Late last week a student dropped by the BBA Program Office and she was not doing too well. Crying, upset. Too much work; not enough play; too much time at Ross; too many assignments; too much groupwork — you get the idea. Since Rob was at a conference and Katie was in a meeting, I talked with her for a while and was reminded that this is a very difficult time of the year, especially for juniors. I had some advice for her that I thought I might pass along.
- You're not in this alone. Every other BBA graduate since I've been here has gone through this exact same situation. Others survived this process; you will, too.
- Don't compare yourself with other students. The Ross student population leans toward the anal retentive/obsessive compulsive end of the scale. These students have done well in school by 1) being smart, and 2) working harder than other students. Well, put 350 of these students together, and the results are fairly predictable. But, the question remains, how to deal with it? You shouldn't compare your work habits with other students. You can't work harder than all of them, and you shouldn't try. You should know that you are not the hardest working student in all of your classes. You should work toward getting good grades, but you shouldn't expect to get them. You should realize that you will have to work hard but that there is some point after which working will no longer be productive and may actually be counter-productive. Each person is different and you must determine when that point comes for you.
- This is not the time of year for a BBA to think about partying, having fun, or working out for hours on end. It's not going to happen — or, at least, it shouldn't if you want to make it through unscathed. There's a time to work and a time to play. This is the time to work. Look forward to taking some time off in May. However, if you came to Ross thinking that you would be able to continue a life of leisure approach to your college studies the whole year round, then it turns out you're sadly mistaken. It's not like we work like dogs all year 'round &mdashp; we certainly don't. But there definitely are times when you need to work for extended hours on multiple assignments. No doubts about that.
- Have a plan. If you don't have a daily planner, get one and use it. There's no way that you can keep all that's going on in your head. Determine what you need to do when and write it down in your calendar.
- Work the plan, day by day. The next thing to do is to work the plan — but focus on the day's activities, not the whole plan. If you look at all that needs to be done, you'll quickly become overwhelmed. If you need to, make another sheet of paper that contains just the day's schedule and to-do list, and keep this separate from the rest of your calendar so that you don't spend all of your time obsessing about the mass of upcoming tasks.
- Know that there is an end to the push. This level of stress and activity will not go on forever. Junior year at Ross is a highly stressful time, and it culminates with a very hectic April. But April ends and so do the demands of the school year. Next year will be better for many reasons, especially in that you will have a year's experience under your belt of how to deal with the ebb and flow of the school year.
Finally, and a point not of much comfort to this particular student, this is one of the primary reasons why Ross is moving to a 3-year program. While we want to maintain a competitive environment with the best possible students, we also think that at some point too much is really too much. The 3-year program spreads out the current junior year requirements over the sophomore and junior years while, at the same time, also putting them in an order that makes a lot more sense. I'm sure that we'll need to tweak things over the next couple of years, but I do expect that the number of students who drop into my office on the verge of tears should go down significantly.
