Quite the load off my chest. All 5 R1 apps submitted. Each school has something different I can get really excited about, and just given statistics I'll be 'lucky' to get into one (of course, I like to make my own luck!) so if I get the option of choosing between multiple top-10 schools, it will truly be an honor.
Anyhow. This has been an amazing period of my life, and I'm glad to focus on the work I have to do between now and February. If I'm not accepted at a school by then, I'll turn my attention to finding a position doing what I love and submit the R2 Wharton just in case they admit me - although unfortunately they are not terribly strong in any of the areas I'm interested in.
It's been a trip. Other than a confidence post when I get time, expect my posting frequency to go down for a while! Thanks, readers!
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Interview War Wounds
I had my Kellogg interview yesterday, and I made a classic, classic mistake.
I've owned a comfortable pair of shoes for about five years that I use for work, and resoled them twice. They are a bit scuffed, but extremely serviceable and molded to my feet. Two years ago, I bought a 'replacement' set of shoes (never worn) that are new and shiny, and of course decided to interview in the new and shiny shoes rather than the scuffed standby's.
My interview was at 8am about 25 minutes from my house by public transportation, and 5 minutes after leaving my house I was in severe pain. The left shoe, which fit wonderfully at the store two years ago, was tearing up the back of my ankle. Given the severity of the situation (I would never recommend being late to a b-school interview!) I soldiered on. I hobbled all over Arlington, and since I beat my interviewer there I tried stuffing some napkins down the back of the shoe so I wouldn't be limping as I stood to greet him and followed him to a seat.
As a result, this morning I have a blister about the size of a quarter on the back of my ankle, and it stings. The interview itself was quite pleasant, and while I felt like I had a good connection with my interviewer I'm not certain of anything. I can name two pitfalls I fell into that were my misreading his intent (neither seemed to end badly), and he asked me several times if I wanted to know anything further about the school. Since I have two former teammates there and researched all my schools fairly extensively, I didn't really have anything to ask... but in retrospect, I should probably have figured out something new to ask ahead of time, or just asked something I knew the answer to to indulge him. It's people brownie points, after all; people like feeling helpful! My only clear negative was that several times I touched on other schools (after researching so many schools, it's all fresh in my head!) and I probably should have eschewed those stories or parallels unless specifically asked about them and kept the interview focused on Kellogg.
That said, there were no clear disaster moments, and it was a pleasant experience. While I hope I get more than one interview, Kellogg's was very relaxed and enjoyable and a great one to start with! Time to limp off and find some breakfast.
I've owned a comfortable pair of shoes for about five years that I use for work, and resoled them twice. They are a bit scuffed, but extremely serviceable and molded to my feet. Two years ago, I bought a 'replacement' set of shoes (never worn) that are new and shiny, and of course decided to interview in the new and shiny shoes rather than the scuffed standby's.
My interview was at 8am about 25 minutes from my house by public transportation, and 5 minutes after leaving my house I was in severe pain. The left shoe, which fit wonderfully at the store two years ago, was tearing up the back of my ankle. Given the severity of the situation (I would never recommend being late to a b-school interview!) I soldiered on. I hobbled all over Arlington, and since I beat my interviewer there I tried stuffing some napkins down the back of the shoe so I wouldn't be limping as I stood to greet him and followed him to a seat.
As a result, this morning I have a blister about the size of a quarter on the back of my ankle, and it stings. The interview itself was quite pleasant, and while I felt like I had a good connection with my interviewer I'm not certain of anything. I can name two pitfalls I fell into that were my misreading his intent (neither seemed to end badly), and he asked me several times if I wanted to know anything further about the school. Since I have two former teammates there and researched all my schools fairly extensively, I didn't really have anything to ask... but in retrospect, I should probably have figured out something new to ask ahead of time, or just asked something I knew the answer to to indulge him. It's people brownie points, after all; people like feeling helpful! My only clear negative was that several times I touched on other schools (after researching so many schools, it's all fresh in my head!) and I probably should have eschewed those stories or parallels unless specifically asked about them and kept the interview focused on Kellogg.
That said, there were no clear disaster moments, and it was a pleasant experience. While I hope I get more than one interview, Kellogg's was very relaxed and enjoyable and a great one to start with! Time to limp off and find some breakfast.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Zap! Pow! Hasselhoff!
Schools Submitted R1: 3/5
Schools Submitted R2: 0/1 (Wharton E2 & redbull)
... I think I stole the title from a Buffy episode? (ed: definitely a Sluggy Freelance strip.) I'm excited, 3 down, 3 to go, and the last two R1 schools are the apps I started first - they're good to go as is, but a little review doesn't hurt!
I don't have a lot to update about, really. I'm extremely glad I did the majority of my app work this summer, because it's been a busy fall. Most of my effort around school submissions has been 10-15 hours of final essay revisions 3-4 days before the deadline, then upload them and final review, then click 'submit'.
Work wise, I've had some fun high priority requests thrown my way (audit, legal, everyone likes me lately! Oh, and HR wants me to be in a video!) and in my free time when I'm not facing a deadline, I've tried to relax. After all, I haven't really had a break since May or so... nice to chill out! Soon I might try having a life again and making good on my promises to various partners to go salsa dancing.
Anyhow - I'm sure everyone's in cram mode right now, and I hope you all did the lion's share early! As promised I've started composing a post on Confidence, but I want to take the time to communicate my thoughts clearly. Sometime in the future, though! Good luck, B-schoolers.
Schools Submitted R2: 0/1 (Wharton E2 & redbull)
... I think I stole the title from a Buffy episode? (ed: definitely a Sluggy Freelance strip.) I'm excited, 3 down, 3 to go, and the last two R1 schools are the apps I started first - they're good to go as is, but a little review doesn't hurt!
I don't have a lot to update about, really. I'm extremely glad I did the majority of my app work this summer, because it's been a busy fall. Most of my effort around school submissions has been 10-15 hours of final essay revisions 3-4 days before the deadline, then upload them and final review, then click 'submit'.
Work wise, I've had some fun high priority requests thrown my way (audit, legal, everyone likes me lately! Oh, and HR wants me to be in a video!) and in my free time when I'm not facing a deadline, I've tried to relax. After all, I haven't really had a break since May or so... nice to chill out! Soon I might try having a life again and making good on my promises to various partners to go salsa dancing.
Anyhow - I'm sure everyone's in cram mode right now, and I hope you all did the lion's share early! As promised I've started composing a post on Confidence, but I want to take the time to communicate my thoughts clearly. Sometime in the future, though! Good luck, B-schoolers.
Friday, October 2, 2009
Pulling the Trigger, and interview prep.
Schools Submitted: 1/6 (Schools ready: ~4/5)
The past week has been eventful: I wrote a final essay from scratch, submitted my first application, went blind, traveled for three days for work, and decided to not force Wharton R1.
Last Thursday, I slept perhaps 2 hours working to finalizing HBS and Wharton. The next night, I rewrote a HBS essay from scratch after rereading the question and deciding I hadn't addressed it properly. I wrote final notes on all essays, submitted and saved the PDF file and reviewed it in its entirety*, and the next day I pulled the trigger on the application well ahead of the deadline.
Friday night, I also managed to over-indulge in redbull. After sitting for over 10 hours in the dark, with a bright screen on my right and a dim one on the left (monitor/laptop), I 'went blind' at 4am. One pupil was calibrated to darkness, the other to light, and neither was dilating. This meant that in the light, my left eye couldn't see my hand in front of my face, in the dark, my right eye couldn't. Etc. Scary stuff, although some quick googling revealed the issue. I took much of Saturday just to lie in bed with cold compresses and recover/relax, but I did submit HBS. I might wish I'd tweaked my 4th essay one way or another, but I'd dithered too long on the topic.
I didn't get cranking on Sunday partly due to eyes/exhaustion and partly because my Mon-Thur schedule was brutal and I knew I needed to be rested. Up at 5AM Monday to travel, gave a presentation at 10AM, and spent the next few days at a hotel with plenty of work to do and pretty much 9-5 meetings Mon-Thu on top. All in all, I couldn't get fired up to finish and submit Wharton R1 by Thursday. I admit, Wharton was the last school I considered, and ironically the one least finished albeit with the earliest deadline. My recommenders had submitted on time, so the only excuses I have for not finishing off W R1 is my illness over the weekend and my distaste for Wharton Essay #2. At this point, my story is that to adapt, I changed my company around me. It's true, but not exactly what they are asking for. Although my mother commented when I complained about the topic, "Why would they want people that were forced to adapt? Aren't they looking for leaders?" I don't get W's questions either and as an elite school they can ask whatever they want... but I struggle to think of anything I had to adapt to that requires more than 250 words to convey.
Interview prep: I am applying to Kellogg R1, and therefore I will automatically get at least one interview. Time to tighten up my Kellogg and Stanford apps and pull the trigger on them as well! Have a great weekend, folks.
Interview resources: There are some fantastic resources out there, and I'm sure there are more than I have listed; if you got 'em, post 'em!
* - I recommend this as a best-practice. Get all your info up there (even some fake essays) and 'submit' - it gives you the option to review your PDF. SAVE THIS FILE AND REVIEW IT. This is what the adcoms are looking at! (Disclaimer: This works great at the schools I've tried thusfar, but I don't know if it works at all the schools)
The past week has been eventful: I wrote a final essay from scratch, submitted my first application, went blind, traveled for three days for work, and decided to not force Wharton R1.
Last Thursday, I slept perhaps 2 hours working to finalizing HBS and Wharton. The next night, I rewrote a HBS essay from scratch after rereading the question and deciding I hadn't addressed it properly. I wrote final notes on all essays, submitted and saved the PDF file and reviewed it in its entirety*, and the next day I pulled the trigger on the application well ahead of the deadline.
Friday night, I also managed to over-indulge in redbull. After sitting for over 10 hours in the dark, with a bright screen on my right and a dim one on the left (monitor/laptop), I 'went blind' at 4am. One pupil was calibrated to darkness, the other to light, and neither was dilating. This meant that in the light, my left eye couldn't see my hand in front of my face, in the dark, my right eye couldn't. Etc. Scary stuff, although some quick googling revealed the issue. I took much of Saturday just to lie in bed with cold compresses and recover/relax, but I did submit HBS. I might wish I'd tweaked my 4th essay one way or another, but I'd dithered too long on the topic.
I didn't get cranking on Sunday partly due to eyes/exhaustion and partly because my Mon-Thur schedule was brutal and I knew I needed to be rested. Up at 5AM Monday to travel, gave a presentation at 10AM, and spent the next few days at a hotel with plenty of work to do and pretty much 9-5 meetings Mon-Thu on top. All in all, I couldn't get fired up to finish and submit Wharton R1 by Thursday. I admit, Wharton was the last school I considered, and ironically the one least finished albeit with the earliest deadline. My recommenders had submitted on time, so the only excuses I have for not finishing off W R1 is my illness over the weekend and my distaste for Wharton Essay #2. At this point, my story is that to adapt, I changed my company around me. It's true, but not exactly what they are asking for. Although my mother commented when I complained about the topic, "Why would they want people that were forced to adapt? Aren't they looking for leaders?" I don't get W's questions either and as an elite school they can ask whatever they want... but I struggle to think of anything I had to adapt to that requires more than 250 words to convey.
Interview prep: I am applying to Kellogg R1, and therefore I will automatically get at least one interview. Time to tighten up my Kellogg and Stanford apps and pull the trigger on them as well! Have a great weekend, folks.
Interview resources: There are some fantastic resources out there, and I'm sure there are more than I have listed; if you got 'em, post 'em!
- ClearAdmit Wiki Interviews
ed: h/t Linda Abraham:- Accepted.com's MBA Interview Feedback Database
- Accepted.com's MBA interview prep mini-email course
- Accepted.com's "MBA IV" : Instantly downloadable ebook containing tips and sample questions organized by school. The first two are free.
* - I recommend this as a best-practice. Get all your info up there (even some fake essays) and 'submit' - it gives you the option to review your PDF. SAVE THIS FILE AND REVIEW IT. This is what the adcoms are looking at! (Disclaimer: This works great at the schools I've tried thusfar, but I don't know if it works at all the schools)
Friday, September 25, 2009
Analysis Paralysis, and great stories I won't use.
Schools Submitted: 0*/6 (Schools ready: ~4/6)
First Deadline: 6 days
Essays Submitted: 12/30(ish)
Everyone's heard of analysis paralysis - where you are psychologically trapped by too many options and end up unable to make a decision. There are actually usability studies about the danger of giving your customers too many choices; they don't buy anything!
In late night conversations with the peer that's been my MBA-App wingman, nothing has come up more lately than our analysis paralysis. We both have solid essays, but we'll pick them up at 10PM at night and find thousands of nitpicks, or things we wanted to add, and spend hours getting lost in the trees, and at times end up burning part of the forest down in the process. I completely mangled an essay on Tuesday as a result. Fortunately, Google docs has revision history log, so I just reverted to the previous day's version. I love technology!
There's also analysis paralysis around choices of topic. I've written a lot of drafts, and in many cases I have two or three essays for a question and I'm trying to decide what tells the most about me in relation to an MBA and how it fits with other essays and the data entry. This means cutting stuff that I like; I had a mistake/personal improvement experience that certainly wasn't extraordinary or superhuman, but it's one of my favorite life-changing moments.
Gist of the story I wish I was telling in one of my essays:
Took a foreign language class outside school, my TA was a giant muscled body builder; I assumed he was an idiot. Got shown his book at the end of class, turned out he was a surgeon, artist, and humanitarian who'd attended an ivy league. Er, whoops.
Also, he'd been as scrawny as I was in college... and had written a book on bodybuilding and his experience gaining weight. I put on 30 lbs in college with him as inspiration, and bodybuilding taught me about discipline and nutrition, as well as building my confidence significantly.
The discipline and nutrition came in quite handy both for dropping weight after a year or two of being a little too sedative from work, and for healing my collarbone fast enough to get back into a championship game for my team in the same season I broke it. The confidence bit is, well, confidence is really good stuff to have. Helps out in life, y'know.
Why am I not telling this story? I have more dramatic and impactful stories, and while this is one of my favorite mistakes, it doesn't tell much about me other than I used to be a scrawny, judgmental kid that gained some knowledge/confidence in the gym. I really wish HBS asked 'what are your three most significant accomplishments, and why' rather than substantial, as I would throw bodybuilding into significant, but not substantial. But then I'd have to revisit that school's essays, and I've forced myself to put them down for now.
Ah well, "Praise the lord and pass the (caffeine)" ... back to finalizing. If anyone has tips on dealing with analysis paralysis, please share. I lapse into a state of ultra-analysis after 2 or 3 hours of essaying now; great for programming and model/data work, terrible for essays.
Edit 1: My own tip: Body-mind connection. My head dips in when I start to focus. I literally am snapping my head back and shaking it to reorient. It does work!
First Deadline: 6 days
Essays Submitted: 12/30(ish)
Everyone's heard of analysis paralysis - where you are psychologically trapped by too many options and end up unable to make a decision. There are actually usability studies about the danger of giving your customers too many choices; they don't buy anything!
In late night conversations with the peer that's been my MBA-App wingman, nothing has come up more lately than our analysis paralysis. We both have solid essays, but we'll pick them up at 10PM at night and find thousands of nitpicks, or things we wanted to add, and spend hours getting lost in the trees, and at times end up burning part of the forest down in the process. I completely mangled an essay on Tuesday as a result. Fortunately, Google docs has revision history log, so I just reverted to the previous day's version. I love technology!
There's also analysis paralysis around choices of topic. I've written a lot of drafts, and in many cases I have two or three essays for a question and I'm trying to decide what tells the most about me in relation to an MBA and how it fits with other essays and the data entry. This means cutting stuff that I like; I had a mistake/personal improvement experience that certainly wasn't extraordinary or superhuman, but it's one of my favorite life-changing moments.
Gist of the story I wish I was telling in one of my essays:
Took a foreign language class outside school, my TA was a giant muscled body builder; I assumed he was an idiot. Got shown his book at the end of class, turned out he was a surgeon, artist, and humanitarian who'd attended an ivy league. Er, whoops.
Also, he'd been as scrawny as I was in college... and had written a book on bodybuilding and his experience gaining weight. I put on 30 lbs in college with him as inspiration, and bodybuilding taught me about discipline and nutrition, as well as building my confidence significantly.
The discipline and nutrition came in quite handy both for dropping weight after a year or two of being a little too sedative from work, and for healing my collarbone fast enough to get back into a championship game for my team in the same season I broke it. The confidence bit is, well, confidence is really good stuff to have. Helps out in life, y'know.
Why am I not telling this story? I have more dramatic and impactful stories, and while this is one of my favorite mistakes, it doesn't tell much about me other than I used to be a scrawny, judgmental kid that gained some knowledge/confidence in the gym. I really wish HBS asked 'what are your three most significant accomplishments, and why' rather than substantial, as I would throw bodybuilding into significant, but not substantial. But then I'd have to revisit that school's essays, and I've forced myself to put them down for now.
Ah well, "Praise the lord and pass the (caffeine)" ... back to finalizing. If anyone has tips on dealing with analysis paralysis, please share. I lapse into a state of ultra-analysis after 2 or 3 hours of essaying now; great for programming and model/data work, terrible for essays.
Edit 1: My own tip: Body-mind connection. My head dips in when I start to focus. I literally am snapping my head back and shaking it to reorient. It does work!
Monday, September 21, 2009
Reviewing an MBA Tour Event
On Sunday I attended an MBA Tour Event, and had mixed reactions. Two of my peers who are currently applying attended as well, and we met up for lunch to compare notes.
Takeaways from our conversation (both of them have gone through the app process once already):
I held off on any submissions due to the MBA Tour, and I'm glad I did - I'm going to do a little rewording and work in the optional essays section to better target the adcom mindset. 11 days to freedom, I hope!
Takeaways from our conversation (both of them have gone through the app process once already):
- You don't learn much if you've already done thorough research of the school you're interested in.
- Unlike some other panels (apparently a HBS/Wharton/Stanford GSB panel a friend had attended) no school gave much explanation as to how they went through an application; essays first, transcript last, resume first, essays last, etc - pretty much every school said 'holistically' and left it at that.
- In general, the presenters didn't sell us on anything. If I hadn't already done my research and talked to current students and alums at the schools I'm applying to, I might have been disincented.
- If I was just beginning my search, it would have been a solid way to learn about the process. I say solid because I think I got far more information in less time over the internet.
- One school did mention they looked for specific things (such as a B average in calculus) and that was an excellent takeaway.
- Overall, chatting with the adcom reps was useful more for getting a feel for their personalities and thought processes than it was for the information they provide. That was, by far, the biggest takeaway - how they think, and therefore how to position some of my statements. ( This made the event very worthwhile )
I held off on any submissions due to the MBA Tour, and I'm glad I did - I'm going to do a little rewording and work in the optional essays section to better target the adcom mindset. 11 days to freedom, I hope!
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
... too much caffeine?
First Deadline: 14 Days
Schools Completed: 0/6
Essays Submitted: 4/28
Short entry, I hope. I'm crashing early tonight (before midnight!) because I need to be functional for meetings tomorrow and have to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed to teach on Friday. In my experience, if you want to feel well rested, the sleep you get two nights before is what matters.
My essay total went up; I've decided to use the optional 'explanatory' essay for two schools that I'm nearly finished with. Sometime later I'll write an entry about my journey to that decision, but definitely not now. I did not quite get where I wanted to on S#1, but another productive evening!
... oh right, the title of this post! So I had a 9am phone appointment with a current MBA student to ask some specific questions about a program her school offered, and she called me at 9pm due to a calendar mix-up. I'd actually talked to an admissions adviser at her school not an hour before, which had led to the decision to use the 'explanatory' essay for that school, and I was rather fired up about it (plus, had quite a lot of caffeine in me) ...
The poor woman! She opened the conversation wanting to learn about my background and goals, and I love talking about my passions so I took off at a caffeine-fueled four hundred miles an hour... she couldn't get a word in edgewise for a while. Admittedly, I disclosed early on that I had talked to another student in the same program and gotten great information, which changed the direction of the chat. We had a good discussion and I learned a few things about the school I didn't know. That said, I'm moderately appalled at how much talking I did, although she was incredibly gracious about it - if I get a chance to visit the campus I intend to look her up and demonstrate that I usually am more composed than a seven year old overdosed on pixie sticks.
Incidentally, I doubt I'll keep the silly running count up top with every post, I'm just motivating myself to finish strong.
Schools Completed: 0/6
Essays Submitted: 4/28
Short entry, I hope. I'm crashing early tonight (before midnight!) because I need to be functional for meetings tomorrow and have to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed to teach on Friday. In my experience, if you want to feel well rested, the sleep you get two nights before is what matters.
My essay total went up; I've decided to use the optional 'explanatory' essay for two schools that I'm nearly finished with. Sometime later I'll write an entry about my journey to that decision, but definitely not now. I did not quite get where I wanted to on S#1, but another productive evening!
... oh right, the title of this post! So I had a 9am phone appointment with a current MBA student to ask some specific questions about a program her school offered, and she called me at 9pm due to a calendar mix-up. I'd actually talked to an admissions adviser at her school not an hour before, which had led to the decision to use the 'explanatory' essay for that school, and I was rather fired up about it (plus, had quite a lot of caffeine in me) ...
The poor woman! She opened the conversation wanting to learn about my background and goals, and I love talking about my passions so I took off at a caffeine-fueled four hundred miles an hour... she couldn't get a word in edgewise for a while. Admittedly, I disclosed early on that I had talked to another student in the same program and gotten great information, which changed the direction of the chat. We had a good discussion and I learned a few things about the school I didn't know. That said, I'm moderately appalled at how much talking I did, although she was incredibly gracious about it - if I get a chance to visit the campus I intend to look her up and demonstrate that I usually am more composed than a seven year old overdosed on pixie sticks.
Incidentally, I doubt I'll keep the silly running count up top with every post, I'm just motivating myself to finish strong.
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