Accepted to an MBA program: how to best take advantage? (& my story)

[PokerFox]

OK, a little background (semi-long, hopefully not tl;dr)

I'm 23. Since I know everyone hates when people leave their school out of their post, I graduated in August 2006 from Texas A&M University with a B.S. in Sociology and a minor in Business Administration. I really messed up my first 2 years of college and had a 2.0, facing academic probation, after 2 years. I took full summer loads, straightened up, and raised my GPA to a 2.8 by the time I graduated in August. I applied to grad school for Sociology (Michigan, top rated) and was rejected (obv).

Finance has always been my strongest interest and passion, and I really, really wanted to get a BBA during undergrad but A&M denied my transfer request to the oversaturation of BBA students in the School of Management.

I graduated, had no idea how to break into the field of finance. Stayed in College Station for a while (career dead-end) and worked as a teller in a bank for 7 months. Sluggish, sluggish corporate pace. I shined but did not advance near at the rate I desired.

I decided, in February, that I wanted to get my MBA. I scheduled a GMAT test for April 7th, and studied my ass off (from the Kaplan book). I quit my job March 16th and moved back to Dallas to prepare. I scored a 680 on the GMAT and was extremely pleased with myself. I finished submitting my app and hoped for the best.

Today, I turned down a job offer after I find out I'm accepted for Fall 2007 to UTD's Cohort MBA program. For those unaware (most people, I'm assuming) it's a fulltime 16 month MBA program that's ranked about 50th by U.S. News.

Some people think I'm going back to school too early with no real work experience; but every job I could attain with my education was extremely unsatisfying to me and I feel like I was just hitting my academic stride when I finished undergrad.

So, lay it on me SL. How can I make this as worthwhile as I have dreamed it could be? I was extremely happy when I was accepted and want to make this the most valuable experience in my life to date. My goals at this point (postgrad) are corporate finance, investment/security analysis, etc.

Thanks for reading.

[Mens Rea]

I did a JD/MBA and went into law, so I don't know how helpful my advice will be regarding the MBA but I'll tell you this -

My MBA program offered a huge number of networking-type functions. It seemed as if the people who made the most of the program were those who took advantage of all of these as a way to make contacts in certain fields. (I didn't, so I don't know for sure whether this is true.)

Also, it sounds like you are excited about your opportunity here and looking forward to getting started, so it probably doesn't need to be said, but you should really try to kick ass grade-wise if you want to max your options when you finish.

Oh, and Congrats.