Have not been posting for almost a month. Now I am kind of have been missing blogging and ready to post some updates. The two main reasons for my extended silence are the preparation for the professional certification exam that I took in two weeks after the end of the summer module, and the family vacation trip to Barbados. I hope I will have motivation and energy to put some posts with pictures and videos or may be a separate website dedicated to this vacation, as it was really quite interesting and a lot of fun to share.
But first I need to put closure to my first year of part-time MBA program at GWU. As I was writing in my last post in June I was not expecting any surprises with the grades, but I actually was nicely surprised. Based on my grades for intermediate assignments throughout both classes I had in the module I was expecting an A in Business and Public Policy, but the Nature of Markets was a bit murkier. Nevertheless I got A’s in both classes! For the first time in my MBA terms I became a straight A student . Admittedly, I had only two classes in the term, and they both were not quantitative courses. But still it feels really nice. So I got my closure for the first year.
Now that I had my vacation I almost feel like I would be ready to continue with the MBA classes right away. But there are no classes I could sign up for right now. So I have another month to chill out. I am planning to use this time to do some reading to prepare for the fall term and just to read some of the books I had to put on hold during the year, my personal MBA summer reading list: Superfreakonomics by Levitt and Dubner, The Tipping Point by Gladwell, and surprise-surprise! – Basic Statistics: Tales of Distributions (with CD-ROM) by Spatz.
Even though I got my B and B+ in two statistics courses during the first year, I know I need to get a better grasp of the subject and solidify everything I learned in a hurry. I stumbled upon this book while looking for an easier introduction to statistics. I wrote about this briefly in my April 5 post . Eventually I found Basic Statistics: Tales of Distributions (with CD-ROM)
and I really look forward to pouring over it in the next month. I will write a more detailed review once I finish it. But from other reviews on Amazon.com and my reading through the first 30 or so pages, I can tell that this is the must book for all of us who have stats anxiety. If you are preparing for MBA stats classes in advance or even take them at the time you read this post, I recommend to grab this book and start reading it ASAP. Statistics is not an easy subject for most students, but this book will make your experience with the stats as painless as humanly possible. I bought the eighth edition of this book used from Amazon for some really funny money, about $6. For the purists, like I used to be, but not anymore, there is the tenth editionn of Basic Statistics: Tales of Distributions available new between $129-150 on Amazon.com.
Enough blogging for the day. Hopeful to continue posting regularly in the time before the second year of my MBA studies starts.
Tonight I had my second class that I am taking in this Summer Term at part-time MBA program at GWSB. I have been looking forward to this course and it seems that my high expectations will be met in this class. I have long been interested in marketing and I really expect to learn a lot from the course. Professor is very knowledgeable and explains concepts very clearly. That’s a big plus.
Frankly, pretty much all of the professors I have had so far during my first year of MBA program at George Washington University have been very good in terms of knowing their subject matter cold. However, not all of them were equally good in the department of teaching.
That’s why I cannot stop raving about ratemyprofessors.com . After the first module in fall and my less than idyllic experience with Financial Accounting, I have always been checking out ratings of professors on that website before signing up for any of my classes. So far it proved to be very helpful. I actually had to re-arrange some of my classes or postpone taking at least one class to later time when it will be taught by another professor on a couple of occasions after checking the ratings. And I managed to steer clear from the classes where the instructor was TBA at the time of my sign up. This flexibility of selecting even your core courses is a great benefit of a part-time MBA at GWSB which I came to appreciate greatly.
As for Marketing, we have five business cases to work on in the course of the remaining five weeks of the class, so it is going to be quite intensive reading/writing term. Especially because my other class in Business and Public Policy is also heavy on write ups. In both classes we have been arbitrarily assigned to groups by the instructors, and almost all cases we work on will be group projects.
I have “tough love” with group projects. If everyone in the group is pulling their share, it’s mostly fun. But with even one free-rider in the group it can turn into the major source of frustration. I had both types of experience in my MBA program and had a post about group projects. That one explains why I am in “love-hate” relationship with group projects. You can not look up your group mates on some sort of ratemyclassmates.com, and even if you could, having arbitrary group assignments would make it useless. Well, I will have to live with that and make do with whoever comes my way. I guess I am not all sugar myself for some of my classmates either
I had the first class in my summer term tonight: Business and Public Policy. I can tell from the class that it is going to be quite interesting. Some of the concepts that we were exposed to in the class went against the grain of the widely held beliefs by free market proponents. So in a way they challenge the very core of the MBA education which was originally designed to mint corporate management/leadership material. I actually find this very refreshing. During the class we were shown a short preview of “The Corporation” documentary. Instead of just unequivocally supporting “everything capitalist” this movie makes you think about the issues of corporate America from a different perspective.
I have to admit that for many “anti-corporate”, “anti-globalization”, “anti-everything” folks these concepts of criticizing, not just critically analyzing, capitalism in general and its American flavor in particular is nothing new. This is the “bread and butter” of their very existence. But for me, it is sort of fresh, and I am looking forward to learning more about the “dark side” of the modern corporations. I have seen first-hand a much darker side of the “anti-capitalist” society, so I would not subscribe to many of the views and policies that promote and instill overwhelming government control over business and public life in general. However there is undoubtedly a need for a rational checks and balances system in governing businesses and not letting them to run amuck on their insatiable quest for profits. Examples of that are abundant in recent history starting from Enrons, WorldComs and continuing with Countrywides and AIGs of more recent developments.
The present course is somewhat interconnected with the Business Ethics that I had in the Fall term of my MBA program. Albeit in Business Ethics we focused on individuals in the corporate environments and ethical challenges that they faced within their corporate functions. In Business and Public Policy the focus is on corporations and businesses themselves acting as a “person” and their interaction with the public and the government. I guess the focus of this present course has been tailored recently to meet the need for promoting corporate sustainability and responsibility ideas that are taking root in many revised MBA programs across the country and at George Washington School of Business in particular.
In our Human Capital Management class professor showed us a great video from TED.com featuring Dan Pink’s presentation on relationship between different motivational factors and human creativity and efficiency in solving problems. Needless to say, Dan Pink is a very entertaining speaker. I enjoyed his talking very much. But even more fascinating for me was the [...]
A week ago on Wednesday I encountered a somewhat new format for the final exam in my MBA pursuit. Usually, if it was not multiple choice, the exams had a requirement to write a short answer. If it was a longer narrative required, then it was usually done through the final research paper or a case write up done [...]
Nothing too exciting happenned at the exam. The format was open book, open notes. Needless to say that even with this format I felt a brain-freeze, as oftentimes the case in my quantitative classes. Will see how I fared on the forced grading curve. The stuff covered in the exam was all the material we have [...]
With all this snow days and hype I almost forgot about one year anniversary of my second attempt on GMAT in preparation for the part-time MBA program. It actually was on February 7-th. In my post about the first taking of the GMAT I already mentioned that the score of 550 that I got that time would [...]
Grizzlies are known to like to eat marmots. In spring when grizzlies come out of hibernation they spend unproportionate amount of energy and time hunting those small squirrel-like animals from under the stones. The scientist were puzzled by this fact, because according to their estimated calculations the energy spent on hunting the marmots was much more than [...]
Finished the second week of classes in my first module of Spring Term. The intensity is picking up just a little bit, but so far very manageable. It’s probably going to change this weekend when I will have work on two major projects: I am planning to work on my section for Risk Analysis Group Paper [...]
On Tuesday we had a group meeting to discuss the general approach and outline for our course group paper in Global Perspectives class. It was suggested to meet at one of the bar lounges on the campus, so our almost 2-hour meeting was over pizza and beer. Very inducive environment for discussing any business issues, including [...]
One of the books required in Managerial Accounting is the Course Pack that has been compiled by the professor himself. This is the first time I have the course pack required in my MBA program classes. That’s why I had a little surprise with it. The course packs are apparently compiled/authored by a professor(s) in the university [...]
The first week of classes in my Spring Term at GWSB is over. Now I have to concentrate on the homework assignments which are quite intense. Good that I have Monday off to spend more time on reading and solving cases for classes. A short summary of the week. I am very pleased with both [...]
On Thursday was my first class in Managerial Accounting. To say that it was OK would be underestimating it. I actually liked it a lot. There were a few factors that contributed to my favorable impression of the class: Professor was very sharp and knowledgable. He looks probably younger than he really is, but he [...]
On Wednesday I had my first class in the Spring Term – Global Perspectives. I enjoyed the class and got very favorable impression of the professor. He has been teaching in the International Business Department for a long time and still has not lost interest in teaching the subject. The subject itself is very interesting [...]
This was the last weekend before the start of the Spring semester in my part-time MBA studies. So I might as well call it the end of the winter break. Classes start on Monday, though for me personally the first day of classes is Wednesday – Global Perspectives. Just a short recap of what I [...]
As I mentioned yesterday, last weekend I finalized my MBA classes registration for the Spring term. In reality I originally registered for all of my classes within 7-10 days after the registration was open sometime in November. My classes were selected based on the learned lessons described in my previous post. One more thing I learned during registration [...]
// This past weekend I finalized my classes for the Spring term. In this seemingly simple decision there are a few caveats I was not aware of when I was choosing my classes for the Fall term, and was still learning during this registration period. In summer I just picked whatever classes did not have other [...]
Now that the fall term is formally over, I can draw the line for my first term in part-time MBA program at George Washington University School of Business (GWSB). It has been rather interesting learning experience. I had some classes that really grabbed my interest, such as Microeconomics, Decision Making. There was a subject that made me shiver [...]
Today I received my last grades for the second half term in fall semester. This makes it closed both officially and emotionally I am happy that I made it through. My GPA is actually still over 3, inspite of my little snafu with Financial Accounting-II. Hurray and on into the winter break and celebration time! I mentioned [...]
My professor in one of the classes I signed up for a spring term has already placed the syllabus and the home assignment for the first class. It actually happened a week ago, I just did not have time to get to it before. That’s almost a month before the first class! I appreciate this [...]
On Thursday I had my last class in Fall term. My part-time MBA first term is officially over. In Business Ethics class we turned in our final research papers. Professor said he will get to grading them next day, so he hoped we will have our grades within a week. I also got my grade [...]
My first term in Professional MBA program at GWSB is just one day shy of conclusion. I am back from my final exam on Financial Accounting-II. This time I was not nearly as depressed as after my Fin. Accounting-I in the first half-term. It does not mean that I necessarily did any better than that [...]
The full name of this course in our MBA program is Judgement/Uncertainty&Decisions. During the exam the main descriptive of my state was “Uncertainty”. Out of this uncertainty was the necessity to make some decisions, based on a limited judgement. At least the torture was limited to just two hours. Some problems were related to the stuff [...]
Today I spent half of the day reviewing material for the take home part of the final on Decision Making. It was excruciating. After 5 PM I decided that there is no point to try to catch all the pieces of the course. So I downloaded the exam and just worked on the problems. It [...]
Yesterday was the last official class of scheduled sessions in my first semester of part-time MBA program. However, since our class in Business Ethics fell on Thanksgiving we are going to have a makeup next Thursday. But it is mostly irrelevant. Our final research paper is due at next class. This is probably the only reason I [...]
Yesterday we had our final class in Financial Accounting-II before the exam. This was probably the first time I was not depressed after the class, because I was actually able to rather adequately follow the lecture. Professor gave us handouts for exam preparation and announced the materials available on the Blackboard in order to do [...]
Now is the final week of classes for this half-term. Yesterday I had my last class before the exam for Decision Making. Professor has announced the format of the final. It will be a combination of in-class and take home assignments that need to be submitted online. This time instead of 24-hours window for submission, [...]
Read an article today about new online offering in business education: online MBA degree from Jack Welch Management Institute. The guy has already made a name for himself, even if occasionally in dubious nominations. Nevertheless, he was named the Manager of the Century by Fortune in 1999, and obviously has something to say about business. Now he [...]
My MBA program studies take more and more serious toll on the time. Makes me wonder why I still keep calling it it part-time MBA. Spent all day on Saturday and well into the night working on the paper in Business Ethics . My share was to reflect on the effects of Direct-to-Consumer advertising on doctor-patient relationship. Since [...]
There are many things that the applicants to MBA programs have to do during the application phase. Of course, on top of the list for most aplicants is getting GMAT nailed. Whether one needs 750 or just 550 score, it still requires preparation. The reason is that the test itself is rather challenging, there is a [...]
Yesterday I got a news on my final grade in Financial Accounting-I, finally. I got a “B” and was extremely happy about that. I had been really concerned about a possibility of just barely passing it. It is a good news, as it means that I am legitimately continuing with my part-time MBA program. Obviously, [...]
On Monday we received our mid-term papers for the exam we took last week. The answers had been actually posted a few day earlier, so I had general idea where I was standinng. Nevertheless I was waiting eagerly as I saw some of my solutions to more complicated problems were conceptually correct, but had some [...]
Here is a short followup on my yesterday’s GMAT post. In my preparation for GMAT I did not use any in-class or online prep courses. The reason is quite obvious – I was not applying to top 10-20 full-time MBA programs, which have a very high break-in GMAT score. Part-time MBA programs available in Washington, [...]
Today is a one year anniversary of my first attempt on GMAT. To be more precise, it was not on the same date, but the same day- Saturday after Thanksgiving a year ago. On Friday before the test I knew it was not one of my brightest decisions to schedule the test for that Saturday. [...]
I was thinking about what different names part-time MBA programs go by. The most obvious generic name describing the essense of these programs is obviously plain and simple, no thrills – part-time MBA. But, of course, the Business Schools would want to differentiate themselves from each other and to emphasize distinctive features of part-time programs [...]
. Admittedly, I had only two classes in the term, and they both were not quantitative courses. But still it feels really nice. So I got my closure for the first year.
. There is also an option 
