Thousands of students will begin their first day of business school over the next month, starting the rigorous path to an MBA.
While every business school has its own unique curriculum, there are shared experiences that all students go through.
We asked Alex Dea, who graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler Business School in 2015, about the advice he wishes he had been given before starting b-school. Dea runs the site MBASchooled, a resource for business school students, applicants, and alumni.
We've collected insights for incoming students from Dea and the recent graduates of and students at top business schools he interviewed for his site. Here's what we found out.
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Researching your school's curriculum and professors will give you an advantage.
Picking your classes won't be as easy as it was in your undergraduate years, says Nick Johnson, New York University Stern School of Business Class of 2015.
Every school has different core requirements, ranging from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business' single class to Harvard Business School's extensive core requirements for your first three terms. There are also some advanced classes with prerequisites you may want to take care of your first year.
"There is no need to build out your whole two years this summer, but you should consider classes or professors that your school is known for and make sure you aren't missing out on anything in early days that would hurt your chances of taking their classes," Johnson says.
Job recruitment begins shortly after you step onto campus and will consume a significant portion of your time.
In addition to a strenuous workload, you're likely going to spend hours with recruiters in hopes of landing a solid job after graduation. Prepare yourself before school starts so the experience is not overwhelming, says Sarah Rumbaugh, University of Virginia Darden School of Business Class of 2015.
"Think about which industries and what companies you want to recruit with," Rumbaugh says. "Know that recruiting with every industry is really hard work and could result in spreading yourself too thin and not forging meaningful connections with the opportunities best for you."
Reflect on possible career paths, and don't be afraid of embarking on a new one. Keep a running list of jobs you're interested in, Rumbaugh says, "and also think about questions you have, things you'd like to learn, or information you need to better understand that particular opportunity."
And finally, don't feel pressured to take an opportunity for fear of losing a preferable one in the future.
Your personal life and academic life will be more interconnected than you may think.
Your class will be divided into cohorts of about 35 to 70 people who you will take your core classes with, and you'll be assigned a study group of about six people. You'll be spending a lot of time with these people, and it's to your benefit to become as comfortable as possible with them, says Matt Cairns, Duke University's Fuqua School of Business Class of 2016.
"You will spend countless hours in a tiny (often windowless) team room with these people," Cairns says. "Make sure you make time to get to know them outside of school — get dinner, drinks, or coffee. Learn about their lives and meet their significant others. You don't all have to be best friends, but it's important to know more about them than how well they know accounting."
Izzy Park, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania Class of 2015, adds that it's worth taking advantage of extracurricular activities like club sports or student government, since getting to know classmates on a personal level is not only fun but rewarding to your career.
"I don't mean that in a transactional way," she says. "Your classmates have also thought deeply about how to approach problems in a new way and getting to see them in action is another way to learn more about what makes you you."
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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