Scribbles

10 days into P4, I finally post after getting dominated by last period.  Even though it lasted only 7 weeks, it was the most intense period for me from an academic perspective.  Not because grades matter; at this point I only care about learning.  Being the first time electives were offered, the period gave us some of the most intriguing and intense courses to date.  And there was no way to get value out of them unless you poured in some serious effort.

On top of the last set of core courses (3 courses, 2.5 credits, which I am so happy to be done with), I signed up for 4 electives (3.5 credits).  The half credits are mini's, with fewer sessions.  My fun electives were Social Psychology of Management, Venture Opportunities and Business Models, Social Entrepreneurship, and Strategies for Asia Pacific, all excellently taught and fully engaging.  Although the professors didn't require us to take finals, for 3 of them we had large scale team projects as final deliverables.  My big takeaway for the period was the balance of different subjects and their level of quality.  These courses come closest to my expectations of what I wanted to get out of an MBA program just a year ago.

I mentioned before that many people traveled throughout the period; I didn't, at all.  I did not step foot off this island, but not fully by design.  Several trips were cancelled either due to weather or mis-coordination, but I easily filled those weekends with studying and working on the L'Oreal E-strat Challenge.  (Unfortunately we didn't make it to the semi-finals.)  Oh, and recovering from a nasty flu over Chinese New Years weekend covers the long weekend I missed out on.  No, I'm not bitter. 

Looking back, I find P3 one of my most valuable periods at INSEAD, enjoying the weather, urban lifestyle, and stellar learning opportunities.  If I could change one thing, I would make it last longer so we could better digest all that content.  Then again, we all signed up for the 10-month program for its short duration.