This one may be long :) Its been 3 weeks at Gainesville now and they have been great!
I acclimatised a little to Gainesville in the initial week, completing my university formalities, exploring the campus and using the public bus system. I also played a lot of basketball at the univerisity's humongous
SouthWest Recreation Center, 0.7 miles away from where i stay. UF is one of America's top sports schools, having won the NCAA (american) football championship last year.
It is also rated as one of the top party schools in country in unofficial guides. Sport and partying kinda go hand in hand here, with tailgates aplenty during the fall football season. Have to see that. Coming back to the facilities, the SW center is enormous as so many students train here. They have close to 8 indoor bb courts, 2 outdoor ones, 4 soccer (ahem) grounds, 6 beach volleyball courts, 6 large squash courts, a large cardio room and a 14000 sq foot gym. These guys obviously love their sports as this is but one of the three huge complexes at the university devoted entirely to sports.
UF is big on probably every statistic. A 2000 acre campus, 900+ buildings, more than 150 departments and close to 60,000 students are just a few of them. 3 weeks into the program, I have thus far seen a huge hospital, an equally large cancer research institute, fine arts schools, music building, plenty of science labs, engineering buildings and sports medicine insitutes. There
is more for me to see yet.
However, you would probably never notice the size of the campus because of the greenery here
. I could swear that i had landed in Bangalore (the part near the ashram), with palm trees and lush
green trees when i got here the first time. And the weather is Indian too - which is great.
Our business school, comprising 5 buildings nicely dots the UF map. Thats where i was headed
on the 27th morning for my orientation. The student ser vices team had done an awesome job in sending us the entire prientation manuals and notices 2 months earlier. I later learnt that 25 of us shall graduate as MBAs next year. The average age of the program is 29 and the average number of years of experience around 6.
We are 4 international students - one apiece from China, Korea, Nigeria and Namaste. Plenty of US defence forces people. 6 women out of 25. The presenters on day 1 introduced us to some of the history and people at UF MBA. It was a great start and the whole setting was very friendly yet dignified. On day 2, we travelled to Lake Wauberg, a lake run by UF staff and we played plenty of team games combining joint problem solving and physical exersise. Kinda like a crystal maze. After lunch, we tried the ropes challenge, where we belayed and rope climbed a 50 foot+ tall structure - similar to the stuff we
see in military traning. Day 3 through Day 5 was a combination of further introductions, the student body presentations, leadership building courses, career planning and stuff. The meals on all the days were consistently yummy. We also had a mixer at the Swamp, the popular pub near
UF, and a bowling night out on Friday.
The academics started yesterday, and we have a packed semester here. Most of my calendar through May and June is already marked with tons of appointments. The faculty have commendable credentials and emphasize plenty on real world application of the concepts. They
are also very planned and prepared, and we have already been handed all the presentations and preparation materials we may require through the term. Seems like our small cohort is headd for an active, but fun summer ahead.
