Filed under: MBA
I’m officially a full time student again now ! It’s a little weird…walking around UT campus with my backpack :p Soon I’m also going to start taking the bus to commute daily.. I’ve been driving the past week and it takes me between 35-50 minutes each way because of traffic.. Hendrik told me that it’s going to get worse when the undergrads are back to school next week, so I better start the day even earlier !!
So.. I came back from Indonesia last Monday night… after a loooong trip from Bandung… I was stuck in LA for 12 hours because the computer system at immigration was down.. AFTER my plane arrived 3 hours late because it diverted to Seattle to drop a passenger who was sick ! Finally reached home in Austin at 9PM … that’s 9AM Tuesday in Indonesia.. and I actually left my home in Bandung on Saturday morning at 9AM ! So my total travel time was 48 hours!
By 8.30AM the next day I was already on campus for Day1 of a 10-day-orientation program. It’s NOT like the regular orientation that people usually think of… We start everyday at 8.30-9AM and end at 5pm, 7pm, 9pm, 10pm… We’ve had one formal banquet so far (professional attire), one 5-star dining at the Four Seasons hotel in downtown Austin where we had an Etiquette coach teaching us some dining manners 
, a dinner reception at a faculty’s house, and a "Think n Drink" at a local bar. Oh.. we even had a consultant from Nordstrom to teach us how to dress appropriately for business :p hehe
A little profile of my class… the Full Time Texas MBA, class of 2009
# students = 267, divided into 4 cohorts. It feels like I’m back in high school, because I’m going to have the same 66 classmates for all of my classes this whole semester.
Average age = 28 ( hehe I don’t feel so old now)
Average work experience = 5 years ( I’m right there in the middle )
Average GMAT = 674 (I think if I heard right)
% international students = 25% (I’m the only Indonesian)
% women = 27%, which is the highest percentage ever
Today was Day5… we had a 4 hour Accounting bootcamp. I guess it’s necessary for people like me who had zero business background. Tomorrow we’ll have 4 more hours of Accounting basics, and at the end of the day at 5pm, we’re going to get started on a case challenge… I wonder what time I’ll get home tomorrow :’(
So…. even though it’s JUST orientation.. it’s been quite hectic and tiring for me.. especially since I’ve been on vacation for 4.5 months It’s also very overwhelming to listen to all the resources and options (career services, student services, academic advising, professional coaches, etc etc) that are available to us for the next 2 years… We’ve also had 2nd year students come in and share their experiences with us..
It looks like we’re definitely going to have a very tough and busy first semester… On top of classes, we also have to keep up with career services.. The whole semester starting next week, Monday to Thursday, 4 days a week, there’s going to be a company visiting for an info session.. every single night !! Of course it would be crazy to try to attend every single one of those, but generally 2nd year students shared that they attend at least 2 of those every week! We also will have a job fair in the last week of September !! That’s only 4 weeks away ! Our classes haven’t even started yet, and we already have to think about job searching !
So far I’m happy with my decision to go back to school and I’m also happy with UT ! I’m quite impressed with the program, the staffs, and the faculty members.. Wish me luck for the next 2 years !
