Applicants?

Hello Applicants! How many of you are currently applying but haven't seen Sloan in person yet? We'll here's your chance! I'll post a few pictures of the buildings and facilities that we use in the LGO program. Perhaps they can serve as motivation to help you through the application process!

We'll start with the LGO office. Here is the student lounge:

Complete with cube farm all around the lounge for studying:

Lockers are against the walls, these are very convenient (yes, just like high school again).

Here's the kitchen with snacks and drinks available for purchase:

There is even a copy room with free printers!

And now to the classroom facilities. Here is a typical orchestra style classroom. These seat anywhere from 60 to 120 people. This particular one seats about 80 or 90.

Here's the "lobby" outside of the classrooms. This area gets very crowded when all 4 of the main rooms release at the same time!

In the LGO program... you are going to do a lot of group work... period. So here is my favorite group meeting room! My summer team spent many hours in this room.

Luckily the room has a gorgeous view!

Hopefully, you enjoyed the brief tour. As always, feel free to contact me at bgeswein@mit.edu if you have any questions! If I don't know that answer, I can certainly find out!

Family Visit

Last weekend, I was lucky enough to get a visit from my parents and sister. With my brother and his wife already in the area, this marks the first time all of us have been together since my brother's wedding in April.

We started the weekend with a lobster steam. Here's my dad selecting only the finest lobster for our dinner. We capitalized on the low prices in the lobster market and bought 15lbs of lobster at $5-$7 per lb.

He found a "lucky" lobster that had a blue color instead of the typical red. Here's a picture of me holding the red one (named Mordecia) next to the blue one (named Clarence). Delicious!

The next evening, we headed to the top of the tallest building in New England, the Prudential tower's Top of the Hub restaurant to enjoy a fancy yet leisurely dinner high above Boston. The atmosphere was great and our attitude was laid back and light hearted. Despite such a fancy place, I was surprised how ordinary much of their menu was.We enjoyed everything from spicy lobster soup to a simple chicken sandwich. We finished the meal with the Hub's "Almost Famous Cookies". (look close in the middle of this this picture, you'll a bright white spot which is the famous "Citgo" sign with fenway park to the left)

Sunday morning we went to the extravagant St. Paul's Church in Harvard Square where we heard their famous Boys and Men's choirs. We were also graced with the presence of the Arch Bishop of Boston and an auxiliary bishop of New Orleans. It was quite a celebration.

After church, we grabbed a bite at a nearby rooftop restaurant and enjoyed the beautiful weather. Here's a picture of my lovely sister and mom with St. Paul's bell tower in the background.

A great weekend for everyone. I look forward to Christmas when they return, unfortunately, I don't think the weather will be quite as nice.

Collaborative Culture

As an aspiring applicant to the MIT LGO program, a significant concern of mine was the culture of the program. I did not desire a cut throat competitive culture that can arise in business school at all! In my internet research into the program (websites, blogs, etc), I could never confirm that the program possessed a collaborative culture.

Within the first hours of my first visit to the LGO program, it was VERY clear how supportive and helpful classmates are for one another. Now, as part of the program, it continues to impress me how often individuals will go out of their way to help each other out!

To all currently aspiring applicants, I can confirm that this program has a very collaborative culture and I encourage you to start your application process!

C Functions

For an official definition of the C Function, look at the MIT Sloan C Function Web Page. To me, C Functions can be defined in a single word... FUN. Its a great opportunity to take a break from school, get to know your classmates, learn about a different culture, and have FUN.

Our first C function was the "Sea Function" dinner cruise in Boston Harbor! We boarded a 4 story vessel and set sail for a night of dinner, mingling, and dancing!

With multiple decks there was plenty of room to eat and dance the night away. But it was great to take a break on the top deck to get a unique view of the city!

The next C Function happened this week and had a Japanese theme. We showed up and they were serving sushi (which I love!) and Kirin Japanese beer. Shortly after we arrived, the scheduled program began with a Japanese drum performance.

This was followed by a Japanese traditional attire fashion show and a dance by the first year MBA Japanese Club Students. It was a very entertaining dance/show and I really enjoyed seeing some of my classmates goof around on the stage!

Countdown to the next C-function... T minus two weeks!

Read Read Read

Reading: The story of my life these days. My family is in for the weekend. In anticipation of trying to spend as much time with them, I tried to read ahead as much as possible. With my class load, that can be a lot of reading. See exhibit A:

Exhibit A: My books, course readers, and notebooks for the semester.

Take Me Out To The Ball Game

They say, once you move to Boston, unless you have strong affiliations to another baseball team, you will become a Boston Red Sox Fan (sorry Indianapolis Indians). Today, I took my first step towards inevitability by attending my first Red Sox game.

My classmate Tye had tickets for friday's game, which was postponed till Sunday due to rain. She was unable to go on Sunday, so I jumped on the opportunity. Luckily she had 3 tickets available, so I immediately called my Boston Culture Guides (brother Dave and wife Rebecca) to join me in the adventure. The met me at my apartment, we walked to the subway and were on our way.

The weather was beautiful. 75 degrees, and low humidity. Our seats provided a great view and plenty of shade too keep us cool and comfortable.

I had heard that a baseball game at Fenway Park was unlike a baseball game at any other park. I've never been a huge fan of baseball. I won't watch it on TV, but I'll enjoy attending a game, but to be honest they can get somewhat boring. For the first 5 or so innings, the experience at Fenway was essentially no different than my past experience. The pitcher pitched, the hitter swung, and the catcher caught. Occasionally there was a pop fly or a foul and if we were lucky, a batter would get a base or two and eventually a run. Go Baseball.

Sometime in the 6th, everything changed. One of the Red Sox hitters cracked a ball deep to left field, straight for the famed Green Monster. The ball bounced off the tall green wall and everyone cheered as the hitter rounded first and slid into 2nd. At this point it seemed as though the Red Sox came alive along with Fenway!

The next hitter was "Big Papi". The entire stadium clapped and chanted his name as he swung and waited through pitches to a full count. At the full count, the stadium clapped in unison, and Big Papi ripped one into right field just feet short of a home run. The stadium erupted and the energy carried through the rest of the game.

A few and innings a few runs later, the Sox were up 3 to 1 at the top of the 9th. The crowd favorite closing picture Papelbon took the mound and finished the game with 38,000 fans focused on one ball moving around the beautiful green field.

Due to backup on the subway, we opted to walk home on the beautiful afternoon, which provided us with this great photo opportunity! Thanks for the tickets Tye!!!

The Apartment

This has been a long time coming. I have no excuses at this point. I've shown you the building where I live, I've shown you pictures from the roof of the building where I live, but I haven't shown you inside. Here we go!

Here's the living room, complete with decorations from our Around the World Party. All furnishing complements of my brother Dave and his wife Rebecca. Thanks guys!

Here is the rest of the living room. Artwork and TV complements of roommate Kevin. The tracklighting is built into the apartment.

Here is the kitchen, with roommate Kevin prepping our "last meal" of the summer before we headed off to the airport. It's a little messy from the end of summer party the night before.

Here is the hallway with exposed brick accents, track lighting, and metal pipe.

My "dorm room" style bedroom, complete with bed, desk (with homework sitting on it), TV (in the corner looking through the shelves on my desk)....

plastic dresser drawers, and bike on the wall!!!

Here's our last meal of the summer. Somehow only the girls from our class seemed to be able to attend. Steak fajitas, guacamole, and chips! Thanks for cooking Kevin!

Fall Classes!

Fall classes have begun! Like any semester, it has started with a TON of reading. The stack of books and course notes for this semester dwarf any other semester I have ever had in school. Probably because my course load dwarfs any other course load I have ever had. Here are the classes I am taking:

Economic Analysis for Business Decisions (Econ)

Financial Accounting (Accounting)

Organizational Processes (OP)

Communication for Managers (Comm)

Financial Theory I

Marketing Managment

Sustainable Energy

Leadership and Ethics

Proseminar

The first 4 are part of the MBA Core, the fundamental classes that all MBA's take in the first semester of the first year. The true MBA's also take Data Models and Decisions, but as and LGO, I took the class over the summer.

The next two course are the "electives" for the MBA Core. MBA's typically only choose one, but as and LGO we have three electives in addition to the core. I wanted to get a solid base in finance, so I started with that course. The visiting marketing professor was HIGHLY recommended. Given that this is his last semester, I then selected Marketing. My third elective is in the form of Sustainable Energy, which will contribute to my master of science in engineering.

Finally, as LGO's we are taking the required proseminar class where various industry speakers will come in to speak to the class. We are also given the option to take the Leadership and Ethics class co-taught by several faculty and industry leaders included Don Davis, 20 year CEO of Stanley Works. Mr. Davis is 88 years old, and after 20 years at MIT (after 41 total years at Stanley Works) he continues to teach the class for the LGO program.

So far, the fall semester seems like it'll be a big one. Time to put my head down and charge through it! I can almost see December from here!

Knocking off the Rust

Today's Date: September 7th

I have my first class of fall semester tomorrow, which means I have homework to finish tonight. Not much but it still counts.

The last time I did homework... August 17th. That's 3 entire weeks of no homework. I'm not saying I'm not excited or I'm not ready for classes to begin... I'm just not quite ready for the homework. At least we start slowly with one class tomorrow, and one on wednesday. Then the schedule ramps up into full speed next week.

Wish me luck!

US Open

The US Open tennis tournament, one of the 4 Grand Slam tournaments known for late night matches and rowdy crowds, large stadiums, tons of people, and the sound of planes taking off from La Guardia airport. The event in person up held all of it's hype.

Classmates Ben and Tim organized a trip for 15 of us to attend a match at the US Open this year. This was a great opportunity to visit the big city and experience the US Open that I've seen on TV for years first hand. The event was stunning, the tennis was outstanding, and the company was stellar!

Our seats were very close to the top of Arthur Ashe Stadium, but the view was great and we could be a little more noisy during the matches without disturbing the players.

We could even climb up a few rows and look out over the city (look close, you can see the Empire State building)

It was a chilly night, but the talent was hot! We witnessed Taylor Dent serve up two 145mph aces against Andy Murray only to lose in straight sets. Dent's often reckless but aggressive style of play was very fun to watch. The women posted a much closer match when "the girl in white" came back to win the match after facing 5 or more match points to put away the third set 6 to zero! The matches ran until about 11:30 pm, when we then headed back into Manhattan for some late night fun and we eventually got to sleep.

As far as the Grand Slam tennis tournaments go 1 down.... 3 to go! France, Australia, and England, here I come!

New York II

Over the long weekend, I returned to the Big Apple for another short visit. This time, Dave (my brother) and I headed down for a match at the US Open. Since we were making the trip anyways, we decided to spend a little extra time in the city so that I can continue my sight seeing adventures. Dave has been to New York more than 10 times now, so he was a great tour guide as we hiked through the concrete jungle.

Our bus arrived near the original Macy's, which Dave immediately insisted that we visit... not for shopping but for the original wooden escalators still in use.

These were much cooler than anything else I saw in the store! Even the steps were made of wood!

We then proceed to our hotel, and the headed around town before the match. Some of our stops included:

Rockafeller Center

The Chrysler Building (look how tall I am!)

Radio City Music Hall (back to being short)

St. Patrick's Cathedral

Grand Central Terminal

And the Empire State Building

This trip filled in the New York City sight seeing gaps left by the last trip! It was great to see the famous and historic places!

Next Blog: The US OPEN!

The Famous Dome

Every college has an iconic building or structure that symbolizes the college. My alma mater, Purdue, has the engineering fountain or the bell tower which carry stories, memories, and even fables to last a lifetime. Some say the fountain cools the school's nuclear reactor or particle accelerator found below the engineering mall or that if a student walks under the bell tower he/she will not graduate in 4 years. I'll never forget the fountain runs through the engineering fountain or sitting near the bell tower napping before my next class.

At MIT, the iconic building is Building 10. Yes, that's it... building number 10. No specific name, only that it is part of the Maclaurin buildings. Although the building name may not resonate with those less familiar with the campus, the building image typically does.

Like anyone with a sense of curiosity, I wanted to know what was in the dome! The first few weeks of school, I headed over there to find out. I was surprised to discover that a library resides in the dome! The dome itself is a large reading room. However, at the time it was under construction for repairs. Shortly after my visit, the outside of the dome has been covered by scaffolding and looks like a giant cylinder instead of a dome.

I recently ventured back to the dome, despite it's cylindrical construction appearance, to see if the interior work was done. Sure enough it was, and here is the reading room that I found.

Looking up:

Panning down just a little:
Looking straight ahead:

For everyone who has wondered what was inside the Building 10 dome, you can now sleep better knowing that it is a beautiful, large reading room. My only thought it that the room is awfully big for how few people it can truly accommodate at any one time. I guess that's the price of beauty. We'll see how crowded it gets when classes start on wednesday.