Which is the worst part?

Question

I think the essay writing was the worst part. It was like a constant cloud hanging over my head, I was never 100% happy with my essays, and constantly questioning whether I should totally scrap a given idea and start over again.

Studying for the GMAT wasn't too bad. It was a very sort of mechanical type of work, I would sit down at my desk and say, "Okay, I have to work through 50 questions before I take a break and have lunch," and I would go from there, no second-guessing, just brute force work. After taking each practice test I could actually quantify my progress as opposed to the essays writing where I had no idea where my essays stood as my friends would give me conflicting feedback after reading them.

Interview prep is actually not bad, I kind of enjoy fine-tuning my responses to make them sound perfectly unscripted. The interviews themselves are enjoyable (I know 90% of people think they have awesome interview skills, I definitely fall into this 90%, hopefully I'm not delusional). But the waiting around sucks. I might not think about it all day long, or I might have a fleeting thought like, "Well, only six more weeks until I hear back from all the schools," but then every few days I'll have that fear creep in, like I'll remember how most admissions offices are experiencing a 150% surge and I'll think, "Mothrfkr, why does it have to be the year I apply, I'm screwed."

venky1979 · Answer

Infact While I studied for GMAt i could rarely notice how time went by. When I was wrting my Kellogg essays I never realized how time whizzed by and now aftre being interviewed I am checking to see if my watch has stopped working :-D

I think when u dont have anything productived to do (apart from ur job) it sucks big time. Who ever coined the term pants pooping in this forum had a good sense of humor :-D

rhyme · Answer

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.

batchgmat · Answer

I suffered with all three, but hated the essays the most. I just dread thinking of sitting down at the PC, with Word flashing its blank page in my face. Then the constant editing, word count check, etc...Ahhhhhh thank god its over (at least for a few months)!

lepium · Answer

Based on the "the grass is always greener" approach, I'm choosing interviewing and waiting, which is the stage I'm in right now. 

If I get an admit, I may be able to analyze objectively the 3 stages and decide.

dukes · Answer

The waiting sucks but at least I have my life back. I can go out and do something with my nights and weekends. The essays are the worst followed by GMAT study, even though GMAT study wasn't really all that bad.

pelihu · Answer

For me, waiting has been by far the toughest, and the worst part is that we're still only about 1/3 of the way through the R2 waiting process.

The GMAT was a fixed goal. You know exactly what you need to prepare for, and there are materials and the collective experience of the GMATclub with all the necessary information. Certainly, different people face different challenges with the GMAT, but there are no surprises.

Essay writing was OK for me as well. I'm lucky because I spent a lot of time in college, law school and professional life writing. The self-reflection part was the most part of the process, but I allocated plenty of time, just thinking about it for a few hours as I drove or showered or whatever over several weeks. Once I got down to writing, I felt I was in my element.

This waiting is killing me though. The most difficult part is that you don't know if there is some underlying flaw that you failed to identify that will torpedo you at every single school. You can't help but hash over every weakness because you have nothing else to do. I think my applications are strong overall, and I understand that the great majority of applicants will have some weaknesses as well. At this point, any admit will be a huge relief.

dukes · Answer

I think Ross and Fuqua are the first schools to report decisions for both of us. If neither of those comes through it'll be time to freak out.

pelihu · Answer

Yep, those two are the first two in my pool. I will be seriously discouraged if I get rejected from both as I view them to be among my most likely prospects.

I had a positive interview with a Duke alum. I believe my application was fairly strong.

Michigan, well I just don't know why they haven't called me for an interview yet. Michigan should be my strongest application of all. Seriously, I launched my current business based on an action based learning class that I took AT Michigan Business School. It was highly competitive to get into the class which included students from the Law, Engineering & Business schools. I got an "A" in the class, but more importantly I actually applied the concepts of action based learning to launch a successful business! I'm hoping to use additional exposure to action based learning to launch a more aggressive business in the future. What more could they be looking for?

Also, I chose Michigan when I decided on Law School and I have demonstrated my love for Ann Arbor and Michigan football so they shouldn't have any concerns about yield in my case. I do know that my app came complete really late because one of my recs had to be submitted via regular mail after the deadline (they were very accomodating) and I also know that there hasn't been much movement recently , so perhaps they haven't had a chance to read it yet. Other than that, I just afraid that I have overlooked something in my background.

aaudetat · Answer

While the wait isn't so much fun, I do have tax season to keep me busy. Other than some serious panic after the Yale ding, I really haven't thought about it that much. Perhaps I am in denial, but then again, denial must be a happy place, or why would we all spend so much time there?

As for the essays, I know how to write them, I like to write, it's something I do all the time. It felt comfortable to me, something I could control, and other than the last-minute crunch, I had the time I needed. Yes, it was stressful doing it and knowing I had a hard deadline, but I knew what I was doing and I controlled the process.

For me, the GMAT was absolutely the worst. I didn't mind the verbal stuff - I do love the blahblahblah - but the quant made me want to die. I think the worst part about the GMAT was that it covered all the math I did in 8th and 9th grade. I HATED that period in my life. I had the world's worst teen-aged angst, and I was just appalled that I had to spend hours and hours of my current life, which I like, trying to think like a 9th grader again. Ugh. Honestly, whenever I see something related to the quant part of the GMAT, I actually have a little twist of nausea in my stomach. Ick.

I think if I could do the GMAT again, I would probably take a class. The way I studied doesn't really suit my learning style. Learning all the "tricks" that PR & Co teach you is nice, but I needed a better grounding of what was behind it. And in the end, I know that I am just not that fast at the numbers part. While I could nail the verbal with 20 minutes to spare, the ticking clock of the quant was always unnerving. I never did manage to finish all the problems in the allotted time - not once.

jaynayak · Answer

For me waiting was the worst part. 

Sure studying for GMAT and writing essays was hard but atleast I was busy with something. But once the interviews are over; its like walking through a long, dark tunnel with no sign of any light at the other end.

Which is the worst part?

What has been the worst part of applying to b-school?

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards