SOM Support System

Hello! This is my first blog post EVER. I am pretty excited about it. Anyways, I woke up this morning thinking about how incredibly supportive my classmates are. We met a couple of weeks ago but it already feels like we are old friends. Coming from a non-profit arts background, I was nervous about the competitive business school environment. Obviously, visiting Yale I was struck with how different the culture is, which is why I applied. I promise it's not just a marketing ploy! It's truly a unique place. Everyone is extremely driven and accomplished, but very low key. Okay, so here's an example. Like I said, it's b-school so you think your classmates might be really competitive, right? Well, it's really different here. Today I woke up to an email from a classmate. She had put together an excel sheet with all the assignments for the first quarter on one tab, professor office hours on the second tab, and other useful contact information on a third tab. She then sent it out to a bunch of people, because she thought we might find it useful, which I certainly did. She isn't on my learning team, or even in my cohort. She was just being thoughtful. And this isn't the first of these that I have received! Everyone wants to do really well, but that doesn't mean they don't want you to do well too. The support system permeates all aspects of the school. Everyone wants you to succeed, which manifests in a transparency of systems. Last Friday, for example, Sharon Oster (guru of all thing econ) set up an impromptu open review session after classes were done. She noticed that some students seemed a little lost so she offered her services to answer any questions anybody had. It just helps us all realize that if we have a question, someone else probably does too, and that our professor wants us to understand. It just sets a great tone. Regardless, it's a great relief to know that everyone here is on my team. I am really excited to go to bat for each and every one of them from now on.