Sloan Orientation

So we had our first day of Sloan Orientation today. What a difference from this summer. We were officially welcomed as a class of 393 students - 18 more than expected - including all the LFM's. From the 47 people that we had spent all summer with, to the 344 new faces of people to meet, we were all struck by the huge number of people that we'll be spending the next two years with.

After breakfast and the official welcome, we were introduced to our Oceans (smaller groups of 60 or so people that we will take the MBA core with this Fall) one of Atlantic, Baltic, Carribean, Indian, Mediterranean, or Pacific. I am in the Baltic Ocean (yes, we are aware that some of these are not in fact oceans) and then my core group is named the Cranes. Each core group of 6 or 7 students is named after a different type of bird. I don't remember all the different varieties off hand. But after being introduced to our core group, we split into our core group with our Pilot (a second-year MBA student guide who is one of many available resources for us to get acquainted to the program and the return to school) to continue our introductions and see what our groups are made of. It is weird to readjust after the summer semester and becoming such good friends with my group and now having to start all over again from the beginning to develop a new working relationship with a whole new set of people. I have high hopes for my core group and can't wait to see how everything works out.

After more group bonding and a couple lectures, we all congregated again with our SO's (significant others if I haven't mentioned that term yet) at a New England-style clambake with tons of lobsters, clams, mussels, oysters, shrimp, corn, clam chowder, and Sam Adams (not to mention a few other varieties of beer). Mmmm....so good. Definitely something to look forward to for any MBA's and LFM's next year! After spending the evening mingling with new students as well as seeing all the LFM's again after a week's vacation (it is amazing to see how much you truly missed your classmates after only a week! - especially after spending so many hours in the LFM offices working with them over the last two weeks of the summer semester). Hopefully, the bonding with the MBA classmates gets to this level too!

So tomorrow Oceans A, B, and C are heading out to an Outward Bound style program in Ashland, MA called the Warren Center to help push us to bond with our teams. It will be a beautiful day (weather-wise) tomorrow so we are all looking forward to it. Will let you know more about the trip later.

I am awaiting to hear about two classes that I want to take this year. One is System Dynamics with Prof. John Sterman. He gave a guest lecture at the InterviewFest that was amazing. It is a very popular class and I hope to make it into the class (currently I am #3 on the waitlist and we have been told that you will probably get in if you are below #7 or 8) so I'm hoping. Another class is a product development class that technically isn't until Spring semester, but for two MIT students and two Rhode Island School of Design students this class would start this semester as these students would be working with a group of 6 or 7 students from various universities in Finland while working on a project for Nokia. Such a great opportunity to work with a multi-national team on a product development project. I have an interview with the Professor who is teaching the course this Friday to see if I can be one of the two MIT students. I will let you know how it goes.

That is everything that I have for you now. More later....