Spring has finally arrived in Charlottesville!  After a winter of surplus snow that quickly wore out its welcome, followed by lots of clouds and rain, the sun is here to stay (I’m keeping a positive attitude!).  Exactly two weeks ago, I finished off my last Q3 exam and (with a big smile of course) got ready to give my tired brain a rest for the next week and a half.  I had originally thought of going on a Darden Global Business Experience (GBE)—where Darden students can spend 1-2 weeks exploring the business environment and practices of another country as a substitute for an elective—but since I’m planning to spend next fall semester on a Darden-facilitated exchange in China, I decided to stay back and spend some time with my family.

After three busy quarters I definitely made the correct choice.  Though I spent the first few days do pretty much nothing (it was a nice way to decompress from school), I enjoyed sleeping in and spending most of the day with my wife and son taking a walk around the little lake at our apartment complex or visiting the playground.  Two of my wife’s cousins from Chile flew in and stayed with us for part of the break so I did get out to enjoy the sunshine.  We visited Jamestown and did the tourist thing around Washington, D.C. for a couple of days and spent the rest of the time in Charlottesville where we introduced the cousins to ice skating and hitting golf balls at the driving range.  Of course I absolutely had to take play a round of golf with one of my classmates on the last day of super cheap winter rates at Birdwood—I was six inches away from my first hole-in-one on the signature 14th and, notwithstanding a few bad holes, actually played well for not having swung a club in a few months.  All-in-all it was a very relaxing and enjoyable spring break, and just when I was starting to get used to it we started Q4 this past Tuesday.

Q4 is the first quarter that we are able to take electives here at Darden (while I chose to build on the finance, economics, and decision analysis courses we had during the first three quarters by selecting those electives, I chose not to start at 8am every day!).  To be perfectly honest, before I came to Darden this was one of the things I had reservations about.  Lots of other B-schools let you choose your classes from the beginning, or at least starting with the second semester, so I wondered this last of customization would be a negative.  After experiencing the first three quarters I can resoundingly say that is not the case.  I really think part of the Darden is found in the dynamic of the first-year core in the form of Learning Teams and our section environments.  While obviously a small part of the core material may be basic for those who have specialized expertise in certain areas, not only does the material scale very quickly (getting more advanced as time moves on), but the case method allows even those ‘experts’ to derive value for themselves and contribute to the learning of their classmates through active participation in the case discussions.  The Darden administration does a really good job of designing a great first-year experience and giving students opportunities to interface with a wide range of faculty and classmates, while working together (case method) to advance learning and synthesis of the material; they are also constantly innovating to improve the already spectacular first-year experience—as we found this year and the class of 2012 will see in the way their first-year program differs from ours.  At the end of the day, I have absolutely loved the first year experience so far… it was everything I expected and hoped for!