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?

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.

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!

piece of advice

If you are planning on spending your entire weekend working hard on an application that is due in 5 days, do not start your Saturday morning by making your annual visit to the eye doctor. I had my eyes dilated for the first time today and could not read until about 2pm. Oops... Be smarter than me, folks!

first update...

I am now under review at Columbia. 10 weeks and I'll have a decision.

columbia submitted!

It feels good to have that one out of the way. I think I went through six distinct drafts of my re-application essay before I got to the final one. I kept re-reading data forms and hitting submit was difficult. Oh well, now on to Chicago :)

Good luck to everyone as we get round 1 finished up.

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! :)