1) Average: I MISS being a curve breaker! Thanks to the rest of my brilliant class, this feat has been rendered almost impossible. Go MPA 2011. Thanks to you, my self esteem (which was doing pretty well when I first got here) needs some TLC.
2) Databases: Tax research databases….please STOP logging out on me. I hate it when you do that every 10 minutes I am idle. I am reading you–how is that idle?? Do you mean idle in a physical sense??!
3) Parking: I have a conspiracy theory when it comes to you. Why else would it take longer when I am running late?
4) Escalator Maintenence: This one is tricky. Should I be grateful about the exercise you force me into, or just hate your guts? Either way, I have decided this: If I don’t end up liking my career in tax as much as I had hoped, I am providing a competitive bid for a McCombs escalator maintainence gig. What? I believe in a plan B, people!
5) Tuiton: Yeah, I know. Tuition is just part of the package.
I have to say, I am loving the beautiful weather nowadays. Austin takes on a different life during the spring – the foliage turns unbelievable green, and the gorgeous weather makes hanging out at a lake the most languid experience, ever. Yesterday, my husband and I decided to try canoeing – which is just $10 dollars for an hour at Lady Bird Lake. So we went with our one year old son, donned lifejackets and got into the canoe. Considering that we hadn’t done anything adventurous since our son was born, we were pretty excited. But our son made it clear he was not. So we gave up 10 minutes into it, and went home, feeling pretty lame.
Today was a completely different experience. We thought we would go to Zilker Park, to enjoy Barton Springs. The temperature was 90 degrees, and the water was beautiful, not to mention cheap, at $3 per adult. And our son loved it! He was splashing around in the water, and laughing at all the dogs. It was so much fun!
Speaking of dogs, Austin is super dog friendly–much more any other place, as far as I know. So much so that my son’s second word learned was “Bow-Wow”! You see proud owners taking their dogs for walks all the time.
Another fun thing we do is go on the Barton Creek Greenbelt Trail. It is good exercise, and you can jump into water bodies bodies found along the way. The landscape is untouched, except for the trail, so you get to experience nature as well. Really great for mountain biking enthusiasts, too.
Gosh, I just realized I have four more months in Austin. I am really going to miss the restaurants, terrain and lakes :(.
One thing I am not going to miss is the bats….because bats just freak me out, and Austin has a significant bat population. I don’t mean you would run into them every day or anything….far from it. Continue reading Spring in Austin→
In case you were wondering about planning aspects of your schedule while you are pursuing the MPA, I thought I would give you some input, based on my experience.
First, when in doubt, talk to your academic advisor. Even though they are super busy, they are very competent, and always make it a point to try and reply to questions, understand your situation and work with you. You can e-mail them, meet with them during their walk-in hours or just schedule an appointment at the front desk of the MPA office. Everyone in the office is great about helping students .
Just don’t do what I did–which was wait ’til the last minute, and then send a million questions over e-mail to my advisor on a Monday morning. But thank goodness for Keri Ledezma, my academic advisor. Continue reading Schedule, Schedule!→
I wanted to talk about a particularly interesting class I am taking this semester, taught by Dr. Stuart Singer, called “Tax Planning for Business Entities,” for three reasons:
First, it is unlike any class I have ever taken before because the professor is funny, but the context discussed couldn’t be more serious.
Second, it makes you appreciate the crazy things that professionals have to think about when they undertake any restructuring deals (mergers, acquisitions, etc., etc.).
Third, the class doesn’t have any exams, and you’d think that’s nice, but I’m here to tell you… it’s not. It doesn’t really make a difference in graduate school, everyone. Exam or no exam, classes at this level are super challenging and you have to read a lot if you want to understand concepts talked about in class.
Speaking of concepts, you will get a healthy dose of them in this class, for sure. Taken from Dr. Singer’s syllabus: You can expect to learn topics ranging from “running the tax end of a deal,” to “determining whether it should be taxable or not, costing the variables for the client and identifying+ resolving the principal tax issues involved.”
Dr. Singer has years and years of tax planning experience. So he really takes the class through the practical side of things. We, in return, are expected to (try) to perform at a level equivalent to a professional with 4-5 years under his or her belt. This is applicable to both the issues we address and the manner in which we do it. So if a student starts a sentence with,”Like…”, or “Umm…”, Dr. Singer will ask you, very politely, to start over. Intimidated? Don’t be, because the mood in the class is never dull or gloomy. I think it’s because Dr. Singer puts students at ease with his sense of humor. His observations and comments make you think and laugh at the same time. Seriously, guys, this class is awesome.
Anyway, I ended up taking it because one of the recruiters during my interviews last semester told me that tax planning is a great area to get some exposure to. He was so right. The learning curve is steep. And, at the risk of sounding like a geek–never has it been quite so enjoyable!
Ok, first things first – I have been extremely lazy about blogging this semester, for which I apologize!
Anyway, I have been trying to stay a little healthy this semester, going to the gym in the morning and also eating better. The latter is pretty hard for two reasons: First, I love to eat out a lot, and there aren’t a lot of healthy options in that category. Second, cooking is time consuming, and sometimes, I need meals to be convenient. The convenient, economical, healthy meals I have come up with so far are: whole grain cereal in the mornings, yummy odwalla granola bars for a pick-me-up between classes, and yogurt with granola from Prufrocks. And of course, the leftovers of my son’s meals!
But then the other day, I found a place that has now become my single most convenient, favorite lunch pick-up places ever. It’s on the drag – the NW side of Martin Luther King and Guadalupe, called “Bite Mi”, next to the Vietnamese cafes in the area. Great tasting sandwiches, for a great price ($3.50 for almost a footlong). Plus, they are healthy – they have vegetables and no mayo/dressings. If those are not enough reasons to try one, here is another: the place is run by an entreprenial alum, who built it up from scratch by himself. I would definitely recommend the Pork Special sandwich, for $3.75. So try one if you get the chance!
