Holidays in the Ozarks

I haven't written anything in awhile. Shame on me. I have all kinds of lame excuses but it just comes down to poor time management on my part. My kids are out of school this week for Thanksgiving break. This means that I have been home with them. This last Saturday was the holiday parade on the Square in Fayetteville. The Lights of the Ozarks are now ablaze. If you've never visited the Square during this time of year, you have to add it to your "must-do" list. They have carriage rides, pony rides, and you can even ride a camel - if that is something on your "must-do" list. It's a beautiful time of year here and my kids love going to the Square in the evening to see the festivities.

This last weekend I made 2 trips to the movie theater. On Saturday, my daughter and I went to see New Moon. We got there over an hour early and there was already a line (not to buy tickets, they were already sold out for most of the show times that afternoon, this line was just to get into the theater). The line stretched from the ticket taker's kiosk all the way to the entrance of the theater; it then curled around and nearly made a circle - it ended up looking like a U. I even ran into 2 of our MBA students there.

On Sunday the entire family went to see Blind Side. The theater was packed for this movie as well. It was a great weekend for movies. Since my kids are out of school this week, we have been spending afternoons at the Boys and Girls Club. Zoey has her first basketball game next Wednesday. It made me nervous that she wasn't going to have practice for a week and then go back to school and have her first game. We go to the club so she can do a little shooting and then she and Jack go swimming.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. I'll be back in the office next Monday.

Summary of Recent Rankings

I can't stress these rankings enough so I thought I'd mention our recent MBA success once more.

The full-time MBA was ranked #7 by Princeton Review in their Most Competitive Students category.


The Walton full-time MBA program was ranked #91 overall by Aspen Institutes's Beyond Grey Pinstripes Global 100. If only looking at US public institutions, we are #27.

The Walton part-time MBA (Managerial MBA or MMBA) was recently ranked #26 among public program and #59 overall by BusinessWeek. We are #1 in the SEC.

These rankings reflect the quality of our MBA programs. To learn more about these options, visit http://gsb.uark.edu/mba.asp and http://gsb.uark.edu/mmba.asp.

Be Sure to Check Out the Walton MBA Student Blogs

In case you aren't a regular reader of the student blogs, you really should check them out. Our student bloggers are our MBA Ambassadors. They had to go through an application process to be selected for this position. Along with blogging, they assist me with student recruiting by meeting with prospective students, answering their email questions, and generally anything else I ask of them. They are a fantastic group, if I do say so myself. This year's class is represented by 5 ambassadors - 2 guys and 3 girls. They also nicely represent our students as 2 are newly graduated from their bachelor's, 3 are married, 1 is international, and 2 are a little older with more experience. Their recent posts are very entertaining as their semester is winding down and they are frantically trying to get their assignments and projects done and get ready for final exams. All of this is going on while they are working and interviewing for jobs. Several students are in the process of interviewing right now and some of our bloggers are sharing this experience with their readers. Be sure to keep up with them - links to their blogs are provided on the right.

How can it be mid-November already?

I am sitting here looking at my wall calendar. I live by this calendar. It tells me when I am speaking in a class, when I have an ad due, when I have an event. This wall calendar plays a very important part in my life. As I was saying, I was sitting here at my desk gazing at my wall calendar wondering where on earth the time has gone. This is one of those signs that I am getting old. "Where has the time gone" was a saying I heard my grandmother use often, along with, "If I had half her energy..." It is official, when we start using the same phrases our grandmothers used, we are old.

The Thanksgiving holiday is 2 weeks away. Since I am out of the office that week, I really only have one more week left before December. When we start talking about December, I start panicking. One the one hand, December is great - it means the holiday and the University is closed. On the other hand, it means Christmas and I have been awful this year. I am one of those people who start their holiday shopping in June. I love Christmas. It is very important to me that I find everyone that perfect gift. For some reason, this year I am really slacking. Just this week I went online to Overstock.com and ToysRUs.com and ordered some gifts for my kids. I am going to have to get on the ball. I am not one to wait until the last minute and join the frenzy. My husband does that. It is no fun at all to me. I do not like crowds so I like to finish my shopping early. I just can't get my act together this year.

My daughter's (Zoey) first basketball game of the season is December 2. I love basketball season. This allows us a lot of quality family time. She will play every Wednesday night and Saturday afternoon. She only plays through the end of January so it is short and quick. We all go to her games (me, my husband, and son). We spend lots of time in a gym. Zoey started playing in 3rd grade. She is now a 7th grader so we have spent a lot of time watching her play ball. Jack is not playing basketball yet so all of our attention is focused on her. This works pretty well. Jack plays soccer and football in fall; Zoey plays basketball in winter and then Jack plays soccer and baseball in spring. Maybe that is why I am so tired. I love that they are so involved and have a true love of sports.

Tomorrow is Friday the 13th. I am really not superstitious but I have to admit that when I was very young, my babysitter took me to see Friday the 13th. This was back in the 70s at the drive-in theater. It scared me to death. It left a lasting impression on me so I will try to be extra careful tomorrow. Black cats don't bother me and I'll even open an umbrella inside or walk under an open ladder. Friday the 13th is just scary. I'll keep my fingers crossed that all goes well.

Travel finished for now, focus is on MBA

I have finished my travel for this semester. Last week was intense. I was in Central Arkansas for 3 days. While I was there I attended 3 Career Fairs, made 1 corporate visit at Acxiom, and met with 1 prospective student at UAMS. I thoroughly enjoy my time on the road but I am also glad each semester when it comes to an end. Thanksgiving is in a couple of weeks and I will be taking the entire week off. Woohoo for me. Both of my kids will be out of school that week so it will not be a time of rest and relaxation.

I will be making one final Corporate Visit tomorrow to Walmart's ISD. I'll be there 11-1 so be sure to stop by and say hi if you are in the building.

For the rest of the semester, I will be focusing on wrapping up our MBA class. I will also be finalizing my recruiting reports for fall. Before we know it, the year will be over and it'll be 2010. 2009 has really flown by.

We are still accepting MBA applications for 2010. We will accept them through the end of the month. Orientation is January 4-8 and we leave for Christmas break on December 23rd. The MBA class of 2011 will need to be finalized before we leave for the holiday break. To see a complete list of our admissions requirements, visit http://gsb.uark.edu/admissions.asp.

Walton's MMBA ranked #26 by BusinessWeek

The Walton College Managerial MBA (MMBA) is ranked #26 among public schools of Business by BusinessWeek and #59 overall. For a complete list of ranked schools, visit http://bwnt.businessweek.com/bschools/ptmba_rankings_2009/?chan=magazine+channel_special+report.

This is very exciting for us. We are also ranked #4 in the South and #1 in the SEC. This program was specifically designed for full-time working professionals. It begins each August and students take 6 hours a semester for 6 semesters by only attending class in Fayetteville one Saturday each month. In between these face-to-face meetings, students work online. For more information about this highly ranked program, visit http://gsb.uark.edu/mmba.asp.

Application deadline is April 1 and admissions requirements can be found at http://gsb.uark.edu/admissions.asp. Email gsb@walton.uark.edu with questions.

Halloween Pictures

As promised, here are my cute little Red Power Ranger and Devil. The first pictures are at the Fayetteville Square.

These last one is of Jack trick or treating on Saturday.