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DECEMBER 2002 MBA JOURNAL: PRE TERM/ORIENTATION Anitra Waller: Preparing for B-School "I have to be honest: When I first arrived at Stanford, I still wasn't sure if I had made the right choice. After meeting a few of the amazing individuals here, I knew I had. I'm serious - the people here are amazing." As we drove past The Schwab Residential Center, I was pretty sad that I didn't get to live there. Being a third-rounder put me pretty low on the Schwab waiting list. (Schwab is where about 200 of the first year B-school students live). But my second-floor "townhouse" on campus is cheaper, so I couldn't complain too badly. However, my first order of business was to buy a bike - a 20 minute walk to class everyday just didn't seem that appealing. This campus is huge! It's like a city unto itself. I've been here a few weeks and have only seen about one-sixth of the university. My first official introduction to the school was as part of the Quantitative Pre-Enrollment Program, better known as Math Camp. It starts at the end of August and lasts for a little more than a week. (Stanford starts later than a lot of other schools. Fall quarter classes don't start until the end of September.) Some of my classmates and I spent our first two weeks on campus going to a math refresher class in the morning, working in study groups to complete problem sets in the afternoon, and getting to know one another at night. I think I've been to more social events in the past month than I've been in the six months before that. There'd be a dinner, then a party and an after-party, and then people just hung out with one another at Schwab. Then there were the outings to the beach, the nights at the local bar and the trips to San Fran to find the nightlife. I must admit, people here know how to have a good time. But there were only a handful of us enrolled in Math Camp. I wondered what would happen when the rest of the class arrived. As it turns out, there was just a bunch more people who were intelligent, down to earth, and really ready to party! At the risk of sounding even more corny than usual, the Class of '04 rocks! We've got it all - people from all over the world, from all different kinds of backgrounds. There are math teachers, writers, I-bankers, athletes, musicians, consultants, doctors, entrepreneurs, etc. But the one thing everyone seems to have in common is a genuine desire to get to know one another. And you do get to know each other... The morning of the first day of Orientation was spent welcoming the Class of 2004. Faculty, administration, second years, and alumni were there to show their enthusiasm and excitement, as well as to offer us a few pieces of advice: 1) balance your time between work and play; 2) fall quarter is going to be tough, so prepare yourself; and 3) remember that you are now a representative of the school and you should conduct yourself accordingly. It was nothing we hadn't heard before, but now we heard it in an "official" sense. The rest of the week was a combination of panels and information sessions about everything from student life to the library. There were even modeling refresher classes for those students who wanted to be exempt from the modeling class. (The exemption exams took place during Orientation week as well.)
Pre-Term was the official beginning of the academic part of the GSB experience. Every student is required to pass pre-term, which consisted of two short classes, one in ethics and one about teamwork. Both classes had required reading and group work. We spent about 15 hours physically in class, but study group meetings and readings definitely took up a few more hours. While these classes weren't hard, they did begin to teach us what was expected from us academically. You really have to take an active role in your learning. And if you don't read before class, its not easy to fool the professors since many of them wrote the stuff you were supposed to be reading! I have to be honest: When I first arrived at Stanford, I still wasn't sure if I had made the right choice. After meeting a few of the amazing individuals here, I knew I had. I'm serious - the people here are amazing. I am certain that my next two years will be rewarding in my personal as well as professional life. These are not just people from whom I want to learn. Granted, they are super smart. But they are also people I want to get to know. (This is probably a really good thing since I'll be spending a bunch of time with them!) Everyone's got a story to tell - it's really too bad they can't all share them with you. Although all of this has been fun, I am looking forward to starting Fall Term. We've been told time and time again that our first semester will be similar to drinking from a fire hydrant...but in the words of SpongeBob SquarePants, "I'm ready!" @  Get BusinessWeek directly on your desktop with our RSS feeds.  Add BusinessWeek news to your Web site with our headline feed. Click to buy an e-print or reprint of a BusinessWeek or BusinessWeek Online story or video. To subscribe online to BusinessWeek magazine, please click here. Learn more, go to the BusinessWeekOnline home page  | | DECEMBER Learn about your online education options |
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