By Rahul Ramteke, MBA Class of 2016
The MBA program is often so rigorous that at times you don’t realize the first year is going by in a flash. It is rightly said that the first MBA year is like a roller-coaster ride. There is no time for contemplation or any other type of thing. You are so busy doing assignments, taking classes or looking for an internship opportunity that when you get some time to breathe, you realize that the first year is almost over. I want to give a small snapshot of how the first year has progressed so far. It all started with an orientation that set the tone for the next two years of MBA life. Then suddenly we were all taking classes and spending most of the time doing our assignments. The first mod is something that many students felt was the toughest. Although it has a few easier classes, others such as Accounting are the ones that challenge a lot of the students. My advice for the incoming class is to familiarize themselves with the accounting concepts, so they don’t have to sweat it out once the semester starts. Mod 1 is also a time when a lot of big career fairs are offered. One of them is the NBMBA career fair. It was held in Atlanta in 2014. I had some success at this fair, as I was able to make a lot of new contacts and expand my network. My advice for the incoming class would be to start early by doing a lot of research on the available positions and companies before going to any of the career fairs. The first mod ends quickly, and by that time everyone kind of gets into the MBA flow.
The second mod started with a celebratory mood for the Indian festival of lights, i.e. Diwali. Everyone participated with great enthusiasm and it was fun to watch fellow classmates dance to some of the latest Bollywood musical hits. We took some heavy quant-based classes in this mod, and learned a great deal from the best professors around. During the second Mod, the campus recruiting process gains momentum with a lot of companies such as Dell, Deloitte, etc. recruiting on campus from the MBA class. My advice for the incoming class would be to start early by working closely with the Career Services. Half way through this mod, every one of us was already looking forward to the winter break that was on its way. A lot of people spent at least a few days outside of State College during the winter break. I went to Miami along with a few friends and enjoyed the Florida sun on South Beach. A lot of people visited the Bahamas on a cruise liner. Before we knew, the winter break was also over.
Mod 3 consisted of a few quant-based classes and it was also the mod where we could select electives. I took a Finance elective titled Financial Analysis and Valuation by Prof. Muscarella, which I enjoyed thoroughly. We also learned a lot about global business through our global perspectives class, which was a base for our Global Immersion. This was also the time when we celebrated the Lunar New Year with great excitement. Most of us witnessed the Dragon dance for the first time in our lives during that celebration. Finally, everyone from the first year class travelled to their global destinations for the global immersion program. The destinations for this year were San Francisco, Lima, Shanghai and Johannesburg. I opted to go to San Francisco, as I am fascinated by Silicon Valley. The trip turned out to be a great experience as we visited many companies such as Google, Apple and Facebook. It was an experience that I will definitely cherish for the rest of my life. This brought us to the spring break, which again went by in a flash and led us to the fourth and the final mod for the year.
We are almost half way through the fourth mod now, and the first years are looking forward to go to various locations for their summer internships. No doubt it has been a roller coaster ride but as we look back at the year gone by so far, we see that not only did we learn a lot of new information, but we also made a lot of new friends. With hopes in our hearts, we now look forward to summer and the final year of MBA life.