ncm9's blog

I am so glad  I took 5 courses during the first half of the term.  It was dicey at first, but I am now reaping rich rewards!!  I now have three classes.  In one of them, I wrote all of my papers and turned them in before spring break.  In another, class does not meet for three weeks.  In the last class we took our second exam yesterday and have only the final exam left.  I still have projects or presentations in each class before the term is over, but I am on the downhill ride!!

My two MBA classes ended just before spring break.   The 10 week class schedule is wonderful.  What did I learn??  Well, as I have whined about before, I was stymied by the statistics involved in the Investment Analysis class.  What I did learn is that I can muscle through ANYTHING.  I worked hard and felt at times that I just didn't get it. Now that I am on the other side of the class I feel a great satisfaction at having seen it through.

Our class trip over spring break to NYC was, by all accounts, very successful.  We visited the AICPA, the SEC, the PCAOB, Fred Whittemore and IBM's Disaster recovery site.  Opinions varied as to the individual appeal of each presentation.  I usually focus on something of minor interest to everyone else, but our trip featured something to interest everyone.

Spring term is halfway over.  Two of my five classes finished this week, so the other half of the semester will be really easy in comparison.  Entrepreneurship was an interesting class.  I didn't start out liking the company we chose to do a business plan for (a political consulting company), but as I did research I realized the really IS a niche in the market for the plan.  It became REALLY important to me about halfway through the class. 

Once you turn the corner and enter March there is a new feeling in the air--the anticipation of spring and all the really WONDERFUL things (graduation for some and a well-deserved rest for others) this spring holds.  It is, however, tempered by the 8" of snow we got yesterday...we are almost at record (122") snowfall this year!  Skiers love it.  I would too if I still skied, but I gave that up several years ago.  Not that it would have mattered since I have too much work to do to take off the time.

The week has been pretty quiet.  We had an exam in Real Estate Law on Wednesday and I have been sick ever since.  Last semester I could not have missed a single class without great concern.  This week I missed two classes and I am sure I will be fine.  I touched base with both professors just to be sure.  My two MBA classes are winding down.  In Entrepreneurship we have presentations and final papers of our project for the next 2 weeks.  In Investments we have one more class and then another KILLER Exam, but then it is DONE.  It isn't at all what I expected the class to be.

It is so important to plan ahead for your electives.  We have three this year, and I think one may be replaced by a required class next year.  In any event, our schedule is such that you can currently take electives only in the spring term.  I agonized over what to take.  At this point I am pretty tired of group projects.  I prefer non-esoteric classes (i.e. not organizational behavior-type classes) and I like writing papers.  With those constraints I set out to pick classes from among the MBA offerings.

This semester is just whizzing by.  At this time last semester I was feeling so overwhelmed, but this semester is actually FUN!  I've really relaxed about grades and studying and it is paying off--the semester is just not very stressful.  There is the occasional exam that I wish I was better prepared for, but all in all it is a very positive term.