The way the cookie crumbles

So time to 'fess up....

I actually got an admit to Columbia the week before I heard from Chicago. Given the timing (per the binding Early decision agreement, I have two weeks to send my deposit to secure my spot at Columbia) I decided to wait it out and see what Chicago said. I was SHOCKED with an acceptance. After last year when I went 0 for 4, I got accepted at my top two choices. I'm still actually flabbergasted at the thought.

For the last week, I've been struggling with whether or not to break my word to Columbia and go to Chicago. I consider myself a very ethical person, even when it isn't always easy. Having just visited Chicago and loved it... it was a big temptation. Several times I thought I had made a decision and then immediately changed my mind. Last night it became very clear to me that I should go to Columbia. I wish I could say it was some major revelation, but it wasn't. It felt like it was the right thing to do for me. (I do realize the impossible situation of making a bad decision in this scenario. I hear the world's smallest violin playing right now.) This morning Columbia got my deposit (with probably no time to spare) and I've secured my spot as a member of CBS Class of 2010.

So, all you GSB waitlisters out there, I hope one of you get my spot. BschoolDiva, you think they'll swap one Texas girl for another? I remember the pain of being on the waitlist; I was waitlisted through two rounds until August before the semester started. Just keep sending those meaningful updates and let them know that you heart Chicago GSB. And if you make it, sign up for a Random Walk for me because that was one of the things I really wanted to do.

YES!!!!!!

I got the admit call from Chicago this afternoon!!!! The only way to describe my feeling right now is pure elation.

When I step off cloud nine, I'll blog more.

columbia interview complete!

I did an alumni interview with Columbia on Monday. Seeing as it was so soon after my Chicago I was a little nervous I would say Chicago instead of Columbia in some of my answers, but luckily I avoided that. Overall, I felt less nervous but lacked a real "connection" with the interviewer. We didn't have much in common, but I enjoyed our conversation. He got a good feeling of my goals, reasons for wanting to go to Columbia and my personality so in that sense it was a success. We met at a Starbucks and luckily I was able to pick up the large corner table so we were able to have something resembling a private conversation. For those of you doing an interview in a public place, I would recommend getting there early to acclimate, get used to the noise level and relax a bit.

I was pretty thrilled to receive the news that Chicago's notification date was moved up to December 19th. I wonder whether they will call admits as they did last year... Two weeks left! The motivation to complete my R2 two applications is low... anyone else feeling me out there?

chicago interview

I went up to Chicago GSB this weekend to interview at Super Saturday. All in all, the interview went well. I had an alumni interviewer - he was very relaxed and laid back. He asked a few of the standard questions, but after a while it became more conversational. He seemed to appreciate my genuine Why Chicago. A question I am getting very used to is "Why not Kellogg?" as I want to go into marketing. At that point, I am glad I have visited programs and can say "I didn't feel a fit at Kellogg because of a, b, c, but I did at your school and here is why." While I enjoy a conversational interview, it is harder to get in all of those points that you want, but, in the end, I was pleased with the interview.

What this Texas girl was not pleased with was the frigid snowstorm. It started to snow at the beginning of the scheduled lunch with first year students and by the end of it, was really coming down. The temperature was in the 20s (probably teens with wind chill); that is a 50 degree differential from what I am used to! Unfortunately my flight was canceled on Saturday, and a friend offered to house me and drive me to O'Hare the next morning. While I tried to enjoy the extra time in Chicago and spend some time seeing the city, the cold eventually got the best of us and we sought solace inside my friend's condo.

Now I only have one more month until the January 3rd notification date. I really want to get in as every time I visit the campus I just fall a little bit more in love with the program.

happy turkey day!

Happy long weekend to all of you out there! I started my time off today and I'm hoping to be very productive with the days off, completing a few drafts of the Michigan essays and prep for my Chicago interview next week.

In update news, I got an invitation to interview at Columbia this morning. I had been told that reapplicants who interviewed the previous year often do not re-intervew so the news was a bit anticlimatic as I expected a final decision. I'm trying not to analyze too much why I was asked to interview again, but see it as an opportunity to ace it.

Scheduled Chicago interview

I decided to go ahead and fly up there and do the campus interview thing. It was difficult to pick a date with trying to finish up NYU and wanting enough time to properly perpare, not to mention factoring in Thanksgiving week as the worst time to fly. Anyway, I chose December 1, the round 1 Saturday interview date, which will serve my purposes since I've visited many a time.

I'm stoked except for cooooold in Chi-town. My friend told me that the lights should up on Michigan avenue by then, which is fun news for a retail junkie like me.

events of today

Today I....

• Got a full LASIK consultation and scheduled my surgery for January. I can't afford any down time while working on R2 apps.
• Got a tooth filling
• went to work with my eyes dilated and numb mouth (yup I was a mess!)
• went to a wedding rehearsal and rehearsal dinner
• went to work briefly for a software release

But must excitingly.... I GOT MY CHICAGO INVITATION TO INTERVIEW!!!!! :) *High five to all of you out there*

Now I just need to decide whether or not to interview on-campus. I've visited GSB twice last year, but the closest alumni interview is about an hour away - and I think the same person I interviewed with last year. Thoughts anyone?

How to convert a .ppt to a .pdf

So, Chicago says that your powerpoint must be less than 10MB to upload into the system. Mine is right over 5MB and refused to upload. The alternative is to convert the file into a .pdf file which will be considerably smaller. Warning: I had a little difficulty since I had some cutesy labels that were tilted - most of these solutions mangled my cutesy label!

Some solutions for those even more last minute than me (or I suppose R2)
1. createpdf.adobe.com - sign up for an account and you get 5 free chances to convert your file to a pdf.
2. www.pdfonline.com/easypdf - This one was pretty good, and kept the tilted labels in the right place. However, with the free trial, there was a small logo on the bottom right hand side and my photos were a little fuzzy. I also though the one time usage fee of $15 was high.
3. www.go2pdf.com/download.html - POS. Don't bother.

My solution after trying all of these? I uploaded my file to www.transferbigfiles.com. My friend who has macromedia 8 downloaded it, converted to pdf and sent it back to me. My tilted labels stayed tilted. One of the pictures ended up looking fuzzier than I wanted it to, but I noticed all solutions resulted in degradation of quality.

Good luck!

less blogging, more writing

Title should be sufficient. I'm around, but evenings are filled with essay writing. I may move Michigan to Round 2 as I have yet to start drafts. And Chicago's powerpoint is still killing me. Otherwise I'd rather not discuss as I'm stressed :)

Not to mention Fall TV has started. As a self-professed TV junkie, my Tivo is working overtime to get everything recorded so I can watch later.

On a more fun note, my break area at work got a Wii. I bowled a 215 on Wii bowling today! :)

progress..

In a word: slow

First draft is back with comments. I'm working through them - fairly substantial as I expected. I'm hoping to get through them in the next few days. I want to get Columbia out in the next two weeks and then focus hard on Chicago (ie school that kept me on the waitlist for five months and still wants me to fill out the whole application to re-apply)

The stress is starting to get me. For the last week, my stomach has been constantly churning. I'm going through the same feelings as other bloggers - the roller coaster of confidence and "no one will want me" My piece of advice to all of you out there is to err on the confident side, because lack of confidence will permeate those essays.

To do:
Send out last recommendation packet (yeah, I'm totally late on this)
Finish Columbia essay - draft 2
Email a few more students and alumni
Finish updating resume
Go to a speed dating event (I'm shocked I'm doing this, but my friends and I agreed months ago to go together.)

PS: Did anyone see Britney on the VMAs? I turned in on just so I could catch the performance... and wow, yikes.

Updated list

I finally got dinged two days ago from Chicago GSB off of the waitlist. As far as I know, the entire waitlist has been entirely cleared out. It wasn't such a big surprise after their exceptionally high yield and overbooked class. In fact when I got the email, the whole thing was anti-climatic. I felt nothing except maybe a slight twinge. I'm planning on improving my Chicago GSB application this year (looking forward to the powerpoint slides actually!) and will hopefully move from that maybe to "heck yeah, come on down!" list.

I've updated my list of schools. I am planning on adding one one more round 2 school; I was debating two schools, but application burnout is a horrible feeling. And I think it was evident in my essays last year that got progressively more bland. How is everyone else researching programs?

some decisions...

I'm still on the research trail. I am putting feelers out for friends of friends who go to the business schools I'm adding to my application list. I like Duke and Michigan a lot so I am pretty sure about those which just leaves one more school for my list.

I think I'm going to attack my reapplications first: Columbia and Chicago. I also signed up for an MBA tour at the beginning of September and then I'll start my Duke and Michigan apps since I'll be better informed at this point. I'm still a bit indecisive on what schools I'm applying to for R1 and R2. Most likely it will be Columbia, Chicago, NYU and Ross R1, Duke and maybe one or two more programs R2.

On a more fun note, I'm planning on prepping for a half-marathon in January. It'll be a nice contrast to the hell that is applying to MBA programs and hopefully a stress reliever.

Feedback!

I had a feedback session last week with Columbia. Like what I heard from some others out there, it was mainly "you were great; we just had a really competitive year." About 10 minutes into the conversation, the admissions officer eventually said that while my transition to my post-MBA goal was believable and defined it would have been more elaborated especially compared to my peers. I was glad to hear that since it is feedback I can use and apply to my reapplication effort.

I'm still researching programs. The maybes include Tuck, Emory, UNC, UCLA, Georgetown, Haas, Michigan and Duke. I only want to apply to six (maybe seven) programs so with Columbia, Chicago and NYU, I only have room for 3 more. Next up, scouring school websites and finding people I know at the maybe schools.

first up...

I have actually not decided whether or not I'm reapplying. The application process is emotional, demanding, and honestly not something I'm sure I want to repeat.

Why, you may ask?
1. I'm not entirely happy at my job and I'm not sure I can last another year there. Finding another job, I believe, would push me back another year at least in MBA terms. (a job switch so close to applying would probably come back to bite me when trying to explain my career career path thing in every Essay 1)
2. Am I that much stronger of an applicant than I was a year ago? Would I fare that much better? Or was I the "victim" of a nervous interview (yes on two accounts) or incomplete essay packages or undefined goals.

I have a feedback session with Columbia this week and I hope that will at least clarify number 2. On the more positive side, I did interview at every school I applied to and am hanging in there on the waitlist Chicago GSB. I think applying round to more programs would help out - as would just knowing the application process.

starting off...

I've decided to join the MBA blogging community because I pity my friends and them having to listen to me discuss MBA admission, ad naseum.

I applied to four MBA programs last year and was rejected after interview from NYU, Columbia, Kellogg. I am actually still on the waitlist at Chicago, but as I am a optimistic realist I have begun preparations for re-applying for Fall 2008. I feel that I have learned a lot in my first application effort and I'm ready to start early and hard-core :)