Travelling: Finally get to start the long drive.

So, after much hardwork and continually pushing our departure date we are off to Kingston. If we plan to leave today an arrive on May 1st. I am really glad that I have completed all the pre-study material that was sent. I still have to complete the excel tutorials and the statistics review, but I'm sure I can do a little of that along the way.

I am again reminded just how much I am investing in this program. Both my wife and my self have quit our "good" jobs. We are liquidating our apartment, driving across the country, and then spending lots of money, time, and effort to complete this MBA. I'm pretty sure that this will pay off, but if there is one thing life has taught me todate is that there are no guarantees.

Bunch of us are arranging to meet, through facebook, at a pub in Kingston on May 3rd. That should be a lot of fun! Plus the drive across Canada should rock! It will take us 6 days.

Well, without further ado I am off. Good bye Calgary...Hello Kingston.

Preparation: The schedule for the next year

Here is what the schedule for the next year is looking like:

• Between April 23 to April 25th Depart Calgary
• Drive across Canada (Calgary to Regina to Winnipeg to Thunder Bay to Sue St. Marie to Sudbury to Kingston)
• April 29th or 30th Arrive in Kingston
• Setup new living accommodations
• May 5 Classes START. The 1st Day of Classes
• May 19th Victoria Day (no classes)
• July 1st Canada Day (no classes) Hope to go to Ottawa for Canada Day
• July 28th to August 1st EXAM WEEK
• August 4th Civic Holiday (no classes)
• September 1st Labour Day (no classes)
• September 29th to October 3rd EXAM WEEK
• October 6th to 10th BREAK/INTERVIEW WEEK
• October 13th Thanksgiving Day (no classes)
• October 16th "University Day" (don't know what this is)
• November 11th Remembrance Day (Tuesday so don't know if they will have classes or take a different day off)
• December 1st to 5th EXAM WEEK
• December 13th to January 11th BREAK (4 WEEKS OFF)
• December 13th to December 20th Visit my family
• December 21th to December 27th Visit my wife's family
• December 28th to January 11th? Take a trip to somewhere else for 2 weeks?
• Must be back in Kingston on the evening of January 11th at the latest
• January 12th Classes start again
• February has "Carnaval" which is held in Quebec City. My wife wants to check this festival out, but I don't think I will be able find the time to go with her.
• April 24 Classes END. This is the end of the specialization classes. The program is finished!
• May Convocation TBA. Probably will not attend since I'm not planning on being in Kingston at this time.
• Take an extra 2 weeks to drive to PEI before going back to work? Return to Calgary? Move to Toronto? Move to Paris? Move to New York? Move to London? Who knows...
• Probably try to start work for the start of June or July?

That is looking like a pretty busy year. There is still a lot that isn't on there. I know there is going to be various activities through out the program that are going to make this even more entertaining!

Preparation: Things are gearing up

Things are now getting busy. I am into my last 2 weeks at work and they want every productive second they can squeeze out of me.

My wife and I are busy packing. With all the packing our apartment is a disaster and there are boxes everywhere. Already we have made a trip to both of our respective parent's houses to store items there while we are away. We were going to rent a storage locker, but I don't really know where I will end up after the program so that could have ended up being costly and inconvenient. A special thanks goes out to my parents and inlaws as they are providing crucial support to make this possible.

After receiving the letter that my student loan was approved most of the details surround the financing of this great adventure have fallen into place. So glad this has finally been sorted out.

I am still slogging through the last 1/3 of the accounting textbook sent as part of the pre-study material that needs to be completed prior to the program starting. It is hard to find time in the evening to work on it when I'm not already tired from everything else. I haven't even tried to review any of the statistics that were mentioned for one of the other courses. However, I have completed all the other pre-study material. The draft of my resume in the template sent by the Career Centre is complete, the personality testing is complete, the career quiz is complete, and the personal strengths finding material is complete. To top that off I have read most of the "career profile" material provided through the web portal for the various investment banking, venture capitalism and consulting positions that a lot of grads go onto after completing their MBAs.

I have purchased and received my laptop. I still need to get a carrying case and perhaps some other items for school yet. Just more items to add to an already long list.

Still don't have a possession date for our suite in Kingston. We need this date so we can commit to a departure date and book accommodations along the way ahead of time. We are already planning to drive 8 hours a day and I don't really want to have to drive around each town searching for a place to stay if it can be avoided.

That reminds me I need to call the utilities, phone, and cable companies to cancel all our services at the end of this month.

On top of that we are trying to see all the friends and family we can before we leave.

With all this going on I have pretty much given up on trying to go to the gym.

I have also been getting in touch with more and more of my future classmates. Turns out there is even a facebook group started for "Queen's MBA 2009". If you are reading this and you are part of "the Queen's MBA class of 2009" and haven't already looked the facebook group up, do so and join!

Okay, back to being busy.

Financing: Student loan secured

Finally got my student loan straightened out with Alberta Learning Information Systems. Originally I applied online and it was processed within 2 weeks. However, the online application only had December 2007 and June 2008 start dates available to choose from among the choices for "program". Of course I needed "May 2008", but pick the date of "December 2007" since "May 2008" wasn't in the menu.

HUGE MISTAKE!

The result was a very lengthy cancellation procedure and an even more drawn out "re-application" by filing out a paper form.

All done and said I got a student loan! The amount I received is the same as what I was assessed automatically online. I get about 2/3rds for May 1, 2008 and the remainder form November 1, 2008. These funds combined with what I have saved and the line of credit available through RBC from Queen's should allow me to complete the year.

Pre-Study: MBAS 860 Acquisitions and Analysis of Information for Management (a.k.a. Statistics)

Received some more pre-study material from Queen's regarding preparation for a Module 2 course called MBAS 860: Acquisition and Analysis of Information for Management. This will will be background for a subsequent course called MBAS 861: Business Decision Models and for other Finance and Accounting courses.

The material is in a letter from Jeff McGill, the instructor, and encourages students to prepare for the course by reviewing some basic statistics and statistical functions of Microsoft Excel so they get the most out of the course. A link to an Excel tutorial spreadsheet is provided and students new to, or experienced with, Excel are encouraged to work through it to either familiarise themselves with Excel, or to have a refresher while gaining a stronger understanding of what will be expected.

The letter also explicitly states that, "the course will emphasize the application of statistical techniques in the following areas:"

1. use of descriptive statistics to explore data;
2. elements of probability (including Normal, Binomial, Uniform, and Exponential distributions);
3. statistical inference: estimation of means and proportions, Hypothesis Testing on means and proportions;
4. models of association: correlation, and simple and multiple regression models;
5. time-series analysis and forecasting.

It goes on:

This is an extensive agenda for a single course; however, our interest will be in the use of these techniques to model and solve business decision problem rather than on theoretical development. The course text is not available for this mailing, but if you have access to text materials from a previous statistics course that you have taken or can obtain such materials from friends or colleagues, we encourage you to spend time reviewing the ‘basics’ in items 1), 2) and 3), above. We will cover these items in class, but we will move quickly! A relatively inexpensive alternative is the following 'outline’ text that contains many solved problems: Kazmier, Leonard J. SCHAUM'S OUTLINE OF BUSINESS STATISTICS, McGraw-Hill, New York, NY (latest edition). This book is available in most campus bookstores, or can be ordered online. [Warning: Schaum's Easy Outline of Business Statistics is not adequate.] The more preparation you can do ahead of time, the better. If you are concerned about your preparation for quantitative analysis in your MBA program, we can also recommend an online quantitative analysis preparation package offered by Harvard Publishing. The price for this course with an academic discount is approximately $65.00 . Here are some instructions from Harvard regarding logging in to the site.

Please register at http://elearninghome.hbsp.org/. Click on the ‘Sign up here link’ under New Users and fill out all required information to be properly associated with the Queen’s account.

Organization ID#: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Organization Name: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

New User Information: HE

Once you are registered, it may take up to 2 business days for you to have access to the course. If you experience technical difficulties, please e-mail techhelp@hbsp.harvard.edu, or call (800) 810-8858.

I will definitely be pulling out my old engineering statistics textbook and looking over these topics, but I don't think I need to try to complete the extra Harvard course since being an engineer I have a fairly good grounding in Excel, math, and statistics. Besides, I don't have the time. Between packing, doing the other pre-study material, working, and meeting up with family/friends one last time I am finding ALL of my time is taken up.