So, Wow...not sure what to say about life as an MBA so far, but I'll see if I can sum it up for you.
Awesome and Busy. I don't think you can fully realize the truth of both of those statements until you, yourself, are actually in b-school. But, for good measure, I'll take a crack at explaining my view on it.
Awesome: Everything that has been going on here is quite simply that, Awesome. The school has gone to great lengths to challenge us and provide us with a lot of good times. I, personally, love both sides of that equation. We are working on a lot of case studies, joining clubs, studying for quizes/exams (yes, we have one of each already), etc. But, we're also out networking with recruiters that are on campus, meeting and hanging out with our fellow classmates (and the second year students) too. This makes for what will be discussed in the 'busy' section, but it also makes for a great time. Everyone here is smart, open-minded, and fun to hang out with. We go out to the bars (or other social venues) a couple times a week usually and we always have a great time. We also, so far, get a long great when it comes to working on our team assignments. Really - I couldn't have asked for a better experience thus far.
Busy: At Kelley, we have 3 class sessions per day which go for a little more than 4 hours in total. This will go on for a total of 15 weeks, which means that we're almost 20% the way through the Core. It also means that we've had 36 class sessions in the last 3 weeks. For those 36 sessions we've had to read likely over 1000 pages in the form of case studies, text books, online articles, and other assigned readings (The Goal anyone?). I'm averaging about 5-6 hours of sleep each night (staying at the school until after 2 most weekday nights). I'm now a part of the Student Admissions Committee (we do building tours, info sessions, lunches, class visits, etc. with prospective students), the social rep for my cohort (group of ~80 students that I have class with throughout the Core), have been invited to join the Marketing Case Competion team heading to the Elite Eight Brand Management competition in Minnesota this November (they got 3rd last year and we're hungry for a win this time), and am on the flag football team. Why do I do this to myself? Because I told myself a long time ago that I'd try to take advantage of ALL that b-school has to offer; and thus far, I think I'm doing a good job of it.
I love it here, I'm challenged every day, I'm sleeping a lot less than would be optimal, and I'm having the best time of my life!
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Orientation; Check! Week 1; Check!
Alright; so it has been a while, but all is well.
Jump Start:
Jump Start is the pre-orientation Finance/Accounting/Excel classes that are meant to help provide us with a 'jump start' before real classes start. While, that all may be true (and I did learn/relearn some good stuff), the real benefit is meeting everyone! It was a great time to get out there and get to know as many of my new classmates before classes meet and we are all too busy to do much. There was a social event every night hosted/planned for us by some of the 2nd year students and, oh yeah, there was class during the day. I highly recommend going to this if you're heading to Kelley (or the 'math camp' type of thing that almost every other top school has too). It's great fun and it really does give you a leg up (a jump start) once classes kick off.
Orientation:
Wow! I used to be a part of the orientation program at Purdue (Boiler Gold Rush!); which was a TON of fun and a TON of work and it lasted for about 5-6 days. The orientation for us b-schoolers was virtually 2-weeks long...I don't even want to know what all went into this. It started out with some diversity/cultural difference trainings; we've all been through it before (and will again), but it is what it is; nothing more and nothing less. Then we went off to Bradford woods for a half-day team building exercise. This was actually quite fun and culminated in building a car (made from a plastic cup; straws, lifesavers, and a paper cup). Wednesday began with some class-like discussion about a case we had to read ahead of time to understand how classes will be going forward and the start of our case competition. The case was about Timberland's attempt to valuate their Social Responsibility expenditures (donations/benefit hours/etc.) Quite fun, but due (partially) to some bad advice we didn't do as hot as we'd have liked. Live and learn I guess! So, next time it is on! After that we then had a lot of meetings about the various clubs and organizations and opportunities that we will have to be picking/running for in the coming weeks. There was a lot of talk about Ethics and the Kelley Code [of conduct] and that sort of thing. We were inducted into the MBA class with a nice reception that followed some fun speakers (an alumnus and the Dean). Lastly (and likely most importantly), we were given a LOT of homework near the end of orientation. We had about 200 pages of reading to do before the first days of class (or at least if felt that way). I had a lot of fun but am glad to be in class now.
Week #1:
As mentioned, there was a lot of reading for this first week. We had to prepare (read; run numbers; discuss; answer questions about) 5 different cases last week (3 for Econ alone!). I love this stuff! It's fun to get competing ideas out there about what's happening in a given situation for a given company or industry. We are also learning a lot about the various tools (that even I did know existed) in Excel. I'm glad the week is over, but I've got to get back to the books! I have another 50-75 pages to read for tomorrow and some pivot tables to play with!
Oh the joy of being in b-school!
Jump Start:
Jump Start is the pre-orientation Finance/Accounting/Excel classes that are meant to help provide us with a 'jump start' before real classes start. While, that all may be true (and I did learn/relearn some good stuff), the real benefit is meeting everyone! It was a great time to get out there and get to know as many of my new classmates before classes meet and we are all too busy to do much. There was a social event every night hosted/planned for us by some of the 2nd year students and, oh yeah, there was class during the day. I highly recommend going to this if you're heading to Kelley (or the 'math camp' type of thing that almost every other top school has too). It's great fun and it really does give you a leg up (a jump start) once classes kick off.
Orientation:
Wow! I used to be a part of the orientation program at Purdue (Boiler Gold Rush!); which was a TON of fun and a TON of work and it lasted for about 5-6 days. The orientation for us b-schoolers was virtually 2-weeks long...I don't even want to know what all went into this. It started out with some diversity/cultural difference trainings; we've all been through it before (and will again), but it is what it is; nothing more and nothing less. Then we went off to Bradford woods for a half-day team building exercise. This was actually quite fun and culminated in building a car (made from a plastic cup; straws, lifesavers, and a paper cup). Wednesday began with some class-like discussion about a case we had to read ahead of time to understand how classes will be going forward and the start of our case competition. The case was about Timberland's attempt to valuate their Social Responsibility expenditures (donations/benefit hours/etc.) Quite fun, but due (partially) to some bad advice we didn't do as hot as we'd have liked. Live and learn I guess! So, next time it is on! After that we then had a lot of meetings about the various clubs and organizations and opportunities that we will have to be picking/running for in the coming weeks. There was a lot of talk about Ethics and the Kelley Code [of conduct] and that sort of thing. We were inducted into the MBA class with a nice reception that followed some fun speakers (an alumnus and the Dean). Lastly (and likely most importantly), we were given a LOT of homework near the end of orientation. We had about 200 pages of reading to do before the first days of class (or at least if felt that way). I had a lot of fun but am glad to be in class now.
Week #1:
As mentioned, there was a lot of reading for this first week. We had to prepare (read; run numbers; discuss; answer questions about) 5 different cases last week (3 for Econ alone!). I love this stuff! It's fun to get competing ideas out there about what's happening in a given situation for a given company or industry. We are also learning a lot about the various tools (that even I did know existed) in Excel. I'm glad the week is over, but I've got to get back to the books! I have another 50-75 pages to read for tomorrow and some pivot tables to play with!
Oh the joy of being in b-school!
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