ONE-YEAR AT GOIZUETA: PRATEEK GOEL – FEELS LIKE A YEAR ALREADY
What happens when 57 working professionals from all over the world come together to finish a two year MBA in a single year? All hell breaks loose! – Each day feels like eternity. Precisely, it has just been three weeks since classes started and it is illusory that in such a short time we have learnt so much, developed such strong bonds and most importantly I feel like I am a part of a big and loving family – the GBS community. When I first started class, I believed it will take the entire summer to know each one of them, but ….… two weeks were enough! 
Let me introduce myself, Prateek Goel, 25 years, 4 years of entrepreneurial and consultancy experience in India. As expected, it all changed. I went from an earning consultant to a paying student and the transition was much smoother than I could have imagined. This is nothing like undergrad. This is more practical and real life focused. Goizueta stresses on two things, experiential learning and team activities. Most of the assignments we perform are in a team. This gives us the perfect exposure of what it is like to work in a team with a diverse background, different ideologies and an extremely varied approach to work. Being an international, I was extremely apprehensive of how I will adjust in a team. Luckily, I have got the most amazing team and the team dynamics are working out exceptionally fine. I would rather say that I have learnt more from my team that I have from the classes!
Before we started class, we had a two day camping + leadership trip primarily focused on bonding. Moreover, social events are a part of the daily routine; we have weekly KEGS (Keeping Everyone at Goizueta Social) that have actual KEGS. YES! The school provides beer and wine every week. What else could we ask for, right? We are lucky to have a class where – as our social chair defines – everyone is fun loving and good at heart. We DO NOT have a “that guy” in our class!
MBA is all about having fun and learning from every small thing. You cannot get enough in an MBA if you don’t learn from others, meet new people, join clubs, attend social events, play sports and participate in endless activities (It all happens at GBS). Even though the summer schedule is quite hectic i.e. we study for 14 -16 hours a day throughout the week, but we manage to do all of the above and keep our eyes open to party throughout Friday and Saturday. Phew, coffee and alcohol will just become a part of life – if it wasn’t already.
All in all, I am so happy I selected Goizueta among the three universities I had to choose from. I look forward to what the rest of the summer, the fall and spring entails, including but not limited to lots of challenging activities, new people, new faculty and obviously endless knowledge.