First Quarter/Semester Experiences of B-school

Question

EDIT by kryzak: This thread will be useful for us 2008 entrants. I will ask Praet to move it to the B-school Life section, and hopefully the 2007 clubbers will keep on populating it with their experiences! 

Day 2 and its already insanely busy.

lepium · Answer

true, true. And by the time we become marginally confortable with just classes they'll throw in clubs, and then recruiting, and so on. They keep you just above the water for most of 1st year.

L.

PS: the most scary thing is that there's also an excuse to have drinks every night of the week. I may age faster during the next 9 months.

PS2: beware of the Fear of missing out (FOMO) effect.

pelihu · Answer

I'm 2 1/2 weeks in, and they definitely keep you busy. Club presentations started the 2nd week. Just as I started to feel like I was getting a handle on the classroom workload, they decided to have some fun with us this week and (all the students believe) purposely overloaded us the last 2 days with coursework. We have a full day of career forums on Friday, and recruiters start showing up on Monday. Add in social events, sports competitions (had a full day of flag football last Saturday) and other "enrichment" type events and there aren't many minutes to spare. I guess the good thing is that you become part of the community right away; at least I'm feeling pretty well supported and that everyone is having similar experiences.

kryzak · Answer

WOW, that sounds insane! I guess "trial by fire" as they say!

so do your spouses/sig others go to these club presentations and flag football events? I can't see marriages lasting if one of the person is gone for the entire first year trying to attend everything!

helpslip · Answer

A sticky on this theme, i.e., "they're killing us with "x" this week" might be valuable, especially as 9 months from now. It could provide (me included) the innocent with a useful timetable based on the collective experiences of the current students. If we had someone with decent HTML skills it could be done as an interactive timeline.

aaudetat · Answer

My big complaint about Fuqua: they started hitting us with club sign-ups BEFORE the first day of the regular term. If you want to be in the cabinet, some of the applications were already due - and today is day 3 of the term. I think that's lame. Really, what would it hurt to give us a week? We'll be in a better place to assess where we are, what our interests are, and what we're capable of.

kidderek · Answer

I'm getting revved up just reading this stuff! 

Good thing grades are second to networking in bschool.

lepium · Answer

That sucks. 
At HBS we are blocked from almost everything (outside academics and social events) on day 1 and start gaining access to resources as time goes by. Next week we'll get access to clubs, then later on to the recruiting cycle resources and so on. I think it helps people start better. 

L.

3underscore · Answer

OK, so resumes have picked up speed, charity community work is kicking in heavy on Monday, clubs start this week, elections start this week and we already have seven chapters of reading for one class (itself the most competitive class in the school). 

Being in a karaeoke bar at 2.30am is not a good way to help yourself along with this.

I can't really see how knowing this will truly help an incoming class. You will get drowned no matter what. That is the whole point.

God forbid when recruiting picks up.

kryzak · Answer

tips for surviving the "drowning" would be appreciated

3underscore · Answer

Well, myself and Johnny x9 have been in pretty much the same things for the past three weeks. And despite our best efforts, we have not even met each other yet.

I haven't a clue who standard (another sternie) is, so maybe I have met him.

lepium · Answer

As 3underscore said, there are no easy tips. Get your time management act as together as you can and balance activities as well as you can. 

I have received various forms of advice from lots of people, but I think each student needs to find how to make the most of the experience by himself.

L.

kryzak · Answer

Then again, it doesn't sound much different from my life in undergrad juggling engineering classes (15-20 hour homework sets every week PER class, 2-3 classes), 3 societies, and intramural sports...

the difference is, I'm 10 years older now...

johnnyx9 · Answer

So far things are manageable but it's obvious that in about two weeks things will be spiraling out of control when recruiting starts. This will coincide with the beginning of project deadlines, problem set deadlines, etc...

3_Underscore - I've been a bit anti-social, spent my first few weeks here doing obligatory "Hey I'm in New York now let's have dinner" with friends who already lived here, missed some major social events. Although I did make it to the Brazilian independence thing at that Boulevard club last Friday, were you there?

johnnyx9 · Answer

Oh yeah one other thing. Going to b-school in the middle of New York is awesome.

kryzak · Answer

that's one thing I never understood... recruiting starts within a few weeks of school starting. How are they going to judge how good of a business person you are when you have barely taken 2-3 weeks of class? Based on your GMAT Score and previous job? What about for career switchers?

lepium · Answer

The reasoning is:

a) you've gotten into (insert school), so you are good enough to have made it through that cut.
b) we'll look at your CV and probably interview you a couple of times.
c) we'll get the chance to meet you better while on the summer job, and if we like you we will make you a full time offer.

L.

kryzak · Answer

true, but if 50% of MBA students don't do what they say they'll do in their career goals essays, how does one know to apply for a consulting, IB, or non-profit internship within the 2nd or 3rd week of school? Just wondering.

aaudetat · Answer

Well, the idea is that you're not really applying just yet. A lot of what goes on now is informational. You attend company presentations, which compels you to do some research. You hear from them, and schmooze a bit. Applications and interviews come later.

I'm going to a general management symposium tomorrow, just as a way to hear from some of these companies.

died4me · Answer

Who said that Fuqua is a layback MBA program?? :lol:

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