The Bear Necessities

“It’s like comparing apples and oranges; they’re both delicious.” -Cyd Charisse

 Core 1- the first semester of the program- is absolutely nothing like foundations. The summer was a continuous stream of similar information and homework. Do the homework. Go to class. Do the homework. Go to class. That’s not what the program is at all. But, instead of explaining it to you in a straight forward, easily understood, and boring way, I’m going to use food (because I’m very hungry right now).

People don’t like comparing apples to oranges; I’m not sure it’s such a bad thing. They’re both fruit, basically all-around good for you, delicious in juice form, and I don’t eat them enough. Maybe they’re different colors, have different vitamins, taste, and texture, but they’re more similar than different. Possibly people can’t get over the fact that two things in the same category (fruit) could be so different from each other. I mean, using any of the five senses, it’s apparent that they are vastly different. But finding common ground is important, it gives a platform to stand on. You can’t find how differently they are from each other without first establishing where the starting point is.

So, if we’re going to use apples and oranges as an example of comparisons, I should start off by giving you some similarities between foundations and core 1. To start, I still study in relatively the same places (although the graduate lounge is a little more packed in the fall), I still have a lot of the same people in my classes, coffee is still caffeinated, and the work still takes quite a bit of time to complete. But, that starting point can be a little deceptive. While I study in the same places, I spend a lot more time in each place. Foundations people are in my core 1 classes, but a lot of us are split up into two sections because of the people who didn’t take foundations. Coffee is always caffeinated and will never change (decaffeinated coffee is irrelevant). And work does take a lot of time to complete, but not in the same way.

The difference in the work done is the most important distinction. I see it like the difference between ravioli and spaghetti (surely you didn’t think I was done with food). In foundations, we had chunks of studying and class, mixed with exams. There were big, discrete bites of work, with a ton of information in each [ravioli]. In core 1, you have slightly more time to learn each thing, but there are several more classes at a time. So, instead of separate bites, you pull up the fork (to-do list) and get a mix of different classes, projects, presentations, exams, readings, etc. It’s a more complex, but necessary, delivery system. I guess the difference depends on if you prefer ravioli or spaghetti. Personally, I came into the program looking at it like a cookie; one that I couldn’t quite make out as chocolate chip or oatmeal raisin. So far, that cookie has given me nothing but chocolate chips. But, hey, I guess that’s just the way the Baylor cookie crumbles.

“Orientation is for the week” -Dylan Petty

                It’s been a couple weeks since orientation ended. I’ve waited to write about it so I would be able to evaluate how much it prepares students for their first semester. Turns out, it does a great job of it! Orientation has a mix of fun, with meeting people, and some work thrown in. Anything done throughout the week is under a very specific time constraint, usually not as long as you’d like. But, classes do the same thing. You’re put under time constraints for most things during, and even outside of, class. Also, nearly everything I’ve done for classes has been with the people I met during orientation week (So, make a conscious effort to remember their names. Name tags don’t last forever).

                Quite a few people would probably say the fun parts of orientation week were just there to entertain us, and they don’t translate to the classes, but I would disagree. While they may have been there for the sole purpose of entertaining us in the moment and to create team building, I analyze things too much, so you get the exciting opportunity to read my psychological analysis (I’ll contain myself to an abstract).

During the MBA Olympics events, the pure fun day of orientation, there are quite a few team building activities. Without spoiling anything, these events have many opportunities to explore how you work best within your team, and the role you play best during specific situations. It’s important to consider these things before coming into an MBA program, so it’s no surprise that this was part of orientation. However, it seemed like there was slightly more to it than the situational role-playing aspect. The objectives were all challenging in diverse ways. It was as if we were also testing which situations we enjoy being in; which do we react best in, regardless of position within the team. Drawing a line from that aspect to the classroom, it’s easy to see how the entertaining parts of orientation were also preparing us. It’s their way of showing us that, while there is work to be done, there will be courses where work seems more like play. It’s dependent on your team dynamics and areas of interest.

So, that’s orientation for you, in a nutshell! There was lots of team building, some work, and some play. Since orientation has ended, the amount of time spent at play has significantly decreased (another reason I didn’t post earlier), but that is settling down. Starting anything new takes some adjustment. A graduate program just takes a little more adjustment than most other things I’ve been a part of, including business foundations. A couple weeks in, I’ve caught up on my work and I think I will have a solid two days before I get behind again. Luckily, two days is a very long time (almost 48 hours), I might even get a chance to go outside during the day. I’ll have a post next week talking about the differences between business foundations (over the summer) and the first fall semester.

The summer is winding down to an end, which means the business foundations courses are almost over. There were a few tough weeks in there *cough* all of them *cough*, but only one person ended up pulling their hair out. Excelling is all about the power of the cohort. Most MBA programs I hear about are competitive, cut-throat, types of programs. At Baylor, it’s a more cooperative type of schooling. Everybody has their own strengths and weaknesses, the key is to utilize the right people, and in the right way. Just like a great leader, each person must evaluate how they can contribute to the group in the best way possible. There are, of course, tests where everybody needs to have a certain level of knowledge to get by, but the diverse educational background of students keeps the cohort, as a whole, better in all areas.

Collaboration is also a key part of the educational experience. As future MBAs, it will be necessary to collaborate on projects. Whether it’s trying to figure out a homework problem or improving the program itself, there is no escaping working together, if you would even want to. For example, last week the current MBA students gathered in a conference room to discuss improvements to the recruiting system. Anything we thought could be improved, to make the process better for the prospective students, was discussed openly. Even with faculty in the room, it had a pleasant, inviting atmosphere. Ideas were definitely shot down, showing there was no lack of ruthlessness, but it was always done in a respectful way.

Something else I’ve noticed this summer are the open lines of communication. If there is any problem, during business hours, I can get it solved in less than fifteen minutes. I could either walk into somebody’s office and get directed to who to talk to or send an email and get an almost weirdly fast response. Just yesterday, I went to sign up for a class and was told I needed instructor approval. An email got it solved and me signed up in less than five minutes. A few days before that, we were out of coffee (the horror). One email fixed that. I know I am being spoiled, in comparison to problems being solved in a business, but I believe it’s showing me just how important open communication is in the work place, with anybody from employees to customers.

I didn’t start writing with the intention of having some catchy phrase for the summer, but, if the words are there, I’m going to play with them. Some C’s to summarize a standard summer of school studying: Cooperation, collaboration, and communication. I feel like those lessons, along with the actual material I learned in the classes, are a good start for the program. Especially considering I haven’t even started orientation. Orientation starts in three weeks and I’m sure I’ll have an entire post over just that subject.

The strangeness of rivers is baffling. The absence of water would make the term null. However, the water is not the river, because a part of the river would not see the same water twice, but would still hold its name. A trough in the earth is necessary for a river to function, but a trough alone is not enough. Even the channel of water can be naturally or unnaturally moved, without renaming the river, using a different trough. A river can take thousands of years to form, but it’s also constantly changing. Even once it does form, man-made structures can alter its course. There isn’t a single thing that makes a river itself. The combination of tangible, natural objects come together to create the abstract concept of a river, which makes it almost tangible.

When these parts come together in the right way, it benefits the world. This system flows throughout the world, keeping everything alive, and creating some beautiful structures along the way. A useful river will run beside a town, nourishing everybody in its way. The useful river fulfills needs and moves along, not having a significant impact, just flowing. A great river has been molded to fit its purpose. The great river supplies people with electricity, food, water, entertainment, etc.. It benefits the world in a way that would not have been possible without the intervention of man. By diverting streams and creating dams, mankind has molded the river into something extraordinarily beneficial, instead of solely necessary.

That’s what the Baylor MBA program does for people. With the recognition that people are a combination of tangible, natural objects providing necessities for a civilization of development, it’s simple to see how the program benefits individuals, along with everybody. The people, and courses, within the program give individuals tools and mold them into a beneficial part of society. This is, of course, all relative to society as a whole. As a whole, the program gives people the knowledge to impact the world more effectively than they could have otherwise, in whatever way they want to have that impact. You may come in having done many remarkable things, but you will leave ready to do them on a greater scale.

There are only two things certain in life: accounting and taxes, at least I know how accounting works now. The first two classes for the business foundations courses this summer were accounting and statistics. The business foundations courses do not come easy. They work you every day and expect results every day. Don’t misunderstand, this is a great thing. The work is very rewarding, and the results satisfying. There’s no feeling that quite compares to finding out you can handle more than you originally thought possible. I have an inkling that will keep happening throughout the program as the semesters get tougher and tougher.

The business foundations courses are difficult, but not for the same reasons as some other programs. They aren’t looking to weed out people who aren’t interested enough, everybody is interested. If you got into the program, then they want you in it. Period. If they put you in the foundations courses it’s because, just like me, you need knowledge. They are straight forward about why the program works how it does. If I was not taught everything that I am being, and will be, taught this summer, then I would not be able to pass the program. It’s as simple as that.

So, keeping that idea in mind, the classes become something to look forward to. The pattern of classes and homework becomes a nice routine. The other students become the main people you see in a day. Errands and chores turn into relaxation and mundane work. Days of breaks are the only part that don’t fit into the program well. Having finished the first summer session of classes two days ago, and all my graduate assistant work for the week (which I will talk more about in the next post), I’m ready for the next set of classes, not to sit and wait two more days. But, I might as well make the best of it: beach here I come.  

Overall, the first session of classes went great. During the summer, there are dr pepper floats for the incoming freshmen, that the students also enjoy. My classmate Katie Cummins tells some more about the floats in her recent blog post. She also invented “Chick-fil-a Tuesday,” a time to forget about school and just eat chick-fil-a (what could be better?). These are just a couple of the things to keep the days from running together, keep a day-to-day structure in the student’s minds. Keeping with that structure, after 5 Chick-fil-a Tuesdays, the first session of classes are over and the one word I would attribute to it is “bittersweet.”

                After two weeks of business foundations courses, I can tell you I have used nothing more than the coffee maker. Getting up for early classes doesn’t take more than a couple days of adjustment. The coffee is used to adjust the amount of information I can get into my brain in a day. Fellow classmates also help with that. The business foundations courses are so small that everybody knows each other within a couple days, and, since we are in all the same classes, a tutor is never very far away. Unlike undergraduates, each student has a very different educational and experiential background, which makes for great think tanks. Overall, the people I’ve met and things I’ve learned have made me eager for the rest of the program.

                My first day at Baylor was packed full of information. The classes started on day one, with orientation following right after. People’s names are repeated over and over during several ice breakers and introductions, which was a relief since I am terrible at remembering names. Faculty make it known they are there for the students and students attempt to get to know each other between events. The best part about the first day is every person is happy to be there and to interact with faculty, staff, during class, or anytime. Everybody is ready to get the program started and ready to learn.

                My initial thought, day one of class, was about the size; compared to Texas A&M (my undergraduate college), the class size was astonishingly small. The fact that professors knew each person’s name was refreshing. Not only that, the professors didn’t act the same. As an MBA student, each person in the class is closer to a peer (but not quite there) than they have ever been, so the professors are able to treat students as such. Having a small class of fellow MBA students in a room also helps facilitate the learning. Each of the students have gone through several interview processes; anybody who makes it in the program has shown they can handle the material. So, fellow student’s questions help guide the learning process in the class, instead of stopping it.

                After the first couple days, a routine starts to form. Basically, a day consists of going to class, then from class to a study area. I learned, quickly, that everything I need is on a single floor of the business building. Some areas are out in the open; there are rooms available for reservation; and there is a lounge for only graduate students. Between all of these places, along with the abundance of study areas, the only thing you could need is a place to get food, which the building just so conveniently happens to have.

               It may seem like I’m being excessive. I’m not living at the business building, so why should I need everything there. It’s a very simple explanation. During orientation, I was told to treat the program as if it’s an eight to five job. I have done exactly that, if a normal eight to five job has a few hours of overtime every day, with weekend work. And, if this program is to be treated like an eight to five job, then it should have everything somebody would need at their job. It more than lives up to this standard.

              I got accepted to my job, the MBA program, seven months before it started and spent the entire time wanting it to start, being ready for it. After just two weeks, I can tell you that it lives up to the hype. The business building’s wow factor never seems to diminish day-to-day; the classes are a constant stream of information; and, the students are all just as motivated to be in the program. It’s been a great two weeks. But, I know that there are plenty of weeks ahead and things are going to be changing from class to class. In the fall there will be more students coming into the program and heavier coursework. I’m looking at the summer as a stepping stone to the rest of the program. While it’s exciting to consider next semester, it’s important to take it one stepping stone at a time. I’ll make sure to keep posting about each crucial step in the program, but, for now, my stone is to catch up on sleep.