Day 4 & 5 of MBA Orientation

I am a little behind. Okay, more than a little behind. The application deadline for PhD was January 15. After a deadline, we scramble frantically matching incoming documents (transcripts and letters of recommendation) to files. We then need to get these files to committee for review. For some reason, this admission deadline seems to be the most challenging in our office. The Walton College has 6 PhD programs. Many of these students are eligible for fellowships offered through the University. That deadline is February 1, so the month of January can be a little crazy. To learn more about the fellowships, visit http://gsb.uark.edu/finaid.asp.

So now that I have explained my lack of blogging, let's play catch up. Day 4 of MBA Orientation consists of a case competitions. The MBA class is divided into 9 teams. Three teams compete in one of three rooms. Each room has a winner and these 3 advance to the finals. Here is a photo of the winning team.

Bethany Haefner, Creed Tumlinson, Senthil Raman, and Bryan Boone.

Day 5 was Retail Immersion Day. The class piled onto a tour bus early that morning and headed off for the day. The morning was spent touring a Walmart Distribution Center. Lunch was then held at P&G. The afternoon was spent touring stores.

As you can see from the schedule for this week, it is a well rounded experience designed to prepare our new MBA students for an intensive 16-month program. We introduce concepts and begin to clearly outline expectations. This week gives them a chance to get to know each other and they are led through this process by our year 2 students. This is important component - mentoring can make a big difference during that first semester of an MBA program.

Classes began last Tuesday, the 18th. Northwest Arkansas was then hit with a winter storm and the campus closed on Thursday the 20th at 9:30. We are back in the office on Friday but campus didn't open until 10. Many of us are now playing catch up.

February 1 is the Walton Master of Information Systems deadline. The next deadline is March 1 - Master of Accountancy. We'll have a bit of a break between these two so hopefully we'll get our feet back beneath us.

Even though the MBA program just started, early decision deadline for January 2012 is April 1. If you are planning to apply, be sure all materials are submitted by this date.

I am ready for spring. It has been cold and I do not particularly enjoy cold weather. I must admit that we have had much less snow so far this year than we have for the last two so I should stop complaining. I will give it my best shot.