Jones Journal -- Alumni Magazine of the Jones Graduate School of Management, Rice University

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Diary of an MBA:
A First-year Student Writes Journal for
Business Week
– By Saul Keeton, Class of 2002

My audience began to grow beyond the expected universe of MBA wannabes as one story after another made its way to cyber-space. Fraternity brothers, former coworkers, my classmates, and yes, even my mom were checking out what I had to say.

In my previous Jones Journal entry, I described my role as a Business Week Online columnist as one that merely requires me to write accurate descriptions of my every-day experiences in business school…nothing more, nothing less.

After all, the intended audience of my online diary is the population of prospective b-school students starving for the details of our world. So in my early BW journal entries, I began writing accounts of the chaotic tone my life had taken on since the onset of school, something to which we all relate.

“On the first day of orientation, a second-year student panel assembled to counsel the incoming first-year class on the realities of B-school life. Most of my new classmates and I were curious about the drastic lifestyle changes accompanying the onset of classes, and this group of been-there, done-that experts had convened to tell us just how quickly our lives would turn frenzied. One panelist ominously predicted that we would have more work assigned to us by the third or fourth day than we would ever be reasonably expected to complete. She was right about the amount of work assigned – it’s overwhelming. But she was wrong about one thing. We’re still expected to do it all.

When planning my days, I routinely have to choose which blocks of work I will attack and which ones I will let slide. It’s a roll of the dice, really, whether I will be cold-called in class to explain the reading I have not done and be forced to pass on the opportunity. Unfortunately, this has happened, as my accounting classmates can attest. So it would be fair to say that my first 10 weeks in B-school have been more a lesson in time management and prioritizing than in understanding the principles of business classes.”

To my pleasure, my audience began to grow beyond the expected universe of MBA wannabes as one story after another made its way to cyberspace. Fraternity brothers, former coworkers, my classmates, and yes, even my mom were checking out what I had to say. But one group of folks totally caught me off guard: the Jones School faculty and administrators.

For some reason, it never dawned on me that this group of folks would be reading my entries. Once I realized that I had their collective attention, I used my forum as a BW columnist to air my feelings on somewhat controversial issues, like the module system.
“Like any other issue, the module system has its pros and cons, but because of its distinctive nature, it also invites a wide array of advocates and critics. Some of my fellow students count the module schedule as one of the Jones School’s strongest selling points. On the other hand, some classmates recognize the shortcomings of the system.

From my personal perspective, modules were attractive to me as an applicant. I was energized by the number and variety of classes offered by module-organized study. In fact, I am taking a whopping 12 classes at the Jones School this fall, as opposed to the five or six ‘standard’ classes a traditional semester would offer. But in the 10 weeks I’ve been here, it has become more and more difficult to ignore the disadvantages of the system as it is currently arranged. I feel that core introduction classes such as economics, accounting, and finance need more exposure, while other ‘soft’ classes, such as communication and politics should be de-emphasized relative to their current standing.”

In my latest journal entry, I hopped down off my soapbox and returned to what I was hired to do: answer the questions of inquisitive prospective students. The subject? Internship recruiting.

Across the board, the most popular questions among potential and current MBA students are related to recruiting in one way or another. I mean, getting a better job is why we all decide to walk down this crazy path to begin with, right? So if you are concerned about recruiting and embarrassed at the number of dumb questions filling your brain, relax. You’re not alone. We’ve all been there.

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All reprinted excerpts from Saul’s MBA journal entries are provided courtesy of Business Week Online. You can read all of Saul’s entries in their entirety at http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/index.html. Saul is currently working at Entergy for his summer internship.