First Week of B-school

Hi Everyone!

It's Saturday morning. I made it through the first week of the ASU MBA. I had good moments and bad moments, but overall I'm determined to do better next week. Now, mostly for my mom's sake since she's probably the only one that really cares :), I thought maybe I'd run you through what will be a typical week for me. Maybe along the way I'll throw in a few specific experiences, but I'll try to keep it short.

Monday through Thursday:

5:10am - Alarm goes off.

5:11am - Stub my toe on something, turn off my alarm and go back to bed.

5:15am - Wake up to the second alarm and get on my knees and thank God for another new day.

5:20am - Go in our 400 degree bathroom and take a shower using ONLY the cold water (which isn't really cold).

5:55am - After getting all businessy, we head out to wait for my bus. I say "we" because Adria has been getting up with me, walking me to the bus stop and going to fitness classes that start at 6:10! I'm really proud of her, and she's having a lot of fun. This week she did a kick boxing class, a spin class (cycling), and a weight class (which she says she's never doing again, but I'll try to get her there).

6:05am - On the bus and off to school. I'm trying to use this time to review material for the days classes. I usually watch the sun rise from the bus. Once it comes up, there's no stopping that heat; it's 90 degrees almost immediately and it just gets hotter all day.

7:00am - Arrive at school and head to the Graduate Suite to study some more before class and shoot the breeze with some classmates.

The Graduate Suite is a card accessed section of the business building that is just for the graduate students. There's a lounge area, a quiet study room, a small kitchen, a classroom, the IT support center, and about 10 group conference rooms with big 40+" flat panel monitors on the wall. It's a cool area, but it can get crowded sometimes.

8:00 to 9:50am - Class starts. This is showtime. Monday and Wednesday I start the day with Strategic Theory and Tuesday and Thursday it's Organizational Behavior. These are the more "abstract" classes, but I think that's one thing that sets this program apart, the focus on managerial styles and company focus. These are the classes that require strict attention and heavy participation. Pretty much the entire class period is a group discussion led by the professor. Our comments are graded by another student (selected at random at the beginning of the class), and the sum of the points for each day is factored into our final grade. No pressure.

10:10am to 12pm - Let's call this the "drowsy hour" (or two hours). The second classes of the day are the more scientific courses. Mon and Wed we have Statistics and Tuesday and Thursday is Accounting. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy these subjects - or in the case of Accounting, at least understand its importance - but at this point I've been up since 5:15 and been nothing but focused. I live in constant fear of the "head-bob" during Accounting. Fortunately that's the only class of the week that doesn't have any sort of grade for class participation.

12pm to 3pm - By noon, I'm definitely ready for lunch. I'll usually either eat with a team member (they put us in teams of 4), or just sit down next to some other classmates in the lounge. I've made quite a few friends, but I'm REALLY struggling to remember names. Especially the international students names. It's one thing to try to remember Josh, Nate, Mike, etc, but for some of these international students I have to learn to bend my tongue in new ways! Just a sample of a couple of the names: Pongowtham, Nachiket, Guarav, Vineet, Praveen, Dipti, Nikhil (fortunately, he just lets people call him Nik). On the first day of Strategy, the professor had such a hard time with Nachiket that Nachiket just gave up and took his little name plate and shortened it to Nac. These are ALL great people, but it just makes the name thing that much harder. Actually, to make things worse, they all remember MY name. I hope "dude" isn't offensive in Indian, because that's what I've been calling all of them.

Anyway, after eating I try to find a place to study/sleep. It's not easy finding a place to dose off. The quiet study room is the obvious choice (it's a little cooler and it really is dead quiet), but there are times that the space is limited so they've actually put signs up that say you can't sleep in there. I've broken that rule once already. I'm going to start trying to use this time to go to the gym.

3:00 to 5pm - This is when our team gets together to review, prepare, and discuss. My teammates are great. Nate Bernosky is a former school teacher and college basketball player. Mike Stein's background is mostly in sales. And the aforementioned Pongowtham (Gowtham for short) comes from an engineering background, most recently at Honeywell. We get along well. I think at the moment our only hitch is just figuring out the group dynamic that will help us use our time most effectively.

5:15pm - If we finish our group stuff in time, this is the earliest shuttle I can catch. On Monday I didn't catch the shuttle until 6pm, but every other day I got on this one.

6:10pm - Home. The rest of the night is a struggle to stay focused. I did a pretty good job on Monday, but by Tuesday night I already felt like I needed a vacation. Adria certainly wants some attention and I'm more than happy to give it to her. Monday night she made my mom's chicken enchiladas. They were GREAT!! I ate the leftovers for dinner the next two nights. Tuesday Adria went out with the other MBA wives to go shopping, get frozen yogurt, and watch a movie. I was glad she did. I think she feels a little out of place with the group, but it's beneficial for her and me.

10:30pm - Bed time. It's a long day, and it gets longer and longer as the week goes on.

Friday I slept in until 7:15am and caught the 8am shuttle to campus. I met with the group from about 10am to 2pm. Then I went to the rec center and worked out and caught the 5:15pm shuttle home to spend some time with my poor lonely wife. When I told her I was going to be on campus all day Friday even though there were no classes, I couldn't tell if she wanted to cry or hit me. She was happy when I got home.

Now it's Saturday and I have nothing but reading ahead of me. Maybe I can do some of it by the pool.