This article is part of a larger project by The Michigan Daily News section’s Campus Life beat. Reporters spent time observing and interviewing students from various academic programs at the University of Michigan to share what their daily lives and academic experiences are like. Read the other stories here.
The Ross School of Business stands as a landmark on campus. The building itself, characterized by its glass exterior, red terra cotta and modern appeal, is one that campus visitors cannot miss. Within these walls, both undergraduate and graduate Business students can be found studying, socializing and attending professional events in every corner of the building. To encapsulate the average day of a Business student, The Michigan Daily interviewed three students: Business freshman Tiger Wu, Business sophomore Eva Kumer and Business junior Vivek Nukala.
Eva Kumer, Business sophomore
On Monday, March 25, Kumer started her day with a 10:00-11:30 a.m. FIN 300 exam on finance management. Following this, she participated in a coffee chat with a professional consulting group. Coffee chats, which are prevalent in the Business School, are informal conversations students share with potential employers to obtain more information on a company and position. According to Kumer, these chats are a great way to get your foot in the door of a company.
“Coffee chats are great opportunities for students to get to know potential employers when you are getting ready to apply to different jobs,” Kumer said.
Kumer’s coffee chat was a Zoom meeting with three members of the Boston Consulting group. Kumer said this meeting allowed her to better familiarize herself with the firm and what they do.
Then, after two hours of downtime, Kumer met with her student consulting club, MEG Consulting. In this organization, she is a project manager for a team of three data analysts. This meeting was a virtual call with their Grand Rapids-based client, Upcycle Bikes. During this call, Kumer and her team were able to present different business management systems to their client.
After the meeting, Kumer said she had another meeting for MEG Consulting with all of the other project managers to share what each team discussed in their individual meetups and update each manager on their teams’ statuses.
Vivek Nukala, Business junior
On Wednesday, March 27, Nukala began his day with his ECON 340: International Economics class from 10:00-11:30 a.m. followed directly by another class from 11:30-1:00 p.m., FIN 300: Financial Management. As someone nearing the end of his undergraduate career, Nukala told The Daily that his schedule is about half Business classes, and half non-Business classes.
With the exception of Monday and Wednesday, Nukala said his academic day ends by 1 p.m. and he is able to take some time for himself before his later commitments in the day, such as club meetings.
“I usually eat lunch with my friends or go home and cook something up for myself,” Nukala said.
Nukala is the president of MEG Consulting, where his job is to manage logistics and make sure everything is going smoothly within the group. He said he allocates around five-to-seven hours per week toward MEG Consulting. Additionally, Nukala is a peer coach for Business students where he helps his peers with interview preparation, cover letter, resume drafting and other professional development skills.
On “free Fridays,” as Nukala calls them, he does not have any classes, similar to many other Business students. He said many Business students build their schedules to not have any classes on Fridays so that they can engage in extracurriculars and focus on employment opportunities.
Nukala also highlighted the presence of coffee chatting and networking in the Business School. He said the process of networking and recruiting entails communicating with external firms and entities to get to know positions and companies better.
“Coffee chatting allows for mentorship and involves reaching out to people in companies that you want to work at,” Nukala said.
Tiger Wu, Business freshman
On Thursday, April 3, Wu attended his 10:30-12:00 p.m. EECS 203 class on discrete math, located on North Campus. As a Business freshman who intends to declare a second major in computer science, Wu’s week is made up of classes on both Central and North campuses, with few classes in the vicinity of the Business school. Following his EECS 203 class, Wu comes to Central Campus to attend his 1:00-2:30 p.m. FTVM 366 course on Western film, exploring his personal passion for media and film. He then attends his 2:30-4:00 p.m. EECS 183 Elementary Programming Concepts class on Central. This is then followed by ENGLISH 124: Writing & Literature, at 4:00-5:30 p.m. Earlier in the semester, Wu took a half-semester length BA 100 minicourse on business administration from 5:30-7:00 p.m.
Wu said that in his freshman year, he is focusing on taking prerequisites for the business and computer science majors, as well as exploring subjects he is interested in, such as film.
“I don’t spend too much time in Ross as a first year student, especially seeking a dual degree,” Wu said. “Next year will be more rigid with required classes and my junior and senior year is when I’ll focus most of my Business credits.”
To manage his time more effectively, Wu schedules many of his meetings and extracurriculars for his weekends. During this time, he focuses on independently coffee chatting and networking with upperclassmen and alumni.
“I would reach out to upperclassmen about the career path they have chosen, and also reach out to Michigan alumni currently in consulting or finance,” Wu said.
During the weekends, he also participates in his personal study group, which meets on a weekly basis to discuss and share resources on finance and business.
Wu was also on the marketing and public relations team for the Asia Business Conference, which was held March 15-16 and focused on discussing Asia’s diverse economic markets. He recalled spending a lot of time preparing for the event alongside his team.
“The Asia Business Conference is a pretty major event in Ross, where we gathered leaders across Asia to talk about the shift in trends across the Asian markets,” Wu said. “I was on the PR and marketing side, so I created content for the different social media platforms.”
Wu is also a new member of Cantor Coding and Trading, a student organization that works on projects focused on the intersection of business and coding. In this organization, they focus on developing coding and trading skills and techniques that are applicable to today’s market. Additionally, he was on the marketing team for TEDxUofM, which required him to meet weekly with other organizers and participate in video shoots and film work for the organization.
As a freshman, Wu said he was initially daunted by the environment of Ross, despite participating in business-related extracurriculars in high school.
“It can be disorienting to see massive networking events in Ross and competitive club recruitment cycles,” Wu said. “Walking in, you just feel the professional atmosphere. It’s intimidating at first, but you get used to it.”
Wu also discussed Business students’ experiences in the employment recruitment process, and said engaging with professionals can help broaden students’ ideas about potential career paths.
“It’s a lot of pressure stacked at first, and it’s common for Ross students to get into a tunnel vision on what path they want to take,” Wu said. “But after coffee chatting with professionals, you get more exposure to different paths and passions and become more open-minded. It’s helpful to get this network from Ross.”
Daily Staff Reporter Tenzin Menrinetsang can be reached at tenzinm@umich.edu.