First Day of School!

I have to admit, I cheated. I met with my peer mentor, Katherine, a few weeks before orientation to get the low down on it. From what she said, it was going to be long and draining, but I would come out of it more prepared for the courses. Great, this was the academic equivalent of going to the gym. I know I should, I know deep down I will feel better after, but I mustering the motivation to do so was going to be tough.

Tuesday

I entered Dodge Hall the first day extremely nervous because I really had no idea what to expect and because we had an accounting assessment scheduled for later that day. I think I even wrote the wrong date on the photo release form! A continental breakfast was in the adjacent room, and usually nothing can keep me away from free food, but I decided to look over the schedule and other paperwork that I had been given. This was a strategic move; I wanted other people to sit down before I did, so I could look for one of the few students I met over the summer.

As I entered the room, I witnessed a phenomenon I haven’t seen since middle school dances – all of the women were sitting at one table, and all of the men were at another. I was tempted to shake things up, but in the end, I chose to sit with the other women. Perhaps this is because I went to a women’s college, and I take comfort in the familiar. Anyway, the seating arrangement quickly changed once we started “getting to know you” exercises.

When I saw these exercises on the schedule, I was disappointed. I had a flashback to freshman orientation, when we played the name game with an upperclassman who wanted to be anywhere else. And we had to do this for two hours? Ugh! Admittedly, I had a bad attitude going into these exercises, but they were actually really fun. I found out that one of our classmates has been attacked by a shark and two others are twins. All fraternal like my sister and me! I guess I shouldn’t have judged these exercises before we started them.

Wednesday

I was particularly looking forward to two events on Tuesday’s schedule. Today, we found out who was in our learning teams, and we went to Ashland for team building activities at the Warren Center in the rain. Many of us guessed that we would be doing trust falls, but I’m pretty sure we just all didn’t know what to expect.

I was assigned to a six person learning team, and as advertised, we all came from extremely different backgrounds, which was apparent after a brief introduction. I hate how uncomfortable this part of the team building process generally is, and I hoped that our time in Ashland would change this. On the ride over to Ashland, my team worked on our team charter, and I believe we started to speak more openly about our expectations of the team and how we should operate.

After a delicious lunch, we split up into section 26 and section 36. Being a member of section 36, I watched the other team walk outside into the rain and secretly hoped for it to stop raining by the time 36 had to go out there.

For our first activity, we broke up into our learning teams and created a strategy to reassemble a deck of cards by suit and number as quickly as possible. Then, we switched leaders. It was interesting to see what teams used which strategies.

My favorite activity of the four that we completed was named “Don’t Break the Ice.” In this activity, we had to see how few foam squares we could fit our entire section on. I can proudly say that section 36 officially had 11 squares, but unofficially fit our entire section on 9 squares. I was impressed with the motivation and determination that everyone showed.

Thursday

I honestly can’t remember much about what happened today because we were given the case study that we were to present the next day. On top of that, I was one of those presenting!

I do know that we had a speaker from IBM, and he was fantastic. He had some great advice for us, such as make yourself known as a credible and reliable person within your organization and take on challenging projects. After he spoke, we had a panel of previous Northeastern MBA's speak about their experiences during and after their degrees.

After that, my group started working on the case. We left Dodge at 7:30pm, which was early compared to some groups. I heard that one group didn’t leave the library until 11:00pm! That’s dedication! I again was impressed by the motivation not only of my team but all of the others. This was not going to be an easy decision for the judges.

Friday

This was the day that we were all dreading since the first day of orientation. After three long days, I was extremely tired. My team decided to skip breakfast and go straight to the library, so that’s what I did right after grabbing some coffee from Dunks.

We were all pretty exhausted by now, but that did not stop us from working 5 straight hours on our case, and the time went by so fast. During this time we did one thing that really helped; we practiced in front of a team from section 26, and they did the same for us. This was invaluable, and made me feel like I had already done the presentation.

Then, we left for the Curry Student Center where we presented. My team went second, which is my favorite place to go in. You don’t have to worry too long, but you get the advantage of watching one group before you. Again, I was extremely impressed by the presentations. How was it possible that we all did this much work and analysis in such a short amount of time?

After the presentations we assembled on the front steps of Dodge for a group photo; then, a large group of us promptly left for Connor Larken’s to celebrate before the dinner.

Both faculty and students gathered at the dinner. Since most of our time was spent in our sections, I had almost forgotten how many other students there were. I tried to spend part of my time speaking to students that I hadn’t met yet. The case winners were announced; and I’m sad to say my team did not win, but all of the presentations showed such in-depth analysis and creativity, that I almost felt sorry for the judges.

Saturday

This was the first day all week that I was able to sleep in (by “sleep in” I mean until 9:00am), and believe me, I took advantage of it! At noon, we had a clubs fair and many of the second year students were there to tell us about the clubs. Not surprising, I made a b-line for the Women MBA club. I am extremely interested in this club, and I even emailed the second year president over the summer to express my interest. I can’t wait until they send the email for leadership positions! I also expressed interest in the Finance and Investments Club and the MBA Connections Club. Although this was a short day, I was ready to go home after the Club Fair.

When I got home, I did homework. Such is the life of a first-year MBA!

*The views expressed in this blog are not necessarily those of Northeastern University, its staff, faculty or affiliates and are solely the opinion of Amy Foley.*