Six months into the Master of Management Studies (MMS) program, I can assure you of one thing. There is no typical day at Fuqua if you take full advantage of the plethora of resources that Duke and our business school provide you.

That being said, let me tell you how my days have generally looked at Fuqua:

Mornings

Being in the afternoon class section gives me the pleasure of waking up an hour or two later than my morning section classmates. But then the journey begins. I spend my mornings either speaking with people at companies I want to learn more about, or attending a seminar or workshop organized by the Career Management Center or the program staff.

Noon & Afternoon

Classes are 2 hours and 15 minutes, and we have either 1 or 2 of them, depending on the schedule. My classes are often followed by either an MMS Student Association or Technology Advisory Council cabinet meeting where we discuss initiatives to enhance the MMS program experience. Or I might attend a marketing, consulting, or finance club event where valuable technical and career discussions related to the specific industry take place. The meetings are followed by either networking or company information sessions.

Evenings & Nights

A major part of the MMS program is the regular team-based business cases that are a part of all courses. We meet with our teams generally in the dedicated MMS team rooms (basically a small conference room), discussing and producing effective solutions for the real-life business cases. This takes a good part of our time.

Duke MMS Basketball Campout - Day in the Life of a Master of Management Studies Student
Graduate student campout for Duke Basketball tickets

 

This is a ‘typical’ day. But all work and no play doesn’t work out well. MMS students find time to play sports, party on nights when there’s no class the next day (‘Top of the Hill’ nearby Chapel Hill is one of my favorites), go out for dinners downtown, or spend the entire weekend camping out as you see in the photo above!

Well, that’s what a day at Fuqua looks like for me now, and I am sure it will change as the course progresses. I will keep updating my MMS journey and would be glad to share any experience or answer any questions that you have.