Wednesday, April 21, 2004
The weather for the Welcome Weekend turned out to be perfect. For a few months now, the eastern seaboard of US has been cold and generally disagreeable. But not the Welcome Weekend. It was simply glorious. As I walked from my hotel to the School, I could see city waking up in the rays of early morning sun… But that’s for another post.
The day started off in our, by now familiar, mini-cohort. I was a part of the Spring Gala (all mini-cohorts were named after Wharton events). We chatted for a bit and after the usual ice breakers, the cohort leaders broke us up into groups of 5 and brought out the first exercise of the day - building the tallest free-standing structure one could with index cards, tape, paper clips and rope. On top of that, we had to be silent and one person had to be designated as the observer who could not participate in the building. Our effort went very well. We hit upon a good structural idea early on and went from there. I believe that we ended up having the tallest tower that round. In the next, we had to do the same, but now we had three minutes to strategize, we could talk and the observer now was participating in the building process. Other groups seemed to have learned from their failures and built new, innovative structures, but we have rested on our laurels and, as a result, our tower was not much better then the original. Alas, it was a story of an business in a nutshell. After, when asked what I liked better, the silence and spontaneity or communication and planning, I went with silence and spontaneity. I am planning to have a management concentration, so these will be interesting two years.
Next up was the Welcome Address. After the Dean Harker’s and Adm.Dir. Martinelli’s rousing remarks, it was time for the keynote speaker. The lady chosen for that was certainly an impressive individual – Wharton MBA’85, leadership roles in a few non-profits, etc. But to make a long story short, her speech was dreadful. It had no story, no direction and no purpose. Furthermore, it dragged on interminably. We were much relieved when Peter Fader took the stage for a few minutes of closing comments. He was phenomenal and I am really looking forward to taking his classes. As a general aside, I would recommend getting a much better speaker for the next WWW since it is a crucial marketing period for potential students and the school wants to have it best foot forward.
Later that night, my fiancé came to Philly. Finally! She will hopefully be moving down with me and so I am trying to get her as acclimatized as possible to Wharton and Philly in general. We attended the Club Deco party, which was a blast. I have to say, I had my reservations with regard to Philly nightlife, but the club was good – quite good actually. We ended the day waiting for a taxi that never came and ultimately taking the really helpful Penn bus back to center city. And so it was…. Day 2 was over.
The next day, I let Julia, my fiancé sleep late, and headed off down Walnut. The highlight of the day was a Career Management session given by Peter Degnan, the director of career services. I have heard very good things about him beforehand, and was looking very much to listen to him myself. My initial impression was confirmed – I am no longer fearful (not that I ever really was) of not getting a job after Wharton. Mr. Degnan described his operation (career office), his mission and his strategy in great detail and taking everything he said at face value, one of the best things Wharton could do in attracting students who have competing admissions offers is to let them have a few minutes with Peter Degnan. The gravitas, knowledge
and sense of control he exudes is very impressive. I can away inspired. He is definitely my king of guy.
Afterwards we had the Follies outtakes, Cultural show preview and another alum speech (this time, he was VERY good). The most memorable act (and this is not in detriment to all others) was the Bateria. They were phenomenal! And the World Cup jerseys were a good touch.
After that, the day rolled by quickly. Session after session, q &a after q & a. Towards the evening, we had dinner at the University Museum, among the sarcophagi and statues of ancient Egypt. We were clearly beginning to gel into some thing more than simply a collection of individuals. We are beginning to become the MBA Class of 2006. Saturday ended with a bash at Emerald City nightclub. My only wish was that they played more actual Latin music. Alas, I may have to wait till I open my own club to see that happen.
This marks the end of the official Welcome Weekend. Julia and I stayed on for a day more and explored the Museum district, the Fairmont park and other Philly highlights, helped by amazing weather.
Overall, it was a tremendous experience. Wharton was definitely a great choice for me. Next year, I am definitely looking to participate in the Welcome Weekend because I have quite a few ideas that I think would make it even better. But I applaud the folks who out it together – we will have some big shoes to fill next year!
The day started off in our, by now familiar, mini-cohort. I was a part of the Spring Gala (all mini-cohorts were named after Wharton events). We chatted for a bit and after the usual ice breakers, the cohort leaders broke us up into groups of 5 and brought out the first exercise of the day - building the tallest free-standing structure one could with index cards, tape, paper clips and rope. On top of that, we had to be silent and one person had to be designated as the observer who could not participate in the building. Our effort went very well. We hit upon a good structural idea early on and went from there. I believe that we ended up having the tallest tower that round. In the next, we had to do the same, but now we had three minutes to strategize, we could talk and the observer now was participating in the building process. Other groups seemed to have learned from their failures and built new, innovative structures, but we have rested on our laurels and, as a result, our tower was not much better then the original. Alas, it was a story of an business in a nutshell. After, when asked what I liked better, the silence and spontaneity or communication and planning, I went with silence and spontaneity. I am planning to have a management concentration, so these will be interesting two years.
Next up was the Welcome Address. After the Dean Harker’s and Adm.Dir. Martinelli’s rousing remarks, it was time for the keynote speaker. The lady chosen for that was certainly an impressive individual – Wharton MBA’85, leadership roles in a few non-profits, etc. But to make a long story short, her speech was dreadful. It had no story, no direction and no purpose. Furthermore, it dragged on interminably. We were much relieved when Peter Fader took the stage for a few minutes of closing comments. He was phenomenal and I am really looking forward to taking his classes. As a general aside, I would recommend getting a much better speaker for the next WWW since it is a crucial marketing period for potential students and the school wants to have it best foot forward.
Later that night, my fiancé came to Philly. Finally! She will hopefully be moving down with me and so I am trying to get her as acclimatized as possible to Wharton and Philly in general. We attended the Club Deco party, which was a blast. I have to say, I had my reservations with regard to Philly nightlife, but the club was good – quite good actually. We ended the day waiting for a taxi that never came and ultimately taking the really helpful Penn bus back to center city. And so it was…. Day 2 was over.
The next day, I let Julia, my fiancé sleep late, and headed off down Walnut. The highlight of the day was a Career Management session given by Peter Degnan, the director of career services. I have heard very good things about him beforehand, and was looking very much to listen to him myself. My initial impression was confirmed – I am no longer fearful (not that I ever really was) of not getting a job after Wharton. Mr. Degnan described his operation (career office), his mission and his strategy in great detail and taking everything he said at face value, one of the best things Wharton could do in attracting students who have competing admissions offers is to let them have a few minutes with Peter Degnan. The gravitas, knowledge
and sense of control he exudes is very impressive. I can away inspired. He is definitely my king of guy.
Afterwards we had the Follies outtakes, Cultural show preview and another alum speech (this time, he was VERY good). The most memorable act (and this is not in detriment to all others) was the Bateria. They were phenomenal! And the World Cup jerseys were a good touch.
After that, the day rolled by quickly. Session after session, q &a after q & a. Towards the evening, we had dinner at the University Museum, among the sarcophagi and statues of ancient Egypt. We were clearly beginning to gel into some thing more than simply a collection of individuals. We are beginning to become the MBA Class of 2006. Saturday ended with a bash at Emerald City nightclub. My only wish was that they played more actual Latin music. Alas, I may have to wait till I open my own club to see that happen.
This marks the end of the official Welcome Weekend. Julia and I stayed on for a day more and explored the Museum district, the Fairmont park and other Philly highlights, helped by amazing weather.
Overall, it was a tremendous experience. Wharton was definitely a great choice for me. Next year, I am definitely looking to participate in the Welcome Weekend because I have quite a few ideas that I think would make it even better. But I applaud the folks who out it together – we will have some big shoes to fill next year!
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