A Typical Day in the Life of a Full-time MBA Student

People keep asking me about my average day as a full-time MBA candidate and they even wonder if I get bored on campus because all my classes are taking place in the evening. To cut a long story short: I absolutely don´t get bored and there is always something to do for classes or other on- and off-campus activities.

Of course, there is a little difference between classes during daytime and classes in the evening. You will have to restructure your whole day as other activities such as going to the gym that you would usually be doing in the evening now have to take place during daytime. MBA classes are obviously scheduled in the evening because the average MBA student is working during the days and taking classes on some evenings throughout the week.

For me restructuring my average day has not been an issue at all. Being “free” during the day has a lot of benefits from my point of view. While other students are in class I got time to prepare my classes in the first place, hit the gym or do everyday things such as shopping. There is a lot of reading and studying you will have to do in order to be prepared for class. Some professors ask you to read textbooks and articles and answer questions regarding those as a homework, others encourage you to participate in discussion forums with your classmates after reading articles. You will have to prepare presentations on a regular basis and papers will have to be turned in quite frequently as well. Meetings with classmates are common to prepare group works, too. This way you will get to know a lot of people in and out of class which is quite cool. As I have already mentioned in some of my previous blog posts classes are somewhat different compared to the average German bachelor´s or master´s class. In most of the classes you will have to participate, and your participation will be graded throughout the semester, so you better make sure that you come to class prepared. This has been a new experience for me as I didn´t have to participate in class since leaving high school but after a couple of times you just get used to it and I actually really appreciate discussing and commenting certain topics in class.

Another important benefit of having classes in the evening is that I can focus on other topics and activities during the day that I would usually not be able to be part of. This might be an invitation for an international class of the Honor´s program or interviews with American students that are interested in the life of international students and other fun activities. Memberships in the Professional Sales Club and the Finance Club are part of these benefits, too. Apart from these on-campus activities there is still plenty of time left to go and explore the Twin Cities or other places nearby. I have just been to the Cities last weekend again and aside from the cold it has been pretty impressive again. I especially like the stylish lofts and apartments down at the Mississippi River and the mix of modern and somewhat older architecture in the city center. People are already getting prepared for the SuperBowl which is taking place on Sunday, February 4^th. This will be a great event in the cities as 250,000 additional people are expected to come visit Minneapolis and Saint Paul. I will report about this special event in my next blog.

To be continued!