have the horsepower to do," he said.
But diversity is valued at Storm. One of Floyd's partners is Indian. Another is Korean. Another is half Cherokee. One of his founding partners was born in Argentina. So Floyd also wasn't looking for the typical Stanford student, either.
"I didn't want hire someone that had exactly my background," he said. "The makeup of entrepreneurship is wide and vast, and we need to reflect that at Storm if we want to see the best opportunities."
I didn't want hire someone that had exactly my background. The makeup of entrepreneurship is wide and vast, and we need to reflect that.
Stanford hosts events that showcase student entrepreneurs and startups. Floyd had been to some of those events and had found out that SSE funded many of the programs. He figured he ought to meet the person who ran SSE, thinking that person could help connect him with students who might make good candidates to join Storm.
Floyd met with Groce informally, just to get to know him. But he walked away from the meeting so impressed that he didn't take his hiring search much farther.
Groce admittedly didn't know much about the venture capital business, even then. SSE oversees Cardinal Ventures, a startup accelerator that invests in student-run businesses, so as he moved up in the management of the organization, he learned about the industry. But before he met Floyd, he didn't really know any VCs and didn't have a firm grasp on what they did until he was going through the interview process.
But that didn't matter much to Floyd. The experience Groce had gained from SSE in managing people, budgeting, dealing with campus politics really made him stand out, Floyd said.
"I think of myself when I was his age, my ability to articulate my interests, what was interesting about a business, what drives people," Floyd said. "He was much better than me. Much, much better than me."
A small firm offers lots of experience
Floyd and Storm initially decided to hire Groce part-time, while he was still working for SSE. He then resigned early from his CEO position and joined Storm full time as an analyst, studying potential deals. After two years, Storm, which focuses on enterprise startups, promoted him to being an associate — its only one — where he helps make the case for potential investments.
"Because we're so small, there's not a deal Storm has done that I haven't touched in some way," Groce said.
One area he's focused on for the firm is on startups that specialize in serving the technology needs of governments. That's an area that Storm had previously ignored. But the firm has now backed two startups in that business, based in part on the investment thesis Groce put together.
"It's been an impressive progression for him," said Floyd. "He has a tremendous amount of maturity for his level of experience."
To be sure, Groce is still early in his career. It's not clear if or when he'll become a partner at Storm or any other firm. Ultimately, that will depends on his ability to develop deals and generate returns, Floyd said.
But Storm's invested in Groce and open to that possibility.
"I'd love nothing more than to have Frederik as my partner at some point in the future," Floyd said.
Silicon Valley has a diversity problem, thanks partly to pattern matching
Still, Groce's experience is exceedingly unusual.
Silicon Valley has long had a diversity problem. For literally decades, blacks, Latinos, and women have been underrepresented in the industry.
In recent years, partly due to pressure from the Rev. Jesse Jackson, some of the biggest tech companies, including Intel, Apple, and Google have pledged to diversify their ranks and have made halting steps in that direction. But the venture capital wing of the industry has largely evaded that pressure and scrutiny — and done little to diversify.
A lot of VCs just have the wrong mindset. They need to drop the stereotypes of what a founder looks like and be more intellectually curious.
If you look at everyone working in the venture capital industry, from administrative assistants to managing partners, just 3% are African-American and only 4% are Latino, according to a 2016 survey by Deloitte and the National Venture Capital Association. Among so-called investment partners — a grab-bag title intended to cover the people that make investment decisions that includes managing partners, founding partners, general partners, and managing directors — none are black, just 2% are Latino, and only 11% are women.
Critics inside and outside the industry blame the lack of diversity in part on pattern matching. Venture capitalists think they know what a successful startup entrepreneur looks like — all-too-frequently someone who is white who graduated from Stanford or an Ivy League school. Consciously or not, they typically invest in startups founded by people like that.
And when looking to hire new partners, they frequently draw from the ranks of successful startup founders — which just so happen to be the same pool of white Stanford and Ivy League grads, because they're the ones who got funding.
"A lot of VCs just have the wrong mindset," said Mitch Kapor, a partner at Kapor Capital and a longtime champion of diversity in tech. "They need to drop the stereotypes of what a founder looks like and be more intellectually curious."
Hoping to forge a new path for others like him
The lack of African-Americans in the venture industry makes it difficult for blacks aspiring to join the venture business or to found startups. The few blacks in the venture industry rarely make partner. And when they leave to form their own firms, they've had trouble raising funds, Groce said he's found in talking with them. As a result, many end up leaving the industry — and, as a result, blacks who join it have few mentors.
"When you get into venture, you better be ready to be only black person there and all that entails," Groce said.
That's why Groce has started reaching out to other African-Americans in the industry. He's trying to build a network of black VCs who can share their experiences, lend each other support, and help guide the next generation who enter the business.
The hope is that while his path to the industry has been unique, he won't be the last one to follow something like it.
"We're creating a space for black venture," he said.
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