R2

One week to deadline and all is quite on the MBA front. Is it just me or does anyone else feel that there is no fizz in the R2 applicant pool? I don't see the same amount of nervous energy that made the boards buzz with activity. Where are the:

Frantic Freaks - Who were scrambling around to complete their essays, wondering if their recommender would get around to submitting their recommendation on time.

Amaranthine Agonizers - Who were besieged by doubts whether their 780 GMAT scores tied with 4 years WE and 3.8 GPA qualified them for admissions to a top school. T

Nervous Neurotics - Who weren't sure whether the font size they picked (10.5) should have been 11 points instead, and whether the one typo they made would knock them out of the game.

Social Suitors - Who after submitting their applications would feel the need to communicate their thoughts about clothes and plans, while hitting on members of the opposite sex on the boards.

Statistical Screwballs - Who got a perverse pleasure in breaking down data to its base numbers and constructing castles of fantasy on top. (Well I am still around)

Confident Cool Cats - Who were sure of success come what may

Where are all these people? The number of hits and messages on S2S and BW seem to have plummeted. A couple of people who still stir up the enthusiasm to post are bland and lethargic. There is no pep or fizz left any more and all the categories above seem to have been replaced by the Silent Sleepers. It is either that most people are becoming politically correct and don't want to be another Maverick Bain, or are too busy with their applications to bother about how the rest of the pool is going about their business, or have come to the conclusion that most of the people in the above mentioned categories, went down in flames after a brutally savage R1 and are trying to minimize their exposure so as to not become the topic of conversation in MBA applicants sorrow drowning parties. A la "Whatever happened to xyz, who posted all those messages?", "Dinged! Bartender ONE MORE!".

Whatever said and done it has become a lot more lonely out there. A one time addition to check the boards has been cured by the lack of posts (quality or otherwise). Folks are all retreating into the worlds they came from before jumping into the MBA application pool.

Ah those were the days.

Tsunami

Yesterday I was speaking to my sister when she bought my attention the huge Tsunami that was triggered off by an earthquake in Indonesia. The earthquake ranked #4 on the largest quakes to hit the world in the last 100 years clocking in at 9.0 on the Richter scale, and causing a 620 mile section of geological plate to dislodge itself.

While I am extremely saddened by this loss of life and property, this is somehow tied to one of the largest side benefit that this application process has afforded me. While speaking to my sister, I was reminded of our pre-application plans. We had decided to take a family vacation around Christmas this year, and had settled on one of the islands inundated by the tidal waves. Even as late as a couple of months ago, when I thought my application to Wharton was going well, I was debating whether to skip HBS altogether.

All I have to say is thank god for HBS and my procrastination in R1, that pushed HBS to R2. So some good coming out of a flaw.

With that out of the way, my essays are coming along well. I am quite confident of meeting the deadline if I can just grab a hold of one of my recommenders. I have some free time this week and plan to definitely crank out my application before the end of the week, and time permitting put GSB back on my list. Will see how it goes.

Christmas this year was a mad shopping season. We (or atleast my wife) certainly did our part in boosting sales numbers for the various companies out there, and the US Economy by default. Banana Republic being the largest recipient of my wife's largesse. We spent Christmas morning at my cousin's whose 6 year old daughter really lucked out on the gifts this year. She really believes in elves and Santa now, which gives her mother a nice handle on her when she misbehaves. I guess greed and avarice do look cute on some people.

The long weekend though was miserable in terms of weather. It has been raining like crazy in the Bay area and I really pity the folks who have come here to enjoy the Californian weather. With no let up promised this whole week from the weather gods, the tourists will have to chalk one up for the weather gods.

Those of you who sent me emails/comments on the waitlist research, I apologize for not replying earlier over the break, but I was on a self imposed hiatus, so dint want to access email. I will be sending all of you an email shortly. (Atleast those of you whose email addresses I have.)

Investigation

I have been researching the WL stories from last year's BW Wharton threads and have compiled a pretty decent sized treasure trove. Not knowing anyone who has been WL, I am not sure if I there is any point in putting the compiled list on the blog. If anyone wants information on this topic, feel free to ping me, leave a comment or drop me an email. I will email the research to you or just upload it to the blog.

With that out of the way, I have been making small inroads in the HBS essay list. I still need to find a third recommender, so am busy scrambling around for that. I do have several people in mind though, some of who, I approached a long time ago. They are pretty efficient writers so it should take them too long to pen their thoughts.

Goals for the current long weekend:

1. Get a first draft of all HBS essays ready for the first read through.
2. Make sure my recommenders have copies of my essays and are steadily chipping away at the 250 word answers for each question.
3. Beg my wife to fill in the online form and the transcript template.
4. Do some internet shopping for self I have my eye on some things like this cool Mars Pathfinder and a new computer

Anyone out there who plays with toys? I am not talking about the rinky dinky ones but more the big expensive Rolls Royce of toys like the Lego Ultimate Collectors Series or GeoMags or model aircrafts or R/c? I just love the stuff and usually collect them. I don't think there are very many parents out there who buy their kids stuff like the Star Destroyer, which retails at upwards of 300 $. But if they exist LUCKY LUCKY kids. The only way my wife allows me to splurge on toys is if I promise to hand them down to my nephew after I am done playing with them. But I have a pretty cool collections, even if I say so myself, only given away one of my smaller legos to my nephew so far. Hehe!

Hmmm, maybe I should have put this under hobbies for the Wharton Application, and a small note saying I will let you play with my toys if you admit me! That might have just tilted the deck in my favor. You think? :)

Gemini

The twins! Congratulations to Wakechick for pulling the daily double. The second person in two consecutive days to get two admits in the same day. She cracked the system at both Anderson and McCoombs. Great going Wakechick.

Since I am making my second post of the day and since Wakechick went to the same school as Larson, thought I would impart a little bit of Larson humor. So work with me and picture this, two ants sitting on a toadstool looking at a starry sky with one ant telling the other, "Looking at so many stars makes me feel small and insignificant".

Tomorrow

It's the day after the decision. Woke up this morning feeling sad, a little for myself but a lot more for others. Shook my head in disbelief at the strength of the pool that rejects candidates of such high caliber with so much passion for the school. This feeling lasted till I realized that it wasn't that the caliber of the candidates that was judged but the fit in terms of class composition. My reject letter from Kellogg mentioned that it wasn't that I wasn't qualified enough, it was just that limitations as to how many people they could admit and I lost out. While that was a form letter and probably a cliche that the school doesn't mean. (If we put something like it in our essays, we would get dinged without a question) But I assume that at some point of time in the past, it held good. It makes it easier to accept decisions handed out.

With that out of the way, today marked a beautiful sunny day with Blue skies and a few strands of wispy White clouds. It was so beautiful in the morning that it actually made me want to turn the car around, drive off to Yosemite and go camping. Luckily there was no gas in the tank, and had to pull over in the gas station. While paying for the gas, I realized the exact reason I needed to go to work, I need the money! But I hope the time will come (and I am not too old to enjoy it), when I can just stop what I am doing and do whatever it is that I want too.

Coming back to the wait list, my feelings are yet nebulous, I am ambivalent about whether I should be happy about it or sad. But one way or the other since I cannot do anything about it, I think the best thing for me to do is to move on. Forget about Wharton, forget about this one chance that could get me the much awaited fat envelope, and get on with my life. Obviously school wants to compare my candidacy with others available to them in the next round and then decide if I make the bar or not. But the questions that linger in my mind are:

1. Is it that there are two groups of people at Business school? Those that are top notch and truly meet the bar and others who are there to make numbers?
2. If I do make it through the wait list how will that play out when it comes to internship and job opportunities? In the intensely competitive job market can I beat out the "top notch" folks?
3. Personally would I like to go to a place that doesn't think I am qualified enough to admit on first evaluation? Something akin to marrying someone you love, but who doesn't love you as much back?
4. How does point 1. matter when it comes down to class work and learning teams?
5. Does it even matter how you made it through the selection process once you are in?

Offcourse one way out is to withdraw my name from the running, free up space for someone who doesn't really care about these issues and move on to a school that wants me. But that raises up a whole lot of other questions.

*Sigh* I think I am thinking too much. And mentioned above, I need to forget about this process, consider a WL pretty much like I would a ding and move on. I don't see the point in being optimistic and setting myself up for the fall. As and when the decision comes, if it is positive, I can reevaluate my options. It is always easier, in my opinion, to take unexpected news that is good than bad. It is easy to go out and party away to glory, paint the town red if things go my way. And easy to say, "I knew it" if the decision goes against me if I treat it so from the start.

Ai ai ai! This post has gone on long enough without even scratching the surface of the WL Math. Did I mention I plan to take Calculus this spring? I have an extremely strong background in Math, but want to brush up my knowledge before jumping in with the finance sharks! :)

1-1-1

(I have been trying to get this blog entry posted all morning and most of the afternoon, but one thing after the other keeps coming up clamoring for attention. Finally got the time to wrap this post. Apologize over the disjoint statements that follow.)

Much as I would liked to mark this day for posterity, it will end up being a footnote in my life.

The official news is ... that there is no news. I am currently in a state of limbo, neither admitted, nor dinged, just wait listed. Pretty surprising for me really, since I was under the impression that my application would clearly distinguish me one way or the other. I was pretty prepared for a decision going either way. The wait list was the last thing place I ever imagined myself on. But such is fate. What that means is another 3 months of uncertainty as far as Wharton is concerned and a slight disruption of my plans for the next 8 months. We had promised ourselves a trip around the world if I got into Wharton, but now the pyramids and the sphinx at Egypt will have to wait a few more years. We are still planning to go on vacation in March but will limit it to the Asian continent. So I will probably be traveling when Wharton releases its results the next time around and even if I do get off the WL and into the class, I will miss the phone call.

Last night, I received delivery of the Gary Larson books. It tilted the scale at over 18 lbs! I can say very honestly that I did not think about Wharton and the result for a single second while I poured over the book. It is one of the best investments I have ever made. Every cartoon is hilarious. I was laughing out aloud and rolling on the floor with laughter. His older works are slightly different from his newer stuff, there is a lot more edginess and the figures are still raw but the humor is unsurpassed!

My reactions early in the morning? Raised eyebrows and a WHAT? I was logged in and out, under 30 seconds. Also logged on for a minute to the Wharton Chat, but it seemed like a private party with admits expressing their joy. So quit and got back into bed to catch some sleep. On waking up I did a run of the blogs and boards. I was pretty saddened to read about dings from some folks I was rooting for (PY, Swoop, onmyway, Raver, Durba, etc.). I must say I wasn't too surprised to see approvals ringing out for BritChick, Godidigo, Megami and Riter. These people were outstanding candidates in my mind and there is no loss of face to lose out to them in the applications game. Congratulations to the three of you. Wharton has done well to pick you. Also an additional congratulatory call to BritChick for making the day a double header with Kellogg in the kitty.

My feelings? Slightly disappointed but still optimistic. It is going to come down to class sculpting and I still stand a chance.

Plans for the future?

1. Send in my check to Cornell
2. Crank out essays for HBS and Chicago ASAP
3. Register for classes at the Berkeley extension
4. Contact my recommenders for two more recommendations.

I will have to put our ski trip planned for next weekend on hold till January. Giving me time to work on my essays and applications. More thoughts on being WLed and the math at a later time. Got to get back to work. Being unable to work for the past 2 weeks has left an avalanche of work on my table, but I made some major inroads today. Fixed a major issue that was threatening to put me underwater so I have some breathing room now.

Congratulations once again to the folks who got in. My best wishes to those who did not!

Scoreboard

1-1-1 (No matter what happens Michigan is going to break the singleton record! I feel like a football coach now!)

24

With less than 20 hours before the Wharton deadline a zen like peace has fallen upon me. I have stopped thinking about the results and actually had a weekend filled with fun and HBS essays. I spent months on my Wharton essays, each of which was a labor of love. While I can see several places where I could have improved the choice of words, siezed opportunities to give the reader a better sense of who I am as a person, it still turned out to be a fine body of work. There is nothing further I can do to change the decision made by the AdCom at Wharton, all that is left is for them is to release the decision and for me to see it. Coming to terms with that fact has allowed me to forget about the importance of the next 20 odd hours. Having said that, I have to admit that the fact I have Cornell lined up does add to the buffer of warmth and security. Thank you Cornell.

Progress on the essays for Chicago, which I was working on all of last week, has come to a grinding halt. I seem to have hit a writer's block and can't seem to make any headway into them. Initially I was pretty happy about the offbeat essays but there are some inherent problems associated with those essays, the key amongst which is that I cannot seem to decide what kind of a tone to use. I tried peppy and funny for one essay and serious and focused for the other. Both did not do justice. At which point I quit trying. Couldn't motivate myself to sit up every night after work to crank the essays out.

Now HBS on the other hand has standard essays, with the only limitation being word count. I have come to the conclusion that the HBS AdCom certainly put considerable thought into the essays and it is a pleasure to write them. The hard word limit forces the applicant to really condense the verbiage and stick to the point with absolutely no rambling allowed. I have set myself a pretty optimistic target for the end of this week. With the amount of introspection that I did for my original set of essays and the interview questions, I know exactly what I want to write for most of the essays. So the drafts that I write now are pretty much as close to the final submissions copy as possible. It certainly needs some tweaking and verbiage correction but on the whole I am satisfied with the effort.

I also spent some time playing around with HTML over the weekend. There is so much I have forgotten on this topic, that it is not funny. Software is something that follows the old adage, "if you don't use, you lose!" So while I was slow starting out, I picked up speed when the "A-HA!" factor kicked in. On the topic of HTML editing, I must say Dreamweaver KICKS ASS! Hard! Like Trump would say it, "It is the BEST editing software in the world".

EDIT (Breaking news):
Just read that CalGrad received an invite from UCLA. Congratulations!

Ding!

Just in case I thought I was getting too big for my boots, I received my first Ding today from Kellogg, seems like I will get news from 3 of my first round schools inside the week. I was anticipating something of this nature from Kellogg after the miserable grilling that I was subjected to during the interview. Off all the schools I applied too, this was the one I was most apprehensive about. Looking at all aspects of my candidacy at Kellogg, I thought I had some fantastic essays, a good set of credentials that certainly fell within the middle 80%ile but the one area that I really failed to shine was the interview. While I cannot attribute everything to a single interview, since it is just another data point, I have no doubt that it played a significant role in making the minds of the admissions committee.

I do intend to send a polite letter to my Kellogg interviewer advising him of ways I felt he failed to evaluate my candidacy. But that is a decision I will keep on the back burner for sometime. I just hope that this is not an indication of the response I am expecting from Wharton. That would really blow! But I am taking this setback with remarkable equanimity. Accepting the decision with a small shrug and a brief thought of what might have been.

Good luck to wakechick, swoop, britchick and all the other Kellogg applicants still waiting for their updates. I am sure you have much better things in store!

Scoreboard:
1-1

Curiouser

... and curiouser.

Often times you see problems in front of you that seem so difficult to surmount. Your basic belief is that once the problem has been solved you are home free. Right after you climb the hill you see a bigger hill and the one you are on doesn't appear as intimidating as it seemed before. It reminds me of a silly song we used to sing while traveling in a group, (strangely it's a very apt analogy for this situation). The song goes something like this:

The bear went over the mountain
The bear went over the mountain
The bear went over the mountain
To see what he could see,

He saw another mountain
He saw another mountain
He saw another mountain
And what do you think he did?

He climbed the other mountain
He climbed the other mountain
He climbed the other mountain
And what do you think he saw?

The new mountain I am referring too is the MBA programs I see approaching less than 9 months in the distance. I wrote several fine lines of wanting to attend a specific school because of the "rigorous curriculum", but now the rigorous curriculum has come back to bite me in the GM. I was just expounding on the 'art' of MBA admissions to a couple of my friends (all fellow applicants) the other day, and it struck me later that I sounded like a pompous GM. Here I was hardly three days away from trembling in my boots due to the lack of an admit, trying to speak knowledgeably over a situation that is as dark to me as it is to anyone else. (So guys, you know who you are, I apologize for going over the top).

To get a head start on the core that most schools provide, to give myself a leg up in the education department and to break gently into the studying mold after 8 years away from the books, I plan to register for community college. I was trying to understand the key reasons I was heading for the MBA and they were:
1. To get a better education in terms of electives, advanced level stuff that I could find no where else.
2. To network.

I believe that taking a couple of courses before I get to school will help me:
1. Skip the core and jump in the advanced stuff OR
2. Take the core, but be sufficiently proficient at it to be able to concentrate on the networking and extra-curricular stuff I plan to participate in.

Contemplation?

I have been trying to convince myself that despite the bird in the pocket (read one admit), I still need to stay on track and focus upon the goals I had set for myself while starting the admissions process. Unfortunately while crafting my strategy I never took into account the anxiety I would feel while awaiting the results, the time that preparing for interviews would take away from working on my second batch of applications and finally the lethargy that creeps up when you have one in the bag.

My goal initially was simple. Apply to 5 in the first round and 3 in the second. It then changed to 4 in the first round and 2 in the second. But the reality is that now I don't seem to be motivated enough to do justice to the essays for the schools in R2. I did discussed this issue with a couple of people (this was before the Cornell admit), and I assured them that I was absolutely focused and would achieve my goals but now I am not sure.

While I say apply to schools after an admit, doesn't go to imply that I am not passionate or enthusiastic about Cornell. I am otherwise I doubt I would have applied, but I like having options and the concept that I have choices available that I want to think about. I believe each of the schools I have applied too is special. Each will help me get to my goals in a unique manner. I did not decide to apply to multiple schools for safety reasons rather I applied to these schools because I liked each school for specific reasons. The fact that I was applying to schools in different rounds had nothing to do with hedging my bets, rather it was a part of a well crafted strategy in part and the time crunch that did not allow me to wrap all the schools in the first round for the other.

I am curious to hear the thoughts from the community. To the people who plan to apply in two rounds, what are your thoughts on the above scenario? Are you motivated for R2? Do you feel you are doing justice? Did you apply to R2 schools based upon strategy/time crunch, or is it a safety measure because you were afraid you wouldn't get an admit in R1?

Idiocy

n. pl. id·i·o·cies

The state or condition of being an idiot; profound mental retardation. (Me!)

In a funny twist to the saga of my Cornell application story, it turns out that I have been admitted to the class of 2007. The status on my application page reads as:

We are delighted to inform you of your acceptance to the Cornell MBA program. Welcome to the Johnson School Class of 2007. You will receive your official letter of admission soon.

Now how did that happen? You already know the first part of the story where I was moping around waiting for the call, monitoring my cell phone till I finally ran out of patience and quit hoping and went home. At home, post dinner while the wife was telling me some random story and doing a very effective job of driving Cornell away from my mind when she noticed the light on our answering machine blinking, she reached across hit play and kept walking towards the door when the voice on the answering machine went, " Congratulations, I wanted to ..." Around this time, I was already reaching across to delete the message, thinking it was regular telemarketer calling to sell a vacation when I heard her say, "this is Ann Richards" which was when the message hit home.

SCORE One for the home team!

So the situation had both a pro and con, the con was that I did not get to experience the sheer joy that comes with hearing about your first admit in person, and had to suffer the misery for some more time. But the pro is that I have the message saved for posterity and can always replay it when I am down the next time! :)

On the side note I received a couple of messages and notes from people showing sadistic pleasure in my misery yesterday and it certainly acted as an eye opener. I am surprised that these people would care enough to see me suffer or feel humiliated. And I have been wondering about it. While I enjoy blogging and the people I have met through it, these riff raff truly throw a bad light on this entire experience. Now I am left wondering if I should be so candid on my blog or turn it into a more factual exercise with limited emotions. That is definitely a thought I am pursuing.

Also wanted to thank the many bloggers and friends who posted several notes congratulating me, more gratitude goes out to the folks who supported me yesterday when I was down. I truly appreciate that more than anything else. I also apologize for not updating the blog earlier and for people having to find out from a post I made on BW. I have been busy all morning and this is the first opportunity I got to broadcast the news. I made the post on BW only to bring some cheer to the folks who were in my shoes yesterday and wanted them to take heart. Thanks once again to everyone.

It is back to the wait right now, Wharton will release its decision in the next 6 days and my Chicago and HBS applications are still due. So the celebration has definitely been postponed to Jan 7th when I am done with everything on my "to do" list. Which is when I will look back at these moments and savor them. :)

Hilarious!

Still haven't heard from Cornell and all indications are that when I do hear from them it is going to be a ding. Several people on S2S have reported their admits, one of whom is Classy, so Congratulations go out to her and the rest of the folks on BW who have received the good news.

While I was moping around sadly, I came across this post pointing to what has certainly been one of the funniest blog entries I have seen. Linked for your viewing pleasure. Definitely made me laugh out aloud, what more can I say?

Stoicism

I had a pretty disturbed sleep last night. I kept hearing knocking for some reason on our front door. There was an apartment fire last year that we slept through and memories of empty smoke filled corridors and the noise of fire engines are still vivid in my mind. That time we actually heard people knocking faintly on our door but paid no heed to it since we thought it was the wind, now if I ever hear the slightest rattle I usually make it a point to check outside. After one such incident last night I couldn't quite sleep properly, I kept dreaming about Wharton, walking on campus, running through both scenario's in my mind, analyzing my reactions. It was quite a strange feeling.

This morning, I did turn my cell phone on quite early in expectations of the phone call from Cornell that never came. I was pretty determined to not let myself get flustered over the miss and actually succeeded keeping away from the internet.

One of the reasons I wanted to maintain the stoic exterior was the element of near hysteria running through my past few posts as a common thread that I noticed as I briefly ran through the posts last night. It was an interesting observation since usually I am a lot more stoic with situations and rarely if ever let emotions show through. So want to stomp out impressions of my running around like a sissy screaming with joy or sadness.

Another interesting discussion was laid to rest today thanks to a post by summitcounty on BW forums. This was the one where I was arguing with BritChick about Wharton's policy of intimating its decision with the applicants. The truth of the matter is that everyone hears the decisions at the SAME TIME via the online status page. Apparently only after the status for each applicant is flipped do the calls start going out. There are a bunch of student volunteers and AdCom staff that are involved in making the calls to most admitted applicants on the same day. Pretty nice gesture and system actually. Prevents the panic attacks that probably build up when you hear lucky some people hearing from the AdCom before you know your fate.

Pre-poned

Slight pre-ponment on the Wharton R1 decision release date. Definitely a matter that has been thrashed around on almost all the blogs I read this morning. So don't want to get into it other than send a heartfelt thank you to the admissions committee. Every minute of preponement is balm to my nerves. I only wish it was pre-poned some more. My money was on the 16th, the logic? 'Preponement of One week sounds a lot better than Preponed by a day'. Kudos to Graham for calling the numbers just right. Another reason for the choice of 16th was my assumption that the decision in most cases have already been made. If that assumption had been true then, all that needed to be done was wrap up the paperwork and release the results. Obviously some more time was sought to tie the loose ends. The only question that remains is whether the Admissions committee will call people to inform them of their results and if so will they do it before or after the results are released.

On other schools, Cornell decisions are still on track to be released on the 15th. Not much of a surprise there, but the admissions committee is expected to start calling from this evening, so that should take the pressure off some lucky people atleast.

I did get around to working on Chicago's interesting essays over the weekend. The wife picked up one of Dan Brown's older books Angels and Demons so was completely absorbed in it over the weekend, while I plugged away at my Childhood hero, celebrity whose shoes I would want to steal and the Mascot. It was so interesting to get back into the essay mode after a long lay over. I completely forgot about the Wharton decision deadline and was lost in my essay world. Hopefully I can remain there for the next 8 days. To keep myself disciplined and on track, I have told myself that I will be submitting the Chicago and HBS applications in time for R2 regardless of the outcome of my R1 results. That is the only way I can force myself to work on these essays while I wait, and also with so much invested in the applications, I will find it difficult to just quit and throw it away.

BANG the noise reverberated in my room as I was writing this post. For a second there I thought someone had fired off a gun, as I looked out of my window, I saw this dazed hawk desperately beating its wings trying to regain loft. Thanks to the reflective glass walls, the confused bird flew right into the building. The impact was so loud, I felt sure that it had hurt itself badly. Imagine running slap band onto a wall at high speed, with the brittle skull and skeleton of a bird. It pulled up from the spin and managed to perch on top of the building. As I was looking at it with concern, I saw these Six crows dive bombing towards the poor hawk. I assume the crows have a nest up there and the presence of a predatory bird scares them. But this poor hawk wasn't going to budge. After 20-30 swoops the crows took off, leaving the hawk to wonder what hit it. Its partner is swooping in the sky above waiting for its mate to join in the hunt. I think I am almost as shaken by this incident as the hawk itself. I ABSOLUTELY HATE GLASS BUILDINGS! They are a menace to the birds.

Forecast

... for today is foggy skies.

The weather seems to be following my mood swings. There was a storm with lots of rain for the last couple of days when it rained heavily. Today there is a dense fog where visibility is down to 40 Ft. Likewise I was pretty keyed up in the past couple of days but today I feel dull and slow. I am actually getting some work done and haven't spent more than 30 mins catching up with the blogs and forums. I sometimes wonder what I am going to do after the biggest piece of my life gets done? I have some plans to take financial and math classes beginning from the Spring term. This will help me get back into the groove for studies, while imparting valuable lessons allowing me to elect out of some core subjects. But I am putting the cart before the donkey, not to say the Wharton Admissions committee is the donkey but you get the picture.

As I lay in bed this morning, my semi conscious mind was racing through the various scenario's, evaluating options. There was a kaleidoscope of possibilities that made my head reel and eventually wake up with a dull throbbing headache. Staggered to the window and the sky outside reflected my state of mind. I am going to put everything out of my mind this weekend and only concentrate on my upcoming applications. I plan to wrap up the first draft of all my Chicago essays and start reading my Harvard application. Hopefully most of the biographic details can be copied over from my past applications to the GSB and HBS applications, and it is something I can delegate to my wife, who plans to leave me behind at home to supervise the maid when she comes to clean the house. While I have led several projects and teams in the past, and successfully navigated them towards the culmination of contracts worth millions of dollars, there is something about maids that I just can't deal with. I am usually like a dear in the headlights when they look at me and expect me to move out of the way so that they can finish cleaning. Telling them to clean under the sofa or scrub the bath tub is completely out of question. So I hope I can get away with the excuse of writing my essays and escape safely to my office where in the peace and serenity of my enclosed space I can attempt to explain to GSB why they should consider me over the other 1700 people who are competing for their attention.

Apprehensive

As if I did not have enough things to worry about. Just as I start to get everything under control there comes another to add to the stress. Apparently Kellogg has already started releasing its R1 results, way ahead of my worry schedule. I had initially penciled it in post January first week after I had drunk the cup of sorrow or joy based upon what Wharton and Cornell thought of me and my application. I thought the initial passage would provide me with not only an inkling of what was to come but also brace me up for the storm.

Coming very fast on the heels of that news is the first reported admit of the season. So definitely will have to move Kellogg up on the immediate worry list. Yesterday I received the fright of my life when after a long hiatus I checked my Cornell status online. The status read as "Your decision will be mailed to you", which I interpreted as a ding. It felt like the world had dropped under me and I panicked completely until Classynfun and a couple more people from BW forum stepped in to explain that it was just a regular status message that "everyone" including people who receive invitations read. So that bought down the panic a little putting me back in my original bin with the added weight of someone other than me knowing my status.

The biggest advantage of this whole business with the panic attacks has been the sharp kick I received on the seat of my pants, shaking me out of my lethargy. With a burst of inspiration and energy I cranked out one of my Chicago essays in one sitting. This was the school whose interview I felt I did pretty well on, and with that half of the battle won, I want to make sure I get the other half done right in case I fail in my other endeavors, specially considering my affinity for the program. In the draft essay that I wrote, I can see the basic nucleus of my final version. It just needs slight pruning of words before I am done, something I am pretty happy about. Definitely a step up from my old Wharton days when I took 2 months and 10 drafts to get to where I am today. Hopefully I can continue to ride this wave of inspiration (okay not inspiration but fear) to crank out all the essays in the next week or so and submit it well ahead of schedule. That will free me up for my Harvard essays.

Today is also the last date for Wharton interviews, and the news on the street is that the admissions committee will be working pretty hard to get the results of this round out for distribution ASAP. I tend to believe that considering the AdCom consists of people who probably want to spend some time with their family over Christmas too, and with R2 looming up on them, their work is never done. Some correlation from Alex on that thought. So this coming week promises to be very very exciting. Good luck to all the blogers out there waiting for updates, Swoop, Riter, Onmyway, Wakechick, Poweryogi, DaRaver, Durba and Classy.

Skittish

That's me!

I have been so jumpy today it is not funny. With the knowledge that schools often call people to let them know about admissions decisions in advance, I have been jumping every instance the phone rings, tripping over furniture and being extra nice to surprised telemarketers. I know Wednesday is a little too early to expect those calls, but tell that to my nervous system.

This morning as I was just grabbing breakfast the phone rang, and I dropped everything and jumped to get it. In the process I lifted the phone of the hook and my butter fingers dropped it right back in the cradle effectively disconnecting the line, and driving me insane when I couldn't find out who had called. The same thing happened, when I was walking into my building and the wife called from her office, so the number flashed as unavailable, and I was so clumsy pawing at the keys that I cut it off, luckily she called back to let me know it was her. I guess it was the quick combination of the call missed at home along with the all on the cell phone that got to me. And now I am much calmer. I am sure IF I get that call sometime down the line, I am going to throw some serious doubts in the mind of the caller when there is no shriek of happiness when they pass on the message. I am going to go "Oh really? Thank you for calling." HA!

On other news, I did catch about 5 mins of the apprentice clone the rebel billionaire, the people there are so lacking in personality, and the tasks so poor, I can't get myself to get involved in their petty lives. So I switched off in less than 2 minutes. But I did catch a few mins of the Animated Charles Shultz on ABC, which in my opinion should never have been made since Snoopy was never meant to be a animated strip. The subtle jokes have flavor ONLY when read with the limited context of the strip. So I clicked off again and I went shopping on Amazon and Discovery store (I usually hate going to the physical stores, and will only go on sufferance, but online shopping is a joy for me). I felt that much better in the end having beaten the nefarious idiot box at its hypnotic mind numbing game.

Rats!

Couldn't resist posting this one, apparently in a sting operation a cat managed to get a MBA conferred upon it. One of the schools that were the victims of the crime was the University of Pennsylvania. Now I just need to make note of the website, in case I don't make the cut for Wharton. :-D

Countdown

I was thinking just this morning that there are 15 days left before Wharton releases its numbers, and after getting to work I check Hella's blog and lo behold I see a countdown clock. Thought it was pretty cool, so decided to get one for my blog as well.

For those of you who are interested in getting the same, here is a link that will generate the code required for the countdown clock for you. You will need to modify your template to insert the code in an appropriate place.

I was reading a post by Graham with ClearAdmit which dealt with HBS numbers and it struck a cord with my thoughts on Wharton numbers. I know this topic has been much discussed and dissected, but for some curious reason, I keep coming back to the numbers to draw solace during the vigil. The numbers are:
Total number of applications : 1750
Total number of people interviewed : ~800
Minimum number of invitation from R1: ~450
Chances : ~1:2

So the odds are much better than law school when they ask you to look to the left and right with only one of the three people graduating. So I keep telling myself to keep the faith, there is always hope. After I was done with my interview, my interviewer gave me some idea as to the upcoming process. Apparently the interviewer has 48 hours to report to Wharton on the outcome of the interview, after which another AdCom will read the entire application from scratch with the added insight of the interview to complete the picture and make a recommendation to admit, deny or waitlist. This recommendation then goes to the admissions director who will read all the applications again and sit down to sculpt the class.

So considering that it has been close to 4 days since my interview, I expect my application is somewhere in the pile sitting on the AdCom's desk waiting judgment. Wanted to take a moment to wish it well. Going by the stated logic I would assume that the countdown clock I put up on my blog is pretty useless technically. Since the decision will be made on my case in the next couple of days the countdown clock is just useful as an outer boundary for the decision process.

I am counting on the admissions committee to wrap things up really fast considering atleast two people have read every application and commented extensively on it. It shouldn't take too long to deliberate on the final decision unless the application is a borderline case. Hopefully the results will be released sometime over the next weekend. So the unofficial countdown clock reads T minus 10 days.

Am I adding to the nerves or am I helping with my chain of thoughts? My current state of mind is slight nervousness, but otherwise calm. I think I am going to start a mood countdown calendar as well. And hopefully the last entry on it will be sheer ecstasy.

Interestingly I have friends interviewing with Wharton every day this week. So here is wishing them well. (You know who you are, do well and kick some ass).

Slacking

Sum total of all work done towards essays over the last weekend = 0

I guess the absolute relief I felt at the conclusion of the Wharton saga has left me feeling extremely mellow. Can't seem to summon up the drive and energy I usually count on to get my through the long hours of introspection - writing essays. But for this I can lay partial blame on my wife, who having had to share me with the MBA application process, in addition to work and other commitments, finally decided to monopolize my time, so I spent a very relaxing weekend carrying packages and following her from store to store while she got her (our) Christmas shopping done. My reward for not complaining about the expedition Gary Larson as a stocking stuffer! :) Absolutely the most brilliant mind every born with a sense of humor to die for. This is actually a boxed set of his complete works that have ever appeared in print. Something Larson refers to as a hernia-giver, the books are so huge and heavy that you CANNOT lie on your back while you read it.

I read a couple of very interesting posts/emails that has given me much food for thought. One of which was DaRaverLA's post on his Wharton interview (which despite his misgivings I am sure he has done well at) and the second was an email I received from a friend from school, who I had lost touch with until recently. Both the above mentioned items caused me to reflect back upon both my interview and essays that I submitted for Wharton. Looking at my interview with hindsight, I realized that I had completely monopolized the conversation and hadn't addressed any situations where I showed leadership / teamwork / personal skills / Extra-curricular activities / ways I would contribute to Wharton, etc. You get the picture. All I had used the interview for was to establish my passion towards my goals and the logical progression of my career path. After reading DaRaverLA's post, it struck me hard and fast that I had blown it! I had wasted my best opportunity to make a case for myself. I left myself open to being a 2 dimensional application without a third dimension to me. Believe me I kicked myself hard over this. Despite all my interview practice, despite all my confidence in myself and my story, I blew it. But at this stage in the game, it doesn't really bother me that much other than make me want to kick myself. I realize there is nothing I can do to change the situation and the result will be out in three weeks for which I wait with baited breath.

Coming to the matter of the email I received, without breaking the confidentiality of the email, it dealt basically with my friend's life from graduation till date during which, a company was established, saw huge success, saw bigger losses, with the company going in receivership, a struggle to convince the bank to release funds based upon past success, inability to pay employee's, the problems associated with maintaining staff one can't afford to pay and dealing with their behavior without means to incentivice or discipline them. The struggle to make a what seemed like a successful pitch but failing due to an inability to pay the bank manager a bribe to complete the process. The destruction of all dreams for the future and sinking to a level where it was essential to sell their house to raise collateral.

But interwoven through the entire story was this feeling of optimism, this struggle to innovate, an unshakable feeling of ultimate victory and unshakable goals. This long email wasn't written to me as an essay or anything, just conversational with a here is what I have been doing since I spoke to you last. Whatever be its premise, it left me shaken and completely stirred. THIS I felt was possibly better than any essay I had written. This was more poignant, expressed more emotion, covered the entire gamut of life's ups and downs, shaped a person's philosophy of life. I was watching a movie with my wife, idly scanning through email when this came in and both of us stopped watching television and were lost in the story.

I definitely got the impression that if I were ever to read an essay like this, I would do everything in my power to get this person to class to share their deep experience of the business world. It was a human interest story at its best. This is when I understood what those 5% of applicants write that gets them into every school they apply too, and why my essays that I was so proud off in the past doesn't even hold a candle to such stories. I wouldn't admit me with my drab bereft of emotion essays as compared to these gems.

Definitely a humbling moment in my life. I am now that much more aware of my self than before.

Relief

And finally it is over. The much awaited, much debated and much dreaded interview with the Wharton AdCom has come and gone. Definitely the one bright spot in an otherwise horrible day. The presentation I was to make did not quite go as well as expected. My turn came about an hour after its scheduled time, due to major over runs by some of my predecessors. The moral of the story here is to never take anyone's word for granted when they claim they need 15 mins max. Always have a dry run and ensure that those 15 mins don't stretch to 60.

Anyhew, after the presentation over ran the scheduled time by 2 hours, after which I only had enough time to grab a quick lunch before dashing to the interview. Somewhere along the way, in what has become a habitual move, I lost the map I had printed (the same thing happened to me during my visit to HBS) and had to navigate by memory. Luckily I stumbled upon the spot about 20 mins ahead of schedule, and found parking right outside.

Again in another signature move, I made a gaffe on social etiquette (I really need to take a class on this, it is getting embarrassing now), since I had occupied the table in advance, I was seated when my interviewer stepped up to me, I stood up shook hands and promptly sat down, and wondered for a second why my interviewer wasn't following suit. Quickly realizing my mistake I extended the invitation to sit. My interviewer turned out to be this brilliantly successful alumnus who seemed very comfortable with Wharton and success. The interview was conducted in a completely stress free manner, to the extent that I did not quite realize the exact moment we were done with pleasantries and started with the interview. In one word SMOOTH! It was so smooth, that I sat there happily blabbing my heart out without any consideration for strategy when it hit me that this was my moment and I needed to seize it. Unfortunately this epiphany came a little late in the game about when the interview was coming to a close. Ah! Well Wharton has now gotten an uncensored version me, and I can only hope that it meets the standard.

The interview extended for close to 75 mins, but there weren't any concrete questions I can report due to the conversational nature of the exercise. But on hindsight, I would say the standard questions were all probed and touched up. Why Wharton, why now, future plans, story, etc. All in all an EXCELLENTLY conducted interview, left me feeling at ease through and through. It actually bought out my natural persona to the fore as compared to my interview one. So chalk one up to Wharton. I walked away happy to have had the opportunity to discuss my dreams and aspirations in such a conducive environment. Can't really say if the interview hit the spot for the alumnus, but atleast I wasn't given the impression that I had missed the mark either.

But this morning when I woke up, I was feeling extremely relaxed, at ease and energetic. This feeling had eluded me for some time now. The Wharton interview was something that was really that was giving me a lot of stress, the feeling that so many dreams rest on a conversation that is yet to happen was what was getting me down. But now that it is over, there is nothing I can do, other than pray, so I am relieved. At this point in the game, I have most of my applications in, and almost all my interviews completed. Now if and only if HBS decides to interview me, will the lucky shirt come out of the closet. Otherwise it will remain there till a welcome weekend. Sitting down to compose my Chicago essays now, and hope to get atleast the first draft ready by the end of the week.

First

... time for everything I guess.

Today after close to 4 years of working for the same company, my colleagues got to see me in my business casual glory! It was funny, as expected the comments on interviewing flew thick and deep, till I mentioned I had a presentation to make for the VP and several directors. That wasn't enough to quell the comments, since I doubt anyone of us has ever dressed up to make a presentation before. It is definitely going to be a huge change for me to leave all this behind and go to business school and wear a suit regularly. I don't usually buy the excuse that it makes you look more business like. I feel rather that "business like" is a state of mind and attitude. I would care if the person making me a deal was dressed formally or casually as long as what came out of his/her mouth made business sense. Maybe it is just a West coast cultural thing but I have learnt to look past appearances and concentrate of the message as compared to letting myself be boxed down by the appearance. Shit no matter how well packed remains shit!

In the unique tradition that I established from my very first business school interview, something had to go wrong while I carried my clothes to the car (wore a different shirt than I plan to wear at the interview. The lucky shirt is waiting for me in the car). This time I was feeling so awkward walking to work in formals, I completely forgot my "interview" shirt at home. Luckily the wife wasn't asleep on the watch, before we went our separate ways to our respective cars, she pointed out that I had forgotten something and asked me to guess. I couldn't remember until she spelt it out for me. After which I literally ran upstairs to get the shirt.

I should be going for my presentation soon, and hope that it doesn't stretch too far into the afternoon. That will give me ample time to brush up on last minute stuff, read my essays, print the map to get to the interview and yes, change my shirt!

Off the three blockers who had their interviews scheduled for yesterday, all seemed to be quite happy with the outcomes. So kudos to them. I hope that I can replicate the experience and walk away or in this case drive away happy. Its a beautiful day in California, sunny, bright and crisp. There is a slight nip in the air, but it always pleases my heart to see clear blue skis and warm sunlight.

Research

The Wharton website has proved to be a treasure-trove of information. It is amazing that every time I visit it, I learn something new about the school and the process or gain more insight into something specific. This in turn leads to me kicking myself for not taking the time our earlier to incorporate this research in my essays. I am not sure if this is a universal feeling felt by all applicants out there, but what is it about revisiting information that leads to these epiphanies? This new information just validates my decision to apply to school here and makes me feel even better about my fit. The sad thing about this is if I don't make the cut it will be like losing a near and dear friend. I truly admire the people who haven't lost sight of their dreams. Who despite failure to garner an admit from a school on the top of their list have applied again the next year. This calls for commitment and passion, so it surprises me that schools don't view these candidates as obviously stronger for it as compared to a "we don't encourage/discourage reapplicants".

So I have been having fun talking to myself in front of the mirror these past couple of days. With the validation of my basic story over several interviews and interview invites I am confident about my story. The only bit I am not confident about are the esoteric questions that come from the left field that could leave me scratching my head or clutching at straws. With 30-45 mins for an interview I hope that those questions are very limited in scope and don't play too huge a role in my interview.

Not sure if I reported it earlier, but I have finally managed to schedule the interview, and have pinned down a time and place. Both a little inconvenient to me, but those are the breaks. Definitely one of the things I want to do if/when I get to Wharton is in the true spirit of co-production, try and improve upon this process. I believe there are several opportunities for improvement and considering the strain that it puts on the applicants, needs to be addressed.

Today I have a dry run of a presentation that I will be making to senior management tomorrow. Which brings forth two interesting points, one good the other bad. The bad part is that the timing for the presentation on Friday is not fixed which means it could lead to a possible clash with my interview slot and offcourse I won't get the time to prepare for the interview the way I would like too. But the good part is that I can actually wear my business casuals to work and not draw more than an amused smile. Presentations to VP's are usually done in jeans but business casuals are not discouraged. I can tell you I was getting a little tired of the quick change thing in the parking garage. With the Mercury dipping, it gets pretty cold outside and that process is not fun. Besides I have never had the opportunity to ensure that I have my clothes properly tucked in and my hair combed in a proper mirror. Instead I use the windows of my car which isn't notorious for being clean. On the other hand, I have become comfortable with that routine and use it to test the scales (to borrow a phrase from the stage).

Ah! Well it is onward and forward, time to get on with the busy schedule in front of me. Here is a shout out to Da Raver LA, BritChick and Durba, fellow bloggers who have their interviews scheduled for today, and considering they are all in timezones way ahead of mine, should be getting ready to step into the ring even as we speak. Also wanted to wish onmyway for an important release at work. I have some experience of the process and while it can be the sweetest feeling in the world if everything you have done pans out as expected in production, all too often there are teething issues and they will make you pull all your hair out.

First

to the finish line is .... DirtyMartini who was invited by Columbia to join their class of 2007. A large round of applause.

The rest of us after a brief spark of happiness are back in our little wells of despondency. The wait stretches on in its interminable fashion with minutes passing like hours. The only saving grace is my much neglected work which has finally rebelled like a stream after the rains and is now flooding the banks in anger. In a quick reversal, I seem to be the one causing scheduling conflicts for my Wharton interview.

Yesterday was probably my grouchiest day yet. The wife had to step in and make me snap out of it after a particularly bad rant. I seem to be drifting towards a loss in confidence in my candidacy and towards life in general. The only thing that will truly help at this point is a letter of invitation from Wharton. I hope at some point of time in the future, I will revisit this blog in happier times and look at these sad posts and laugh at my state of mind.