Musings on exchange

The decision to come on exchange, way back in February, made me feel like I was embarking on a second MBA program. The day I bagged the seat at Wharton and the finer details of the move began unfolding (visa, housing, insurance etc. ), I had multiple experiences of déjà vu that took me back to when I was planning my move to Rotterdam way, way back in September 2007 . I questioned myself at times whether I was making the right choice, not about Wharton, but the move itself. Here I was in Rotterdam, comfortable in the pattern I had carved out for myself, enjoying the fruits of my investments in time, networking and friends. The final semester was the time to not only secure that job I was angling for but also strengthen the human ties I had created there, many of which I know will last a lifetime.
I was never the one to pass up an opportunity to explore the unknown and every aspect of the exchange program at Wharton involved discovering something new. That’s why I’m here and in fact I have something of a mental checklist for my short stay here. Let me tell you about what’s been covered so far.
I arrived in Philadelphia around two weeks before school started and after spending a rather sleepless night, tying to sleep off my jet lag, I decided to scout the school and the University. The rather modern Huntsman Hall flanked by older, more historic looking buildings was a pleasant surprise. The building was rather quiet with almost no one around and using the opportunity to snoop around the building and later the campus at leisure, I was almost in awe. Check. My “big American campus” experience had just begun.
Coming from a small business school with a class strength of around a hundred, the sheer number of students, once classes started, left me a trifle confused. Used to knowing everyone in my MBA program, (even if not really well, but well enough), I wonder how students at Wharton ever got to know their entire class. It would be near impossible and I wondered if people got lost in the crowd? I can imagine that each student is part of his or her own life and a sum of all these parallel lives, criss-crossing through each other, create the one Wharton MBA experience that the students go through. But has there ever been a single moment in the program where all the 800 odd students did something collectively that made them feel that they were all part of ONE thing (be it a life, team, family .. whatever) and that there were no parallel lives in existence. Just curious.
Of course there are many more advantages to having more students than less and one of the things I really love is the enthusiasm and energy with which the social events and club related activities are arranged here. Not only enthusiasm but the quality of work performed by the clubs immediately gives me an idea of how they’ve built and maintained credibility, resulting in high profile events and other activities we could only dream of in a small school.
My courses, in terms of content and teaching, have been great so far. Fortunately I’m used to both, so thankfully no surprises there for me. What is also relieving is the method of teaching and the quality of class participation. In class is where I really feel I could be back in Rotterdam. Check.
It’s still too early in the semester to start talking about the highs and lows of the exchange program as I’ve just only started to get to know people and find my way around. There are approximately thirty students on exchange this quarter and I wonder what they are going through and how their early days have been so far. More on them and my “check list” in future journals.
I’m only two checks down so far.