The 586 new members of the Class of 2011 at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management reported for their first day of “boot camp” this past Monday, August 31st. Part of a long-standing tradition at Kellogg, first-year students take part in an orientation called Complete Immersion in Management (CIM) Week before classes get underway for the semester.
CIM Week is designed to help introduce students to Kellogg’s culture and community, giving them a chance to socialize and bond before diving into the curriculum. Events each year include a section cheering contest, a welcome barbeque with the deans, a Community Impact Day, the CIM Olympics and more.
Beyond the fun and games of CIM Week, incoming students also enroll in two required courses, which they will complete before classes officially begin on September 21st. Ther first, “Leadership in Organizations,” takes place from September 3rd through 18th and is run through the Management and Organizations Department. The second, “Values and Crisis in Decision Making,” takes place from September 14th through 18th as part of the Social Enterprises at Kellogg (SEEK) program.
Kellogg interim dean Sunil Chopra welcomed the incoming class at the start of CIM Week, encouraging them to make the most of their time at Kellogg by taking advantage of and contributing to the school’s collaborative culture. “Culture is like a garden,” Chopra said. “You have to work very hard to create it, but if you don’t maintain it, it withers. You have to work to maintain it.”
Kellogg Director of Admissions Beth Flye also welcomed the incoming students, sharing some demographic information about Kellogg’s newest class. According to Flye, the students of the Class of 2011 boast an average GMAT score of 707 and represent more than 35 different countries and 240 different colleges and universities. Among this year’s new students are one who entered college at age 11, another who worked on the sub-prime lending investigation, another who has skydived 700 times, another who is a certified hypnotist, and another comes from an Italian family of winemakers.
“We are not a cookie-cutter environment,” Flye said, addressing the crowd. “We like different types of people so you can learn all different types of things.”
