Quarter Four Insanity

I just got done one of my craziest weeks ever at Wharton. So many things converged at once that I literally couldn't find an extra half hour for a meeting. Quarter four classes are definitely a big work load. There is a ton of reading every week, and professors seem to be a little more intent on doing little things to make sure we read everything before class. And this quarter we have sabre, which is a marketing simulation. Sabre has been really fun. It feels similar, at least theoretically, to what brand management will be like. You have your product portfolio, market segments, market research, and forecasts. And you have to make decisions wisely to try to increase your company's profits in the face of changing tastes, competitors' actions, uncertainty, and a limited budget. Reminiscent of first quarter Marketing cases, my team spent about 14 hours on sabre this week. Supposedly it will get easier in subsequent weeks since we won't have to get ramped up again .. I hope that's the case! At least, as opposed to case write-ups, working on sabre is actually fun :)



Oh yeah, and last night was Wharton 54. Totally insane.

What a Year

Wow. So much has happened in the last year that I can't believe how far I've come. Last year at this time, I had just found out I'd been admitted to Wharton. I was trying to figure out what to do with myself for the next 6 months. Today, I'm savoring a much-needed break and trying not to worry about whether I will score an internship offer and how hard the next semester will be academically. Night and day. Let's do a little year in review, shall we?

Wharton: Since I didn't post much about Wharton at all this semester, it's difficult to sum up. But I'll try to summarize the highlights:
I drank a lot. Maybe even more than I did as a Penn State senior. And I dressed in silly outfits more than a person probably should.
I passed MGEC and Accounting! Still waiting on a lot of grades, but I think I managed not to fail anything (fingers crossed).
I dropped 13 resumes and so far have 1 interview (that I won in bidding).
I became hyper-involved. So much so that I probably overdid it, but I wouldn't change a thing.
I challenged myself to step out of my comfort zone.
I blew off way more than I'd typically be comfortable with. Being that busy meant a lot of things just didn't fit in. Like sleep. And laundry.
I discovered Zipfizz
.
I realized that even a somewhat scaled back social life is still pretty expensive.
I finally started to get the hang of this networking thing.
I learned a lot about business, which is what I am here for in the first place!

Sports: This year has been, by far, my best sports year ever. My co-ed softball team won the championship for the 3rd time last summer (although I missed the championship because I was taking the math test!). My cohort won the flag football championship. I won in fantasy football. Penn State finally beat Michigan and won the Big Ten Championship and is playing in the Rose Bowl tomorrow. The Eagles, despite a somewhat wretched season, managed to pull off an unlikely historic win against Dallas to sneak into the playoffs (and send the Cowgirls home). And of course, the Philadelphia Phillies ended a 25-year drought for Philadelphia to become the world champions of baseball. Ah, I loved 2008!

P.S. Hi Arthur!

Finals

I just don't have the motivation I used to have for taking finals. I feel similar to maybemba, who said exams feel juvenile at this age. I definitely feel too old to be doing this. I am trying not to stress too much. I reached a high level of stress last week when I finally reached the end of my resume drops, only to realize that it was 7pm and I had an Accounting final at noon the next day (and had not studied at all yet). From that point I realized that stressing is not going to help me. Truthfully, grades mean little to me now with grade non-disclosure. I came here to learn and proving I've done so on an exam is just not important to me. So I'm just trying to do enough to pass. Or at least, I'm trying to get myself to treat studying that way, but I invariably stay up too late or start to get upset at points when I realize how much work I have to do ...
The nice thing is all my hard finals (accounting, linear programming) were last week. The remaining ones are open book or take home, so I just need to make sure I understand the concepts and get organized enough to be able to find stuff in my notes during the exam. My biggest obstacle is just getting myself to sit down and do it! I want to watch football and drink hot chocolate!

Long Time ....

... no Blog! Dear readers, I am so sorry to have abandoned you, as I am sure you missed hearing about my exploits here at Wharton. Well, I can only say that I have only been this crazy busy once in my life (during one particular consulting project), but this time it is a lot more fun. I've had an amazing semester. I learned a lot, met amazing people, made wonderful friends, and experienced a few inspirational victories. At the same time, I've experienced a lot of stress, wasted countless dollars on un-read bulk packs and text books, wondered why the hell I am doing this to myself, and thanked the Wharton gods for grade-nondisclosure. It has truly been a roller coaster ride, but I regret none of it.

I can't really express how busy I've been. A coworker warned me that a friend of his virtually disappeared for 2 years when he went here, but I figured it couldn't be that bad. I had majored in engineering, that was hard. This might be a lot of work, but it wouldn't be hard, right? Wrong! It IS a ton of work and it IS hard. The only reason I have time to write right now is because I should be working on a cover letter (ah, procrastination). But somehow, I have found a little time for "networking" with my classmates and, hopefully, my career activities will get me a summer internship. Of course, that assumes that the sky is not falling and employers will actually be hiring. Not a given these days. I've learned to ignore the bail-outs and the bank failures and the doom doom doom coming from the news. All I can do is keep my fingers crossed that I'm not flushing $150K down the drain ...

No, no, of course it is worth it even if I don't get a job. I think.