Apologies for my ignorance here but isn't it a tad early to be branding one's self as a Zero Admit for the 2012-2013 application cycle? Are there not multiple R2 and R3 deadlines that are still open for many of the top schools?

For those who have posted thus far, thanks for sharing. It must be a very difficult and stressful experience; hoping for all the best that you all can take away positives from the experience and learn from it.

I am still working on my applications and have not received any responses yet. I saw this thread on Facebook. A couple of things stood out to me in reading these responses, and I admit it is a very small sample of zero admits I am sure, but it seems as though the posters here are both very young and applying to the very best schools. While there is certainly nothing wrong with that, compared to the greater applicant pool things may be different. I am 36 years old, with 15 years of experience in Sales & Marketing and planning on pursuing a full-time MBA in Marketing. I have middle of the road GMAT and GPA (640/3.3) but since I graduated from college in 1999, I am not sure how much of that will carry forward. With the exception of Michigan (which I chose because of its location and my prior automotive industry experience), I have applied mostly to schools that Businessweek has ranked in the 20s and 30s. Most of my choices were driven by the schools location, their concentrations, and the type of atmosphere of the student body. Even with a 700+ 3.8+ GMAT/GPA I am not sure that I would be happy at a programs like those, at least at this point in my life.

Being ambitious and taking advantage of a school's reputation certainly won't hurt you in life - with that said I do think that you have to take more holistic look at where you see yourself in life, career, and your work-life balance. I can tell you this after you reach a certain point in your age when you start to get married, own a home, and involve yourself in other pursuits your priorities change. I think a lot of people get caught up in the game like school is a race - maybe for some, but not for most. I decided to go back and pursue a FT MBA instead of an EMBA since it is my desire to move away from my current industry and also I feel that I could best maximize my MBA exprience on campus that only a full-time program can provide.

Lastly, I think you need to ask yourself WHY you are making the decisions that you are and how they affect YOU rather than how you would look on paper. I think that a lot of people forget that ultimately school is to YOUR benefit not for someone else's.

I agree with this, but I think what planet is saying is that some of the younger people on this thread have a "top-ten" or bust mentality. If you apply to H/S/W, consider schools in the 11-20 range such as Duke/Ross/Darden etc. if you add Kellogg, Booth, Sloan, and CBS to your H/S/W apps, don't be shocked if you get dinged everywhere. Those schools all have acceptance rates 20% and lower. some of the smartest and accomplished people in the planet are your competition. If a school outside the top ten doesn't do it for you, then fine. But if the goal is to attend Bschool his fall, it's smart to hedge your bets and cast a net among the top 20 - especially when you consider that the same companies recruit at all these schools.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fWvub_WBho

Difference is that thread discusses the differences between the tiers of schools (i.e. Booth vs. Darden). I'm comparing a top 15 or top 20 vs. not going to B-school at all (for people who only applied to top 8 schools and got dinged at them all).
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fWvub_WBho

Yeah, that's the most extreme case. But when you think about it, the Adcoms have been doing this awhile, and Mays may have just concluded that the applicant's profile and stats were much, much higher than their usual applicant pool and recognized that even offering a full-ride wouldn't be enough to sway the applicant, so dinging and moving on saved everybody time. Schools in the top 15 probably don't do this because there's always the possibility someone would choose say, Darden over Booth because of fit, but no one in their right mind will ever choose Mays over Booth because of a better fit. That's just nuts.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fWvub_WBho

I can definitely relate with your desire to get out of audit. I spent three busy seasons as a Big Four auditor and realized that I most definitely did not want to do anything related to accounting for the rest of my career. Unfortunately, as I'm sure you're aware, the majority of the exit opportunities for someone in public accounting revolve around accounting, financial reporting, internal audit, etc. Fortunately, I was able to transfer over to one of our Advisory groups and will have been there for about 1.5 years by the time I head off to b-school. I would highly recommend looking into a transfer if that is available to you. The work is definitely more interesting (for me), the hours are better, and you can use it to show the AdCom that you are driven to continuously challenge yourself. Just my two cents.

Age/Gender: 27 - Male
GMAT Score/GPA : 740 (46V, 45Q, 6AW, 4IR) - 3.53
Work Experience: [industry/years] Systems Integration Consulting at Accenture - 5 years
Location: Minneapolis
Schools applied to: Harvard, Sloan, Booth, Kellogg
Any consulting services used: [Yes/NO, Who?] Yes, Amerasia
#Interviews: Kellogg
#WL: 1 - Sloan

Optional:
Which ding hurt the most and why? Booth - I didn't get an interview.
Why the lack of success? Unsure
What next? Unsure

It's frustrating. Are you working the Sloan waitlist? Are you from an over-represented group? do you have leadership experience on an off the job?

Obviously I can't even attempt to opine on why you weren't accepted without evaluating your app, but you may want to check out these pages which have resources for wailisted applicants as well as for applicants who may need to reapply:

* MBA Waitlist
* Accepted or Rejected: What to Do Next
* MBA Reapplicants

Don't give up!

Best,
Linda
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Linda Abraham
Accepted.com
labraham@accepted.com
310-815-9553

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I don't think you're aiming too high. I just think you made a mistake by putting all your eggs in one basket. Based on your list of schools for next season, it seems like you're interested in finance in NYC/Boston. If so, have you considere Darden, Johnson, and Yale? I believe all three place pretty well in IB and could help round out your list of schools.

Yeah, I'd look at those schools + Sloan if I were you. Sloan is more quant-heavy as I'm sure you know, so that sounds like a good fit from a high-level perspective. Yale's curriculum is set-up really differently from other schools' but ultimately the content is more or less the same. There's still cases and lectures and whatnot, but instead of approaching business from a functional standpoint (finance, marketing, operations, etc), they approach it from a stakeholder perspective (customer, competitor, investor, etc). Hope that helps.
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aerien

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