Finals week is here. With one final done, and one more to go, Term 2 is almost wrapping up, bringing me 33% closer to the MBA. I feel more settled with the class pace now, getting better at juggling between work, school and family. Although, I must say that my extra-curricular activities such as supporting local non-profits have suffered due to the extra work load. Nevertheless, there are other extra-curricular activities I have picked up at school. I am trying to bootstrap Social Entrepreneurship and Non-Profits club at the Cross-continent program and at the same time co-chair the Bootstrap Initiative, a functional branch of Entrepreneurship Club of CCMBA. Starting new fun activities with your peers at school has always been a good selling point for the top MBA programs and Fuqua is no different. The only caveat with Cross-continent MBA is that, it becomes more challenging to organize such events in the distance portion of the program. Well, who said running a multi-national would be an easy task anyways. Real world experience with real people around the world!

I thoroughly enjoyed the classes this term. Decision Models by Prof. Peter Regan and Managerial Economics by Prof. Leslie Marx were phenomenal. The 4 term long courses viz. Global Markets and Institutions and Culture, Civilization and Leadership made little progress, as the work load there is quite minimal as opposed to the two main ones. I like the way Fuqua MBA program is structured that all the classes are interlinked with each other and build on one another. For example, we heavily used the auction related material that we learned in Managerial Economics in the Global Markets and Institutions class, while the Decision Modeling concepts learned in Decision Models were applied to Managerial Economics case studies. I am too excited about the tools I have learned in this term and can’t wait to apply them back at work. Currently, I am exploring different units inside Nokia Siemens Networks where I could apply my new learned skills.

While watching the Shanghai skyline fade away in the rear view mirror and tires still spitting smoke from the burnouts, the race to London-Term 2--has already begun. Program office was not shy of sending out material for next term before the official end of term1. It is a funny feeling. Yesterday, my wife came to me saying --"Honey, your schedule shows a break from 12 to 15th October". I couldn't stop myself from laughing, ironically. The definition of term break is used quite loosely in this case. Well, if you can finish the truck load of reading in less than a week, then yes you have 3 days break. Or else, you better start reading the material.

The picture shows the reading material that came in the mail last week, while we were still struggling with our finals for term1. Now that everything related to term1 is done with, the grades have started to show up. Managerial Effectiveness already has the grades out, which I think I pretty much nailed it. Not to mention, it was one of my favorite and most practical course in the first term. On the other hand, I am not too excited to hear about accounting even though final was not that bad for me as the mid-term. Let's see when Miss Katherine drops the bomb. With almost a week to the flight to Heathrow, I need to get geared up for the new Residency Blast.