To New Beginnings!
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Night Owl is a former resident of San Francisco with work experience in biotechnology research & development. She's moving into the commercial side of business by pursuing an MBA at Kellogg. |
The Kellogg class of 2012 graduated on Friday, June 15, 2012. It was bittersweet to see them dressed in their purple robes and walking around Jacobs with their families. When I arrived on campus late last summer they were the self-assured cool kids who had seen and done it all and were back to guide us hapless first years. As the months went by they became my tutors, group members for classes and mentors. It was a pleasure to get to know them and I wish them the best of luck as they re-enter the real world.
Graduation marked the end of the academic year and I can’t believe how fast it flew by considering the amount of time and effort that went into the GMAT and application process.
I took the following classes in the spring:
Operations with Prof. Lariviere (my last core course!)
Market Research with Prof. Goldsmith (my favorite class this term)
Tech Marketing with Prof. Sawhney (lots of work. I think this is meant as a capstone class for 2nd years…)
Social Networks and Dynamics with Prof. Lamberson (heavy on theory but I’m glad I took this class)
Media Management (5 week speaker series)
First year students at Kellogg receive 2000 points at the end of fall term to be used for winter and spring courses. GIM South Africa cost me 700 points, so I didn’t have that many left in my account to bid on popular classes like Market Strategy with Prof Hennessy, which went for something like 800 points! I must have really pissed someone off in the Registrar’s office because I was only able to secure a seat in the 8:30AM sections of my desired classes. Definitely NOT a good schedule for a night owl like me and let’s just say that mornings were interesting. I think that I can consider my 8:25AM sprint down Sheridan Road towards Jacobs as training for the next summer Olympics in Rio!
As you can probably guess, there’s quite a bit of strategy and researching that goes on among students when it comes to choosing classes. Teacher Course Evaluations (TCEs) and, more importantly, candid advice from second years were a big help when I was trying to map out the upcoming school year. My WBA mentor actually had a list of recommended professors/courses that had been handed down from her mentor the year before, lol! I’ve decided to take some of her recommended classes and a few others that just sound interesting.
My classes for fall term:
Financial Reporting & Analysis – I’ll finally be able to read a financial statement without having my eyes roll into the back of my head!
Health Policy – I’m hoping that the recent Supreme Court ruling on the Affordable Care Act and current campaign debate re: medicare will make this an interesting class.
Corporate Innovation & New Ventures
Marketing-Led Innovation
Second year students receive 3000 points for the year to bid on their courses. I got lucky for the upcoming fall term and only spent 48 points to get into all of my desired classes. I’ve decided not to do winter term abroad because there’s just too much that I want to do here at Kellogg. I wish I had more time and could experience living in a foreign country as I don’t think vacation travel provides the same cultural experience. Oh well. Another winter on Lake Michigan doesn’t sound so bad right? I may re-evaluate this decision in January when some of my classmates are posting pictures from the beaches of Costa Rica or Thailand.
Staying in Evanston over the winter will also allow me to take a few popular courses for (relatively) less points than they go for in the fall or spring, like Prof. Kraemer’s class in leadership. I’m really disappointed that I won’t be able to take Prof. Rogers’ class in entrepreneurial finance, which regularly went for over 1200 points. But I guess this means that I can go crazy bidding on spring term courses when Biomedical Marketing (Calkins), Marketing Strategy (Hennesy), and Ad Strat (Rucker) are offered.
There’s still about a month of summer vacation left before classes start. I’m getting restless and I want September to hurry up and get here so I can catch up with my friends!
