Calling All Fall 2012 Consortium Applicants!

talk about job-itus. I almost told my office they got two weeks to keep tap dancing on my nerves before i'm out.... trying to remember i need these checks until at least june LOL.

I see that the Consortium is addressing the underrepresentation of Consulting firms at OP. Strategic Partner Alliance to Recruit Consultants (SPARC) will precede OP.

"SPARC is a one-day, pre-OP workshop for students who may be interested in the field of consulting."

Yep - just got that too!

Signed up & stuff, sounds interesting and might as well, yeah?

So, today is the last business day to submit your CGSM response forms. In figuring out what I need to do to make this decision, I've been closely following the board (as I'm sure many others have)... thanks for all the tips, everyone.

Given the implications of such an important decision, please allow me to consolidate the information previously volunteered on the thread to ensure that we're all fully aware of our options/next steps... kind of like a "PSA" .

1. The CGSM response form is due to CGSM on April 15, 2012, regardless of the school's deposit deadline or ASW dates.
2. You need to explicitly request an extension from both CGSM and the member school in order to safely submit these forms after April 15. (thanks knowledge457)
3. Once CGSM confirms that you have paid your deposit to the CGSM school, you will be forwarded the information necessary to make travel arrangements to OP. (thanks mooze)

If anyone has any other information to volunteer that may be helpful for our community, please feel free to add. Thanks!

After a terrible month of gathering more information and weighting in pros and cons, I decided to accept the consortium fellowship from UNC.

I didn't see myself turning down $$$, I didn't want to get into debt If I didn't have to. Good luck to everyone still trying to make up their minds. Think about what is really important to you and where do you come from. The less debt you have the more free you are.

.......... crickets..............

Posted from my mobile device

April 16th...... Has everyone finalized where they will be in the fall? I just tried to book my flight to OP, but the ticket prices were so high I going to take a risk and wait to see if they go down?

Posted from my mobile device

Mini bio and photo have been submitted - I decided to accept the Consortium fellowship @ UC Berkeley

I didn't think we were supposed to book our own OP tickets. If I recall correctly, a travel company hired by the Consortium will book the flight on our behalf (I'm assuming this means that we'll get a call to make arrangements). Hopefully the travel company can secure flights at the good price since the time of the booking is out of our control.

We still have to proactively contact the travel agency. They are using a company called Gwin's travel and I got the email from the consortium yesterday about how to make the arrangements. They had all my info except which airport I wanted to fly out of. Their are two guys handling the process for the consortium and he told me I was only the 2nd person who called to schedule. Consortium doesn't send you the email until after your school confirms they have your deposit.

Good to know, thanks!

CGSM gmatclub.com community,

A quick update & shameless plug...

Update:

Have not made an absolute decision on where I will end up this year, but I am very close. I'll be visiting Tuck this weekend -- and hoping I'll come away feeling very green inside. I've also been keeping up on anticipation for OP and was glad to see that there have been a handful of new companies that have signed on for OP. I've already started the internship search (probably prematurely) and plan on continuing through the summer even if I do join a Consortium school. Probably something I need to work on anyways since I don't hold a position in the private sector.

The Plug:

My blog was recently nominated by Clear Admit for 'Best of Blogging' this MBA season. I would love you guys' support and you can vote for me right here. The application season has been good to me and I feel extremely blessed to have you all as cheerleaders and supports of our mutual quest to take our game to the next level. I hope you all have enjoyed reading my blog and will continue to through the summer.

OhDenny--veteran gmatclubber has a three-day feature on my blog you won't want to miss. For those of you who weren't successful the first (or even the second) time around this is for you. Link to my blog is in the signature below--ENJOY!

98.9% sure i am turning down my consortium offer. haven't made the call yet- but i put my deposit down at a school i believe is a better match.

Congrats on finding the right program for you! Mind sharing with our community which one it is?

Has anyone who got interviewed for Toigo heard back yet? I am still sitting on the edge of my chair over this.

As a side note, I was MUCH more relaxed during my Toigo interview knowing that I already had the CGSM fellowship to Stern. Crazy how that takes all the pressure off.

It's kind of why I am hoping to at least score some kind of internship at OP this year, even if its not my ideal industry/company. Has anyone seen any information on how many attendees usually end up with offers?

Vanderbilt (Owen)... My long term goals are related to management of education systems, and I think that the connection with Peabody College of Education is ultimately more valuable than the CGSM connection to corporations... I went back and forth quite a bit about it, since the B-schools i was admitted to throught the consortium are higher ranked, but Peabody is the number one education school and the country and given the fact i could potentially take as much as a third of my coursework there i think it makes a lot more sense for me.

I can't lie though- it has been very difficult to not get caught up in letting USNWR and other rankings tell me what is the best bet- especially since i would like to go into social service and education consulting immediately after graduation, and we all know consulting firms look a lot at rank of schools.

That's good you're able to look beyond the rankings in making your choice. I think the combination of the two programs will be more valuable for what you're doing in the long run--not to mention you get two distinct networks... I like it, and congrats again!