Colin Johnson

Nurture Your Personal Life
The all-consuming lifestyle and intensity of business school can leave significant others feeling neglected. They even joke about breaking up with boyfriends and girlfriends at home over Thanksgiving to beat the Christmas rush. To stave off these developments, a couple precautions have been known to work.

Before the business school experience begins, a heart-to-heart about the intensity of the first year is critical. The partner will not likely understand, or even be able to imagine, the demands that a typical first-year student experiences. The more space a partner can give, the better. Communicate, communicate, communicate.

Incorporate your partner as much as possible. Business school is intense, but it is also fun. All social events are open to significant others, and we encourage bringing them. It is sometimes difficult to include them in inside jokes or business lingo, but the harder we try, the more successful the survival rates.

Judge for Yourself
7:30 a.m. -- Alarm goes off.

7:45 a.m. -- Realize that the fire alarm ringing in my dreams is not a fire alarm, but actually the alarm clock.

7:50 a.m. -- Stumble out of bed in half stupor, and turn off alarm. "What day is it? Wednesday? No, Thursday. Damn, 9 o'clock group meeting?"

8 - 8:35 a.m. --- Shower, shave, dress.

8:35-8:45 a.m. -- Walk to school reading the Wall Street Journal.

8:50 a.m. -- Buy a cup of coffee at the Uris Deli in spill-proof mug.

9 a.m. -- Arrive at the library to meet my study group and put the final touches on a Finance case before class. I'm the first one there. I log on to the network and check my email. 45 messages received since midnight. I start responding to messages as people trickle in.

9:15 a.m. -- All are present and accounted for. We work for 45 minutes in mad rush to finish.

10 a.m. -- Swing past the printer to pick up our case write-up and dash to class.

10:05 a.m. -- Find a seat in class, plug my laptop into network and power up. Arrange papers and answer a couple emails as the professor opens class discussion.

10:24 a.m. -- Break into cold sweat as the professor scans the room for someone on which to cold call. Eyes scan across, and land on neighbor. Breath sigh of relief. Discussion continues. Future cold calls bounce to other parts of the auditorium.

11:20 a.m. -- Class breaks. Scramble to catch classmates to arrange meeting later in the day to brainstorm speakers for an upcoming conference to be hosted at the Business School. No one seems to have a common time free. Arrange for 10 p.m. Monday night. Four out of five isn't bad. Pull out PalmPilot and check to see what presentations are scheduled for today: five corporate brown bag lunches, a speaker sponsored by the Columbia Entrepreneurship Association on starting one's own vineyard, the Dean's Forum, a faculty presentation on Social Responsibility in Business. Hmmm. Can't do it all. Weigh options.

11:35 a.m. -- Check in with one of the brown bags. Grab a boxed lunch. Decide it doesn't look as appealing as the vineyard presentation. Change rooms and stand at the back behind the last row of chairs. Listen for 15 minutes about grapes and oak barrels. Decide to catch the Dean's Forum and slip out. On the way over meet a friend who persuades me to join her in the presentation on Social Responsibility. Change course and squeeze into lecture hall. Become enthralled with tales of Fair Trade artisan coops in West Africa.

12:45 p.m. -- Make way to accounting class. Congregate in the hall outside the door with colleagues from cluster as we wait for the lunch presentation held in the classroom to let out. Chat about homework assignments and the latest conquests day trading. Confirm that most are planning to attend Happy Hour at 6 p.m.

12:55 p.m. - Find seat in class and boot up computer. Check email. 33 more emails. Answer a couple. Class starts.

2:20 p.m. - Class lets out. Leave Uris Hall and walk down to the New Business/Law Building across Amsterdam Avenue. Pull out cell phone to arrange an informational interview for the following day at 10 a.m. in Midtown. Look for study group in the breakout rooms of the new building. oon everyone convenes. Work on assignments until munchies hit. Send one of the group down to Hamilton Deli next door for snacks and Snapples. Check email. 25 more messages. Progress on the project proceeds slower than expected. Discuss alternative meeting times. Two of the group have Friday internships in the City and can't meet. Agree upon 8:30 a.m. Saturday morning in the same building. Have got to get in early to capture the room with the best window. As I write the new plan into my PalmPilot, realize that forgot about a presentation from the CFO of a major Media Company that afternoon that I had wanted to see. Curse quietly to self.