Georgetown MBA Blog: Jamey

Ahhhh, vacation. (1 year down, 1 to go)

I am done done DONE for the year! I finished my last exam, handed my half of my ethics paper to my groupmate with my signature confirming all the work was our own (he hadn't written his half, I trust him!) and proceeded to enjoy margaritas on the roof of the Car Barn. I followed that with drinks on the roof of a friend's apartment overlooking the city. There were some mini-kegs involved.DC doesn't have tall buildings thanks to the Washington Monument. I think I was actually trying to take a photo of my apartment building with my camera (I live 3 blocks from where I was), but then someone distracted me with pizza before I managed to take photos of the rest of the 360 view. I went home early and caught the 5 am train to Boston where I hung out with friends, went to all our favorite haunts (woo hoo BHP!) and generally had a great relaxing weekend. When I got back I presented at FINCA with my Service Corp consulting team and then enjoyed a great dinner with my small group. I realized I don't have a single photo of the five of us together! Our group really was one of the best in our class. We all got along and worked together incredibly well and I will miss them next year! We all agreed that we will find each other in our electives next year...

Speaking of next year we had preregistration for next year already. I only got 4 out of 8 of my original class choices for next semester, which when I compared to my friends was TERRIBLY unlucky. Everyone else I know got between 6 to all 8 of their first choice classes. I really got 5/8 of my classes, as I managed to get into a different section for one of my original choices. I am staying on the waitlist for my 6th and 7th, and the 8th I wasn't wedded to in the first place. A new finance elective that I am interested in opened up after preregistration so I jumped at that, and I also turned in the form for a microfinance elective offered in the school of foreign service I really want to take. So first semester (two modules) I will be taking:
Mergers & Acquisitions
Financial Services Management
Advanced Regression Analysis
International Finance
Advanced Marketing Strategy
Leading Organizational Change
Global Strategy
Microfinance
and something else...

I have a great summer to look forward to- I'm doing a fair bit of work at organizations I believe in, I'm in a wedding and I won't be moving! See you next year!

Finals are driving me crazy. And my neighbor actually IS crazy.

It's finals week. As many others have felt before me- what the hell?? I'm almost halfway done with my MBA career. I didn't have a final today so it felt like the end of the worst 4 day weekend ever. Friday I conducted interviews for a consulting project I'm working on, then grabbed lunch with the bf, went to an accounting review session and met with the assistant head of career management. Saturday I was in the Car Barn for about 7 hours studying. I did manage to break up the monotony with a few hours studying on the roof with one of my teammates. It was quite nice outside and I enjoyed my brief foray into the outdoors. We finished the evening with a group dinner at Paolo's on Wisconsin Ave and then I went home and pretended to do work. I am starting to go a little stir crazy, but mostly just crazy because I have no idea whether or not I am prepared for this final tomorrow.
Speaking of crazy, my neighbor is kind of a nutter. He's currently having a Monday night party. He alternates between 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s nights. While I enjoy Beatles Thursdays, I wish he would play an entire album. He likes to play A song from each of these decades, on repeat, for about 3 hours on alternating nights. It's not every night so it becomes a mystery which night will produce which song. Besides the Beatles he also LOVES Nirvana.
He had a huge party Thursday and my boyfriend and I were having a hot night of... laundry fun. I go out in the hall and am waiting for the elevator and one of the revelers was sitting on the floor sort of slumped over. Then another party goer runs out into the hall. He was quickly pulled back into the apartment by my neighbor who says "come back in here! My neighbors already think I'm crazy!" Why oh why would he think that? Perhaps because last month we found him crouched next to our door with his laptop completely wasted talking about trying to find the internet?
Ah, city living.
Back to studying- only 3 more days of year one!

Diversity Day and spring social time

Last night was one of the best McDonough School of Business events of the year- Diversity Day! An evening of good food, a fashion show and cultural dancing display topped off a heavy social calendar this weekend. Here is some of the deliciousness I indulged in- and a photo of the crowd! I'm in it, but it's like playing Where's Waldo (Where's Wally if you're British, Où est Charlie? for the French, and Wo ist Walter? in Germany.)
Thanks to Sam for the photos!
The Georgetown MBAs, family and friends...
Empanadas!  I'm glad they were mini ones because by the time I got to the Americas I was almost stuffed.

Indian food from a few of my favorite classmates.

Taiwan- I realized when I saw this photo I never made it to this table! But the dish on the left got particularly rave reviews.

Texas (There was a bumper sticker about Secession at the end of the table...)

Thursday night was the Annual Report viewing at the Arlington Cinema and Drafthouse.  The hour and a half long show was a compilation of skits mocking life at the Car Barn . It was a great reminder of the fun year behind us and the beginning of the official social end for the second years. There was lots of hugging and a whole lotta laughter. Friday was the spring formal at a beautiful waterfront locale, followed by a slightly less official event- the beer olympics. Complete with teams and prizes (I won't go into details for what) apparently it was much fun had by all. While copious amounts of beer was being drunk by my classmates, I was taking golf lessons with fellow members of the Graduate Women in Business club at the East Potomac Golf Course & Driving Range. It was the first time I had ever touched a real golf club (I don't count mini-golf). I wasn't half as bad as I thought I would be, and definitely enjoyed whacking the crap out of the golf ball. It was an excellent stress reliever, although I discovered muscles I had forgotten about when I woke up this morning. Last night was the aforementioned Diversity Day and this afternoon we had a Cohort 2 BBQ!

I managed to squeeze in a lot of work and date night with the bf this weekend, but tonight I am still faced with quite a bit of preparation for an ethics presentation tomorrow morning! We are presenting on organizational integrity and are only meeting as a group 30 minutes before the presentation. We have done everything else virtually! Ahh, 21st century technology can bring us together, but keeps us apart...

Some new content for my blog!

"Hi, Jamey.  Just a reminder to post some new content to your blog.  Looks like you can summarize the month of March and start fresh again next week.

 

Thank you!

 

Admissions Officer"

Oops.

Module 4. We started the module off with the first of the two admitted students weekends.  We had a series of official and unofficial events including student led tours around campus and a big ole party on M Street!  That was followed by an after party with most of the 1st year volunteers and a few admitted students who lasted the entire day of events plus the partying. It's good practice for business school- lots of work, lots of play.

This module focuses on taking the coursework from the first three modules and mixing it up and applying it to overall managerial decision making. The core classes include Business & Government, International Business, Managerial Accounting and Business Ethics.  As an economics/ government double major in college, I am somewhat in my element in our Bus&Gov class. Admittedly, when we're going over constitutional law foundations of monopoly law I get a bit bored.  However, my professor manages to teach the foundations of what I consider to be the most boring part of conlaw EVER in a very engaging manner.  There's a reason he's one of the most popular profs at MSB! When discussing corporate scandals of the late 20th and early 21st century he offered some helpful advice: "There are people who do well in jail, MBAs are not among them."

My brain is done.

Unfortunately I still have one more exam left.  So in honor of the end of the third module, I leave my readers with my three favorite... professorial insights shall we call them... about business.

"Hope is not a strategy" (Strategy)

"Options are not manna from heaven." (Finance)

And finally...
"Sex is never an accident." (Operations- we got the prof a mug with this on it!)