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?

Paradise Ross: Follies 2007!

Wow - Follies was this past weekend and it was hilarious! I knew it would be funny when I saw one of the openings where the "prospective student" is checking out the school and saw that the new building that is all over the viewbook doesn't exist yet... Then a bunch of Ross-specific jokes about space in the lobby.

Where else but Follies can you have the dean pretend that he is the father of one of his students? A professor who tends to send lengthy e-mails make fun of himself? The Pillsbury Doughboy as a career swithing to a banking career. It's just amazing how much talent we have within the school - not only to write and direct the skits, but even the stage crew, tech, lighting, etc. Wow. i'm definitely going to get involved with Follies next year.

In other news - looks like the leadership of Class of 2008 is shaping up. Just about every day, we get an email announcing the new leaders of a club. It's gonna be awesome. And, umm, someone reminded me that finals start next week. This sucks. I'm not sure how i'm going to do in any of them. The Ops simulation (aka - a royal pain in the ass) - is over but now I have to actually learn the rest of this stuff. And accounting. Ugh. Just ugh.

I'm looking forward to MAP and my internship. And I'm also liking this "warm" weather we're having. yay - it's been in the 20's!

Leadership Transitions

Other than the god-awful cold, the biggest topic of discussion around here are leadership transitions. Now is the time when MBA1's run for positions in different clubs or in the SGA (I think that stands for Student Government Association - clearly i'm not running for SGA.)

There are definitely a couple of things I want to do next year - leadership wise. I love the spirit of giving back, but I want to make sure I don't overdo it so i get completely overwhelmed. I remember MBA2's looking frantic for most of Fall semester. I notice that most of the major conferences/events are during Fall semester (there are a few in Winter A). I realize now that's because MBA1's can't really committ to helping out with a conference or attending one after Winter A because they may be in some random city/state/country. We'll see what happens.

Oh, and I'm somehow getting used to this weather. Monday morning, as I walked to class in negative 8 weather, that was painful. But later in the day, when it warmed up to say, 5 or 6...it didn't seem so cold anymore. Now that's scary!