The unavoidable toil of the first year core has just kicked off along with what is supposed to be our hardest and most time consuming quarter at Anderson. I must admit I was skeptical about how much would actually be required of us. After all, I’m theoretically leaving a job where I worked 90hr weeks to being a student where I have 15hrs of lecture, the math just doesn’t add up. Yet within my first few lectures I can already tell that I’m going to be hard pressed to keep up with all the different activities that are going to be going on.
The standard 1st year schedule is composed of Econ, Stat, Accounting, Communications, career sessions and either marketing or finance. Having studies business as an undergraduate and worked in I-banking, I was lucky enough to place out of accounting and finance which was supposed to significantly lessen the load – until I signed up for a new finance class called financing the emerging enterprise which is looking highly interesting but equally challenging.
The classes have been good so far although the amount of reading and preparation is astronomical and I’m not sure whether the professors actually mean it when they make readings mandatory. The core is designed to keep you on your feet and by itself it would probably not be doing all that good a job at it if it weren’t for its juxtaposition with constant recruiting events, study groups, club kick-offs, case-study competitions and other activities that take over your life.
The result of all this is that even after barely a week of classes I already feel overwhelmed and I’m not even recruiting actively! So here are a few organizational tips that will hopefully help you (and me) feel a little more relieved at the workload:
- If you can place out of a class 1st quarter
- Manage expectations before hand – maybe make a list of priorities
- Set personal time aside and respect that
- Don’t take on too much at first, see how things go before joining 6 different clubs
- Settle all your administrative/moving stuff before classes start
- I love saying YES but know how to say NO
As I didn't have any pictures to share here's a frivolous one of section A at the 80's party
