MBA program. Post 2/6, LA Segment Aug 2015

This is post 2 in a 6 part series, reflecting back on the grad school program in LA.

In August 2016 I took a short 1 hour flight from SF to LA, which was much easier than flying from SF --> Hong Kong --> Singapore and being all kinds of jet lagged! I immediately felt more confident and had a swagger in my step. I really like LA a lot. I know it has a reputation for just being about the weather and full of artificial and fake people, but I think it's a hugely under-rated city.

August is a wonderful time to be in Southern Californa, as summer is in full swing and the weather is warm, sky is blue, and the modern brick campus of UCLA shines in the light.

Since we all knew each other already and were past the initial jitters, and I was kind of on my home turf, I didn't really have the feelings of anxiousness or nervousness I had in Singapore. I was looking forward to getting the band back together.

In the below picture, nearly right after I arrived on campus, I hooked up with Ljupco (USA), Kaz (Japan), and Ben (Singapore) to go to Santa Monica.

In Singapore, I was stressed with all the studying, so I wanted to prioritize fitness. My place on campus (much nicer than dorm in Singapore) was close to the UCLA track. Most mornings I went for a run. On the first day of class, this is me running with Christian (Indonesia) and Rob (USA). It was also about an 8-10 minute walk to UCLA Anderson, but due to the climate, my shirts stayed dry.

School jumped right into accounting and statistics, which were both difficult classes. Accounting was something I was decent at, but needed to work on. Statistics, despite all my efforts was very difficult for me. This was compounded due to the professor being a true academic of 30+ years and had no real way to apply this to the real world. Stats has many uses in business and for leaders, but this guys couldn't connect it. Many people were either lost, or asleep in class.

I took the time to go for a few runs to keep my mind sharp. Dagnis (Latvia) and I went for a run in Venice Beach below after class one evening.

Since class was quite stressful, Rob (USA) suggested we go down to his house in Newport Beach to get off campus and regroup away from the stats and accounting study groups. Maresuke (Japan) came too. We had a great time, bonding just the 3 of us.

Maresuke speaks fluent English and had lived in Texas for several years back, but has a soft spot for American blonds. Rob played wingman and introduced Maresuke as a Japanese tourist who didn't speak English. It was one of our favorite pictures of the segment.

Did I mention the UCLA segment was stressful? It was really difficult being in class with all these numbers and formulas, so on breaks we played football in the courtyard. We had a great time. It was good to play an American game that I had a bit of talent for, my arm was really strong compared to the others so I often would launch it while the others looked on in amazement. They would blow me away later on when we brought out the soccer ball a few segments later. After 2 weeks though my shoulder was about ready to fall off from all the long throws!

UCLA Anderson had the In n Out burger truck come to campus one night, which was a nice way to show the foreigners about California cuisine. I had a double-double.

I ended up doing decently well in class. I got a B+ in accounting and an A in persuasion. Persuasion ended up being one of my all-time favorite classes and I use many of the lessons today. Stats was a B-, just barely making it. In grad school it's rare to get a C or lower.

My lone regret was not recognizing how important LA would be for building relationships with the rest of the cohort. As mentioned, I hung out with Rob and Maresuke instead of going to the Dodger game with the rest and partying after the first week, and I left for San Clemente on Friday after the final exam for Persuasion rather than stay to party with the others. You live and you learn.

In the end, I was very happy to have built such strong friendships with Rob and Maresuke though, and hope to stay in touch with them for years to come.

Although the pictures looked like all fun and games, this was by far the most stressful segment, so many late nights studying formulas and looking up z-tables and confidence intervals. I hope to be able to hire a statistician in the future, because that's just not for me!