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SEPTEMBER 1998 MBA JOURNAL:PRE-TERM/ORIENTATION Alex Virtue: Preparing for B-School
As I entered Vance's lobby, a tall, smiling man with glasses and a most curious beard greeted me with a warm handshake, "Good morning and welcome to the Wharton School, I'm Vice-Dean Bruce Allen." Still nervous, I replied in kind, informing him that I was Alex Virtue, a member of the incoming MBA class. Feeling much the same as one does while their visa credentials are being scrutinized at a foreign immigration point, I waited as an administrator flipped through the pages of the new class roster. Was I on the list? "Mr. Virtue, you're in Cluster Two. Please proceed to the table over there." Still unsure, I slowly crossed the Sun Lounge, heading in the direction he had pointed. I cautiously glanced around at my new classmates. How self-assured and confident they all looked! Awaiting me was another smiling face and another list. More page flipping. "Could there possibly be a mix-up?" I thought. Another person at the table reached into a large box and promptly presented me with a name tag, binder, and welcome letter, all reassuringly embossed with Wharton's leaning W logo and "Alex Virtue, Cohort D." It was real after all! I was indeed a member of Wharton's MBA Class of 2000! And so began my preterm experience at the Wharton School. That evening, the preterm was officially kicked off by a "Math Week Happy Hour" at Wharton's onsite watering hole, the MBA Pub. Ah yes, math camp, Wharton's boot camp for the mathematically challenged. Innocuously labeled STAT 611, math camp turned out to be a weeklong preterm ritual in which hundreds of eager MBA students converged each afternoon to soak up a three-hour dose of Professor Waterman's numerical wisdom. Attended by poets and engineers alike, the math camp turned out to be a fast-paced review of concepts that are fairly critical in the MBA curriculum and necessary to pass the mandatory math test that was administered a week after our arrival! Approximately 50% of our class showed up on Aug. 3, with the remainder arriving on either Aug. 11 (preterm sans math camp) or Aug. 23 (just in time to sit for the core-course waiver exams). The full monthlong version of preterm that I attended also included basic courses in microeconomics, statistics, and accounting, as well as some very interesting elective courses (Professor Tiffany's course on the history of business was excellent and widely acclaimed). In addition to the academic schedule, the administration and the student-run Wharton Graduate Assn. (WGA) saw to it that we had a full plate of extracurricular activities to keep us busy during preterm. "Enjoy it while you can, because it's gonna be over soon" was a familiar bit of advice offered freely and often by the seasoned second-year students who had volunteered their time to welcome the Class of 2000. They weren't talking about our youth, although I suppose the same adage applies, but the four weeks of math camp and preterm. The fall semester was going to be brutal, and we all knew it. While I was initially jolted by the shock of attending a schedule of classes again, I quickly realized that preterm was much more about socializing than academics. Most of us tried to go out and meet our new classmates each evening (our physical constitutions willing), realizing that there would be greatly diminished opportunities for meeting people outside our own cohort once the fall semester began. While the impromptu student parties were great fun, my wife Caryn and I also enjoyed many of the WGA events, including the Sports & Games Day, the Phillies game at Veterans' Stadium, the Partners' Club gatherings (for us married folks), and the Brown Bag lunches on stress management, safer living, and financial aid. And of course there were the more hedonistic gatherings, such as the Pub Crawl (bartenders beware -- 350 thirsty Wharton MBA students are coming your way) and the Retro Dance Party, a revisiting of the whole '70s thing at Polly Esther's nightclub. A highlight of preterm was the Community Spirit Day, a new event designed and organized by two second-year students. Virtually the entire first-year class participated in a trip to the Philadelphia Zoo where we teamed up with children from Philadelphia's YMCA chapters to spend a day interacting, learning, and visiting the zoo exhibits together. While the Community Spirit Day provided a convenient, media-visible example (requisite appearance by Mayor Rendell and local TV crew) of hordes of MBA students "giving back," it also reinforced the fact that for the next two years we're all part of the diverse community of Philadelphia. To that extent, I feel that it was a valuable experience, and a fitting capstone to the preterm festivities. The Learning Team Retreat marked the official end of the preterm and focused our sights on the coming semester. An integral component of the leadership framework at Wharton, the Learning Team Retreat is a two-day trip to bucolic Camp Canadensis in the Pocono Mountains. I could feel the shared tension during the two-hour bus ride as we all pondered the much-anticipated introduction to the other members of our learning team. The teams, which consist of groups of five to six students, remain a mystery to all throughout preterm as actual team assignments are not announced until the first afternoon of the retreat. It was a relief to find that my team, consisting of three U.S. students (myself included) and two international students, represented a complementary mix of backgrounds, personalities, and working styles. Having heard one learning-team horror story after another, this was a relief indeed! While my retreat experience was diminished by the onset of bronchitis and a nasty fever of 101F, I found it to be a valuable, although at times, uncomfortable experience. Not a mega-extrovert by nature, I like to ease into relationships, whether they be professional or social. The retreat presented no such options as we were constantly directed to engage in team breakout sessions, brainstorming exercises, and thankfully, recreational activities (wall climbing, kayaking, basketball) in the afternoon. On the second afternoon, each team presented a new business proposal to the entire cohort that was the culmination of the discussions and activities of the previous 24 hours. While these presentations were quickly thrown together, I was genuinely impressed by the resourcefulness and creativity of my teammates as well as the other teams in my cohort. Once back in Philly, our entire class was gathered for the Class of 2000 convocation kicked off by Dean Gerrity and Vice-Dean Allen. One more warm welcome, and a not-too-subtle reminder that it was time to buckle down and get to work. So, there you have it -- a brief overview of Wharton's preterm and orientation experience. Was preterm worth the additional $1,050 on my bursar's bill? Without question. While the academic aspects of preterm were definitely helpful in preparing me for the core classes, the myriad opportunities to meet my classmates and forge new friendships during the four-week session were invaluable. The early arrival also gave Caryn and me time to branch out and explore many of Philly's best attractions, including the Reading Terminal Market, Manayunk, Society Hill, and the ins and outs of our new Center City neighborhood. Stay tuned for my next entry about my first month of classes, more on my teammates, my classmates, and what it's like to be a first-year MBA student at Wharton.  Alex Virtue  | | [an error occurred while processing this directive] Learn about your online education options |
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