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.

my dog hates application season

because he doesn't get quite as much play time as normal. With my roommate gone on a vacation, he just sits and watches me type away.

As of today, one week before the deadline, I put Michigan to Round 2. Now I can just breathe a little bit and can focus on NYU due November 15th.

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! :)

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.