CS @ HBS

First week of the Analytics program finished – which means we’re more than half way through, as the program will finish at the end of this week.
The pace is very fast – in one week we really learned a lot of accounting (balance sheet, income statement, cash flow statement and accounting concepts), finance (financial ratios, discounted cash flow) and quantitative concepts (decision trees, process analysis, data analysis). They really manage to squeeze in a lot material in very little time. I think that works because we came partly prepared – we were doing tutorials on these subjects before coming, and also because we do a lot of individual learning outside the classroom every day.

We study in class till either 11:40am or 2pm every then. Then we individually prepare tomorrow’s cases, and meet our study group in the evening. It takes me 1.5-2.5 hours to prepare for each case, which includes doing the numbers and reading the reference material. The study group meeting afterwards is really helpful: first of all, my study group is great – we somehow manage to complement each other and each one is good in at least one topic (and not so good in at least one other topic). Plus we’re all really nice and considerate ;) So in the study group we discuss our results, especially the differences, and explain to one another the things we didn’t understand. That’s a very good preparation for next day’s classes.
Students-wise, this program is very different than the Pre-MBA International program. We’re 240 students (compared to 60), divided into four sections. 75% of the students are Americans. Since the program is targeted at students with no prior “business” background, people here come from many interesting backgrounds – military, med school, engineering, non-profits…

It’s funny, in Pre-MBA people had this feeling of being “afraid” of the American students, who will come later, with their perfect English and everything, and leave us all stuttering behind. Now in Analytics, everyone is “afraid” of the bankers and consultants who will come in September with their perfect finance background and will leave us all behind… I wonder who the bankers are afraid of – perhaps of the international students, and then we’ll close this ridiculous circle :)
At any rate, the vast majority of the students I’ve met so far have been incredibly nice, interesting and fun to be with. Naturally there are people I like less, but that happens in any large group. So all in all I’m very happy with the people here.
And of course, over the weekend we had our share of bars / restaurants / socials etc. Next weekend we have a “We Survived Analytics” party…

North End in Boston
And to our weekly “Cool Places in Boston” corner: North End is the “Little Italy” of Boston, with restaurants, stores and other Italian things. During summertime, practically every week they hold a celebration for one of their patron saints. Extrapolating from today’s celebration, these celebrations include lots of food, music, decoration and typical Italian fun:

And then there was the Cannoli Eating contest in Grafiti Cafe. Cannoli is a tasty Italian pastry, filled with Mascarpone cheese. In the contest, 13 brave men and women ate as many Cannoli as they could (and then some) in three minutes. I think the winner ate 10 of them, and won an Espresso machine:Funny, it’s the second time I see an Italian food eating contest – first time it was Pasta in Jerusalem. What is it with Italian food? Is it because it’s so good? Anyhow I don’t think such a contest will ever take place in Italy itself; they probably respect their food too much for that.

See the rest of my pictures here:  (you should, they’re really funny this time) :

http://computersexy.com/wp-gallery2.php?g2_itemId=628

Related posts:

1. End of Pre-MBA, start of Analytics
2. Hello from Boston!
3. First days at school and Operation: Apartment