Directory of MBA Applicant Blogs

"The best advice I have ever received was from my fellow applicants" - this is a quote I hear almost daily from GMAT Club members. This thread is bringing you the latest and greatest from the MBA blogosphere! This thread will be a collection of GMAT Club member blog posts brought directly from their blogs. You can pick up what they have found to be worthwhile and get the news that matter to people in your situation. You can now learn a lot more about your fellow members and I encourage you to visit their blogs (linked in the header to learn even more).

Here is a list of users/blogs that are currently participating (want to add your blog? You can do it here)


1. ConsultingorBust - MBA Data Guru Blog
2. lillianmbula - https://kenyanmba.wordpress.com/ - A Kenyan's Journey to an International MBA
3. slipmeone - https://sailingawayfromthesafeharbor.com/ - My Transition to Business School.
4. nickrubick - https://rubicksjourneys.wordpress.com/ - My LBS Sloan MSc application process and my experiences along the way.
5. Nomadsmba - https://nomadsmba.home.blog/ - A Nomad's MBA Tale…
6. AUSJ - https://fromaus2mba.wordpress.com/ - Another MBA Journey


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FROM Domotron's Blog: State of lethargy

I have descended into a state of lethargy after my interviews. I know that I have to finish my Kellogg app as soon as possible to make sure I get a shot at an off-campus interview. However, the motivation really is not there at the moment. Rather than being ruthlessly efficient and shutting out all the distractions to work on my essays, I find myself counting down the days until decisions come out. Wharton is first with their decisions being released on the 17th before Booth on the 19th. By my count that’s 12 days away. This could be the longest 12 days ever. Luckily, I am not the only one who feels this way. If you survey the various Calling All Applicants threads on GmatClub you will notice that all the applicants’ nerves are equally frayed. Whenever I speak to current students or alums, they have always said the waiting was the worst part. One thing is very clear in my mind though. I only need one school to say yes. If I get an admit in a couple of weeks then all pressure is off. However there is every chance that I am left without an admit after the decision dates, at point which I will need to re-evaluate my R2 options or even thinking about re-applying next year. I don’t want to think about the worst case scenarios but I can’t help being pragmatic! As for my other school Tuck, I have a MUCH longer wait since I applied in the November round. The decision date is not until early February. To be completely honest, I have gone slightly gaga over the school. Of all the schools I have applied this, it’s the one where I have gone above and beyond to engage with students, alums and admissions. All this work inevitably builds a level of hope and expectation. It’s going to bea long 2 months with frequent daydreams of getting that admit call. Best of luck to everyone waiting on decisions in December. Hope you are all just about coping with the looong wait!

Thank you! bb for this new feature. Pretty helpful

FROM Hamm0's Blog: The Calm Before the Storm

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving last week, and enjoyed the family, friends, and turkey. If you do not celebrate Thanksgiving, you should start next year – it is truly one of the best holidays out there. Literally, you get to eat tons of food, drink wine/beer, watch football on TV, and pass out. Now that the holiday is over, what now? My thoughts exactly. I fielded an endless barrage of questions over the holidays, some of which I will list below. I honestly felt interviews were easier than dealing with this: Why didn’t you apply to HBS What is Tuck? Are you going to live at home? Why are you quitting a good job? Why not do an online program? Why not go to (insert local university here)? Did you get a scholarship? Where are you going to intern at? Where are you going to work? How are you going to pay for this? Didn’t you just graduate? Are your parents going to pay for it? I thought you were an engineer..? You need an MBA to work at a bank? I read something bad about HBS students – are all schools like that? Are you worried about job hunting in a bad economy? What if you can’t get a job? I thought you had a business minor, why do you need a MBA? Why do you want to move away? Are you going back to school to find a future spouse? Why not? I hear the MBA is overrated – why are you doing that? Why can’t you just read about the subjects online? Zuckerberg/Gates/Dell/Branson/Ellison/Jobs didn’t need an MBA – why do you? Are you going to work part time while studying? Why not? Why didn’t you apply to more schools? Why did you apply to so many schools? WHICH SCHOOL IS YOUR FAVORITE? Every MBA I’ve met is a jerk. Ok, the last one was not a question, but someone actually said that, lol. I just said, yep! And walked away. I guess that proved their point. I am definitely tired of fielding these questions (and thousands others). Nevertheless, what am I supposed to do now? Quick sitrep: I have applied to six schools, interviewed at four schools, and got dingedat one. I am probably due for a ding at Darden, as they announced that a majority of interview invites have gone out the other day. Make that two dings. I have a week or two more until any decisions are made, so I have been relaxing. I have relaxed so long; I forgot the passwords to my applyyourself login for a few schools! With a decision from Johnson pending in the next 10 days, I guess I should start some round 2 applications. You know, just to be safe. I realistically have four shots, but given the competitiveness of my schools, it is not impossible hard to go 0-for-4. I have been doing some light research on these schools, but have not actually done anything about it. I have always had them in the back of my mind as potential round two schools, but note that they are NOT safety schools. I am of the mindset that you should not apply to safety schools. The schools I have in mind are just as difficult/more difficult than the previous six that I applied to from a pure numbers standpoint. For various reasons, however, they are compromises on what I thought the ideal MBA program meant. So, I guess in my waiting I should probably get started on those essays… For now, though, it is the calm before the storm. Johnson is set to give me a decision on the 11th, Tuck on the 18th, Fuqua and Ross on the 20th. This will probably be my last update until I hear from Johnson, so cross your fingers and toes for me! Filed under: About Me, Ramblings, Schools Tagged: Admissions, Off Topic, School Selection, Waiting

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FROM Hamm0's Blog: Decision Season

Well, it is that time of year. As foreshadowed by my last post, the storm is here. The once quiet gmatclub chat room is now bubbling with 30-50 people hiding from work waiting for decisions. Every piece of data from the admissions office is posted, analyzed, decomposed, and re-analyzed. For me, this week represents my first decision date. Cornell Johnson is set to release decisions tomorrow, 12/11 for all round 1 applicants. Knowing this, I expected calls to start today. I spent the morning hiding my phone in places where I could not see it, but could hear it vibrate if needed. That lasted for about 20 minutes when my mother called me to see how much snow I got and I almost fell out of my chair trying to answer the phone. Do not ever call an MBA applicant in the 48hrs preceding a deadline. Around 11:00, with still no news on the forums, I decided it was time for an extended lunch. I grabbed my coat, and hit the gym. For those of you that are still waiting, or will be waiting in the future, definitely do this. The gym is a great way to reduce stress and take your mind off something that is swaying your attention from everything else. I figured it would be fitting that when I came back to my locker after my shower, that I’d have a missed call. At least I hoped. Get away from me phone! Phone check #496 on the day yielded an unimportant email from work, so I headed out into the cold for some lunch. Maybe food would help me relax. After all, I do love my noms. When I got back to my desk with my bounty, I realized they grabbed me the wrong flavor of chips – I hate sour cream and onion. At least my wrap was good. Maybe it was just going to be one of those days. I woke up late and had to shovel the snow from the driveway, which made me late for work. I was even more late because the snow-caused traffic jam. And now I got the wrong chips. Then it started. It was looking like one of those days…. While suffering my way through the aforementioned chips, I instinctively checked gmatclub to see if anyone had heard from Johnson. Yup. Someone from the east coast was reporting an acceptance. And then there was another. And another. If you are an avid reader of Boots to Suits, you know I refer to application anxiety by a scale called the mpg scale. Assuming the scale of 0-10, 10 being the highest, I moved to about a 9.86. All of the admits were from the east coast. I am from the east coast. Like any neurotic applicant, I took to my phone, and started texting a friend who know what I was going through to pass the time. At least this way, if the phone rang, I’d have it in my hands. Waiting waiting waiting waiting. Mid-text, I got a call from a number I did not recognize. My heart leapt, but then I realized it wasn’t the area code I was looking for. Who is calling me from Palmdale? I don’t know anyone in Palmdale. I ducked in a conference room and timidly answered. The voice began to say something – and all I heard was “…from the Johnson school of Management at Cornell – do you know why I’m calling you today?” I beamed. “I think so, but I want to hear you say it” was my awfully cheesy response. The rest of the call I don’t think I could choke out anything but lots of “thank you’s”. Johnson adcom listening to me on the phone So there it is – I’m in at Johnson. I feel like the weight of the world has been lifted. Those that know me know that I’ve been working towards this for a long time. I would like to thank all of you for all of your efforts, advice, and dealing with my mpgs. You people are the best. Looking forward, I have 3 more decisions coming up next week: Fuqua, Ross, and Tuck. You will definitely get another update by the end of next week, but for now, its celebration time. Filed under: Admissions Tagged: Accepted!, Admissions, Business school, Johnson

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FROM Domotron's Blog: Congrats to my fellow bloggers

Rather than talk about me (since I have absolutely 0 to update on) I want to send my congratulations to two of my fellow bloggers who have got their first admits over the last few day: 1) Hamm0 for his admit to Johnson and 2) Timbob for getting into HBS. I know both of them have put in a huge amount of work into their applications and they both deserve a round of applause for it paying off!

FROM Domotron's Blog: Pick me!

How time flies. Only 1 more sleep till the madness begins. Tomorrow I vouch not to stare at my phone the entire day or refresh Gmatclub obsessively… we will see how long that lasts. Let’s go Wharton do me a huge favour and put me at ease with a call tomorrow!

FROM Sarah's MBA Journey: The December game plan

Right. So after my poor GMAT score. I’ve taken a couple of days to reflect, to research and to come up with a new game plan. Aim My aim is to apply for two American business schools in round two. The schools are Harvard and Duke and both have a submission deadline of the 6th January. To do this successfully I need to: Sort references Write essays Fill in applications Shorten my CV Resit GMAT References First step is finalising who I’m going to ask to be references for each business school. To help choose, I’m going to be guided by the questions the recommenders need to answer. Harvard wants both recommenders to talk about what constructive criticism they have given me and how I’ve responded. While Duke wants references that can comment on my interpersonal and team working skills. Thankfully I think I can ask a couple of people, so no one needs to do more than one business school. Essays For the Harvard essay I can reuse a lot of the personal statement essay from the Fulbright application. A lot of the qualities they look for are very similar between the two. Just need to tweak it and focus more on what I can bring to the Harvard community. I’ve done the first draft of the 25 random things for duke. But I will need to rewrite and ensure it compliments the rest of my application. I need to write an essay on why duke. Truthfully I need to do a bit more research to make this truly sing. But I can make a good start and then focus on the areas where I need to fill in the gaps. First step write emails to some more student groups. They also want me to write three short essays on my post MBA goals. Again while I my Fulbright essay on research objectives can be used as a starting point. I think I need to make the aims and objectives alot more punchy and focused. Fill in applications This is the faffy bit. To reduce any last-minute stress this is best done early with a glass of wine in hand. I have all my transcripts PDFed and ready to go. So it looks like a Friday night or a Saturday after hockey is application time. I don’t foresee any issues with this section. CV I’ve got positive comments on my CV in terms of length and content. However for business school I need to reduce it to a page. From what I’ve seen I need to focus more on impact. Mmm how do you that in a public sector research context? Need to think a bit more about that but I’m hoping I have a good starting point.  I think  I can re-write this over Christmas so no need to worry now. Resit the GMAT Ok, I need to resit the GMAT. This is my final shot. Based on the last two times I need a different strategy. My new strategy is based on two aims: Reduce performance gap between practice test and test day  Improve overall level of performance To reduce the performance gap I need to sit alot more practice tests. Downside for me one test takes four hours. So there is only one day of the week I have enough time to sit them which means there is a natural limit to how many I can do. I also need to improve timing and thinking under pressure. There are two basic approaches to this. Do questions under timed conditions and really know inside out and backwards the approach I should take to each question type. Since some of the performance gap might be due to the incorrect accommodations I’ve asked my educational psychologist for their advice just to be sure. Since I’m going to work under the assumption of that I have a performance gap I need to improve my overall level of performance. So I want to improve my verbal score to the 99 percentile. This is very achievable. Just need to nail sentence correction. Downside as a dyslexic this is where I struggle in normal life. So I have my work cut out for me. I can often tell if the sentence is wrong but I can’t say why. Upside I’ve seen a course which might help, which is offered by GMAT pill. I also need to do more work on the Quant and see if I can improve it towards the 70 percentile. Help! Seriously I know the concepts, how to approach questions and the strategies to use. But I can’t seem to translate that to test day. So it’s a combination of the basics and learning how to tackle the tough stuff. Some if that is just deciding which subject areas I want to get to an advanced level in. So that really knowing my strengths and weaknesses. I also think I need to change my online course. I’ve used Magoosh and its been brilliant at moving me from 25 percentile to about 50 percentile. But I’ve now gone through the videos twice. I need a new resource which also covers the advanced stuff. Any suggestions? I also have a maths tutor who has also been really helpful at bringing up my score and showing me answer strategies. I’m tempted by GMAT pill, but I would love to try something offered by Manhattan GMAT, if only it offered something which was only quant focused. Related articles GMAT: take two (sarahmbajourney.wordpress.com) Fulbright post project review (sarahmbajourney.wordpress.com)

FROM Sarah's MBA Journey: Oops. Stress makes a come back.

I was doing so well. I had a routine at work, strict rules about bed time and it was working. All this meant I was keeping a handle on my stress. But Darn, the last three weeks I had fallen into bad habits and the stress monster came back. Feel a bit disappointed about getting stress again. Here are a list of my sins: I forgot to take proper lunch breaks No mid-week exercise in two weeks Late night study session No break after my exam. I socialised too hard Then this week, no social life. Bad me. And I’ve need to take steps to bring my life back in balance. Unfortunately this has meant less GMAT study and business school apps. Bringing my life in balance has included a night out with friends to the dogs, betting on move over Obama, a lovely greyhound. Then an early night, a game of hockey and then a night out with another set of friends to see watching the Dame Edna tour. Then a lazy Sunday which has included reading a book, catching up on TV, a Skype chat and lots of tea. Hopefully this means I will be firing on all systems for Monday. So what does this mean for rest of December? No excuses I must exercise once during the week. I must take one night off during the week to socialise. I might also need to start ignoring GMAT-pill’s study plan. A bit too intense.

FROM The adventures of a (provisional) MBA student: Harvard – The interview with a sprinkling of wine & cheese

A large part of my HBS interview experience was associated with the ‘extras’. A mere 30 minute interview doesn’t do the day justice, so much of my state of mind hinged on the day around it. So you’ll get the full account, Dear Reader Build-up With the build-up, comes nerves. Falling asleep to ‘snow overnight in England’ brought back my memories of my GMAT – where I almost missed my exam slot after my train dragged its way painfully over partially frozen rails. This did nothing for my anxiety. Thankfully, the weather was clear and bright on the day. My preparation in the morning consisted of reading my application what seemed over 100 times in the preceding days, until I knew it backwards. I also spent significant time answering common questions (although it felt a bit overpriced, I do recommend ClearAdmit’s interview guide- https://www.clearadmit.com/products/interview-guides/ - all the information is freely available elsewhere on their site but it is a useful summary of possible questions. Their school guides are better though). Several questions found on forums were actually asked in the interview, so perhaps not wasted time going through these thoroughly, if nothing else to get some themes in your head you’d use to answer each one. My last half hour on the train & tube I turned off. So I was fresh I just read the newspaper on the way in. The Preamble Park Lane: More expensive now HBS had taken a few hotel business rooms on Park Lane for the week in London. Probably the most exclusive hotel area in the city, I actually felt a little out of place. This territory is normally reserved for high rollers and unfathomably wealthy Chinese tourists. Arriving 20 minutes early, I bumped into the previous interviewees having a drink before they left. They looked calm. Fresh. Almost… casual? (B******ds!) However, my nerves started to dissipate. Talking to my fellow applicants was actually interesting, if a little intimidating. One had traveled from Rwanda to be there. This is a LONG way. I almost forgot I was about to be interviewed. After they left, I had the chance to talk to one of the Admissions team, again completely off-topic and just soothing before the big event. If nothing else was gained during this day, at least I handed out a useful tip on where to get theatre tickets for the West End. Suddenly, I was on. ‘Tim?’ The Interview After all I’d read, a surprisingly relaxed experience. My nerves had settled slightly by then, and the interviewers were friendly and welcoming – not at all like the fierce HBS interviews I’d read about as expected. The interview itself was very free flowing. I don’t really see the point in listing the questions in detail, as I got the impression they were chosen from a very long list based on my own circumstances. However, most were about fine details in my application. I’d suggest making sure you’re able to expand on each and every aspect in there. I mean, every one. I was even asked about my childhood and a particularly notable part of where I grew up – “did it influence you?”. Err… The 30 minutes went really quick. So quick I was stunned when we finished. Some points I wanted to get across in the interview, simply didn’t come up due to time. I can understand why its short – for the Admissions Committee to interview everyone personally around the globe as they do at HBS, they have a huge number to get through and an enormous amount of travelling. The logistics of it must be a nightmare. Funnily enough though it’s not often you can say you actually enjoyed an interview, whatever the outcome. I still have no idea about my chances, I stumbled in a few places but was confident in others. It was made clear that this is only part of my application and the application as a whole gets taken into account in the final decision. I suspect mix and diversity is a key part at this stage too, as the numbers dwindle. If there’s more than a few European-based Operations applicants still standing, I may be sunk whatever my own performance. The converse is also true. I’ve now allowed myself to be slightly hopeful as the odds shorten. Idiot. I’m sure I’ll regret this. “Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane” – Morgan Freeman, in ‘Shawshank Redemption’ Post-Interview Wind Down Then I had a two hour gap. HBS had organised a private Alumni Q&A session in the evening. Only one thing to do, in the rain in London. Pub. My pen I had on the way in was missing. I panicked briefly that it had fallen out in my pocket during interview, the interviewer had slipped on it after I left and he was now waiting for paramedics. This would not do my chances any good. [Your imagination does crazy things at times like these...] I wrote down every question I could remember from the interview, and assumed I’d remember my answers. (Next morning, I realised actually I really didn’t so perhaps take some notes on key points of the answers too?). Useful for the post-interview reflection, a new part of the applcation at HBS where you have 24 hours to write a final note & mini-essay. Wine (After beer…) The Alumni panel in the evening was an absolute joy. I was joined by my fiancé (invited by HBS – a nice touch) and we got the chance to ask a lot of private questions about everything from post-HBS experiences to the housing lottery. The alumni were great, enthusiastic and blew off a lot of cobwebs from the traditional HBS image. I left thinking it was not possible to be more enthusiastic about anything so I guess the evening did its job. The cheese was good too. The scene of battle polite conversation: Park Lane The Wait So it’s now four days later. 4/23. The notification deadline of December 11th looms large. Already it’s like some sort of terrible torture. I’m a little more philosophical now about the outcome, but I am certainly both allowing myself at least some hope which usually precedes a terrible disappointment for me. I can’t imagine a better interview day experience though. It was clear a real effort was made to get to know the real me, and not try and catch me out or trip me up. Well done to HBS.

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FROM The adventures of a (provisional) MBA student: HBS Decision day

Wow, what a rollercoaster. I’m in. As Harvard put it in their first sentence: ‘It’s a YES!’. I genuinely cannot believe it. I’m still stunned the next day! My thoughts go to everyone out there who’s getting a ‘No’ – I’ve got great sympathy for every one of you. When I started my applications (and even my GMAT study) I knew it would take a lot of time, patience, even fees for applications, but I had no idea how much you have to put in emotionally to the whole process. You really have to put yourself into it for any chance of success. A ‘no’ for me here would meant a strike-out in Round 1 with Haas and Wharton, and I dreaded the feeling of hopelessness that would have followed. A christmas of further application writing and misery beckoned. My next response was relief, and then to thank everyone who’d supported me – after my immediate family and friends, my recommenders were soon to know. The few I’ve seen (unlike many I suspect I haven’t actually seen most of the references written for me, only one or two) were sensational and I’m sure they played a big part in getting accepted. I’m now writing this with a terrible hangover, which probably betrays my second response. Vaguely reminds me of my GMAT result celebration. I didn’t dare book a day off work the day after (terrible karma or something, I’m sure), but I really really wish I had right  now. So, what next? Well after some sort of fruit and hydration, I have two agenda items. My MIT application is still to go ahead. I said right at the beginning to myself this is one program (as an engineer with huge respect for the place) that I would consider ahead of HBS. Not saying I definitely would, but I’ve basically finished the application for their LGO program – it’s a little different to a straight MBA and don’t want to make a decision right now. The other thing is that I can start merrily researching Boston – because I’m 100% going to be there in September. Boston on most definitely a summer day

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FROM Domotron's Blog: Ding #2 – Wharton

Wharton said thanks but no thanks. I honestly thought my team-based discussion and subsequent interview went well. I guess it may not have compensated for a somewhat marginal application in the first place. A real mixture of emotions at this point. The tough thing was getting closer with Wharton (i.e. receiving an interview invitation) but still no end result as yet. This leaves Booth as the last school standing in R1 with calls due tomorrow and final decisions on Thursday. Not feeling at all optimistic at this point about my chances at Booth but we will see. Tomorrow is another day and it’s completely out of my hands now! Congrats to those who received good news today from Wharton. A whole bunch of schools are releasing their decisions tomorrow so best of luck everyone.

FROM Sarah's MBA Journey: Saturday: Essay writing day

Well, that went surprising well. I officially have a bunch of business school application essays. All that pain with the Fulbright application has paid off. I’ve really learnt how to sell myself on paper, what my offer is and what I want from business school. All that thinking I needed to do for Fulbright really helped ;specially as I had one day to write a lot of essays. I now have a full draft of all my essays for Duke. I’m even slightly ahead as I wasn’t going to worry about one essay until Christmas. The Essays I’ve written all three goal essays. Duke made it bit more fun as there almost long tweets at a max of 250 characters. This was pretty much a copy and paste from Fulbright research objectives essays. The next essay was 25 random things; I wrote a first draft of that while on my surfing holiday. Even a couple of months later I think it’s fairly good. I just done a couple of tweaks to make it more positive sounding. It’s currently a page long which I think is the right length for a list. I know I’m allowed to have two pages; but don’t see how that will add anything. Think the list I wrote covers my interests; sport, reading, cooking and going out in London. The final essay was why Duke, but you had set it out like you’re speaking to friends or family. This approach really suited my writing style as I could be informal and friendly. I had two aims of the essay show them why Duke; which is more than why Fuqua and what I would bring to the class. One step that really worked was creating a mind map of the main things I had to cover and key points and details I could add. You can learn more about mind maps here. Yes, my drafts can be improved; but I would say there are in pretty good shape. Just need to tighten up the drafting I think. I think my research shows through as well as my personality. Can’t ask for anything more. Next Steps I also need to write an optional essay for both schools explaining my low GMAT score just in case the resit doesn’t go as planned. Got the idea from advice provided on the  beat the GMATsite. The essay will go along the lines of; I’m not dumb; just dyslexic and I eat semi differential calculus for breakfast. Next stop is Harvard essay. I know what I want to sell; but how do I make it good enough for Harvard to go, yep she worth talking to? That’s my next challenge and I’ll honest I avoided it today. Means I have a reprieve of a week; My next drafting slot in my timetable is my five-hour train ride home next Saturday.   Related articles The December game plan (sarahmbajourney.wordpress.com) Personal statement time

FROM The adventures of a (provisional) MBA student: The morning after the week before…

The last week has been a bit of a blur, literally. Performing my civic duty as a juror has allowed me to indulge myself in the evenings and an intense period of celebration means my liver is both my best friend and worst enemy. In amongst that my final application was submitted and my thoughts have turned to financing the next two years. A number of scholarships are on the horizon (in particular those relevant to my background) and all seem to helpfully coincide with my impending wedding and honeymoon. I’m planning to use the Christmas break to start seriously planning my next moves. Suddenly, top of my to-do/research list are scholarship opportunities, loans, and working out my exit strategy from work (exactly how do I fit finishing decorating my house, a wedding, and honeymoon, and preparing to emigrate in only half a year’s holiday allowance?). I hope I’m not the only one out there who feels this under prepared…

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FROM Hamm0's Blog: The Decision

Before I dig into what you all came in here to read – where I’m going to business school – I have another clerical update. Between my last post, and now, we have crossed the 20,000 view barrier, and are accelerating faster than ever. Thanks to everyone who has been following my journey.  Additionally, I want to congratulate several of my co-applicants on landing many impressive offers. You all have been very supportive to me during my application season, and you will certainly be an asset to whichever program you choose. Finally, a special thank you to all of those who helped me with my applications.  Be it essay edits, emotional support, or even pretending to listen to my constant whining, these people have been invaluable to my success. Thank You Thank You Ok, enough mushy talk – time to dig in. So last post, I was extremely excited to have been offered a spot in the class of 2016 at Johnson. This past week, however, was chock full of decisions. I was expecting to hear decisions from the remaining schools that I interviewed at: Tuck, Fuqua, and Ross. Before that could happen, though, I had to face the music at Darden.  Being as I didn’t interview, I knew what was coming, and received my second ding of application season on Monday. Tuesday was a different day – Ross announced they would call all admitted US applicants on Wednesday, and it was rumored that Tuck would start calling their admitted applicants on Tuesday. I had a good feeling about Ross. After all, they invited me to interview, and I think the interview went pretty well.  I had a good amount of preparation, and even went so far as to use ClearAdmit’s interview guide which I found very helpful – review forthcoming. Tuck, on the other hand, I had no clue about.  If you remember from my posts earlier, I had an applicant initiated interview, and stayed the night at Tuck. Over the next few weeks, my attraction to the program only grew.  I knew it would be a bit of a reach given its small class size, and my lower GMAT/GPA combo, but I really felt that I put a strong application together.  However, Tuesday came and went, and my phone did not ring. I wasn’t too worried though – as expected no calls were reported on gmatclub. I went home and tried to mentally prepare for the climax of my decision season; Wednesday would should bring calls from two of my schools. By noon on Wednesday, calls had started for Ross. I wasn’t terribly worried at this point, since it was early in the day. By two o’clock, though, I was starting to become flustered.  At this point in the day, I had done the bare minimum at work, and really wasn’t doing too much else other than staring at my phone and refreshing GMATclub. By 4, I was a basket case. Ross had seemingly stopped calling, and Tuck had made no calls Wednesday. I left work early that day, not knowing my fate; Ross wouldn’t update my final status until Friday. Thursday meant I had only Tuck to focus on, due to their changeup of not calling in the day before decision day. I knew that they would call right up to the 5:00 deadline, so when calls started around 9:00, I wasn’t too worried. One of my favorite Tuckies got their call with only a few minutes to spare before the announced deadline. At work, I was even more useless than I was the day prior. After lunch, I really began to worry. With each passing minute, it became less and less likely.  With 15 minutes to go before the 5:00 deadline, I resigned myself to praying for a waitlist offer.  5:00 yielded bad news. I was denied admission at Tuck. At this point, I was pretty crushed.  Sure, one of my top choices had admitted me last week, but I had now suffered back-to-back-to-back dings…or possibly a waitlist at Ross.  The point is, it had been a rough week, and I had definitely come down from the momentous high that came with my Johnson admit.  I had one more bullet in the chamber in the form of Fuqua, and still had hope of the waitlist at Ross; Friday would be my last decision day. By Friday, I was ready for it to be over. I did not want to live another day like this, staring at my phone waiting for it to buzz, and then cursing like a sailor when someone who was not in admissions was foolish enough to call me. Fuqua calls started early – in the Far East. I figured they would work their way west, as they typically do. In the mid-morning, east coast calls started to happen, and by 11, they had gone to the Midwest.  If my call was coming, it would have to come soon.  Noon came, and I switched gears to Ross: Decisions were up. I scrambled to type my password and navigate the website to where my decision lie, only to find that I had been waitlisted. I guess this is the best possible result after not getting a call on Wednesday.  I filed that away, and went back to the task at hand; trying to make my phone ring with a caller in Durham on the other side.  After lunch, calls seemed to stop. I began refreshing my applicant decision page like a maniac, hoping that for some reason I wasn’t called, but I was still admitted. 5:00 came, and still no news – I had enough.  Work was having a holiday party, so after one last refresh of the webpage, I headed out to the party.  At 6, I got a note saying my decision was ready for Fuqua. I scrambled to open the webpage from my phone, only to find that wasn’t possible.  When I finally got home, i opened the webpage before doing anything else…and got my final ding of application season. So to sum things up, I have been dinged by 3 schools this week and waitlisted by Ross. These decisions go along with an admit at Johnson and a ding at Wharton. This has been one of the most emotional 2 week periods in my life. Even though I was fairly warned by those who came before me, I was not prepared for the emotional swings that MBA decisions brought with them. I spent most of last week pretty depressed, and not because I really did not want to go to Johnson or Ross – that isn’t the case at all. After spending countless hours crafting applications for my other schools, it is really painful to receive a 200 word form letter saying “thanks but no thanks” in response. By Friday evening, I was ready to exhale, and I certainly did. After several cocktails at the work party and with dinner, my friends took me out to celebrate. Yesterday morning, I woke up with a serious hangover, but in a much better mood. I had put the dings behind me, and focused on my remaining decision. Me on Friday night aft er the last bschool decision My immediate reaction told me I’ll decline the waitlist at Ross to attend Johnson.  After spending some time making sure that I want to follow that plan of action, I made my decision. I will be attending the S.C. Johnson School of Management in the fall!  As I mentioned in my interview debrief, the school really impressed during my visit. I’m thrilled to be accepted, and can’t wait to embark on the next stage of this journey.  All roads lead to Ithaca now! Filed under: About Me, Schools Tagged: Accepted!, Admissions, Darden, Dings , Fuqua, Johnson, Ross, School Selection, Tuck, Waiting, Wharton

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FROM Domotron's Blog: Ding #3 – Booth

Last Wednesday I heard back from my last R1 school, Booth. Unfortunately after a frustrating day of waiting by my phone and attempting to not incessantly check Gmatclub, all I received was radio silence. At the designated time I checked the application page and received another “unfortunately I regret to inform you …”. It was a pretty bitter pill to swallow but nothing I can do now. I guess the frustrating part was coming somewhat close (i.e. receiving interview invitations from both Booth and Wharton) and failing to convert on any of my R1 applications.So after going 0/3 in R1, what’s next? I am still waiting on my Tuck application for November round. Not only is this my (potentially) final shot, it is also my favourite school. From going to visit, initiating an interview, and networking with current students and alums, I have tried to do everything I possibly can to get into Tuck. However, we will see in 7 weeks whether Tuck reciprocates my affection. Previously I mentioned Kellogg, I am pretty close to be in a position to submit an app for R2. I know that each application is a separate discrete event but in light of my performance for R1, I am definitely uncertain about the package and story that I am submitting. Clearly, it is not resonating strongly enough. This will be something to ponder over the Christmas and New Years period.

FROM Sarah's MBA Journey: How not to have a mental break down on a project

Here’s my handy guide how to stay sane on a work project. I just had a meeting today with an old boss and he recommended that I learn lessons about my last work project to make sure I don’t fall ill due to stress a second time. So, I’ve outlined below my main learning points in three areas, social life, work life and mental health.  If I can stop one person going through what I went through by being open about what happened to me I will consider it all to be worthwhile. Social Life Have one: Make time for it.  See your friends and family. If you either don’t make plans or keep cancelling, it might indicate your life is a bit out of balance. (P.S applying for business school is not an excuse.) Book holiday in advance and take it. I can tell you now your project won’t go to plan. Exercise; you need an outlet for the stress. Whether that a walk in the park, or a 1o mile jog, or run round a hockey pitch. Build in relax time:  whether that is watching the world go round, walking in the countryside, hanging out with friends, or watching latest trashy tv programme, it doesn’t matter. Just make time for it. In summary: Self-care!!! Work The boss Try to get a good manager. Remember a good one, might be different from a nice one. If in doubt, go for the good one. You and the bosses Delegate upwards. Be clear who is responsible for what. If it’s not your responsibility, why are you worrying about it or even trying to do it? Just highlight to your managers and move on. Highlight at an early stage if the project is going AWOL. Develop the skill of saying no to bosses. Old boss recommends going to meeting saying, we can’t deliver all this, but we can deliver that. Or to deliver we need more staff etc to deliver. Have regular one-ones with your manager outside of team meeting scenarios. You Don’t work yourself into the ground for an undeliverable deadline. It’s not worth it. Focus on the process rather than outcome. You can control the work you do; not the impact. Do the best job you can with the time you have.  There no guarantee about the impact of the work, don’t worry about. Take time away from your desk every day. Get some breathing space. Best ways to do this include; buying a coffee at the coffee shop, or having lunch away from your desk. When it starts going wrong, or the project gets really busy. Stop!!! Take a moment to think and see what you can change and discuss your concerns with your managers as quickly as quickly as possible. (See section above on you and the bosses.) If someone to trying to rescue you/the project. Don’t question. Just do. When you’re in the hole, you can’t necessarily see how to get out of it. Now say this after me.  You’re silly if you allow work to make you SICK!!!!! Don’t do it.   Mental health Switching Off Learn to switch off. Worrying about a project at 11pm at night, or when your trying to sleep is a bad idea. I use the worry list technique. Before I go to bed, write down my worries. I then identify what need to be done about them. (kinda like a to-do list.) My current boss suggests; take 10-15 out your morning and identify the day’s three priorities. Don’t use your work blackberry as an alarm clock; you’ll be tempted to look at work emails at 11pm at night. Who wants to know if their boss is silly enough to still be writing emails at this time of night? You’re even sillier if you respond. Need Sleep Sleep: Get 8 hours kip a night. By all means have a late night, but balance it out. Your less likely to over-react if you have enough sleep. Stress If you think your stressed. You are! And you might be worse than you think. Ask for some honest feedback from your boss about your performance and then use that information when you go to your Doctor.  If I had a better understanding earlier of how stress was affecting me I could have given my doctor more complete information and got the help I needed sooner. If you’re getting stressed, figure out why…really why? It’s all about how you process the situation.  My faulty thinking processes were due to fear of failure. Now you know your thinking processes; think about how to correct it and develop some better thought patterns. Concluding point Reassurance: Everyone will go through a bad patch; it’s quite normal when your taking on more responsibility, trying please people and potentially trying to go for promotion. It’s most likely to occur when you have limited control on what happens to you. Again. YOUR NORMAL!!!!

FROM Sarah's MBA Journey: Beware: parents is here….

My only piece of advice on studying for GMAT at home over Christmas. DON’T!! The week of annual leave was mainly used to keep the natives from being restless rather than study. After the first day at home, I very quickly realised the natives would not give me the peace to do a 4 hour practice exam. So I haven’t tried to do one. There is always the question do you want a cuppa right in middle of a question, meaning you lose your train of thought. Or the more helpful, you going to study today? Or going up a level, one of my parent’s tries to have a conversation with me when my head is stuck in a study book. Even worse, as my parents or sister haven’t seen me in a year, I am are banned from going into my GMAT cave. I must socialise, chat and spend time with them. Great for the relaxing, bad for the study. Upside I got my meals got cooked and there was always food in the cupboard for study munchies. Not once did I have to go on a forging hunt to the local supermarket. Loved being home, but GMAT studying and parents don’t go together. Anyone who’s studied for GMAT with a family, I take my hat off to you, I have no idea how you managed to do it. P.S My GMAT is on the 31st December.

FROM Sarah's MBA Journey: GMAT take three: the score moved!

What a great start to Hogmanay. My GMAT score moved and it moved in the right direction. I’m a proud owner of a 590 score. It’s above the GMAT average and now puts me in the GMAT score range of my target schools. Integrated reasoning 6; 67 percentile. Quant :32; 28 percentile Verbal:38; 84 percentile. Yep, my maths score is still rotten, but there is enough proof in other parts of my application That I can do advanced level maths. So I’m not too worried that I will get thrown on the reject pile for that reason alone. All depends now on whether schools really do look at your whole offer before making a decision, not just your GMAT score. Yes, I’m tempted to do attempt number four but that will only be worthwhile if I can get the right accommodations. But my GMAT score is enough to have a crack at applying for round two.

FROM The adventures of a (provisional) MBA student: 2014: Some New Year’s Resolutions

The Christmas break has been a good chance to reflect and get my priorities in order ready for 2014. It’s certainly going to be a busy year. Focus on the whole package. I’ve got a wedding to get to, and a house to finish before I head to the US. Get me to the church on time! File paperwork properly (for once in my life), and be organised at all times. I have a feeling that a failure to do this, in particular with my visa paperwork, may end badly – perhaps an unpleasantly invasive inspection by US Immigration. Not on my list for 2014. Put the same effort into scholarship applications I did into my MBA apps. I need every penny (or should that be cent?)! For the ~15th year in a row, I am going to try and stop biting my nails. I’m going to have even more opportunity to show my nerves in 2014! Be even more open-minded to everything! I’m certainly going to meet a huge variety of people and get a whole new range of opportunities in 2014. I’m more excited than ever. Watching NYE celebrations around the world always gives me a great feeling of companionship with rest of the world, especially this year. I’m sure I’ll be meeting various people all around the world watching the fireworks in the different cities I’ve seen on TV this afternoon. I can’t wait to get started! Happy New Year to you all from London!

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