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Friday, October 27, 2006
. Finals in Fall A, Mid-Sem Break, West Coast Forum]
Finals came and went. THANK GOD. I wish they could have gone a little bit sooner. Thankfully, my classes for Fall B don't have finals so stretched out. Finance was a disaster. I know I just didn't do well. I managed to pass the class, but who knows what mistakes I made on that final. Econ wasn't too bad, but I still don't have a grade in that class, so we'll see how that goes. In spite of my lackluster attention skills in Stats, I managed to get out of that class with a "good". The final was incredibly long. A lot of people said they didn't finish. I think because last year's stats final was considered "too easy" the profs tried to ramp it up this year. It was a little too ramped up IMO, but whatever. It's all curved anyway. Strategy was definitely the longest, coming in close to the 6 hour mark. I didn't really know how to study for that one, but I somehow got through it two hours early. Probably because I picked up the case early and started breaking it up into digestable pieces. We dont' get those grades until mid-November.
Because we're on the half-semester (essentially quarter) system, we have this one week off between Fall A and Fall B, called "mid-semester break". There are a variety of options available of what to do during break. I chose to go home to California and visit my family. The weather out there was incredible, and since I was in the bay area already, I could also go to the West Coast Forum, (more details at
www.westcoastforum.org). I spent my days at home hanging out with my parents, and then the latter half of the week at the Sofitel in Redwood City, meeting with various recruiters and company representatives in the area to learn more about opportunities for internships in the bay area during the summer.
Now it's time to head back to school and everything else. I plan to attend an event this weekend in Chicago (yes, I know I'm missing the homecoming game) to learn more about opportunites for working with McKinsey in South America. I'm not sure I really want to work there, but it may be very worth it to at least get some more information.
MBA Cutie @ 4:30 PM
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Friday, September 29, 2006
. Time Management]
I have never been so busy in my life. There are so many club activities, social activities and academic activities going on, I can't keep it all straight. Finding time to update my blog has become difficult. This past week, my section had their first midterm. I had two, as I am in the Finance class. So we studied like crazy all weekend long (after the bus of course), to be ready for our Tuesday Finance Exam ... which I feel really "iffy" about, and then spent the rest of the week studying for our Econ exam that took place this morning. Rather, I blew off studying until last night, then wished I hadn't. I can't say I think I did all that badly, but I am happy it's over. And I'm happy I didn't dedicate more time to it than I did.
On a career outlook front, I'm planning on heading out to the Marketing Club's visit to Minneapolis next week, which should be fun and interesting. I went to the Piper Jaffray Presentation this week, which was great! I wasn't seriously looking at them, but it looks like they are a great middle market firm with major offices in Minneapolis and California. Plus so many of the consumer / retail deals I'm interested in happen in the middle market, so I think this is a good option for me.
We have a stats quiz this weekend, another finance assignment, and some econ and strat assignments to work on next week.
MBA Cutie @ 2:03 PM
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Wednesday, September 20, 2006
. WE'RE # 1!!!!!!!]
That's right! Ross did it! We are rated at the top of the WSJ's list of MBA Programs. Congratulations, Dean Dolan! And of course, congratulations to all the students and staff, and to all the recruiters who helped make this happen.
MBA Cutie @ 5:18 PM
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Tuesday, September 12, 2006
. The Start of Fall A]
A whole week has passed! And I'm still alive and well. Classes have been interesting, here is a quick low down:
Business Statistics (OMS 502) -- I sort of wish I had bitten the bullet and studied for the waiver exam. Not that the class is bad, because our professor is actually very good and has done a good job of explaining stats to people that have never taken stats before. However, I have taken stats before. I've even taken Econometrics before. I really am bored out of my mind. I could have taught myself all this stuff on my own. The only drastic change I'm noticing in Stats is that now we're doing statistical modeling in Excel as opposed to using Stata that we used at UCLA, about 5 or 6 years ago...
Business Economics (BE 502) -- Speaking of classes I wish I passed out of... Well I majored in the stuff at UCLA, but I just never really "got" it, so I thought it would be good to take this class. Our professor is actually very good, but the thing about economics is that it's immensely hard to teach. It's just really one of those things that has to "dawn" on you one day... and when it does, you "get" it.
Finance (FIN 513) -- Our teacher for this class (Kaul) is AMAZING. I dont' know how much finance I'm learning in class, but I'm learning a whole lot of it by doing homework. The class is non-stop laughs. I can't wait for Monday and Wednesday mornings just so that I can go to this class.
Strategy (STRAT 502) -- I've never taken a Strategy course before, so I guess this is my first real exposure to case analysis. We've been working pretty hard already, analyzing cases in our assigned groups, and in heated class discussions. The professor (Kale) is excellent at guiding the class to have the discussions he wants us to have. I'm always surprised when he puts up the notes at the end of class that he had pre-prepared. They are usually pretty close to what the direction of our class discussion was.
We had MBA Games last Friday! The day was extremely tiring... we participated in many different sports, including softball, volleyball, ultimate frisbee, bocce ball, etc... Section 4 ended up placing first in Volleyball and Softball and second in a bunch of others. We came in tied for third place with Section 5. There were tons of sponsors on site at the field, including J&J, Eli Lilly, Target, and Pepsi-Co. The one complaint I have is that there wasn't enough regular water on site. There is only so much Gatorade and Propel that you can drink!
MBA Cutie @ 5:42 AM
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Wednesday, September 06, 2006
. RLP Days 4, 5, and 6]
We got to have a late start on Tuesday (we, meaning section 4)... with two seminars in the afternoon. One on Ethics and then one on Citizenship. The Citizenship one was interesting, the Professor that spoke to us was Jim Walsh. He also showed us a partially finished documentary regarding the outsourcing phenomena we are currently facing in the U.S. I had mixed feelings about that documentary, but, for the sake of time and I guess, because I just didn't care enough to say more, I chose to not comment too much.
The next day we had a presentation on the state of the world in 2020, and then this awesome corporate diversity presentation. The presentation included many short skits and lots of group interaction. The afternoon was our teambuilding exercises. I had a great team, and it was a good time. By the end of the activities, we were ready to go home and relax.
For our last day of RLP, all the sections split up and headed out to various locations across Michigan for community service projects. Section 4 was assigned to Project HOPE, which is the main sponsor for the community service day at Ross. I spent the day cleaning up an old lot, with some section mates, so that the organization can use it productively in the future. It was a great opportunity to take some time out of our busy lives to think about the less fortunate and give back to the community. I definitely hope this is something that our section will continue to do going foreward.
MBA Cutie @ 6:20 PM
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Monday, August 28, 2006
. Orientation Day 3: Management Assessment & Section Meeting]
We had our first section 4 meeting today at 8am. It was the first time we got to see the whole section in one place. Everyone has very diverse backgrounds. We have everything from Investment Bankers to Engineers to Medical Doctors! And from countries all over the world. The section meeting was basically to get a quick introduction to everyone in the class and then get details about the MBA Games, the Shout Off, and other various events that we have coming up. The section elections are a week from today... so we have to be ready to know what we want to run for, if we decide to run.
I spent part of today doing some research regarding the Zell Lurie Institute Wolverine Venture Fund. I guess they take on 8 MBA1's to sit on the advisory board every year. It sounds like fun and I am thinking about applying for it. We'll see how that goes.
The next session was our Management Assessment seminar. It turns out I am in the "blue" group -- or that my management style is more "market" vs. "clan", "adhocracy" or "heirarchy". Surprisingly, other people who filled out my assessment rated me "clan". I'm not really sure what to believe. I think I can be extremely competitive when I want something. Tomorrow my section has our first section-wide happy hour after orientation. Tonight, there is an MBA Bowling activity, but I don't plan to go to that.
I picked up my season tickets for the football games today from the Ticket Office. I also went to Briar Cove Mall and picked up my Football Season Student T-Shirt from the M-Den. The mall is nicer than I expected, but I doubt I'll spend much time there now that I have no incoming funds.
MBA Cutie @ 2:20 PM
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Saturday, August 26, 2006
. Orientation: Days 1 & 2]
I have been meeting so many people so quickly that it's hard to keep track! I usually find that I can remember where people are from, but not their name. Some how, I don't think people will respond well be being called "Minnesota Guy" or the like.
The first day of Orientation was O.K. It wasn't that exciting. The Dean's welcome was nice, but the break out sessions for the rest of the day just felt a little long, and I wasn't that interested in "feeling sharing" with my group, etc. But, meeting more of the class was a huge plus. Supposedly, this will be one of the last times that we will all be together as a class for a long, long time.
The second day we had a series of speakers from the Human Performance Institute, including Jim Loehr, co-author of THE POWER OF FULL ENGAGEMENT. I really tried my best to stay fully engaged through lectures about spiritual health, nutrition and exercise, but the previous night's festivities were weighing pretty heavily on my eyelids. I bolted out of there the second I could, came home, and took a 2 hour nap. It was much needed! We had to head out again that evening for an MBA 1 get together in downtown AA.
MBA Cutie @ 11:12 AM
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