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.

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.

Pre-Study: MBAS 850 Leadership, MBAS 876 The Role of the General Manager and MBAS 811 Financial Accounting

I have had the pre-study material for few weeks and although setting up the web portal and completing online personality tests are fun, the real work has been doing the prep material for MBAS 850 Leadership, MBAS 876 The Role of the General Manager and MBAS 811 Financial Accounting.

MBA 850: Leadership

Letter from Peter R. Richardson welcoming us and explaining that MBA 850 Leadership is one of a quite a few courses on "the role of the general manager". Although it sounds as though he will be involved with us in this aspect, MBA 850 will be taught by Bill Blake. He refers to the selected reading that have been sent.

MBAS 876: The Role of the General Manager

Course outline from Professor Peter Richardson. He refers specifically to a few of the selected readings while outlining the course and discussing the topic at some length. This outline goes on to specify the first assignment and it's due date of May 14th! I haven't even started and I feel behind, but it is exciting that this is ACTUALLY happening!

The selected reading that were sent for both of these courses are:

• The Manager's Job: Folklore and Fact (by Henry Mintzberg. Published by Hardvard Business Review ("HBR"))
• What Leaders Really Do (by John P. Kotter. Published by HBR)
• Blue Ocean Strategy (by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne. Published by HBR)
• Strategy as Revolution (by Gary Hamel. Published by HBR)

MBAS 811: Financial Accounting

A brief memo detailing "preparing of the first accounting course" and the "Finance and Accounting Workbook: 6th edition" from Queen's Executive Development Centre were sent. The memo, from Professor John Moore, discusses how to use the workbook and the specific chapters that should be focused on. At the moment I am about half way through the workbook and plan to complete all of it. After my discussions with the candidates I chose to have lunch with during my interview trip, one of their two suggestions of what they would do differently was to, "complete all the prep material in advance." The other suggestion was show up a week in advance of classes to get settled since the program starts off at an aggressive pace right from day one.

The workbook is excellent since it starts with the assumption that the reader knows absolutely nothing about accounting. Although parts of the first chapter are obvious to the point of being boring, I know that it is covering everything I need to know so that the professor can assume all the students have this basic knowledge level and can build off of it.

One criticismI have is that there are quite a few obvious typo's that simply reading the workbook, prior to publishing, would have found. It doesn't affect the clarity of the information or my ability to understand it, but it is annoying. Someone should suggest they have a graduate English student read it and circle all the items that could be fixed. That way it would be someone totally unfamiliar with the text and the mistakes would stick out!

The later chapters quickly become more interesting as tools, techniques and more complicated topics are introduced. My biggest struggle so far has been adapting to the "accounting speak" given my engineering background. Being an engineer I expect a certain type of logic, but the wording of certain accounting actions sometimes seems to contradict this logic. I'm sure it is just a matter of getting a better understanding of accounting and the language used to describe it so that I can correctly interpret the various transactions in the practice quizzes.

Enough! Back to the books!

Correspondence: Official IT Requirements

Queen's replied to my e-mail inquiring about IT requirements and the delay in the web portal being opened up. The web portal is expected to be up and running by the end of this week. They also sent me the official IT requirements for the Full-Time MBA Program for the Class of 2009. Below is what they sent me.

Notebook Computer Requirements
A notebook computer is a requirement for the duration of your Queen’s MBA program. The attached table (edited into a bullet form list for this blog posting) outlines the minimum requirements for any notebook that you wish to use and also outlines the minimum specifications you should be seeking should you need to purchase a notebook.

If you plan to bring to the Program a notebook computer that you already own, not only should it meet our minimum specifications, but you should ensure that it can be serviced conveniently and quickly in Kingston. Nationally-known brands such as Dell, Lenovo and Toshiba HP should present no problem but it may be difficult to find service for lesser-known systems. You would be well advised to purchase extended warranty coverage for the duration of the program to avoid any unpleasant surprises. It is also wise to ensure that you have a copy of the original invoice should warranty service be required.

Queen’s School of Business Technology Helpdesk stands ready to assist you in any way possible with regards to any computer-related problems or issues that may arise throughout your studies. Our specialists are available from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm Monday to Friday to help you with any of your computer-related needs for your various courses. Service is available by phone, email, website, walk-in or even team-room visits. We will act as a “first contact” point in troubleshooting system problems, providing simple diagnostic procedures and possible suggestions toward the fastest possible resolution. Should it be necessary to contact your vendor or manufacturer we can direct you to your nearest service depot as well as provide you, when possible, with the appropriate phone number or web address.

Should your notebook computer require service we maintain a limited stock of notebook computers that are available to you for short-term loan.

Our helpdesk staff members are fully trained in all of the software applications required for your studies including Microsoft Office applications, Adobe Acrobat Reader, Norton Antivirus, and Lotus Notes/Domino applications. We support Windows Vista and Windows XP Professional/Home operating systems. Unfortunately there is no support for MAC OS. We cannot guarantee full functionality of MAC computers with the Queen’s MBA portal or Domino-based email and collaboration services.

We will do our very best to relieve you of any worries or concerns surrounding the technological component of Queen’s MBA program allowing you to remain focused on the course material.

Minimum Notebook requirements

If you have purchased a computer within the last year or two then you can pretty much be guaranteed that it will meet at least the very minimum requirements for the Queen’s MBA Program.

The following chart will give you an idea of what specs to look for when evaluating either your current notebook computer or purchasing a new one. Although Microsoft has minimum requirements both for their Windows operating systems and Microsoft Office suites, you would do well with at least meeting if not exceeding the recommended requirements. The main concern for the purposes of the Program is that your system runs well with the following:

• Internet Explorer 6 or 7
• MS Office Pro 2007 (which will be supplied to you)
• Windows XP Home or Pro or Windows Vista

To achieve this we would suggest at least the following computer
Configuration

• Processor of at least 1GHz
• 1GB of RAM memory (2GB if running VISTA)
• A hard disk with at least 10GB of free space
• Video of at least an XGA resolution (1024 x 768) and 256MB of video
memory if running VISTA

If you have any questions or concerns regarding either your current notebook computer or wish advice on purchasing a new system please do not hesitate to contact the QSB Technology Helpdesk.

1.866.622.2667
helpdesk@business.queensu.ca

(Attached table edited into a bullet point list shown below to facilitate posting)

Feature: Processor

• Minimum: 1 GHz
• Recommended: 1.8GHz or better
• Comments: The processor is the "engine" of the computer. Intel has three types of processors currently available, The Celeron, the Pentium M or Centrino and the newly released “Core Duo”. The larger the
  number (GHz), the faster the processor within each specific type. Choose the Celeron if there are budgetary concerns. If your interests tend to anything involving multimedia applications, web authoring, games etc. then the Pentium M or Core Duo would be better suited. They offer faster processing technology and allow for much longer battery life in a smaller, lighter package.

Feature: Hard Drive

• Minimum/Recommended: 20 GB AVAILABLE FREE SPACE
• Comments: Hard drives currently range anywhere from 40GB to 160GB in size. You should have available for the Program at least 10GB of free space to be devoted solely for program purposes. Generally a 40GB drive is more than enough for general applications but if you do wish to save any type of multimedia files then the larger the drive the better. The cost between an 80GB drive and a 100GB or 160GB drive is not significant when compared to the overall cost of the system.
  

Feature: Memory

• Minimum: 1GB
• Recommended: 2GB
• Comments: Memory (or RAM) is very important in determining system performance. The more memory, the better the performance. Memory allows you to have multiple applications open concurrently and reduces the frequency that the system needs to access the hard drive. Again, as memory is fairly inexpensive at the moment, seriously consider going with at least 1GB. Microsoft recommends a minimum of at least 512MB for its soon-to-be released Vista operating system but advises 1GB and even 2GB is preferable.
  

Feature: Screen

• Minimum: Your Preference
• Recommended: 14” ACTIVE (TFT)
• Comments: As the user interface with the computer, this choice is critical to a user's satisfaction, and long with processor speed is a major determining factor in the cost of the notebook. Screen sizes range from 12.1” to 17”, but sometimes it is difficult to find cases for notebooks with larger screens and they are relatively heavy and fairly power intensive limiting battery life.

Feature: CD ROM

• Minimum: DVD/CD-RW
• Recommended: DVD-RW
• Comments: Traditionally the CD ROM was solely used to load programs, the higher the speed, the faster the load time. Now there are options to include DVD players (Digital Versatile Disk) or CD-RW's (CD riters or "burners"). A DVD allows you to play DVD movies and software on your computer or TV (with the necessary connections). A CD-RW or DVD-RW will allow you to save large amounts of data (700MB-7GB) to a CD or DVD for back-up in addition to creating music CD's or photo albums etc.
  

Feature: Portable Storage

• Minimum: 1GB Memory Key
• Recommended: 4GB Memory Key
• Comments: The traditional 3.5" floppy is largely not available any longer on new computer systems. Many will find the very economically priced USB memory keys much more convenient with far greater capacity for storing and sharing files. They are useful for backing up information and for porting presentations to other computers.

Feature : Modem

• Minimum/Recommended: 56Kbps V.92
• Comments: Most modems are internal in notebooks and are included as a standard component. This is the fastest connection you can achieve on a regular dial-up connection and is necessary if you do not have an Internet connection using DSL (eg. Sympatico) or cable. It is also required if you are traveling for use in hotel rooms where high speed is not available.
  

Feature: Ethernet

• Minimum: 10/100 BASE-T PCMCIA
• Recommended: 10/100/1000 BASE-T Internal
• Comments: Also known as a NIC (network interface card) and is standard on all, but the most very basic systems. It allows connection to corporate networks as well as DSL and cable modem connections.
  

Feature: Wireless LAN

• Minimum: IEEE 802.11b
• Recommended: IEEE 802.11 a/b/g
• Comments: Queen’s School of Business in Goodes Hall offers a wireless Local Area Network as a supplement to the wired Ethernet. Wireless LAN capability is commonly offered as a standard feature on current notebook computers. If your notebook does not have built-in wireless then a wireless PCMCIA card can be added to most notebook computers.
  

Software: Operating System

• Minimum/Recommended: Windows XP Home , Professional or VISTA
• Comments: Keep in mind that if you intend on using your notebook in a corporate environment Windows XP Home edition does not allow connecting to a domain and therefore you will not be able to join the company network.
  

Software: Office Suite

• Minimum/Recommended: Office 2007 Professional (Supplied free of charge by Queen’s)

Software: Web Browser

• Minimum/Recommended: Internet Explorer 6 or higher

Software: Viewer

• Minimum/Recommended: Adobe Reader 8 (Supplied via free download through Queen’s)

Software: AntiVirus

• Minimum/Recommended: Symantec AntiVirus (Supplied free via Queen’s Packman)

(Note: After the first MBA821 Finance Fundamental class in late August we discovered a financial calculator is a requirement for this course. The professor recommends the Texas Instruments BA II Plus since it is the one he is familar with and can assist the students with using it, but any financial calculator will do.)

(Update: Checkout what the requirements are on this Queen's 2010 Candidate's blog)

Correspondence: Pre-study material arrived from Queen's

Today I received a package from Queen's. It wasn't exactly a surprise since I had been sent a notice by FedEx that it was enroute. Contained within were the much anticipated pre-study materials.

Items included:

1. Memo outlining payment of fees and a copy of my registration that has my student number. (This was the only document with my student number)
2. Memo from the registar concerning my student ID card. I am required to complete the form and mail it back with a "passport" style photo in the pre-paid envelope included.
3. Sessional dates showing all the start and finish dates of the upcoming classes I will be taking as well as the very few days I will have off.
4. Estimate of living expenses for the next year.
5. Memo from the Career Manager outlining several assignments to be completed through the "web portal". Appears to be self administered personality testing, brain dominance testing, and career direction assignments. This will probably play a big part in the selection of teams we are being place in as well as assisting the Career Centre to get a better understanding of where the students may want to try to find employment. It also requires students to create an on-line resume through the "web portal".
6. Perp material for the Finance and Accouting class including a very thick workbook.
7. Prep material from one of the professors comprised mainly of "selected" readings. Basically, from what I can tell at a glance, just copies of articles or other material they want us to read.
8. Off-campus housing website info and info concerning University residenses and accomodations. (See comment on this by a current student. They are recommending this residence http://www.science44co-op.com/ and say the meal plan is great!)
9. Info on food service plan, which is manditory for residence.
10. Guide to some Kingston activities.
11. Guide on relocating to Kingston and a map showing approximate walking times for the area immediately surrounding the University to assist with selecting potential accomodations.

The introductory letter was signed off by the Associate Director who is looking forward to welcoming the incoming MBA students at 9 AM on Monday May 5th with a continental breakfast in the atrium of Goodes Hall!