T’15s – I Feel So Old

Posted by thesenator2014 on February 24, 2013 · 4 Comments 

The Big Transition

Tuck is starting to round out the Class of 2015. Seems like I just arrived in Hanover yesterday–ok maybe six months ago. How time flies. Not even two months ago I was deep in the throes of the job hunt and I had just wrapped up my first full-term of classes. Now I’m on the phone two to three times a week talking with accepted (and hopefully future) Tuckies about everything. Sometimes, I can’t resist laughing a bit on the phone because I was asking the same questions this time last year.

On one level it’s kind of saddening–you’ve heard the term “out with the old, in with the new”. On another level, it’s actually really refreshing. Tuck is a school where almost everything is student driven so you get to assume leadership and mentorship capacities early and regularly. It’s also quite amazing how the focus in Fall A and B was academics and recruiting, now it’s shifted almost entirely to getting Tuckies to commit to next year’s class and transitioning of club leadership to T’14s, and oh yeah having a lot of fun.

Cool Stuff in the Pipeline

There’s a lot of cool stuff happening here at Tuck right now. This year our Quality of Life committee (QLC) kicked things into top gear so now we have a living room in Stell Hall, bagels and coffee every Sunday morning, an espresso bar (not part of QLC) and hangout nights almost weekly with cookies and other treats. In addition to QLC, we’re wrapping up the Tuck.500 this week, a three-week fitness competition with teams of six on a ‘race’ to 500 miles. As it stands, my team is limping towards the finish line and a group of serious runners who call themselves ‘The Flat Rack Pack’ has already technically won the competition. Hopefully my team can make it to 500 by the time the week ends!

Something else a lot of us are looking forward to are the upcoming trips over break. There are a handful of learning expeditions led by faculty to South Africa, Japan, China and other international destinations. Tuckies are also organizing leisure trips to places like Sun Valley and Alaska. A few of us (including myself) are opting for warmer options. While I’m not scared of the snow, it’s time to get a bit of sun and warm the bones for a spring filled with a lot of golf before we hit our summer internships. Our nice, long two-week break will be a perfect Segway into a relatively chill Spring term where we’ll wrap up the core and take a few elective courses. I’m honestly trying to enjoy myself as much as possible until June so I’m going to opt for a mix of low impact academic options and few practical courses to help shore up my quant skills.

Prepping for the Summer

This past week I took a trip to New York City for ‘sell day’ with the Investment Bank I’ll be joining this summer. It was a good day and I still have to narrow down my choice for which group I’m going to be placed in… that means for those of you that are in Investment Banking already, that’s the universal signal that I’m not going to Morgan Stanley. The visit to NYC was great; I’m really hopeful for the summer and I maintain had I not chosen to go to school at Tuck, there’s a very good chance that I wouldn’t be going into Investment Banking (a post on why if you’re going into Banking you should come to Tuck will come later).

One thing to note about these sell days, every firm has a unique setup as to how they handle scheduling, meeting bankers and Q & A. I’ve been to 3 or 4 of these events this year and by far this last one I went to was the best. For those of you doing early action programs and informationals make sure to take notes on your experiences. From my experience and interactions with each of these sell days they actually mimic the personality of the bank quite closely–just something to be aware of, because you’ll soon realize how important ‘fit’ will be when you’re making those decisions come this time next year.

Finally, I’ve started to look for places in New York. Initially I was considering the NYU Summer Housing option, but I’ve since received some valuable advice from a T’13 telling me I should really consider finding an apartment with other Tuckies, if not for anything else but guaranteeing I get good sleep. I really thought this would be an overly expensive option as I’m trying to save as much money this summer as possible. What I’ve found though is that there are actually reasonably priced options for a summer sublet with furnishings. Some of the prices on Craigslist look to good to be true (especially for NY) but if I can find something for under $2,000 a month I’ll consider it a win.

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