The Semester is Winding Down

Tomorrow is December 1st. I can't believe it! Finals start on December 10th and go through the 16th. Students are then on break until spring semester begins on Monday, January 11th. Be sure to read the MBA student blogs to get a first hand account of how their semesters are wrapping up.

Speaking of "wrapping up," it's almost Christmas. I was actually able to get some shopping done on Black Friday. For those of you unfamiliar with "Black Friday," it is the day after Thanksgiving and the stores have crazy sales. The stores are also crazy busy. I don't usually participate in this annual ritual, but this year I had some electronics on my list and this is a very good day to pick these items up. I love Christmas. We put up our Christmas tree yesterday. My daughter is ready for me to wrap presents. I have learned not to put presents under the tree this early. There are 2 reasons for this: 1) my cats tear up the bows and make a mess of everything and 2) my kids drive me crazy with the shaking and the exclamations of "I know what it is." My favorite part of Christmas is the look of surprised pleasure on my kids' or husband's face as they unwrap the perfect present. I don't want them shaking and analyzing the gifts and taking that moment away from me.

For the next two weeks I'll also be wrapping things up (there's a theme here) in the office. I put another MBA candidate through to committee today so we are still finalizing the class that will begin in January. We could have 43-45 students. I haven't heard from 3 of our recent admits so I don't know yet if they will be accepting our offer. Orientation begins on Monday, January 4. I won't know for sure who is coming until that morning. I'll be standing there by the check-in table anxiously waiting to greet our new students. In reality, I am hoping for a class of 40. Anything over that will be icing on the cake. Our current class has 37. We are slowly growing each year. Our maximum size will be 50.

For those of you contemplating the MBA for January 2011, early decision deadline is April 1. For full consideration of funding, I recommend applying by this date.