MBA 101: Notes From the Middle of the Journey

Is there a right way to spend time during that M7, T15, T20 MBA? Here's what the graduating class of 2025 as well as alums from earlier classes tell me.

Literally day 2 of my MBA! Not kidding when I say there’s barely any breathe-room.

As I near the end of my first year at Kellogg, I often find myself looking back and feeling like I didn’t do enough. Or that I didn’t find the just-right balance (for me) of social, recruiting, academic, and other activities. I’m still figuring it out. There are days when I say to myself, “Geez, slow down and STOP doing too much.” But there are also days when I say, “I can’t believe I didn’t do <insert the thing I didn’t do>…”

Orientation, TGIFs, conferences & experiential overload?

Fall quarter was a blur of social and sensory overload, as we went ahead to meet 200 new people — some in detail, many in passing — while at the same time, getting ready to recruit and land summer internships, signing up for club leadership and conference organizer positions. Before we knew it, winter was here, and the same grind repeated — I continued to spend time running from class to info sessions to recruiting panels to conference team meetups. I barely had time to enjoy my recruiting outcome before I was thrown into the next task on hand, and the next thing I knew, I was flying home to India and back in 9 days, acting like jet lag is only a myth made up by biologists. I had approximately zero minutes to process what was happening and take it all in.

However, this recent quarter, the spring of 2025, has been a time of reflection — and that pang in the pit of your stomach that tells you you’re not doing enough with the limited time you have in BSchool. A sudden fear gripped me, with some daunting realisations —

a. I will most likely miss out on meeting some impressive classmates along the way, just because we have such huge class sizes, limited time, and limited opportunity for overlap.

b. I may not get to do several extremely exciting things (Levy Treks, GIM programs, certain Practicums and Labs) that I want to, purely due to time constraints or conflicts between courses.

c. I had limited time to start giving back to this place that was shaping the person I’d grow into over the next few years — whether you like it or not, you can’t escape inculcating the culture or learnings from spending 2 years with a cohort.

Which brought me to think — what do I wish I knew a year ago? Was there a right way to have done this whole journey? At what point did it all go wrong (if it did)? Or am I on the right track here? Am I working towards the right goals — do I need to be rethinking them? Is there a MBA-101 or a ‘bucket-list of MBA experiences’?

Naturally, per typical MBA tendency, I started talking to the many MBAs I’m surrounded by, to find out. To make reading this easier, I classified my learnings into what people wish they did more of, did less of, or did differently — I’m hoping sincerely that I can put these to use while planning my 2nd year at Kellogg.

Do more of…

• Be intentional about meeting people: Don’t just “hope” you’ll meet people and connect with them instantly. Connection takes effort, whether that’s 1:1 coffee's or a nice walk around town. Anushka, Kellogg’25 recommends - “show up to smaller interest-based events, and step outside your usual social circle to find those unexpected friendships. Things like taco crawls, neighborhood walks, or spontaneous outings often end up core memories.”

• Host your own gatherings: Kevin, Darden’25 says he wished he opened up his space more often for casual get-togethers that would give people a low-pressure bonding opportunity.

• Travel when you can: Both Kevin and Anushka, as well as Karan, Kellogg’25 recommend making better use of the opportunities B’School gives you to travel. Going on a trip with people you do not know can lead to surprisingly strong connection — something I’ve often seen with KWest groups at Kellogg.

• Meet people across class years: There’s lots to learn and gain from those who aren’t in your immediate cohort, says Kevin, and I couldn’t agree more. Some of my favorite people this year have been people from another year.

• Prioritise health: It’s fairly easy to depriotize health during B School when you have so many commitments to fulfill, but try using the resources available to you at the least — and sooner rather than later.

• Build cross-school networks: Attend those cross-MBA mixers if your calendar allows it. Better yet, some schools have a budget to support students who wish to travel to other schools’ conferences — leverage these to go out to conferences of your interest and expand your network.

Do less of…

• Overstuffing your calendar: Just because something is valuable doesn’t mean it’s right for you. Think about whether the time and commitment an undertaking asks for align with your larger goals.

• Holding yourself back to protect self-image: “We often take ourselves too seriously in B-School,” says Kevin. However, this time is supposed to help us explore who we are and what we really want for ourselves in this lifetime. Don’t let this pressure to seem professional or credible stop you from doing fun things.

Do Differently…

• Take some out-of-the-box courses: Don’t stick to just what’s fun, familiar, or just those courses that directly align with your goals. Some of these hidden gem courses may push your thinking!

• Choose depth over breadth: It’s better to do a fewer things that you can be really into, than try to do everything. Spreading yourself thin can burn you out, and also minimize the experience for you.

Of course, no one gets everything right — and that’s probably not the point of the MBA at all. The point, I’m realizing, is to design an experience that feels meaningful to me — not one that checks the most boxes, but one that builds lasting relationships, memories, and personal growth.

As I head into my second year, I’m taking these reflections not as a checklist, but as a compass. There’s no perfect formula, but there is the opportunity to be more intentional. More present. More playful. Doing things that actually matter to me. And practice choosing consciously, not perfectly.

This is me wishing for a second year that feels a little more spacious, a little more honest, and a lot more me.

Acknowledgments

Finally, I’d like to thank my MBA friends from the graduating class for weighing in and sharing their thoughts and experiences with me for this blog post — Karan Shah, Anushka Jain, Kevin D’Souza, and many others, thank you so much and congrats on graduating!