Path to an MBA

At the bottom of the blog you will find a new, tediously hand-coded list of the classes and professors that I have taken (or will take) at Kellogg. Furthermore, each item is linked to either the course description or professor bio; I couldn't help thinking that these links will eventually all be broken as Kellogg changes their website as I added it.  This is pretty similar to what Jeremy has up on his blog.

I added the list so that I could quickly track the classes that I've taken and remember all of my professors' names (I had already forgotten 2) and so that you could know what I've taken, in case you have any questions about the classes (what the professor is like, workload, how big a binder you'll need, etc).

One thing the list doesn't convey is my changing attitude toward how to spend my time here.  Coming into the program, I was expecting to take a lot of Finance and Strategy classes, with some Entrepreneurship classes sprinkled in for flavor.  Now, I'm putting a lot more emphasis on Marketing, Management & Organizations, and Management & Strategy.  This was driven by my exposure to classes and the advice I've heard from multiple professors and speakers.

Spring quarter will be the first time that my schedule isn't dominated by Core classes, which have mostly been very interesting,  so I'm pretty stoked.

My MGMT Comm Credibility Presentation

These are the slides that I used for the big 6-minute presentation in Management Communications last week.  Unfortunately, the presentation relies heavily on the spoken word for weaving together the story, so the slides may not make complete sense when taken independently.

My thesis was that the minimum driving age should be raised to 25.  I didn't think any of the options on the list of theses was that interesting, so I chose this one because I knew it would be easy to find statistical and anecdotal evidence to make my case.

I received some great feedback from my classmates.  It mainly dealt with the content, and I took that as a positive sign that my presenting style was OK.  Here were some highlights:

• Percentages aren't useful without a baseline.  For example, 65% cell phone usage may not be as bad if 90% of drivers in other age groups use their phones while driving
• My 2nd argument, about traffic and pollution, wasn't as applicable to the most opposed audience (people under the age of 25) as the first argument (the high risk associated with this age group on the road)
• My conclusion could have been stronger
• My opening attention grabber (that 1 in 5 drivers in fatal collisions is under the age of 25) didn't seem that significant
• Avoid using "ya'll," since it sounds informal.  Although I wholeheartedly agree with this comment, it will be really hard to address it going forward, especially once I'm back in Texas.  I didn't realize that I used "ya'll" so much until I moved out of Texas.

I have my final presentation in the class tomorrow.  I haven't been able to practice it very much because I've been trying to catch up in my other classes after going out of town a few weekends back. I'm a bit nervous because I know it is isn't as polished as it should be. Gulp.