Hows things going? As you see it's going pretty here.
Sorry about that break from Blogdom, been busy guys. If I did mention in my earlier post that life wasn't so overwhelming, I take it back too. With coursework and hectic recruiting schedules in Fall B, I'm scrambling to show my handsome face at all places. Life creaks like the Forrest Gump soundtrack.
My fellow bloggers have covered a lot of ground in terms of what is happening at Ross, so I thought I'll give you a brief idea of courses I took in the Fall A . So by August 2010 you'll be done with the much 'liked' excel prep module and those exceptional few of you would have waived some core courses based on previous experience.
I didn't waive any, and in September started my rendezvous with Accounting, Economics, Strategy, and Statistics.
Accounting was taught by Gregory Miller, and the course kinda overturned my uninformed opinion about accounting. I didn't know that Accounting was an artform (even in non-Enron companies) and for once was surprised by the fact that there weren't correct answers to all accounting deadlocks.
The human element in accounting became even more pronounced when the hilarious Mr.Gregory asked stuff like "What do you guys feel about Accounts Receivable?".
I mean "feel"? that too about "Accounts Receivable"? Personally I felt that I was in this poetry class, and that "Accounts Receivable" is money people have to pay you, which makes me feel good, though a little anxious about whether they might actually pay me. Now don't get me started about bad debts and goodwill.
During another accounting deadlock, Kurt, the 2nd most funniest guy in class asked "So what does GAAP say about that?"
And Hilarious Mr.Gregory responded "GAAP says do whatever I say" :)
Economics by far was the best value for money (read consumer surplus) course I 've taken, not only because of the tremendous groundwork done by Prof. Jagdeesh, but also because I came to business school to interpret how the world works. After Econ, I CAN interpret the world. Two hours before, I interpreted the Dubai crisis to Dad, and after this post I will interpret the US debt crisis for a few minutes before heading to bed. Jokes apart, Econ lays an awesome foundation for finance and case interviews.
So while our Econ prof was effectively explaining the "Invisible Hand", Aneel Karnani (the one and the only Aneel Karnani) our Strategy prof claimed that he has seen the "Invisible Hand" and has even shaken hands with it.
Prof. Karnani, a legend of whom you'll surely come to know come Fall, with his stated position that "Strategy is controversial" went on to destroy words like 'depends' and phrases like 'in my opinion'. Because your company either goes to China or it doesn't, you can't go mid-way and then sit in the ocean. So 'depends' is not a choice, and you can have only your opinion, and "buy low sell high" is a motherhood statement - you don't need to be an MBA to say that.
So there we were, in a setting similar to a lion's den, re-reading and preparing HBS cases (some of them excruciatingly long), with some of them strange industries like thewine industry and ice cream in Russia, all set to get "cold called". To sum it up with one of the hundreds of Karnani-isms doing rounds at Ross - "This place is designed to overwhelm you, if you are not overwhelmed, you are missing the point".
Statistics taught by Prof. Morgan, gives you all those tools you need to interpret those thousands of lines of data which other courses and certain case competitions throw at you. It's quant heavy but fun course, especially with this remote-control-like-item called 'clicker' which can be used by individual students to mislead the class. Though statistically speaking there is a very low chance of doing it. I have tried, but the cohort is super smart.
I hope I introduced the super-exciting Fall A courses well, and that you can't wait till Fall 2010 to interpret the world :)
Tail Piece: Prospective student query that made me the most happy. "So...in your opinion...when is the recession ending?" :)
Enjoyed reading ur blog. I am a Fall '10 hopeful and reading ur blog made me look forward to the classes u discussed...
Posted by: Karishma | 12/02/2009 at 08:10 PM