MBA (Mighty Baylorites Availing)
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.