Fortunato_NC's Journal: First Impressions of the Duke University CCMBA Program

Today is the second day of my first residency at Fuqua, and after 30 hours or so as a graduate student, here's what I'm thinking now.

This is going to be a lot of work.

Literally every minute is scheduled for us between 8:00AM and 8:00PM every day for the next two weeks. We're going to cram in roughly half a semester's worth of class meetings, assignments, and yes, even exams, for two classes into two weeks. I'm skipping part of dinner to write this journal entry. Of course, we've got it easy this term. Next term we have to do it all in one week.

The people here are really talented.

The mix of people that makes up our class is absolutely astounding. We have CPAs, logistics and distribution experts, professors, marketers, more engineers than you can shake a stick at, and of course, a ton of IT types like myself.

I can't shut my mouth.

My family and co-workers probably could have told you that, but the Myers-Brigg tests we took helped explain some of that. I'm an ENFP, and apparently one thing that people find frustrating about dealing with ENFPs is that we talk way more than we listen. Of course, speaking quickly has its rewards sometimes. I won an autographed picture of Coach K by answering a trivia question during orientation.

Sometimes, getting the short end of the stick turns out better than you expected.

My team got "bumped" from the Thomas Center, the main facility here at Fuqua due to a lack of space. However, we were bumped to the Washington Duke Inn, a four-star resort hotel on the edge of Duke's campus. Not a bad place to spend 13 nights, if you can't be at the Thomas Center with everyone else.

I'll write more on the CCMBA program and my experiences as the week progresses. Needless to say, I'm working hard, but I'm having a blast at the same time.