Hella

One of the things I hate most about starting the semester is making the trip to the bookstore. Mind you, I like to see what texts I’m going to be using for the next few months. It is more the total at checkout that bothers me. Of course, part of the student budget is set aside for textbooks and course packs, but it always seems like things are really expensive. Not to mention that the Penn Bookstore almost *never* has used books to choose from. This is in sharp contract to what UT’s Co-op used to offer. Back in those days, I always felt like I was getting a reasonable price for the books I was buying; here in Philadelphia, not so much. So my tally today was $419, but I haven’t yet purchased course packs. I know I’ll have at least a couple to get because two of my six courses didn’t have a text listed and it is very rare for there to be absolutely no material at all required for a course.

This semester I’ll be taking six courses the first quarter and five the next. It will be another tough semester since I have two accounting and two finance courses in the mix. I found out last semester that taking finance electives without a finance background isn’t always so lovely when it comes to grade time. But I fared better than I had expected so I guess I shouldn’t complain. You know, this is one thing that people often wonder about: isn’t it super competitive in classes like Investment Management or Financial Derivatives with all the finance types that come to Wharton? I think competitive is the wrong word. I think it’s more a matter of just having talented and smart people to begin with who are personally and professionally interested in the subject matter.

Filed under: B-School