I figure since I am going to be here for two years, I might as well stock up on my UNC gear. I checked out the different stores along Franklin Street yesterday, a couple of them featured a particular T-shirt with a catch phrase that I didn't quite get .
Apparently In Saint Louis - They don't accept American Express
(This is the part where Real McCoy jumps in with an explanation. I am guessing Saint Louis was where Duke lost their shot at the championship.)
Yesterday was the last day of the second series of pre-MBA workshops (first series was in June). During the long drive home today to pack everything up for the final move down to Chapel Hill next week, I thought about what I have learned in the past three weeks and realized the most important lessons were quite unexpected.
I learned that having a graduate level understanding of a discipline does not require that you know everything out cold. During the first week of class, we were learning about the different formulas used for present value calculations. I remember we had to memorize these formulas when I took finance in college. Someone at the Kenan-Flalger class asked our beloved professor if he could recall these formulas from memory. His answer was "I usually look them up or use the calculator." Earlier this week during the review session for the exam, our T.A. was explaining perhaps the hardest topic in the entire course - efficient market frontier. He said that he's taken a ton of classes in finance and has to relearn the material everytime. In other words, he doesn't remember it.
This confirmed something I suspected, that getting a degree in a particular field does not require you to know everything about that particular field. You're only expected to have sufficient training in the field to be able to understand the concepts that come up over and over again. This was how I felt during a class visit at the school that rejected me, I was sitting in on an elective economics class taught by a world renown professor. He was drawing marginal demand curves that I haven't seen since college, yet the underlying concepts came right back to me. I really think the most important part of getting an education in any subject is that you become at ease with understanding the concepts rather than being able to recite the textbooks from scratch.
The other thing I learned is the difference between thinking you have a good understanding of a topic and being able to do well on the exam. Going into the exam on Friday, I thought I had the material nailed down but I only scored slightly above average. This is probably the result of me feeling over-confident and other students being more prepared than I am.
One of my loyal readers asked how often I drink in Chapel Hill. The short answer is, I drink more now than I did before, but my alcohol consumption levels are still below that of the average student at Kenan-Flagler.
There is never a shortage of drinking opportunities in the MBA program. The second night we were here, a bunch of us went out to East Under where they have 25 cent beers every Thursday and Friday. The bartender there is absolutely gorgeous! We went back there two Thursdays later. This time we left around midnight and continued the party at Top of the Hill. When we got there, we "high five'd" the bouncer who waved us right in (I later found out the bouncer's a classmate of ours). I left around 1:30 that night but the next morning, my 11am class was about about one-third empty. Wednesday night there was a flip cup party (see picture above) at someone's back yard. The next day someone posted the pictures from the party on the public shared drive and a lot of the people looked completely inebriated. I heard that yesterday's 8am class was half empty.
As for the bar that I go to, I went three nights in a row but did not go last night because of the storm. They have two dollar Coronas every Monday.
Third in a series
In class today our beloved professor was congratulating us on getting through to the last day of our pre-MBA workshop. He said "if this feels good, you might as well enjoy it because you won't feel this way for quite a while." Someone asked "when do we get to feel this way again?" He answered "May." Another student asked "May of 2007?" A bunch of students laughed. He then shot back "assuming you're able to find a job."
We then had our final exam and I proceeded to score a 22 out of 25.
I am sure you are all familiar with the commercial where one person delivers some really bad news, and then offers some "good news" by saying that he managed to save money on car insurance by switching to GEICO? I did something like that earlier this week with my health coverage.
The Kenan-Flagler Student Handbook recommends that we purchase our Blue Cross health insurance through a broker called Hill Chesson. Hill Chesson offers UNC students the BlueOptions plan which costs (for me) $121 per month. Some students have recommended that we can get similar coverage for cheaper by going directly to Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina.
I did just that. I applied for their Blue Advantage plan the week I arrived in Chapel Hill, a nurse came by earlier this week to take my blood pressure and collect a urine sample. This morning I received an email with a rate quote of $93 per month.
As someone who looks at the world through the tools of what is often mockingly called a "dismal science," I am a big believer that insurance is not an efficient way to allocate costs. Yes, I remember the graphs we studied in economics about why insurance programs "work." They "work" the same way casinos make money, by pooling the risks of many individual customers. But I believe that any insurance program is by nature inefficient for it forces every customer to pay for the incompetence and the bad decisions of other customer. If I were to take the money I have paid for car insurance over the last seven years, and put it in a savings account, I'd have enough money to replace my car at least one and a half times over. The counter argument is "what if you run over a Harvard grad and have to pay punitive damages?" I think it is the "fear factor" of possibly facing a ruinous civil lawsuit that justifies getting car insurance.
A better example is health insurance where beneficiaries that don't take care of themselves, enage in sports that result in frequent injuries, and use controlled substances often raise the average cost for everyone else in the pool. This is why I avoid unnecessary types of insurance (ie renter's insurance) and when I do purchase insurance, I always shop around for the lowest price. Keep in mind that different companies price different individuals differently and some, such as my auto coverage underwriter, AMEX Assurance Company, only cover very low risk individuals.
Yesterday's Wall Street Journal had a story about this. There is a web site called the Wayback Machine that archives content from over 40 billion web pages. The usefulness of this web site stems from its archiving of content that has since been changed or removed by the web pages' owners. Its archives are more extensive and in depth than Google's, where Google will only save the most recently updated "snapshot" on a web page, Wayback Machine will archive each iteration that has been found on the Internets.
"At some firms, litigators now ask researchers, "can you do a Wayback on that?" The archives are most attractive to specialists in intellectual-property law - in particular, areas such as domain-name battles - and have been used by companies as diverse as EchoStar Communications Corp. and Playboy Enterprises Inc. In February, recovered pages prompted a mistrial in a prominent murder case in Canada."
No doubt when I run for President in 2028, my political enemies will use the Wayback Machine to gather and examine the content I have written on this blog and use it to blackmail me somehow.
I imagine when most single folks relocate to a new city, it's not unusual for the topic of relationships to be one of the predominent subjects on their minds. For me, I have been thinking a lot about this topic of late, not just relationships of the romatic kind but also of the platonic variety.
This past Sunday our singles pastor was giving a talk at our young professionals group on how our desire for relationships can very easily become an idolatry. He touched on a lot of what I have thought about in the three weeks since arriving here. He said that loneliness is a mental/spiritual condition of the mind/soul. An example is something I have blogged about a while back, you can be surrounded by people and still feel lonely.
The most important mssage I got from his talk was a validation of something I have thought about recently. He said many of us want friends for the wrong reasons, we want friends not because we want to give but because of what we think we can get from these relationships. As for relationships of a romantic variety, he reminded us that the Bible tells us (men) to "lay down your life and to love your wife like Christ loved the church."
This has given me a couple of things to pray about in the upcoming weeks.
Second in a series
There are two sttudents in my class who are married to one another. Yesterday at the Office of Career Services presentation, someone said to them "you two are always together everytime I see you guys." Another student then quickly quipped "they call it 'ball and chain' for a reason you know."
Got tired of looking at finance problem sets that don't make sense to me. So I went to Bub's where a classmate was having a birthday celebration. When the party continued later at He's Not Here, I decided to go across the street to yesterday's watering hole.
The assistant professor was not there tonight (he got back together with his wife perhaps?). But a lot of the folks from yesterday were, the UNC 2005 grad started telling me about how she and her friends won at tonight's weekly trivia night competition. I mentioned that the bar was beginning to feel homey with so many familiar faces from last night, and repeated my analogy about the bar from "Cheers." She said "oh this is my Cheers."
Later, a bunch of us went to He's Not Here. Along the way Mark, a British chap that came with us, invited a homeless man (one of many that "live" along Franklin Street) to come with us. I caught up with a bunch of Kenan-Flagler folks at He's Not Here. One of my classmates, Willy, was all excited because he got an undergrad's phone number. Said it was a personal "milestone" of sorts. He asked if I am still waiting on Darden. (I guess I can rule him out as one of the students that's been reading my blog, because if he is, he would have read my entry about not wanting to be asked about Darden.) He said "I chose this school over Darden because I think it's a better program."
The Office of Career Services had another event this afternoon, this time it was a panel of recent alumni from various industries. One student who graduated this past May got an investment banking offer from Wachovia Securities in Charlotte. He said that the investment banking deals you'd be working on in Charlotte will be much smaller, more "middle market," as opposed to firms in New York City. You also will not make as much money, but when you factor in the lower cost of living, less number of hours, and the more family-friendly attitude, "we kick their ass."
Afterwards, a bunch of us stayed behind to talk to him. He said that the industry is very cyclical, and banks tend to over-hire during good times and over-fire during bad. This past year the offers (I assume these numbers are for firms out of Charlotte) have been around $95,000 base and a bonus structure that can easily double that.
I got a letter over the weekend from the U.S. Department of Education announcing that the new interest rate on my student loans rose from 3.5 to more than 5 percent. I called this morning to find out if there is any way I can save some money now that I am about to become a full time graduate student. The rep informed me that the status has already been changed to "in school." This means no payments and no interest will accumulate over the next two years.
I was in the adventurous mood tonight so I went out to bars by myself. The normal Kenan-Flagler hangout, Top of the Hill, was deserted. I ended up walking into this bar I have driven by a couple of times while looking for parking. It's called Off Franklin.
The bartender is a recent cute UNC grad who is taking the GREs to get a graduate degree in political science. The guy sitting next to me was a 32 year old assistant professor at the University. I had a couple of interesting conversations with these folks over $2 Coronas. We were talking about the UNC campus and he said all the construction projects make the campus look ugly. The bartender disagreed. He then compared this campus to UVA's (at this point, I had yet to identify myself as a UVA grad). The bartender then said "I hate UVA because I hate Virginia, except for Williamsburg. And UVA is always smarter than we are" before walking away.
I asked the assistant professor what it was like to teach with so many attractive women in his class. He said "students at UNC will do whatever they can do to get whatever they want" and said he's had girls in his class flirt with him to get grades. He proceeded to tell me more about himself. He married his college girlfriend ten years ago and left her last week. Since then, he's been at the bar almost every night.
I am not particularly "big" into the bar scene but what I would not mind is going to a "quiet bar," the type where you can relax, chill, have a drink, and engage in conversation with strangers and regulars alike. The assistant professor said Off Franklin was probably the closest to what I am ever going to get at a college town like Chapel Hill.
We talked about this in finance today. June set another record for existing-home sales. Except that this time, it didn't just set a new record, it posted the biggest year over year increase since 1980.
This news concerns me more than it does the average American because I am putting my apartment on the market in August. Whatever proceeds I net from the sale will hopefully last for the next two years.
Our beloved professor emphasised the importance of this story by saying, "this is huhhhhhugge (emphasis his own)." If only he knew.
I got home tonight, was looking forward to seeing my financial calculator waiting for me on my front steps. Instead I found a brochure by the doorknob from our friends at the North Carolina Public Interest Research Group. I brought it inside, threw it out in teh trash, and turned on Fox News in the background as I began dinner.
Five minutes later the doorbell rang. I opened the door and found a nice young man identifying himself as someone from NCPIRG informing me of the group's efforts in passing legislations to protect the local lakes from evil corporate right wing polluters. (He didn't say "right wing" but I could see it on his face.) He told me they were looking for support from the community to suppress any opposition that would come up to defeat the legislation. At this point, I offered to sign his stupid petition and he politely informed me that the clipboard of names and addresses in front of me was not a petition but a list of financial contributors. He asked if I could give him $15 for a membership. I told him I didn't have $15 (mental note to myself: need to pray for forgiveness for lying). He then said he'd be willing to accept a contribution of $5. I told him I didn't have $5 (my second lie of the day). I then made a move for my door and told him I was going to go read his brochure (I figure since I have lied twice already, I might as well make it a "charm.")
Now I know why the character Montgomery Burns from the Simpsons keeps vicious guard dogs around his house.
I was writing up my presentation on the Harvard Business Case study on the Sealed Air Corporation. I used the term "marquee branding" when discussing the lack of a clear market leader in the uncoated bubble packaging market. It then dawned on me that my problem with UNC and Kenan-Flagler stems from a lack of what I call "marquee branding."
I may be biased because this is the school we used to make fun of all the time when I was at UVA. But unlike Yale, the University of Virginia, or the University of Pennsylvania, the University of North Carolina does not have what I consider to be a stellar enough of an academic reputation. I underline the word "academic" because whenever I tell people I am going "UNC for business school" (I never say Kenan-Flagler because most people not familiar with MBA programs have never heard of it. Heck, I am still having a tough time saying it) I get all kinds of responses ranging from "great campus," to "terrfiic college town," not to mention "awesome basketball team." Very rarely do I hear someone say something positive about UNC that is of an academic nature.
Maybe I will feel differently two years from now.
There is a Powerpoint workshop this coming week, Thursday I think. Too bad the presentation I have to do is due later today. It would have been nice if the Powerpoint workshop had been last week
A big part of the MBA experience is "getting to know your classmates." At the panel on Tuesday, one second year student said the two quarters require good time management and often this means choosing between "getting to know your classmates" and preparing for class the next day.
Right after I posted my latest blog entry, I drove out to La Residence for one of these "getting to know your classmates" events. As I approached on Rosemary Street, James Taylor's "In my mind I'm goin' to Carolina" began playing on the radio. At the bar tonight, I didn't stay too long. It was hard to carry out any type of meaningful conversation with the loud music in the background tons of other people around. I don't do too well in these bar scenes, never did. I did noticed that other students, especially the younger ones, blend right in.
There is one student, however, that I feel is having the worst time. I don't know him too well, other than the very brief and casual "hello encounters" we have had at McColl. But I get the impression he doesn't get along too well with other students. It may be that he is a bit older (I think he's older than I am) and possibly a bit socailly awkward. He spent most of tonight hovering around different circles of people as though he was constantly waiting for a conversation to get into. I wish there is something I can do about it, maybe introduce him to more people, or improve his social skills.
I was talking to some people tonight and one of them said that during the regular school year, MBA students normally hang out at a couple of designated places, and La Residence is not one of them. She said La Residence tends to get swamped during the normal school year with UNC undergrads and graduate students that went to UVA. I guess I will know where to hang out if I ever need to get away from my fellow Kenan-Flaglerites.
I was made aware of something recently and I have agonized over the most strategic way to deal with it. It has come to my attention that a couple of my classmates at Kenan-Flagler have been reading this blog and have been spreading the word to others. I have no idea how they learned about this blog's existence but would love to find out.
Within the past two weeks, I have been honest with reporting my experience, hopes, and even disappointments over this web page. And I would like to continue to do so. However, I cannot continue to do this if everything I write ends up as public information known to a significant portion of the Kenan-Flagler community.
I won't repeat here my reasons for wishing to remain anonymous, although many of them should be obvious. If you are a Kenan-Flagler student, you're welcome to continue to read my web page. I only ask that you kindly respect my privacy by cooperating with me to do the following:
- stop telling other students about this blog.
- if you do not know who I am, do not try to find out who I am.
- if you do know who I am, do not tell other readers who I am.
- (optional) send me an email at buckyhoo at AOL dot com and tell me how you found out about this blog.
If you agree to help keep me relatively anonymous, I will uphold my end of the bargain by continuing this blog. Otherwise I will have no choice but to cease and you will have to go back to entertaining yourselves by watching ping pong tournaments in the downstairs break room. (I hear that Jee-Tao is looking for a re-match .... wink)
Thanks guys!
The professor who teaches the accounting workshop held a barbeque at his house this evening and was nice enough to invite those like myself who are not yet his students. I say "not yet" because this same professor will teach us in the fall.
The house we were invited to sits on a twenty acre lot. It has got a swimming pool, volleyball court, and is adjacent to a nearby lake (saw a couple row boats docked nearby). This reminds me of another picnic held every year by a UVA professor, a former Wall Street big shot, who did very well financially before retiring to Charlottesville with his loot. That's what I should do, get a job on Wall Street for a couple of years, make a ton of money, move to a small Southern town where the cost of living is low, the women are Christian and abundant, and lie on my hammock all day while listening to Sean Hannity.
At the picnic I talked to one student who told me there are direct flights between Raleigh/Durham International Airport and the airport closest to where my parents live. She suggested that I subscribe to the weekly bargain emails from American Airlines and Continental.
A week ago today I went for an early morning walk before class in the cemetary on the UNC campus. This cemetary contains the final resting places of the area's most prominent citizens going all the way back to the 18th century. I saw on some of the tombstones names that are prominent in this area such as Durham and McCauley. There was even a tombstone for one Henry Clay (born June 3, 1842) although I doubt it's the same Henry Clay we read about in American history.
The tombstone I was looking for was that of Charles Kuralt. I used to watch him on TV all the time. I remember reading that he died in 1997 and that he was buried in Chapel Hill. To the left of his tombstone (not pictured) is that of his wife, who died about four years after he did.
I love hypothetical questions because whatever answer we come up with, the answer will never have the opportunity to be exercised in real life. The hypotheitcal question that's been wobbling in my head is as follows: now that I have spent two weeks at Kenan-Flagler, if I were to get a call next week from Dawna Clarke congratulating me on receiving an acceptance off of the wait list, should I go ahead and change my plans for Darden or stay put and remain at Chapel Hill for the next two years?
In terms of rankings, career opportunities, and reputation, Darden is certainly ahead of Kenan-Flagler. In terms of quality of life, however, the advantage goes to Kenan-Flagler. There is lots more to do at the Chapel Hill-Raleigh area than in Charlottesville. The only advantage the Charlottesville location has is its proximity to Washington, DC. Then there's the issue of whether I should go back to my undergraduate alma mater for a graduate degree. I was talking to my realtor three weeks ago and mentioned UVA still being a possibility. He added that he is a believer in "having different networks of contacts." While I agree that there are merits to the argument that you should not go to the same school twice, I don't believe me returning to Charlottesville would be going to the same school twice. Even though Darden is part of UVA, it is located in a totally different part of campus. I have been told you can go through your entire two years at Darden and not set your foot on the main campus except to receive your student ID (in the very first week) and to graduate (which you're not required to attend).
So if I were lucky enough to get "the call" tomorrow, I'd still go to Darden but it would be hard to cut off all the friends I have made here.
My prospects of becoming an investment banker took a downgrade this morning when I received the results of my quiz. I got a five out of eight. Our beloved professor said in class that the average was around a 5.4, that the quiz was harder than he wanted to make it, but is still easier than what we would be expected to during the regular class in the fall.
I just hope my financial calculator shows up in the mail soon (using the calculator is much easier than using Excel) and I do much better on the final.
2:29pm update - upon review of the quiz, and comparison to the answer key, I really got a six. I can't believe the T.A. didn't give me credit for writing down 44.60 when the correct answer is 44.66.
On Wednesday, I wrote about driving by the hospital on my way to lunch and randomly seeing on the sidewalk a UVA cutie that was my year. In addition to her, there is one other Wahoo that was my year that I know of at UNC. Yesterday, I went to vsiit him.
This particular Wahoo was my year's class president and organizer of our class reunion. The last time I talked to him was during our class reunion two years ago, he said he got a job working at the UNC General Alumni Association. I went to his office last week to try to surprise him but his secretary told me he was on vacation. I went back today and she told me I just left for a meeting on another part of campus. So I waited outside, tried to pass the time by reading the Wall Street Journal and my finance textbook. I purposely sat at a bench facing away from the front door so that he would not see on his way in, and ruin the surprise.
About half an hour later, he walked by, didn't see me, and went straight into the Alumni Center. The plan was to give him five minutes to get settled in his office before I go in, have his secretary call and say "we have an alumni here asking for information about a reunion." But unfortunately, when he returned to his office, the secretary told him I was sitting at the bench outside waiting for him. He walked right out and surprised me!
Some of my former co-workers, from both places where I have worked, will attest that I have a habit of falling asleep at meetings. But I have been pretty good about this since arriving at Kenan-Flagler. Yesterday, I blogged about an event I attended featuring recruiters from different companies. Not only did I not fall asleep, but I also took notes and tried to kiss up .... I mean network with the recruiter from Red Hat later on.
Earlier today an email was sent to all students currently attending the pre-MBA workshops at Kenan-Flagler. Full text of email follows:
Dear ASW II students,
We hope you enjoyed Tuesday’s OCS session with the recruiter panel.
· Next week’s session will be a panel of recent Kenan-Flagler alumni from different functions. The session will take place on Tuesday, July 26th from 1:20-2:40pm in Koury.
· I noticed one person sleeping in yesterday’s session, and one of the recruiters told us afterwards that she had noticed three students who were asleep. Needless to say, this is unacceptable, and makes a very poor impression on recruiters. It also hurts your classmates, as future recruiting visits are jeopardized. Think of it from their point of view, and what you would think as a recruiter visiting a top business school.
· Laptops should not be open and cell phones should be turned off. This is the case for ANY session involving a visitor from a company. It is just common courtesy.
Most of you did a fantastic job yesterday following these guidelines. Unfortunately, the mishaps are what the recruiters remember once they leave campus. We are partners with you in trying to attract more companies to come to campus to recruit. Please help us in this effort by following simple common courtesy in the future.
Thank you.
The Office of Career Services Team
When I was a first year in college, there was this girl in one of my classes that I thought was really pretty. I don't think I ever said one word to her during my entire college career but she was one of these girls I always noticed everytime I saw her. After graduation, I saw her a total of three times. The first time was one afternoon in 2000 when I saw her jogging as I was driving home from work. Second time was at the 2003 reunion when I actually talked to her. She went with whom I assumed was her boyfriend and said she was in medical school. The third time was toward late 2003 when I was at a bar, ironically with two other UVA grads from my year, and she was at the next table.
Before any of you (ie McCoy bored at work) decides to call the police and report me for stalking, I should point out that it's not unusual for me to run into UVA grads at the place where I used to live, half of every graduating class ends up there. So imagine my shock earlier this afternoon when I left McColl after the student panel to get some food on Franklin Street (event was catered but all the food was gone when I got there) and I was driving by the hospital area on Manning Drive when I saw her walking on the sidewalk wearing a lab coat.
This is a good example something I have noticed about myself, that I have a habit of running into the same people over and over again.
Yesterday the Office of Careeer Services had a talk featuring four recruiters from that are based locally in our area. One woman works for Red Hat, which is based in Raleigh. They gave a pretty good talk on what they expect to see in candidates. One recruiter said "even if you don't know much about the company, we expect you to know what a typical career trajectory is." Another one talked about career changers like myself, and said we need to "make it look like you are running to something instead of running away from something."
Today there was another event, a lunchtime panel featuring four second year students. I stayed twenty minutes afterwards to talk to one particular participant. He worked in real estate before coming to Kenan-Flagler and decided to go into investment banking. He compared getting a job in investment banking to rushing a fraternity where those interested have to do their homework, show up at all the events, and act like they really are interested in the particular firm they happen to be talking to. This is funny because I know a Kenan-Flagler MBA graduate at where I used to work who back in April told me the same thing. He said for his class, about one-quarter of the students are doing a concentration in real estate, compared to only one-half that number from the year before. I wonder if perhaps students are flocking to real estate the same way they were interested in e-commerce five years ago.
At where I used to work, one co-worker once asked me why I didn't go into Wall Street and try to become a millionaire. I have been thinking more and more about it within the past year. Investment banking jobs are very hard to get and even harder to keep. But I have been thinking more and more about it and in the past months have been getting a clearer picture of what I need to do to have a shot at a position in a big Wall Street firm. The student I talked to today said I would need to pretty much ace accounting, finance, and economics. And to get an interview with these guys, I need to do a lot of networking and rolodexing (my PDA will come in handy). I think my major attraction to investment banking is that it's one of the complicated jobs you can ever have and even if you wash/burn out after two years, it's great experience to have on your resume.
The finance class I am taking is coming along well. We are using the same textbook I used when I took corporate finance at UVA. So far, we've only been doing time value of money, nothing too complicated. Judging from the contributions I have been giving to my study group and the questions that other students as the T.A. during the help session, I think I am pretty much on top of things.
That was until I took the quiz today. Quiz had eight questions, the first four were pretty easy. But when I turned the page and realized that I had fifteen more minutes to do the next four, I sort of panicked. This reminded me of what I learned when preparing for the GMAT, that it's important to knock the easy questions out of the way, don't bother to double check them, and then concentrate most of your time on the hard ones. I don't think the quiz was hard, even though the professor said it was. I just think the time constraint made it harder than it otherwise would have been.
When we get the quiz back, I will post the report the results here, regardless of how embarassing they may be.
I watched the Supreme Court coverage tonight, switched between various broadcast and cable networks. On CBS they had anchorman John Roberts explain to viewers that attorney John Roberts was the nominee. He kept the irony to himself but as he was tossing (that's a term I learned from my friends that work at WRC) the network back to regular programming, there was smirk in his face as he said "I am John Roberts for CBS in New York."
As evident by this morning's post, I am the type of guy that gets giddy over getting a good deal. When I buy a car, I like to know I got a better deal than the guy I see down the street driving the same vehicle. This is why the most I will ever pay for a car is the invoice price.
One big problem I have with going to Kenan-Flagler is that, because I am an out-of-state student, I pay the the out-of-state tuition, which is twice the amount an in-state student pays. This upsets me quite a bit. If I play my cards right, I may qualify for in-state tuition during my last semester but I can't help but feel I am getting ripped off.
This upsets me quite a bit. When I was here for the Experience Weekend, I met several students who moved here a year ago, established their in-state residency, and are now paying the in-state rate. I even know one girl who is from out of state, but applied using her parents' address, and is now categorized as an in-state student.
In addition to the in-staters, there are students that are here on a merit-based scholarships. These scholarships can be anywhere from 25% to 100% of your tuition. It's difficult for me to walk around Kenan-Flagler knowing that others are paying less, in some cases, much less for the same education. This is beginning to affect my relationships with other students.
I am hoping that I can channel my anger into something "positive." In the past whenever I encounter something that upsets me, I become more driven to do something about it. Like during my first year at UVA, I had a particular nasty run-in with the Dean of Students .... that's a story for a different time. (wink)
One of our classmates' birthday was yesterday (Monday) and we had a little celebration last night (Monday) at La Residence on Rosemary Street. I struck up a conversation with a student I have never met before. He mentioned he bought a townhouse in Durham and has a female Kenan-Flagler student as as roommate. He jokingly suggested that he wanted to set me up on a date with her. I jovially said "terrific, as long as she has a nice personality, is smart, and is hopefully a Christian." (I didn't want to come across as shallow by asking "what does she look like?")
He then asked me if I am a Christian, told me he's a atheist, and we spent the next 30 seconds talking about his religious background. It quickly dawned on me that I have gotten over the hump, I am at a point where I feel comfortable enough at my new surroundings that I can bring up Christ in a conversation without worrying that the sky would fall on me.
He has risen indeed. (Wait, did I just use the word "hump" in the same sentence as the name "Christ?")
Now that it has been more than a month since my last paycheck, I need to save money and cut expenses. I am pretty good at this. I joke around with my friends saying that I am politically to the right, therefore being fiscally conservative comes only natural to me.
I did two things this past week toward that goal. The first was to buy my accounting text book. The book that is being used by the summer accounting workshop (which I am not taking) will also be used during the school year. UNC Student Stores has it new for $141 and used for $106, plus the 7% sales tax. I went onto Ebay and bought a new copy for $110, including shipping and handling. Hopefully this will also give me some time to start going through the material before classes begin on August 15th.
The second thing I did was to buy my financial calculator. Loyal readers of this blog (and former co-workers) know that I tend to wait until the last minute to get things done. I got screwed back in June because I waited until the last minute to register for pre-MBA workshop and had to shell out $100 to buy my own textbook. This time, I actually saved money by waiting until the last minute. The Class of 2007 Student Handbook that was mailed to all accepted students recommends the HP-17bii ($80-100). But our beloved professor said the HP-10bii ($30) would suffice. So I now feel smarter, which is something I normally don't get to feel, knowing that I did not waste money on buying more calculator than I need. And to add insult to injury, I bought my HP-10bii on Ebay for $10!
Ebay is truly a graduate student's best friend.
In class today, our beloved professor was showing us some articles on the Wall Street Journal web page when someone asked him to click on the story about a bachelor party. The party was for an influential trader at Fidelity Investments, and is being investigated by the Securities Exchange Commission for improper gratuities from Wall Street firms in an attempt to get Fidelity's business.
My professor then added "when I was younger, I wanted to be on Wall Street. Now I am just glad to not be part of it." Another student pointed out that this investigation was sparked by a picture taken at the party. The professor's reactionw as "if you are doing anything unsurly, don't take pictures."
When I used to work at the telecom firm, there was an employee Bible study every week on a particular day during lunch. The organizer would send out a weekly mass email reminding everyone of the time, location, and verses that were to be discussed. I used to joke around saying that the email list was an underground "yellow pages" of who's a Christian in the office
This illustrates a dilemma many Christians face, one that I was facing this past week. When we find ourselves in a secular environment such as the office or grad school and we want to meet other Christians, there is no reliable method for us to know who the believers are within the crowd. When I got back from Durham Bulls game on Thursday, I told a friend of mine on the phone that while I am certain I have met Christians at Kenan-Flagler, I have no way of knowing who they were. I even jokingly suggested that I was going to wear my "Ask me about Jesus!" T-shirt to class.
Yesterday morning was my first Sunday at Chapel Hill and I attended service at Chapel Hill Bible Church. After the service, a familiar face came up to me and said "I met you last week." It was the Kenan-Flagler student I talked to on Thursday at the Durham Bulls game. He said he's been dealing with the exact same dilemma I have, that he specifically prayed recently that he would meet others in our class who are believers. On Thursday, he told me he worked at a non-profit firm and yesterday he told me the name of the organization, it's a Christian group that works with college students. He said he has refrained from telling others at Kenan-Flagler exactly what type of work he did, except to say he worked at a non-profit, for fear that others would immediately label him a "Jesus freak" before getting to know him. (This is a good example of what I wrote earlier about noticing that when students talk about their work experience, they only tell you what they want you to know.)
I am finally excited about the Christian community at Kenan-Flagler. This morning I also met a member of the faculty who said this past year's MBA Christian Fellowship has been the strongest one in ten years.
Yesterday's Washington Post had an article on our nation's governors gathering in Des Moines, Iowa for the annual meeting of the National Governors Association. Some of them are also doing something I wish I'd be fortunately enough to be able to do 30 years from now, testing the waters of a presidential campaign.
What caught my attention was a quote by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, who addressed the governors on improving education. He said that
"30 years ago, given the choice between growing up as a B student in Des Moines or a genius in Beijing or Bangalore, India, nearly everyone would have chosen the B student in Des Moines. Today, he said, because of the technology revolution, being a B student in Des Moines -- or anywhere else in the United States -- may not be enough to compete in the global economy."
This goes to reinforce something I have been feeling, that as technological advances force more Americans to compete with workers in the third world, the only ticket to job security is to enhance our human capital. I grew up in an immigrant family where my parents constantly told me I had to do well in school, otherwise "those Americans" would not give me a job. When I have kids, my motivation for them would be to make themselves intelligent otherwise they won't be able to compete against workers in the third world who work for one quarter the wages of an American counterpart.
I-85 is an interstate that begins south of Richmond and goes into Durham County before finding its way (many hours later) into Atlanta and Alabama. It is the highway I take everytime I drive into the Great Dominion. The great thing about I-85 is that the speed limit on most of the stretch that I take is 65 miles per hour, and most motorists regard 65 as the minimum speed limit.
Therefore, I was a bit surprised earlier this afternoon when I was returning to Chapel Hill after seeing some friends outside of Richmond when traffic came to a complete stop. It got to the point where I shut down my engine and other motorists were getting out of their vehicles. There were passengers walking into the bushes on the side of the highway to relief themselves and one girl in the Volvo in front of me walked her dog.
About 15 minutes later when the traffic began moving again, I saw that the culprit was a truck that rolled over on the right side of the highway. Not sure if the driver was going too fast when the highway bent left and lost control of the vehicle or if he did not turn quick enough and the truck went into the ditch. But I guess the moral of the story is ... the bigger they are ... (this is so trite I won't even finish it)
I picked up my Thinkpad T43 this afternoon. Since the IBM engineer replaced the defective hard drive, I had to install some of my favorite programs (ie AOL Security Edition) back on. During the installation process, I rebooted, and got the same memory address error as Windows XP was shutting down process.
Fortunately this happened when I was still at McColl so I went back to the help desk. The man at the desk said when things like this happen, it's either the memory, the hard drive, or the board. He said it's possible that the new hard drive is also defective. He told me to keep the laptop over the weekend, bring it back in on Monday and they will ship it out to the local IBM service center.
From what I have heard around Kenan-Flagler, the memory address error is pretty common among the IBM Thinkpads. Someone who bought the Thinkpad R52 said he's seen the problem on average of once every 15 days. At the help desk on Wednesday, one of the guys who works there said he's seen the error before. You would think for $2097 I would get a computer that doesn't have these problems.
First in a series
In class today, our beloved professor was talking about bonds and mentioned that General Motors suffered a major setback earlier this year when the agencies downgraded GM bonds. He said a lot of hedge funds lost money betting in the wrong direction and added, "I love it when hedge funds loose money, these guys think they're so smart."
Yesterday afternoon we had a presentation by the Kenan-Flagler computer group on how to access our intranet, and its public and shared folders. The speaker mentioned that we should all sign up for our (first)_(last)@uncbusiness.net email address. It's basically an email alias that will automatically forward email to any address we want. She gave the example that when we should use this email on our resumes so that after we graduate, perspective employers can continue to email us about job offers when we no longer have our regular UNC email accounts. At this point, one smart alecky UVA graduate (I swear it was not me) raised his hand and asked "wait a minute, I thought we are all supposed to have jobs when we graduate."
Tonight a bunch of Kenan-Flagler students went to a Durham Bulls game, the event was sponsored by the MBA Student Affairs office. Professor Morgan Jones' daughter sang the national anthem.
During the game I had the chance to talk to the student sitting behind me. He told me where he is from and I recognized him as someone who's been posting on BW B-Schools about Kenan-Flagler. We had corresponded a while back. He said he applied to Maryland (Smith), Georgetown (McDonough), Kenan-Flagler, William & Mary and Duke (Fuqua). He is on the wait list at Duke but got into every other program, even got a full ride offer at William & Mary. He used to work for a non-profit and I asked him for his impression of Yale SOM. He was very tactful in his response but pretty much confirmed my suspicions about Yale SOM being a school that is heavily slanted toward the non-profits. He attended the same recruiting event that I went to back in October. I mentioned Darden, without mentioning that I had applied, he feels the workload is too intense and takes away from opportunities to network and look for jobs.
It's funny how much similar this game was to Foxfields at UVA. Foxfields is a horse race they have in Charlottesville every April and October. No one ever goes to see the horses, it's just an opportunity to get dressed up to get drunk and socialize. We left the game at the middle of the eighth inning, the Durham Bulls were ahead 5-1.
Turns out I was wrong about my Thinkpad T43 lasting forever and not needing to be serviced. I have had it for one week now and a couple of times when I tried to reboot or turn off the computer, I would get a memory error of some sort. I turned it into the Kenan-Flagler help desk yesterday and got a call today saying the IBM engineer ran a test on the hard drive and decided it needs to be replaced.
I was very surprised at the diagnosis, because other than the memory error, which happens about one out of every seven occasions, everything was working perfectly. Good thing I am getting this done now before any real work begins and before I have installed anything of real significance (which I define as anything other than AOL software) onto it.
4:30pm update: Just now I started reading a copy of The New York Times I picked up on campus today. It has an article titled "E.R. for Hard Drives." According to the vice president of operations at OnTrack Data Recovery, it's important for everyone to back up his hard drive because "eventually, everyhard drive will fail."
6:10pm update: Now I am getting all paranoid about losing data on my desktop, where I keep most of my precious files. I am beginning to think that maybe a service such as AOL File Backup is not such a bad idea.
To a certain Terrapin MBA student who is interning at AOL this summer:
Happy Birthday!
I mentioned earlier that I have been careful to not mention to my Kenan-Flagler classmates that I am on Darden's wait list. Yet I am amazed at how many times the topic comes up.
Yesterday after the Office of Career Services presentation I was talking to Lucy out in the courtyard. She introduced me to another classmate who had just arrived from Charlottesville. We talked about Charlottesville and when he found out I am a UVA grad, he asked if I applied to Darden. I then gave my famous my-mouth-is-smiling-but-my-eyes-dart-to-the-corner-to-show-that-I-am-annoyed look and Lucy (who knows about my situation with Darden) then came in with the save by saying "that's a sore subject."
The same conversation repeated itself twice today. I was in the break room this morning offering to help another student in the economics workshop when I mentioned I majored in economics at UVA. She asked me "why didn't you apply to Darden?" Then this afternoon at Paneras, I mention that I lived in Virginia and the girl I was with asked whether I applied to Darden.
I really need to come up with a way to smoothly deflect these inquiries. I know my classmates mean no harm when they ask me whether I considered Darden but at the same time, I need to give a truthful answer without letting out the fact that Kenan-Flagler is not my first choice. In the meantime, I am going to work on that my-mouth-is-smiling-but-my-eyes-dart-to-the-corner-to-show-that-I-am-annoyed look so that it does not look so obvious that I am annoyed.
Across the street from WB Yeats on Franklin Street is Panera Bread. The last time I went to Panera Bread was this past Saturday when I had their Boston clam chowder for the first time, clearly best chowder I have ever had. After yesterday's happy hour, I went to Panera only to find that they closed at 8pm.
We had a presentation today by our economics professor on how to use Solver, a non-Microsoft add-on functionality created for Excel. After the presentation I asked the girl that sat next to me if she wanted to join me for a trek to Panera. She initially said no, but as we were walking out of McColl, I mentioned it again and she decided to join me.
When we got there, I was disappointed to find out that they didn't have the Boston clam chowder. Me and this girl talked about our thoughts about and impressions of Kenan-Flagler over chicken noodle soup garden vegetable soup. Turns out we both applied to almost the same schools. She was accepted into the school I got rejected from, and chose UNC over that other school because she does not like its location, feels that its program is too finance concentrated, and thinks its career placement is too concentrated in the Northeast. She also applied to but got rejected from Yale without an interview.
The Paneras Bread location on Franklin Street has Wi-Fi and I will be sure to hang out there more often, especially on Fridays when they do have the Boston clam chowder.
A week ago today I drove down to Chapel Hill to attend the Kenan-Flagler Welcome Session. So far I have been gradually to life in the MBA program. I remember right after the Welcome Session last week, we had a happy hour at Pantana Bob's and I spent most of the time there feeling kind of bad. It was almost like the beginning two weeks of undergrad, you are surrounded by a group of people and yet you feel lonely like "I really should know more people but I don't know anyone." But as the week went by I began to gradually know more and more people. I think the almost daily happy hours and social events definitely help make you meet more people.
One of the people that I met that am pretty "good friends" (I use that term in quotes because we are pretty "good friends" considering that we have only been here for a week) is someone I met at Pantana Bob's last week. Her name is Marty (again, not real name) and she said that others in our group feel the same way. The professor in one of her workshops joked around in class saying "you're all probably wondering what did I get myself into and is there any way I can get my old job back." That phrase pretty much sums up how I feel. She also said a couple of people have noticed that the class seems to be self segregating between those in their mid twenties and those a bit older. She heard that the average age of our class has gone down from what it has been in the past at Kenan-Flagler.
There are certainly other students that are adjusting very well right away with no problems. Yesterday Lucy mentioned was telling me that this past week has been similar to her first weeks in college, when she would drive around town in her car just to explore the town saying "hey this is an awesome place!"
I do think Chapel Hill is a pretty nice town and that while it may take a while for me to get completely adjusted, the destination is within reach.
In case it is not blindingly clear, the previous post illustrates why I do not want any of my classmates to ever read, or to know about the existence of, this blog. While I will never write anything unkind about them, knowing that the people I write about will never read this blog gives me the freedom to be frank with sharing my experiences with my readers.
With the exception of the readers who know who I am in real life, I wish to remain anonymous to my readers. I welcome the replies I have gotten from my readers, yet I wish some of you would exercise a bit of discretion when posting.
I have received a couple of replies where the replier addresses me by my first name. Please do not do this. If a person were to randomly come across this blog, and this person knows my first name, it would not be difficult for this person to find out my identity - especailly if this person is a student at Kenan-Flagler. You may, however, refer to me as Buckyhoo.
Thanks for being considerate. As this blog gets more exposure, your cooperation becomes more vital to keeping this blog alive and interesting.
And in case you're wondering, Lucy is not her real name. I will refrain from identifying anyone using a real name just in case I am ever outted.
We had a very interesting happy hour tonight at WB Yeats on Franklin Street. I struck up a conversation with three fellow students and found out that one of them is JohnGalt123. JohnGalt123 is the alias of a poster on BW B-Schools and I have read many of his posts about UNC Kenan-Flagler. He explained that he's a libertarian and John Galt is the name of a character from Ayn Rand's Atlas Strugged. We then got into a discussion about how I feel regarding seat belts laws, socialized medicine, and other types of government intrustion into our lives.
Later on the conversation turned toward careers and another student in our group talked about her experiences working for her previous employer. She did a pretty good job (no pun intended, get it, "job?") at describing her previous position. Yet she had neglected to mention the most interesting aspect of her job. It just happens that yesterday I did a Google search on this particular person and found out the company she worked at was owned by her family for generations. I don't think there is anthing wrong with what she did but this just goes to show that when people talk about their jobs (or other aspect of their lives), they tend to tell you what they want to tell you.
Right before I left I talked to Lucy. Lucy used to work for a firm that produces campaign commercials for Republican candidates (no McCoy, I did not do a Google search on her too, she told me this information). I mentioned that even though North Carolina is a red state, I feel surrounded by liberals in the Chapel Hill/ UNC community. She said she feels similarly and has refrained from telling classmates what type of commercials she was producing, other than "I work in advertising." Her exact words to me were "I am laying low, and you better not pull me out of the water."
Today was an interesting day. I did not have any classes, but attended a presentation by the Office of Career Services. We were told what we need to do to get our act together for the upcoming job search season. The director of OCS gave us the statistical results from this past year's recruiting season.
98% of first years received an internship and 85% of second years received one or more offers for post-graduation. The major employers that recruited were Bank of America (17), Booz Allen Hamilton (6), Citigroup (9), Deloitte & Touche (11), Goldman & Sachs (8), Hewlett Packard (6), IBM (12), J.P. Morgan Chase (8), Johnson & Johnson (10), Kraft (10), Lehman Brothers (14), and Wachovia (13).
The pre-MBA workshops that are being offered in July are financial accounting, microeconomics, quantitative analysis, and finance. For some reason, the finance workshop is a one half workshop, meets only three days a week (as opposed to five) and only costs half as much. Finance is the only workshop I am taking and it did not begin until today.
It went well for a first day of class, we were given a syllabus of what chapters were covered, what the homework assignments were, etc. The professor joked around saying we should take as many finance classes at Kenan-Flagler as we could, and that other subjects such as marketing you can pretty much learn out of a book.
In addition to the workshops that I have mentioned above, there are other "general MBA skills" workshops that are mandatory for all students here in July and do not pertain to any particular discipline. They are communication skills and case methodology. Both of these met today. The communication skills workshop teaches us how to do Power Point presentations and speak effectively in front of an audience. The more interesting workshop was the case methodology workshop. Case methodology is a teaching process by which students read about a business situation, called a case, and attend class to discuss the issues facing the business and possible solutions. It is a major derivation from the straight lecture format that most of us are used to and is controversial because there are certain topics such as accounting that many feel cannot be learned via the case methodology. At Kenan-Flagler, about a quarter of the classes are taught via the case method format and other business schools such as Harvard, Darden, and Babcock (Wake Forest) use them a lot more. This workshop teaches students how to learn in a classroom that utilizes the case methodology. We practice reading Harvard Business School cases and how to identify and discuss the issues at hand, come up with different solutions, and arrive at a concensus on how to best solve the problem confronting the company.
We are given the chance to put all these skills together during the last week when we are expected to give a Power Point presentation on a business solution to one of the business cases.
"When a group of MBAs were asked whether they'd rather make $100,000 when everyone around them made $120,000, or make $90,000 when everyone around them made $70,000, a majority opted for the lesser salary if everyone at the company knew about the discrepancy, Schwarz said. But if the salary discrepancies were kept confidential, about half said they'd opt for the $100,000 job." -CNN/Money article
I wonder what schools these alledged MBAs graduated from. I'd much prefer the $100,000 salary, even if everyone else around me makes 20% more and everyone is aware of it. This goes to confirm my view that a lot of MBA grads (and current students) have big egos.
Perhaps some of my old colleagues can help me out with this. I use a client called AOL Communicator on my desktop to send and receive my AOL and UNC email (on my IBM Thinkpad, I use Outlook Express 2003). AOL Communicator is really six different applications wrapped up in one, email, instant message, address book, etc. One applicantion is something called My AOL Today. When you run it, it comes on with a screen that looks like a screensaver, except it has an interactive menu with information such as news headlines, financial market quotes, sports scores, etc.
For a long while everytime I launch Communicator I would get an error message saying My AOL Today was not working, as though something is not syncing in the background. That message is no longer happening. Instead, I now get the screensaver-like screen coming on, but with no headlines (see picture above). My guess is that since there are no plans to upgrade Communicator or to incorporate it into the Copland strategy, the geniuses in charge have asked Studio@AOL to stop supporting My AOL Today with headline updates.
As I mentioned earlier, I am subletting a house from a second year Kenan-Flagler student for the month of July, a townhouse with approximately 1500 square feet for $550 including all utilities. Technically I am only subletting one of the three bedrooms but because there is no one here, I have the entire house all to myself.
I moved in on Wednesday and it wasn't until last night that I was able to setup my Dell desktop and get it connected to the DSL connection. This experience made me realize how reliant I am to being "always-on." I am not saying it was inconvenient before to have to take out my laptop to dial into America Online. I am just so addicted to being able to walk up to my desktop's flat panel display and quickly get up to speed on the latest information like gossip on Dawna Clarke's departure from Darden, or what RealMcCoyatWork did in the past nine days that he was not at work.
This past Tuesday was the one month anniversary of this blog. But unfortunately I was so busy I did not get a chance to notice until today.
For the past month I have kept this blog on a schedule of one posting in the morning, one in the afternoon, and one in the evening per weekday, one morning posting on Saturdays, and nothing on Sundays. This schedule will change since I will begin my pre-MBA workshop on Monday at Kenan-Flalger. I imagine I will have less time to blog but at the same time, I will have more things to blog about.
I will begin to blog on an "as needed" schedule based on whenever I find time or have something to say. I will probably continue to make Sunday a day of rest by not blogging.
In a bit of good news, our blog has made its presence on Google. Typing in the name of this blog (spelling it exactly the way I spell it) and hitting "I'm feeling lucky" will result in you being directed right to this page. Thanks to everyone who helped in making this possible.
It's funny how most of the information I have about the happenings at Darden are based on rumors on the internets. This is one of those news items that is only of interest to those that are either applying or have applied to Darden. Someone who has been posting on the BW B-Schools forum as a rising second year at Darden mentioned that Dawna Clarke has accepted a position as Dean of Admissions at the Tuck School of Business (Dartmouth).
If this is true, this would explain why she's been out of town so often within the past month. I am a bit surprised she got the job offer, especially after she did such a lousy with this past year's applicants. I am only saying she did not a lousy job not because I didn't get in (actually I didn't get rejected yet, I am just one out of only about thirty applicants out of an entire pool of close to twenty-five hundred that still has not received a decision) but because Darden was giving all indication back in April that it was having difficulty getting students to submit deposits and now it has an incoming class that is over-subscribed.
Prior to working at Darden, Dawna Clarke worked at the admissisons office (although I don't believe she was the director) at Kenan-Flagler
If I get the call from Darden tomorrow, I would still choose Darden over Kenan-Flagler. However, for obvious reasons, I do not want to advertise that to my fellow classmates. So when I was at Chapel Hill earlier this week, I purposely refrained from telling anyone I am on Darden's wait list. But sometimes when the topic comes up and I am asked, it's hard for me to lie.
On Wednesday a bunch of us went to a happy hour at Pantana Bob's after our tour. I sat down at a table with two female students and we were talking about schools, why we chose Kenan-Flagler, etc. The conversation went something like this:
Student 1: So did you apply to Darden?
Me: Yea
Student 2: Well I am glad you chose Kenan-Flagler over Darden.
Me: Ahh ... actually the choice was never offered to me.
Student 2: You are much better off here.
Me: If the opportunity arises and I am offered the chance, I don't know what I would do.
Student 1: Oh so you're on the wait list? You have already moved here, you don't want to move a second time, do you?
Me: I don't move here until August, I am subletting in July and living out of a suit case.
Student 1 to Student 2: He's hedging his bet.
July 13, 2005 update: One of these students I now refer to on the blog as Marty.
Yesterday I was getting lunch at the Kenan-Flagler cafeteria when I saw the Dean Steve Jones standing on line behind me. He chatted with me and one other student that was on line. The three of us ended up having lunch together. He asked us questions like where we're from, what we studied, what we did professionally, and our impression of Kenan-Flagler so far.
I talked to my father earlier today. I asked casually whether the people from the carpet store have delivered and installed the new carpet on the second floor yet. He said yes and mentioned that as they were getting ready to move the furniture back into the bedrooms, it was decided that my sister would get my room.
Nineteen years ago when we first bought the house BuckySis had said she wanted my room. My parents decided to give me the room instead because I am older, and obvioulsy, the older sibling gets the bigger room. Now that I am no longer living with my parents (actually I have not lived with them for at least seven years), BuckySis finally gets her wish.
Business schools love to talk about the diversity of its students, not just ethnic diversity but diversity of folks from foreign ... oops I mean international countries. Earlier today I met this girl from Thailand, she tells me she is one of four girls from her native country. I impressed her by talking about my familiarity with Thai dishes, particularly drunken noodle, pad thai, and tom yung goan.
Then tonight I was talking to them and there was one other girl there, this one from Taiwan. We were talking about some stuff, I had some trouble understanding her. Then she asked me how long I have lived in this country and when I answered her, she asked me "so do you like American girls over Chinese girls?"
I was a bit taken aback by her frankness, so were some of the other Thai girls in the audience. I simply said "oh I like them all, black, Latino, middle eastern, Asian, American-Indian." Then later I had mentioned I have never been to Taiwan, and she said "oh if you want to come visit, I can be your host." (rolling my eyes)
There is yet another happy hour tonight at a bar called East End. I need to get some studying done and get some real food in my stomach before I start drinking yet again.
Earlier this morning I met my new best friend that will be my companion for at least the next two years. He will help me with all my homework, projects, and assignments and I will trust him with all my deepest and darkest secrets .
It's my new IBM Thinkpad T43. I purchased it via Carolina Computing Initiatives, which subsidizes computer purchases for UNC students. I did some price comparison over the web and it looks like I am getting a pretty good deal, especially since it comes with Microsoft Office, but I still feel $2097 is a bit much for a laptop. Perhaps the biggest advantage of buying it through CCI is that the Kenan-Flagler help desk will repair it for free if there are any problems. But then I have been told that Thinkpads last forever, so I don't know if this benefit will have any realistic value.
Woke up this morning at around 8 and saw the coverage on MSNBC of the attacks in London. My first concerns were about the American subways system, particularly in New York City and Washington, DC.
A small comfort may be that one lesson the terrorists learned from 9/11 is that because the American government reacts quickly to attacks (ie grounding all flights within an hour after the first plane hit World Trade Center), even if the terrorists were to plan on striking our mass transit systems, they would not choose to do so on the same day they hit the London systems. They would much rather hit us in one big surprise attack when we least expect it rather than to plan to hit us on the same day as they hit a European target, thus giving us 5 hours of head start to prepare our precautions.
The Dean of Admissions Sherry Wallace gave us these numbers today. They are accurate as of yesterday and are still subject to change.
Currently there are 280 students committed to matriculate in August, about 10 higher than Kenan-Flagler's "magic number" of around 270. 29% of students are international and 27% are women, the percentage of women has gone down compared to the historic average. The average GMAT score is 671 and 26% of the class applied through early action (in which accepted students are legally obligated to give a $2000 deposit).
Greetings from Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Earlier today I made the five hour (traffic was bad) drive to Chapel Hill for the Kenan-Flagler Welcome Session. I joined approximately 160 other students who will be attending the July pre-MBA workshop. The morning presentation was informational, we heard from the director of MBA program, the director of the pre-MBA workshop, and the Dean of Admissions. We found out interesting tid bits about the school, such as our building (McColl Building) being named after a Kenan-Flagler alum that later became CEO of Bank of America. I guess this explains why there is a Bank of America ATM in the basement and the bank representatives set up a table downstairs trying to hawk checking accounts. There was an afternoon presentation by the vice president of information technology on computing on and off campus. This was followed by a tour of the UNC campus, we got our student ID (also known as the UNC One Card), swung by the old well where tradition holds that students take drink from the water fountain (originally this was literally a well) to get good grades, walked by Old East (the oldest building on campus), and tour ended on Franklin Street. We then had drinks at Pontana Bob's.
When I talk to other students I am reminded of just how small the MBA world is. There is another student here that I have been corresponding with over the past several months. I first met him in March when we both interviewed at the same school together. We both ended up getting rejected from that school and are now at Kenan-Flagler. There is another student I met during the Kenan-Flagler Experience Weekend. She lives and works very close to where I live and we were both convinced we've seen one another before but could not quite identify what the occasion was. When I ran into her again today, she remembered that we met in November at an essay workshop held by the local Kaplan office. She was on the wait list for Wharton but withdrew last week and is now set on Kenan-Flagler.
Just now I was driving back from the doctor's office and stopped at a red light. A storm had just passed through and I could tell that my lane straight ahead had a giant bumper lying in the middle of the road blocking one maybe two lanes. As I contemplated how to maneuver around the debris, I saw on the opposite traffic direction a woman got out of her van (which was also stopped at the red light), ran into the lane, and pulled the debris into the median. Later when her van drove by, I saw the logo for the nearby Marriott and when I got home, I called to tell the manager of her good citizenship. The clerk who picked up said the manager was not available but said he would take down my message and pass it on.
Realitically, he probably won't pass along the message but it was the effort that counts.
I stopped by the local public library this morning. I am a big supporter (sarcastic) of the public library system. I show my support by regularly donating my unwanted books. Many of these books are by authors with my political views. I imagine my donation this morning will probably result in an entire generation of kids in the county growing up to support lower taxes, small government, and individual rights.
The past week has been pretty rough for me emotionally. After about two weeks of not having to go to the office, it began to finally sink in that I am going to business school. Although I know going to Kenan-Flagler is a good decision for me, as opposed to continuing to work at AOL and live in this area for one more year, I feel as though things will be rough at first.
This coming Wednesday I will drive to Chapel Hill for a one day welcome session. I will be subletting a house (unfurnished) during the month of July from a second year student. After the welcome session, I will return to my apartment on Thursday or Friday. Then, starting next Monday, I have my finance workshop every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I will stay there during the week and possibly return to my apartment on the weekends. Keep in mind that the house I am subletting has no furniture - other than my sleeping bag, a folding chair, a folding table, etc.
My long term apartment doesn't begin until August 1. Somewhere aorund the end of July or the beginning of August, the big move will happen. I am still deciding between whether to move myself (and rent a truck) or hire movers. The hader part is packing. As the big dig continues, I am beginning to realize just what deep trouble I am in. I have a ton of books. The ones I have read I will give away. But the bigger porblem is the ones that I have not read, and don't see myself having the time to read in the near future.
Emotionally, I feel overwhelmed everytime I think about what I have to do physically to get the move to happen, or about starting my workshop next week while living at the subletted house without any furniture. I compare this to a roller coaster because just as you know a roller coaster ride will eventually come to an end, I know the day will come when I will feel settled in and accepted at Kenan-Flagler. I just don't know how many months/weeks in the future that day will arrive.
One of my favorite shows is HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and tonight's episode is hilarious. Larry's wife's aunt died, it became Larry's job to write an obituary in the paper. When the obituary appeared, the word "aunt" was mis-spelled.
AOL's Terms of Services forbids me from revealing what the mis-spelling was. But let me give you a hint .... since tomorrow's the beginning of a three day weekend for many of us, I will not be able to blog again until Tuesday. Therefore, I will ... C U Next Tuesday! (ha!)
Sorry for having missed the morning update but I have been busy running around, making calls to friends in high places to try to get an interview for a particular job opening.
It's been 15 days since my last day at work. I have really been enjoying my new found freedom. I spent my days doing whatever I wanted and didn't spend much time/energy worrying about money. And then reality hit me this past week. First I had to pay for my pre-MBA workshop and because I missed the deadline, I had to pay for my own textbook. Then I put in an order on Wednesday for my laptop. I had been putting it off because it's best to purchase your laptop from your school so you can utilize the on-campus support, but now that it's beginning to look like I am going to Kenan-Flagler for certain I thought I might as well put in the order just to have it with me during the pre-MBA workshop. Then yesterday I received the bill for first semester's tuition.
While none of these expenses are unforeseen, it's always different when you get the bill. Now I am beginning to do calculations on the spreadsheet on how much I expect to pocket from selling my apartment and how much spending money I can expect to have for the next two years. This has made me more conscious about my spending. I was going to hire movers but now I am leaning more toward renting a truck and getting friends to load it while I drive it down to Chapel Hill and finding some classmates to do the unloading.
My company-sponsored health insurance also ended yesterday on the last day of the month. I made sure I went to the pharmacy yesterday to fill up on all prescriptions. I will be on COBRA during July but I have yet to receive my enrollment package. I called the enrollment folks and was told they have not received the material from my former employer yet.
Have a good Fourth of July everyone!
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