Winter quarter vs autumn quarter

Winter quarter is busy thus far, but I find that I'm having more fun than Autumn quarter. Autumn was...honestly, it was a trial by fire. I feel like it pummelled me. It must have; I've never slept as much as I did during Winter break.

But now I feel like I've developed a better sense of sifting through the plethora of competing tasks on my ne'er-ending to-do list. There is much more self-directed work this quarter. For example, this weekend I've spent a fair amount of time working on applications for summer internships, researching Second Life for my business plan project, and figuring out my schedule for the remainder of the month (a daunting task in and of itself).

When it comes to the coursework, I feel like I've become a lot better at studying quickly. This is a necessity, because there's not a lot of free time left over. Also I think the studying is easier because of the classes themselves: I'm finding marketing and strategy incredibly fun and interesting. Finance is great, too, although not quite as much fun. Macroeconomics...well, it's on the other end of the fun spectrum. But it's more up my alley than microeconomics, that's for sure.

I think this may come down to pedagogical technique. Our macro prof organizes everything into tidy powerpoints, and is very clear about the content we should read for upcoming class sessions. Last quarter's micro prof was less organized; he had a non-linear way of teaching that I frankly never really figured out.

And it has been cold in Seattle over the past week, in the 20s. The other day, one of my international classmates was joking about how Seattleites always hasten to explain that this winter's weather is out of the ordinary. "This is very unusual weather," he said, in a faux-Seattleite voice.

Tags: MBA business school b-school UW