Brahma Narayanan

Fall A 2010 - Trailer

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.

Welcome to the Class of 2034

Welcome to the Pupil's Republic of Ann Arbor!

I'm glad you are making this effort to know more about Ross. (evident from the fact that you clicked on 4 hyperlinks from the homepage to reach this blog; Trick: you can remove this inefficiency by bookmarking this page).

At Ross, the admissions is very keen on knowing more about you before you join us every fall. As part of this effort Dean Dolan met up with prospective students for the Class of 2034 in the Winter Garden today. (see photo)

Photo courtesy: Matt Thiel (ex-fighter pilot, dislocated shoulder recently)

Talking about Matt and uniqueness of your candidature, in my Section (in Ross the cohort is divided into six sections of approx 80 students and section 'spirit' (pun intended) runs high), there are five Matts, three Rajs, and two Raghus. So your name need not be unique to make your candidature unique. At the same time, there is no rule that 6.25% of the class should be named Matt. I know you are all smart enough to interpret the admission statistics wisely, it's just that I have started reading Levitt and Dubner's second book "Superfreakonomics" (released yesterday) and looking at interpreting irrelevant statistics.

Talking about "Superfreakonomics", I recommend the book, and the fact that I'm reading it in Fall A proves that, however hectic they say the 1st year of MBA is, at Ross you'll surely find time for the things you know as your own.

Now for the best part, let me introduce myself.

I am Brahma Narayanan. You can read why I chose Ross in the about me.

To give you a brief idea of my background, I am from Thiruvananthapuram in India, a beautiful city between mountains and the sea, which has according to wiki the 8th longest place name in the world.

Brief history,
Institutions: St Thomas Residential School (1999) - College of Engineering Trivandrum (Mech, 2003) - TATA Consultancy Services (2003-2009) - Ross School of Business (hopefully 2011)

Cities:Thiruvananthapuram,IND - Bangalore,IND - Miami, USA - Kochi, IND - Ann Arbor, USA

I hope that gives you some idea of where I come from, and I'll be glad to discuss anything with you (except the weather in Michigan).

Myth Buster (this is the tail piece):

"There is a red file in Dean Dolan's desk with the correct answers to all admission essay questions"

This one seems to be wrong. It seems there is no file like that. It's almost like the strategy cases in core, with no correct answers. I know it sounds crazy, but I guess this is the first step in making future CEOs comfortable with ambiguity.

I'll be right back, don't go away :)