Whew. My first breather in 5 weeks. Finally.
After 3 weeks of orientation, 2.5 weeks of class, countless group/career prep/club meetings (and countless slices of free pizza), it feels like things are really settling down and my life has found a new equilibrium.
All I can say is that business school is not what you expect. It's probably not even what anyone tells you it is. It's an amorphous creature that's completely dictated by your effort and abilities. And for the most part you can't plan for it either. You just learn to deal with it all once it's here. To say this experience is a lesson in multitasking is a gross understatement.
That being said, you can still prepare your expectations. Do expect to be busy 10 hours a day, every day (even Fridays, when you don't have class). Do expect to deal with scheduling conflicts. Lots of scheduling conflicts. Do expect to sleep less. Do expect to be a leader. Do expect to be a follower. Do expect to have a (really) good idea about what you want from this school or you'll be exhausted trying to do everything (you can't). Do expect a seemingly endless amount of resources from the school and other students to help you accomplish your goals. Do expect to be challenged by the class work and feel the frustrations of dealing with ambiguous and difficult problems. Do expect to successfully complete all of these tasks (somehow??) with the help of your teammates.
Actually, before I sign off on this first post, I have to correct myself already. Before I came to UCLA Anderson, people told me it'd be a great time. Some even told me it'd be the time of my life. Those were gross understatements too.
--ML
