the expanding mind: school, one week on
When the entire MBA class of 2010 (all 900 of us) came together for the first time on Tuesday, it was a sight to behold. Suddenly all the hours of gmat prep, essay writing, form-filling, prematric checklisting, and relocating to a new city, vanished into a blur. We’d all done that. We’d all been there. And now, we had all finally arrived at the next step.
Admissions director Dee Leopold remarked at the opening event that, “individually we were terriffic, but collectively we are dazzling.” There is a certain energy that comes from being packed in a room with hundreds of seemingly ambitious, clearly bright, and extremely diverse people.
So far the experience has defied expectation. I have been having an absolute blast both in and out of the classroom. I can literally feel my head expanding with all these new ideas and ways of looking at the world. And on the side, I’m having a great time getting to know all these new people – I already feel like I’ve developed some really great friends.
The typical day here goes something like this (for me): 5:30a, wake up. 6:00a, gym. 7:00a, breakfast. 7:30a, learning team (5 other people from different sections who meet to review cases, work out problems before section). 8:40 – 11:40 or 2:00, section. This is where the magic learning happens. Section C (aka sec-c) is my home for the year. A group of 89 other people coming together to engage in a “conversation” about a case, with the prof at the wheel of the bus. I’ll write more about this later. After 2 cases we have lunch. On some days we go back for a third case, on others we’re done after lunch. The afternoon, right now, is spent reading cases, preparing analysis, and napping. Evening dinner happens and then, inevitably the day ends at the bar. Wash, rinse, repeat.
It’s definitely intense. I don’t remember the last time I consistently woke up at 5:30am (save for the times I was working on the show). High school? Fortunately my body seems to have adapted pretty quickly. I’m waiting for it to crash though – I’m sure that’s coming.
My calendar is now literally booked from now til Christmas break in December. It’s hard to know how to fit everything in that I want to do around everything that’s on the book that I have to do. They say the biggest thing you’ll learn in school is time management and I’m already starting to agree with that.
Some other highlights from the past week or so: having 400 people come through my house on one night for a pre-school-starting party. Learning how to play squash, after I learned what squash was. Procuring squash shoes. Riding a yellow school bus caravan of 900 people to a club in downtown Boston. Duck tour of Boston. Hard to believe most of this happened in the last week. Harder to believe I’ve not even been in town a month yet.
Here’s to hoping it just keeps getting better…
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