1 - 4 month mark: share your rants, raves and war stories

Hey G'club b-schoolers. I'm guessing that by now we've been at school for at least a month, upto a maximum of about 4 months for those who started with some pre-courses. I'm setting up this thread so we can comment on our experiences so far. Feel free to write more than I did, if you have the energy & time to do so.

Rants: I'm overspending my budget by about 2x.
Raves: I've entered this parallel world in which everything seems possible.
War stories: I didn't think I could pull it off at my age (30) but I've been consistently going out at least twice during the week and still making it to my learning time (at 7.30am) on time.

L.

Nice one lepium. This is one thread I will frequently visit.

Rants:
My "budget" is totally blown. Who would have thought "clubs" could run several hundred bucks to join... $350 in books in one class?
B-school is far more tiring than I expected.
Group work is more of a pain than I expected.


Raves:
I feel confident about my abilities in a way I haven't been before.
I'm over my worry that I can't hack it at the GSB - I'm not the brightest bulb there, but there are some bulbs that don't even turn on.
I have more friends than I can count, and more options to and invitations to parties than I could ever attend. I'm having the time of my life.
I cant believe the people the GSB attracts to come talk to us. Unreal amazing.

Rants:

I've adjusted my sleeping time to about 4~5 hours, literally surviving on caffeine just to make through the week.

The work load is overwhelming, I've had to employ the 80/20 rule.

My team is composed over overachievers who demand that we meet 4~5 days a week for two hours at a time.

Raves:

More of a collaborative rather competitive feeling.

Free food and drinks on a daily basis, not to mention the best darn coffee on the planet.

Learning more about the world of business than I had imagined. Went from the direct to the indirect method in one day and have been analyzing interesting cases ever since.

Discovered that it is better to wake up at 5am and get the synapses firing before walking into lectures and meetings at 8am.

Took the role of information broker (aka liasion) between the international students and their doestic counterparts.

All in all, having the most challenging and invigorating time of my life.

GMAT773, refresh my memory, where did you end up?

I'm not GMAT773, but I am pretty sure he's at UW (Washington in this case, not Wisconsin). That's Drumheller fountain on his avatar.

Yeah, he's at Washington. It's the only school he applied to.

Pretty similar thoughts here as well:

Budget blown. Clubs, books, New York, all really expensive.

Group work not going well.

Everything else going great.

Strangely enough, I haven't blown my budget. For some reason, everything seems really really cheap around here. My rent is about 1/8 what my mortgage used to be, and includes cable and internet. Drinks cost about 1/3 what I'm accustomed to paying, which is a good excuse to get stinking drunk.

As far as school goes, it's all I could have hoped for. There really is a sense of teamwork and community here. The number of CEOs and such they bring to speak on campus is amazing. The course load is heavy, but manageable; all the activities and classes and recruiting really teach you how much you can stack on your plate. I feel like I'm in one of those Army commercials, "we do more before 10AM than most people do in a day" or something like that. It feels like ties with alumni are strong as well; when I send an email to an alum, I fully expect a reply in relatively short order, no matter how senior or how busy the person is. I know that's not the case everywhere.

The weather has been great here and the surroundings are really awesome. Not just the business school buildings, which are just a few years old, but everything in the area is just clean and manicured. Everyone actually does leave their computers and belongings anywhere around the business school, and there's never any problem (nobody come here to steal our computers when we aren't watching please). I think the sense of community, safety and well-being is really unparalleled; definitely as advertised. My only real complaint is that we don't have a major airport nearby. That's a pain; not that I have the time to actually go anywhere.

my team is great.

i like all you wealthy b-school people more than i thought i would

money is ok, actually. but i'm used to being broke and the mortgage is only 640 (PITI)

the team fuqua stuff really is great. And i LOVE my section. we're very into having a good time and supporting each other

rant - i decided i don't care so much about grades. i like sleeping more. and no one who hires me is going to care.

Yep, UW, or hereforth known as the "Foster School of Business." Mr. Foster made a handsome donation to our program over the summer, hence the name change.

Drumweller fountain is still shooting high and overflowing with activity, much like the opportunities many of my colleagues have been given in just the past few weeks.

We had our annual mentor reception kick off dinner last night at the Burke museum which attracted a huge crowd of successful CEOs, VC, and entrepreneurs, with almost the entire 08 and 09 class attending. That event, coupled with our committed business connection center, really helps synthesize current students and the growing demands of our thriving local business community.
A caveat to the Foster approach is that it seems to be rather regionally biased. If you have aspirations of working or owning your own enterprise in the Pac Northwest, this is unarguably the ideal place to be. Many of the niche boutique consulting firms that cater solely to the interests of Microsoft, Boeing, Starbucks, etc.. levergae their contacts from UW alumni. Keep in mind, Huskies are very territorial and collegiate. That's not to say that outsiders can't penetrate the Seattle business community, it's just that they have a much tougher time doing so.

Good one mate

Would you mind sharing the info about the placement scenario for "International students" at UW??

I would have never believed that a multiple choice Finance midterm could ever have been as difficult as the one I sat last week. Tricky and then some.

Rant: The GSB's reputation of being a "quant" school is no joke...in fact it is well earned. Lke a few of the other comments it took a few weeks to get used to the work load.

Rave: Realizing that the cliche term, "anything is possible" is really very true. The options are endless and fascinating and difficult to choose between! I also like that the professors demand a high level of participation and effort, for me high excpectations = high level of work. Finally, truely talented and knowledgable class mates!

LOL! I wonder how they got in...

Wow, sounds like a blast. I think I'll save lots of money on being a non-drinker... though the clubs/books do sound like they cost a lot!

I think some of these people have the creds, they just don't give a crap. They look at bschool as vacation.

As for the drinking, I think it's mostly free. First years???

One of the best perks of B-school is being fed well and having a social event every night where the libations are provided! If you want I am sure you could go through an MBA program spending $0 on drinks but manage to drink 4-5 nights out of the week!

that is true, some of them are company sponsored, so they really don't need to work hard to get a job.

I would just like to share something.

If you are recruiting for banks, being in NYC is a double edged sword and then some.

I am heading into the fourth or fifth consecutive week when I have at least one bank event a night. Some nights two, with one downtown immediately after one in midtown (with no time to travel).

The banks see more of you than any other schools. Really consider whether that is a good thing - I am undecided, but don't think it is *that* bad.

rave:
amazing group and classmates
lots of fun and amusement along with back breaking work
opportunity to learn plenty in a short time

rant
singapore house rent and paperwork for france
exams. aargh.

budget: in control.