Going home for dinner
A year ago when I was deciding which business schools to apply to, I remember reading a post on this blog, where a student described a typical day. I have forgotten the student's name and the details of the post, but what stuck in my mind was that this student spends a full day at Haas and then takes the bus home in the evening, in time for dinner.
The part about going home for dinner struck a beautiful chord in me. I was on the road all the time and working long hours as a management consultant. People have told me that business school is much busier than work, but I find that at Haas there is a healthy balance. Everyone can choose to be as busy as they want. I definitely have a full plate of school-related things, but I keep a second plate for other things. And let's not forget the recommended eight hours of sleep.
As a consultant I worked in teams all the time, and my undergrad education provided many team project experiences. Although I enjoy teamwork, when I learned that business school is all about working in teams, the first things that came to mind were scheduling conflicts and inefficiency that inevitably lead to late nights and weekend meetings.
I am happy to report that so far my study team (Hi Karen, Tim, Jung Gong, and Hubert!) has not had to meet past 6pm or on the weekends. Just as everyone can choose to be as busy as they want, study teams can choose to meet as frequently as they want. Besides the occasional team projects and assignments, most work can be done individually (we are encouraged to review cases and work on problem sets as teams--the key word here is "encouraged"). Some study teams do meet frequently and spend a significant amount of time together, but our team decided that time is valuable and that it is not a priority to get perfect grades.
Since I'm done with classes for the week, I'm going to tend to my second plate. I think I'll start by going to Whole Foods to buy cooking ingredients for tonight's dinner.
P.S. My husband Marcus is having such a great time ever since we moved here from New York, sometimes I wonder whether he's having too much fun. Partners of students are invited to all the happy hours and many other events. They are part of the Haas family too. Interestingly, Marcus wrote a post recently on his blog about life as a business school partner.
The part about going home for dinner struck a beautiful chord in me. I was on the road all the time and working long hours as a management consultant. People have told me that business school is much busier than work, but I find that at Haas there is a healthy balance. Everyone can choose to be as busy as they want. I definitely have a full plate of school-related things, but I keep a second plate for other things. And let's not forget the recommended eight hours of sleep.
As a consultant I worked in teams all the time, and my undergrad education provided many team project experiences. Although I enjoy teamwork, when I learned that business school is all about working in teams, the first things that came to mind were scheduling conflicts and inefficiency that inevitably lead to late nights and weekend meetings.
I am happy to report that so far my study team (Hi Karen, Tim, Jung Gong, and Hubert!) has not had to meet past 6pm or on the weekends. Just as everyone can choose to be as busy as they want, study teams can choose to meet as frequently as they want. Besides the occasional team projects and assignments, most work can be done individually (we are encouraged to review cases and work on problem sets as teams--the key word here is "encouraged"). Some study teams do meet frequently and spend a significant amount of time together, but our team decided that time is valuable and that it is not a priority to get perfect grades.
Since I'm done with classes for the week, I'm going to tend to my second plate. I think I'll start by going to Whole Foods to buy cooking ingredients for tonight's dinner.
P.S. My husband Marcus is having such a great time ever since we moved here from New York, sometimes I wonder whether he's having too much fun. Partners of students are invited to all the happy hours and many other events. They are part of the Haas family too. Interestingly, Marcus wrote a post recently on his blog about life as a business school partner.
Labels: academics, haas culture
posted by Helen Ip at 3:12 PM
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