Fisher College of Business – The Happiest Place on Earth
That is, unless you have a class at 8:30 AM. But somehow my early morning tax class is also my favorite class in my schedule.
I have to say that life as a MAcc graduate student at Fisher is just on a whole other level compared to life as an undergraduate. It starts with orientation – three days of getting to know the people you’re spending the next three quarters with. My classmates are the most educated, interesting and diverse group that I’ve met at Fisher. Orientation provided the perfect environment for getting to know as many students as I could. In undergrad I might not have taken advantage of such an opportunity - I’m glad I didn’t make that mistake this time. We have a group with very diverse backgrounds, from other states or countries and with different academic and professional experiences. As a graduate, I feel really prepared and even psyched to become accounting masters with the people I’ve gotten to know over the first three days of the program.
It’s a different vibe from undergrad, sharing the same courses with the same tight-knit group. Someone I have in one class can always provide input on what happened in another. There are always MAcc students doing something together outside of classes as well, whether it’s going out for hamburger specials or attending a recruiting event. I’ve become especially close with the students who took the Pre-MAcc program with me – three weeks of eight-hour class days will do that. We made it through a crash course on more accounting rules than you can shake a ledger at and now I’m guaranteed a close friend in any one of my accounting classes. In undergrad, my closest friends were in my dorm. In graduate school, my closest friends are my classmates, and it makes school work and projects a lot more entertaining and insightful. You get closer to your classmates when you work and play together.
My mother told me undergrad would be the best years of my life. She was right. Towards graduation, she told me grad school would be the best year(s) of my life. I think she might be right about that one, too. While I’m just barely into classes and the recruiting cycle, I’m confident this year at Fisher will be the richest and most entertaining year of my education, and it’s all because of the people – both students and faculty. I hadn’t planned on becoming a master of accounting, but right now I’m very glad I did.