Well, some of my classmates already shared the opinion that as long as we are able to write anything during the Core, it is probably not THAT bad. I tend to agree. It is definitely intense, with a lot of assignments and readings, but I still manage to do a lot of different activities.
Well, we will see how it will influence my final marks and exam knowledge, but that is still 2 months away!
So, what is the Core? Normally it is 4 days of classes (2 classes a day if we are lucky, and 3 all other days). Almost every class requires preliminary reading, which could be as short as 1 page (rare) or as long as 40 pages (sometimes). Still, we normally get the average=)
Monday is a case day almost every week. This means that we are supposed to write a 1000 word memo based on case information and problems, and during the class we discuss the case and possible solutions. So far we have done a few really interesting cases. My favorite was about Cirque du Soleil. We had a great discussion in class and also a guest speaker from Cirque’s HR. Amazing!
Our weekly routine is often broken by a field trip or guest speaker.
So far we have had two amazing trips. The first one was to see the Grouse Grind Resort. It was truly an amazing experience! The management showed us around the resort, answering all our questions and telling us the details of their operations. Grouse is a privately held company, so there is some restricted information, but other than that they were incredibly welcoming and open. We have seen their recent news – a wind turbine that was just installed a week or so before our trip. They told us their future plans to use it as a viewpoint – another tourist attraction. There are 2 grizzly bears, which have lived at Grouse since 2001, and they are amazingly close! We also learned a lot about their summer and winter operations and the sustainable policies they are maintaining. It is impossible to describe how nice and useful this trip was!
The other field trip was to the clothing retailer Aritzia. The CEO spent an hour with us talking about the company, its strategy and achievements, and kept answering our questions all through the trip. He also showed us around the office and small manufacturing facility. The trip was great!
In my next entry I`ll tell more about the fun part of the Core, but now I have a strategy assignment due…
I promise next post will be more about our life outside the school.
Life during the Core – mission is NOT impossible
Survived 50% of The Core
Pre-core and Orientation at a glance
Pre-core is a preparation program for MBA students, which consists of 4 different courses: Financial Accounting, Case methods, Economics and Quantitative Methods, Computers & Statistics. It takes about 2 weeks for all 4 courses, so basically it is just general overview.
At the same time, it was very useful for me, as I have zero experience in Accounting, and very little knowledge of Economics. It is hard to learn that amount of information during the 3-4 days that we had for each course, but it was very good to get an idea about the subjects we would soon be studying and to get a lot of materials to read, when we had time. Though I have to admit, I never read all of them.
Some of the profs, Steve Alisharan for accounting and Paul Cubbon for case study, are now our profs for Core, teaching accounting and marketing respectively.
In our class almost everyone decided to take the Pre-core, so it was another advantage – the opportunity to meet the classmates earlier.
Then Orientation started. It took about a week; we finally met everyone in our class of 2011, and gained a lot of information about next the 3 months in detail and the next 15 months in general.
We also had a session with our career advisers from the Business Career Centre (BCC), a number of workshops on presentation skills and intercultural communications, and the overview of the future career building.
One part of the orientation week that made a vivid impression on me was the keynote speaker, Warren MacDonald, a person who learnt how to overcome his situation and turn his weaknesses into strengths. Here is his web-page: http://www.warren-macdonald.com/vip/
He lost his both legs during one of his hikes in Australia about 10 years ago, but he never gave up, and now he has a life that is as close to normal as possible. He is even able to go hiking again!
I guess the major reason for the school to invite him was to show us that anything is possible, and even when we are having a hard time, we are still strong enough to survive, not necessarily only during the program, but in life in general.
Other than presentations and workshops, we had a lot of fun during the orientation.
One highlight was the day when we had the ropes course. It had two parts – low ropes and high ropes–and both were a lot of fun! It involved team work, the essence of it. We were supposed to turn upside down the magic flying carpet, skipped over the rope and built an A-moving structure. At the high ropes everyone had a chance to try their courage and get full support from their classmates. It was FUN; I guess that is the best way to describe it.
We also had a very fancy dinner at the fantastic venue of Cecil Mansion with the Dean and the Core team. It is a fantastic place with a great view, atmosphere and history. Also it was a great chance to talk to the faculty members and network with our classmates.
And then the CORE started…
ISP and what I did right before my MBA started, and why I am happy that I did it.
Let me share with you my experience of what I did after I was admitted to MBA program and before I arrived in Vancouver. I am really glad I did what I did, and possibly someone may find it useful.
The first and most important thing that I did was arrange the trip to Canada to see all the Universities I applied to. I honestly think it was great thing to do for someone planning to spend 1.5 years of their life in a place, and potentially work there for even longer. It is great to see the pictures and read the articles and stories of others, but it is not the same as having your own experience. It may not be easy–especially for the international students–taking into account all the costs and time required, but if you have a chance to go, I can strongly recommend it.
I have to admit that I made my final decision to go to Sauder right after I got here. When I saw the campus and the city, I knew straight away that I wanted to study here and nowhere else.
The second thing I am happy I did was take some time off work. I had a great vacation before the program started, so I had a good rest, and was ready for the workload that we have now during the Core.
The third thing I did was spend a lot of time studying English and especially practicing my writing skills. I used to use English a lot at work, and though I am fairly fluent, it is always stressful in the beginning, especially when there are 100 pages of readings to complete for the next day, not to mention assignments. So I spent a lot of time refreshing my language skills and polishing my writing. It turned out to be very beneficial.
The last, but not the least thing I did was refresh my knowledge on some subjects. I am really bad with numbers, and don`t have any financial background, so I was reading a lot of books in the hopes of understanding the basic concepts. Though I have to admit, I didn`t spend enough time on that =) Still, this pre-read was very helpful.
I arrived in Vancouver on August 1st, almost a month before the program began. The reason for that was my plan to attend ISP – International Student Preparation and Pre-core (4 courses of review). It turned out to be a great experience overall. Let me share a few details about it.
ISP is a 10 day program–quite intense, but very useful for international students. Sauder is trying to help international students to integrate in North American/Canadian culture, providing an overview of Canadian history, traditions, business specifics and cultural patterns. There was also a number of sessions about living in Vancouver (some tips were quite useful), the specifics of intercultural communication (as the program is very international, we need to know how to deal with the challenges it may bring), team work, and many others. Also, we had a chance to meet some second year MBA students, who shared their experiences in the program. It was also a great opportunity to meet our classmates before the program, and get to know each other better. Also the workload was not that intense yet, so I had a chance to explore the city.
The other benefit of the program is that it gives you the opportunity to adjust to the style of teaching that the professors use here. At the same time, it helps us to get used to the language, which is important for international students.
Overall, it was a very interesting and useful experience, and I can definitely recommend it to all international students.
Introduction
Hello everyone, it looks like it is the right time to introduce myself.
My name is Julia Dorofeeva, I am originally from Moscow, Russia. I am 25 years old.
In 2005, I graduated from the faculty of sociology at Moscow State University with a specialization in communications, and started my career. I was mostly working in Public Relations, event planning and marketing for large Russian and international companies, including Siemens, Diageo, Volga-Dnepr Airlines.
Apart from work, I am interested in many different types of activities. I am fond of extreme sports, such as snowboarding, wakeboarding and windsurfing. I also like cycling, swimming, and hiking. My hobby is photography. I also travel a lot, and have already visited more than 20 countries. I am fond of exploring different cultures and enjoy communicating with people. I also like reading, going to the theatre and listening to classical music.
I made a decision to study for an MBA about 2 years ago, and I feel that it will change my life. Actually, it already has.
The changes in my life that have occurred due to my relocation to Vancouver are really very significant, but they are all positive. I totally love it here! Vancouver is a great place to live, particularly if you like to enjoy the outdoors.
Please feel free to ask any questions; I will try to answer all of them.
Julia
6 Weeks into the Core…
As the full time MBA class of 2011 is now about six weeks into the integrated core, I want to take the opportunity to share what it is really like to be a student during, what I have been told is, the most intense part of the program.
Firstly, I have the time to write this post so it can’t be that difficult, right? The integrated core is an intensive four month period where you take 12 different courses at once and you have weekly cases due. The point of the core is to give you an understanding of business from all of its different angles and to begin considering all of the vital business perspectives. While it is undoubtedly plenty of work (but you don’t do an MBA to take a vacation, right?) it is well worth it. I have already learned plenty through the core courses.
The most comforting part of the core is to know that you are going through it with all of your classmates. I have been pleasantly surprised by the degree of support fellow classmates offer one anther. Everybody has a real understanding that they are coming in with their own sets of strengths and weaknesses and work background so it is to everyone’s advantage to collaborate and work together to get through it.
The learning and relationships is what has stood out for me up to this point. The first 6 weeks has certainly laid a foundation for the next stages of learning and has me excited about the rest of the program.
Elysha Ames is a first year MBA student at the Sauder School of Business. Elysha is from Vancouver but has worked worked in the United States, Canada and Israel in the non-profit sector.
New Marketing – Consulting and Strategy Club Speaker Event
Post – Summer Musings and more!
for the second year MBAs, Summer 2009 presented a great opportunity to flex our learning muscles a bit. On the other side now, I see the difference the time to go out and understand the working world can make to a person’s understanding of the larger scheme of things!
Diversity & Sustainability
As the first of the first years (Full Time Class of 2011) to blog on here, I suppose I should welcome our readers before anything else. The Class of 2011 has 126 students who between them speak 40 different languages. Some other business schools talk about diversity, but we really live it.
Many ask what sets the UBC Sauder MBA apart from others. Sustainability, diversity and the beautiful Vancouver surroundings are probably the three biggest things. Sustainability features in almost every class or case discussion we have.
Tonight, we’re meeting with the Part Time MBA class and some high profile guests to discuss how sustainable business models can be brought about – and how major corporations who’ve already introduced them have benefited in the short and long term. In ten day’s time, we’re hiking (well, bussing!) to the top of Grouse Mountain for a Field Trip to examine the sustainable practices they’ve put in place and how Grouse will ensure the 2010 Winter Olympics are as sustainable as possible.
Time to get back to the books now. Plenty of readings to be done this weekend. If you’re interested in learning more about the UBC MBA, feel free to get in touch through the MBA Admissions Office or even drop me an email directly: keithmar -at- interchange.ubc.ca. Another great, and new, way to keep track of what’s going on is to follow our class’s Twitter hashtag – #UBCMBA2011. It’s an insight into what a few of us are really thinking every day!
Now, where did I leave that marketing handout…
Keith Martin is an MBA Candidate in the 2011 class at the UBC Sauder School of Business. Born and raised in Ireland, he has worked in technology, overseas aid, communications and politics in eleven different countries.
Now in 2nd year!
Time flies! I’ve entered my final three months at Sauder. It’s hard to believe that time has gone by so fast. Speaking to the new students it’s great to see their enthusiasm, talent and ideas. Looking at my classmates and at myself, I realize how much we’ve all grown up in a year.
