Pre MBA – Week 1

Contrary to the usual “Indian” system of starting a lecture from Day 1 at a B-School, most international B-Schools have a Pre-MBA period during which a number of social gatherings, events and meetings are arranged. Included are a few tours of the city, so as to familiarize with the train/bus stations, restaurants and bars, shopping and recreation, internet connections, mobile networks, bank accounts, healthcare and stuff and so on… The domestic partners of MBA students are welcome to attend social gatherings like the MBA Ball, dinners and social get-togethers and even the Olympics ! The International Society organizes trips and visits all around the UK and offers part time work advice to domestic partners.

The academic side of the Pre-MBA includes welcome talk(s) by the faculty and student representatives, the orientation of the MBA, the subjects and courses covered, and talks and seminars on career management. The very number of events are sure to keep the students as busy as a B. No pun intended.

Week ONE: 28th August – 2nd September.

28/8 – First day at school !! We were welcomed by a speech delivered by the Director of MBS, which was followed by a series of welcome speeches by the Career Management Services, the Faculty of all different subjects and departments, the Student Council, the International Society and so on. The day itself was just a preview of what was to come in the first term. The Student President from the previous batch said “During the first term, students often think ‘It can’t get any worse…, it does.’ ” Introductions were given to topics like economics, statistics, corporate finance and so forth. A lunch was arranged for us (free, ofcourse) in one of the halls which was a kind of “official” ice-breaker for everyone. Some of the faculty were present too. The lunch was continued on with more introductions to the course. One professor actually mystified his audience by saying that the first case study we’re going to do would be on Robin Hood !! All this followed into dinner, well till late in the evening.

Very Late in the evening: Me and Surya signed up for a health club in the city ; The GL-14. The best part is that they are giving a mountain bike free with each membership in August !! Plus we got a student discount ;-) On top of that they seem to be very considerate to nocturnals like me. Soon I will go and pick up my free mountain bike from Halfords !!

I came back to my room and read the CMS pack given to us for following up the next day.

29/8 – Today was the CMS day. The Career Management Service introduced their staff and explained about what their role was in MBS. The lectures included an introduction to everything from CVs to Careers to Industries to Companies. The most interesting part was that after giving a presentation on body language to the class, we were divided into groups and then taken to separate rooms to give us a feel of an “open-day” at the university, when companies send their business representatives to interact with the students. Such sessions are common, I guess, and hence the CMS wants to make sure we present ourselves well in the apropriate time. So after we went to separate rooms we started NETWORKING. (Trust me, there is much more to it than the word itself). We posed as a completely formal gathering and were supposed to interact with each other in a business-like way, listening to our peers and talking to them about the best in us. All the lectures were a good mix of humour and information. It was so much fun !! After each NETWORKING session we were given feedbacks about our body language, style and content of talking and expression, by the CMS who had actually been observing each one of us closely. After the CMS sessions everyone retired to their accommodations (or some people to the internet cafe in MBS), to freshen up for the barbeque party that MBS had arranged as yet another social ice-breaker. I picked up my first book (all core course books are free), from the reception – “Introduction to Statistics in Business and Accounting”, retired to my room to watch TV coupled with hot coffee and Doritos chips.

An un-incident occurred with one of the staff members though. She made a serious note of the fact that mobile phones were to be switched off during lectures, how they are *very* annoying and so on and so forth. A minute later, while everyone was still comprehending the severe penality on such a grave crime, somebody’s cellphone rang. As everyone realised within a split second it was the cellphone of the very faculty member who had just now warned us of the severe penalities. Everyone started cheering and clapping. I cheered too, but clapping? Naah, no can do.

Late till the evening: Attended the barbecue party, and I guess by now, my classmates must’ve tagged me in a couple of hundred photos on facebook. I’m just dying to have that laptop, so that I too can empty my camera into it.

Very Late in the evening: We went to see live music concert at a place called – listen to this – The Deaf Institute. The place is a bar and cafe about 10 minutes walk from the main building of MBS, and hence a favourite haunt of both post and undergrad students. And belive me, these guys really know how to play – and how. This is an actual piece from their website:

The 29th is Michael Jackson’s 80th birthday; we specifically requested this date…
So, there’s every chance we will not be playing any MJ, and no, we wont be abusing children. Or changing the colour of our skin, although it’d be nice to have the option… hmmmm.

(rofl) (rofl) (rofl)

Very very late in the evening (or probably very very early next morning): Wrote “” on my blog, till my imagination ran out of careers, or maybe till my eyes ran out of vitreous, can’t remember.

30/8 – Picked up my bike from Halfords, firrrrrrrrstthinginthemorning. Surya complained as to why I made him walk 4 miles to the bike store. I guess everyone who is with me has the same complaint. I make people walk too much. To those who mind(ed) it – Sorry. To those who did not – Trust me, you won’t regret it. We came back riding on our newly acquired bikes. The thing is that at Halfords they tailor the bike to your height and build !! And you just can’t regret the delay when the bike is free, can you?

31/8 - Today being a Sunday, I decided to head to the net center and “make the most” of my Orange sim card that I had purchased for my phone when I landed here. They have some schemes here. Some real cool schemes that is. As is they say it over here : “Bear with me…” A movie ticket here costs around £5 = INR 400. But if you have an Orange sim card, they have an Orange Wednesday scheme. Under this scheme, you just text them an sms saying FILM, and they text you an sms in response. It costs 35p = INR 25. And you show this text to ANY movie theater showing ANY movie ANY place in the city, and you get TWO TICKETS for the price of one. Thazz two tickets for the price of 425. And as a student with an NUS card, students get to pay 2/3 rd the price of almost every service. So thazz 280 for a premium movie ticket !! Not bad eh?? A second scheme is calling to India at less than 7p a minute… not bad again. The GIGSANDTOURS scheme, gives Orange customers a chance to book any tickets 48 hours before they are available to the general public !! So you never miss a beat !! Figured out all such stuff today. Student discounts, second-hand books, library locations (there’s three bigggg buildings of em here), and so forth. Found out quite some deals. One classmate actually shocked my by saying that people in London rave about the nightlife here in Manchester. Hmmm. Have been to quite some nightclubs and pubs… but I guess if it’s going to be more frequent, I better hunt for some deals on them too ;-)

Fooled around with the 18 gear full suspension mountain bike, all day :)

1/9 – Got my lappie today !! I got my lappie today !! Oh did I mention – “I got my lappie today !!”. Spent the entire day configuring and customizing it to my eshtyle. Before configuring it though, I made sure I had enough of coffee brewing in the kitchen… Configuring a university hard-coded laptop can be a little tricky you know.

Later in the day: The inaugural of my technological twin was done with that evergreen epic – Half Life 2 Episode 2. It ran beautifully, and hence I hope Ep 3 will run wonderfully as well !! Oh and did I mention – “I got my lappie today !!”.

2/9 – Today we got a taste of what it’s like to sit in the class. The subject was Introduction to Stats, and most of the time everyone was juggling the laptops, the written notes and the coffee, while trying to understand the “introduction” to stats. This is the general procedure for each class I guess…only it’ll get tougher by the minute. I am uncomfortable with the touchpad on my lappie, so I bought a Microsoft Basic Optical Mouse V2.0. Now this mouse works with EVERY OTHER LAPTOP, except mine. Also EVERY OTHER MOUSE of EVERY OTHER STUDENT works with MY laptop. But my mouse simply disagrees with my laptop. USB DEVICE NOT RECOGNIZED, WINDOWS VISTA. It sucks. WMS in full effect :( Gotta rush home, make some coffee, brush up on the stats, collect the lecture notes from my mailbox tomorrow, study them before class… oh yes did I mention – do the dishes :( Did I mention sleep anywhere…? The pre-MBA, although not assessed gives a hands-on experience on the tools required to crunch number and strategize management theories. Onto week 2… till next week, chao !! (One of these days, will upload some pics into my album though… depends on the workload. If it is too much, this blog will die a slow (painful?) death…