I first set foot in Saïd Business School in November, for my admissions interview. Stephan Chambers, Executive MBA Director, was my sole interrogator. It was a tough interview: he was razor sharp. He’d clearly prepared well, and seemingly had known me for years. I’d had an easier time with interview panels of three.

He eventually homed in two things I myself had reservations about: my frequent travel for work— how would I successfully navigate the demands of the programme? Most of my recent work related travel had been to the US to cover the primaries and general election, and now that that was over, I said, I’d be doing far more studio presentation.

The second was how I’d cope with the demanding quantitative component, seeing that my barely used engineering background was a long time in the past. I allowed that I was preparing for GMAT and getting a good sense of where I stood on algebraic matters.

Ginny Madeley from EMBA admissions kindly showed me around.

I came back to Saïd Business School in later that month, to cover the Silicon Valley Comes to Oxford event. I’m a techie, had done technology pieces for and presented the World Service’s technology programme, and talking with the guys like Biz Stone, the founder of Twitter and Reid Hoffman, chairman of LinkedIn, was like giving a greedy kid the keys to the chocolate shop.

I liked what I saw at Saïd Business School.

The quality of the lecture theatres was first-rate. I’d looked at some other biz schools and in this respect, the school’s teaching facilities were as good as any I’d seen.

I like the aesthetics of the building— brick, pale wood and glass modernism and high ceilings along the lecture theatre corridor.

The stone courtyard and the amphitheatre above look inviting. I had the feeling that as the days grew longer and, especially in the spring and summer, I’d really enjoy being at Saïd Business School.

Of course, the building has its critics, as I’ll show more fully in a later post. That muted mood lighting in the evening may look great along lecture theatre row but it doesn’t work in the library at night. MBAs and undergrads, who spend a longer time at Saïd Business School than we EMBAs do, find it wholly inadequate.

Nonetheless, I like the look and feel of Saïd Business School. I’d like to think that it’s not because I spend relatively little time there. Can’t wait for the summer. I hope we get an open air class in the amphitheatre. Never taken classes in sunglasses.