Unbelievable as it may sound, exams were upon us mid October, merely a month and a half after we started classes at the Yale School of Management. Accounting, Microeconomics, and Statistics all had to be “negotiated” within the first three days of last week. Studying for these exams made me realize how much material we had covered over 7 weeks.
It’s interesting timing that this Thursday, October 8, is both the Round 1 deadline for Yale SOM Class of 2012 applications and the last day of “Fall 1” courses for the Class of 2011. What a difference a year makes! Around this time last fall many of us were anxiously putting the finishing touches on our application essays; prodding our recommenders to hit “submit” already; and settling in for a long, arduous, wintery wait. (Sidebar: wasn’t there something more cathartically satisfying about running to the mailbox everyday in high school awaiting college news than hitting “refresh” on your Gmail?)
Now, a year later, it’s all smooth sailing. We read Econ cases while undergrads fan us with palm leaves. Accounting is held outside in the courtyard, the class in a “Kumbaya” circle, as waiters proffer Bloody Marys. Employers chase us from class to the gym to the bars waving offer letters for the summer. And like characters in the Matrix, we stare a screen of moving Blue Stock simulations and see an alternate reality that makes sense. (more…)
After just a week and a half of classes, one of my classmates was convinced that we were into our third week already. I felt similarly: it’s been an incredibly busy time so far and it got me thinking.
Life tends to pick up speed as you get older. Why? Well, in my humble – based strictly on no theory whatsoever – opinion, it’s to do with a decreasing exposure to new ideas and experiences. As you grow up, you tend to settle into some sort of routine and life picks up speed. I feel like what’s happened here, during our first couple of weeks of core classes, is that we have all been exposed to so much new material at lightning-fast pace that we’re reverting back to that life-in-slow-motion feeling as brains frantically try to adjust and absorb everything.
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Though it was strongly implied last week in our Spreadsheet Modeling class that all that happens at a SOM Faculty Meeting is a rousing session of “Rock Band,” turns out it’s a bit more productive. In fact, it’s all about integration. Let me explain. When I first heard that SOM had developed an “integrated curriculum,” I admit I suspected a marketing infraction of the highest order. After all, in my former career “integrated” was right up there with “holistic,” “cross-channel,” and “interwoven” as a business cliche that would win any game of Buzzword Bingo.
The first song on Spoon’s third album Girls Can Tell is “Everything Hits At Once.” I can’t think of a better theme song for my first two weeks at SOM. Universally, I had heard SOMers describe the core curriculum as intense, frenetic and generally overwhelming. Some even spoke of it with the reverence and awe usually reserved for harrowing accounts of planes crashes and natural disasters. Again and again I’ve been reminded that I would literally have no time come fall. I had remained incredulous though. “How difficult could it really be?” I had thought. It’s only class after all.
Now I only know too well what they meant. Other than a few reprieves here and there for get-togethers with my classmates, during which we tend to commiserate about the tediousness of accounting and fickleness of solver, I literally have no time: no time that hasn’t been allocated (inefficiently, perhaps) to meet the demands of our coursework. My personal life—from unpaid bills to lagging email correspondence with old friends—has taken a decided backseat to my academic obligations. Today, I literally woke up trying to unravel the probabilities that a World Series between two evenly matched teams would end in 4, 5, 6, or 7 games. Colleagues have mentioned nightmares featuring unbalanced balance sheets and market equilibriums gone awry.
As an international student, one aspect I find really awesome about the classroom experience here at SOM is that everyone is expected to do his or her reading, or be “prepared”, prior to each class. This means that almost the entire class has an idea of what we’re going to talk about. We’re more or less on the same page. This also means that the professor doesn’t need to spend time going over the basics for each class. Rather, we spend that time diving a little deeper, dissecting situations, conducting “thought experiments” (as our Econ professor loves to call them) and using our intuition to understand concepts better, in a more wholesome manner. The way I see it, this maximizes the benefits we reap from the time we spend with our professors. Add to this, the various viewpoints my classmates bring from their individual experiences. You have the recipe for an intellectually stimulating discussion. A great way to learn!
Some of us at the School of Management come here to study Finance. Others Marketing. Yet others General Management. But if there is one discipline with which all of us are fast becoming very well‑versed, it is time management; the SOM is a very busy place. (more…)
A quick survey of my classmates Facebook statuses (stati? stata?) reveal that we are all pretty much a) working on our reading for assorted classes or b) ruing the end of orientation and the beginning or “real school” or c) both
Orientation was very much a whirlwind that has been summarized better by fellow bloggers who are much more eloquent than I am so I will leave that be…although I will add that the reception we had by the faculty in Woolsey Hall was pretty amazing. It was interesting to meet with a lot of the professors in a non-class setting and, might I add, take in some more fantastic Yale architecture. (more…)
There have been a lot of memorable moments in the first year of business school here at SOM. It’s really incredible to stop and think about how much we’ve experienced since arriving in New Haven in August (the International Experience, the Internship Fund, Harvard-Yale, Cohort Olympics, Econ with Oster). Last night, however, was one of the more memorable and humorous moments of all.
With the rise of wordpress and similar blogging software, SOM is enabling student clubs to run and manage interactive Web 2.0 domains. One of the first to appear is the portal to the School of Management’s volunteer, student-run café, better known as Food For Thought – or FFT in the acronym-loving world of business short-cuts (ALWBSC).The new site offers students an easy way to sign up for volunteer shifts, comment and upload photos of musical events and other activities. And critically, the weekly newsletter (The Weekly Brew) containing announcements and commentary, will now be archived online. Next improvement potential: On-line ordering? Study-lounge delivery service?
Visit FFT at http://fft.internshipfund.org!
