B-school start dates

For Darden, the mandatory portion begins on 8/17 with orientation and BBQ. Optional pre-matriculation classes are available the week leading up. Classes begin on 8/20, but it looks like the first week includes to practice cases, lunch with your team, meeting your section etc.

Duke is fairly early: Math Camp is Aug 2, and the health management thing is before that. Orientation is around Aug 12, and that's mandatory. Then we take a mini-term on leadership and global something or another. We'll actually take a final before most people start their first class.

UNC is super-early, if you go to the math camp stuff. Some folks are already there.

At HBS, mandatory courses start Sept. 4th. But there are other courses which some applicants are required to take, that start as early as mid July.

L.

ND Orientation/workshops (math, acctg, stats) begin Aug 13th and classes begin Aug 27th.

ucla has a mandatory two week orientation starting sept 17th. classes dont start until october 1st.

good to know that all these other schools start earlier... that means when i vacation in europe in august, it wont be as crowded.

Depends where you go...France typically has most government and companies shut down for the whole month so if you are anywhere near the coast its going to be crowded. Also cities like Paris are pretty much empty and lots of things are closed.

Also Europe hotels have terrible AC compared to the US. I know that when I was there in early fall before, you could crank the AC on full blast and still couldn't get it to be tolerable temp in the rooms. This is why when they had the heat wave a few years ago so many people died, that and cause in France all the doctors were on vacation (I am not kidding).

i think we in europe have a different idea of "tolerable", imho AC at the levels it's used in the US is just an absurde waste of energy

Must be sub 72 at the most with relatively high humidity. I think it depends on the part of the country you live in too. It can be 10 degrees warmer in the southwest and still feel cooler than someplace in the east with 95% humidity...heat transfer due to the moisture makes it feel warmer.

I think it depends on what you are used to, living in New England where in the winter 20 degrees can be warm and 0 is not unusual so 95 feels like death valley.

You are KIDDING ME! (This is the voice of envy!)

It sounds pretty good now, but you pay for it on the back end. I was an undergrad at UCLA and classes ran through June. A lot of other let out at the end of April, and most were done by early May.

To be honest, I'm pretty ready to get started at this point. I 'm glad Darden hasn't started yet because the summer humidity in that region is terrible (I feel really bad for those already hard at work at UNC). About 2 years from now, I imagine that we'll all be chomping at the bit to finish up; I'm pretty sure we'll look back and be happy that we started earlier rather than later.

Well, well looks like we have another late bloomer after all. UW (optional) math camp starts on the 10th and LEAD orientation begins on the 17th. Classes don't formally commence until September 24th.

Pelihu is right, we don't wrap up until early June.

yeah, i don't have the calendar in front of me, but i wanna say the anderson school year wraps up around the 13th of june...
i just realized i need to ask a current student about how much time we get off before we start our summer internship since we get out so much later than most others.

MIT:

Preterm- 20th-24th August (very short and optional). But everyone has to matriculate by the 24th even if you are not taking preterm.

Orientation - 27th - 31st August

Classes start - Sept 4th

Cities won't be crowded as everyone is away at the beach, beaches will be mental. Many of more romantic European countries close for September - period.

As for the aircon - well, maybe riverripper would be beyond comprehension that most of European houses don't have aircon period (as Lorenzino points toward). People just get on by, like they did before aircon even existed.

Sounds like they are doing their part to cut carbon emissions. Most of our quarter pounder with cheese counterparts couldn't survive without fierce AC. Many department stores are so cold that you need a jacket if you plan on staying inside more than ten minutes.

Europeans definitely have a better handle on the concept of "moderation." They can leave a restaurant feeling "full" instead of "stuffed." They can sip on a three ounce espresso instead of getting a 16 oz. latte. They can forgo earnings for more vacation time.

Of course, even though I recognize that Europeans probably have a healthier approach to life, I still love my freezing cold retail stores and eating like a pig. I'm a real patriot.

yeah, a good chunk of the US is incredibly over-ac'ed. I especially hate hotel conference rooms. They're set for men in suits, but in summer, I like to wear summer clothes - shocking!

We don't have AC here in Ithaca, and other than a few miserable nights here and there, it's really ok. If you're really desperate, go swim under a waterfall or hang out in the library. But in defence of some -- I grew up in southwest WI where it's incredibly humid and just doesn't really cool off at night. When it's above 85, it's fairly unbearable, just because of the humidity. Having lived in France for a year and travelled around a good bit, I never experienced anything like that in Europe - or at least, it never lasted longer than a day or two.

Yes, people survived before the advent of AC, but they were hot, sticky and miserable.