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MAY 1999 MBA JOURNAL: FIRST YEAR REVIEW Raghu Ponnapalli: Reflecting on the First Year of B-School
The Workload The only major comment that I absolutely must emphasize pertains to LBS's mandatory first-year curriculum. If they weren't required, I would probably never have taken courses in behavior, marketing, or even strategy. Instead, I'd have stuck to quantitative courses. However, those classes are the ones that I learned the most from. They changed my entire outlook. Weighing the classes throughout the year, I believe the workload was tough, but it was also fair. Overall, I never felt overburdened with school work, which was helpful. Once you're here, you start getting exposed to so many different avenues that a little time to reflect on your future career is welcomed. A Semester-by-Semester Review The year had its highs and lows and left me with a wide variety of emotions. For me, the first term was full of energy, excitement, and anticipation as I went through all my classes and discovered London. The second term started similarly, but as recruiting kicked in, I experienced all the ups and downs of vying for interviews, getting rejections, and receiving offers. I look back on that second term now, and it all seems like a blur. It's a disconcerting time for everyone, and if any MBA says they weren't anxious, they're lying! You can do all you possibly can preparing your resume and contacting the right people, but in the end, getting the nod on an internship position is up to a complete stranger. You have no control over your fate. One big disadvantage during second term was that I spent precious little time really reading and preparing material for class. Luckily, it seemed that the professors kept the workload toned down, probably because they knew that we had other things on our minds. In the end, recruiting worked out well, so I was able to concentrate on getting through term three (LBS operates on a trimester calendar). Although I said earlier that the year -- overall -- wasn't overburdened with work, teh third term was the one that stood out as tougher than the rest. I was loaded up with six classes and only nine weeks in which to complete them all (marketing, strategy, management accounting, economics, ethics, and finance II). But I almost didn't mind the work. I really enjoyed the classroom experience because the last term definitely had some of the most talented, energetic professors that I'd experienced to date. If this trend continues, it bodes well for the electives I'll finally be taking during my second year. The Year's End and a (Working) Summer's Start The year ended with a few more parties than usual and plans to get together for those of us who were staying in London to do our internships. Some enterprising students signed up for more than one internship during the summer (a grueling 20 weeks starting before and ending after the school term dates). Meanwhile, a couple of independent-minded colleagues decided to turn down internships so they could spend the summer traveling abroad learning a new language. As you can tell, there's quite a lot of diversity at LBS, and that's what made my year so memorable. LBS is like a small neighborhood -- there's less than 300 of us. For me, what was important was not just the classes and projects that I worked on but the personalities that I met and the friends that I made. Onward now to my summer internship . . .  Raghu Ponnapalli  | | [an error occurred while processing this directive] Learn about your online education options |
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