It's COLD

We've had a pretty mild winter thus far. The massive snow storms that terrified me before I moved out here haven't happened yet. Fortunately for us, they've been a bit west (Chicago had a bad one before Winter Break, Denver's airport kept closing). I've been pretty proud of myself for adapting to the cold thus far. I didn't even think it was that cold when it was in the mid 20's.

But lately - I don't know what it is...maybe it's the single digit wind chill (what the hell does 0 feel like anyway?), or the almost constant cloudiness (so you can't even pretend it's warm), but I've hardly wanted to go outside lately unless I absolutely have to. I park as close to store entrances as possible, just so I don't have to be outside for any longer than necessary. Yes, I know I voluntarily moved to Michigan, but I can still whine about cold weather. It's my god-given right as a Californian!

We got our MAP assignments yesterday. I didn't get one of my top ones, but it's a cool project so I can get excited about that. I'm also officially done with recruiting. I am super excited about where I'll be working this summer. I'm still not going to say where I'm going, but life is good.

Anticipation…

We’re now in week 3 of classes. And unlike Fall A and Fall B, people seem to care less and less about class during this term. I think that’s why they made the core front-loaded, so we only have two required classes during Winter A. We’re taking managerial accounting and operations – both very useful classes, the professors are pretty good and really animated. One even loves to cold call. The problem is that the subject matter itself isn’t all that interesting. That makes it hard to get motivated to study, especially if you’ve got other things on your mind. I’m not going to post specifics about my internship situation except to say that you never can tell how well you actually do in an interview.

If you broke down the most commonly asked questions during Winter A, here’s how they went:

Week 1 – January 7 - 13:
How was your break? Did you get someplace warm? That sucks about the Rosebowl/Can you believe Florida won? How many resumes/cover letters did you drop? What else besides core are you taking? How did you rank your MAP projects? You know nobody ever gets their first choice – you should rank your real first choice second.

Week 2 – January 14 – 20:
How’s interview prep? Where did you get close listed? Can you believe interviews start already? Why are managerial accounting and ops so boring? How did that interview go? Why is MBA formal (aka prom) so expensive? Why do our only core classes have group case analyses due at the same time? I need a leadership/teamwork/good commercial example.

Week 3 – January 21 - Today:
How is the job search going? (which really means “do you have an offer yet?”) Cool, you got an offer? Where? Was that your first choice? Are you still interviewing? I’m tired of being asked to “tell me about a time when…” How many of these “pre-interview” dinners can I handle? Can you believe this is our last term as a section?

I mean, of course there’s other things people talk about, but this is the bulk of conversations I feel like I’m having – particularly with friends who I haven’t really seen in a while. As you can imagine, there is quite a bit of nervousness – some have offers, some got rejections, some have additional rounds.

So there’s lots of anticipation going on, mostly b/c MBAs don’t like this feeling of being “up in the air”. Everyone would like to know where they will spend the summer – what job, what industry, what function, what location.

Another source of anticipation – MAP. We’re supposed to find out tomorrow. I hope I get my top choice and work with cool people. I’m one of the idiots who ranked my #1 choice #1. I also chose to choose projects based on my desire to actually do the project instead of location. I imagine after tomorrow, more conversations will shift to “what MAP did you get? Are you excited? Have you been there before? Who else are you working with?

Congrats to Round 1 Admits!

That's it. I've heard that R1 admits were notified. That's awesome! I'm really enjoying my time at Ross, and I hope you choose the best school for you (Ross or otherwise).

For those who didn't get the good news, I'm really sorry about that. I know how I felt when I bombed my interview at my "dream school" at the time, but I've learned that things happen for a reason. I can't picture myself at any other school.

Winter A Has Started!

Happy 2007! I hope all is going well! I can’t believe that in 2006, I submitted applications to business school, got in, visited all the schools, made a $120K decision, quit my crappy job, packed up, moved across the country, and started a whole new life. And I also can’t believe just how much Ann Arbor feels like “home” – even more than my hometown. (Though that may be just because my stuff is in Ann Arbor.) Though I did enjoy the sun, and spending time with friends/family, I did miss my hanging out with my b-school friends.

OK, obligatory post BCS bowl game comment. Umm, I don’t know what the hell happened with the Big-10. USC outplayed us, out-coached us, and just flat out looked better. Kinda made me feel bad for all of that crap I talked about USC. And Florida? I was more shocked by that one than anything else. Oh well. Now football season is over. What does this town do after football season?

After hiding all of my Michigan gear, I got back on the plane and flew back out to AA to start Winter A. To my surprise, when I flew back it was POURING rain. Huh? It’s January! It’s since gotten much colder and snowed, but apparently it’s still much milder than “normal”.

Winter A started on Monday, and brought a surprise snowfall (it rained the night before) and only two core classes: Managerial Accounting and Operations. This is done on purpose so that people can manage their time with interviews as they see fit. Most people seem to have the core classes only on Monday/Wednesday. But others (myself included) are taking at least a 3rd and in some cases a 4th class – either an elective that may help them for the internship, or one of either World Economy, law requirement, writing, or Excel. I’m not sure how I feel about either of those two classes yet. Operations makes the most sense to me because of my previous jobs, but I’m not entirely excited about it.

It’s also interview season here. Many resume drops had deadlines over the break, and the first closed lists came out. It’s strange since nobody wants to ask who got close-listed where, but at the same time, people are very curious. There’s one very popular CPG in particular that people are wondering about. It’s not nearly as tense as I expected it to be around here. There are interview prep groups, and people are very helpful.

MAP project signups also start today. SO many choices: domestic or international, nonprofit or for-profit, and I’m not 100% sure how MAP projects get assigned. There are a few that people are most excited about. We’ll see.