Hi dmateer,
A typical day at Wharton? Well, as witnessed by the time I'm posting this reply, days usually tend to end on the late side for me. =) In terms of class schedule, during the 1st year, you can expect classes Mon-Thurs from 9am-3pm with 12-1:30pm "free" for lunch. This means I usually wake up at 8am, check email, surf the morning news / read blogs, feed Lucy/take her out, get ready and scramble to La Colombe for my morning coffee fix. The lunch hours are usually filled with grabbing lunch with friends, presentations from the career management office about recruiting, resumes, etc. or industry presentations. The many clubs at Wharton also use this time to hold meetings, invite speakers from Wharton and outside to speak, or hold panel discussions (e.g. 2nd years talking about their summer internship experiences). Teaching assistants and professors also run TA sessions and office hours, respectively, to make sure you have all the help you need to do that problem set or ask questions in general. Typically, I'm usually attending one of the above or trying to catch up on reading/homework. In the afternoon after class, usually at least twice a week, I'm meeting for an extracurricular activity or getting together with my learning team to work on team projects. Then I head home back to Center City to try to find time to work out (rare these days), but at the very least each day, I take Lucy (dog) for a walk around Rittenhouse Park so she can obsess over squirrels and take a break from being cooped up in the apartment. During these past few weeks, employers have also been coming on campus or to local hotels to hold recruiting information sessions. So for example, students are invited to attend a 45 minute company presentation in the evening and then head to a cocktail hour or dinner to network with prospective employers. Then there's a solid several hours in the evening devoted to catching up on email, reading for courses, preparing cases, checking out facebook/net and of course - catching up with my husband. This means I'm getting ready for bed around midnight (when I'm on task).
Kathy
MBA Student, Wharton