Burton Simmons’s “Adventures in Business School”

So my book buying experience - both this semester and last - has left much to be desired.  Last semester - including course packets - I paid close to $800 for books.  The course packets are purchased online, the books I got from the school bookstore.

This semester, I went the Amazon route and ordered my books there.  I managed so save a few bucks over the school - not a whole lot, but every little bit helps.  However, this semester I still paid close to $550 for all my books.  That’s over $1300 for books this year!  Furthermore, I ran into some technical difficulties.  My books didn’t all ship at the same time (despite the fact that I clicked the “ship all my books at the same time” button) and my last shipment of books (and course packets) didn’t arrive until Saturday - just a few days ago.  The problem with this is that anything too big for my minuscule mailbox gets stored in the mailroom - which I don’t have the key to and can only get into Monday through Friday, 8 AM to 5 PM.  Class starts Monday at 8 AM.  Do you see the issue here?

Yes, I won’t have all my books for the first day of class.

I found that much of the experience of my first semester could be summarized by the experiences of finals week.

In two classes, the professors took off and were actually out of the country during finals week, leaving their exams to be proctored (or otherwise handled) by someone else.  In another class, the final was pleasantly a variation of the practice exam and distinctly reinforced (and tested) discrete lessons from the class.  One professor felt it was a good idea to structure our final around a project we’d only briefly discussed and seen the results of in class.  (I think of this like watching a baseball game, getting told what all the positions are - and then having to pitch the opener of the World Series.) Finally, one professor gave a tough exam but was at least up-front as to the material it would be on.

The formats of the exams were all vastly different and reflected the variety of teaching styles at the school.  While one exam would be a pen-and-paper math test, another would have to be done (and submitted) entirely in excel - though it was a take-home test.  A third exam would be typed in word and be open-book/open-notes, but our answers might have to be 20 words or less for some of the questions.  A fourth exam would be created in PowerPoint (though printed for easier grading) and the final one could be two electronically submitted essays, but only created using one page of notes (front and back.)

Are you confused yet?

I just finished my last final for the semester! I will, of course, write a retrospective soon enough…

Finals have officially started. Today was my Quantitative Analysis class final. I think I did all right.

Tomorrow (Thursday) is Marketing, Friday is HR, Sunday at midnight my Econ & Finance final is due (it was a take-home) and then Tuesday is my Accounting final. Fun times.

Wish me luck!

First off, it’s finals week. Or finals week-and-a-half, perhaps. Finals start on Wednesday and the semester ends next Friday. Given that, though… it would be nice to have a day or two before finals start (but after class ends) to study. No such luck. Classes end Tuesday, finals start Wednesday. Seems like a design flaw to me.

Secondly, given that we have classes right up until finals start, it really takes a special kind of someone to give a “pop” quiz the day before finals. Literally. This was VERY uncool and just adds extra stress. It really reinforces the fact that so much of this program feels like “they didn’t really think it through.”

Finally, given that we’re about to start finals, it really seems like it would be appropriate to have most of our work returned to us so we sort of know where we stand grade-wise in the class. Alas - I’m not going to name classes here - one of our professors hasn’t even gotten us our second midterm back (and we took it over a month ago!) Let us not even talk about the 3 homework assignments we’ve turned in… none of which have been returned with a grade!

I just finished what I’m referring to as “Hell Week” - one of the more unpleasant experiences of my life.  This week, in 26-hour span of time, I was part of a presentation to the Salvation Army (lots of prep time), had another midterm in my Quantitative Analysis class, and had an oral final examination in my Accounting class (the written exam will be in a few weeks, with the rest of our finals.)

This was, to say the very least, incredibly stressful.  I was studying most nights until midnight before this, preparing as much as I could.  I think I pulled most of it off, but we’ll see.  Rising to the challenge is one thing; being beaten down and trying to survive is another.

At least we got to party afterwards.

Today is the first day that I’ve really contemplated cutting my losses and just quitting the program.

I’m smart. I know I’m smart. I know I can do a lot of things. But it’s been pointed out to me that I’m not as smart as I think I am and I’m wondering if I can really do this. This program is tough; it’s designed to be that way and it’s designed to be challenging. This program isn’t about a work/life balance; it’s about being rigorous (but nurturing) while producing quality graduates. I’m just not sure I can do it.

There are several factors that I need to think about and balance:

• I’m here for the academic experience, actually, not the “high-paying job on the other end.”
• I need to maintain a 3.3 cumulative GPA in order to maintain my scholarship, which is how I can afford to be here.
• I need to maintain a 3.0 to graduate.
• I need to balance graded classes (such as Econ & Finance, Quantitative Analysis, Accounting, Marketing, etc) with ungraded curricular and extracurricular projects (such as PACE, the “Integration and Personal Development Class”, and other activities.)
• I need to learn, not just accomplish.

I’m going to try to stick it out. I had a nice hour-long talk with one very understanding professor today and he tried to reassure me that I can make it. I’m just tired of working so hard, being so perpetually broke (and, indeed, in a lot of debt), not having fun (I don’t know how to relax, really, and being so stressed. It’s really a lot to think about.

Part of the first year Atkinson curriculum is something called “IKEW”, which stands for Integrated Knowledge Experience Week. It’s one week in the fall and one week in the spring.

From the University:
The purpose of the IKEWS is to provide MBAs with an opportunity to improve and integrate their working knowledge of the various functional areas of management and synthesize analytical and institutional knowledge of management.

I just finished the first one. The whole class does it, three people at a time. It’s really an hour-long conversation between three students and two faculty about a business case. The conversation is designed to highlight our understanding (or lack thereof) of a business case and our ability to apply what we’re learning towards that.

It’s stressful - and it’s the only officially scheduled activity this week. (That doesn’t, of course, mean we have the week off!) But it really does highlight the fact that the educational process here is a collaborative one, versus a competitive one. The professors WANT us to know and be able to understand what we’re learning, and every interaction contains the possibility for a lesson.

Well, now that we’ve “done calculus” (in about 5 weeks) in Quantitative Analysis it’s time to move on to a form of Linear Algebra. Make no mistake, Linear Algebra is NOT as easy as it sounds!

Back in College 1.0 I took Linear Algebra since I needed a bunch of upper-division math classes. I didn’t pass. So I took it again. I didn’t pass. I went for “lucky number 3″… and still didn’t pass. (I ended up giving up and taking something else.)

So I’m slightly worried. I mean, I know I’m smart and good at math, but apparently I just “don’t get” linear algebra. We’ll see. I guess I’ll have to pay attention this time.

Today I had my first midterm. Except for my Accounting class (which has a quiz every week), all the rest of my classes have a significant chunk of my grade based on my performance on midterms. Today’s midterm was sponsored by my Quantitative Analysis class, taught by the excellent Professor Mike Hand.

Quantitative Analysis is basically applying math to business problems. Part of the challenge, though, is getting a group of students (some of whom have a liberal arts background) to know and understand the math, which in this case was calculus. Two terms of college calculus were taught to us in about 5 weeks.

For my part, I have a math background. It’s a big part of the Computer Science program I got my undergrad degree in. So this test was mostly a review for me. I’m going to put this out here on teh internets for all to see: I’d be surprised if I had less that 100% on the test. I’d be really surprised if I earned less than a 95%. I double-checked all my answers and showed my work exhaustively.

I’ll keep you posted as to my score when I get it back.