Sprinting through spring term

For some odd reason, I am here at BYU taking classes straight through the summer, again. (Okay, it’s not an odd reason: changing my major two years into college plus thoroughly enjoying four months in Jerusalem plus an internship in Washington, D.C. this fall put me behind on the grad plan unless I make up for lost time with spring/summer terms. Plus, BYU gives me an extra semester free of tuition. I’m not stupid. I’ll take free money. )

Okay, let's regroup.

Originally, this post was a long complaint about how busy I am now. I changed my mind. Suffice it to say, I’m busy. I had to get special permission to take as many credits as I am, I’m working part time, I will probably be volunteering with a small non-profit this summer, and I, like every human being, have to eat, sleep, and groom once in awhile. There are drawbacks and advantages to having very little free time. For example, I achieve a lot more than I would have if I had more free time. I am constantly under pressure, and I hit the mark expected of me. Improving feels good. On the other hand, I don’t have time to enjoy things like making a nice dinner, reading (excessively) for fun, or watching the sixth Bulls/Celtics game. With that introduction, here are brief observations about my classes so far.

(These are the “real” names.)

BUSM 341 Marketing Management: I rescind all of the quasi-critical thoughts I had about marketing. I think I will really enjoy this class. Even if marketers are really out to deceive me into buying something I don’t need, my teacher makes it sound like it actually is a noble objective.

My professor is young, charismatic, and energetic. He is an engaging lecturer and very competent in his field. I usually really like young professors because they still remember what it feels like to be a student. For example, this professor will not hold us past the end of class, even to finish a point. I also like that young professors generally set higher expectations for their students. Prof. Huff requires written notes on the assigned reading every class period and assigns five-hour problem sets over weekends. (He said the problem sets would “only” take us five hours. Since he did undergraduate work in engineering, I believe that five hours seems very reasonable to him.)

MANEC 300 Economics of Market Systems: Since I greatly enjoyed my Econ 110 class, I’m excited to be viewing the world through an economic lens again. It’s exciting when I realize why my apartment always runs out of toilet paper (self-interest completely devastates public goods) or why they anonymously evaluate employees at work (to prevent shirking). My professor in this class is the daughter of another MANEC professor in the business school. She is quite young as well and has three young kids. This class requires daily homework that we must complete in our groups outside of class. The professor talks very loudly (maybe a byproduct of the three young kids) and sometimes I’m afraid she’ll chasten us for our stupidity, but she’s growing on me. I like when she talks about her kids. Today, she brought in a post-it note that was left on her bedroom door. It said, “go shoping momy. Plez by sereal.”

BUSM 390 Ethics for Management: My ethics teacher is the oldest professor I have (and he’s probably mid-40s) and super skinny. He’s a nice guy and he mediates potentially heated discussions very well. This class sometimes reminds me of Sunday school because a majority of the time is filled with anecdotes from the class. Even so, I think ethics is a worthwhile topic for discussion and I enjoy learning more about business ethics. One thing that bugs me a little… my professor often ends a sentence with “what have you” instead of “etc.” or “and so forth.” It’s a small little quirk that ultimately doesn’t matter as long as I don’t adopt the habit as well.

BUSM 320 Career Preparation: Once a week lecture series with resume reviews and interviewing skills. We have to do a few papers and a mock interview.

BUSM 321 Mentor Program: We sign up for a mentor outside of BYU and pick his/her brain about his/her career and the professional world. We write three papers.

All of my classes (except 320,321) have big group cases and big group papers.

So, you might be asking yourself, if Lynne has so much school work to do, why is she blogging her time away?

1. Because I’m at work. And while I’m fully available to help the one person here, he seems to be doing alright on his own.
2. Because I’ve been going to school full-time since fall 2007. No breaks aside from the three or four days between semesters. School is making me a little edgy and I need a release.
3. Blogging isn’t a waste of time because I'm not being passive. Ask my dad. I convinced him to start one too. (It’s a vicious cycle.)

P.S. You can access my dad’s blog here.