First Week Down

Well….. I have survived my first week of business school! Yay!!!

Today we had a really interesting group activity with our new teams. We were given a Subartic Survival situation in which we (the team) were stranded in the middle of the Arctic tundra after a plane crash. We had a list of items that made it through the crash with us, and we had to rank them in order of their importance to us for survival. We ranked the items twice, once individually and once as a group.

My new team is comprised of 7 members. We are all very strong personalities, and I am still not sure what this will mean for us long-term. However, we rocked this activity. We probably discussed every possible scenario there is out there, and how our store of items would help us. I was pretty impressed by the range and depth of knowledge we all brought to the table. We were using flashlight batteries to start fires, starting fires with rum, and making water containers out of inner tubes.

The third part of the activity involved finding out what the experts thought of the scenario, and finding out how they ranked the items. We were fairly close on most of our items, and out of the 9 teams in our cohort we had the best score hands down, for the team most likely to survive. What was interesting was looking at our average individual score, which was much higher (higher scores were further away from the ‘expert opinion’, and indicated a decreased likelihood of survival) than the team score. The point being of course that as individuals we were so-so, but as a team we came together and utilized each other to improve and be successful.

Some teams did not survive.

The day ended with a wine and cheese social, and I went out for beers afterwards with a group of new friends. It’s been a long week, and next week will be equally intense. Can’t wait.

First Day Down

Things have been in such a whirlwind, I can’t even imagine what my schedule and workload will be like once school *really* starts. Today marked the first official day of Pre-Term, and we had a morning full of speeches and warm welcomes from the Deans, Admissions, Alumni, and the Graduate Programs Office.

One of the speakers said something that really stuck with me. He asked us to sit and think for a moment about one specific thing that would have changed or that we would want to change by the time we graduate, 2 years from now. He said, “you will walk out of these doors in 2 years a different person.” I definitely think that is true. I don’t exactly know what will have changed, but I am sure I will change and grow tremendously over the next few years. For one, I hope to become more self-assured about my ability to make sound business recommendations. It’s a start!

The Alumni speaker told us to think about our pursuit of an MBA as classified as either Passion, Money, or Power. I think I fall into the Passion category. I am a career switcher, and I do want to do something with my degree that I consider meaningful… something that has a social impact. I’m not in the Public and Nonprofit program just cause it sounds good, after all! There weren’t that many hands raised for the Money and Power options, and I wonder if it has anything to do with the current economic situation.

While it has been a bit odd to be ‘back at school’, the good thing so far has been all the people I’ve been meeting. We got to meet our Cohorts today, and it was great to interact with the people that I will be spending the majority of the next year with. I have met so many friendly, outgoing, and warm classmates, and I think it really says something about the type of class that BU has tried to build.

Although I know that the workload is about to increase exponentially, I still sort of enjoyed my homework reading tonight. First case study ever! I’m sure I’ll be singing a different tune in a matter of weeks. Off to bed, long day tomorrow.