GMAT Club Legend
Joined: 05 Apr 2006
Affiliations: HHonors Diamond, BGS Honor Society
Posts: 5916
Schools: Chicago (Booth) - Class of 2009
WE:Business Development (Consumer Products)
[#permalink]
14 Feb 2007, 08:15
The GMAT seems like a joke in comparison to the effort I had to put into the applications. I can't believe that I spend three months and god knows how much money - something like maybe $2500 (3 exams + prep) on the GMAT, so that I could write 3 numbers on one TINY piece of the app.
"Ah here is the GMAT section... Ok lets see..."
7 .... - $850
3 ..... - $850
0 ..... - $850
"Man that was an expensive ten seconds on my application!"
The essays were phenomenally brutal to complete - it was a monster amount of work... but at least, I could write an essay, put it to the side, forget about it for a few hours, and come back to it. Once the applications were in - and Kellogg was the worst of all - the frustration and pain became astronomical. Every single time my phone rang, every single time the cell beeped, every time I heard outlook go "ding", I jumped a little inside. Every time I hit login, or refresh or anything, I felt a moment of anticipation. It was bad enough when this spanned a few days, but horrible for places like Kellogg.
Without a doubt, the most nerve racking and frustrating part of the entire process is waiting. You feel so helpless - there's nothing else to do but check your status a million times a day, and whats worse is that you've suddenly developed a ton of time - suddenly your evenings are not 3 hours of essays, your weekends not filled with transcript copying or hunting down whatever bonus you got 3 years ago.
The days drag like molasses - and when you find out about that first call your anxiety increases ten fold. Suddenly now its there - its time - and it could come at any point. I used to think Kellogg was the bomb for rolling admissions - I mean, after all, why not tell me as soon as you've made up your mind? I now realize that it is in fact the cruelest method of all. It's like ripping off a bandaid slowly over the course of 30 days. At least with the GSB/Cornell/HBS, you do it in a day or two.
The other reason I voted the last option was interviews. I couldn't help but feel like it all "comes down to this". In my mind I thought of the three months of slaving over the GMAT, the months and months of application work and agonizing frustration worrying about recommenders, and then here we are: the last hurdle. It's like running a 20 mile race and ten yards before the finish line they build a 30 ft concrete wall. I'm rarely nervous in interviews - I've always been extremely laid back - maybe even too much - but when it came to these, I was probably a total mess. Or at least, it felt that way.
Then after the interview, you of course get to go home and drive yourself insane by wondering what you did right and what you did wrong. You kick yourself for forgetting to mention X, or spending too long on question Y. You replay the interview in your head like groundhog day, except it's even worse than that movie (and thats saying a lot).
It's just the anticipation - the constant build up. For some people were talking 2 months work - they took the GMAT in October, did well enough, barely studied, applied the same month, etc. For others, this is something thats been in the works for almost an entire year. In fact, in my case, it was. I originally started studying for hte GMAT in 2005, fell off of it for a variety of reasons, started up again in Jan 2006. I got my last decision Jan 2007. It was literally an entire year of preparation - and of course, you know that when you are sitting there wondering if they will call. You can't help but think of the the THOUSANDS of hours you've invested.
I've got a friend who, after my second 640, met me for drinks. I bitched about my dissapointment and he told me his story. He took the GMAT five times I believe (memorys a bit hazy now) - and never improved - 500 something each time - and applied every year for the last THREE YEARS. Rejected, Rejected, Rejected. They kept telling him to retake the GMAT. He tried prep courses, it didn't work. His friends at work were going on to HBS, GSB, Kellogg, etc. He couldn't get in anywhere - he said he had stopped telling people he was applying because it was so embarassing at work when everyone else got in and he kept getting rejected year after year. This was his third year of applications, and he had been rejected from everywhere excepted I believe UC Berk at that point. It was his last hope - and his third year of applications. It made my pain pale in comparison, and I realized I was being a total ninny. That was the day I came back here and said "The GMAT may have won this battle, but I'm going to win the war." and scheduled my third retake. In retrospect, I owe a lot to him. I imagine what I went through with ONE application season. I can't imagine what going through THREE must have been like. For the record, he got into UC Berk!
I'm ranting for no reason now, but suffice to say, I vote the wait.