MBA World Cup 2012!

This weekend that has just gone by was another one of those times when things seemed to have come full circle for me.  I remember vetting schools and obtaining any information that I could and stumbling upon the Tuck MBA World Cup video on youtube.  I have played soccer for the 14 our of 30 years of my life so this tournament held at Tuck was appealing to me when I was applying.

Here at Johnson, I haven't been involved in the Soccer club at my school but when I saw the email come through that the team would be going to the World Cup tournament up at Tuck, I knew that I had to be a part of it because I remember watching the video and seeing how much fun it looked.  So yes, that's where I was this weekend - up at Tuck playing soccer!

I left with a friend of mine from Ithaca around 8:30 on Friday morning.  We got up to our hotel around hhmm 2:30 pm?  I then took a nap because I was exhausted.  I was exhausted because I was up the night before for my 30th birthday!  I didn't drink much because I knew that I had to play soccer over the weekend and I wanted to be fresh - but I was up late!

After I took my nap, it was time for us to go over to the school for a reception/pizza/meet and greet.  A bonus of the trip was that I was able to see all of my friends who are Tuckies.  Friends I've made through the Consortium and MLT.  (See posts from June 2011 to know what I'm referring too - click these hyperlinks -  MLT and Consortium)  But yeah I couldn't wait to catch up with them all!

After the reception my team and I went out for some dinner.  Needed to carbo load right?  I got to speak with a 2nd year who I had not really had much contact with throughout the year.  We just run in different circles and are going two different routes in terms of industry.  That's okay though because Johnson students are very much alike in that those differences don't matter.  He gave me some great insight into which classes I should take as a 2nd year.  Yes, that's what the conversations I have now revolve around - being a 2nd year!

We all pretty much just went to bed after that.  Our first game in the morning would be against MIT.  Then we would play a team from Mexico - IPADE, and then we were to play Tuck Black.  Tuck had four teams there, - one in each bracket.  

The first game against MIT was eye-opening to say the least.  I hadn't run around like that in 12 years so my body was telling me that I was crazy.  I definitely pushed through the pain though.  We ended up losing to MIT 3-1.  We had a handball in the box which resulted in a scored penalty kick.  

JOHNSON VS. MIT

After losing to MIT we had about an hour and a half long break before we would play IPADE.  We won our game against them 2-1.  I think the game against MIT warmed us up because we played very well against IPADE.  

JOHNSON VS. IPADE

Then we had another hour and a half long break and played Tuck Black.  By this time I think our bodies were telling us that they had had enough.  I know that mine definitely did!  Tuck Black ultimately went on to win the entire tournament, so I guess if we want to say that we lost to Tuck we can say that at least it was the team that won!  ;-)  

JOHNSON VS. TUCK BLACK

After the three games we all went back to the hotel and went in the hot tub!  I would say that a good amount of the teams in the tournament were staying in the hotel we stayed at.  I know this because in the morning at breakfast I saw many different school jersey's but also because after the games you would see a whole host of men walking around limping.  When passing one another in the hallways we would just smile and start laughing because we ALL felt exactly the same way.

Even though we were spent from the games, it was time to PARTY at the Tuck BBQ.  So we all heade d back over to the Tuck campus and enjoyed some beer and bbq food.  This is when I really got to catch up with a lot of people.  Then after the BBQ there was a Latin event where different latin countries made specialty drinks for everyone.  My intention was to try a drink from all 7 countries that were present, but I only made it to Peru and then went back to Pina Colada's!  

I think we were there for a couple of hours and then walked into town to go bar hopping.  What I didn't realize is that there wasn't much "hopping" involved.  We went to two bars total.  I had two shots at the first one and then one drink at the second one while I was talking to a couple of friends.  By that time I think the alcohol hit us all and we had to take a cab back to our hotel.  In hindsight, it was probably for the better because I needed to get food into my system.

So that was my experience at the MBA World Cup this weekend.  Here are some more pictures:

Ross School of Business Graduation

I have to have a special blog post for my friends who just graduated from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business just recently!  First of all a Congratulation is in order!  You guys have now earned your MBA degree and can change your Facebook pages to say this -

In addition to congratulating you guys!  I now know what an amazing accomplishment it is to be admitted to business school.  I feel like it was just yesterday when I met some of you guys BEFORE business school and some while I was a prospective and you were a first year!  My friends at Ross have been instrumental in ushering me through the business school application process even if it wasn't necessarily at Ross.  The insights that they provided to me are never taken lightly by me.

It's weird to think that I've watched them go through this amazing period in one's life that is business school.  To think that on July 22nd of 2010 I had a guest blogger, who would go on to attend Ross, has just graduated makes me remember to cherish these moments in business school even more so!  Here is the post that he wrote for me nearly 2 years ago! Michigan Ross: Pre-1st Year Student.  Maybe I'll reach out to him to see if he wants to write a Post-Mortem for me!  That would be a great end to this saga wouldn't it?

He's just one of the many people who have helped me out and I think that says a lot about the community at Ross!  If I had to talk about another friend of mine at Ross, I could go on and on for days.  He's not just a friend now he's a very very good friend.  We met at the Reaching Out Conference in 2010 hen I was a PRE-MBA but we have incredibly similar personalities and have just taken to one another.  He has definitely kept me sane and reminds me to keep this whole business school "thing" in perspective!  I'm glad that he's been incredibly successful these last two years and I'm hoping that at some point we'll end up int he same city.  Although that city will NOT be ready for us together at all times.  I don't even know if I would be ready for that - my liver definitely wouldn't be.

In any event, there are about 5 Rossers that I want to congratulate and they know who they are.

Just Lamping in Sage Hall

Hello everyone -

I'm just sitting here in the atrium in my school in the common area with my friends just killing time and talking about random things.  So there are some instances (many) where you just find yourself talking about things that are so random.

For instance, right now we're discussing last night's episode of Revenge!  I'm not sure if anyone out there is into this show but I can tell you that my group of friends and I are OBSESSED.  Sometimes I'll message one of my classmate's fiancee on Faccbook to recap previous episodes.  Right now I'm basically telling my friends here that they need to catch-up because I can't recap with them.  Now we are in a breakout room sending emails with Revenge on the TV monitor.  One of my classmates had to get caught up so here is what we mapped out for her.

Another thing that we're discussing is our travel schedule for 2nd year during winter break.  Thankfully, come this December, we won't have to worry about recruiting too much.  So the conversation went something like this:

Emily - "Hey Richard - are you coming on the Europe trek?"
Me - "So I think I want to go to Europe or China.  I'm signed up for the China trek but I'm wondering if I should hit up Europe in December since I'm going to Asia in two weeks."
Tammi - "I think I'm going Thailand and Vietnam"
Adam - "I'm taking the class that is going to China."
Me - "and then we're all going to Brazil with Alice and I want to go to Thailand for spring break - which WILL happen!"

That's all I have for now...  I know I know a pretty boring post.

Clear Admit: Best of Blogging Award!

Hi all - just like last year, here is the link to the Clear Admit Best of Blogging Awards.  I'm not going to say who you should vote for, but if you feel so compelled to vote for any of your favorite MBA bloggers & Applicant Bloggers then feel free to vote here:

Clear Admit Best of Blogging Ballot

Destination Johnson 2012!

This post is inspired by my friend who goes to Fuqua.  She updated her Facebook status talking about how us 1st years feel about our respective school's admitted students weekends.

This past weekend was very nostalgic for me!  It was our admitted students weekend here at Johnson.  I remember the excitement that I had a year ago when I was on the bus on my way up to Destination Johnson (DJ). My Post About DJ 2011.

DJ went from Friday - Sunday.  Thta prior Thursday I drove to the airport to pick up an admitted student who was to stay with me.  When he got in, we were going to go bowling but all of the bowling alley's had leagues going on that night.  Instead, I called up some of my friends and told them to meet me at The Nines, which is a bar here in Collegetown.  My other friend came with an admitted student who he was hosting as well.  It was interesting to see the two admitted students get acquainted.  It definitely brought back a lot of memories from when I was first getting acquainted to my classmates.

We sat at the bar for about 2 hours and then headed to the "club" here in Ithaca.  Initially I wasn't sure if the two admitted students wanted to go as they would have an early morning the next day, but I asked them and they said that they definitely wanted to.  So that was definitely cool and I would have said the same thing had I been them.  I don't remember what I did the first night I came up for DJ to be honest.  I may have called it an early night so I could be so fresh and so clean in the morning.

This Thursday night of DJ was definitely not an early night.  There were a couple other admitted students at the bar and every time I would meet one of them I would say "oh... you gotta come meet two of your new classmates."  That's pretty much how the night went until a unch of people came over to my place afterwards.  This is not a new occurrence as I frequently have people after the bars have closed at 1am.   The only difference this time is that I had an admitted student staying with me.  I didn't want to keep him up late, but he kept insisting that he was having fun.

The next day was the start of DJ.  When the two of us (me and the admitted student) got to Sage (the business school) We both went into the registration room.  I had an "OMG" moment when I walked behind the registration table and he stopped to say his name to the person checking folks in.  I then went into the atrium to greet and speak with the admitted students.  There wasn't anything formal going on at that moment and they were all congregated in the atrium getting to know one another.

I had to leave them to their own vices because I had to complete an application to be a part of the Johnson Admissions Group which is the group that works with admissions where 2nd years become student interviewers.  It's probably no secret that this is something that I would want to be a part of right?

After I submitted my application it was time to go on the housing tour.  The housing tour basically takes the admitted students around Ithaca, showing them different apartment complexes.  I was on the bus with two of my classmates and about 46 admitted students.  Again at this point I began to reminisce because I remember who I sat next to last year on that tour - my NOW classmate Brandon.  Also while on the bus the three of us current students were talking about life in Ithaca and about our love for Johnson.  I definitely remember asking the same questions last year.  Soooo crazy....

After the housing tour I believe there was a lot of downtime (a couple of hours).  I don't remember what I did.  oh yes I do!  I was having another admitted student stay with me and he had just gotten off of the bus from NYC so I met up with him and took him back to my place to drop off his stuff before the opening speech from Dean Thomas and the rest of the faculty.  I wanted to sit in on that speech but thought that it would be creepy if i crashed their "party."  I went home and took a much needed nap!

When I woke up from my nap I had to change into business casual because I had to go to a reception hosted by the Office of Diversity and Inclusion at the country club near campus later that night.  BUT.. before the reception we had Casino night in the atrium!  Casino night is just that but not with real money.  Instead we use Dean Bucks!  I didn't gamble because I wanted to get some food in my stomach.  I ate about 5 plates of meatballs - I kid you not!  The admitted students were sooooo thrilled to be there.  (Well... most of them).  It's interesting to see the divide between those folks who are 100% committed to Johnson already and signed apartment leases and those who are still deciding between different schools.

Like Wendy Williams says - "Everything is not for everybody" so I think it's easy to tell who are the people who just don't "fit" with Johnson.  It's one thing to convey fit in an essay but another thing to just get here and not "feel it" and that's completely fine!  I want everyone who is applying to business school to go to the school that is the best for them!  I nor my classmates have any hard feelings towards anyone who doesn't "get it."  But I digress...

During Casino night a funny thing happened.  I was ICED!  Smirnoff ICED!  If you don't know what that is - it's when you're literally handed a Smirnoff ice from someone and if you don't have one in your back pocket to give them then you have to chug the one they gave you right there down on one knee.  So I was walking by one of my classmate's fiances (or Joint Ventures) as we sometimes refer to them.  Anyway she was like 'Richard... can you go in my purse?"  Her hands were full so she walked over to me and turned so her purse was in front of me and said "open it" so I obliged and saw the Smirnoff ice in there but it didn't register.  So I pulled it out and saw the label and looked her in her eye and said "Wait... did you just ICE ME?1"  She started laughing and I'm like OMG I can't believe this lol.  So yes I got ICED and here's the proof!

After Casino night it was time to go to the Diversity reception.  Last year at this reception I remember winning a prize but they didn't have that raffle going on this year.  One of the highlights for me at this reception was being able to talk to an admitted student who is so excited to be coming to Johnson.  I first met this admitted student back in December when I saw him, another girl, and another guy standing around at a Sage social.  A bunch of us were on our way to head to another bar and I invited those three to come with us.  Ironically - they were all at Johnson this past weekend!  But yeah, I was speaking to him and I could see the excitement in his eyes when he spoke about his experience thus far going through the process.  It brought back memories and he's the type of person that I love meeting because I know that he won't take his experience here at Johnson for granted!

After the diversity reception I went over to a house party given by one of my classmates.  It was sooooo crowded but it was fun to see the admitted students unwind.  Then we headed to another bar down the street and partied it up all night.  I was mostly dancing with the Joint Ventures.  Of course after that a bunch of us went to get pizza!  

The next day we woke up bright and early and headed to Sage again for breakfast.  I was definitely looking forward to breakfast - well more so the coffee at breakfast.  I'm not sure how many cups I had but I didn't have a tough day ahead of me.  The admitted students were going to be doing a bonding activity.  I remember doing the same activity last year except this year I was moderating a team and instructing them on how to do it.  I can't give too much away about the activity but it has to do with getting directions for something... working together to do it... then debriefing.  What was interesting for me was to moderate the debrief and be able to use the skills that I've learned thus far in b-school to elicit the proper type of conversations from the team.

After the activity it was lunch time.  Lunch was good and we basically sat at tables designated by immersion interest, so I was at the marketing table with another 1st year and a 2nd year.  I remember sitting next to this one guy who looked familiar and said "did I have you in an information session?"  He's like "yeah!"  Then I said "you're ____ right?"  and he's like "How did you know? Did you look at my nametag?"  And I said... "no.... you're ____ from _______ right?"  He seemed surprised that I knew that, but I did!  We all talked for about an hour and got to know one another.

I went home after lunch to take another nap and get ready for another reception.  This reception was for Out For Business and was held at a bar in Collegetown.  It was ironic... at this reception I was talking to some of the corporate sponsors from Accenture.  One of them recognized my name and said "Richard... you stayed on my couch at DJ last year!"  It was so surreal *yet again."

After that reception we had dinner at a students house.  So all of the admitted studenst are invited to have dinner at either a 1st year, 2nd year, or AMBA's house.  I went to my friend Andrew's house where Lindsay (both Johnson Bloggers) were hosting a dinner.  At the dinner was the girl who I had met in December in the trio.  She was so excited to be here at DJ.  I also had met someone who had reached out to me via my blog and had asked me questions prior to her interview (I think - or maybe I helped her with her essays...)  In any event, it was a fun night but the night was just beginning.  

The last night of the event was the museum party.  We really rent out a whole museum - set up a dj - open bar... and party.  This night was fun to say the least and that's all I say about that!  LOL..  

SO that is pretty much DJ in a nutshell!  I can't believe it came and went but I'm glad that it came and went!  Next up...

Tonight - We had Amit Bhatia come speak to us.  

This weekend - I'm celebrating my 30th Birthday

Next week - Flying to Seattle for an Interview

Next weekend - Headed to Tuck for the MBA World Cup

Next Month - Japan/Korea Trek!

Another Busy Day in Business School

Hey Hey Hey...  I've been receiving a lot of messages about how I've been feeling these last couple of posts and I'm happy to report that I'm out of my FUNK!  So no more dwelling on that... on to the good stuff!

Today I have a very very very busy day.  Usually our student council meetings are at 7:30AM on Wednesday mornings, but today was had a special guest here at school so we had to move our meeting to Tuesday to accommodate him.  Who was our guest you ask?  It was our new Dean!  Dean Soumitra Dutta who was (I think still is) a Professor at Insead in France.  He will be taking over as Dean on July 1st of this year and we are definitely excited for him to come to Ithaca.  Here is his bio for those who are interested:  Dean Soumitra Dutta (yes it's a bit.ly link.  I'm just trying something out.  :-)  I won't go into too much detail about what we discussed but I would say there were about 26 students who were in attendance.  Last years' Student Council board (Class of 2012) was also in attendance which is why there were 26 students instead of 13 student.

After the student council meeting I had to do some running of errands and sending of emails!  That's always a fun part of my day because I get to knock off the "quick wins" from my To-Do list.  I'm sure you all know how that goes right?

Then I dropped into the Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI) to poke my head in and say hi to Nsombi Ricketts who is the Director of ODI.  Many people know of Nsombi from admissions events and through MLT and the Consortium.  I saw that her door was open and I hadn't seen her in a couple of days so I just wanted to say hello!  You can tell that my mood has changed because I'm now back to my old self - aka flitting about!

After visiting Nsombi I realized that I was almost late for my Competing with Social Networks class, so I said my goodbyes and ran to class.  Hhmm let's see... post class what did I do in what I'm calling a busy day?  Oh!  I went to my next class 15 minutes later haha.  There was an unusual amount of prospective students in that class today and I'm not too sure why.  I do think that they sat in on a great class though.  It's refreshing to see such bright-eyed prospective students.  I walked into the room and was like "WHOA"

After that class I had to run to the bookstore really quickly to pick up something and then run home because I had to set up for a Skype interview with Kaneisha Grayson who is an MBA/MPP Admissions Consulting for her own service - The Art of Applying!  Of course I will post the video on here once it's up.  I'm not exactly sure how long I've known Kaneisha for, but our paths crossed on Beat The GMAT when the advice she was giving to users echoed the comments I was making in my head.  We both enjoy blogging so it was natural that we would connect at some point.

So yeah, I did an interview with her for about..... thirty/forty minutes, which will probably turn out to be a 20 minute interview after it's edited.  It was definitely fun.  I always enjoy doing interviews.  Then we talked for another 20 minutes or so just getting to know one another better.  We have incredibly similar personalities as it turns out and we both watch Braxton Family Values.  I really admire the track that she's on and know that she'll end up being very successful in her future endeavors.  Definitely keep an eye out for her because there are big things to come in her camp.

You may just be thinking - oh he's just saying that because she's paying him or for whatever reason, but by now I think everyone should know that I don't do that.  If I support something I talk about it.  If I don't support something, I may talk about it but in a different voice and I'll let everyone know that I don't support it - although I don't think I've done that on my blog.  #Digressing  So yeah...

That was the bulk of my day then I had to of course do some reading for class tomorrow.  I also spent some time preparing for an interview that I have later in the afternoon.  Next week is DJ (Destination Johnson) our admitted students weekend and I'm thrilled to meet the potential Class of 2014!  I know they're going to have a blast.

Things that are coming up = DJ, my 30th birthday celebration, MBA World Cup @ Tuck, _______________  there's something else brewing that I don't want to mention just yet.  Stay Tuned!

Dropping the Ball on Life

Do you ever feel like everything is going okay one second and then all of a sudden things come crashing down?  Sometimes the things that show themselves are things that used to haunt you at another time in your life?  Well that is definitely happening to me right now and I was venting via Facebook statuses and venting to friends but realized that this is where I really feel that I can get things out.  Sure I'm going to write another vague post that no one else will be able to understand but that's okay.  

I've definitely been in this situation before so now at least I know how to handle it.  But it definitely sucks.  One day/week everything is looking on the up and up and then the following week things that you never thought would happen again - do!  It sucks but that's just goes to show you that even in business school life around you does not stop, although a lot of the time it definitely seems like you're in a bubble.

Usually I forget which day of the week it is and even the date.  I just look at my Outlook calendar and go to whichever class or meeting that it tells me to go to.

News?  What's that?  The only News I see on a regular basis comes on in the business school and it's always a financial station with a ticker symbol at the bottom.

Trayvon Martin?  Who is he?  I didn't know much about the case until about a week afterwards because I saw a lot of Facebook status updates about it.  I was totally unplugged and had to get myself up to speed on the case.

So yeah that just gives you a little glimpse into how disconnected one can feel from society while in business school.  I'm not sure if folks who go to school in a large city feel the same way, but I can say that I feel that way here in Ithaca AT THE MOMENT.  Now I'm not saying that this is everyone's experience here in Ithaca, but it's definitely been mine.  Sometimes I will call up friends from back home and ask "what are you up to?"  their responses usually revolve around "Um... I'm at work."  When I was in Boston over spring break I arrived around 5pm and saw people walking to the train/bus stations.  I was totally taken back by the sight because it's something I haven't seen since the Summer.

So yes, time has lapsed by QUICKLY for me and now I'm feeling down.  There's nothing that anyone else can particularly do to get my out of this slump.  Only I can change the way I feel right now and of course I'll come out of it, but it stinks when it's occurring.  Again - sorry for the vagueness.  Sometimes I wonder if I'm the only one of my classmates dealing with such things and out of 274 folks, I don't think I am.  I may be the only one dealing with these particular issues but I know for a fact that there are other things going on non-business school related that others are tackling.

It makes an interesting dynamic.  Everyone now is focused on A) the prospective students who will be taking over our business school next week for the admitted students weekend and B) their internships that will start - for some - next month in May.  I too am focused on those things but am kicking myself in the ass about some other things.  I'm wondering when will I ever learn.

With that being said, I have to attempt to put those certain things to the side because I have to register for classes next fall at 7am tomorrow morning and then at 7:30am I have a quiz.  So while I have all of these other thoughts going on in my head I have to put them to the side for now and focus on what's ahead of me in the next 7 hours (it's 12:00am as I write this.)

On top of all of that - my glasses are broken and just recently my back-up pair are on their last screw... ::sigh::  but I am glad that my friend just got Lasik surgery!  :-)

I also have to keep reminding myself that I am human!