Calling all Cornell (Johnson) Fall 2009 applicants!

The app is up!!

Here are the questions:
Describe your greatest professional achievement and how you were able to add value to your organization. (Required; 400 word limit)


2. What career do you plan to pursue upon completion of an MBA degree and why? How will the Johnson School help you achieve this goal? (Required; 400 word limit)

3. You are the author for the book of Your Life Story. Please write the Table of Contents for the book.

#3 is as we'd heard. but, interstingly they do not mention the 400 word limit. It looks like it's not really an essay, it's more of a list. They specify Table of Contents, so I don't think we can write anything about the chapters. Just list them.

Considering the table of contents won't be much more than 200 words, I'm guessing Cornell's app is the shortest one yet (maybe tied with Darden at 1000 words).

RF

Time to read table of contents from many many books!
Also, it is not mentioned as to how many chapters there are, up to the life till present time or can it be a fantasy novel about the future?
Anyways, still unclear.....

Good point. I bet some people will include future titles, while others will only do what's happened. I bet if you ask they'll give some non-answer and say its up to you.

I'm also wondering how many chapters is appropriate. 10? 15? 20? This is going to be a really tough question.

Update!

You can actually sign up for class visits now. I'll be visiting on the 23rd of September.

RF

I will be there September 16th!

Good luck on the application all! The third question looks like their way of trying to get at your creativity, seeing how you can summarize the various phases of your life thus far.

It makes sense that with thousands of applications to read, they would not have enough time to read your entire autobiography. Still, pretty happy I do not have to worry about that question this year!

Am I the only one having a ton of fun with that third essay question? I haven't been able to write like this since freshman comp... good times

Yes you are

Application for 2009 is now live. Essays are same as last year except for one new one for the "table of contents" essay....our worst dreams have come true...

1. Describe your greatest professional achievement and how you were able to add value to your organization. (Required; 400 word limit) : *
You have not submitted a response for this question.
[Add]
2. What career do you plan to pursue upon completion of an MBA degree and why? How will the Johnson School help you achieve this goal? (Required; 400 word limit) : *
You have not submitted a response for this question.
[Add]
3. You are the author for the book of Your Life Story. Please write the Table of Contents for the book. *
You have not submitted a response for this question.
[Add]
4. Complete this essay if there is other information you would like to add regarding your candidacy. For instance, if you believe one or more aspects of your application (e.g., undergraduate GPA or test scores) does not accurately reflect your potential for success at the Johnson School. (Optional; 400 word limit) :
You have not submitted a response for this question.
[Add]
5. Describe the measures you have taken to strengthen your application since you last applied to the Johnson School. (Required for all re-applicants; 400 word limit) :
You have not submitted a response for this question.

Craziness!!! I think im about done with first 2 essays. Third essay is crazy!

Thoughts?
Chapter 1:
I came

Chapter 2:
I saw

Chapter 3:
I conquered Cornell

Chapter 4:
Boo ya!

Damn it, those were my chapter titles!

Folks, are you typing in your college employment stuff under both the "Employment History" and "Collegiate Activities" sections of the application?
Also, to those who've planned class visits, are there opportunities to speak to current students, take a tour etc., or do you just go sit in on a class on your own?

I think I'm only putting it in the collegiate activities section. In the work experience section I'm only putting my post college work experience.

The class visit gives tons of opportunities to talk to current students.

Here is how my visit went:
Get to the office - actually running late, speed to the lot, sprint to the office. Where's the office!! Couple friendly students show me the way...

In the office it was just one admissions guy and 2 other visitors waiting for a class visit. A student guide showed up and walked us to class, which gave us an opportunity to chat with him a bit on the way. Then we sat in on a terribly boring finance class (I thought it was boring and I'm in finance!). Afterwards the student took us back, but since we had some time to kill since our next scheduled event me and the other visitors hung out in the atrium for a bit.

Next we went to the office for our admissions presentation. I was a bit surprised when 3 new Cornell students walked into the office. It turned out they would be giving the presentation. First, we went and picked up some lunch and drinks (paid for by adcom) then they took us into some small conference room and we went through a slide presentation. But the slide presentation was mostly just to make sure they hit some key points. For the most part it was just a free wheeling discussion between the current students and the visitors. We talked about everything - classes, recruiting, living in Ithaca, the party scene, etc. Afterwards the same 3 students took us on a tour of the school and we continued to chat about various topics. And then that was the end of the official visit.

Thanks for the report!

It actually sounds like a pretty good way of getting to know the school.

Question, is the presentation and lunch what the confirmation email referred to as the "information session"?



RF

Ok, and what was the consensus on what the party scene is like there? This is important stuff you know.

refurb,

Yeah it's the info session. So make sure you sign up for that.

Solaris,

Party scene huh? Not academics? or clubs?! Haha. Just kidding. They all said it was pretty cool. There is an area called college town, which is basically your typical small town main street kinda thing except there are 3-4 streets instead of one. The cool thing is that college town is like the cornell student main street and then a couple miles away is downtown which is basically main street for the townies (hopefully that term doesn't offend anyone, haha). So that makes college town exactly what it sounds like, a small little town populated entirely by college students. I thought it was pretty awesome. There are a lot of bars, restaurants and coffee shops. Certain bars are known as grad school bars and others as undergrad bars. Johnson kids mainly go out at the grad school bars (though I would imagine they venture over the undergrad bars from time to time). There are also a lot of house parties. It sounds like a lot of fun because its kind of a condensed party scene. Pretty much all the single people (and a good chunck of people with partners) live in this condensed area that is short walking distance to college town and the campus, which sounds really cool to me. They also have Thurday happy hours in the atrium with free booze and food provided by the school. Pretty much everyone goes to that. Then there are occasional mixers with the other grad programs, which gives the Johnson guys a chance to hit on girls in the vetrinary program

So, it sounds like a lot of fun to me. Of course, they did also say that it gets kind of old after a while and you get sick of doing the same stuff over and over again. But I think I've got a pretty high tolerance for those kind of activities! Plus, it's not 2-3 bars like Tuck. I think there were like 10 bars there, so it's not too bad. And I did hear from someone that Cornell has the highest number of food places per capita in NY, obviously that's a function of the small population but there actually are quite a few options available imo.