|
Author |
Message |
|
TAGS:
|
|
|
Manager
Joined: 31 Oct 2007
Posts: 242
Followers: 1
Kudos [?]:
22
[0], given: 0
|
How long did you spend per school on your applications? [#permalink]
 20 Nov 2007, 07:05
i know it probably varies per school ("the" stanford essay seems to trip a lot of people up), but, generally speaking, how long did you spend on each application? 25 hours?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Senior Manager
Joined: 08 Feb 2007
Posts: 407
Followers: 3
Kudos [?]:
33
[0], given: 11
|
about 100 hours...
give or take i guess...
|
|
|
|
|
|
Senior Manager
Joined: 26 Jul 2007
Posts: 371
Followers: 1
Kudos [?]:
4
[0], given: 0
|
Re: How long did you spend per school on your applications? [#permalink]
20 Nov 2007, 07:15
sudden wrote: i know it probably varies per school ("the" stanford essay seems to trip a lot of people up), but, generally speaking, how long did you spend on each application? 25 hours?
25 isn't a bad estimate. It took an 1-2 hours to brainstorm for my essays, 5-6 hours or so to write my first draft of W essays, 2-3 hours to revise them, and I'll probably revise them another couple times. Then filling out all the online portions, sending out recommendation forms, etc. can take 5 or 6 hours after you've gone over everything a bajillion times.
However, that's 25 full hours. If you're revising while watching TV (like I am sometimes guiltying of doing), you'll obviously take more time.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Director
Joined: 03 Mar 2007
Posts: 980
Location: Singapore
Concentration: Finance, Economics
Schools: Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) - Class of 2014
GMAT 1: 740 Q48 V44
GPA: 3.2
WE: Consulting (Consulting)
Followers: 8
Kudos [?]:
44
[0], given: 8
|
depends... for each school it took me 3 weeks..
but I am a obsessive freak and try to make things go perfect..
|
|
|
|
|
|
GMAT Club Legend
Joined: 10 Apr 2007
Posts: 4319
Location: Back in Chicago, IL
Schools: Kellogg Alum: Class of 2010
Followers: 68
Kudos [?]:
679
[0], given: 5
|
Several hours a night for a few months...and more on weekends. A lot. I think I averaged probably like 14-16 drafts per essay including several total rewrites.
|
|
|
|
|
|
GMAT Club Legend
Status: Um... what do you want to know?
Joined: 04 Jun 2007
Posts: 5463
Location: SF, CA, USA
Schools: UC Berkeley Haas School of Business MBA 2010
WE 1: Social Gaming
Followers: 49
Kudos [?]:
309
[0], given: 14
|
Hard for me to count the hours, but I would say 2-3 weeks for my first school, to get all the kinks out with 4 reviewers. Then 1-2 weeks for UCLA and 2-3 weeks for Stanford. I would say in each of those weeks, I would spend 3-4 hours a night for 3-4 nights during the week, and one day on the weekend doing about 8 hours.
Rough estimate:
Berkeley - 50 hours
UCLA - 20 hours (lots of repeats from Haas)
Stanford - 30-40 hours (stupid "what matters most" essay)
I hope to do Kellogg in 20-30 hours since I have material from all the other essays already.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Manager
Joined: 27 Jun 2007
Posts: 241
Followers: 3
Kudos [?]:
5
[0], given: 0
|
wow compared to me you guys are paragons of efficiency
GSB Chic - 100 hours (the PPT ate up a lot of time)
Stan - 75 hours (as K mentioned - the friggin "what matters most" essay)
MIT - 50 hours (two common questions between Stan an MIT)
|
|
|
|
|
|
SVP
Joined: 08 Nov 2006
Posts: 1560
Location: Ann Arbor
Schools: Ross '10
Followers: 12
Kudos [?]:
155
[0], given: 1
|
I think it depends on several factors
1. How prolific a writer you are - I probably have average writing abilities
2. How long before the app season you started thinking about your apps and goals? - Irrespective of how good you are. It takes a while for your story to come together.
3. How much a schools essay Qs fit your experiences. For instance, I could answer the 2 Ross short answer essays in 1 day because I had just the right things to say about them. In other cases, I have struggled to fit a theme to an essay Q for days.
In my case, it took me atleast 100 hours for each school. I spent the most hours on my HBS app(approx 200+ hours).
|
|
|
|
|
|
Director
Joined: 15 Jun 2007
Posts: 505
Followers: 1
Kudos [?]:
7
[0], given: 0
|
I'd say I probably spent 40-50 hours or so on Wharton, 30-40 for Kellogg/LBS and 20 for Cornell. This doesn't count brainstorming ideas which took much longer. The best part is that while recycling is hard, recycling examples and stories is pretty easy to do.
|
|
|
|
|
|
GMAT Club Legend
Status: Um... what do you want to know?
Joined: 04 Jun 2007
Posts: 5463
Location: SF, CA, USA
Schools: UC Berkeley Haas School of Business MBA 2010
WE 1: Social Gaming
Followers: 49
Kudos [?]:
309
[0], given: 14
|
so as not to mislead anyone, my hours did not include brainstorming time. I probably spent at least 1-2 hours a day just thinking about my "themes" for each question while driving, eating, watching TV, or whatever. So the hours I listed are actual writing, staring at computer screen, and reviewing with friends time.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Manager
Joined: 31 Oct 2007
Posts: 242
Followers: 1
Kudos [?]:
22
[0], given: 0
|
thanks all for the replies.
100 hours! wow! you're definitely going to get in 
i can't really see myself spending more than 25-30 hours on any of the applications, though i think part of that is because i have read through the essay questions and been thinking about them for some time. at least half of the essays are already written in my mind, and since i was a humanities major in college, i can bust out a quality essay very quickly. recos are a wild card, so i'll have to stay on top of those (not that hard since i work with the people who have agreed to write them). i guess we will see... if it gets bad, i can always take a week off of work and/or drop my 5th school. even still december is going to be a brutal month 
|
|
|
|
|
|
Manager
Joined: 26 Oct 2007
Posts: 76
Followers: 2
Kudos [?]:
5
[0], given: 0
|
Probably around 15-20 hours per app of actually writing/revising the essays and any other stuff they ask for (ie "extended resume," etc).
However - I work better having all the info prepped prior to sitting down and writing. So brainstorming, flushing out stories and matching them with positioning, goal breakdowns, school / fit breakdowns, etc aren't included in this and probably took 125-200 hours total.
|
|
|
|
|
|
GMAT Club Legend
Status: Um... what do you want to know?
Joined: 04 Jun 2007
Posts: 5463
Location: SF, CA, USA
Schools: UC Berkeley Haas School of Business MBA 2010
WE 1: Social Gaming
Followers: 49
Kudos [?]:
309
[0], given: 14
|
oh yeah, the resume/recommendation/other things took me almost a week, 3-4 hours a day on weekdays and 6-8 hours on weekends.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Current Student
Joined: 02 Jun 2007
Posts: 157
Schools: The University of Texas at Austin
Followers: 1
Kudos [?]:
11
[0], given: 0
|
Lots. Lots of time. Much more time than I thought would be required.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Senior Manager
Joined: 08 Aug 2006
Posts: 346
Location: San Francisco
Schools: Berkeley Haas
Followers: 3
Kudos [?]:
10
[0], given: 0
|
Did my Haas app in 1 (one) week. Including resume, recommendations, and transcript.
Wouldn't recommend anyone to repeat this though.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Director
Joined: 11 Sep 2006
Posts: 517
Followers: 1
Kudos [?]:
32
[0], given: 0
|
braindancer wrote: Did my Haas app in 1 (one) week. Including resume, recommendations, and transcript.
Wouldn't recommend anyone to repeat this though.
Jeez! That's either impressive, or incredibly foolhardy...but I guess it worked. I have definitely spent longer than that on my Haas app, but I'm finally happy w/my essays...
_________________
...there ain't no such thing as a free lunch...
|
|
|
|
|
|
GMAT Club Legend
Status: Um... what do you want to know?
Joined: 04 Jun 2007
Posts: 5463
Location: SF, CA, USA
Schools: UC Berkeley Haas School of Business MBA 2010
WE 1: Social Gaming
Followers: 49
Kudos [?]:
309
[0], given: 14
|
braindancer: haha, it was the week when you guys also had Mondavi come in to talk in your OB class.
one week eh? A Stanford guy I talked with also did his in a week, but he took the week off from work to do it, and Stanford was the only school he applied to. I can be done, but definitely not recommended.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Senior Manager
Joined: 08 Aug 2006
Posts: 346
Location: San Francisco
Schools: Berkeley Haas
Followers: 3
Kudos [?]:
10
[0], given: 0
|
Yeah, I do remember Mondavi
Well, technically I was also on a "break", case I was sick and stayed home. So yeah, if you work full-time - it isn't doable in 1 week.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Manager
Joined: 26 Oct 2007
Posts: 76
Followers: 2
Kudos [?]:
5
[0], given: 0
|
Wow - see the link: this girl did 9 apps in 3 weeks and got into H, W, C, Duke, UofM etc. last year.
That's pretty impressive.
http://agirlsmba.blogspot.com/search/la ... t%20Advice
|
|
|
|
|
|
Senior Manager
Joined: 08 Aug 2006
Posts: 346
Location: San Francisco
Schools: Berkeley Haas
Followers: 3
Kudos [?]:
10
[0], given: 0
|
Well, it's not ALL about time spent. If you're an HBS magna cum laude undergrad, community leader, minority representative, and a 5-year McKinsey consulting commando - you can file the apps in 2 hours, and you're in.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Moderators:
Michmax3, shovitdhar, MBAgirl2010, billyjeans, MDF, getgyan, losttraveler, mc, OasisGC, jumsumtak, RogerDodger, whiplash2411, threestripes, GMATLA, milias, aerien, highhopes, scorpionz, asimov, redjam17, crackHSW, jko, hunterashmore, highwyre237, Dbalks, nktdotgupta, kingfalcon, boogs, GoBruin, shorttheworld, ariel, jb88, theK, CobraKai, helpmehelpme, staind, mappleby
|
close
