How is it July 18th already? By this time next month it will be the night before the first day of classes. Summer always flies by normally bringing colder weather with it. The advantage of going to school in Nola, it’s pretty much summer year round. I’ve gotten a lot of emails from new students asking me for advice regarding what to expect in the first sessions. I thought I would give a run down of some of the highlights that you can expect within the first couple of months of your first year. Oh where do I begin…..
Expect to feel stressed- Classes are going to be work intensive. You will have a lot of homework and a lot of reading, don’t get behind. The good thing about this is that everyone will feel stressed right along with you. Some of the best memories I have of the first session are of Noor, Ishaneka, Kyle and I sitting in a break out room eating peanuts and raisins (always have snacks, the LBC cafe is not awesome) trying to wrap our heads around Excel functions for Russ Robins stats class….. until 2 in the morning.
Expect to be hot all the time- While this is not school related, I thought I would mention it because it can take you by surprise. Unless you’ve lived in the Gulf South before you have never, ever experienced heat like this. It’s like you walk out the door and you want to go right back in and shower. The good thing about this is that you’ll be spending all of your time in GWII which is nice and cool (sometimes too cool, bring a sweater).
Expect to not be the smartest person in the class- Smart people get into business school, period. While healthy competition is always good, be humble enough to learn from your classmates who have different experiences than you and to just ask questions of those who get the subjects that you do not.
Expect to travel and talk and talk and talk- First semester is also crazy because all of the big recruiting events happen in about a 3 month time period. National Black MBA Conference, National Society of Hispanic MBAs Conference, and Freeman Days will have you traveling and talking about yourself and your goals. Get your spiel together because the competition will be tough, and in a lot of cases you may be the first student that the recruiter has met from Tulane, so make sure you represent for us all.
I could go on forever, but I guess the rest I’ll let you find out for yourself… 32 days and counting!
Amina