Now, with less than three weeks till the end of the semester and two more after that until the wedding, I am afraid that I must already admit that this semester has been a bit of a personal failure. It has not been a total failure, for I would not be writing about it had it been and would actually be currently seeking the assistance of academic advisors, but instead, I fear that I might actually just produce a very mediocre semester and the failure will simply be that I did not achieve the goals I had set for myself this semester and for my time at Penn.

The semester started well enough and I was fooled into thinking that the workload would actually be manageable. Somehow after the drop deadline passed, my coursework seemed to only grow exponential and any attempt to keep up with all the classes became futile. As one deadline for a course approached, I fell behind in all other courses and each passing day became a snowball effect of how much I could fall further behind. As I constantly played catch-up in my classes, I found it difficult to accept that I must choose what grades and coursework to sacrifice in order to actually succeed in other places. I had always succeeded by dedicating intense efforts to the tasks at hand and I could not easily surrender to the thought of actively yielding to not putting forward my best. Instead, I tried to get everything done by sacrificing sleep, personal time and perhaps even health yet I still find that all my results this semester might just fall in the average range of the curve.

As with everything in life, there is always a lesson to be learned somewhere buried deep within the disappointment. Clearly, I know that I must not give up, even if it seems that this semester is destined for mediocrity. More importantly, I think I need to take this as an example of my limitations and my constraints. After a string of successes, it is easy to forget about past failures and fail prey to the bias of overconfidence. I know I certainly believed I could do no wrong at Penn and now, I am to suffer the consequence. In this isolated environment, the only negative consequence of this decision will be evident in my grade point average, but hopefully, the lesson stays with me when the stakes become much higher.

So, less than three more weeks of classes awaits and a final round of papers, projects and exams is all I have left to salvage this semester. After that, a wedding coupled with much needed rest and relaxation before a summer internship. May the maturation continue with much more success.

When the book calls itself, “the complete law school survival guide”, it is setting for itself a rather high bar from the get-go. Still, Law School Confidential easily surpasses this self-imposed hurdle. This is by far the most comprehensive book I have read to date on the law school application process, the law school experience, and the law school recruiting process including tidbits on how to survive those three years and how to decide which law job is perhaps right for you. The premise of the book is simple enough; it would serve as a guide for students at any stage on the law school path and offer concrete advice that has been refined from the unadulterated experience of former law school students. Through their experiences, the book hopes to shed some light on how to best navigate through the law school trail.

Upon first picking up the book, I had my doubts. Here was a book that attempts to engross the reader by promising an elucidation of a complex process in a short 343 pages. The book spends the first five pages giving reasons why just picking up the book and flipping through it would be a worthwhile experience, no matter where the reader found himself/herself in the law school process, even if the reader was just a spouse of a potential student. The book falls short here in that it could have done a better job in capturing the attention of the reader and previewing the depth of knowledge contained therein, but those who actually dared to continue on would find immense and unsurpassed insights within those book pages.

After the first few chapters, the books sets into its goal and accomplishes it quite well. The aim of the book is rather lofty, “to demystify the life-altering thrill ride that defines an American legal education by providing a comprehensive, blow-by-blow, chronological account of what to expect” and so it sets out practical advice throughout every stage of the law school process that should at least complement (if not supplement) any readers’ best laid out plan of how to survive the jungle that is law school. Law school, after all, is a new and difficult experience for all students and many believe, rather naïvely, that they are afforded time during their law school years to figure out this intricate dynamic. At the end of the experience, the person that emerges usually is a misanthropic shell of the idealized student that first entered law school. What the book offers to its readers are the tools to survive the process and hopefully emerge after three years of law school knowing they were prepared for the challenges they faced. I applaud the author for this attempt and I know that this is a book that I will keep in my arsenal when I do apply (and hopefully attend) law school. This book definitely falls in my purchase and re-read category.

Final recommendation: Read for yourself. The book is insightful to benefit any reader. You definitely don’t want to attend law school without at least thumbing through the pages of this book.

Instead, it seems that I’m not as lucky as I presupposed. Rather than Investment Banking, I have been slotted to join the Fixed Income Division this summer. The Fixed Income Division is great, but I feel wholly unprepared for it. I have planned hitherto on how I could be a good banking analyst and never gave thought to a sale/trading résumé. It seems my path to Investment Banking (if I am ever to reach there now) must first go through Fixed Income.

Last year, I added a paltry eleven (11) new posts to this blog. This year, I think that I could do a bit better. I am going to attempt at least twenty-four (24) posts, a little more than double last year’s rate. I think an average of two posts per month is manageable even with my busy schedule this semester.

By busy, I refer to the six courses that I am currently registered for and my role as teaching assistant in another class this semester. Coupled with my job as a tutor and my extracurricular activities at the University Honor Council, I should be occupied this semester, but hopefully, with a little time management, I can complete the semester relatively unscathed.

In this sixth semester though, I do plan to start the preparation for my junior year summer internship. With preparation in mind, I registered for Corporate Valuation through the undergraduate school at Wharton. I chose to take this class because I have only heard positive reviews from the people who have previously taken the class concerning how its content has benefitted them in their summer internships and full time careers in banking. Sure enough, the course will be difficult, but I think I can keep up with the material and be counted among the numerous alumni who cannot stop singing the praises of the class. If anything, at least I will be better able to absorb the details of investment banking modeling before I start my internship.

Returning back to the topic of increasing the posts on this blog, I would like to introduce some theme writing into the blog. This will encourage more content since the themes would guide the direction of new posts and I would not always have to forage for new and exciting content. The first theme I would like to introduce is a little segment I would like to call – Reading it so, well, you don’t have to (RISWYDHT – name is still in progress). With this theme, I would read books on topics of interest and then provide commentary on the book. These commentaries will not be detailed synopsis or cliff notes of the book, but would rather be my overall impression and analysis of the reading. It would be similar to this earlier post, but with a bit more substantial commentary. All the thanks go to reader Victor252 for suggesting this earlier.

Readers are welcome to suggest books that I can add to the list. Please note that the topic has to at least be one that I can digest and is applicable to one of my diverse interests so that I can actually provide reasonable comment. With that said, please, no books on Russian Literature or the likes, but you are free to suggest books on Finance, Economics, Business, Law and other related fields into the mix. The first book in the commentary will be Law School Confidential by Robert H. Miller. I will create a new page for this theme so readers can be kept abreast of the latest list and any subsequent additions.

Until then…

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Fresher than ever.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 9,000 times in 2010. That’s about 22 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 11 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 66 posts.

The busiest day of the year was October 11th with 120 views. The most popular post that day was Do Not Become A Paralegal.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were mergersandinquisitions.com, managementconsulted.com, wallstreetoasis.com, facebook.com, and forums.studentdoctor.net.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for plead the fifth, i plead the fifth, 5th amendment, plead the 5th, and can a paralegal become a lawyer.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

Do Not Become A Paralegal June 2008
20 comments

About Me/About This Blog August 2007
15 comments

The Rise and Fall of Oil Prices: OPEC’s practical example of Game Theory January 2009
5 comments

Bonuses: Another reason why I support a reformation of the US Tax Code March 2008
6 comments

The Day I Stopped By The Emergency Room October 2007
15 comments

The Christmas holiday can only mean one thing: the school semester is over. I have survived five semesters at the University of Pennsylvania and there’s only three more semesters. My wonderful little experiment is soon coming to an end and from the looks of it, this might end up a successful venture. Well, it is time to take a little break from the worries and stress of planning a future profession.

In the meanwhile, it’s wedding planning time. With the wedding coming up in five months, my fiancée and I are meeting vendors and picking out the details for the wedding. We have to make use of all the time that we have here in California so it will be dashing from one location to another during this holiday break. Hopefully at the end of it, we can rest assured in the knowledge that we have set the groundwork for just the sort of wedding we want.

With that said, celebrate the holiday in any manner that you see fit. Merry Christmas.

Since I’m talking about Get-Out-The-Vote campaign, a question popped back in my head. Should Americans be required to vote or even pressured to vote? I say no, because I have this pollyannaish view that democracy is about the intrinsic motivation to desire and push for changes through political actions. Using any form of extrinsic motivation would just be a bastardization of that view of democracy. Still, I would welcome a compelling push that increases voter turnout as long as it also stresses to those voters the importance of their civic duty.

Lastly, midterm elections are upon us. Whether one decides to vote or to not vote, there is still some interesting story in this midterm election to whet the appetite. Whether it is the rise of the Tea Party, the splintering of the Republican Party, the dwindling power of the Democratic Party, or whether you are just interested in watching a revival of the old Federalist v. Anti-Federalist battles (in Prop 19), there is something to enjoy in these midterm elections.

Personally, I am interested in the following races/ballot,

1. California Governor race – Meg Whitman(R) v. Jerry Brown (D)
   1. I really just want to see if money can still buy enough votes to win a governor race.
2. California Prop 19 – California v. The United States Of America
   1. Will the federal government come in and rain on California’s parade even if this passes. Also, is this what the Taiwanese think of America?
3. New York Governor race – Andrew Cuomo (D) v. Carl Paladino (R) v. All those other people
   1. Cuomo is less like his father and more like Eliot. Hopefully, that similarity stops with political ambition.
4. Delaware House – Christine O’ Donnell (R) v. Chris Coons (D)
   1. Can a Tea Party faction actually win an election in a small state like Delaware?
5. Pennsylvania Senate – Joe Sestak (D) v. Pat Toomey (R)
   1. The dethroner of Arlen Specter – need I say more? Plus, this election is salient all over Philadelphia so I might as well take some interest.

Even in these uncertain times, one thing is certain. No matter what happens, not much is going to change in Washington. Happy Election Day tomorrow.

Thank you Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group