Aviraj’s Leeds MBA Blog

Aviraj’s Leeds MBA Blog

Aviraj Saluja  //  Hi, I'm Aviraj.

I am:
A tech junkie
A photographer-in-training
A Posterous fanboy
Founder of Ignite Mumbai

I'm also interesting on Twitter. Follow me here.

You must check out all my blogs: http://aviraj.com | http://photo.aviraj.com | http://random.aviraj.com

Nov 28 / 1:49pm

Thanksgiving Break

Thanksgiving week is just about over now and I feel great. Sort of.

This was my first Thanksgiving here in the US and I loved the whole feel of the holiday. Quite generously, I had been invited to a couple of traditional Thanksgiving dinners but ended up spending the day at home with my brother and sister-in-law. I guess that's what Thanksgiving is about, isn't it? I'm genuinely thankful that I have family here, on the other side of the world from home.

The entire campus was closed all this week and we had no classes at all. The break was welcome for sure. Most classmates that I spoke to had plans to travel back to family to celebrate the holiday. Others had planned mini-vacations all around the country -- Las Vegas, Arizona, Moab, Grand Canyon and what not. I, on the other hand, made grand plans for complete R&R (aka sleep). Study was planned as well, but sleep was far more tempting. Seriously, I had a lot of sleep and study to catch up on. I'm glad I achieved at least half of what I had planned :)

The next two weeks are going to be hellish, with two finance cases, one marketing case, one *huge* marketing project, an organizational behavior take-home final and a finance final to look forward to. Oh, joy.

----
This post is also available on the official Leeds MBA Experience Blog at http://www.cuboulderblogs.com/mba.

Comments (0)

Nov 24 / 4:51pm

The InterLink Program

A couple of months ago my friends and classmates, Jonathan Cherry, Jenny Field and I co-founded what we call the InterLink Program (ILP). This program is designed to be a cultural match up of International Students with students from the US. To quote the program definition document:

"The idea is to provide International Students with a defined point of contact to answer any questions that may arise. Questions such as 'What kind of tip is appropriate?', or 'What should I bring to this type of party?' can often come up. Without proper insight, it can be easy to make the wrong decision or feel embarrassed."

Yes, embarrassment is not my favorite feeling. We believe that there is a lot of knowledge-sharing that can happen and this program is designed to facilitate this transfer. 

We got a pretty good response to the program and now have 7 international students, including myself, as founding members. What's awesome is that the US students are even more enthusiastic. We had many of them proactively come up to us and express interest in being part of the ILP before we even announced it. As part of this program, each International student is paired up with a local buddy. Each pair is advised to meet up once a week, exchange thoughts, share insights and, if nothing else, just enjoy a nice lunch/dinner or a round of drinks.

We also try and meet monthly as an entire group to enhance the knowledge-sharing and have some fun. Most recently, last weekend, we planned an international potluck dinner in Jonathan's apartment complex. The turnout was fantastic as we had people from even outside the ILP bring a local dish to the feast. I made an Indian dessert called Kheer and, considering it was the first time I cooked anything, I think it came out fine (a bit too sweet to be honest, but hey, it's a dessert :)

What's funny is that I haven't been able to formally 'meet up' with my buddy Kyle (until today). We do, however, take the same bus to school so we get to catch up on stuff at least 3 times a week, so that's pretty cool.

We're all excited about this little program, especially Jonathan. He got us registered as an official student group on campus. Next, we will apply for funding for some really cool events/outings that we've planned. A little birdie told us that the powers-that-be prefer giving out funds to smaller student groups. And groups with international/cultural influences. Now isn't that just great?

----
This post is also available on the official Leeds MBA Experience Blog at http://www.cuboulderblogs.com/mba.

Comments (0)

Oct 23 / 8:53pm

Boulder, I'm Impressed!

On Wednesday morning, on my way to Corporate Finance class something horrible happened. As soon as I entered the business school building, I cursed myself. I had left my iPod on the bus (don't ask how). Given how forgetful I am, my first thought was -- "so the inevitable has finally happened". I called RTD immediately but they left me frustrated with their ignorance (at least over the phone). Apparently, they will not send someone to look for it on and empty bus; not even when I'm sure of where it is. It's only if someone turns it in that they will keep it at their Lost and Found office. Anyone I spoke with at school about it advised me to forget my iPod. "Dude, it's Boulder. You're not getting it back" was the general consensus. 

I was genuinely depressed for the entire day. It wasn't just about the device, I had lost 20 GB of my favorite music that I had collected over a good 7-8 years. I don't have most of it on my hard drive anymore and whatever I do have is on my computer back in India. Seriously, I found it difficult to imagine bus rides without my music; especially since I wasn't prepared to invest $200 in another iPod right now. 

Then yesterday this happened. I'm not exaggerating when I say that I was shocked. And ecstatic. RTD Boulder called me and said that they had an iPod of the exact description that I had given them. I was literally jumping with joy/excitement/relief. People around me were as surprised as I was. My iPod is now safe and happy in my pocket and that's how it's going to remain. I am thrilled.

Know what's funny? At the same time my classmate Sara Fox left her iPhone on the bus. Her story was exactly the same as mine, on the exact same day. And yes, she got her iPhone back as well!

Yep, there is a God. And there are kind souls in Boulder. Ask me. (Or Sara.)

Bottom line? Boulder is awesome.



----
This post is also available on the official Leeds MBA Experience Blog at http://www.cuboulderblogs.com/mba.

Comments (1)

Oct 16 / 6:26pm

Finals = Done.

Phew!

We finally got done with our first set of finals this semester. And they were painful. Yes. That's the only word that I can think of to describe them. My classmates will not disagree.

I'll tell you this -- the A session finals brought all of us 'high-flying MBAs' back down to earth. Everyone's emotions were running high, whether they were through screams, tears (no kidding), caffeine binges, or (hilarious) Facebook status updates.

As for me, I don't think I performed well enough. Accounting troubled me a lot; enough to make me hope for some kindness from my professor. To be honest, I've learned a lot of lessons about my study patterns and how I should adjust to these new circumstances. Hopefully, I'll be able to incorporate these lessons into the B session so it doesn't hurt my overall first semester grade too much. The good news is that I'll have Marketing in the B session which is definitely my strong suit. The bad news is that I'll have Finance -- numbers again! 

My class certainly knows how to blow some steam. MBA '11ers gathered in full force at The Foundry last night in an effort to forget the past 2 months (hehe, just kidding). It was definitely a relief to see so many smiling faces after so long. 

Anyway, I'm looking forward to Monday. We didn't have classes on Thursday and Friday. A lot of my friends are using this extended weekend to go on hiking/camping/mountain-biking trips or just some general out-of-town R&R. It'll be good to get back to the grind on Monday.

Over 'n out.

----
This post is also available on the official Leeds MBA Experience Blog at http://www.cuboulderblogs.com/mba.

Comments (0)

Oct 7 / 3:31pm

Finals? Already?? :-o

image via flickr

Wow, didn't the semester just begin? No kidding, it's been just 38 working days into the session (yes, I counted) and my finals are less than a week away! Almost everyone I've spoken to in class has been taken aback by the pace of things here.

The thing is, our first semester is divided into two sessions. The A session, which ends on October 15th contains specialist subjects like Financial Accounting, Quantitative Methods (statistics) and Micro Economics. As you can imagine, these are quant heavy courses and that's been difficult for me to manage. I've never been great with numbers, and with pure marketing background, even my little number skills weren't exercised much. Of course, it's not like I wasn't aware of the format of the semester, but the pace at which it comes at you definitely takes you by surprise.

It's been particularly interesting for me because the teaching culture here is way different from back home in India. In India, we're more used to keeping the majority of the semester for projects, assignments and fun, while leaving the bulk of the exam study for the last two weeks of the semester. Here, for example, I had midterms just two weeks into the session. Assignments/homeworks every single day don't contribute to the situation.

Don't get me wrong, it's been a fabulous experience and I've loved every minute of it. I just hope I feel the same way at the end of the week :) I'm waiting for the B session to start so that I can flex some of my Marketing muscles.

It's been so crazy this past month I haven't been able to update this blog more often. There so much I want to talk about, you can be sure that I'm going to be more regular with this. See you on the other side!

----
This post is also available on the official Leeds MBA Experience Blog at http://www.cuboulderblogs.com/mba.

Comments (1)

Sep 4 / 12:22pm

MBA '11 Orientation Was Fantastic! [2/3]

[continued from here]

Along with all the fun of the first couple of days, Orientation was also a time to, well, 'orient' us with some academic fundamentals that we will require during the MBA course. Four out of the seven days of orientation, we had four-hour intensive sessions preparing us for Statistics (Quantitative Methods) and also a session on basic Financial Accounting. I know for sure that these sessions were incredibly useful to many people in our class but sitting through four hour lectures at a stretch was definitely something that none of us was accustomed to.

We were introduced to the various support systems created for the success of MBAs at Leeds. These included two of the school's best and most famous accomplishments -- the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship and the Real Estate Center. It's not funny the number students from our class who have joined Leeds because of the entrepreneurship center. The overall enthusiasm towards Entrepreneurship has got me really excited.

The one session that was truly enjoyable was with our Career Connections office. These guys are as responsible for our careers during and after the Leeds MBA as we are ourselves. That's a responsibility they have put on their own shoulders. And the amount of effort I see them putting in towards this objective is seriously heartening. They actually managed to convince us to already begin working for our internships and they have even started guiding us towards it! Awesome.

*Look out for Part 3 of my MBA orientation in a few days!

----
This post is also available on the official Leeds MBA Experience Blog at http://www.cuboulderblogs.com/mba.

Comments (0)

Aug 31 / 12:18pm

MBA '11 Orientation Was Fantastic! [1/3]

Orientation began Thursday, August 13th and went on for a week and a half of fun. There's so much to say, I'm going to divide my Orientation review into 3 blog posts.

We kicked off Day 1 with a super-energized talk by Debra Fine on the Art of Small Talk, a great way to kick things off in my opinion, because I could see her tips in action during orientation -- people employing them to break the ice with our new classmates and making meaningful conversations. We also had talk on Lessons in Leadership by professor Jim LoPresti, who really is an absolute delight.

Social gatherings on almost all days of orientation gave us lots of time to get to know our classmates, apart from getting free food and drinks =) On the first day, we had a family barbeque at the business field, which was right after the partners/significant others' orientation. **Interesting trivia: One of our classmates, Rick Rampton's wife Emily, who was with us at the barbeque, was due with their first baby that very day! Amazingly, she was a picture of calm and they became proud parents to baby Adelaide 4 days later. Congratulations guys!**

Now, Day 2 was super fun. We had been assigned team building activities at an outdoor location. To be honest, I was a little skeptical about the whole thing since I'm not exactly what you would call an 'outdoors person' (that should change soon though). So we went up to Joder Ranch and headed out separately in 10 groups of around 12 people each. The activities seemed a bit odd when we started out, but then at the end of each activity we were made to introspect and relate that experience to something we will face during the course of our MBA and beyond.

It was a very unconventional experience, but I kid you not, the insight was fantastic! I really wish we get a chance to do this again in between semesters so that we can understand how we used what we learned there and what we can do to improve. A truly wonderful experience!

*Look out for Part 2 of my MBA orientation review later this week!

----
This post can also be found on the official Leeds MBA Experience Blog at http://www.cuboulderblogs.com/mba.

Comments (1)

Aug 12 / 8:42pm

Pre-Enrollment Program for International Students

Orientation for the MBA Class of 2011 begins tomorrow, August 13th, but for some of us the Leeds experience has already begun.

Last week we started with the Pre-Enrollment Program, conducted exclusively for the international student population joining the MBA program this year. The specialist trainers - Matt Baca and Dieter Bruhn - have been doing this program at Leeds for over 5 years now. The 2-and-a-half week program began on 23rd July and I along with a few other internationals joined the program in the second week.

The pre-enrollment program is designed to introduce international students to the American graduate education culture in order to optimize our learning experience in the new environment. We had sessions on basic classroom etiquette, negotiation skills, case discussions, business and academic writing, verbal and non-verbal communication and presentation skills. We wrapped up the program yesterday with three group presentations on Crocs and Celestial Seasonings (two world famous Boulder-based companies) and I was happy to note the progress that we had all made in the span of those two weeks.

Even though I have had a fair bit of undergraduate experience in the topics that we discussed, I can confidently say that it was a thoroughly enriching program. Meeting with so many people from countries like Thailand, Chile, Israel, Russia as well as fellow Indians was a fantastic cultural experience. Just knowing that I am not the only person new to this land and to this culture was extremely reassuring. What's more, in the process, I ended up with a bunch of good friends even before the MBA has begun!

Well, orientation for all 120+ students begins tomorrow and I'm certain that I'll get to make a lot more great friends in the days to come. I'm totally stoked for tomorrow!

----
This post can also be found on the official Leeds MBA Experience Blog at http://www.cuboulderblogs.com/mba.

       

Comments (0)

Aug 12 / 3:18pm

My new Leeds 1st Year MBA Blog

Hi there! My name is Aviraj Saluja and I'm a first year MBA student at the Leeds School of Business here in Boulder, Colorado. I'm in the full-time class of 2011 that gets underway this Fall of 2009. I am an international student and have lived in Mumbai, India my entire life before moving to Boulder.

Through this blog I will attempt to share with you my experiences at Leeds, my thoughts about the program, events and activities around it, the faculty at Leeds as well as lots of cool happenings around Boulder. Since I am still very new to this country, I will also bring in the international student's perspective on the Leeds MBA program.

I am a business undergrad from the University of Mumbai where I majored in Marketing. Immediately after, I was attracted to the Internet industry and gained some great experience in business development, marketing, consulting and client servicing for Directi and Yahoo! My experience in online advertising led to my current interest in social media (and hence this blog). This is where I want to be, for now, but who knows about the future? Isn't the whole point of doing an MBA finding yourself, your interests, experimenting with ideas and industries to help you become a well-rounded professional? Well, I guess I'll give it a couple of years and see for myself :)

Cheers!

p.s.- All posts on this blog can also be found on the official Leeds MBA Experience Blog at http://www.cuboulderblogs.com/mba.

Comments (0)