And now a forward-looking blog post!

So this past week I finished my last exams which means my 1^st year of my MBA is now finished. Pretty surreal! I’ve done the reflection thing already so now it is time for a forward-looking blog post.

-For the prospective marketers-

The class of 2013 (i.e. my cohort) includes a lot of pretty passionate marketers (including myself) DETERMINED to make Rotman THE marketing school for MBAs. We’ve learned a lot from:

-Seeing how the Rotman Marketing Association did things this past year

-What other MBA schools are doing for their marketing-focused students

-Seeing what the corporate connections centre does and does not do for us marketing people

And how to build a better "marketing school" from this. 

Our Rotman Marketing Association exec team is amazing (full disclosure, I am one of the vice-presidents of the incoming Rotman Marketing Association executive team ;-); I can’t wait for you to meet all of us! You will do well to come to Rotman next year if marketing is your thing.

-Rotman in general-

-We were actually pretty lucky that the Graduate Business Council (GBC) this year was amazing. The events they had for us were so amazing and fun. Through this, we got to see how a really awesome GBC can work and will be leveraging this awesome knowledge as the GBC for the 2012-2013 academic year. Get ready for fun….to the max!!!

-We get a brand new building. It looks pretty awesome (right next door to the existing building). So you guys will be the first to break in the chairs, desks, etc. How delightful!

-Despite what you may think, the profs are very receptive and responsive to feedback that is given to them throughout and at the end of the semesters by us students. You guys will get the benefit of our prof reviews with a great 1^st year curriculum..

-Because I am living in London for most of this summer and then going on exchange in the fall I may not see most of you newbies until January (although I will be in Toronto mid-august so hopefully a Rotman social event ensues so I can meet you guys) but rest assured, all of us soon-to-be-2^nd-year students are a delightful bunch…You will have a blast with us!

Finally, while I am on my internship in London, I will be using this blog to blog about my experiences working and living in London. I hope you enjoy!

Ranking the Quarters of First Year

There is a rumour floating around that the curriculum is being redone for the 1^st years next year and that quarters will be a thing of the past. It won’t be 2 semester either but I am not entirely sure what the deal is. Nonetheless, today was the last day of class! So I thought I would take a moment to reflect on the 4 quarters of the 1^st year of MBA school to give you a sense of how each qtr stacked up against each other:

First Quarter

Welcome to Rotman! We were busy for sure but with careful time management, it wasn’t a big deal. This was mostly because:

-Club events hadn’t started yet

-Recruiting hadn’t started yet

-There was an even balance between quantitative classes (and not that terrible quant at that) and qualitative ones

Second Quarter

The worst of the worst. Without a doubt. Never been pushed like this in my life, ever. Why was this qtr so hard?

-Club events started up

-It seemed like there was another case competition for another major (marketing, finance etc) happening every week

-Very demanding workload across all of our classes

If you cared little about doing anything but school work, Q2 would maybe have been only slightly more intense than Q1. However, the moment you added any extracurriculars (which was a given for almost everyone at school), you got slammed with work.

While it was the worst in terms of stress, workload and sleep depravity, I think it was also the most enriching knowing I could do all of the above, do it well and come out the other side alive.

Third Quarter

The easiest of the easy. This was because:

-We had only 3 final exams

-Most of the evaluation in several classes revolved around in-class work (with little prep prior to class needed)

-Not as quant heavy as Q1 or Q2

-Few- if any- case competitions

Rotman plans this like this intentionally though. Because recruiting season is in Q3, we needed the free time to go to company info sessions, write cover letters, do practice interviews, real interviews, etc.

So when you factor the job search in, the amount of work you end up doing can end up one of two ways:

-If you get a job early in the recruitment process: You have yourself a quasi vacation this qtr!

-If you are applying for jobs for the duration of the qtr: You end up working (on school work or job applications) in total about as much as in Q1.

Fourth Quarter

If you have a job already, this qtr is about as time consuming as Q1. Without a job (and assuming you are doing interviews/job applications steadily), it is about as bad as Q2. Besides the job issues, what makes this qtr tough:

-More case competitions!

-Deliverables that are timed very close together

-Lots of assignments

What helps though, is we only have 4 exams this qtr. Huray!

So if I were to rank the qtrs, they would be as follows from easiest to hardest:

Q3

Q1

Q4

Q2

This is pretty much the consensus among everyone at our school as well. 

And now, off to study for exams!

So what’s going on, potential future Rotmanites?

Hey Guys!

My friend Paige gave a pretty good synopsis of what has been a big time occupier lately here. This and our Integrative Thinking Practicum case assignments (as alluded to in my own earlier post) have been occupying pretty much all of my time as of late. In fact I have had little time to do anything else and was severely behind the game in all of my other classes. Thankfully we have a long weekend for me to catch up now!

Nothing much else new to report. BUT I know for potential Rotmanites, you have some big decisions to make in the coming days and weeks! So I thought I would open the floor to you guys who have been reading my blog.

Is there anything you are interested to know about Rotman? Don’t be afraid to ask me really weird, obscure questions either….That was the kind of stuff I myself was looking to learn before coming to Rotman. I’m more that happy to satisfy your curiosity on ANYTHING about school…No holds barred!

So ask away in the comments boxes below!