Calling All 2015 Consortium Applicants Thread

Found it! Thank you so much for your help!

The deadline to submit Consortium Acceptance is 4/15. The deadline to pay school deposits, and make final decisions on where to attend, is later in April. Are folks planning on submitting the Consortium Acceptance on 4/15 before paying deposits and making final decision on where to attend?

need to call and ask about this - i wanted to go to all the admitted student events first before deciding!

In to UCLA with non-Consortium fellowship

Anyone turning theirs down so I could potentially upgrade? :\

Apparently the Consortium is looking for more applicants anyway, so maybe call them or Anderson and ask if you can be considered for membership?

I was admitted to the Consortium, I just fell short of the full fellowship. I'm generally curious if as decisions shake out, and some choose to go to other higher-ranked schools (including non Consortium schools), that some money frees up to be distributed to those of us who didn't receive a full fellowship. More pessimistically, perhaps they take yield into account and expect a couple offers to turn down and there will be no money leftover either way. I don't know, just trying to retain a shred of optimism!

I feel you on that. From my understanding, your second point is correct - most schools overextend offers know that some will drop out, so they come out even at the end of the draft.

You shouldn't feel pessimistic though...you got money! That's an awesome get, even if it isn't a full ride. Maybe you can always ask them for additional funding, and explain any financial hardships you're facing? That's always an option, and the worst thing they can say is no.

have any of the usc admits received their actual admissions letter? Just wondering if they held off till 4/2 when their actual announcement is. @lipludge there is a possibility i might not take the fellowship. but...there are LOTS of UClA consortium fellows this year - almost as many as Ross has normally it seems.

has anyone registered for OP yet? If so, I'm a bit confused by the Career Tracks 1 vs 2... are you supposed to pick two separate focuses, or are the session's different if you choose both marketing sections?

That's a good question. I registered, and just sort of assumed that the panels for certain topics like marketing or consulting would be the same. Sure, they might have different panelists, but the content will be mostly the same, I presume.

However, if you know that all you want to do is marketing or consulting or whatever, I'd just register for both of the same panels and find a way to get more air time during the question and answer period, or more face-time with the panelists after both sessions. Use it to your advantage, ya know!

I just registered for different panels, just to get a feel for what different employers in different industries might be offering. Given the fact that there will be so many different companies and recruiters there, each marketing panel WILL probably have different panelists, so there is likely no harm in registering for two of the same type of panel.

Did you hear anything on this?

Looks like there are a few things due 4/15. Check the CGSM VIP page

I called and they said it's not really a problem to submit the OP and other docs later than 4/15--the only hard deadline is the school's deadline. In other words, you have to have your Consortium stuff submitted when your decision and enrollment deposit is due. In my case, I got an extension from one school until the end of the month so if you need extra days before deciding, make sure to work it out with the school.

yea... i'm having issues with this...i know there's somewhere to submit something with credit card info....in case you reneg...not sure where that is.

FROM The Consortium Admissions Blog: From Austin to two startups in less than a year

The clock tower at the University of Texas, lit for Prepify.me and reQwip.com. Courtesy Dan Driscoll. When the clock tower at the University of Texas shines orange, it’s asignal to students, faculty and staffthat at a momentous event has occurred in the Austin campus community. Often, the honor is reserved for a Longhorns’ sports championship, or for Commencement Day. On May 31, 2014, it lit up for Dan Driscoll (OP Class of 2014) and his UT colleagues for not one, but two significant honors related to not one, but two separate startups. reQwip, where Driscoll is CEO and co-founder, won first place at The Next Play Venture Tournament, which pits student-created sports-related business plans against each other. And Prepify.me, which Driscoll also co-founded, won a $20,000 prize in the Walmart-Net Impact Better Living Business Plan Challenge. Prepify, in fact, was born during a 3 a.m. conversation at The Consortium’s Orientation Program three years ago, and nurtured in a corporate responsibility class at UT. Today, both companies are enjoying substantial milestones. reQwip, a resale marketplace for expensive adventure gear, opened nationally on April 16, expanding its beta launch and seeing a 30 percent increase in registered users in three days. Dan Driscoll. Meanwhile, the $20,000 prize went toward funding the launch of Prepify.me, which offers free online SAT preparation to high school students. The site is about to roll out to 2,000 students in the spring for beta testing. Driscoll recalled the conversation he had in the wee hours one morning at the 2012 OP in Minneapolis with classmate Alex Richardson. Driscoll, 32, who had co-founded a Washington D.C. nonprofit that combines soccer training with academics for disadvantaged school students, knew many bright kids struggled to get to college in part because they were poorly prepared for the SAT. Driscoll mused aloud with Richardson, who was an admissions officer at another university, about how the SAT is the No. 1 barrier to keeping high-performing students out of a top colleges. “He said top colleges are struggling to recruit disadvantaged students, especially those of disadvantaged backgrounds,” Driscoll said. Universities spend a lot of money to recruit students, and Richardson said they would pay handsomely for introductions to promising students. And thus, Driscoll said, a business model was born. As a student registers and progresses through Prepify.me’s preparation program, the system can flag the promising ones en route to a strong SAT score. Universities pay for the opportunity to meet those students and recruit them for their undergraduate programs. “When people are born into a situation that creates unfair barriers to their achievement and success, they’re not the only ones who are losing. We all lose,” said Driscoll, who now serves on the Prepify board while his wife runs the company. “We don’t know what kind of contribution they could make in medicine or science or social movements.”

FROM The Consortium Admissions Blog: #RaceTogether: A different perspective on Starbucks’ so-called failure

Starbucks dropped its campaign to encourage dialogue around race. Photo courtesy of Starbucks. As the CEO and an alumnus of The Consortium,an organization dedicated to improving diversity and inclusion in American business, I followed with great interest a recent LinkedIn post by Tai Tran about Starbucks and its aborted #RaceTogether campaign. While I generally agree with Tai Tran’s observations in the original post, I feel we are missing the point. In the midst of all the trees, we’re missing the forest. Consider this: When toddlers learn to walk, they often fall down. We do not chastise them if they fail. We gently pick them up, brush their knees, wipe their tears, applaud their effort and encourage them to try again. For 300 years, give or take, we have lived in a racially charged and segregated environment. For much of that time, segregation was pursued and accomplished with what I would consider “evil intent.” Later, that segregation was more indirect. People of color had been precluded from access and opportunity and therefore forced into economic segregation. More recently, we Americans have pursued segregation for comfort. We like to surround ourselves with others like us. My point is that none of us, irrespective of race and ethnicity, have effectively learned to be culturally sensitive. Because of our collective history, we are struggling to find meaningful ways to come together as a nation and resolve racial and ethnic issues. Metaphorically speaking, we may not all be toddlers at this point. Many of us are filled with teenage angst. Every day, we are shocked and dismayed because the world does not work the way we think it should. Perhaps, instead, we should adopt the role of the responsible adult. Whether we like it or not, whether we want to or not, we have social issues that need to be addressed and resolved. Protesting is what we do when we are being ignored; shouting is what we do when no one is listening. Let’s meet, not ignore. Let’s listen and pursue a dialogue, not shout. Let’s understand, address and resolve the issues together. Let’s do as Starbuckssuggested. Let’s “Race Together.” I would prefer to see us applaud Starbucks for the noble effort. Then, let’s figure out how we can help them and others like them learn from missteps. Let’s encourage them to get up, dust themselves off, and try again with new and better information. Why do we expect everyone to be perfect when they are first attempting to do the right thing? Starbucks is committed to diversity and inclusion. They have been and continue to be a strong supporter of The Consortium for Graduate Study in Management. They support us with management time, financial resources and by hiring our students and alumni of color into roles of leadership. We need more companies like them. My message to Starbucks: Continue your diversity and inclusion efforts. You are making important strides. As you continue to learn in this area, your impact can and will be profound. My message to the naysayers: Get out of the lounge chair. Stop talking and start doing. Hindsight is generally 20/20. If you can find a way to help Starbucks and other organizations like it, race relations will improve and our country will be better for it.

FROM The Consortium Admissions Blog: Georgetown team with Consortium student tops global VC contest

Coral Taylor Congratulations to Coral Taylor (Consortium OP, 2014) and her teammates at Georgetown University! They finished in first place in the Global Venture Capital Investment Competition this month — marking the third consecutive year a Georgetown team has dominated this international competition. Taylor (Georgetown, ’16) told us the competition is “essentially the opposite of a business plan competition.” Instead of creating a business plan and competing against other entrepreneurs to see which is most viable, the VCIC competition demands that teams evaluate business plans, develop a rapport with the entrepreneurs and come to terms for an early round investment. “It’s hands down the best experience I’ve had at business school so far,” said Taylor, who won along with teammates Eric Ellswort (2015), Amir Kabir (2015), Ben Shopneck (2015) and Jordan Edelman (2016). “It was very challenging, but it was probably one of the coolest team experiences I’ve had,” Taylor told us. “Our team quickly realized our egos had to go out the door, work together and come off as one voice.” Professional venture capitalists served as judges, essentially acting as a fly-on-the-wall. If they detected open disagreement among teammates, Taylor said, it could scuttle their efforts to win the competition. The team left the competition site — the University of North Carolina — on April 11 with first place and a $5,000 prize. The team hasn’t yet decided what to do with the prize money. Taylor, meanwhile, is still toying with what her future holds after graduation in about a year. She’s also won a school-based business plan competition with an idea for a startup that might tempt her. That company, My Bigger Mailbox, was inspired by a problem a number of friends and acquaintances have suffered: package deliveries from Amazon or other shippers stolen from their doorsteps. Not a problem, perhaps, for homeowners, but for renters — who can’t customize or lock down their mailboxes — it is. “We came up with a portable mailbox using a smart lock so you can track when boxes are delivered,” she said. Taylor recalled her own experience with the OP last year, urging new students to know what they are passionate about before they get to the conference. “I knew what kind of experience I wanted to have careerwise,” she said. “Going into OP, I was able to listen for the buzzwords that matched what I was passionate about.”