Connect is our online learning management system, and a tool you will use throughout your program to access program information as well as individual module information.

You may have noticed a different landing page when you last opened Connect, and I’ve created a short 5 min online tutorial to introduce you to the components of the myDashboard page. View the tutorial.

I will send you additional online Connect tutorials over the next few days to help ensure that you are comfortable using this tool for the first week of class.

Cherry and I will also be available after the Accounting Prep class tomorrow (Thursday Aug 22nd) at 4pm to go over some Connect training in person and answer any questions you might have about Connect, Opening Week, etc.

For those of you who aren’t in Vancouver yet you are very welcome to send any questions you might have to askmba@sauder.ubc.ca or post them on the Facebook group so everyone can see the answers.

On Friday August 30th you will be participating in a mini-case competition as part of Opening Week.

Please review the full student instructions regarding this competition, and visit your Connect site to access the required pre-reading, which is the Loewen Case. You will find it here: Connect > Prep & Opening Week > Orientation/Opening Week

The timing for Friday August 30th of Opening Week has also changed slightly, as you will see from the instructions – there will no longer be a blog session on Friday morning, instead students will go right into the Mini-Case Competition briefing at 8:30am.

Schedule

The P1-P7 Schedule is now available on your Current Students webpage – please visit this page and review the schedule to see which modules you will take in each Period.

For the detailed P1 & P2 schedule please refer to the program Google calendar on your Connect site myDashboard page, which was activated today. The class google calendars enable you to keep track of your P1 & P2 modules (both Blue & Green Cohorts), as well as your program workshop dates and Professional Development workshops. We highly recommend you subscribe to these calendars in order to manage your schedule. Additional workshops/events taking place in P1 & P2 that aren’t on your academic calendar, but are required or optional for you to attend will also appear on your class Google calendar.

Registration

The MBA & MM Programs Office will be registering you in either the Blue Cohort (Section 001) or the Green Cohort (Section 002) for all required classes in P1 & P2 after the first day of Opening Week. You will then self-register in mid-October for the Track Specific mini-modules that you are interested in – you will receive full registration instructions for this in early October. So you don’t need to worry about registering in anything until mid-October.

Outlines & Connect class sites

All outlines that have been received for P1 & P2 have been posted on the Current Students webpage under the Outlines tab – please review the outlines for the modules you will be taking in P1 to see your readings and assignments for each class:

• BA 504 IPD: Foundation
• BA 562 Creativity (note the irregular schedule for this class)
• BAAC 550 Foundations in Accounting
• BABS 540 Data Utilization
• BAHR 550 Organizational Behaviour
• BAMA 550 Marketing
• BAPA 550 Foundations of Managerial Economics

Most instructors will be using their module Connect site to post assignment and reading information as well. We will be sending out some Connect navigation information to you shortly, and Theresa & Cherry will run a Connect Training Session after the Accounting Prep session on Thursday afternoon this week (Thurs Aug 22nd, 4-5pm in the Prep classroom). There will be additional Connect training sessions available to students in the first few weeks of classes to ensure that you are all aware of how to maximize use of the online resources.

BA 504 Integrated Professional Development (IPD): Foundation is a required component of your MBA program running in P1 & P2 that all students must complete.

Your first assignment for BA 504 IPD: Foundation is a Case Memo that is due by 8am on Tuesday September 3rd. This blog post contains instructions on how IPD works, and how to complete and submit this case memo.

For your information, IPD is comprised of 4 components that are offered throughout the program:

• BA 504 (3.0 credits) Integration & Professional Development: Foundation
• BA 507 (3.0 credits) Integration & Professional Development: Global
• BA 512 (1.5 credits) Integration & Professional Development: Experiential Learning
• BA 508 (2.0 credits) Integration & Professional Development: Capstone

Reading materials for the first component – BA 504 IPD: Foundation are now released on Connect > myIPD > BA 504 (3.0) Integration & Professional Development: Foundation. You MUST refer to this document IPD Foundation Integrated Cases for instructions on how to access the IPD Connect site, to find out when your case memos are due, submission method etc. As outlined in the document, your first case memo is due by 8am on Tuesday, September 3^rd and late submissions are not accepted.

There is a required course fee of $54.75 that is associated with BA 504 and that all students must pay before Nov 30 2013. The fee covers materials for the course such as articles, supplies etc. The payment gateway will open by Aug 23, 2013 here: http://www.sauder.ubc.ca/Resources/The_Store/Class_and_Lab_Fees.  If a payment is not received, your grade for BA 504 will not be released.

If you have any questions or concerns related to IPD, please contact askmba@sauder.ubc.ca so that full clarification can be made ahead of the due date.

Great webinar today – thanks to everyone who participated!

Attached is the powerpoint presentation used in the webinar, which will also be posted on your Connect site, and for those who couldn’t attend you can watch the recording here.

If you have any questions after watching the webinar feel free to ask them on the Facebook group (if you think other students would like to see the answers), or email askmba@sauder.ubc.ca

You are invited to learn more about what to expect in the MBA program through our upcoming Welcome Webinar:

Tuesday June 4th, 8am-10am (PST)

Online RSVP Required

More information on how to access the webinar will be provided closer to the date.

Topics covered:

Key dates & program schedule overview, tour of Connect online environment, information about the MBA Prep courses, some information for International students, introduction to the Business Career Centre and Professional Development during your MBA program, and review of your actionable items leading up to the program start date. We will also leave plenty of time for you to ask questions and make comments via the chat-room. We look forward to connecting with you online!

Our question to the current MBA students: Think back to last year, before you started the MBA program: if you could go back and give yourself one piece of advice, what would it be?

Here are their answers (feel free to ask your buddies for more tips & tricks!)

• Don’t worry too much if you feel overwhelmed at the start. The rest (P3 onwards) will be much better.
• Get used to using iCal or Google calendar to run your life
• Interact as much as you can with the second years, we won’t be around for long
• Don’t worry too much about grades. Focus on networking with people. You will get an internship/job 90% because of networking and 10% because of your grades
• Although the program is busy, get involved in as many extra-curricular activities as possible – you won’t regret it.
• Your Grades will be no greater than 85 even if you study better than God. So focus more on Networking.
• Make friends with the BCC and MBA office. You’ll need them much more than you think.
• Make sure to take the time to stay connected with friends and family. Finding time can be challenging but will pay huge dividends.
• You won’t have time to do everything you want to do (especially during P1/P2), so make sure you know all your options before making any commitments.
• Attend as many sessions by guest speakers as possible. They provide a breath of fresh air and are often inspiring.
• Time management is key. If you can do that, you’ll sail through it and don’t worry too much about grades.
• Make sure to see friends and loved ones in June/July, you won’t see them much after that. You will acquire a great new set of friends/family though so it’s not all doom & gloom.
• Take the courses that you think are useful and don’t care about grades. Most of employers don’t even ask to provide transcripts.
• Bring a windows laptop in order to use many excel features you’ll need. Not impossible to get by with Macs but can be painful.
• Talk to all professors one on one at least once. You will learn more from talking to them personally than you would in class.
• Start networking early, and take the initiative to build up your career. Talk to the BCC, your profs and your cohorts…you’ll be glad you did. Absorb as much as you can and expose yourself to as many diverse components as possible. Finally, remember to take time out with your loved ones, friends or just chill by yourself.
• If you haven’t done so yet, LEARN AS MUCH AS YOU CAN ABOUT EXCEL!
• Take advantage of the Dean’s Fund and go on trips to interact with as many outside companies and schools as possible.  You’d be surprised how much your education stands up outside of Vancouver.
• Meet people, get out of your comfort zone and don’t be afraid to make a fool of yourself – everyone is just as nervous as you!
• Go to MBA Prep even if you know everything just to start meeting people.
• Be rid of your pride and judgement, you learn so much from every single of your classmates!
• As much as you can manage – take 1 day off a week to do something for yourself that you enjoy, even at the start. Some weeks it won’t be possible, but even 4 hours can save your sanity and will actually make you MORE productive in the time you do work. Go for a hike with friends, a bike ride, a nice meal…something to balance out all the work!
• If it’s been a while since you’ve done a lot of number crunching, take the time to refresh your skills!
• Get to know all your classmates- you never know who has what skills, work experience or network that you’ll want to get connected to.  In the years to come no one is going to care what your grades were, they’re going to care about and remember how you treated others.
• Learn to cook if you don’t already know how to.
• Recognize you will not be able to do everything, prioritize ruthlessly, and try to remind yourself of the big picture (e.g. choose a networking event over taking some assignment worth 0.01% of a grade from “good enough” to “amazing”).
• Once you learn how to cook (see advice above), buy a freezer and fill it with portion-sized healthy food before school starts so you don’t eat fast food all year

The MBA Prep Program is an intensive non-credit series of courses that cover key  concepts of the MBA curriculum and prepares incoming students for the demanding nature of the MBA Program experience.  Unless you demonstrate a thorough grounding in these concepts, you are expected to enrol in the MBA Prep Program.

The fast pace of the FT MBA Program course necessitates that all students have an adequate level of understanding in: quantitative methods; finance; introductory financial accounting; business statistics.

Below are links to course outlines, self-tests and answer keys for each of these disciplines. Unless you know for certain that you are enrolling in the MBA Prep Courses, you must take these tests and self-grade your test to determine whether or not you will need upgrading or refreshers in any or all of these subjects.  It is imperative that you download and complete these tests as soon as possible so that you can make arrangements to be sufficiently prepared prior to the start of the MBA program.

We expect all students to have either enrolled in the MBA Prep Courses or to have completed the assessment tests and self-checked with the answer key by July 12, 2013.

For each subject in which you receive a grade of less than 68% you will be expected to register for that course.  However, students with scores above 68% are also strongly encouraged to complete the MBA Prep Program. Experience has shown that students who complete the program perform better in their MBA studies.

Dates, Instructors, Outlines, Self-tests & Answer Keys (all courses will run between 8am-5:30pm, Monday – Friday)

• August 12 -14th: Quantitative  Methods – Instructor: Brian Graham
  Documents: Quants Course Outline / Quants Self-test & Answer Key
• August 15,16 & 19th: Statistics – Instructor: Jonathan Berkowitz
  Documents: Stats Course Outline / Stats Self-test & Answer Key
• August 20 -23rd – Accounting – Instructor: Steve Alisharan
  Documents: Acct Course Outline / Acct Self-test / Acct Answer-key

There is a separate cost for MBA Prep – the total cost for the entire 10-day Prep program is $640. You can also register for courses separately at a cost of $80/day. Registration & payment online.

All of this information is also found on your Connect site in the Prep & Orientation section. If you have any questions please contact askmba@sauder.ubc.ca