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MARCH 2004 MBA JOURNAL: YEAR TWO Rich Morris: Academics, the Placement Process, and More "Is year two much easier than year one? Yes and no. The classes aren't any less demanding. What has changed, though, is the nature of the work. There are more long-term projects and fewer exams.quot; I can't really put into words how amazing the trip was because it was, in fact, indescribable. But I will say that having the opportunity to pick up and leave the country and go to a faraway place for a few weeks with a group of friends is something that I will absolutely miss about school. I'll admit that I'm one of those people who believes in the old adage that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. Before I came to GSIA, when I was working full-time, I couldn't wait to get back to school. I longed for the days of sleeping late, casual dress, and good ol' fashioned learnin'. Then somewhere around my 15th night of being up at 3:00 in the morning desperately putting the finishing touches on a project or problem set, I thought to myself "Hey, you know, work actually wasn't all that bad." Well, in all honesty, it isn't. But I've really come to appreciate student life during my second year after a 10-week taste of the "real world" this summer. I guess, for once, I'm finally looking around, taking my time, and admiring the lawn. Is year two much easier than year one? Yes and no. The classes aren't any less demanding. What has changed, though, is the nature of the work. There are more long-term projects and fewer exams. More presentations, fewer problem sets. With a few exceptions, the majority of the classes I've taken this year involve taking the toolkit which I described in my last entry and putting it to work. Professors aren't so much interested in your ability to regurgitate formulas and facts than they are in finding out how well you can synthesize information, be creative, and tackle complex problems. Don't get me wrong, there were certainly elements of this during year one. But it seems that this year, the focus is squarely on pushing us to think, solve, collaborate, present, defend, and innovate without many formal boundaries. Much like the corporate world, I suppose. Thinking back to last year, we spent a lot of time jumping through mathematical hoops in classes such as Decision Models and two minis of Probability and Statistics. This year, however, my roster of courses has included subjects such as Financial Engineering, Business Law and Ethics, and a class called Managing Intellectual Capital and Knowledge-Intensive Businesses. Less challenging? Not by a long shot. More interesting? Infinitely. Besides the classes being more appealing, there are a few other factors that make the second year appear a little less daunting. First, I firmly believe that there is a learning curve involved in getting into the business school "rhythm." You get accustomed to the pace, the workload, the surroundings. The students become familiar with each other. By the start of year two, you've worked with many of your classmates on one project or another. People don't pussyfoot around each other any more disagreements arise, are discussed, settled, and groups push forward. Meetings that would take half a day are now done in an hour, or don't occur at all because work is done by e-mail. Things just start to click, in a sense. Concurrently, and I admit this only sheepishly, a touch of "senioritis" tends to set in. Okay, maybe more than a touch. It's not that people get complacent. It's just that students realize that they can't get every problem right on every exam and solve every case perfectly. And that there are certainly diminishing returns in incessant studying. Getting that extra half-grade is no longer as important as gleaning the relevant information from each class. The work becomes much more bearable, and it can be argued, more meaningful, when you don't feel like you need to be perfect. It's liberating, to a degree. (By the way, I hope you all are buying this. I think maybe somewhere deep down, I'm just rationalizing.) I guess ease, much like beauty, as some say, is in the eye of the beholder. There are, unfortunately, two camps when it comes to the outlook on year two those with jobs and those without. Regardless of how much more palatable the coursework has become, juggling classes with the nearly full-time task of securing employment after graduation isn't easy for anyone. Ask a jobless second-year MBA student who if he or she is "just coasting" and you'll most likely receive a look that is a combination of disgust and bewilderment -- and, if it's particularly close to another recent rejection, possibly suffer bodily harm. Either way, classes become almost a secondary concern. For the unemployed, flying to the West Coast to meet with an alum in Silicon Valley is far more important than spending the time to polish up a homework assignment. For those with jobs, there's almost a feeling that the hard part is over with. With employment in hand, the difference between a B+ and an A- seems negligible. For me, year two at GSIA has certainly been more manageable for all of the reasons mentioned above. Sure, there are still some late nights and certain times where I feel a little overwhelmed with work. However, there are also many other things some small, some not so small that I've really come to appreciate about business school this year, like 1:30 classes and a free subscription to the Wall Street Journal. Being able to get into lively, intelligent discussions on a regular basis with your peers, learning something new every day that completely blows me away, and trips to Kenya are also some of the things to be appreciated. So for now, I'm in no hurry to get back to the grind of corporate America. Actually, I'm currently counting down the days until I get to enjoy one more perk of second-year studying abroad in Germany for the next two months. Guten tag!  
BW MALL
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