End of the First Semester

With finals and the end of the term case competition over, the dust has finally started to settle on a crazy, yet amazing start to business school.  Over the past sixteen weeks I have had a lot of stress, a number of late nights, and a lot of fun.  In between all of that was an infusion of knowledge.  

It’s actually crazy how much you learn over the first term. For example, while at Target last week, I taught my wife how marketers use sale stickers to break your attention and how eye level shelf placement is the most expensive for brands.  She didn’t care to know that, but I was proud to have learned it in my marketing class.  It’s funny, but after taking just a couple classes in business school, you start to realize how much of an impact business decisions have on your everyday life. Even little things like Hulu streaming plans take on new meaning after just a few months of business school.

In addition to classroom learning, I’ve also had the opportunity to participate in a half-dozen case competitions.  I count those experiences as some of the most impactful as they’ve involved real problems that businesses are currently facing, as well as the fact that there is no better way to get to know your classmates than to lock yourself in a room for thirty hours.  I highly value those experiences as I not only gained some great friends, I also had a lot of facetime in front of Fortune 500 business leaders.

Overall, it has been a great start to my business school experience.  I’ve gotten to know a large portion of my small class and I look forward to getting to know the rest (it’s very achievable with a class size under 100).