Be Willing to Make Short-Term Sacrifices to Attain Long-Term Goals
Balancing the demands of business school with a relationship or family is not without challenges and sacrifices, to be sure. Nick Arnold, who ultimately hopes to work in internal strategy for an industrial or manufacturing firm, will be away from his wife and young daughter for ten to 12 weeks this summer to complete his internship. “We made a decision and talked about it before I applied,” he says. “It is a short-term sacrifice to help our longer-term goals. For me, it will be the best thing; my wife is supportive, and our goals are aligned,” he says. Both sets of grandparents will help out with childcare while he’s gone. His military background also helps put things in perspective. “In the military, I was gone for a little longer,” he says, noting that deployments also often took him much farther away. “Ten weeks somewhere in the Midwest won’t seem nearly as long.”
Zac Seidel’s summer internship working for Accenture was also challenging for the Kellogg couple—especially since it happened to fall early in Jill’s pregnancy when she was in her own first quarter of classes and caring for a toddler. “We specifically chose Accenture because we knew it would be a good test of what it would be like for him to be traveling all the time,” Jill says. “It was hard on us both.”
Even though morning sickness hadn’t set in yet in full force, she still found herself having to stay up super late to finish her work after getting their son to bed. “It wasn’t just me saying I can’t do this,” Jill adds. “He felt terrible being away all the time.” Consulting, they decided, wasn’t sustainable. “With two kids under two, we decided that just wouldn’t have worked,” Zac says. For his post-MBA job, he’s accepted a position at DaVita HealthCare.
In terms of celebrating Valentine’s Day, most of the couples we caught up with have relatively low-key plans. The newly engaged Alejandra and Niko at Haas will most likely stay in and cook together—perhaps a Peruvian ceviche, she says. The Seidels at Kellogg, thanks to their synched Outlook calendars, are headed out for a romantic dinner. In Charlottesville, Brittany and Mark are headed to the winery where they’ll get married this summer for a wine and food pairing event. Nick Arnold’s date for the day will be young daughter Camille. “Mel will be working a 24-hour call shift on Valentine’s Day,” he says. “So this Sunday my daughter and I will be visiting her at the hospital…maybe with some roses in hand though.”
If you’re contemplating taking on business school as a couple, employ the strategies above to help ensure that romance is year round rather than reserved for a single day in February.
