FULL TIME MBA

Stephen Haines, Class of 2008
Posted November 10, 2007

Thoughts from the 2nd year of b-school:

The full-time job search has been priority #1 for me this fall. Part of the recruiting experience has been exciting, mostly because I get to enjoy great restaurants, new cities and interesting people. This excitement has also been blended with the stress of deciding which job is the right one for me. With seven months to go until graduation, I am finding some fascinating intricacies about my corporate office visits.

For example, I have had the opportunity to fly to several cities. During my travel, I have noticed a troublesome trend in air travel --- particularly people who wear formal clothes on airplanes. Who wears dress clothes on weekend flights? I think it's particularly funny because I don't fly with Vice Presidents or Managing Directors. I fly with normal people in coach class who wear silk shirts and designer blazers on two-hour flights! I was thinking that these travelers may be the same people who wear hairspray, makeup and Prada shirts to the gym?

As far as classes go, everything has gone smoothly this semester. There has been more take home tests than last year, with an emphasis on individual assignments. The professors seem to be testing our ability to apply knowledge more than our ability to memorize concepts. I have also been pleasantly surprised by my small class sizes. My real estate investments class has 12 students, and my fixed income securities class has 15 students. The individualized attention has been a real perk this year!

Furthermore, my real estate class will have guest speakers for the next month. This week, our speaker was a multi-family housing consultant that advises three of the largest REIT's in the country. We are examining the sub-prime fallout in the single family housing market. In my fixed income class, we are learning how to manipulate arbitrage opportunities in the bond market. Sound interesting? The dichotomy of fixed income is keeping me busy this module!

I am writing this blog the day after Halloween. If you are a business school student, this is probably the best holiday of the year for blowing off classroom stress. In fact, I don't think I will forget my two Halloweens in business school. A couple of thoughts from this past Halloween in Dallas:

* MBA and law school students flocked to a local establishment based on one criterion - the Halloween beverage special. In fact, we had an email this week that listed Dallas specials for Halloween night. I'm not sure which event was more fun: watching law students drink .75 cent pitchers all night, or listing all the classes that they missed today because of a $6.00 night out?

* There was a Halloween special last night called a diet pumpkin lemon sour. After buying a round for my classmates, I still have absolutely no idea what it tasted like.  

Outside of job recruiting and Halloween celebrations, there have been major happenings at SMU. I'm a sports fan, so I have to talk about SMU's recent decision to fire our football coach - Phil Bennett. I have no idea who SMU will hire, but I know that some business students have had fun speculating about our next coach...Unfortunately, the football season has divided the business school into two types of students: those who follow college football, and those that do not.  On a related note, I have divided the class into our future business executives, and our comic book collectors. I'm kidding....kind of.

If you are a prospective Cox MBA student, you should know that the parking garage next to the b-school is almost finished. This is big news for you, even if you'll miss out on the ½ mile walks we have to class every day.

All things considered, life is going great....I'll try to write more before the end of the semester.