Woo Woo!

Finals are done!  Of course, they were actually done on Tuesday but I have been a busy boy since then.  Someone threw a monkey wrench into out Domestic Plant Trek (of which I am co-chair) and that has consumed a ton of my time this week.  Anywho, school is out until February 2nd.  No, that is not a typo.  My MIT schedule finished on December 16th and I do not have another class until February 2nd 2009.  There are 47.708333 days between when my final exam finished and when my first class begins.  All I can say is that MIT love they vacation.

I want to reflect back on my classes this semester but before I begin, I have to discuss grades at the graduate level at MIT.  For both my Sloan and Engineering classes it seems that almost everyone gets an A or a B.  Some of the Sloan professors said the policy was 40% A's, 50% B's, and 10% C's.  This may be a policy but I have never seen it written.  From my limited experience, there seems to be similar policy in the engineering college.  I already know what you are going to say...grade inflation.  Having lived it, I have to pleasantly disagree.  When I look back at the workload requirements and the effort that everyone puts in, you can't say that anyone did not work for their grade.  Generally speaking, no one skips deliverable assignments...though people tend to not read all assigned readings.  And on top of that, everyone seems to be performing at such a high level, it would seem odd to assign someone a C or a D because they were excellent but not exquisite.  For the few people who skip assignments or do not attend class, they do give out C's and you must maintain a B average, so you can't take that approach for more than half of your classes.  It is not like undergrad where people are just going through the motions of college.  Everyone here typically wants to learn the material and has taken out large loans to pay for their education.  So, on to the classes:

10.25 Industrial Chemistry and Chemical Process Pathways
This was one of my chemical engineering classes and I must say that it was enjoyable.  Half of the time I had no idea what was going on, but the professor was so much fun that it was worth it.  In the end, this class was everything I expected out of MIT engineering.  The professor was quirky, funny, and brilliant...and the exams were insane (average for the first exam was in the 30s or 40s out of 100).  Luckily for me on this one, everyone pretty much gets an A or a B.  As far as the actual content goes, it was hard to be very interested in the material because I don't think I will ever be designing an industrial chemical reaction or calculating rate information for reactor design...but I did get an appreciation for the extent of uncertainty that goes into new industrial reactions and the plants required to attempt these reactions.  Seems to be a risky endevour that is hard to scale up...sort of a learn as you go mentality...but with million dollar plants.

10.579 Application of Technology in Energy and the Environment
This class was also fun to attend.  There were two lecturers for this class with very different personalities.  One was outgoing and humorous and the other was very dry.  I really liked the material and wish everyone could learn the material that we covered.  We took an honest look at different forms of energy/technology (wind, thermal, coal, gas, nuclear, etc.) and analyzed the positives, negatives, challenges of using, etc. of using that technology.  I think some people take a very "hippy" view of how we can fix the energy situation and do not admit the major challenges we would face if we actually implemented policies that are being proposed.  That does not mean this class did not advocate change...but the professors were very honest and sensible about what effects these changes would encounter and how they could be overcome.

15.010 Economic Analysis for Business Decisions
This was your basic economics course.  I took an economics course in undergrad so there was nothing significantly new or mind blowing for me, but all in all a good class.  Useful material.  The professor was a little disappointing, but he was very young and eager to improve.  He requested feedback nearly every week and made an honest effort to implement suggestions.

15.277 Leadership and Personal Effectiveness Coaching
The title is deceiving.  This was the lab course for communications class.  Overall we tried to put into practice the tools we learned in communications class.  Mostly we got to practice presenting on the fly (called impromptus) with other themes (different each week) mixed in.  Basically, we would be given a prompt and have to stand up and immediately deliver a speech on that topic.  This is a good opportunity to practice your presentation skills and then work on the "theme" of the week.  For example, we had to give our group members critical feedback, negotiate with another party, outline a vision, etc.  The lab takes place with your 6-7 person core team and a Teaching Assistant (2nd year Sloanie TA).  I was extremely lucky with the quality of my group's TA.  She picked up on so many subtle things during our discussions and I was very impressed by her intelligence (and I was not surprised to hear that she got a job with Apple).  I have heard some horror stories from other people, but my TA offered insightful feedback and I found the lab useful (I think I am in the minority here among other LFMers I talked to, but again it comes down to the TA).

15.280 Communication for Managers
Overall we just reviewed a number of forms of communication and talked about the different aspects of them.  I definitely learned some new things...and at other times was incredibly bored.  I don't blame them for covering some of the material that bored me though.  For some of the foreign people on my core team who had never worked in America before, it was certainly necessary.  And I had to fight tooth and nail to keep everyone on my core team from overloading our slides with text.  When you are presenting, you are the focus of a presentation...not your slides!  The slides should add to what your saying, not contain every word you will say. /Rant.  Communication is one my biggest weaknesses (one of the reasons I blog) so I will be taking the second part of this class (Advanced Communications) next semester.  That class is with the same communications professor, who is an excellent teacher.

15.311Organization Process
This class was the surprise of the semester for me.  I actually enjoyed what I would call "fluff" material.  We basically covered all of the people aspects of an organization.  It helped that the professor was...eccentric?  He was from New York (the state, not the city) and embodied some of the typical stereotypes of a New Yorker.  He certainly had a fun time (and he reminded of this constantly) of getting us to hotly debate controversial topics.  I definitely have a new outlook on motivation and interacting with people.  This class also included a project where our core team selected a company, analyzed a change in their organization using the tools we learned in OP, and then presented to that company our findings and recommendations.  The project was moderately enjoyable and I honestly believe that we helped the company that we worked with.  We were able to analyze an issue they did not have time to address and offer a good solution.  At the same time, we were basically consultants and this project reconfirmed my distaste for consulting.  In the end, we delivered a "package" of what the organization can do to fix their problems...and though we gave very specific actions..in the end, we did not DO anything.  It was all talk.  It is up to someone else to actually do the work.  That is why I am in LFM.  I want to be that person that DOES something.  To me, consulting is dumping and running.  No matter how nice of a "package" you deliver, in the end you are still taking a crap.

15.401 Finance 1
What can I say, this was your basic finance class.  While it is not required at MIT for the MBA program, it should be.   Every MBA should know the material that we covered.  As for the class, the lectures were so boring.  I probably fell asleep in every single class.  It did not help that the professor had a monotone voice and dimmed the lights so we could see the power point slides.  When you asked the professor a question or when the class was discussing issues as a group, it was easy to see how brilliant the professor was...but when it came to lectures, he was not the best.  Still, a useful class and it was interesting to be in the class during this credit crisis...it led to some very revealing conversations.

15.515 Financial Accounting
Brace yourself.  Accounting was the best class I have taken at Sloan and I don't think it will be topped.  Really, it all came down to the professor.  This guy was so good at lecturing, that he made accounting fun.  We gave him a standing ovation on the last class...and he deserved it.  He was engaging with all of the students, bluntly told you when you asked a ridiculous question that was beyond the scope of the class and did not waste time on it, and made you laugh in every single class.  He was so good at stressing what part of accounting we would actually use when we left Sloan, and made sure to cut out the useless stuff.  He would just say, let your accountant worry about the details, all you need to understand as a manager is the implications your decisions have on the business.  I'm sorry to say, for you incoming students, that he is going on sabbatical for the next 2 years so the next Sloan class that can have him is the class of 2013.

15.792 Proseminar in Manufacturing
This is an LFM class where companies (not necessarily partner companies) come into present to the LFM group on a range of topics.  The people and topics are organized by the current LFM class so ti comes as no surprise that they were all engaging and interesting.  Sometimes they were general topics and sometimes they were company overviews with extensive Q&A sessions.  Either way, they were always interesting.  I would like to take this opportunity to express my disappointment with some of my fellow LFM members.  Toward the end of the semester, our attendance was down to about 30-35 out of 48 and this is just insulting to the companies that come to present to us.  I believe that we have addressed the issue as a class and I think we will show improvement in the future, but it is disappointing nonetheless.

15.972 Leadership and Ethics
This is another LFM exclusive class.  Before class begins you meet with Bill Hanson to discuss leadership and a number of other career devlopment and personal issues.  I found this conversation to be extremely useful for finding my direction at Sloan and after Sloan.  After that comes the class discussions with Don Davis.  The class is led by Don Davis, former 20 year CEO of Stanley Works (they make tools) and I must say the class was a joy to attend.  Where else can you get the opportunity to openly talk to someone who has run a large public company about the issues of leading?  The experience was invaluable.  To be fair, the class started out sort of slow.  The first two or three classes Don read us some of his opinions on business (his mantras) and while I appreciate the learnings, they comes off as generalities without actual context.  The invaluable part of the class was when Don got into discussing challenges he faced, how he handled them, and his reflections on his decisions.  And this was not a one way conversation, we were free to interject, disagree, or probe all of the topics and stories.  Like I said, invaluable.  Unfortunately Don is getting up there in age (though you would not have guessed that from the way he partied with us after the last class) and will not be able to support the class as much as he used to in the past.  A driven and motivated person such as Don can't stay away completely, but at his age there are physical limitations.  I hope I can be as active as Don when I reach his age, and the idea of teaching (he basically teaches for free) during retirement is awesome.

All in all, the fall core semester was an enjoyable expereince.  It is exicting and sad to think that my fellow LFMers and I are half way done the classwork part of the program.