Orientation Day

Most of the M.B.A. programs require you to attend the Orientation before you start the programs. Providing an opportunity to meet your classmates and know the professors. Orientation days last from one day to a week depending on which program you are in.

Bigger programs usually have a welcome weekend, but the SJSU one year program doesnt have that. The class size is small, only 25 people total and most of the students are from the area.

There is a two-whole-day orientation in the program. They have well-planned schedule given to us on that day. The first morning started with the introduction of the program by a professor. Kinda give us a mindset that the program is gonna be really busy and part-time work is totally not recommended. (you are gonna know how "busy" we are later in this blog.) Then students are invited to introduce themselves to the class, tell what their plans upon graduation. Lunch was provided with simple cold sandwiches from one of the local restaurant, nothing fancy.

There are some small group activities and games after lunch. Librarian came over to teach how to use the library facility. I'm not quite sure why they are spending time to teach us on that, SJSU library is just like other libraries. There's nothing new/high technology or whatever that you need to learn before you use. Just get the library card and you can search and get things you want. Why do we need a 3-hour library overview?!

Second day orientation is ALL about paradigms. Most of us got frustrated on how much time that the program administrators try to devote on educating us about plagiarisms. I thought they should have placed more emphasis on career planning and development. M.B.A. is mainly about that, isnt it? And the fact is that some of the students in the class are not 100% sure on their careers or how to work on researching the industry that they are interested in.

The only reason I can think of is that SJSU probably has a history of catching students plagiarism and these students do not know plagiarism is a crime. oh well. I see this is something that a student should be aware of. I kinda feel that things like career development, classmates interaction and alumni connection should be emphasized in the orientation day.

Dont you guys agree??


Well, overall I personally think one-day orientation is enough. The orientation runs from 8 am to 5 pm and I get really tired after the first day. Most of students are nice and about the same age. I will say the age range is about 22 - 35 and most of them have work experiences. There are about 3-4 students are fresh grads. Business causals are not really necessary in the classroom. Professors and students just wear whatever they feel like. It's a pretty relaxing study-classroom environment.