Belated Congrats to R2 Admits -- and a MAP Update

Belated Congratulations to R2 Admits! Some friends and I jokingly say that we're glad we applied when we did since applications skyrocketed this year and we aren't sure if we would have gotten in. I've gotten a few emails about things so I thought I'd comment here.

Football tickets are very easy to get. Newly matriculated students have a window in June (i think it was the middle two weeks) to order tickets online. So long as you order in that timeframe, you get season tickets. This year's home game schedule includes Notre Dame and Ohio State. Awesome!

You don't need a car per say but it's really nice to have. I have one but that's b/c Californians by nature are very car-dependent. Lots of people don't have one so that's fine too. If you don't have one, you probably want to live close to campus b/c the city buses here are iffy after about 7:30 pm.

Housing isn't that hard to find, but decide how nice of a place you want, how far away from campus you want to live, and if you want a roommate. Closer to campus means more expensive and not as nice. Farther away you get more for your money but then you have to get to school (often by driving) so you pay for parking anyway.

MAP update. If week 1 was "welcome to MAP" and week 2 was "wow, this can really be helpful to me professionally", then week 3 was "oh crap now I have to figure out what we're gonna say to our sponsor". We're knee-deep in research right now, trying to learn as much as possible about the industry and where our sponsor (client) fits into it. I have been impressed at how the frameworks actually do come in handy for real life situations - so we can understand what's going on. I'm getting the sense that our sponsor is really expecting A LOT from us - and now I'm wondering if I'm thinking broadly (or strategically) enough. It's also nerve-wracking to make sure we come up with recommendations they can actually implement. I was thrown a bit of a curveball with research. I saw something that seemed to be a great potential recommendation only to learn that it wasn't as great as I thought. So now I'm back to more analysis. Did I mention how glad I am that I'm going through these "learning pains" now instead of during the summer?

MAP Update Week 2

OK, this term seems strange because there are no classes or sections. We were weaned off of sections in Winter A, since we had section classes only on Mondays and Wednesdays, but it is still strange to spend the vast majority of your time with the same few people. I really like my team and think they're great, but it's an adjustment to not see your friends that often anymore because nobody's in the same state or country for a while.

MAP really is all encompassing. MAP has obviously been the main topic of discussion for MBA1's. It's amazing just how much time MAP takes (and I almost forgot to bid on fall semester classes)...no wonder this is our only "class" this term. I can already tell it's going to be a great experience. I'm really liking my project - it's very strategic, plus in an industry I didn't recruit with or work with before, so I get to learn something different. Our company seems pretty cool and very eager to have us on board. We also seem to control the way the work gets done - faculty have basically said that "we're basically a support/sounding board, but it's up to you to work out a plan of attack." That's the best part - our project really does feel like a second internship (I've heard of people getting employment offers after MAP) - and will definitely prepare me for my real internship. For one thing, i have to get used to working during business hours again.

So far, we've have had conversations with our sponsor company to work out the scope (which is a fancy way of saying "we tried to figure out exactly what we're doing"). We get a project description but the details have to be worked out and documented, so that the faculty, MAP team, and the company sponsor are in complete agreement about what can be completed in 7 weeks. We've come up with our timeline to get the research, analysis, and presentation done.

Now we need to just analyze all of this stuff we have and will continue to get. Oh dear.

Oh, I've been getting emails/comments about how I made my decision to attend Ross. I'll answer that in a different post, but it ultimately came down to a combination of gut feel and fit. I just 'felt' better here than I did at other schools. I looked at other things (recruiting, community, clubs, classes, etc), but a lot of them seemed comparable between schools. One thing I didn't consider was the weather. I HATE cold weather, and this town doesn't believing in plowing snow from the streets on a timely manner, but I can't imagine myself at a different school, and I've never looked back. (OK, I will admit to looking at weather reports for warmer places when I was walking to class in 8 below weather a month ago.) If weather were going to be a huge deal-breaker, I wouldn't have applied to Ross in the first place.

MAP Meetings Galore

Yesterday was the first day of MAP (sort of). This is a strange position to be in - no classes, friends coming/going in different locations soon, and your primary interaction is with your MAP team. So many anxieties: how are we gonna get used to working with a company? What exactly are we supposed to do? Will I like whatever city I'm in?

The first days of MAP meant a "kickoff" meeting, a faculty advisor meeting, a team coach meeting, and a communication coach meeting. In theory, this seems to be a little bit useful, but it seemed a lot like it's a slightly longer version of the kickoff we had back in November. The strange thing about these meetings is that they assume you've never worked in teams before. I've worked on teams, led teams, had horror stories about teams, and have been in other trainings about teamwork, leading teams (set roles early, etc), so a lot of this seems almost unnecessary.

OK, rant over. I was just "meeting'd out". These aren't all bad. Actually the meetings are somewhat useful - if for no other reason than you get to know your team better. It's also good to figure out division of labor. Unlike cross-functional teams at my previous job, when it was assumed I was the project manager or team lead (by virtue of my title), and we already knew who does what (by virtue of their departments) here we had to agree to how we'd decide who does what. And of course it may get modified based on the needs of our sponsoring company.

In general though, people are just excited to get on with the projects, meet our sponsors, etc. Some are leaving this week and some are leaving in another week or so. It's definitely interesting not having any class...

I'm not going to talk about company specifics (since I had to sign a confidentiality agreement), or where my company is, but i'm sure there will be lots to blog about when it comes to the project/process, etc.

Here's to MAP! Let's hope this goes well!