ALL POSTS BY: Tyler Richardson

One of the little things that has bothered me in business school is the “credit hour”. Each regular course per Mod equals 2 credit hours. The problem is, we’re in class 3 hours per week. When I learned math in primary school, 3 did not equal 2. 

Now in undergrad, the credit hour made sense: each class was 3 credit hours, as it met 3 hours a week. Granted, the odd “lab” (for us science geeks) lasted 3-4 hours and only granted us only 1 credit hour. However,that was in combination with a regular class (i.e. chemistry), and, as the lab was supplementary to the main class. Thus, granting it equal or more credit hours than the original class would be foolish.

Some of you might be thinking, “Undergraduate credit hours were likely based upon a class lasting all semester. But, Owen adheres to the Module schedule, which is half as long as a semester. Thus, a discrepancy exists between the two.” And I think it is this thinking that resulted in the inequality between class hours and credit hours.

That’s what I was always told as I struggled through my first two Mods last year. Mods one and two are, traditionally, the most difficult, with classes, group work and readjusting to academics (with the recent reshuffling of the first year core class schedule, I’m not sure if this year’s first year class had it any easier). While those months were intense, second years and alumni reassured me that it’d only get easier as we transitioned into electives. Then second year was supposed to be a relaxing time before you re-entered the workforce, with workdays filled with golfing and weekends filled with partying and traveling.

So far, those expectations have not been met, resulting in my absence from the blog. I have been able to fit in an occasional golfing outing or weekend bar hop, but things have been extremely busy, though enjoyable. Realizing that I will never have another opportunity to take various B-school classes, I have packed my schedule with full days of classes, with my “off-days” consumed by my job at the company I interned at and job searching. Juggling these various activities has been a challenge, though I’m surviving, as I start to dread graduation when the real-world hits again. Nonetheless, I will resume my blogging duties, focusing on my continued search for a job and various issues from the health care program.

We are in the final week of preparation for the NetImpact conference. Over the past eight months, the Net Impact team has made tremendous advances planning for this conference – the largest in Vanderbilt’s history, largely as a result of the “endless supply of expendable labor”, or student volunteers. Owen will be the smallest business school ever to put on this conference, and, if the conference is a success as it promises to be, it will be because of the students and their dedication to the worthy goal.

I was the Track Leader for the Business of Health, a new curriculum track created in honor of Owen’s health care MBA. While I was charged with creating the curriculum, if it wasn’t for my six outstanding panel managers who helped mold the panels, while identifying and recruiting the panelists, we couldn’t have created the new panel offerings. Between enduring the endless number of process changes and convincing business leaders to come speak at the conference free-of-charge, they encountered many difficulties, but they each stuck with it, and for that the conference is forever grateful.

I was told that the life of a second year was to be significantly easier than that of a first year. Chalk it up to a case of many second-years succumbing to a case of senioritis; with some fellow students already having job offers, they’re here just to finish the formalities before raking in the $$$s.

After surviving last fall, I would like to think that this assessment was true. The first two Mods were crazy in their intensity, primarily centered on academic obligations. However, for me, my life as a second year has been challenging. Though the demotivational poster pictured is a humorous slant on these challenges, they have been largely welcome and enjoyable, though stressful. It certainly seems at times that I am climbing up a mountain that never ends, but whose summit, if I ever reach it, promises to be rewarding.

One benefit of a MBA education is that you learn to use the entire suite of Microsoft Office products. Love them or hate them, they are ubiquitous in the business environment (often overly so when it comes to Powerpoint). My favorite product in Office is Excel.

Prior to coming to Owen, I had used Excel extensively in my role as researcher where I was handling significant quantities of data. Therefore, I thought I was quite proficient at Excel, knowing how to use most “Functions”, absolute and relative references, and simple macros. Boy was I wrong!

I’m currently taking Management Science in Spreadsheets, basically a Excel 201 type course. We’re learning about pivot tables, the solver function (easily the most powerful tool in Excel for any manager in business), and simulations (i.e. modeling people waiting in a line who randomly arrive, balk and leave if there are too many in line, and are served – really not an easy task to model). Nonetheless, this class is one of the most useful course here at Owen, as it augments a principal tool in the MBA toolbox. As long as I can remember the reams of information we have covered in class, I’ll be okay.