Business School Observations

Here's a quick update on things.

Last week I went to "math camp", which was an 8-5, 5-day class reviewing math concepts that we haven't used in a while (calculus, statistics, etc.). I'm glad I did it, if only to know that I've done what Duke considers sufficient. Perhaps a best reason for attending math camp was that I got to meet about 70 future classmates - a significant head start on everyone else.

This week I've been working pretty hard on getting all the pre-readings done. While most business schools don't start classes "for real" until late-August, Duke requires two core classes to be taken during August: a leadership course and a course on global institutions (which is basically macroeconomics). A couple years ago, Duke pulled these courses out of the first and second-term curriculum to ease the burden of students during the first few months of school - a very smart move, in my opinion.

My readings have been really fascinating. For the leadership class, we read a few articles on Enron and the "talent myth" (a great article by Malcom Gladwell). The Institutions class is a bit more heady. The study I just read analyzes how China has succeeded in the past quarter-century despite a relative lack of things economists traditionally consider to be necessary: maximum liberalization, stabilization, and privatization. Really interesting stuff.

Orientation starts this Saturday, and everyone is scrambling to do the pre-readings and finish a software review course (that's actually useful). I'm in a pretty good position, having done just about all the readings and half of the computer stuff.

Here are some random observations:

- I severely underestimated the time it takes to move into a new apartment, get the requisite software for school, and take care of everything except actually studying. In this regard I'm in the same boat as most of my fellow students (probably in better shape, actually).
- "Fear of missing out" is thus far the biggest force at Duke. It's simple: most people are sociable, young, and want to go out. But you must study (that is, if your goal is to learn). It's hard to say no. That said, I think I'm doing a good job of balancing everything - it takes a lot of effort to network and study at the same time.
- I'm well prepared to work in MS Word, Excel, and PPT (thanks to CEB).
- Microsoft Excel, Word, and PPT 2007 (for Windows) are extremely well-designed.
- Somehow I forgot that I'm a hard worker. I like this role.
- (no offense to anyone reading this who went to Harvard but...) I'm very glad I'm not going to Harvard. Not that I had the opportunity, but I've said many times in the past week that "I can't imagine going to a school where you look around and say to yourself 'damn, everyone here is a gunner.' I simply wouldn't learn as much in that type of environment. I'd be more concerned about keeping up with everyone else than I would with learning and making good friends. At Duke, the sense of collaboration (definitely a business school buzzword) is genuine. This makes a huge difference.
- It feels great to be back in academia. I like having informed opinions instead of BS-ing. I like making connections among the things I learn.
- I like Durham a lot more than I thought I would. I was hesitant to move south, where life might be slower compared to DC. Life is slower here, but for now that's what I want to experience. It's nice to drive 5 minutes to the gym and school. It's nice to go for a run, work out in the apartment gym, sit by the pool, and get a bunch of people together to watch a movie in the apartment movie room - all of which I did today. So for now, it's good.

Back to studying.