Congratulations!

This time it is BritChick who is taking it away! :) Congratulations on a Stanford invite. With a 6-8 % acceptance ratio, Stanford is probably one of the most exclusive schools out there and they invite very few students to interview. So getting one of those precious interviews definitely speaks about BritChick's candidacy and applications. Hope it goes well. And here I was complaining about the lack of activity on the blogs.

Onto Wharton, I still haven't heard back from the Wharton Alumni I was supposed to interview with. It is beginning to scare me. I hate it when things that are so important to me are left hanging in mid air. I have made a mental note to NEVER put anyone in my current shoes if ever I am on the opposite side. There isn't much I have done to prepare for the interview, I know my application pretty well, and am counting on it to carry me through.

This wait with several irons in the fire is getting to me. I just want to get done with the interview and get on with the rest of my life till the admissions committee at various schools get done with theirs.

Bogged

My first day back from vacation has been chaotic to say the least. I can't believe how much work has piled up in my absence of 3 days, with huge email threads floating around and deadlines set on a half day basis.

In my attempt to cope with the workload, I haven't been able to find time to chew on all my impressions from the whirlwind trip and try to bring some semblance of order. I haven't even gotten the chance to send my thank you notes to some wonderful students and admission committee members that I had the pleasure to meet and associate with on the trip. An unforgivable crime, so I have set my self a deadline of this evening to get them all out of the way.
The blogs have been unusually quite for the past week, and it looks as if people are all holding their breaths for the results due in less than three weeks. For my part, I wish I could fast forward the time and get straight down to the decision.

It is that time of the year when one starts thinking about Uncle Sam and his pound of flesh, so in an attempt to make the process as smooth as possible, I plan to step out today and buy TurboTax and its assorted family of software to assist me in my preparation. I was unable to take advantage of the black Friday deals due to lousy internet connections and lack of time, but there are still a few good deals out there if you search hard enough.

On the topic of slow connections and computers, I happened to work on one of the slowest machines I have touched in a long time. It was a PII and had 64 MB of RAM with a 56K modem that was crawling along. I always find it funny that I complain about slow computers these days considering I grew up on AT's and 386's in my youth, where a 4800 baud connection was considered to be the cutting edge of technology and a 14.6 K the bleeding edge. T1 lines in school at work, with DSL at home have destroyed my patience, and attention span. If a page doesn't load up the moment I click on the link, it has lost me!

Hola

Just got back from my week long "vacation", tired to the bone and completely in the need for a vacation to recover from my trip. I traveled approximately 1200 miles by car over 6 days, and flew for a total of 19 hours cross country from the Pacific to the Atlantic and back, but all said and done it was one of the best trips that I have ever made. The memories and experiences that I took back will certainly provide much needed food for thought through the last bit of the application season.

A quick recap before I crash after what has been a 20 hour day. I visited three schools, Cornell, Wharton and Harvard. Each had something really special to offer the prospective student and promised a completely different experience than its competitors. Till now I was of the opinion that school visits were not really important and that you need to visit a school only after you get admitted to it. Now, I have no hesitation in saying I was wrong and if someone out there hasn't applied to their schools as yet, I strongly urge a school visit. As I mentioned earlier, each school has something uniquely specially and different to offer and while most people might think that they can fit into each schools persona, I believe that they are better suited to some schools over others. This is akin to a marriage, while there might be several people of the opposite (and in some cases the same) sex that will make you happy, there is probably only one person who will make you feel complete. You may thing I am being overly dramatic, but I kid you not when I say, each school spoke to me in different ways. This speech just doesn't come through over the internet or brochure, regardless of the shiny photographs.

My impressions of the trip will probably require a much larger post, but here are a couple of quick single word takeaways:
1. Cornell - Parker Center - Simply bloody amazing. A tremendous resource for students planning to go into banking. I was extremely pleased to see how much the school was ready to invest in facilities for the students.
2. Harvard - Campus - Beautiful on an overcast rainy day, I can only imagine how it must look in spring. The business school is like a school within a school, with a separate campus and all the trappings of the huge endowment it garners every year.
3. Wharton - People - Warm, kind and very smart. From the admissions office to the students, each of whom was genuinely interested in making me feel at home, answering all my inane questions with patience.

With that short note, I will leave you with a couple of pictures I took of the various schools. I still haven't caught up with all the news/activities/emails/messages that I missed out of due to the week long lack of internet connectivity and time. Many thanks to the kind people who left me messages wishing me well. And I apologize to PowerYogi and IwhoElse, both of whom I was supposed to meet up during my trip, but couldn't do so. I will be sending you both emails later tomorrow.


Sage Hall


UPenn


HBS

Ready?

Steady! GO ...

This is the evening I fly out on my trip to the NE. As usual, numerous things are left undone, the packing hasn't begun, and the house is in a complete mess. But the wife is the super efficient, proactive types, so the moment she gets back home, I am confident that she will have things in hand. I am trying to accomplish the chores she listed out for me before stepping out in the morning like loading the dishwasher and doing the laundry in the midst of my preparation for my Cornell interview.

Sometimes I feel without the chaos that surrounds every move we make, life would seem very dull. That is when a situation becomes critical and teeters on the verge of failure when I swear I will never let things get so close to the deadline again.

My Wharton alumni interview for some reason is not getting fixed and I haven't heard from my interviewer in the past 4 days. This lack of communication is truly disquieting. I am not sure if this is because of the holidays or any other reason. But with me going out of town for the next week and for all practical purposes being out of touch, I am a little concerned about scheduling the interview. Will try to follow up with the alumnus later today and over the week, otherwise the admission committee will be receiving a couple of frantic phone calls from me the next week.

Time to get the laundry, so adieu to everyone, I doubt I will have access to an internet connection other than brief forays to check email.

Busy!

The past 24 hours have been incredibly busy for me and it is only late in the afternoon that I have had the time to check news and the various blogs I follow. About 60% of the time was spent in work related stuff with another 20% in taking a friend to the hospital for surgery and ensuring that my name is spelt right as the emergency contact. The final 20% which is probably what this post will expound on in detail was my interview with Chicago.

As they say third time lucky, I finally managed to walk out smiling from an interview. This was by far my best interview of the season and certainly one where I managed to hit all the points I wanted too and make my case very coherently in a very logical fashion. I am sure that my past experiences helped me craft my story to a very acceptable level allowing me to stop worrying about my story and concentrate on the delivery style. Coming from a very traditional background and moving into a very non-traditional role, I face the added burden of laying the groundwork for my dreams to be taken seriously. Having more time to explain things in detail certainly helped my cause. The personal settings also make a big difference. I don't know but there is something about speaking your innermost thoughts in a public place like Starbucks that makes you feel naked.

Getting back on track, I interviewed with a fairly recent GSB graduate who interestingly was working on the buy side of a fund. The interview was held in the alumnus office in the evening and contrary to the image of investment bankers working LATE in the night, the buy side bankers obviously get out of office by 5:00 pm. The place was completely deserted by the time I got there and there were almost no cars left in the parking lot when I got out (but for a couple of limo's). It did my heart good to just breath air that dripped RICH RICH RICH, MONEY MONEY MONEY with every inhalation. Wow it felt good! Compared to technology firms, bankers sure have better office furnishings.

Again I digress, well the interview lasted for a little over 90 mins. I had made a decent impression by being proactive about the meeting to start with, and though the interviewer dint know much about the field I worked in, I was given the impression of quite competence. The conversation started with a cursory glance of my resume, and jumped right in with reasons behind why I decided to attend the schools I did, and what I learnt there. The conversation then moved to some trick questions that I negotiated adroitly (luck or skill, is anyone's guess). We then touched upon my job profile, jumped back into my track record and where I wanted to go, we discussed career goals and then got into my professional experience. By this time I was at full stride, very comfortable with the line of questioning that explored the thoughts behind my story. For the first time in all my interviews, I felt truly comfortable speaking about my achievements and management style. We discussed why I wanted to apply to Chicago (Definitely need to thank onmyway here for helping me prepare for this question), this was around when I felt that I had achieved all my goals for this interview, laid to rest any doubts over my candidacy as well as my passion and potential. I was now in cruise mode coasting gently towards the end.

Shortly before the interview section came to a close, I had a small unprofessional moment, I had forgotten to turn my cell phone off and it rang, causing us both to jump out of our skins. Neither of us were initially sure where the ringing was coming from, until I was told that it was probably mine. Apologizing profusely I turned the volume off, cursing myself for the slip up. I just hope that isn't a mark against me, but other than that I must say it was a great conversation. It was very frank and positively the best experience I have had. I learnt a lot about the program and a no nonsense glimpse into how exactly it can help students and alumni.

Reloaded

I was on S2S all morning reading through the dings and approval notes when I came across some questions on essays, GMAT scores, strategies, etc. And it struck me hard that as R1 was winding down, R2 was just ramping up. People were finding their feet, researching the school, attempting to make contact with others who shared the same misery as them.

Since my mind for the past few days is on war stories, it brought to mind the image of soldiers attacking a fortified position. The first wave makes it past the barbed wire, leaving behind the dead and the wounded while the second wave getting off the blocks into boats ready to charge forward themselves. That was one grim cynical way to look at things. On the other hand this was once again the season of hope, where another 1800 smart, equally well qualified candidates, sure of themselves and their credentials, throwing their hats into the ring. An interesting juxtapose wouldn't you agree?

Again and again though my mind keeps coming back to the people who received their dings today, feeling their agony, appreciating how tight the competition is, realizing how easy it would have been to be on the other side of the fence. Commiserating with my comrades in arms whose dreams have been differed and in some cases shelved. I must say though, that the stoicism displayed by some of the candidates is superlative. Some obviously standing up and taking it on the chin with a lot of fortitude and self respect. Hats off to these people, and I only hope that I am able to do the same if the time comes. I do hope the lucky few who actually do make it to Wharton realize how lucky they are and that they truly need to make the best of the opportunities offered to them.

Enough with the sadness!

Tidings

In the spirit of the blogging community, wanted to report the news as it breaks. Just got the news that Da Raver LA received his interview invite some 25 mins ago. Congratulations to Da Raver.

Euphoria

This has been one strong batch of bloggers. I am not sure how blogging ties in with Business school, but most if not all the bloggers seem to have succeeded extremely well with their applications. It is time for someone to analyze this relationship.

This morning there has been a virtual deluge of invitations from Wharton with several bloggers getting themselves wet to the skin. A huge shout out to them for a job well done and for keeping the faith. Congratulations to britchick, durba, megami, onmyway, poweryogi, riter, swoop on your Wharton invites. Many thanks to the kind people who have wished me via comments on my blog as well as those who have wished me on theirs. I call this a very successful application season. I hope we all make it past the final hurdle and get to meet up in person in school. Still a day left, and I am pulling for those who haven't jumped on the bandwagon to join us for a blow out party! :)

I couldn't get much work done in the past whole week. My mind has been wandering on the S2S and BW boards, and the several (50) blogs that I have been following for *any* information whatsoever. Now that several of my friends, (myself included) have received their invites, this nervous waiting can cease and I can get back to earning my pay.

Congratulations and good luck to all.

War

Not the fake one that football players like to claim they are in, but the real stuff. I happen to be a war buff and have spent the past few hours reading some of the oral history of the soldiers who participated in the Suez Canal tiff in 1956. Here is the link for those of you who are interested in such stuff http://britains-smallwars.com/suez/suez-index.html

Vacation!

Yeah! Looking forward to this weekend when I fly down to the East coast. This is going to be my first time in NY city and I am looking forward to the sights. I have a pretty packed itinerary planned for the 7 days that I will spend there.

I will be trying to combine the vacation with visits to several of the schools that I am applying too. Will be stopping at Ithaca (Cornell), Boston (HBS, Sloan, PowerYogi), Philadelphia (Wharton), and offcourse NY city. Thanks to the distances involved I have my military like schedule up and ready. Hopefully there are no snow storms or closures of any kind along the journey, that would break the back of my trip. But considering the fact that I plan to make it a fun, relaxed, taking-in-the-sights kind of vacation, those things shouldn't bother me too much.

Curiously my 4 star hotel in Philadelphia is MUCH cheaper than my 2 star Motel 8 in Ithaca. What is with that business model? I was under the impression that Ithaca is a small town and cheap to boot, but if these motel prices are any indication, I am going to have to rethink that bit.

Congratulations to a couple of bloggers who received their invitations to interview with Wharton (keeping their names private till they are ready to reveal themselves). You rock guys, good luck with the interviews and may the force be with you. I would also like to add that I received my invitation to interview with Wharton. Since the Director of admissions at Wharton has decided to give the thanksgiving weekend off for the staff, there will be no interviews on campus during the break, so can't interview on this trip. I will not be able to make another trip to Wharton so will be interviewing with a local alumni.

Good luck to the folks still waiting for their interviews. I strongly believe that we will be hearing good news from more bloggers out there with their hats in the ring.

Haloscan?

Not sure if my tirade against HaloScan sometime in the past has made the difference, but for some reason my comments haven't been working properly. While I can see and post comments onto my blog, the count doesn't seem to be working.

Ah! Well, hope the problem fixes itself, or it will be off with the old and on with the new.

Analysis

Back from a somewhat busy weekend. I was working through most of the weekend researching the schools for which I have interviews scheduled. I am pleased to say that I am greatly heartened by the results. Though I had researched most schools, I hadn't drilled down to the bottom. This new insight is making me feel better about my choices so far. While I feel validated in my reasons to apply to the schools I targeted, I am a little bitter that I did not complete my initial research as thoroughly as I should have. I am now left wondering about the schools that slipped below my radar due to this lapse.

While I doubt I could have applied to more schools than I have already (I still feel guilty of dropping Chicago in R1), I would have liked the additional information, since it would have helped me make a more educated choice. Ah well what doesn't kill you, you learn from. Taking that into consideration, I just hope I don't repeat this lesson in the future.

This weekend TW (the wife), had to work some obscene hours working towards her deadline, and it was an interesting experience to support(??) her as she has been doing for me these past 7 months and more. I must say with all honesty, I did not quite measure up to her level of support. This has been acting on my conscience since she has always gone out of her way to be supportive and has never complained about giving up so much while/if I go to school again. While I hate to generalize on this sexist comment, I do believe that women are naturally more giving than men (this was not an excuse, just an observation).

On other news, after a weeklong self-imposed hiatus, I went back on S2S to read through hundreds of messages that had piled up. It was interesting reading, some of the stats reported on the interview thread are extremely intimidating to say the least. Makes me feel completely inadequate and my candidacy hopeless. I also found out that San Francisco has been decommissioned as an interview hub. With only international locations serving as hubs in the future, means that candidates in the bay area will either have to make the trek over to Wharton or interview with an Alumni. My past experience interviewing with alumni has led me to have very ambivalent feelings about the value of this new system.

Three more days and counting before the fat lady sings. Good luck to all the applicants out there.

TGIF

Yet another Friday has come and gone. It never ceases to amaze me how time flies. I remember my undergraduate years, when time seemed to crawl, some days were so hot, slow and lazy, that I spent quite a bit of the day in bed with a good book, refusing to peak outside my bed covers. And now, the only way I can keep track of the passing weeks is by what I did on the weekend.

Last year, I was standing on the top of Mt. Dana (~13,010 Ft) all alone around this time. Just taking in the beauty of Mono Lake and the beautiful forests below me. I could see the other 13,000 Ft plus peaks around, rising serenely in the horizon. The road below, tiny and serpentine, with cars the size of ants, scurrying around their business. I remember thinking to myself, "this is bliss. If time froze right now, I would feel too bad".

Now here I am, living life that is so busy, I don't have time to smell the roses. One thing this application process has done, is made me very aware of myself and my goals. Regardless of how things turn out in the future, I am sure that things are going to be very different once I am done with my application process. That is one thing I have promised myself.

This weekend promises to be quite busy yet again. I plan to study for my Cornell and Chicago interview, as well as make another excursion to the shops, in the hope of getting a decent suit for my Cornell interview. Next weekend will be a little too late for Cornell (since I will be flying to NY then) and I want to be on the top of my game for the one university that has shown great interest in me.

Here is wishing Swoop, good luck for his big Kellogg interview tomorrow. Hopefully he should do a much better job than what I accomplished.

Synopsis

Another one bites the dust! Yesterday I had the toughest interview of my life EVER! I have had several great interviews, even some mediocre ones, but regardless of the outcome, I haven't ever walked out like I was put in the wringer. Though I walked away shaking my head, I came to the conclusion that I had been played like a harp. Some statistics on the interview for those who care about such things:

1. Total length: 1:55 hours.
2. Breakup -
a. 1:10 min - Resume - why, what, how, figures, describe, who?
b. 20 min - why MBA, why Kellogg, what other schools, Goals?
c. 20 min - Questions on school and clubs
d. Pleasantries at the beginning and end.

It started out very innocuously; with the basic disclaimer that this was just a conversational interview with stress only on getting to know me better. So I started by giving a low down on my resume, and before I got through the first bullet point, the innocuous questions started floating in, "I am curious at how you arrived at this figure", "exactly how many people are we talking about here", etc. till the end of the process when I felt I had been scanned, analyzed, prodded, poked, squeezed dry of information. With all my claims evaluated, with every link in the picture tested for strength.

My final impression at the end of the process was that of awe! I had been gone over by a master of the art, who knew the business, and the exact pressure points to pull, push and prod to elicit extremely frank feedback. I have been on either sides of the interview table, and have some experience of this process. This was unlike any other business school or work interview I had given. If this is the level of intellectual capacity available in classes at Kellogg, I must say it will be the best learning experience of your life.

And I unfortunately again did not quite hold up to the test. The conversation was very smooth, but a couple of candid answers, some sore notes, in my moment of weakness when I let the guard down for a moment seemed like they torpedoed my interview. I did try to fish around in my thank you note, but no bites, this guy was good, very very good. I just hope the rest of the Kellogg interviewers are on the same level, because that is the only way I stand a chance. Rip every story apart at it’s seems, and try to put it back together to see if it can make a complete picture.

Good luck to everyone out there who still has interviews to give. In a rapid sequence of events, I have my Chicago interview scheduled for next Thursday. I hope to take the lessons learnt from this interview to the next one and do a better job. From the conversations I had with the interviewer though, I was left with the impression that this was another very formidable foe. Very sharp, very intelligent and smart to boot. I must say though, despite the way it sounds, each interviewer so far is one better than the previous one. Kellogg tougher than Michigan, Chicago seemingly tougher than Kellogg (or at least as tough). And like the Borg I seem to be evolving, learning on the fly, smoothening the protrusions and gaps in my story, getting better over time. With the reaming my resume has received, I am pretty confident of doing a good job the next time around. My over all why MBA story is pretty strong and memorized by rote.

Preparations

Preparing for an interview or presentation is always an art. You can either do too much or too little of it, and depending upon your skills it can hurt you either ways. Take me for instance. I have been trying to prepare for my Kellogg interview to the best of my ability. I am looking at this as an opportunity to really offer the school (via an alum) to gain some perspective in my personality. Knowing that there are some standard questions that WILL be asked, I have ensured that I have all the points I plan to make memorized. I have been driving my wife crazy by practicing in front of the bathroom mirror these past couple of days (initially my wife wondered who I was talking too). But this morning when I was ready and presented my spiel to her, she thought it was too studied and advised me to loosen up.

Damned if you don't, damned if you do. Now I have to shake off the elements of a rehearsed speech in my delivery. But overall I think I have made a halfway decent stab at handling the usual questions. It is just that if the script moves beyond the usual that I will need to co-ordinate my dance with a few buzzwords that I have prepared.

Yesterday after getting home from work, I was flipping through the channels in my attempt to go brain dead for a blissful 30 mins when I hit upon the Rebel Billionaire, for those of you who don't know this is the new "Apprentice" clone on Fox. My opinion on the show? Pure crap! If this lot that they have here is the best they can do out of 50,000 applicants, I must say it was a lousy pool to begin with. Say what you want about the apprentice pool, atleast they seemed like smart capable people who are well educated and show all the hallmarks of being masters of the concrete jungle. This lot seems lost, uneducated and extremely rough. If there are a couple of decent candidates, they are hiding themselves pretty well. The stunts though were interesting, walking the plank at 10,000 Ft. Having jumped from a plane before, I can tell you it is no joke to be out there at that altitude. And the balancing on the wing of a plane.

The only thing I am not sure off is what this has to do with running a business? Eliminating people because they couldn't walk across a plank makes them a failure? That way John Madden shouldn't be allowed to step in his booth, thanks to his several phobias. Well another day, another dollar.

Strategy

I have been thinking fast and furiously over my R1 strategy and trying to evaluate whether it was good to begin with in the first place. The reason behind this exercise, you ask? Thanks to hitting R1 with 4 schools, I have some time before R2 kicks off. With a set of about 20 essays in the bag, I have the building blocks of good applications in the future.

The way I look at it, there are three fundamental ways to approach MBA applications:
1. The strategy chosen by folks like riter, Brit-Chick, etc. Who are extremely aware of all aspects of their candidacy and are well set on their career plans, allowing them to be highly focused on the schools of choice, regardless of the obstacles in the way. I am talking about highly selective school selection (SSS, :D). Only if you really, really like the school, then you apply there, else defer the dream.
2. The second way to look at things would be flexibly formulated findings (I admit, I had to get creative on this one to come up with the buzz), a method chosen by people like me, who have a strong idea of where they want to go. By identifying the schools that will one get to that place, allows for a smattering of schools that are relatively easy to get into, as well as top rankers as chosen by folks following SSS.
3. Finally you have the strategy that is best identified by one word the Shotgun! The followers of this method go to Business Week, write down the names of the top 15 schools, and split them up in a 8-7 split and hammer away. I probably shouldn't make fun of these folks, possibly due to the fact that I know a couple of people who are using this approach and that they might do better in the long run than me.

Within these three broad groups, there are numerous sub groups that are all variations of the broad group. For example, I approached my goals on a FFF basis, but used SSS to come up with my short list for application, to prevent me from getting into the Shotgun methodology.

The one question that haunts me now, is if my SSS variation of FFF fails then I am up the creek without a paddle. Most of the schools I am applying too will get back to me only around the time of R2 deadlines, which precludes me from taking action, based upon results. If this post hasn't been confusing enough already, I am still to come up with an answer to my original question which was what schools do I apply to in R2 to insure my acceptance to a business school of choice to join the class of 2007? Do I stick to my original list of Stanford, Harvard and Chicago? Or do I include a couple of other schools I liked but dropped due to time and resource constraints like Tuck and Duke?

If my articulation of goals and reasons wasn't good enough for Wharton (I know, I know it ain't over till the fat lady sings, but I cannot function without backup plans for each and every scenario and this is certainly turning out into one my worst nightmarish scenes), to even garner an interview, I wonder if it will click anywhere else.

All I have are questions, questions and more questions. The only silver lining to the cloud is that November 18th isn't that far away, it will answer in a very emphatic manner whether my story made sense or was worthy only of being filed in the dustbin. That will allow me to craft my message better for R2. But the question on which schools I should try and feed my story too, is still unanswered.

Futile

All the plotting and planning, on what clothes to wear to work and how to sneak out unnoticed without raising suspicion, has been in vain. The interview scheduled for today has been rescheduled, so watch this spot for further news and updates.

This doesn't seem like my day, usually contrary to customary logic, I like Monday's, but the past few Monday's have been extremely lackadaisical without much news to ring in a great week. Ah well life goes on, c'est la vie. One Monday left to rest all hopes on. Congratulations to PowerYogi, on getting one of the much coveted invites, it is hightime the roll of the dice went in his favor.

Nada!

Nothing to report by ways of good news. As usual Wharton plays the role of the stereotypical boyfriend not calling back after the initial contact. Still waiting patiently, with just the slightest tinge of paranoia and hysteria creeping slowly into the darkest corner of my self confidence. I have checked my email about 5 times since 6:00 am and the Wharton site once (when my email was down). With half the day gone already on the East coast, I have decided to let go the refresh button and get on with my work and meetings which are slowly but loudly clamoring for attention.

Had a productive weekend (I think). Went over some of the common questions that are usually asked, and tried to come up with strong answers. Some key points that came up during the conversation:
1. Be brief and succinct, don't go over the top while answering questions. Answer to the point and if the interviewer wants more detail, he/she will ask for it.
2. Prepare a few takeaways, pretty much like essays there needs to be a theme that the interviewer will remember when he/she reports on the interview.
3. Stay away from contentious issues. Focus on the broad picture and don't get negative.
4. How ever much you hate some people you have worked with or situations you have been in, try not to let the bitterness creep in the conversation.

Other than that happy interviewing.

The by now routine ferrying of business casuals from home to car to office parking lot, went off without a hitch. I did try to learn from lessons learnt in the past. Wore formal pants and shoes with my scruffiest T-Shirt, since I can always explain the pants to curious colleagues as a necessity due to jeans being in the wash. The switch for the shirt is quite easy as compared to the whole outfit.

Saw the Incredibles in the theatre on Friday last. It was a decent movie, and I might just buy the DVD, but thought it more of a formula film, with stereotypical (hmmm, second time I am using that word in this post, so it seems as if this is the word of the day) storyline and canned humor. Nothing to touch Shrek I or Bugz life, movies I thought were hilarious and out of the ordinary. I have to say though, I liked it way better than Shrek 2, which let me down very badly. As you can see, I am a huge fan of animated comic strips, something to do with a misspent childhood I imagine.

Well onto work and hysteria.

Misrepresentation?

Just found out that Haloscan the company I use for my comments section apparently archives comments after 4 months, which means that if you are feeling down or bored and want to revisit old comments, you either have to pay them some fee on a yearly basis to access your comments or lose them all together. Now that has me wondering if I want to switch over to blogger comments. Though I don't like them as much and feel they are slower due to the silly registration crap. It might be worth it in the long run. I am not too happy over the fact that Haloscan doesn't have this limitation mentioned prominently on their web page. Only after you check their FAQ's under "my comments are missing" or some such topic, do you see this 4 month limitation being mentioned. Now does this qualify for a case of bait and switch?

No news from Wharton, so the wait continues. Trying to make reservations for my trip to Cornell, Wharton and HBS over thanksgiving, but the prices of car rental are through the roof, so I have been zapped out of Priceline already. What is with NY? I can rent a large car from San Jose airport for 18 $ a day, but in NYC the cheapest I have found is 35$ a day, and that is excluding insurance. Hotels in Ithaca are ranging at over 60 $ a night. Ridiculous value for money. Regardless of how expensive you think the bay area is, the other cities are not too far behind.

Progression?

I have been in meetings all day today at work, basically dealing with a re-org in the group. With the company planning a merger/takeover in the near future, it seems to be the season for minor (and some major) reshuffles with political vendetta's leaving bloody traces on conference room walls. I expect a whole scale blood letting after the deal goes through which will make what is happening right now look like a walk in the park.

Interestingly though, I walked away from this situation with a little more than what I walked into the room with. The role I was performing till date was actually formalized, and has led to a change in my title as well as an increase in responsibilities (which was not totally unexpected but pleasing nonetheless). I will be playing a larger business role now and a lower engineering one. I wonder if I should make a note of this and send it to the admissions committees of the various schools I am applying too? Or is this a little to silly a thing to report?

Thanks to these meetings, I haven't been able to scan through too many of the blogs (not that there have been that many new posts) or follow inane meaningless discussions on BW/S2S forums (that I miss when I don't read them for a day). Well the night is young. Will catch up on my reading tonight.

Solstice

The winter solstice (December 21) is the shortest day of the year. As we move towards that date, it gets dark pretty early in the day. With absolutely no news, not even a peep from Wharton, it appears as if my personal solstice is going to come sooner than expected. There are less than 14 days to the deadline for interview invites. Though people say that the bulk of the invites are issued towards the later half as compared to the first half of the cycle, I can't help but wonder if my application made the grade. If it was really as good as I thought it was, shouldn't it have stood out and garnered an invite straight of the bat? Could something else on my record have caused the anomaly? Did my recommenders do as good a job as I expected?

These self doubts are slowly creeping into my system. Luckily I am quite busy at work and with my other interviews, that they don't overwhelm me or run my life. But I would be pretty disappointed if I am not considered good enough to make it in the upper 50% out of 1750 applicants!

Other than this everything else is chugging along fine. Just received a note saying that my Michigan application is complete, which was pretty cool considering it was the last application I submitted. But I will only be hearing from them after Jan 15th , which unnecessarily prolongs the wait.

Brownnosers

What is it about people who brown nose that makes them so annoying? In the business world, classroom or even our own BW and S2S forums, you find these slime balls plying their trade, sucking up to the figures of authority in an attempt to curry favor. The worst thing about this is that EVERYONE knows what they are doing, their motives behind it and are equally disgusted by it. The reasons behind this current ire are some posts that I have been reading on BW and S2S. Ugh! They may call it a quick way to get to the top I call it nauseating. The worst thing imaginable is when a brownnoser gets to the top, then it will be like that old joke about all the monkeys climbing a tree. When the monkey looks down, he sees a smiling face, and when he looks up he sees an asshole!

Okay vent over! I feel better, much better now. The good news for the day? Brit-Chick received her Wharton interview invite, CONGRATULATIONS BC! The first amongst us to make it to those hallowed grounds. She effectively shortens her odds from 1:5 to 1:3, good going indeed!

On the side, Kellogg finally got in touch with me, with regards to an alumni interview. Just need to schedule a time and that will be one more out of the way.

The bad news for the day, the Chimp won again. What is with that? Looks like more Americans are impressed by scare tactics and fear than by logic and the truth. Either that or the Republicans have better marketing strategy. Well another 4 years of mismanagement and partisanship. The deficit is going to go through the roof, the rich are going to get richer, and the poor poorer, the blue states are going to hate the red and we are back on the merry-go-round!

Amnesty

In a strange move, Michigan admission committee has pushed back deadlines for R1 by a week for people who have applications pending in the Michigan system. Atleast that is what some have been reporting on the Business week forum. I am not too happy with this development and the main reason for this lies in the fact that they did not do it soon enough. If they wanted to extend the deadline for legitimate reasons, they should have leveled the playing field by offering it to *ALL* R1 applicants, BEFORE we hit the submit button, not after. This action seems more of an after thought in which they realized that the number of applicants was not too high so they decided to increase the pool by extending the deadline.

If this was not the case the Michigan needs to clarify its position on extensions. The main reason I am not very happy with this move is that

a. This sort of amnesty is unfair to the people who have worked pretty hard to meet the deadline that no longer exists.
b. Procrastinators are rewarded for their lack of effort. (Though I rank in this lot, I am not to enamored with the trait)
c. It might push the decision dates by a week, which will suck.
d. In a small way it increases the competition. Though at most times it shouldn't matter, the person who hit R1 but missed out on the last seat to someone who had an extra week to fine tune their essay, will be pretty crushed.

Well there is nothing I can do about this decision other than vent, which I have, and now I feel a lot better.

Procrastination!

... is the name of the game.

Today was the last day for the submission of the Michigan application. This was the application I was supposed to be ready for, the earliest. Discerning readers will note that I have been speaking about submitting my Michigan essays almost every day in the past week but never got around to doing so. This weekend I was so confident of wrapping the application in a few minutes that I hadn't even bothered to look at the application till Sunday evening, when I decided to hit submit and end the suspense.

Much to my surprise, I realized that the application form was only half filled out and I still had the last couple of lines to write in almost all my essays. (I had the story down pat, but I needed to add some content based upon my additional research of the school). As you can imagine this epiphany rated really high on the "Oh SHIT!" scale. And there I was with both my Wharton and Cornell apps open in front of me trying to desperately fill in the questionnaire for Michigan.

Just as I had the task under control, my wife decided to call and speak to my mother, who just had to speak to her only son, to find out just what was going on with his application process. So after an hour's worth of detour, I got back to the application, did as much as possible and staggered to bed at 1:00 am. This morning luckily nothing was broken at work, and I had a reprieve which I used effectively to complete my application and send it off with a wave and kiss, in the nick of time for R1. Interestingly I beat the 5:00 pm buzzer by about 40 mins when my final recommendation came in to my great relief.

Moral of story? Some people never learn, and there is no use trying to teach them to utilize time effectively. I should have sent this application along its way last week and started to work on my Chicago drafts (which are in need of some serious work). But given the state of affairs and the fact that my right brain is on strike, I am effectively calling it a day for my application process in R1.

YES! R1 for good or for bad is OVER! Long live R2.

As much as I loathe to do so, Chicago has been shunted to R2, and I hope I can do a much better job then as compared to what I would have submitted next week. I am a little sad that I couldn't accomplish all my goals that I set for myself at the beginning of the application process. I am happy with all my applications, which in my humble opinion are good solid efforts, that should garner some response from the various AdComs reading them, but it would have been nice to have closed the round with Chicago.

The strategy hence forth? I plan to apply to 3 colleges for R2. Harvard, Chicago and 'X'. I have two months remaining, though I expect (misguided notion?) to have several distractions in this time frame (yes I am hoping for interviews from the schools I have applied too), I will try to do a good job.

I have learnt several lessons from the first round that I hope to carry into the second round to make the experience better:
1. Work consistently over a period of time and not try to leave things till the last day when time is of essence.
2. Ensure that the content follows solid themes that are well defined *BEFORE* sitting down to write the essay.
3. Take enough time out of the busy schedule to actually have a life.

Good luck to all the applicants who have applied in R1 so far, I hope everyone makes the cut at the school they like the best.