Life as an MBA student can indeed be hectic. Classes, interviews, internship search, cover letters, résumés, you name it. There are more things to do than minutes in a day!
Most classes (core and elective curriculum) at Olin are offered in minis, which are seven-week periods. This means that final exams hit you before you know it! So if you don't keep up with class you are almost guaranteed a nasty surprise come final exam time. One huge plus of the mini system is that it allows students to take many more courses than they would otherwise under a traditional semester.
The first Spring mini will be over the first week in March. Right now I'm getting ready for my Cost Accounting final, working on a Valuation homework, preparing a case memo for Competitive Industry Analysis (semester-long course), researching companies for possible summer internships, and preparing for an internship interview next Tuesday.
The week after next is finals week and then... off to India during Spring Break as part of my Global Management Studies class. As you can tell, things are going at a 1,000 miles an hour, so I'll internalize that I'm going to India once I get there!
Next entry I'll talk more about the India trip! Until next time!
This past weekend Olin held its Spring Preview Weekend for individuals interested in learning more about the program and getting a more realistic experience as they met current students, faculty members and admissions representatives. Panel discussions led by students and faculty, lunch with a current student, talks on financial aid and career resources, a sample case discussion with core strategy professor Patrick Moreton, you name it, we had it.
As I met visitors from around the country and abroad, I was reminded of what I went through exactly one year ago as I anxiously awaited for admissions decisions. (For anyone who is applying for Fall 2004 admissions and won't hear news for a couple of months or so, I practically guarantee that your mind will play all kinds of tricks on you. You KNOW you have every ingredient to succeed, yet paranoia sets it. Thoughts like, "On my God, what if I don't get admitted?", "What am I going to do next year if I don't get in?", "What am I going to do with my life?", are commonplace. I also practically guarantee you that you will be more vulnerable than ever and you'll be wearing your emotions on your sleeve. Believe me, I had an "explosion" with my dear brother-in-law over NOTHING! Yes, the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde syndrome is possible! But then, decisions arrive and then everything settles down whether you get admitted into your program of choice or not. Life goes on regardless.)
A year ago, after submitting my application to the Consortium of Graduate Study in Management (CGSM) by the Jan. 15 deadline, I too decided to visit MBA programs in New York City, Los Angeles and St. Louis. (For those not already familiar with the CGSM, it is a non-profit organization comprised of more than a dozen of the nation's top 25 programs. The CGSM awards full-tuition fellowships to talented Native, African, and Hispanic American individuals seeking admission into any of the MBA programs participating in the Consortium.)
I found these visits to be extremely important as I decided what kind of environment I would thrive in and enjoy for the next two years of my life. The admissions process is not about getting into ANY MBA program for the sake of getting in. You will be making a significant investment in your future, so it behooves you to get acquainted with the students and environment at the schools you're applying to. You will be doing yourself a huge disservice if you end up investing tens of thousands of dollars in loan money and personal savings on an environment that is not the right fit for you.
In order to find whether you are a right fit, you'll need to make a personal assessment of your strengths, weaknesses, likes, dislikes, and pet peeves. Once that is clear, you'll want to ask some questions such as: What are the students like? What sort of personalities does the program seem to attract? Is the learning environment cutthroat or healthy competition? Are students in general satisfied with the quality of the MBA program? Is the method of instruction 100% case-based or a combination of case and lecture? (For instance, if you have a real issue of speaking up and participating in class and don't overcome it, a 100% case-based, cold-call environment may not be the best choice for you.) There are dozens of other questions that I could add, but I will end my entry here. Back to my Cost Accounting homework due tomorrow morning.
Next time, I'll give an update on the internship search and my upcoming trip to India in March for a Global Management Studies class.