Hi Monica,
I'm not quite sure what you would define as a resource... the biggest resource to me are my fellow classmates. That's also my answer for what the common traits are - Fuqua runs because of its students (at least for the Day Time experience).
Before I dive in more to our student-run culture, just wanted to note that while we are serious about what we do, we don't take ourselves too seriously. We make fun of ourselves with FuquaVision. We send useless joke emails at 2 in the morning. I heard that some feedback from prospective students in the beginning of the year was given to admissions that some of us sitting in the lounge were too "casual" -- jeans, flip flops...note, the people who interviewed them were "Dressed up," but those of us in the lounge are busy students volunteering blocks of our time sit and answer any questions (no judgement; we have no say in admissions) and to help candidates relax/kill time between interviews or various admissions events. So of course we're in between classes and not in business casual (unless there was a corporate event). I had been to other schools during my search, and in comparison to Fuqua's "warm" lounge, had been lonely/put off by those tense waiting experiences. So honestly, my gut reaction was that then the person who complained doesn't belong here if that's the expectation/reaction that they had.
Ok, done with vent, back to the student-run aspect... From SY fellowships [Academic (per class), Career (help FY's thru intern process), Admissions (interviews) , COLE (FY teams/Leadership)] to the other events [Symposiums & Conferences (club cabinets), Blue Devil Weekend, Orientations]...to anything else (mock interviews, "prom," etc) it's all here because of what we put into it.
The type of person I think who does well is someone who not only leaves here better than when they first arrived, but also leaves the school better than when they started. So if you're the type of person to put your studying on hold to help someone else who is struggling, is fine with going to class at a different time if you still need to check off some-to do's for a club/career related event, or is happy spend time during winter break helping with phone mock interviews or editing cover letters, is ok to be late to a team meeting if your roommate needs to vent in the hallway, may create a brand new initiative because you see a need, and is ok to prep with others for the same interview, then this is the place for you.
To be clear, there is definitely a subset of people who do much more (I'm over committed and admittedly one of them) and you see them more often doing a lot of these things more visibly in terms of leadership roles. However, I still know that even a classmate who's not super involved, and spends most time with his family or studying, put a few hours aside to help me with accounting and would do it again if I needed help.
The type of person who is just here for themselves may get by, but would be missing out on what I have loved about Fuqua. It's more than the three letter stamp on the resume. I think there are a handful of those who are here just for that, but I don't think they're getting as much out of Fuqua as the rest of us are...
Does that help?
--sv
