- Yes. I lived on SkyScanner to purchase flights for different trips (90 days before hand to get the cheapest rates). It is also a good sight to look at if you find out that'll you have a random weekend holiday b/c you can type in your city of departure and destination as "anywhere" to find the cheapest get a list of countries you can fly into in price order from lowest to highest.
Read all of the cases?
- Technically yes. The best way I've seen it done is when two people pair up. One fully analyzes the exhibits, one fully reads the text of the case then the two meet and brief each other on what they have learned. You don't need to memorize every number and statistic but you will reference these as supporting evidence for your logic when discussing various things in your job interviews. (The people who told me not to "waste time" reading a case, were always the ones who had read the entire case, read all supplemental text available via google and had analyzed the financials in depth, welcome to the Hunger Games MBA edition.)
- Cling to the technical notes with your life if the topic is new to you.
Run for a leadership position within a club?
- if you have 30 minutes per day (a few hours per day when events are coming up) to put towards admin work, answering emails and making calls, go for it. If not, you're not going to get the networking benefits out of it, when you put it on your CV and are asked about what you did, you're going to look like an ass for taking up a seat on the board but not doing anything, and people are just not going to respect you as a leader.
- if you have a great idea for how to take the club to the next level, great! But you'll need a solid team with you because there will be a lot of resistance from people who do not want to do anything to earn membership to this club as a bullet point on their CV.
Build Power Points from scratch?
- no. That's not what you're paying to learn how to do. Go here & download a few templates (use code trynew for 30% off). Don't be cheap, this will save you hours and the profs DO care about what the presentation looks like. They say they don't, but that's a lie.
Take a company to Venture Lab?
- If you want to try out the entrepreneurship world in safe environment, yes. If you are expecting to be a millionaire by graduation, no.
Take the VC & PE Club's Wall Street Prep Course?
- Absolutely. If they offer it before the start of your MBA, do it then. The Passport that you will get access to after the completion of this course is worth its weight in gold and holds a lot of weight with future employers.
Try to switch industries and locations?
- If you are going to take up this challenge forget about a social life. Day 1 of the MBA you need to find alumni in your target region, working in your target industry. You don't have time for friends for the sake of friends, you need to become best friends with people who will get your CV on the CEO's desk six months before you graduate.
Contact the professors frequently?
- Yes. You are paying them to mentor you, their CVs are intimidating and border line scary sometimes, but they're here to mentor the next generation of leaders. They are your best resource and pass your CV along with a higher employment rate to more prestigious companies than the CMC.
Ask professors to meet outside of the classroom for coffee / lunch / etc.?
- Yes. The best piece of advice I received from Dr. Jeff Hager when shadowing doctors in my undergrad years "Ask anyone and everyone if you can shadow them. If they say no, they did you a favor. You don't want to shadow those who do not want to mentor the next generation."
- If the professor is of the opposite gender you may need to take an extra step to clarify what specifically you would like to discuss before they agree to meet. This being said, I have yet to regret meeting one of the talented and brilliant profs from this school outside of the building. The program pulls inside some of the most brilliant talent from around the world (part of the reason they have such a high rank), anytime you can get with one of these brilliant minds it is worth its weight in gold.
Contact leadership about things you believe should be optimized / changed at the school?
- Yes. The value of your degree doesn't lie in the school's rank just for the year during which you graduated. Your ability to say you came from a top 15 school will stay with you so long as the school stays in the top ranks. This means that sources causing students to dislike the school should be addressed, regardless of when it will be changed, the fact that it may be changed for the future generation is what you should focus on.