Busy times before the MBA

Its my last day working for Capital One. Been here for a little over 5 years- some journey this! :) I leave for London tomorrow. 20 days before I reach Oxford. Too excited already!

And there has been lots happening on the SBS /GTC front too. Thought will try and pen down some opportunities people can look forward to once they join the school.

- First up, opportunities for part time work at GTC. If you are interested in working for a little money on the sides whilst pursuing your MBA/MFE, do check with the college if there are any part time opportunities available (we got to know about a couple of positions) I guess these might vary each year so the best option might be to check with your college. Typical last date to apply for this year's roles were July-end so keep that in mind.

- Student Advisory Board and other opportunities to get involved- One of the thorns in the flesh of every international student applying at SBS is the student loan. Its a big effing pain. This is a problem I was really passionate about trying to fix or contribute to finding a solution that, whilst may not help me, would help future batches of the school. Fortunately, there are others who think alike. We've found out a student group that took this problem/challenge up as their EP this year. We've spoken to them and are discovering ways in which to contribute to the solution. Student Advisory Board is body that is the voice of the students to ensure the program me works in a way that it is supposed to. It is comprised of a President, a Secretary and a bunch of VPs ranging from Sports to Projects.

- Peer support- Its a program that is designed to train a group of students in basic listening skills so that they can provide support to those of their peers experiencing difficulties. As well as contributing to the pastoral life of the school, if you choose to take part, you will learn invaluable skills which are transferable in a wider context to many management and team building situations. Each college has about 10-14 of them, I think.

- Blogging- if you are the blogging kinds, you may want to be a part of the mba.sbsblogs.co.uk. Bunch of people have blogged there for years now- great place to get an idea of what life at SBS is like. There are also people who blog for places like FT, etc and are essentially school reps. This year, FT got a huge response for students from a number of schools wanting to blog on FT. And given that SBS was represented in 2010-11, we've got a break for this year. Alanna Petroff from the class of '11 was the SBS blogger in FT and wrote really well about her experiences at SBS.

- Sports clubs- GTC has a bunch of sports clubs for a number of sports from Cricket to Rugby to Running to Table Tennis. One gets information about Club leads in the info package post one has signed the contract. The package has details about the sports and the point of contacts. Table tennis and running are certain choices for me (and obviously Cricket too :p) ! There is also the MBAT (http://www.mbat.org/home.htm) to look forward to.

- Fantasy leagues- Craze for sports turns into complex numbers driven tasks :p Be ready for Fantasy leagues for EPL. Some people have started one for NFL too. Given how passionate people were about this and how uninformed I felt about NFL- I've decided to plunge into this one myself. American sports do seem quite number driven (haven't got my head around all the points scoring bit, but fortunately there are enough 'guides for dummies') I'll be happy if I am in the middle of the pack when the season ends:)

All this when the MBA hasnt even started! Whoosh!