Queen of the Castle

Beasley has been here for about 72 hours, and as you can see, she hasn't hesitated to make herself at home. It's a no-brainer that my bed is pretty comfortable, so when she can, she just hops on. Aside from the first night, when she decided that my pillows would be a good place to sleep, she's been pretty good about making room for me!

MAP FAQ's

After I posted my MAP locale yesterday, I realized that I had never properly explained what MAP is all about. So, here's the 411.

Michigan's business program is all about "Action Based Learning." The idea is that classrooms are great for theory, but there's more to an education than sitting in a lecture hall talking about business cases. During the first three terms of the MBA program you are automatically placed into 9 core classes so you can get a broad, theoretical view of the business world. Once you complete these nine classes (Financial Accounting, Microeconomics, Business Statistics, Corporate Strategy, Corporate Finance, Marketing Management, Human Behavior and Organizations, Managerial Accounting and Operations Management), they figure you are ready to tackle Real World problems. But, much like learning how to ride a bike, our first Real World experience comes with training wheels. And this is where MAP comes in. The Multi-Disciplinary Action Project is the capstone course to our first year in b-school, tying in all our classroom theory ("Multi-Disciplinary") into a consulting project for a company ("Action Project"). Basically, you get the experience, but it's a lower risk environment than a summer internship because you can rely on your team members and faculty for help. MAP was essentially the reason I applied to Michigan to begin with (because it definitely wasn't the weather that made me want to come here!)

At the end of December they sent out a list of all the available projects, which ranged between Domestic vs International, and Corporate vs Nonprofit vs Entrepreneurial. We had 3 weeks to look over the list and rank our top 10 choices (the only stipulations were 1 domestic in your Top 5, and 3 domestic in your Top 10). After all our preferences were entered into a computer, and some overly complex algorithm, involving project preferences, country of origin, section, languages spoken, gender and shoe size (maybe not, but who knows what they include!), split the class of 420 into 90 to 100 teams.

I am excited for my project, which involves creating a strategy for Borders Gift Cards. I'm not sure what exactly we'll be doing, but given that I only found out what project I was on yesterday, that's not surprising. So, while some of my b-school friends are off to far-flung locations such as Spain, Czech Republic, India, California, I will be staying in Ann Arbor for the project (did you guys know that the first Borders store is located on the U of M campus?) At first I was a bit upset, but I did manage to come up with a list of reasons why staying here is going to be a good thing.

1. I get to sleep in my own bed.
2. If/When (knowing me, "when" is definitely the case) things get heated with my group members, we can each retreat to our separate homes.

3. I don’t have to pay for the doggie hotel.
4. When Tatum gives birth, I can drive down at my convenience to see my new niece.
5. I think the project I’m working on is going to be really interesting, because otherwise, I never would have ranked it.
6. If I’m overly ambitious, I can take another class.

All in all, I'm looking forward to the project. But, if any future MBA1s ask for my advice as to how to rank projects? "It doesn't matter how awesome the project is, if you don't want to stay in MI for MAP, don't rank any project in the area in your Top 10."

Where on the MAP?

The projects have been released. Drumroll please.... I'm headed to Ann Arbor, MI! Not exactly exotic, but oh well. We're doing a project for Borders, and that's really all I can say.

In the Cold, Cold Night

The cold weather sucks. When I was in my car today, the temperature gauge read anything between 8 and 15 degrees. And since it's usually reads 3-4 degrees higher than the actual outside temperature, this means I was dealing with anywhere between 4 and 12 degrees. Not factoring in the wind chill.

Since today was definitely NOT a day to be outside, I opted to watch movies for most of the day. First, I watched the end of Blade: Trinity, which I had been watching last night on TNT before I went to sleep (Ryan Reynolds is hot). Then, I watched Man in the Moon on E!, followed by a trip to the movie theater to watch Cloverfield (I REALLY liked it). To wrap up the day, Shari, Nathalie and I headed over to Lene's to eat wings and watch The Lives of Others (a foreign film that I actually liked... shocking!)

It was a much better way to spend my day than studying. Now, if only it were warm!

I'm still here!

Somehow, Winter A started, and I've managed to completely get wrapped up in school. With recruiting ramping up this week, and too many group projects to work on the first weekend of class, I've been pretty busy the last few days. So, a couple of quick updates for you all...

• Classes: With Week One officially in the books, my initial impressions are positive for OMS, MKT and BIT. Cost accounting? Not feeling the love.
• (Wo)man's best friend: In case you haven't been keeping up with the pipeline, I'm getting a dog! I've decided to take in Joe and Tatum's beagle, who doesn't always play well with others (if by others, we're talking about 18 month old babies). So, in about two weeks, they'll be headed up here to drop her off. I'm excited to have a "roommate," but I still need to Beasley-proof my apartment.
• MAPping the future: My MAP choices were due yesterday, and about 90 minutes before the deadline, I finally made my picks. I only chose two international projects, and my domestic choices weren't exactly too exotic (Ann Arbor! Arkansas! Reston, VA! Ohio! Woo!), but I'm pretty excited about my options. Regardless of where I end up, I know it's going to be interesting and challenging. Check back on the 23rd to see where I end up!

Welcome back!

Somehow my three week vacation has come to an end. No more sleeping in and being completely lazy, as Winter A kicks off tomorrow. I'm trying to be productive this term... I'm taking two electives on top of my two core classes. On my plate for the next 6 weeks? Operations management, Cost accounting, Consumer Behavior and Expert-Level Excel. The best news of all is the complete lack of 8am classes!!! Mondays and Wednesdays start at 10:20 am, and Tuesdays and Thursdays don't begin until 12:40pm. Thank goodness for that! Plus, I am lucky that I don't have to deal with the recruiting stress... I can't help but look at my classmates and admire them for all the hard work they're putting in. Best of luck to them in the upcoming weeks!