The start of the second year:
Coming back to state college is a lot easier in the second year. You know the expectations, you already have a friend base, and there is a lot less stress. What never gets easy is the fact you are coming back from an awesome summer internship to being a poor student again. Thank goodness the cost of living in State College is cheap; otherwise I don’t know how I could do it.
The responsibility of a second year is also different. Being on the MBA Association board makes things a little bit busier, but everyone in the second year feels the change. There is almost an unspoken oath that you will look out for the first year class, and help them get integrated into the school and town. It is crazy to think that just a year ago we were the same bright eyed group. Now we all feel like seasoned veterans. We supported the MBA administration a lot with orientation and the early career development activities. It’s so important, even if you are holding offers from your summer job, to get started in the career search right away. You need to be sharp right out of the gate as companies start recruiting early on. We already had two career fairs, multiple on campus info sessions and two corporate-sponsored tailgates just even before hitting October.
It’s a frantic pace but it is a lot easier the second time around. Cheers to being less than a year away from Graduation.
-Mike Bassani, Penn State Smeal MBA ’14