A Day in the Life of a Trinity MBA Student

In an effort to explain my lack of time spent updating this blog, here's a glimpse into what my life has been like over the past several weeks:


The party was definitely livening up - most of my classmates had arrived, and my attempt at hosting a 'dorm party' was actually not half as bad as I expected. One of the guys had some good dance music going in the corner off an ipod (never mind there was no room to dance in my tiny kitchen/living room), and people were enjoying the food and wine. What a nice concept - a break from studying! As the music played on and the volume of conversations increased, I got consumed by the feeling of relaxation, and enjoyed the company of my new friends in Dublin. Just when I thought everyone was there though, the doorbell rang. I wonder who else was coming? Trying to wind my way through the people to make it to the door, the doorbell goes off again. And again. Jeez, I think, chill out and I will be right there. But the noise doesn't stop...

...and that's when I realize the "doorbell" is my alarm clock going off. It's 6:15am, and I jolt upright, slap off the alarm and collapse back into my bed. No party, no fun, and definitely no relaxation. My eyelids are so heavy from the lack of sleep over the past week, that I fight to stay awake. That fight doesn't last long, and before long I am awaken again by my next alarm going off. This time it's my cell phone alarm (I know myself better then to rely on only one alarm), and I grudgingly stretch out my arm to grab the phone and turn it off. I realize it's no use fighting any more, but I also don't want to move.

At this point, I am SO thankful that I have Kevin to call. My daily phone calls in the morning to Kevin are what eventually give me the energy to stumble out of bed. Nothing like a nice phone call to someone you love that gently eases the waking up bit to the point of being able to make it out of bed without too much pain. Although, I must say that poor Kevin gets to deal with me in a super groggy state for the first ten or so minutes of the phone call...

Once I have successfully woken up and had the pleasure of a nice chat, it's time to make the big decision: do I stumble off to the gym for a bit of a morning workout or pass out again for a quick nap? Today I decide to guilt myself into the gym (come on, I gotta make it sound like I am responsible sometimes), so I throw on the ol' gym clothes and grab my room key, water bottle, and ipod and walk through the cold weather to the gym that is thankfully only across the street. This is where I most likely run into one of my classmates, Elaine, as she is much better at getting to the gym than I am, but it is great to get the day started with a decent workout, a friend to chat with, and some good tunes on the ipod. My current music choice is Lady Antebellum, which I dare say is a rockin' CD.

After a quick workout, it's time to rush back to the dorm, take a quick shower and rush off to class. Thankfully, it's only a five minute walk from my dorm to classroom, which is a lifesaver for me (I have never been a morning person). As I walk in the door of the business building, my first order of business is to head towards the coffee stand for my daily dose of caffeine, supplied by Gary Hollywood, our MBA class's faithful coffee "dealer" as I like to call him (ok, he serves more than the MBA class, but we're there often enough that he knows our names...). A large coffee and chocolate croissant later (usually juggled in hands that are also full with books/readers), I find my way to the second floor, room 2.05, where class is most likely starting in the next minute.

Today it's Tuesday, so our morning class from 9am-12:30pm is Business in Society (a.k.a Ethics), with two groups in our class giving presentations. One presentation is on a case study and the other one on a video. Thankfully, it's not my group's week for a presentation in this class (every group has two presentations throughout the term). The groups presenting do a fantastic job however, and the class ends with a talk by a guest from the 'outside world' on a related topic for the day. The guests are always great, and give considerable value to the discussions in class, which range from corporate social responsibility to ethics to outsourcing. The underlying idea is to be ready to face all stakeholders (i.e. all of society) out in the business world.

At 12:30pm it's lunch time, but my group is meeting in our group study room up on the 4th floor for a discussion on one of our upcoming presentations. We want to map out a plan, as the next two weeks present a harsh reality: a presentation in our Strategy class worth 80% of our grade, coupled with a presentation & report for Corporate Finance worth 30% of our grade, a presentation for our Management & Organization class (30% of our grade), and our final presentation for our Business & Society class (we are presenting on the documentary The Corporation - a 2 1/2 hour video that has to be condensed into a 20 min presentation). Those presentations are in addition to the two assignments for our Quantitative Analysis (a.k.a Statistics) class that tend to take around 8-10 hours to do...each. Not to mention 7 hours of each day are spent in the classroom...

So after our group gets some quick brainstorming in, there's no longer time to get a proper lunch before our afternoon class. As a result, I make a quick run downstairs to my favorite coffee stand to buy a pre-made sandwich and a coke (after all, more caffeine will be needed to get through the remainder of the day). I run back upstairs (ok, so I am lazy and take the lift -er - elevator), and collapse for the remaining 10 minutes of "lunch" time in the MBA lounge, eating my sandwich and flipping through the same fashion magazine that has been sitting on the table for the past several weeks. A few others are collapsed on chairs in the common room as well, savoring any few minutes without thinking about work.

Alas, those 10 minutes fly by, and it's off to class again, this time for Management & Organization from 2pm to 5:30pm. Again, there is a presentation by one of the groups. This class focuses on different managing and organization styles, so we learn about the classic theories by Greiner and Mintzberg. Our break mid-way through the class is spent grabbing coffee again, either downstairs from Gary or upstairs in our lounge where we have a mini kitchen. I believe that all matter in my body that should be made up of water now consists of coffee. But hey, it works!

Finally, as 5:30 rolls around we are released from the prison of our classroom. However, I am still far from wandering back to my dorm room. Instead, it's back up to our study room on the 4th floor for work on the Corporate Finance project, and the Statistics assignment. Oh yeah, and I need to look over the 5 chapters assigned for our Strategy class tomorrow, because that is definitely a class that requires plenty of focus and participation.

At 7:30pm, I get my phone call with Kevin during his lunch break - a welcome relief from the studying/project work. The brief phone chat is enough to give me a bit of a smile for the rest of the day, and also gives me an opportunity to vent out all my stress (once again, poor Kevin!) on the latest dilemma.

Finally, around 8:30pm I decide that's enough of the business building, and I layer back up in my jacket and scarf, and head for home. A quick dinner of a ham sandwich is in order, before I once again crack open the books and review the Strategy material until 11:30pm, at which point I've reached maximum absorption, and not even willpower will allow me to stay up any later. I place a quick call in to Kevin at his work to say goodnight, then I brush my teeth, climb into bed, and try to mentally psych myself up for a full 7 hours of Strategy tomorrow...

....if only I could wake up at a real party this time.....