Bliss

I haven't had internet access in over a week and it has been WONDERFUL!

Great to be home. Had a nice Christmas. All is well.

Will post more later.

Hope everyone had a happy holiday!

Brokeback Mountain

I took a completely undeserved break from studying for finals by going to see a movie last night. I knew I was going to see "Brokeback Mountain" but had never heard of the movie prior to its being suggested as the evening's viewing entertainment. It wasn't until I got in the car and asked, "Hey, what's this movie about anyway?" that I realized how out-of-touch I've been with the outside world. A movie about gay ranch hands? WHAT?!

People, this movie is brilliant. I knew I couldn't do it justice, so I went online a few minutes ago to search for reviews. One reviewer described the story as "achingly sad." Another, as a "heartbreaking yet oddly universal story of two gay cowboys in love." It's simply the best movie I've seen in a long, long time.

GO SEE IT!

P.S. One article I read had a disturbing quote. "Dick Rolfe of the Dove Foundation, which encourages production of family-friendly films, cautioned: 'If Christians protest too loudly, they can end up making the mistake of calling attention to a movie that otherwise may not do very well at the box office. We have to be very careful not to use our anger strategies to a point where they boomerang on us.'" Anger strategies? Am I the only one who finds this disturbing?

So Close

I took my Data final today and I'm pretty sure that I'll finish the class just a few points shy of a distinction. Ugh. I really thought I was going to be able to pull it off. Oh, well.

Good Luck!

With admissions expected to release some decisions over the next week, I thought I'd take a moment to wish fellow bloggers Ty Coon and Tizzerboy good luck!

GOOD LUCK!

The Midterm Awards

Immediately after midterms this semester, I put this list together. I wrote it and left it as a draft in my folder, forgetting all about it. Tonight, I came across it again. So before the semester is up – and as a timely nod to final exams – I present my own mini Midterm Awards!

The award for Best Answer goes to . . .

The student on the Finance exam whose full answer to the candy tiaras problem was simply, “Are you kidding me?!” (Note: This question took most first-years anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes to solve.)

The award for Most Redundant Request goes to . . .

It’s a tie!

The student in the Monday night Finance review session who interrupted the TA to ask him if he could do an example of the example he was already doing.

The one Finance question that asked us to calculate the NPV of a growing annuity three times and an annuity once.

The award for Most Annoying TA goes to . . .

The TA in the Sunday night Econ review session whose answer to almost every problem was, “Does everyone see that? Good.” Or, loosely translated based on tone, “This is really easy. Do you see how smart I am?”

Actually, this describes almost every TA. So you’re all winners!

The award for Best Clarifying Question goes to . . .

The student who asked the Finance TAs during the exam to clarify how long college lasted, which prompted one of the TAs to walk into every exam room and write on the board, “College = 4 years.”

The award for Most Difficult Exam goes to . . .

Finance! Professor Cohen made this exam several times more difficult than the one that first-years were given last year, even though he assured us that this year’s exam would be easier. Congratulations on your award, Professor! Now all you have to do is make sure that first-years never find out what kind of car you drive. . . . Just kidding! We all know you’re not old enough to drive.

Gossip

My posts of late have been a little . . . well . . . boring. So I've decided to focus my attention on another part of the student experience here at Yale SOM. Gossip.

Being such a small school, you'd be surprised at how little people actually gossip. This is unfortunate for those of us who wish we had time to lead interesting lives. We need gossip to fill the void, to live vicariously through others. And when we don't get any gossip, we're very disappointed.

Fortunately, dear readers, I have some gossip for you. I heard from someone who heard from someone who is close to the ethics review committee that someone in my class was dismissed from the program for an incident involving the New Haven police department.

WOW, huh?!

The exact nature of the crime was never revealed. And no one has been able to figure out who this student is. It seems as though everyone in my class is accounted for, so the story is probably not true. But that's the beauty of gossip. It doesn't have to be!!! And because a name was never given, nobody got hurt. Everybody wins.

Keep the vague, innocuous, and dubious stories coming, Class of 2007! It's likely all the entertainment we're going to get between now and finals.

Crazy For Cournot!

Okay, not really. I just liked how that sounded. I'm sure there are people out there who just loooooove talking about oligopolies and profit maximization models. Me, not so much. Although, I did enjoy learning about price discrimination in econ this half of the semester. That's SOMETHING, no?

I've spent the better part of today creating an econ review sheet. Tedious work, but good preparation for taking the practice finals. I haven't got to the part of the course where we talked about asymmetric information. This subject was covered in three of my classes this semester; and if I never hear the words "moral hazard" again, it will be too soon.

Good News

I landed my first interview today. I'm very excited, in part because it was the first resume I sent out, which bodes well, I hope. I'm also pleased because I got the interview in spite of a cover letter that wasn't particularly great. (I am not a fan of cover letters so it's nice to know that my experience matters more to this company than some anachronism.)

I've only applied for five internships so far, and all within the last week. I won't hear anything from the other companies until early next month.

My mock interview didn't go so well. The interviewer gave me a 4 on a scale of 1 to 10, which is entirely justified. I stunk. To be fair, I had no idea what I would be "interviewing" for when I went in; and I was going off three hours of sleep. But I did get a lot of great advice on how to improve. Now I just need to practice before the REAL interviewing begins.

Some non-internship related good news: I turn in my last assignment for 2005 tomorrow morning. Then, all I have to do is study for - and take! - my exams. My MBA career is nearly 1/4 complete. While I love it here, I miss the real world. You know, the one where you actually have time to do the things that you enjoy. The one where you can pick up the phone and call someone without feeling guilty about all of the studying that you're not doing. The one where you get a paycheck every couple weeks. LOL.

KV - Yes! Let's try to meet up while you're in the Bay Area. I'll send you an email with my contact info.

The Internship Search

So I finally have a draft of my resume that I'm happy with. It really brings my career to life. What a dramatic difference, writing in terms of accomplishments as opposed to responsibilities. I get excited reading my resume now. Hopefully, recruiters will, too.

I'm getting a little stressed out about the whole internship search. I don't want to work at any of the companies that traditionally come on business school campuses to recruit MBAs. This means I have a lot of work to do on my own. While I anticipated this from the very beginning, it doesn't make it any less daunting.

I have to spend a day going through old emails, digging up the names of recruiters I've met over the course of my career. I also have to get my resume to friends who work in companies that I'm interested in. And I've got to put together a decent cover letter.

I have a mock interview scheduled for this week. I also have an assignment due in every class. And finals are in two weeks. You know, the internship search would be a lot easier if school didn't keep getting in the way. :-)