The first few months of business school can be a whirlwind. From moving to a new city, meeting literally hundreds of new people, and getting back into the classroom there so many new and exciting opportunities and challenges that come with the beginning of business school. Maureen Keegan (Darden, ’17) moved to Charlottesville in early August, and recently finished her first week of business school. She shares with us her experience thus far along with some thoughts from some of her classmates.
From the time you start applying to business school and talking to current students and alumni, everyone will tell you that it goes by quickly. I knew that going in and I’m still surprised that it’s already the third week of class. At Darden, where we’re on a quarter system, that means we have just over a month until our first exams. Apologies to any Darden FYs reading this who just freaked out a little bit.
The first few weeks have been absolutely awesome and kind of overwhelming all at the same time. I enrolled in Darden Before Darden, Darden’s newly revamped pre-matriculation program, which definitely helped with the transition. I, along with 140 of my soon to be classmates, took 3 classes a day (Finance, Quantitative Analysis, Accounting, Marketing, Economics & Leadership) and a whole bunch of different workshops over the course of a week and a half in August. I came from a non-business background, both academically and professionally, so I enjoyed the opportunity to get familiar with a lot of the concepts we’ll be covering in our core classes. It was also great to show up on the first day of school with a whole bunch of new friends already, but still have almost 200 more new people to meet.
We kicked off school with 3 days of orientation before jumping into Q1 classes. We got welcomes from so many different people at Darden, attended a series of Career Discovery workshops, did a mock case, learned about all of the clubs and activities, and perfected the “What’s your name, where are you from, what did you do before Darden?” speech. We also got to know our sections and Learning Teams. At Darden, we’re split into 5 sections (Shoutout to Section A!) and each section takes the same classes Monday – Thursday from August through mid-March. We have assigned study groups, called Learning Teams, that are formed across the sections to include people from all different backgrounds. We typically meet for a couple hours in the evening Sunday – Wednesday to go over our cases for the next day, so we get to know each other really well (Hi LT54!).
Our Q1 cases – we’ll read 100 by early November!
First Week wasn’t all sitting in the auditorium listening to people talk, there were also plenty of fun activities – a scavenger hunt on the main lawn of UVA, field day with our Learning Teams, bowling night, Darden’s tradition of Thursday Night Drinking Club, a Welcome Back BBQ at a local cidery on Friday night and optional events to get to know Charlottesville on Saturday.
Needless to say, by the time Sunday rolled around, everyone was pretty exhausted, but I know for me, it was also exhilarating. One of the things I enjoyed most during the week was meeting so many of my classmates, who have done a lot of really cool things and have great stories to share in the classroom or at First Coffee (another fun Darden tradition). In the spirit of this, I asked my Learning Teammates to share some of their thoughts on the first week –
Ester Barbuto (Darden, ’17)
Life Before Darden: Chemical engineering major turned innovation strategist from Washington, DC
Biggest Surprise of the First Week: The difference in rigor from the “real world” to the classroom. “I feel like different parts of my brain are working and just like physical activity, the muscles you don’t use the most often tend to be sore the day after!”
Tiago Fernandes de Sa (Darden, ’17)
Life Before Darden: Business major working as a Financial Analyst in Sao Paulo, Brazil
One Word to Describe the First Week: “Intense”
Most Challenging Part of the First Week: “Dealing with a new language in a fast paced environment”
It may have been an intense week, but I know that we’re all excited for the weeks, months and two years that are to come. Check back for more posts about what it’s like to be a first year MBA student and be sure to comment if there’s something you want to learn more about!