Survey of the Social Networks at Wharton West

By popular demand from those who voted on my blog poll, this post is my take on the various social groups at Wharton. We now have only four more class days and two more weekends to go. Plus a "Prom" in between. We're long past the early days of our cohort, which felt like starting college or high school all over again from a social networking perspective. But I write about the groups that have been formed since the early days of WEMBA.

I'd characterize myself as one of those people that is able to relate to a lot of different groups, perhaps because of my fourth generation Korean-American background. (And no, Loren, I am not a twinkie.) Or my interest in poker. Or red wine. Or perhaps getting the distinction as the guy who most often got the mean on the exams. :) Anyhow, please take these characterizations lightly, and if you are offended by stereotypes then don't read on....

Some of the main social groups at WEMBA can be characterized as follows:

The Smokers. These are the hard core, I smoke a pack a day types that stand outside on the balcony or by the front entrance to the building. I didn't manage to make it into this group, except for a brief stint while in Argentina when I had access to some Cubano stogies. After Wharton started, they smoked two packs a day (consumption increase!) and made RJR Nabisco very happy. You can tell them by the smokey smell.

Your First Year Study Group. The first year study group experience at B-School is like no other group experience; it's what happens when 5-6 Type As get into the room at the same time. One of days these someone should do a reality show on B-School study groups...now that would be interesting! There are various characters such as the Slacker, the "Total" Leader, the Socialite, the Genius, the Silent One, the Never Calls In Guy, the Traveller, the Millionaire, the Know It All, and the Procrastinator. Not all of these are mutually exclusive either. You'll find out.

The Drinkers. Party party party! These are the hard core alcoholic enhanced types that hang out at the Old Ship bar late at night. To be a card carrying member, you must do one of the following: know the bartender by first name, regularly skip Sat class to get a burger and beer in the morning, break a table while drunk, and/or drink the incredibly expensive Zain's Liquor fifths with a Red Bull in the back of class at the end of a Fri/Sat. These guys and gals have livers of stone.

The Various Racial and Religious Herds. I guess I can say this since I'm in the Asians group, but we do seem to have some groups that aggregate by race at Wharton from time to time. It's not too bad most of the time, except when there's too much yammering in some foreign language. There's the Asian-Americans (from the Orient) as well as the Indian Asians, the Latins, the Europeans, the WASPs, and the Jews. Oh yeah, and there's the Ebonics Society, founded by Clifton A. The Mormons are in there as well; I think we have four of them. There's SIX (correction from the original post; it was FIVE before) Koreans in our class, which I'm sure is some sort of record. One funny story that Nicole told me was that her friends that met some of us in Brazil were wondering why everyone at Wharton was Asian. I'm sure I'm forgetting some more groups here but I better stop before the slippery slope gets steeper!

The I Hardly Show Up Team. There's a couple of guys and gals that rarely show up for class. It never fails to amaze me that they managed to get through the program, but a few have proved that it is possible to miss lots of school and still graduate. This is NOT recommended for the average person, however. I think I made it to 50% of my undergrad classes but that didn't work for me at WEMBA. This team is either made of geniuses or huge donors to the school.

The Sports Fans. I'm a proud member of this one, having commished the Whartun32 Fantasy Football League the past two years. I also teach Golf 720. Azar has also run the NCAA Men's Basketball Pool the past two years as well. You will know if you are in this group if you are caught lobbying for Sports Management elective in Term 3. We weren't successful in getting it, thankfully, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

The Runners. There's a group of morning runners that get up early almost every Sat to go for a run before class. Charles, dude, thanks but no thanks, I'll see you in class. This one was not for me. It was a popular group though, and if I had done it I would have reduced the weight gain portion of the Costs of Academic Distress. Doh!

The Scholars. There's a small group of competitive students that I assume are vying for the Palmer Scholar award. First term pretty much took care of me so I can't tell you from personal experience. You know you are member if you finish your assignments before the term even starts. 100% attendance at all the TA and office hour sessions are part of it as well, but if you qualify for that and get good grades then you might be something that starts with a B and ends with an R.

The Team. There are a number of Intel, Oracle, Cisco, and HP students in every class. Ours seems to have a high percentage of Intel and Oracle folks. Or at least when we started Wharton....hehehe :) Change that to "seemed", past tense.

The Nerds. We're at Wharton, so I think almost everyone qualifies for this in some way. But there are some extremely nerdy folks at Wharton, and these types seem to attract each other for Dungeons and Dragons night. We are talking outliers here. And if you know what one is before Stats class, then you might be one.

The Impressives. There are a few select people in our class that I admire quite a bit for their achievements, be it in business, as an entrepreneur, or in their personal lives. It really is great to get to know some of these really impressive people on a very personal basis. That's one of the truly great things about the program.

The Family Guys/Gals. These types don't socialize that much, usually bring their families to school, and are good old fashioned family types. There are lots of these in our class. Frank and Adam qualified after having twins in Term 3 or so. Twins are not recommended, but it can be done.

The Socialite-Gossipers. These types compare what everyone is wearing, who's hot and who's not, know the latest dirt, and are pretty well connected to what's happening after class. Usually single, although occasionally married, they are always ready for some sort of social event. These types have IM always running, are always getting text messages, and just are in the know. There is a fine line between being a socialite and being that guy/gal who shows up to all social events whether you are invited or not.

The Commuter Groups. This one is usually by geographic location. I'm in one of the carpools from the Penninsula area, and I meet up with 4-5 classmates to carpool to school. Saves gas, saves parking at the hotel, and the best part is the conversation on the way there and back. There are other groups: the SoCal airplane team, the South Bay carpool, and the Sacramento commute triad. Nikul just told me that the Sacramento guys only just figured out in Term 6 the optimal way to commute from Sacto after taking BART for 1.5 years.

The Poker Players. Texas Hold Em is the game of choice in our class. I'm a card carrying member, at least before I changed jobs. (For the story of how much changing jobs affects your time to play poker, I'll have to write another blog post.) You'll know the really hard core poker types because you will get email when they play on Facebook, particularly in class. My recommendation for WEMBA is to get a privacy screen on your laptop; thanks goes out to Kip who showed me how useful it was way back in Term 1. BTW, Gagan and Kevin seem to be the top Facebook poker players in our class based on the notifications. On a somewhat related note, I recently only just cashed in my PartyPoker.com chips and got a real check, believe it or not. I think I floated those guys about $500 for two years, which was an interest free loan. Just totally forgot about it while at WEMBA.

One last thing: Gagan and I both keep our chip sets at the Le Meridian in permanent storage, so you Class 33 and Class 34's are welcome to use them. We've both decided that part of our class gift is to permanently leave our poker sets at the Le Meridian for all time. The chips with the metallic centers are from me, Chairman P. The other ones are from Gagan. Just ask for the poker set at the concierge desk. Enjoy!

I'm quite sure I missed some more groups. Maybe I'll have Gagan create a social groups app online so that people can do it on the web....