You are seriously lucky to be reading this. No, not because my prose has been likened to Oscar Wilde in his prime. MBAs may be an arrogant crowd, but I’m English, so I’ve just about maintained a modicum of modesty. You’re lucky because I was very late filing my copy for this article and it nearly wasn’t printed. Why was I so late? I hear you ask. I was late because I have just got back from one of the most fun-filled weekends of my life – SKIESE – and my brain and body have pretty much been reduced to mush.
Apart from the slightly questionable name (SKIESE sounds more like a disease than a holiday), I would almost go as far as to say that it is one of the best things ever invented. Two hundred and fifty IESE business school students take over an hotel in a ski resort in Andorra and push themselves to the limit, with 48 hours of skiing, joking, drinking and eating assorted mountain foodstuffs. All this and only a few hours’ drive from Barcelona.
I know it may sound dreadful to the majority of you who think they left this kind of group holiday behind them when they finished their undergraduate studies and stopped going on Club 18-30 holidays, but please believe me when I say that this is a completely different ball game.
First and foremost the enjoyment comes from the incredible esprit de corps that courses through the student body at IESE. I don’t know what it’s like at other European business schools, but a few exchange students from US business schools came on the trip and they were blown away.
Because there are only 200-odd students in a year at IESE – compared with 900-odd at the top US schools – everyone knows absolutely everyone and we all have a blast together. I went to a few parties with friends from US business schools in San Francisco over the summer and most people from the same school there don’t even know each other.
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This isn’t just the case at SKIESE, either: while most schools send about 50 representatives to the MBA sports tournament in Paris every year, IESE always sends 200; last year 50 of us went to Morocco together for Easter; every student-organised event in Barcelona is packed; the list goes on and on. We just love to party together.
If you are in the process of considering a few schools that you think you’d like to attend, then please follow my advice and pay particular attention to the number of students in each intake. I am fully aware that every person has different needs, but for me 200 people is perfect. Darn – I said I was going to be modest.
Next week: Tim Ensor, who is studying at Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge.