Bugger!

Bad news travels in three's? Is that true or am I just coining a new phrase? Just read both Brit-Chick and PowerYogi's blog where they mentioned that one of their applications might slip to R2 because of complications. Here is my tale of woe to round up the troika.

I somehow missed the deadline to schedule a Chicago interview. The last day was the 22nd of October, written clearly in my diary but it bypassed in the urgency to submit various applications. I called the admissions committee to check whether they could make an adjustment since the last day for interviews is November 26th (different from the scheduling date). An adjustment would allow me to get something going in the interim, but the response wasn't as welcoming. I was told that there is a "structure", which needs to be followed.

Thus, with my carelessness I blew away one of my favorite schools. I am really disappointed with myself and the situation. I know the gaffs that I have been reporting over the past couple of days paint a pretty dismal picture of me. But I assure you this is not how I usually am. If anything I am anal about taking care of small details, paranoid about missing dates and deadlines and just great at keeping track of things. It is just that there is this feeling of being overwhelmed by everything that is happening so fast. These activities have so much impact on my future that I am compelled to ensure that everything is just so. Working on my applications in addition to a job that calls for long hours is not doing good things for my mind.

I just hope the irons I have in the ring already take me somewhere and the mistakes I have made, are rectifiable in the short term future.

Fatigued

There is no rest for the wicked they say, and I have to agree. Wasted too much time today on trivial things that I had to sit up late in the night trying to finish my quota of work. Right now I am not completely done with what I had planned but my brain has almost stopped working. I am weary, fatigued and exhausted. Interestingly all three words mean the same, but this is just my style of expressing how tired I really am.

Haven't gotten more than a 4-5 hours of sleep each night this week, and every time I do this I kick my self for not having managed my time better. I am loathe to sleep before my work is done, but by wasting time to S2S and BW during the day, I am forced to stay up late.

But this post was not supposed to be about me, it was to commiserate with Swoop, who far from working on his applications is actually working into the wee hours of the night due to work related issues. He seems to be as tired as I think I am, or worse. Atleast I got to get away and watch asinine programs like Apprentice, which is losing me completely. The people on the show seem to have rocks in their head and are either dumb or just too aggressive to work together. Bad casting is all I have to say.

Well it is off to the bed now since I can barely keep my eyes open. Oh today was one of my more confident days in which I was sure of making it to the interview stage at Wharton. I will certainly not be checking my status all day tomorrow to test my self control (doubt it).

Good nite!

Blow!

One thing that I hate is stupidity, and when the stupidity is self inflicted it is even more annoying, but what makes matters worse is when it is repeated. (There goes my claim of learning from my mistakes and not repeating them again).

For the second time in this application process, I rewrote an essay. I offer this not as an excuse but to explain circumstances - I have 4 computers (2 at work and 2 at home), and have cause to work on all of them at different times based upon workload and need. So I usually need some sort of source control on the various essays that I have worked on in the past 3 - 4 months. I manage this process by uploading files to my internet account and consider it as the source of truth.

Coming back to the main story, somehow there was some slippage (the stupidity factor) and I rewrote half an essay that looked as if it were pending from the first time I wrote it. Luckily as I was updating my files on my work PC from my "source control", I was more cautious than usual and actually checked the file before over writing the version when I found the previously completed essay. Unlike the last time, this time there was a major difference in what I had written. It was the same situation (thankfully), just better written the previous time around. So had to jettison my latest work. Something that I worked late into the night on, if I might add. As you can tell, I am mighty angry at myself.

But on a better note, I have my Michigan essays ready to roll, which frees up my weekend for the election coverage. Politics being one of my serious hobby, I am usually glued to the television as and when the election coverage takes over primetime TV, and I fanatically follow the polls as they close and the networks call the states. I remember the last time, I was up until 2:00 am while I was waiting for them to call the presidency. My shameful confession is that I was rooting for Bush and quite mad when they initially called Florida for Gore. I hope that this time I am backing the right horse as well (Go Kerry) , with the Chief Justice of the Supreme court expected to be out sick, Georgie Porgie might actually have to win fair and square before he gets to stay rent free for another four years while he runs the country into the ground like his previous businesses. Here is my pitch to everyone out there, this is a very important election, with a lot of things including the direction of the supreme courts for the next 30 years on the line. Regardless of party affiliations, DO VOTE!

I realized not much MBA stuff in the post, but hey I am just starting to get back to the rest of my life as this application cycle draws to a close.

Picture

Lunar Eclipse, picture taken by Henbert Proepper

Eclipse

Besides being the model of my car, I am currently looking at the beautiful total lunar eclipse that is currently taking place. The eclipse is total right now and the moon is bathed in a soft red light (refracted light filtering through Earth's atmosphere is red).

All you can see now is the outer disk of the moon. The bottom half is completely shadowed. If my wife were to be captured now by savages, I guess I could threaten to get the serpent to eat the moon unless they freed her ASAP.

Glad that the rain clouds have made way for clear sky's giving me a chance to view the phenomena uninterrupted.

Guess I better post this to give people reading my blog at this moment a heads up if you hadn't know about it already or forgotten about the eclipse in the anxiety over the applications.

Futility

In a sheer waste of time, energy and effort, I seem to be addicted to the BW and S2S boards. I have been following numerous arguments, fights, discussions and pontification, all of which sum up to zero productivity at work.

Up until now, I was pretty happy with my attitude towards this interview process, expecting it to happen when it happens. It was only after people started reporting interview requests, did the pressure get to me. Now I find myself scanning my email and the forums every few mins to check the latest updates and it is playing havoc with my remaining applications, work and life. I am sure all my fellow bloggers and applicants are facing the same nail biting anticipation that I am facing. According to some of the numbers put forth by someone on S2S, the chances of getting an interview call from Wharton is 55%, the chances of getting an admit if called for interview 58%. The numbers don't seem that bad, except when taken against the bigger picture which is the caliber of the applicants who go to schools like Wharton, Harvard, etc.

Today, like many others, I received an email from Wharton, jumped with joy for a minute, before realizing that it was to take a survey on my reaction to the Wharton seminar I attended. A huge letdown and an insensitive move on the part of the person who initiated the survey. This isn't the time to receive any information from Wharton other than an interview invite or ding. Anything else will just add to the agony of the wait.

Staccato

After a very eventful morning, the rest of the day was tame by comparison. Work wasn't as busy as normal giving me enough time to prepare for my interview. I had to do a little Superman thing where I changed clothes on the fly in the parking garage. I could have gone to the gym and changed there, but it had started to rain, and I was loathe to drive, park, run in the rain, change, run back and drive again. It would taken too long and I would have gotten wet for my efforts. So my car doubled as my "telephone booth".

On my way over to the meeting place, the traffic was light, made the meeting spot 30 mins ahead of time. The person taking the interview, walked in right on schedule. Since I was early, I was writing my lines on a notebook, and there I made my first mistake. Instead of giving him all my attention, I put everything away, which took a minute or two while he was standing apparently waiting for me to invite him to join me at my table. Ah! Who can script these moments?

After a moment's hesitation we reconvened, there was the usual "at ease" question regarding how easy it was to find the place, and small talk. After which the interview began in earnest. The Alum then puts his watch on the table, and says, "we have been advised to run this on a strict schedule by the school, so I am going to ask you questions for 20 mins after which you can ask me questions". Right of the bat the first question is, "Why Michigan and only Michigan can help meet your goals". I was like DANG! That was right in the deep end. No walking through the resume, no soft questions to warm up, BAM! So I answered that question with some of the points I had rehearsed. Wasn't as effective as I would have liked it to be since I couldn't put forward the entire background story. And because of the abruptness, it threw me off a little, I was trying to stay concise, and with the clock ticking away towards the 20 min mark, attempting to answer the question as fast as I could speak. When I was done, immediately the second question on how I led teams, followed by on one resolution of conflict in teams. By this time I had hit my stride and my answers were slower, better thought out and I was actually had the Alum nodding, but I was really put off by his constant note taking. There was no eye contact because he was writing things down from word GO! Lack of eye contact, absolutely distracts when you are trying to weave your spell and doesn't let you get fully involved in the story. There were only two questions left, one on how I motivate myself to do things and the final question on, how I would contribute to the class.

The Alum was a recent graduate, and this was probably his first few interviews on the other side of the table. But he was a really nice guy which he proved soon after, he was getting late to get home, (his phone rang a couple of time towards the end) but he took the time to answer my questions and gave me his perspective on the Michigan MBA. He did mention again that they had very strict guidelines on how to run interviews, which was not the impression I got from reading other people's Alumni interview stories.

All things said and done, the interview took exactly an hour. Staccato question and answer style for the first half, but I enjoyed the later half, and since we wrapped up the questions so fast, we spent quite a lot of time speaking about Michigan. I just hope that, that bit of the interview is given more weightage than the previous one.

I walked out feeling very ambivalent as far as the interview is concerned. No wild whoops of joy having cracked it, but no sorrow at having fudged it badly. All in all, in one work Okay! Will see how it goes.

Having boned up for the interview, I went back and hit my Michigan essay on 'Why Michigan' and had the first draft out inside 45 mins. One pass today and I should be done. Expect to wrap up the remaining essays in the next couple of days and submit Michigan.

Just wanted to thank everyone for the tremendous assistance with the resources that I received and for the good wishes. I truly appreciate it. It feels very good to have such a strong support group, and I hope I can repay the favor.

Murphy's

...law anyone?

So this morning dawns bright and beautiful (and late - since I was up late reading a book the previous night). The first thought in my head was to finish the last few pages remaining in the story that I had been forced to abandon. After making some headway I realized that I had to start getting ready for work. Working in a technology firm, it is anathema to be caught in formals so had to wear the usual torn jeans and T-shirt. But with the Michigan interview scheduled for this evening, I decided to take my business casual clothes on a hanger, leave it in my car and change before heading out to the interview. How I got my business casual clothes is another story, my wife had to root through the cupboard where she keeps stuff I rarely wear to find my lucky shirt. We made a pitstop at Banana Republic on Sunday to technically buy a new pants for myself, and for some mysterious reason ended up spending 3 hours in the store while my wife bought stuff that she absolutely needed to have.

Now here is the interesting part, as I step out of my building onto the road, my brand new pants fall off the hanger onto the floor. I curse and bend over to pick it up, little realizing that the shirt on the hanger is now sweeping the floor. I realize that and curse again. In trying to juggle between all the things in my arms, I almost drop everything again. Yes and I curse again.

Somehow manage to get to my car, along the way step into a huge puddle from the previous day's rain, getting my formal shoes drenched and dirty. Yup curse. I stand near my car and wonder how I am going to open it with last night's leftover Italian food in one hand, pants in the other, bag slung over an arm and a hanger with the shirt in my mouth. Can't keep anything on the ground or the car since everything is wet. There I go again and I curse. Somehow manage to get in, now I am practically shoving stuff around, having lost my temper thoroughly, the curses are flowing really poetically. And finally start heading out to work.

It being a cold morning I had my heater on and for some reason I can't stand hot air on my face so had the vents pointing to the ground. Suddenly this ripe smell of Chicken in Marinara sauce wafts around and is almost overpowering to the unwary. And I realize that if I don't take immediate action my dress clothes are going to smell like they were in the kitchen all day when I go for my interview. So I decide to brave the cold, open the windows and let the air take the smell out of the car the whole way. There I was driving 80 miles an hour on 101 N driving to work with my windows open. Just as I pulled into the parking lot, I decided to quickly check if the clothes I had hung up were okay and I find out that the wind had knocked it off the hanger and onto the floor! UGH!

It wasn't even 10:00 am! So not sure how this interview is going to fare, but I will tell you this, now my nerves are so shot that I have been through all stages of nervousness and moved to the sea of calm beyond. Don't see how things could get worse. (Well they could but it wouldn't bother me). So in one way that should be good when I finally go for the interview, dirty shirt, pants, shoes, et al. It is a pity since I really like Michigan and would love to go to school in Ann Arbor.

Interview

... questions?

I am trying to compile a list of interview questions. I checked the accepted.com website to run through their database, but I don't think too highly of it. Besides the fact that they did not have a single Michigan interview reported, even for the schools that they had in their database, they were only listing a single question.

So I am trying to put together a bunch of interview tips, and if any of you have anything to share do send me email. Once there is enough information, I will put it up for everyone to refer.

Witch

... is gone! Finally the little annoying Stacy has left the building. Watched the Apprentice with the wife and a fellow blogger. For the first time we were cheering Carolyn on, while she ripped little Stacy. Though I must say the people on the show think no end of themselves. I thought it hilarious that they were equating the loss of the phone by one of the contestants to losing a radio set while leading troops in war and losing a battalion. I am not sure whether it is an insult to the Army for being compared for cheap theatrics or an insult to the Army saying without communication gear they will not survive. The other hilarious moment was due to The Donald's pompous claim that he hates people who exaggerate. Now you have to agree that was funny. Guess he hates himself (otherwise why would he keep that hairstyle?).

Like the Ricky Martin song goes Un, Dos, Tres ... Well it was Tres for me with Kellogg Part II sent to its maker. Definitely my strongest application till date. Really liked my essays. Thanks to Wakechick and Swoop, I did reduced my font to 10 and reduced the margin to fit my best story. It was funny because I tried to maintain the same parameters for all the other essays that were much shorter and fit quite well in 2 pages with font 11 and 1.25" margins. With the smaller margins and font, those essays looked pretty darn small. I am hoping that counts as a plus while they look at my mega ass essay. Clocked in just shy of the 900 word mark. Would have liked to squeeze it inside 700 but lacked the heart and the skill.

So the tally reads Three down Two to go. Michigan is first up on November 1st. I have almost all but one essay written. I am pretty happy with my essays for Michigan and hope to have them out this weekend, which will free me up for Chicago, for which I have done nothing.

Hooky

I decided to play hooky from work today. For the past couple of days work has been a little slow, with not much going on, I decided to work from home, and simultaneously work on my essays. I have been able to remain focused through the day have been busy proofing my essays.

I should be submitting my Kellogg part II later today. For some reason Kellogg still hasn't contacted me with regards to setting up an interview with an alumni. It has been 3 weeks since I submitted Part I of the application. That should have given them sufficient time to get back to me so not sure what the problem is here.

Well my Michigan interview is set for Monday, so tomorrow I will have to wrap up my final Michigan essay and bone up on all the interview questions that are asked for these interviews. If anyone has a database of these questions or feedback on your interviews, I will be glad to read it.

Nostalgia

When I was writing my earlier post, on my Kellogg essays being as perfect as I could get them to be (IMHO), I was trying to find words to describe my feelings for those essays. I wanted to say that anything I added or removed from those essays would mar the story. For some reason a line from a poem that I had studied in school some 15 years ago came to mind. I couldn't remember the exact line, nor could I remember the poet nor the poem. All I could remember was that the poem was written by the poet to profess his love for his cousin (half sister actually), and that it was a romantic poem.

After that I just had to find the poem and the exact line I was searching. In a fair indication of my dog like tenacity and single track mind, I spent the whole of the morning reading through the works of several poets in an attempt to find the needle in the haystack. With extremely slim clues and not even the correct verbiage to Google, it was pain-staking work.

But I was driven (as I say in my essays), I huffed and I puffed (as the wolf says), till I found my man. Tah - Dah, the poet was Lord Byron and the Poem "She walks in Beauty". A simply marvelous piece of poetry as I am sure you will agree, here is the text:

She Walks in Beauty

She walks in beauty, like the night

Of cloudless climes and starry skies,

And all that's best of dark and bright

Meets in her aspect and her eyes,

Thus mellow'd to that tender light

Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less

Had half impair'd the nameless grace

Which waves in every raven tress

Or softly lightens o'er her face,

Where thoughts serenely sweet express

How pure, how dear their dwelling place.

And on that cheek and o'er that brow

So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,

The smiles that win, the tints that glow

But tell of days in goodness spent, -

A mind at peace with all below,

A heart whose love is innocent.

- George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824)

And having read the poem after a long hiatus, I am ashamed that I thought to use these words to describe my crappy work. But nothing lost, the wife will have a pleasant 5 minutes while I recite this to her. This poem certainly bought back a few memories of innocent childhood. It is surprising at the things the mind remembers, and how connections are made in our brain. I worked a great deal on Artificial Intelligence during my graduate studies, and nothing none of the AI systems I studied could in anyway match the random connections that the human mind makes. I hope you enjoy the poem as much as I did then and now.

Record

for maximum applications this year goes too ...

This person I was speaking with yesterday.

I was on my usual rant about taking on a lot more than I could chew comfortably when I happened to ask this gentleman how his applications were going. To my surprise (and horror), he mentioned that he had 4 in the mail, and was working on 4 more that were due in the next few days! I was staggered to say the least. Eight applications for R1? With another Seven scheduled for R2? Now that is what I call a full load.

With regards to Kellogg, I am almost done with final or close to final drafts for all the essays. I just need to proof them and shave a few words off each essay. I ultimately decided to go with double spaced, Times New Roman, 10 point font with 1" top margin and 1.25" side margins. I couldn't squeeze in my story in anything under that number. I find that 10 point font is not really that hard to read. I would have loved to use the 11 point font normally, but a couple of my essays just refuse to squeeze down. I have cut it to the bone, but losing more words will break the essence. And I am extremely happy with the flow of all my essays right now and consider them as some of my best works so far. Anything more or less will destroy its symmetry.

First-cut

Received an email this morning from Wharton, with further details about dates and deadlines. Apparently the first cut will be complete by Nov 18th. If by that time you haven't received your interview invitation, you have been "fired". First interview invitations will be sent out by October 21st, a couple of days away.

I am guessing that people like Brit-Chick who have provided the admission committee ample time to read their applications, by applying before the herd will be the first to hear from Wharton. The rest like myself, who have applied towards the end of the application cycle will (if) hear more towards the end of the interview window. One thing you have to admire though is the speed of the process, this is FAST! Inside the next month you will know if you are out for sure, or whether you still have your hat in the ring.

I couldn't meet my own deadline to complete the Kellogg application over the weekend. I am a little bummed about that. I did manage to get two of the longer essays in ship shape though. I am hoping I can do the same for the last remaining long essay and the shorter ones before I sleep tonight. But I will pull the trigger only tomorrow.

For some reason, my Cornell application doesn't show up as completed for Round 1. I don't want to call and bug the Admission committee, I am sure they are working like a drove of ants there, but with Cornell being one of my top choices, I am predictably nervous.

Ratios

According to AlexB, this year the number of applicants who applied for R1 stood at around 1750, a 2% increase from last year. Last year Wharton admitted about 400 students in R1, assuming that the numbers of admits remain constant this year, the chances of getting in stand at slightly lower than 1:4 and slightly above 1:5.

To be honest, I was hoping the numbers would drop a little as compared to increase. It goes without saying that lower the applicant pool, higher your chances. And if there had been a decrease in % it could have led to a higher intake in R1 just because the AdComs would be a little wary of what they get in R2.

*Sigh* that was not to be, and the competition is just as tough as ever. R1 usually comprises of applicants who are really up to the snuff and are really prepared for the school and comfortable with themselves. It is also quite interesting to note that the Interview invites start as early as November 15, and go on till about a week or so into December. Which means the AdComs have to go through over 1750 applications inside 4-6 weeks, which boils down to approximately 300 applications a week, or a little over 40 a day. Each application has to be read by atleast 2 AdComs, effectively doubling the number of applications to be read, coming to 600 applications a week and 80 applications a day. With a staff of approximately 70, each of the AdComs will read 1 application a day. Sounds fair enough amount of time to make a decision and get on with their lives.

What is the purpose of this meaningless thought process? Nothing! Just drivel from a mind trying to find some solace in the numbers.

Had some folks over for dinner last night and had a blast. Good alcohol and great people, make for a pleasant evening. Working on applying the finishing touches to the Kellogg application today. I am coming to like the Kellogg pattern, with Part I submitted sometime ago, and Part II due in the future, all I need to do is upload my essays and resume and I am done. I think the other schools ought to take a page out of their book and split the application processes into two parts. Reduces the stress towards the end of trying to get everything kosher.

Deuce

Another one bites the dust! Just sent in my Cornell application, I am a 180$ poorer but this was a relatively painless application. I was a little curious as to how Cornell was going to decide upon my personality, my attributes and chances of success with such low demands from the applicant. Just 2 essays, and both relatively straightforward ones. But I hadn't counted on their activities section which was a little tougher than normal. It actually asked for a description and why you liked that particular activity. It ended up being just as interesting and a lot more fun, though less intensive than other applications that ask for 5-6 essays. I had to come up with reasons why I liked to Read, build model r/c planes, run, travel and ski. I enjoyed that process needless to say. Wish I had added a couple more things, but was pretty exhausted at the end.

From now on though the schedule is a little less bunched up. With atleast a week separating each of my next due dates. This gives me time to refine the strategy a bit. Off course it is getting easier to fill the forms, a lot more cut and paste than before. I still find a couple of typos I missed the first time around which sucks but goes to tell you how, no matter how much time you spend proofing your applications, mistakes do creep up. Small insignificant ones that only show up right after you hit the submit button. Well whatever, nothing I can do about what has been submitted. I only hope there are a lot more people like me so I get to ride the bus as they call it in cycling.

I was thinking (in the shower obviously) the other day, there is truth in the argument about biochips after all. Think about it, if your entire life was registered on a small little chip, all you would have to do is send the data across to who ever asks for it, a college application for example. I wouldn't have to enter tons of stuff about my parents, my transcripts, my activities, because it would all be written down for me. All I would have to do is work on my applications and push the people writing my recommendations occasionally. Cutting down the laborious process of applications completely! How cool would that be?

Wharton thankfully has received my official transcripts. I was beginning to doubt the dependability of the US Postal Service. Swoop who sent his documents by FedEx had his application complete before mine, despite sending his transcripts almost a week after mine. But then I realized that since he had submitted his application before me, they probably matched his supplementary information first. Received an email this morning at 6:00 am telling me that my application was complete and forwarded to the admission committee.

Well it being Friday (TGIF), I want to take the evening off. Will take the wife (who has been extremely supportive these past few days in putting up with my preoccupation with the applications till late hours of the night and early mornings) for a movie and dinner. Then it is home sweet home to sleep the week's stress away. 5 hours of sleep a night for the past week is turning me into a zombie. Then it is Kellogg with a vengeance over the weekend. I still need to do some work on my essays.

Dang!

Despite promising myself I wouldn't proof my application after submitting it, I had to do so unintentionally. I was attempting to cut and paste the data between the Wharton and Cornell applications, when I realized that one of the dates I had for my employment start date on my Wharton application was off by 4 days! DANG! DANG! DOUBLE DANG!

Well it was not intentional, and it is just matter of 4 days, I did send the Wharton admission office intimating them of the same, but I just hope they don't end up penalizing me for it, or it reflecting badly on my record as being unable to proof a simple application. Well we will see.

Yesterday when I was driving home from work, the low fuel light came on. This is probably the first times I have seen it ever. I rarely let the gauge get under the 3/4 mark but I was driving my Wife's car. Despite knowing that I needed to fill gas when I set out, it completely slipped my mind when my wife made me run some errands for her before I got to the pump where I usually fill gas. Anyways back to the story, I managed to find a pump close to the freeway (2.65$ per gallon? And I thought we invaded Iraq for oil? The pump was near Stanford so I guess that explains some), filled up and got home. But the gas tank running out of gas is EXACTLY the feeling I am getting right now with my enthusiasm. I have been sleeping 5 hours a night or less for the past few weeks, with the constant pressure of getting everything done on time. I was reading a post by destinationmba07 and I can completely relate. For 6 months now I have done nothing but eat, sleep and breath GMAT, applications, essays and information sessions. The only friends I have left at the end of this time are my fellow bloggers. I desperately need to recharge my batteries and need to get away.

We were planning to go to Mexico over the Thanksgiving break, but not sure if it is the right decision to make. We want to travel around the world 'IF' I get into a good school, so not sure if we should spend extra money going to Mexico when I am going to be unemployed for 2 years soon, specially with the added cost of a world tour. Ah! Sucks to have to make these decisions!

Click

Took a deep breath and hit the submit button for the Wharton application today, a full day before schedule. Pretty happy with the application as it is right now. I am putting it away so that it doesn't bother me any more, I would hate to find any mistakes at this stage in the game. So the ball is in the court of the Admission committee members, good luck to them and me.

I do feel a little naked at the thought of strangers reading details so intimate, specially thoughts on my failures and perceived lessons learnt. But I guess writing this blog was supposed to cure me of some of that nude feeling I had anticipated as getting by posting here. Obviously not!

I see quite a few people have made that jump towards applying in the early round. Strangely I am not feeling tense or nervous. I guess taking over 3 days to pour over the application to ensure that there are no mistakes leads to a feeling of ennui and carefree attitude. The possible cause could also be shock, that having worked single mindedly on this one moment for the past 6 months to the exclusion of everything else in my life, it is justifiable that I am shocked that all it took was a click of a button to gift wrap and deliver my life to bunch of anonymous people to dissect and discuss, maybe end up as a joke over dinner or a speech to the next lot of applicants. Truly a scary feeling.

Well with one down and 4 to go, I have miles to go before I sleep (To paraphrase one of my favorite poets). I am quite confident with my Cornell application as well. I hope to fill the final details to the form tonight. After which it is Kellogg, Michigan and Chicago time.

But until then, I need to work on one of my recommender's and ensure that my second recommendation is submitted on time. My other recommender submitted the first one this morning. Called me up to tell me it was in the mail, scared the bejesus out of me by first claiming to have rated me in the top 40% bracket only! After seeing my misery confessed to have done a good job.

Home?

I have been trying to post as regularly as I can, more for myself, as a personal record of everything I went through during this process. Unfortunately I haven't been able to take the time to post detailed messages. But despite working long hours to ensure everything is on schedule, I have had the time to smell the roses. Unlike times in the past when my schedule was completely blown numerous times, this time around, I had enough contingency time planned into my schedule that I could use to tackle unforeseen events and have not been called upon to burn myself out or turn in a sub par assignment. For this I have to thank my fellow bloggers whose regular updates motivated me to stay focused.

So here are some cheers for Swoop and Brit-Chick for getting their application in. I am sure we will be hearing the same from Dirty_Martini soon.

As far as I am concerned, I uploaded all my essays for Wharton, some last minute scrabbling for phone numbers of various places I worked at and I should be done. My recommender's have both promised to submit their recommendations by tomorrow. They seem pretty confident of having done a good job (though I have my suspicions about one), and they promised to give it a once over tonight before submitting it tonight or tomorrow morning.

Good luck to everyone else out there who is trying to make it in time for R1.

Party!

• Woke up bleary eyed this morning after partying on Friday night.
• Met a bunch of great people at over dinner and at what is quickly becoming a favorite watering hole
• Worked on writing a brief letter covering all the points I wanted my recommender to incorporate (AGAIN! Something I am mad I have to do, I am seriously disappointed with one of my recommender's who doesn't seem to have the time for me or my recommendations)
• Made a word document for all my extra curricular achievements and almost completed the Wharton application form

Apprentice

Oh, I caught the Apprentice on TV last night, that little Munchkin Stacy J, or whatever her name is, is the witch of the group. Insidious, mean spirited and bitchy. Swoop was right it is the sorority thing they have going there and now I only hope all the girls get fired quickly so that we can get down to the real competition.

Certainly the producers goofed up this one, they cast the worst possible women for the show. The women have no desire to work together or win. Maria is horrible, Ivana just stupid and plain inept, Elizabeth dumb and the rest I don't remember their names. I am not sure if these impressions are due to selective editing by the producers to highlight just those personality traits or whether the girls are truly like that in real life. Can't see any VC firm hiring Ivana or any client hiring Elizabeth. The only woman who had some idea of working as a team was Pamela and she is gone. Obviously Donald and Caroline look for different things in employees than the rest of the business world does.

Lethargic

Was up late last night working on my Wharton essays, did not get a time to get back to my recommender with some answers to questions on my recommendations. Had to wake up early again today to go to work and attend a meeting. Wasted two hours over lunch due to poor service at our otherwise favorite restaurant, they had only 2 servers for about 20 restaurant, and by the time the soup arrived we were ready to eat the flowers on the table.

My Wharton essays are done, and just need to make slight changes to the Cornell essays, proof reading mainly. Hope to get it done tomorrow while I fill out the application forms for both schools. I have made some space in my calendar for the second presidential debate today followed by dinner with folks from the blogger community.

Dave had a terrific post on his blog on the Wharton and Tuck seminar. I am seriously getting interested by the community and family orientation of the Tuck school, and seriously contemplating adding it to my R2 list. With 5 schools targeted for R1, I have only Harvard and a possible Stanford for R2, which gives me ample time to apply to Tuck if that is what I decide. And applying to 7 schools seems about the right number.

Well will leave this thought for a later date when I don't have the pressures of deadlines looming before me. But for now with my lack of sleep really getting to me I feel sluggish and very tired.

Alive?

The crazy rollercoaster of the application cycle continues. Things are crazy at work and I am not getting as much time as I want on my apps, with people leaving the company, there is need to transition knowledge and with limited time left I cannot take time off to either work on my apps or goof off as is my want normally.

I have been putting in the hours, and my Wharton and Cornell essays are almost up to the mark. They would be, but for my bright idea to get it proof read one more time. I got a host of corrections from this super conscientious friend of my wife's and I want to incorporate them in my essays, just because the advice is so good. I am a little wary though of giving the impression that I had a professional write my essays! (No they are not that good, but a guy can always dream can't he? :) ), I should be done with my essays by tomorrow for Wharton, and hopefully will upload them to the website and forget about it. This weekend is reserved for filling out the application forms and frantic phone calls to recommender' to upload their recommendations. I hope they have done a good job, and despite assurances on that count, I can't get myself to believe that until I hear from the AdCom.

PowerYogi should be in town this weekend, so I plan to meet him for dinner, I will be sending out invites to the bloggers from the bay area to join us, in case I forget in this mad rush (that I call life) please send me an email to let me know you are free Friday night.

Planning to wrap up the Wharton essays tonight, send some stuff to my recommender that she asked for and proof some of my essays for other schools. Sounds like too much work? Not really, there are just cosmetic changes and don't require too much thinking, just trying to ensure the flow is correct.

Correction

Apparently the Wharton Seminar in the peninsula is tomorrow and not today, apologies if my post caused confusion. Which means I can watch the Veep debate as I originally planned. I have made sure I get out of work early today to stake out a spot on the couch and hopefully my beer is a chillin' in the refrigerator, or I could finish the bottle of great wine we opened a few days ago.

Had gone to Napa for a picnic last month when I had picked up this awesome desert wine. We were thinking of saving it for an occasion, but it was just too tempting sitting there on the shelf and we opened it. Boy am I glad we did, one of the best wines I have drunk in a long time.

Reception?

Today is the Wharton reception at Cisco, and I am in two minds to attend it or not. I really took away a lot from the first seminar presented by the Wharton Alumni in San Francisco, so not sure if I will learn something new here. Secondly, I still have a lot of work to do on my essays, I am trying to make sure the story flows well and makes for interesting reading, going to the seminar will take away an evening of work. And finally, today is the vice presidential debate which I don't want to miss. I particularly loathe Dick Cheney but have no idea on how articulate and thoughtful Edwards will turn out to be. Decisions, decisions.

Is anyone planning to attend the reception today?

The recommender I was concerned about yesterday apparently worked hard on my recommendation yesterday. And from what I hear of the issues covered, I feel I made an excellent choice of recommender's. I am pretty certain of meeting the deadline now, and hope everything else works out just as fine.

A lot of work that has piled up due to my concentration on the applications and I have to get cracking. So it is back to work for now.

Dispatched

Spent the whole of today doing something I expected would take only a few minutes. I sent in my transcripts and a copy of my GMAT scores to some of the schools I am applying too. I am completely exhausted by this effort. When I got to work this morning, all I had on my "to do" list was to write the cover letter and find envelopes to mail the transcripts in. Boy was I wrong. Apparently there is a standard for each school, since I am completing most of the application online, I have to mark the envelope as "Web App" for Wharton, "Online Application" for Kellogg, etc. For which I had to hunt up their application instructions and pour over them. Luckily most schools had pretty good instructions out there and I found everything I needed. Made sure there were no glaring typos in my cover letter took them to the post office where I had to write the addresses down a couple of times (Return receipt, etc.) and finally got done with it. This way I hope to beat the mad rush of the final moments while ensuring I don't trip over my own two left feet while working under pressure.

I think it is essential to do the same even for the rest of the application. There is a ton of stuff to be done before an application is deemed complete but the problem isn't to get done, it is to get done right! These applications are taking way more time than I had expected.

On the recommendations front, one of my recommender's really came through, but the other (one I was expecting to make serious progress over the weekend) wimped out on me. I don't know how to put pressure on this recommender. I don't want to piss anyone off specially when I want them to do a good job. Normally I have a great working relationship and can count on this person to get the job done on time. I have tried to convey my urgency and my desire to beat the rush, but all I hear is, "I have an idea of what I want to write in my head, all I have to do is write it out". So write it already! There are only 10 days left for crying out loud!

Saturday was the last day for me to blow off some steam, went for a great party where I met some fellow bloggers (you know who you are), had some fun, got buzzed, lost the buzz and participated in some great conversation. The cheese was heavenly! This event was just perfect after a day of admission activity and a future 30 days of relentless pressure.

All in all, I am currently pretty happy with most of my applications, I just need to tweak the final pieces and nudge them to complete the puzzle. Good luck to all the applicants buckling down to meet deadlines.

Edification

I had an interesting chat with a Cornell Alum yesterday. He works in an I Bank out in NYC. His added some perspective on this whole big school, small school debate when it comes to recruitment and networking. He was of the opinion that Cornell students fare well in comparison to the bigger school students when it comes to getting jobs of choice.

Apparently I banks have a very high attrition rate, and going by what he mentioned was an average day in his life it is easy to see why people want to get out early. Which means that they are always looking for new enthusiastic associates and analysts fresh out of B school. Since each bank has a few vacancies the alumnus of the schools try to recruit people from their school. This, according to him pans out well for small schools since there is less competition for the few jobs going around, with the ratio coming down to 1:2 (jobs Vs. applicants) in schools such as Cornell and Tuck, while being 1:5 in schools such as Wharton and Harvard. This ratio is probably more significant for people who are career changers and something to keep in mind while crafting an application strategy.

The way I look at my business school strategy now is that if I don't get in this year, I will definitely try one more time the next year, with a better crafted message. I guess the smart thing to do would have been to contact a whole lot of alumnus right from the start of the process and ensure that the message is right the first time around, but lacking the necessary network, (the tech industry for some reason lacks in numbers as far as MBA's go, not to say they don't exist, but it is easier for me to meet to engineering grads from Stanford and MIT than it is to meet a business grads from the same schools), I couldn't make contact and lacked the info.

But like all things in life, once you get an 'in' into a network it is that much easier to get deeper. So this alum I was speaking too, volunteered to get me in touch with his buddies at his bank who just happen to be from all these top schools. And that certainly will help me craft my message for the target schools better. :)