Stress is a Tensor ...

My life through the MBA application process while I try to get my Professional Engineer's License ...

Monday, March 12, 2007

March Madness!

I have not stayed in touch with the blogosphere for the past many weeks so I am not aware of any fellow bloggers catching on to this.
Of those of you familiar with College basketball in the US, how many have noticed the eerie similarities between the selection process for the NCAA basketball tourney and the application process for B-School? The headaches and the heartaches for the candidates and the lack of transparency in the process along with the seeming abundance of worthy candidates makes the comparision noteworthy.
I will try and post a comparative essay on this over the next few days!
Happy Dancin'!

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Rejected by Stanford!

Derrick Bolton plays the shot blocker and rejects me with a resounding Ding! Congratulations to all those who got in.

Now waiting on MIT who will (I hope) say something different ...

Sunday, December 31, 2006

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Wishing everyone a happy and prosperous 2007. May Interview Invites and Admission Offers fill your days. Cheers!

I am currently on a three week vacation and out of the country. I still haven't heard from MIT or Stanford.

Congratulations/Best wishes to those who have received admits recently/are awaiting offers.

Thursday, December 14, 2006

We need SPCBA!

... or the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Business-school Applicants.

Like all normal B-School applicants, I get really excited when I see an email in the "2006Apps" folder of my Yahoo! account. It would not be a stretch to say that my heart skips a beat or two when I see that the sender is MIT Ad Com.

So now, why would you, if your name was "MIT Ad Com", send me an email with a "December Update" on MIT Sloan/LFM when I am waiting breathlessly for an interview call???

Hello? It is too late for marketing folks! I have ALREADY applied; spent three whole days on campus even. So would you please not be sooooo cruel. Please?

Of course, one can say that it is my fault for not anticipating what was in store when the email subject line read "December Update". But then, how am I to know what an MIT Sloan interview invite looks like? I haven't received one yet. I may retract my anguish-ridden statements once one of those pops into my inbox!

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

35 degrees and raining ...

It is dark. It is cold. It is raining. I am waiting.

My bosses have not committed to retaining my department and that prompted me to tender my resignation (effective end of the month). With that, I have lost all motivation to do anything except check my email for word from Stanford/MIT.

I know that I need to work on my application for Columbia and Michigan but it just so difficult to do right now. Whatever little I manage to get done is solely due to my fondness for these schools.

I watched the Michigan-OSU game with the local Michigan Alumni association (my girlfriend was in the Michigan Marching Band). I hoped to single out some Ross alumni but got totally caught up in the game and forgot all about networking. I hope Michigan gets another crack at the Buckeyes this year, for the NC.

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

False Alarm

My heart skipped a beat when I saw that MIT Adcom had sent me an email. All it says is that my file is complete and some other things that I am not supposed to tell anyone else.

I heard someone already has received an interview invite from Sloan. Fingers crossed ...

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Phase Two

Now that I am done with my MIT application, (it has been a couple of weeks since) I have more time to reflect on the application process and what I want to do differently for Columbia and Michigan. But since the status of my Stanford app went to "Complete and Under Review", it has been difficult to focus on writing further essays. I have heard that MIT does not actually update the applicants' accounts but I know that they must have started reviewing files by now. I am growing very anxious and am very tempted to check out the BW boards (that I try to avoid) on the matter.

Historically, Stanford's interview invites start trickling out in the fourth week of November and MIT's on the last day of November. A week to go ...

I still am very excited about my applications to CBS and Michigan, as if they are puzzles for me to solve using the clues I have from past experiences (Stanford,MIT). I am working on the CBS application right now and I swear that Essay 1 had a thousand word limit the last time I looked.

The 750 word limit does force me to rewrite the Why-Why essay which is a good thing. Having visited the school and met with so many current students and alumni, I have a tad too many things to say in this essay. Also, I was talked into considering B-school by a CBS alum in the first place. So for a long time, 'CBS' and 'B-School' were interchangeable in my mind.

The promotion (to Director) that I was looking for has not happened yet. Meanwhile, I have an offer from another firm that bumps my pay up big time :) I also managed to double my paid vacation time in my negotiations. All the soul searching I did for my applications did pay off in the (job) interview. Now I need to snoop around to find out if indeed I will be made Director at my present firm and I have approximately 24 hours to do it in. Either way, my profile should receive a boost.

Congratulations to all who received interview invites from their target schools! All the best to those who lie in wait. As an ardent sports fan, I am extremely superstitious. But it is easier to wear a 'lucky' sweatshirt for an entire basketball game than to wear a lucky shirt for three straight weeks. So I am trying to find a 'lucky' object that I can carry around all the time.