One week ago today, I was settling into my plane seat for the start of a 12-hr trip return trip from an international vacation.  I’ve only been in Boston seven days now, but it seems like a lifetime!  Reflecting back over the week, it doesn’t seem like there was all that much to do… after all, classes didn’t start until Wednesday.  Even so, I feel like this has been one of the most exhausting weeks of the year.

Here’s a preview of what’s been on my mind lately.  I’ll probably hit each of these in more detailed posts over the next few weeks.

1. Apartments.  I hit a better slot in the HRES lottery this year (#5 instead of #11) and took the opportunity to “upgrade” to the on-campus apartments.  For the next year, I’ll be living in One Western Ave… not a penthouse suite by any means, but a lot more spacious than my tiny dorm room.  I’m excited about the chance to try something new, but it’s ridiculously expensive and time consuming to move into a new apartment, furnish it, and try to fit all of my old stuff (that was sitting in a storage unit) into this new, small space.
2. Classes. My class schedule for this semester is so-so.  I sat in on “Real Property” (a real estate course) on Thursday and Friday… absolutely fascinating course that I really, really wanted to take.  Unfortunately, the add/drop process didn’t work out for me, and I wasn’t able to make it in… pretty disappointed, particularly since I think I could’ve added it fairly easily if I had put more time into thinking through the schedule during sign-up last semester.  The rest of my classes are all popular standbys… they’ll be interesting enough, but can’t say I’m thrilled about any of them.
3. Comments. I was fortunate enough to receive “First Year Honors” this semester (top 10-15%)… and I’m actually on-track for a potential “Baker Scholar” designation (top 5%).  While I’m excited about it (ego affirming – particularly since I’m one of the few without an Ivy League undergrad), I’m feeling a lot more pressure this semester.  Last year seemed pretty easy – I spent 30min-1hr per case and felt like I could contribute without extensive study.  This year… well, it’s been three days and I haven’t commented yet!  The courses are more specialized, and I’m struggling to keep up… not even close to being in a position where I’m a step ahead to make the “1” comments.
4. People.  In between moving in, reading cases, rearranging my class schedule, and spending time with the girlfriend – I’ve almost completely neglected this critical piece of returning to school.  It’s really a shame… I want to reconnect with everyone beyond the simple 5 minute “how was your summer?” back-and-forth in the halls, but it has dropped off the bottom of my priority list lately.  On top of that, the benefit (?) of switching classes every hour to sit with a new group of people is that it really emphasizes how HUGE this graduate program is.  My weekly interactions have expanded from 89 other people to 445 people (89 x 5 classes)!  There’s some overlap, but it’s still a huge shift.  It helps me appreciate the first year more… the stable section experience makes HBS feel so much more comfortable and manageable.
5. Clubs. I’m co-President of a club this year and have ZERO desire to do anything with it.  Not sure why I agreed to this… the return per hour invested is just so low on the list that I’m going to have to work hard to keep this top-of-mind (and avoid overloading the other President).
6. Jobs. One undercurrent is the whole job situation.  I had a great summer and received a full-time offer, but I’m not 100% sure it’s the direction I want to head with my career.  I have to decide how I’m going to handle this… the recruiting season for ECs is just around the corner, and my offer expires in a couple months.  Is it worth going through the whole networking / application / interviewing hassle again?  Such a time-sink…  I’ve been tossing around the idea of trying something in finance, but is that even realistic?  Or has my summer in consulting locked-me-in to that career path?

… and with that, the first week draws to a close.

Vermont "Mountains"

I won’t go into too many details, but I do want to say that I had a fantastic time.  I wasn’t sure how much I would enjoy it… after all, who really wants to spend their only two days “off” with the same people they spend every weekday with?  I need downtime from HBS stuff, but I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed it!  With 90+ people on the retreat, there were always a bunch of different options.  If you wanted to play board games or poker, you could do that.  If you wanted to drink bottles of tequila and dance on tables, there was definitely a chance to do that, too.  Not to say that people broke up into cliques, but everyone could float from activity to activity fluidly without feeling stuck or committed.

Which brings up something that’s continued to surprise me: I remember being intensely skeptical of the large class size at HBS.  After all, 90 people?  That reminded me more of the impersonal lecture halls from undergrad rather than the small discussion-oriented liberal arts classes.  The difference has been remarkable — I feel closer to every one of those 90 people in my section than I did to almost anyone in undergrad.

What causes this?  Is it from the case-method dynamic?  Or from sitting in the same seat talking with the same people for 3-5 hours every day?  I’m not sure, but, either way, I’m a complete convert.

One last note… here’s a Harbus article on HBS retreats.  Surprisingly accurate, in my opinion.  I particularly enjoyed the “M is for Mafia: A great game for retreats, involving lots of people staying quiet for a bit, accusing each other of lying and then being voted out. A bit like RC classes.”  This little party game was quite a hit (beyond what I expected) and I think they hit the reason dead on.

Today’s topic was “Section Norms”.  Ok, so what does that mean and why does it matter?  Since you spend 20+ hrs/wk in the classroom with the same people EVERY day for an ENTIRE academic year, it’s essential that the unspoken rules become spoken rules before they cause problems.  Some of the rules are as simple as “don’t raise your hand while someone else is talking”.  Others are more cultural… Some sections like to stomp their feet and bang on their desks when guests are introduced.  I talked to an EC the other day who said that his section was the “dancing section” (ie, getting on their desks and dancing).  Other sections golf-clap.

So, yeah, some differences here.  I’m pretty happy with my section so far.  HBS has to do quite a bit of social engineering to make sure that the sections balance well… the right mix of young and old, consultants and i-bankers, internationals and domestics.  Aside from the 10+ McKinsey people in our section, we seem fairly balanced.    Here’s a picture of the backside of Aldrich (where all RC classes are) to make this post more interesting:

Aldrich Field