Tragedy

Tragedy has stuck again at INSEAD. We came back to campus on a rainy cold, dark morning to hear the worst. it could have been us...Singapore, we feel your pain.
to friends we never met....

Class(ic) Quotes

Just some of the stuff heard in the last classes of P1

"Future income has a negative correlation with grades"
(M.Lobo, UDJ)

"In one of the bad bad years for MBA recruiting,Goldman Sachs came on campus & only hired 1 student -a girl who flunked Finance 101"
(Harald Hau, FMV)

"If you are stressed right now just remember, in 10 years this will feel like Club Med & eventually you are all going to be RICH and GOOD LOOKING (well, most of you, anyway)..."
(Nikos Vetas, P&M)

All this motivation....sigh, last day of P1 and I'm already nostalgic.
So,Is this the best year of your life then??

exam fever

The exams are not important. The dean tells us, the finance professor tells us and the amiable UDJ prof makes a joke about how if the paper is difficult we will all be clustered around the mean....
No one though is listening. There are sponsored students, there are brilliant students, there are students who have done most of this all their waking life but are they listening? Nope, not at all
The library has replaced the bar as the new hang out joint. A week ago most of us wont be caught dead going there but this week your cool status depends on which seat you managed to grab as the early bird.
The tests score will never be revealed to recruiters, or parents or spouses or siblings, basically anyone with any stake in our lives.
Statistics show a negative correlation between the deans list & professional success (apparently a successful CEO is more likely in a rock band than in the library!)
So if we are still not listening, what would you call it? pigheadedness? super competitive? just plain dumb?
LPG taught us the importance of incentives...so why are we still not feeling incentivized to not care about a bloody test?
I think the riddle lies in this - we dont care about the deans list or grades but somehow we'll look so much more cooler saying that when we are on it :)

The typical INSEAD week

No excuses for my absence but I'm sure my fellow INSEAD bloggers have left you with an accurate impression of life in the forest. They have also reminded me that i have fallen off the rodeo horse & must at least make an attempt to scramble back on.
so this is my version of a typical INSEAD week -

Monday - late for class - champagne fine,dozing in finance class - champagne fine
Panic at lunch as you realize that you dont even know what language your professor is talking in,
run to your cubicle to study but find solace in Skype & facebook - the two INSEAD obsessions apart from costume parties
brains fried & off to Margarita Mondays with the chicas to discuss the various hook ups which are commencing with alacrity

Tuesday - dazed & hungover, 5 cups of coffee & more strange concepts to fill into your head, Bar of The Week comes to the rescue
Wednesday - You decide enough is enough, you really need to hit the books but the Dean comes calling & then somehow the company presentations or the leadership summit or the scholarship dinner keeps you busy hey they offer free food & drinks....and we are poor students after all

Thursday- stressed out beyond comprehension now, you start to dolefully look for the contat info proided by INSEAD for the free counsellings sessions..yup the same one you laughed & sniggered at but saved in the depth of your locker! But then you figure a good pirated downlodable movie will be equally therapeutic & so organize a film fest of your own for the rest of the stressed out humanity

Friday - and hey the week is over & yes the exams are closer but how much can a girl in france study....you leave your untouched books untouched again & go on the hunt for the costume you really should have packed but somehow forgot

Saturday - the party was so much fun & you had so much to drink with so many people you never saw in school that now you have decided with some of them to finally get some city air - you really need the pollution, the lights, the buzz & of course the shopping!

Sunday - you wake up & count the number of hours you slept through the week & congratulate yourself for surviving on what must be nothing short of torture. You decide you still haven't seen France & go off looking for a quaint lunch by some river front & ogle at picturesque towns that are so beautiful & how you wished you lived there...completely forgetting that last night you couldnt get enough of the city. You make promises to yourself of becoming organized & prioritizing & studying & writing your CV & hunting for jobs....and then its Monday again.