yo ho ho and a bottle of rum

Wharton's halloween party rocked. I went as a pirate, complete with clip-on ear-ring. Yeah, yeah, I know: scary.  Deepti went as a naughty schoolgirl, due in part to a malfunctioning sailor-girl outfit. Transit was jam-packed by the time we got there, which was around midnight. Since I wouldn't have recognized anybody anyway, I didn't try. Random he-devils (too many people dressed in drag for my taste) were introduced to me, and at least one person tried to make conversation with me, at which point I glared at them from the other side of my key-holed eye-patch, but that didn't seem to have the desired effect. An innocent brunette clutching an apple in her hand, dancing inside a black leather settee with a removable top (of said settee) turned out to be Laurie. We danced a bit. Then there was this Indian woman she-devil who kept finding my behind to bump into all night long.  I swear.  I didn't mind too much.  She had a velvety behind.  Velvety red. But not enough skin, I must say.  There was a police-woman who was bumping and grinding and grinding and grinding this guy in a toga.  But still.  Not enough skin.  I'd heard crazier things about Wharton parties.  What up?

The rest of the weekend was pretty boring.  Deepti was studying for her "Finance" mid-term.  Here's my exposition on Wharton v. Chicago GSB.  Wharton: pre-fixe curriculum makes for a somewhat simplistic and tedious "core".  Their Finance class is mostly about NPV and growing annuities.  I don't recall any one at Chicago GSB ever teaching me annuities, growing or otherwise. It was mostly stuff you either knew or picked up along the way.  The only upside of a fixed curriculum is that everyone is in the same classes, so you get to know your classmates.

This week is pretty light.  I have to interview a millionaire for my New Venture Strategy class.  It's good to have rich cousins.  Then there's an LBO case to do for Entrepreneurial Finance and Private Equity.  I liked the VC stuff.  This debt stuff is too scary.

30 degrees centigrade... in Singapore

It's mid-term week at Chicago GSB, but I found myself selecting classes for Winter '07 at Nanyang Business School, Singapore. So here's what I'm going to take:

Business Process Management
Multinational Financial Management
Special Topics in Finance I: Issues in Corporate Governance
Services Marketing
Business Environment in China

Actually, I don't have much choice. I have to take 5 classes (IBEP requirements) and only 6 are offered at Singapore. However, I might swap Business Process Management for an HR class. I hadn't realized that BPM is synonymous with "Operations" -- which I am doing this quarter.

So anyway, it's been incredibly busy these past few days. We spent a heck of a lot of time on Meadow's mid-term (Entrepreneurial Finance & Private Equity) -- and *almost* got it right. Yay! The weekend was good though -- first, there was an undergrad party at the I-house which rocked, followed by an SABG party on Saturday, which was much better than expected, followed by a trip to the Bartlett temple which completely blew my mind, mostly because of the 10,000 or so people who showed up for Annakut.

This coming weekend, I get to go to Philly, and Wharton's Diwali and Halloween parties (two separate parties). Deepti's about done with the first half of the first semester, which means she has Finals!

Back to preping for my Operations mid-term on Thursday. Mehul, if you're reading -- you'll have to tell me about your Toyota internship when you were at Stanford. I'm learning all about TPS! What more can you tell me about andon cords and kaizen and kanban cards and heijunka?

Numero Uno

In 2004, Business Week made a huge error. They ranked us at #2. It took them two years to correct that mistake.

http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/06/full_time.htm

http://www.businessweek.com/pdfs/2006/0643_bschools.pdf

http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/06/index.html?chan=top+news_top+news+index_top+story

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It's not been a secret, but I'm fairly close to being done with the embeea. I've accepted the Salesforce.com offer, and am completely and totally psyched about it.  (Recruiting, no mas!) 

In a few weeks I'm off to Singapore, for my last quarter.  Surrounded by all the exchange students at the I-house as I am, and hearing about their experiences, I can't wait to go abroad.  It's going to be awesome.  In addition to all the travel-in-the-plans (Malaysia, Indonesia) I'm also looking forward to working for SFDC in Singapore.  I've never worked anywhere outside of the bay-area.  Though I don't think anything else can (or will ever) compare, working in Asia should be fun!

Classes are going well.  Operations is a little boring, but my group is awesome, and "The Goal" is a page-turner!  Pricing is interesting.  Entrepreneurial Finance & Private Equity is a lot of work, but again, my group is awesome.  New Venture Strategy -- that's a mixed bag: Schrager is a blast.  He's funny and he's entertaining.  For some reason though, I've been unable to participate in class -- which is a problem, because it's 30% of the grade, so that'll have to change, and soon.  See, he wants people to be pithy.  Which is a very noble requirement to have in an MBA class.  But he's also very picky.  He wants only certain things said, in a very certain manner.  If you're close, that doesn't quite cut it, and he'll tell you you're wrong, and move on.  Unless, you're unlucky, in which case you get to do "Go time"  -- role playing the case with him, on the fly.  He's good, but I can't figure him out.  And I hope I get something out of the class, other than his (highly) entertaining stories.

I'm in the bay-area for the weekend, and for Dreamforce.  Oh, what glorious weather!  My car said 85 degrees. 

Deepti has been busy partying.  This weekend was Wharton's Walnut Walk, described as "a Wharton tradition which involves visiting various drinking establishments in central Philadelphia with students 'dressed to impress' from the waist up, and 'dressed to digress' from the waist down."  Let me tell you, "dressed to digress" hardly says it; I've seen the pictures. :)