Doing The Pre-Term Thing At Wharton

Leaving Things Behind

So a part of this whole “no car” thing has been having to get used to taking EVERYTHING you need with you when you leave. There is no back seat to throw things in that you “might” need just in case. There is also no putting things in your car that you know you will forget; and thus far I’ve forgotten a few things. Yesterday evening I left the power cord to my lap top in a classroom. The cleaning staff graciously placed it at the front of the room so that I was able to retrieve it this morning. Then while on the subway this afternoon, I realized that I had left my umbrella in a bathroom. Oh well, I just got another box today from my parents in Florida and it had…..drum roll…..an umbrella in it–so I should be fine.

Quant Conundrums

About this class I’m in. I’ve heard at some point that Wharton will find a way to infuse quant into just about EVERYTHING that you do here. I now know that to be true. And one of the things that is done to make sure that you are in a position to handle all that good ole quant is a math proficiency exam that is due over the summer. I estimate that about 40-50% of the class did well enough on that exam to meet the requirement. Well, I”m in the other half. In my defense, I hardly prepared for it until the last minute and figured I needed the review anyway. I was right.

Going through this class has quickly brushed away the MANY cobwebs that exist over my memory of functions and the calculus of single and multivariate functions that I haven’t looked at in nearly a decade in half; but even though I haven’t seen this stuff in a long, long time, I had enough repetition of it back in the day such that it is really coming back to me in a major way while enrolled in this class. Kudos again to the administration for institution this during pre-term.

FOMO, FOFO and Managing Time

If you’ve been reading this or other MBA blogs for a while then you are probably at least marginally familiar with the concept of “FOMO” (fear of missing out). At Wharton, I’ve recently been introduced to “FOFO”, the fear of FAILING out. It seems that FOMO is not a force in a vacuum, but a dialectic to FOFO such that they must both be balanced in order to maximize your results. While I was tantalized by the many options that Wharton has offer during the first few days of pre-term, I’ve more recently begun to draw back and re-focus on what I’m really here for–to start a business. Then are are clubs and activities as well as the freelance writing I do along with giving support to my admissions consulting clients so that they’ll have their best shot to end up at a great school like Wharton next year.

Plague and Pestilence: When Shaking Hands Goes Wrong

Earlier, I talked about the incessant shaking of hands in this place. Well, despite the obvious networking benefits, that activity has a definite down side. About 2 days ago, I came down with a miserable cold that I am sure came from the hot cauldron bubble of germs that I’ve been in since Sunday with everyone in the class in such close quarters for much of the day. Since then, I’ve been somewhat quarantining myself. I’ve sat in the front a lot to avoid breathing on people, washed my hands constantly and in some cases just not showed up at all to not put other people at risk. If only someone had shown me the same courtesy.

A Better Shave, Courtesy of Wharton

I divorced my beloved Dollar Shave Club about 2 weeks ago and began ordering form Harry’s, a startup founded by a Wharton alum (the same one who co-created Warby Parker glasses). Thus far, I am beyond impressed with the quality and affordability of this product. I strongly recommend it to any guy out there who loves a great shave the way that I do.

Doing What I the F Want Today (and probably tomorrow too)

So, in all of this Wharton amazing-ness, I have a dirty lil’ confession to make. I have hit my limit. While many people in my class see me as a fairly extroverted person (based on this blog and some of my practices in the class Facebook group) I am actually an introvert. I can only take so much of crowds before I need to retreat away for some me time. I hit that mark today and totally began to space out. Add to that my temporary illness and you have a perfect formula for my pulling away a bit.

I’ve really been a trooper in pre-term thus far; and I plan to return to being one in a day or so when my illness subsides. In the meantime, I’m going to do excatly what the F I want to do. I”m not self-segrating for lack of interest in my classmates; I just know that I need some balance if I am to be as strong of a member of the community as I can be. Today, however, I decided to skip out on my afternoon seminars. Instead, I’m blogging, putting together cheap IKEA furniture, unpacking boxes of books and going for a hour long run tonight at the gym. Tomorrow, it’ll be back to Pre-term…

MBAOver30 offers the perspective of a 30-something MBA applicant who was offered admissions to Wharton, Booth and MIT Sloan with fellowships to each. He is a member of the Wharton MBA Class of 2015 and majors in Entrepreneurial Management and Marketing with an emphasis in Customer Data & Analytics. He blogs at MBAOver30.com. Previous posts on Poets&Quants:

How I Totally Overestimated The MBA Admissions Process

Musings on MBA Failophobia

Letting Go Of An MBA Safety School

When A Campus Visit Turns Off An MBA Applicant

Yale, Tuck and Booth: The Next Leg of My Pre- MBA Research

My Countdown: Less Than 30 Days To The GMAT

From Suits To Startups: Why MBA Programs Are Changing

Why I’m Not Getting Either A Part-Time MBA or An Executive MBA

Preparing To Sit For The GMAT Exam

Falls Short of GMAT Goal, But The 700 Is A Big Improvement

A 2012-2013 MBA Application Strategy

Celebrating A 35th Birthday & Still Wanting A Full-Time MBA