Honors I-Core
October 28th, 2009This semester I have been taking a group of classes that you hear about as soon as you enter the business school–I-Core. Your first few weeks of school you hear stories and myths about this crazy semester that occurs during your junior year. I am currently taking I-Core and I can finally relate to all the stories.
Basically, I-Core is a semester during with you take four “core” business classes: Finance, Operations, Marketing, and Strategic Management. You have two classes each day, and unlike previous semesters you have the same classes with the same group of students every day. The courses are taught at a more accelerated rate, and the semester leads up to one significant event–the team case at the end of the semester.
The Classroom
Above is a picture of the classroom where I spend a lot of my time this semester (just over 10 hours per week). Since I am in Honors I-Core, my class size is smaller with about 50 people in my section, which makes it easier to know everyone in your class and also your professors. I sit right beside my team every week, and we have several team projects that have been assigned over the course of the semester.
The hallmark of I-Core, like I mentioned before, is the team case. In my class, we actually spend the whole semester on this case, and each team creates a new business idea, product, or service from the ground up. I will keep you updated with our project when the time gets closer. At the end, we present our business and also write a long report about our findings. Of course, we incorporate the “core” of what we learned in all of our classes. The case is extremely important because it makes up 15% of your grade in every class.
This semester has been more team-oriented than any of my other semesters, but it has also been very rewarding. I feel like I have learned so much in such a short period of time. Also, I have been able to get to know and develop closer relationships with many people in the business school.
So when you come to school here and hear about “I-Core”, don’t be frightened at all. Okay…maybe it is alright to be a little scared.
Thanks for reading!
