What it's Like to be an MBA: A Day in the Life of a Ross Student
Matt Plumb
Issue date: 4/7/08 Section: Features
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9:30 AM - Realize with some disappointment that the past four hours of work were actually a particularly vivid dream. Hit snooze.
9:39 AM - Roll out of bed. Decide that your Strategy 501 paper is fine as is - the professor should be pleased with your plan to aggressively expand into developing markets by partnering with other firms.
10:20 AM - Arrive at the Ross School of Business, grab your coffee (just one dollar at the Ross Café!) and your complimentary Wall Street Journal. Make sure the passing undergraduates notice you scanning the headlines and nodding knowingly.
10:25 AM - Greet your section-mates. Complain to your section treasurer about how there needs to be more whirly ball events financed by section dues1. Pretend not to notice that she's ignoring you.
10:30 AM - Strategy class begins. Realize with dawning horror that your professor is not at all pleased with a plan to aggressively expand into developing markets by partnering with other firms.
10:57 AM - Get cold-called by your strategy professor. Experience a brief moment of panic, then start talking faster than you can think. Gauge your performance by whether or not your classmates are chuckling behind their hands.
12:45 PM - Lunch. Soup and salad is usually a pretty safe bet at the Ross Cafeteria, but you decide that the "Taco Chowder" is not something that interests you. Head out to one of Ann Arbor's awesome restaurants instead.
2:20 PM - Marketing class begins.
3:35 PM - So that's what the "4 Ps" are!2
4:30 PM - Power through some group work with your classmates. Without realizing it, use the word "leverage" about seven times in under a half-hour. Get called out.
5:00 PM - Leave the group meeting to attend a corporate presentation. Thank your lucky stars that you're attending a school that gives you access to amazing companies. Thank your lucky stars again for the catering from Zingerman's Deli.
6:00 PM - Meet with friends to work on your Ross Follies video3. Spend way too much time trying to come up with a song parody about "ROI."
8:00 PM - WHIRLYBALL!
(redacted) Return home. Read the business cases for tomorrow's classes - bet you never thought you'd become an expert on, say, the international lettuce trade as a part of your MBA experience.
(also redacted) Fall asleep, and dream of Football Saturday and corporate-sponsored tailgates.
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1. Whirlyball is perhaps best described as a sport that marries bumper cars and lacrosse - it is the game of the truly enlightened.
2. Price, Product, Place, Promotion, Packaging, and sometimes Y.
3. A school-wide sketch comedy show that goes up in February. It's the event of the year (email mplumb@umich.edu for more information)! Promotional consideration paid by Ross Follies.
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