So we’re almost a month into the MBA year here at the Smurfit Business School. I can now see why the most common description from Smurfit alumni is “intense”! We’re straight into group work, assignments and classes. It feels a bit like running the wrong way up an escalator that speeds up as you near the top! If I’ve learned anything from my classmates over the last month, it’s that if any of us stumble, our classmates will be ready to pick us up and get us running again.
I was lucky enough to be awarded the “Achiever” scholarship for the year. This award is sponsored by NTR plc and covers the full course fee. Opportunities like that don’t come along often so I accepted before the college could change their mind! Like some of the other scholarships on offer, a solid GMAT score goes a long way towards selection. Anyone that has completed the GMAT knows that practice makes perfect, so I recommend prospective students should research the available scholarships early for the best possible chance to grab one.
As class reps, a priority for myself and Carmela Reyes is making sure that everyone finds the right balance between academics and everything else, so it has been great to be introduced to the MBA clubs and societies. The presenters unanimously agreed that the highlights of their MBA years were the club events. Their enthusiasm while presenting was infectious, whether on the panel discussions for the Entrepreneurship and Thought Leadership clubs or running a Dragon’s Den style event in the local school for the Social Outreach club. Then there is the annual trip to Danville, Virginia for the MBA Rugby World Cup. This sounds like a week of “networking” broken up by the occasional flash of sporting excellence. I intend to follow the advice I was given before the year: “Sign up for everything and you’ll somehow fit it all in”!
Myself and Carmela’s other responsibilities have been to help our classmates to settle into life at Smurfit and to facilitate communication between the class and the faculty. We had our first “Family meeting” this week (well, our first one not in the pub anyway) and I saw it as a resounding success. It’s early days, but we’re off to a great start. I can’t wait to see where the rest of the year takes us.
Colm Garrick, FT MBA 2018/19
