End of Week -2 at Oxford

Yes you read that right! We just ended week -2 (negative two). Oxford (being Oxford) has its very own calender! Next week is Week -1 and the upper week (when we are confirmed as students of the school via matriculation is Week 0 and then 1,2,3 (i'm sure you get the drift).

There have been so many activities already that it'll be tough to cover everything. The easiest way to do this would be to cover the week chronologically so here goes....

Monday & Tuesday
First day at SBS. Had breakfast with my roomies at the YHA (Matan and Martin)....got a few weird looks as we were all suited up (got some baked beans on my tie!). We were scheduled to have Boot Camps for careers in Management Consulting and Finance over the course of the week. These boot camps sort of provide a fantastic overview to careers in both sectors and enable students focus on their areas of interest during their job search. This is especially important as being in a 1 year program mean you'll need to start applying for jobs almost immediately.

We made the 2 minute trip to SBS....greeted by a sea of smiling faces in black and white. Handshakes everywhere.....necks bent.....ears strained...as people tried to make out each other's names in the chaos. 150+ nervous MBA students meeting each other for the first time. Thankfully we had a pretty active facebook group, making it easier to recognize some people. The sound of Derek's (Director of Careers) horn (yes horn....very effective I might add) interrupted our uneasy conversations....'please  proceed to the hall' he said.He introduced the sector consultants, who took over and took us through two days of  CV and Cover Letter prep, interview tips and nuances, and a good overview of the management consulting business space.

Both sessions ended about 6pm and most of us retired to what is likely to be the 'default pub' for our class....THE OXFORD RETREAT!

Wednesday

We had a free day and Matan and I decided to use it to sort out all our admin stuff. At this point we had moved into our Flat at the RAC. We had to get our University ID card from the college, open our bank accounts, register with the police, register with the NHS, and buy essential items for the house. In the evening, we all headed to another pub called 'The Jericho Tavern' for a party which went on till four apparently (I escaped at about 1am....Matan didn't).

Thursday and Friday
We had the finance bootcamps on Thursday and Friday. I had been contacted by the careers team the week before with a request to make a presentation to the bootcamp, along with about four other people about my life in Finance. I agreed to it and saw myself ushered on stage, immediately wondering why i agreed to it. With what seemed like thousands of eyes on me, I fiddled with the microphone and drank a lot of water....making sure i was well positioned in between the other speakers. Why? I didn't want to be the first to speak! I think the secret to presentations however is familiarity. The stronger your familiarity with the subject you are speaking about, the easier it is to improvise....a key attribute of a good presentation. Thankfully, I was talking about my personal experiences so I think I did quite well.

Saturday
On Saturday we had the 'Oxford Pursuit'.....a seven year old Oxford MBA tradition (gasp! an Oxford tradition that's not centuries old?). It basically involves being randomly split into groups of six and provided with a map, and 15 questions about the city of Oxford. The questions required physical examination of a lot of buildings and a lot of detective work. It was a good, although tiring experience and though we didn't win, i learnt a lot about the city.

Miscellaneous
Feeding is my biggest problem here.Practically living on bread and butter.....I might need emergency cooking classes! One thing that's also clear from my week here is that focus and prioritization is absolutely critical. There's just too much going on....too much stuff to do. There's always a party, or a meeting, or something and school hasn't even started. So I think it is essential that I streamline my goals and identify specific activities that would help me achieve them.

OBNs
OBNs (Oxford Business Networks) are student run organisations that focus on particular areas of interest. After my talk on private equity, i've been encouraged to run for the chairmanship of the private equity OBN by a few classmates. I had previously considered it but was torn between the PE OBN and the Strategic Focus on Africa group, which is an SIG (Strategic Interest Group). I have decided to run for the PE OBN although I know it would be a tonne of work! So help me God....

P.S This post is so long because I'm not sure when next I'll have the time to post.....mad times!

Arrival in Oxford...

Tired....Dead tired! I suspect those are words i'll use frequently over the course of the year. It's just the second day and i'm starting to realise how intense it is. Ok let me start from the beginning;

Landed at Heathrow at about 5pm and headed straight for the Central Bus station at the airport to take a bus to Oxford (return ticket costs 26 pounds). The bus ride was smooth (a little over an hour) and came with free wifi.....so i was able catch highlights of the Man U-Chelsea game (What a miss by Torres!) on my ipad. Knew before hand that my flat at the RAC wouldn't be ready so i had booked a room at www.yha.org.uk/find-accommodation/.../hostels/oxford/index.aspx. 

Pretty cheap at about 30 pounds a night and its right next to SBS but you'll probably have to share with four other people. I was lucky to get my flat the very next day so i've moved in. Here are a few pictures of my flat

My Room

Kitchen

Sparsely furnished living room

Bathroom

I must say i'm very happy with the flat. There are tons of admin stuff left to do....for example, every student has to have his/her laptop registered with the college to enable you have internet access. Had to escape from the Management Consulting bootcamp (more on this later) and walk all of 30 minutes to get to my college site (Green Templeton) to get an appointment for later in the day and then walk all the way back to SBS to have my picture taken for the profile book and then back again to have the laptop configured before heading home (via Tesco to pick up some groceries. My flatmate (who is a very nice dude from Israel) and I would need to go shopping for basic stuff like microwave ovens and other appliances not included in the flat. Of course I need to open a bank account, register with the police and NHS (all Oxford students are covered by the NHS) and do other stuff i'm sure will come up over the course of the week.

The weather's been surprisingly pleasant by the way so long may it continue!

Two weeks to go!

Here's a list of administrative tasks I had to do before heading out to Oxford.....

1. Confirm by email if you will be accepting the offer - Done

2. Pay your 15% non-refundable deposit - Done (Came to £5,445)

3. Submit your Offer Acceptance Form - Done

4. Supply your Financial Guarantee documentation - Done
5.  College placement - Done (Green Templeton College - GTC)

6. Confirm acceptance of your college place - Done

7. Secure your accommodation – college/private - Done via GTC (Rewlew Abbey Court)

8. Obtain a visa - Phew.....Done, after three nerve wracking weeks

9. Return your Student Contract to generate your University Card - Done (Had to return a hard copy of this as per school regulations)

10. Pay the balance of your fees - Done.....I now qualify for bankruptcy protection
11. Register via student self-service - Done

So its official! I'm enrolled at Oxford! Six kings, 48 Nobel prize winners, 26 UK prime ministers, 7 current holders of the Order of Merit, 12 saints, 20 archbishops, 18 cardinals, 1 pope and one Bayo Babalola.....

The Countdown Continues - A Month to Oxford

So Cesc Fabregas signed for Barcelona this morning, the Nigerian Under 20 football team lost in the quarter finals of the Junior world cup last night and my pot belly has refused to evolve into a six pack....despite depriving myself of 'junk' food for the past few days....so its safe to say that i'm on the lookout for a 'pick me up' this morning....

The countdown continues....in about a month, i'll be packing my bags and heading out to Heathrow for what would hopefully be a mind blowing year of fun, stress, knowledge acquisition and even more fun! I am excited while nervous....excited at the possibilities that lay ahead and nervous at the total deviation from the familiar. I would be going into a city where i have no friends or even anyone vaguely familiar. I am particularly apprehensive about food. I am a Nigerian and by definition we love spicy food...our entire diet is brimming with spice. I've never been out of Nigeria for longer than a week before and I remember heading straight to a beer garden or restaurant from the airport to save my tongue from the blandness it had had to endure all week. Luckily, practically everyone would probably have an issue or the other. But first things first, I need to get my Visa issued.....in Nigeria, the UK operates a drop box system where you download and fill the forms, include all necessary documents go get your biometric data captured, and submit the form. It typically takes about 3 weeks to a month so fingers crossed.

I've been thinking about setting goals for the year. I read in an Oxford Alum's blog that you can only do two of three things well in Oxford.....Academics, Socials and Sports. Academics for me is absolutely key....its my intention to get on the dean's list (A list of the top performing students in the class) so as to counter my relatively weak undergraduate gpa. It might be an issue during recruitment season when companies have their pick of the best business school talent in the world. I would also need to look for 400 hours during the year to study for CFA. So that leaves one more slot....do i pick socials or sports. Now socials are important, afterall one of the reasons to come for an MBA is to create an extensive international network and you can only do that by socialising extensively. I also like sports...football is absolutely critical to me and i've been looking forward to the annual MBA Tournament in paris since i first started considering going back to school. I would like to believe I can engage in both and still do well in class. I guess time would make that decision for me.

Finally, the thorny issue of finance! My wonderful parents (bless them) have given me most of the money required. I have estimated that the entire year would cost me about £54,000 pounds....thats a very conservative estimate by the way. After also throwing in my life savings, i just, only just have enough to cover my expenses for the year. Its a tough decision to have to make......a significant investment. But like someone once put it, its not too much to pay for the priviledge of being an Alumni of the great Oxford University for the rest of your life. Unfortunately, the school has very limited loan and scholarship options so it has to be 100% self funded. This is something the school needs to change. We're (some of the incoming students) looking to work on this with the school.....

On that note, I leave you to mourn the demise of my once great club......

CFA Level Three....Finally!

'Dear Adebayo Oluwaseun Babalola,


Congratulations. I am very pleased to inform you that you passed the June 2011 Level II CFA exam. You are one step closer to achieving your goal of earning the globally respected CFA charter.'
 
I got the email yesterday and after waiting for over 24 hours without receiving this...
 
'Dear Adebayo Oluwaseun Babalola,
 
We apologize for having misled you. You did not pass the exam. But on the real though, how could you think a nitwit like you would pass our 'prestigious' exam? Kindly re-register for the level 2 exam if you want to continue claiming to be a 'Level 2 candidate.''
 
I can safely scream...YAYYYYYYYY!!! I'm just glad that i've crossed this bridge....third time lucky i guess. Now the question is...do i attempt to take the level 3 exam while at Oxford next year. It will be extremely tough...deadlines are crazy and from the stories i've heard, my all-nighters would be taken up by Oxford. I will pay for the exam because i need to be registered for level 3 to have it reflected on my CV and then make a judgement call on how much study time I need to allocate to the exam without affecting my performance in school.
 
Oxford Update: Trying to round up the admin tasks. Sent in my student contract last week and should receive my SBS email address soon. Also about to apply for the UK visa....hopefully there'll be no issues with that. Also getting to know more of my classmates via our Facebook group....it's extremely active and someone's always discussing something which is nice and makes it easier to communicate. I've also been selected to blog for SBS on the official blog page http://mba.sbsblogs.co.uk/....another Yayyyyyy!!!! I requested to be considered and sent a link of my blog and the request was accepted. 
 
Happy times....now reaching for a glass of wine....

Countdown to Oxford....

Sitting in my hotel room in Ghana, watching Paris Hilton on Piers Morgan's show complaining about fame and its bad side. Bad side? Can we switch places please (without the sex tape of course). Came to Ghana to write my CFA level 2 exams (for the last time i promise). The exam went ok...studied hard, but the CFA is anything but straight forward, so fingers crossed. I promised to paint the town red yesterday after my paper but those plans went down with a whimper as a little rain and the allure of guilt free tv defeated the almost non existent party animal inside me.

So CFA out of the way, I can now drool about resuming at Oxford in September. Whats been happening? Well, mostly administrative stuff.....got admitted to Green Templeton College and....ok, let me explain the Oxford collegiate system to you. Oxford, being Oxford, had to be different from other schools. Its sorta like a holy trinity....the University, the College and the Department. The University, handles examination and other University wide activities. The department handles lectures and other academic related functions and the college is where you are accomodated and enjoy other extra curricular activities. This is probably a less than precise description but i'm sure you get the picture. So to illustrate, I have been admitted to the University of Oxford. I will be provided accomodation and partake in other extra curricular activities at the Green Templeton College and be lectured at the Said Business School.

I've secured a flat at the Rewley Abbey Court (RAC), literally round the corner from Said Business School. Its a two bedroom flat and i'm scheduled to share it with an Israeli scientist....a fellow SBS student. Decided to stay at RAC because of its proximity to the school...walking or cycling 20 minutes everyday in the dead of winter doesn't exactly appeal to me. Downside however is its called off site accomodation as its not within my college grounds so i might not really interact with non-mba students as RAC is understandably populated by MBA students. But consulting with a number of current MBAs helped me make my decision as i'll be spending 98% of my time at SBS. We've (MBA students) also been communicating with each other via facebook and google....should be a fun group!

But for the next few months, i'll just cruise through work while I mentally unpack in my flat at the Rewley Abbey Court.....

End of Part One...

My day started with the typical nervousness and incredulousness of such big days....I woke up at 4am and immediately checked my email account....nothing! I got to work and tried to appear productive while hitting the refresh button every ten minutes....nothing! I went on a few online forums (gmatclub, papalguy) where fellow mba applicants were waiting nervously all over the world....nobody had heard anything!

At about 12 noon, I went into a meeting that would go on to last two hours.....tried checking my email account several times on my blackberry but couldnt seem to log on. It was probably for the  best because the managing director of my firm was in the meeting and i cannot say for sure what my reaction to getting the email would have been! Meeting over, I bounded down the stairs and ran to my desk.....three unread mails! One of which was from the admissions guys at Oxford! Of course I checked the irrelevant emails first and then slowly clicked on the one that mattered....

'Dear Adebayo
I am delighted to confirm the decision of the MBA Committee to'

I blacked out for a second, my colleague said I started thumping my chest like a gorrilla but to be honest, he's not a very credbile source.....I  remember standing up from my desk, smiling and looking decidedly retarded! My colleagues noticed of course and converged round my computer to read the rest of the email...

'offer you a place on the 2011-2012 programme.
Your interviewer was very impressed when they spoke to you during your interview and the MBA Committee has agreed that you meet the very high standard expected of an Oxford Student.
We hope very much that you will accept the Committee's offer and join the 2011-2012 class. We aim to welcome another class of around 230 to the next MBA, allowing each student to benefit from close supportive and constructive relationships with Faculty.'

There is no better feeling than opening up that email that tells you all your work has paid off....one of your dreams has come true...you have achieved what you set out to achieve.....

This marks the end of the first chapter.....and the beginning of a new one....