The O week that was...continued

The O week's 1st party was a fantastic event organized by the Orienters. Here the ex-MBA band played some songs. Sean Rickard, the Director of the MBA also joined them wit his electric guitar, see in the background.

The Sports day was the highlight of the O week. My stream was crowned champion as well!

The O Week that was...

The Orientation week, or the 'O' week as it is called started of with Michael O (short for Osbaldeston) the School Director welcoming us all and informing us that though the rankings don't matter a lot, Cranfield FTMBA has climbed 'The Economist' rankings again this year to 11th place! Only Judge Business School is ahead of Cranfield SoM. He also did not fail to point out that a little school London known as LBS was ranked at 15, 4 places behind Cranfield. Well, surely rankings don't matter if you are among the last!

We had a fantastic orientation team who seemed to have thought of every possible question we could come up with and every possible way of helping us ensure a 'soft landing'. I was asked to join the red stream on the 1st day and then later on introduced to my learning team for the 1st term on the 3rd day. Cranfield emphasises a lot on team work, hence this concept of Learning teams, where one works together with his team mates to study, solve problems, write reports, make presentations, laugh, cry, share. In short you embed yourself into the life of your fellow classmates. For some who are not used to working in teams, this can be quite a shock, but when one realises that this form of learning is used to help you perform better the shock subsides.

When I was told that the MBA is intensive and schedule is very hectic, I was not convinced as I always felt that I was used to it in my working life and so will not have a problem. After the O Week, my perception has completely changed. This MBA has provided me with a completely different meaning of the word 'intensive'. We had all day classes, then evening parties everyday of the week and were expected to read through the O Week casepack and be ready for tomorrow. If this sounds like hectic to anyone, we have been forewarned that the O week is the easiest week of the entire MBA, it starts heating up after this.

We had a Sports day on thursday - 4th Oct, probably the highlight of the O Week. Everone was dressed in their stream colors - Red, Green and Blue. When I say dressed, it includes the faces being paited with their stream colors. Some enthusiasts even painted their hands and legs too! this day captured the spirit of the cranfield MBA. Play hard....play fair....but above all enjoy. It was fantastic to see all of us competing with our fellow classmates, but at the same time it worked as the best 'ice breaker'. We all came so close to each other and made new friends.

On the last day, Orienters prepared to hand over the 'baton' with the Rep elections. The entire week was so well planned (and jam packed!) that we were left wondering on the amount of work the Orienters had put in to make us all feel at home. They left us all quietly on Friday evening, while we were watching the snapshots of the week that had been.

This week has been one of the most fun filled week of my life, something that i will never forget. I have been told that I wont forget the next 52 weeks either! So here's for an eventful, enjoyable year at Cranfield.......Cheers! (Have been drinking lot of beer here at Cranfield, habitual now!)

The Pre MBA beckons

As I lay in my bed, in Mitchell Hall at Cranfield apparently random thoughts run across my head. It was only two days back that I left India, my family & friends behind, for the (com)promised land and the degree of my dreams, an MBA.

People have been arriving for last couple of days to join the PreMBA that started today and it has been like I already know many of these people (The connect cranfield portal has something to do with it) but, the common threads that run are the threads of having left something behind, of being in new place, of a strange bond that Cranfield has provided. But most importantly its the thread of we all being students again, free from worldly obligations. Well, not so free as many of us have taken a loan to fund this MBA and many are here with their families.

Looking forward, a nice well-charted Pre MBA course awaits us and I am sure we all will have a fantastic time over the next two weeks.