Alexia Berenice Torres Calderon
"Before starting my degree at Fuqua, I was nervous. I knew that being an international student in the U.S., especially as a Latina woman, isn't exactly easy. But seeing that most of my MQM classmates were international students like me, many experiencing the U.S. for the first time, was really reassuring. It felt like we were all in it together, and that was cool."
MQM: Business Analytics
My Program Track
Industry:
Prior Education:
Universidad de Ingeniería y Tecnología
Industrial Engineering
Why I Chose Fuqua
Fuqua's curriculum aligned with my career goals. It felt like a natural extension of my previous studies as an industrial engineer. It enabled me to build upon the technical skills acquired during my undergraduate studies.
My first Fuqua team was composed of my friends Nikita, Yitian, Jimmy, and Ying. Working with them was a great experience. We all had different backgrounds; Nikita was an electrical engineer, Yitian was a computer scientist, Jimmy had a marketing degree, and Ying had a business administration degree. The fact that everyone had different backgrounds meant that each person had different strengths in various projects, and we all learned a lot from one another.
Before Fuqua
I felt that the curriculum I had as an industrial engineer aligned perfectly with the MQM curriculum. I felt well-prepared to tackle the classes and succeed. I enjoyed the classes because they were more business-oriented than the technical focus I was accustomed to from engineering school.
After Fuqua
I want to get a job as a business analyst in a tech firm.
5 Best Places to Study and Why
- Team Space at Fuqua. I made some of my best friends at the Team Space at Fuqua. It was so much fun to study together for finals and lose our minds together.
- Student Wellness Center. It is so quiet, and it has a great view of the Chapel.
- Gothic Room in Perkins Library. It has a nice vibe and it’s very quiet.
- The Ford Library at Fuqua. I love the seats by the window with a view to the trees. It’s nice.
- Duke Law Library. The reason why this is a good place to study is something I owe to my friend, Alex. She says it’s great to study there because no matter how stressed you are, you could never have it worse than the law students. You feel their pain, and it makes you feel better about yourself.
My MQM Track
In the Strategy track, we covered these key classes: Strategic Management, Operations Analytics, and Empirical Economic Analysis. In Strategic Management, we delved into diverse business cases across industries, discussing them in class and acquiring tools to formulate strategies for various scenarios. Operations Analytics introduced us to queuing theory, capacity analysis, and inventory theory, providing essential insights about operational efficiency. In Empirical Economic Analysis, we studied causal analysis and learned how to conduct comprehensive analyses to address fundamental "why?" questions.