Calling Columbia applicants for 2008

Yeah, now mine is complete and under review too. I guess you just missed seeing the "printed" status.

grad_mba, I just did a self-reported transcript thing.

Oh ! I am planning on doing the same too. Good Luck with your app
I am still waiting on my reco

You guys are making me nervous. All of you submitting apps and here I am with nothing to show for all my efforts.

don't worry nc, I'm with ya... even though I'm not applying for Columbia

nc, its not the show but the reward!!!!

I am sure you already made a ton of progress with your applications. Just being modest.

ncprasad is posting all this so that few months later, when he gets into Ross and we are dinged everywhere, then he can point at these posts and laugh at us.

I hope you are half-right (right about my admission to Ross). If I can get all these GMAT clubbers to apply to other schools instead of Ross, I will have a better chance.

Dabots, River, Dosa, Bherronp...et al, I am talking to YOU. Dont apply to Ross. Its a really bad school. Mrs.mNeo said that their alumni are boring. Surely, you guys are not boring. So WHY are you applying?

NC, can I get you NOT to apply to UCLA then?

Hah, nice try. I really like what I have heard about Ross so far. The only concern I have is whether my wife can find a job in the area. Hopefully her company will let her work remote while I am in school, though the odds are not good.

So, another person reported of receiving an interview invite on BW forums. looks like things have finally started to simmer for the ED applicants.

I went to the CBS Info Session in Miami last night, and it was pretty informative. There was a lot of local alumni there, all of whom are already tremendously successful!

The adcom who was there did tell us that if your recommender(s) ask you to write your recommendation, you either did not give them enough lead time or you should not use them. He says that he busts people all the time because after reading thousands upon thousands of essays and recs, he can pick up on peoples' writing styles precisely. To remedy this situation, he said, make sure you give your recommender two months notice, if possible, and give them an outline of your achievements. They don't have a problem with you giving input, as long as the recommender writes the rec.

Also, I spoke with a lot of the prospectives and surprisingly a lot of them seemed behind the 8-ball. For example, some still have not taken the GMAT, and there were even a lot of recent college grads! I hope this bodes well for us.

Congrats to those who have submitted their app already! Mine is about a week or two away from completion.

Hijacking the thread here for a moment.
Both my recommenders sent me their copies as a pdf document for me to read after I had sent out my columbia recommendations yesterday by mail. They wanted me to know what they had written (even though I had created outlines and drafts for them in the first place)

1. They used their own material and not my draft - which is good.

2. One senior recommender's letter was tempered and used adjectives like well, good, nice, while the other recommender with whom I have worked more often and professionally quite close has used a plethora of adjectives as exemplary, excellent and extremely (she used extremely 3 times in 3 different questions - extremely enthusiastic, extremely positive attitude and extremely high standards). That got me worried.

The balance between the 2 letters is a bit screwed.. Is that something the ad-com is going to notice?? and would they notice the liberal use of the word extremely??? The only advantage I can think of is that the recommender loves using the word extremely and it shows up in the letter as her own writing style.

Any comments on this.

Don't worry my wife wont be able to find a job in the area so that immediately knocks it out of contention.

I received a packet from my ex-colleague. It had a print-out of my essays, and her comments on almost every line. Her comments are just beautiful .. and make me realize how lacking my essays really are. Unfortunately her comments reached me a few days too late.

So count me out of running for Columbia . Now I know that if Columbia admits me, then that would be despite my essays. Well, the good news is that I can incorporate her suggestions for W/S much earlier.

Not necessarily.....

This is the ED round. I bet most applicants will be in the same boat as you or me. The more our essays get reviewed the better they become.

You will be better prepared for the next school. But so will be the others

Using my CR skills.

ps.. somebody please comment on my recommendation dilemma.. I am chewing my finger nails.

Aviroop, I think you are ok. The AD knows that applicants typically have very little control over their recs. I think you are in a much better position than someone whose reces soundsed a whole lot similar.

The most important thing is for few key ideas to get across: leadership, managerial, etc. etc.

So, I wouldnt sweat it. Plus, there is not much you can do about it anyways.

1 down. 2 to go.

dabots, dosa : Give it up. I am the borg... Resistance is futile... You... will be assimilated.