Hey Folks, It’s been a while! After a number of years of writing recommendation letters and attending top MBA graduations of my own mentees and ex-employees at work, I’ve gotten consistent complaints about the expense of using admissions consultants to get into business schools. For most people, this route doesn’t make sense because much of […]
June 13, 2013
Over the past few weeks, I’ve spoken with a number of 2013-14 MBA applicants while helping them with their application strategies for this admissions season. A few days ago, one of them asked me a very candid question about his admissions apps for several top 10 schools. “While writing my essays, should I tell the […]
June 3, 2013
A year ago today, I was mulling over why a full time MBA vs. an EMBA was the right decision for me being that I was only about 6 weeks away from my 35th birthday. Boy am I glad that I got clear on that distinction and chose the path of full time. The dividends […]
May 1, 2013
So, you laid it on the table during this MBA admissions cycle. Your GMAT score and undergrad GPA were in range, you have a solid work history, strong extras, clear goals AND don’t know of any reason that any of your recommendations would have gone sour because you’ve crushed it at work to boot. I […]
March 26, 2013
So…you’re “in” at Wharton. Congratulations on your achievement. I’ve felt kinda bad for all of you during these past couple of weeks, as the period between mid-November and late December (my waiting period) was the roughest time for me during this whole MBA application ride–definitely the upside-down-to-downward-spiral part of the coaster. While the GMAT had […]
February 11, 2013
Earlier today (Sunday) I flew back into Los Angeles from R1 Welcome Weekend at Chicago Booth. Over the past two weekends, I’ve gotten little sleep, increased my alcohol tolerance by a third and met several hundred of the most interesting and exceptional people that I’ve met all in one place in quite some time. If […]
January 31, 2013
Touched Before Take-off [Location, JFK Airport, NYC en route to Philadelphia] – So I’m sitting on the runway awaiting take-off at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) almost exactly 6 hours ago. I’m having a good day. I’ve taken today (Thursday) and tomorrow off to attend Wharton’s Winter Welcome Weekend in Philadelphia. I’m also smiling about […]
January 29, 2013
Post Mortem Just an hour ago, I thought that I’d be writing a very different post than this. About two weeks ago, I interviewed for a spot in the class of 2015 for The MIT Sloan School of Management. While I left the actual interview feeling pretty good, I began to wonder about whether my […]
December 31, 2012
A Prophet I am Not Despite the nature of heavenly event #1 , heavenly event #2 and heavenly event #3 in my journey to an elite MBA, I’ll be the first to admit that I am no expert on the subject of getting into top business programs. In fact, the only true experts are the […]
December 24, 2012
Woooo-saaaaahhhh (And Happy Holidays)! So about a year ago, I plunked down $250 and took my first swing at the GMAT. I had made a 650 on a practice test without studying, and felt that I should be able to do about as well without too much trouble, then pump out a few essays to […]
December 20, 2012
After getting an early morning acceptance call from the Chicago Booth School of Business two days ago, one would think I’d be more calm and zen than I was when I got up this morning. I was actually–its a huge relief that you have somewhere (really good) to go to for b-school after all of […]
December 18, 2012
By the time I had woken up this morning, I had read more than enough admit blog posts and BeatTheGMAT/ GMATClub status updates and posts to generally know what to expect on admit announcement day if you’re being offered admission. So when the area code (773) popped up on my iPhone as I was having […]
December 14, 2012
The Plague So I’m sitting in my Friday product strategy meeting, and I’m wiping my sore and swollen nose for the 100th time this morning.. It’s flu season, so all the folks with school age kids have brought their kids’ nasty cooties to work and kindly shared them with the rest of us. Bums. Since […]
December 10, 2012
During the next 10 days, I’ll know the final decisions for 4 out of the 5 programs that I applied to during R1. HBS graciously gave me my walking papers back in October; and Stanford’s silence has spoken volumes. I expect a ding notice from there this Wednesday. That completes the list of schools where […]
November 27, 2012
Ok, so the Thanksgiving Turkey and fixings have all been eaten; and even if that were not the case, I wouldn’t have access to them anyway because all that stuff is back down south with my parents, but I digress. Around 3 weeks from now, the curtain will close on Round 1 of MBA admissions […]
November 21, 2012
The Pilgrims Had it Easy Earlier today, my mind wandered as I smelled the sweet aroma of German chocolate cake baking in my mom’s oven. “I wonder what gave the Pilgrims and the indigenous Americans the time to indulge in a feast so elaborate that it started a holiday (before the former murdered 90% of […]
November 1, 2012
So the short version of the story is that the MBA Gods have smiled once again. I’ve just been invited to interview for a spot at The Wharton Business School, just 28 hours after receiving an invite to interview at The University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business (for which I’ve already been matched with […]
October 31, 2012
Since I felt the “sting of the ding” from Harvard a week ago (I chose not to blog about it), I’ve done a fairly good job of keeping my sanity while in this wasteland of waiting for interview invites results. Blocking Out the Noise I’ve read half of Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, advanced 9 ranking […]
October 21, 2012
I’ve never been the type to spend too much time worrying about things that I cannot change. And so, I’m not allowing myself to worry too much about the 5 MBA applications that I’ve turned in over the past 3.5 weeks for (in order of submission) HBS, Wharton, Booth, Stanford and MIT. I know that […]
October 19, 2012
I’ve just submitted my last and final app for Round 1: MIT Sloan. After weeks of an on again, off again relationship with this particular app, I was pleased to see how it came together in the end. Ultimately, it became one of my favorite apps to complete. Now let’s just hope that the Sloan […]
October 16, 2012
So today was boss’ day. Who knew? I sure didn’t–at least not until I arrived at work this morning to the sight of a whole grain and berry mini cake from Whole Foods on my desk decorated “Happy Boss’ Day”. I’d love to be able to tell you that I ate some and brought the […]
October 7, 2012
I’ve been hard pressed to achieve an insomnia-free night as of late; and to be fair to my fellow pre-MBA applicants, I must concede that I am probably not unique in that respect. At first glance, I’m just another one of thousands of applicants who has recently turned in a set of Round 1 applications […]
October 1, 2012
I’ve just burned the last few drops of midnight oil between September 30th and October 1st, 2012. The bad news is I need to be up and out of bed in 5 hours for cardio. The good news is that I’ve just submitted apps for Wharton, Booth and Stanford after an all Sunday marathon of […]
September 21, 2012
Well, its official. I’ve jumped down the MBA admissions rabbit hole. Just a few hours ago, I successfully submitted my first app to HBS; and my last of 3 recommenders submitted his recommendation about an hour and a half later without my having to be a pest about it. I also received an invite today […]
September 13, 2012
Earlier this week, I checked my iPhone to see my 5th and final info session for Round 1, Chicago Booth, on my schedule. Great Timing I remember feeling relieved to see the 9/11 date when I first registered. My relief came from the fact that 9/5 was on my calendar as the date of the […]
September 1, 2012
One week after attending Harvard and Stanford’s info sessions in downtown Los Angeles, I attended the MIT Sloan info session in Santa Monica. SWITCHING OUT BERKELEY HAAS FOR MIT SLOAN Initially, I had registered for an info session for Berkeley Haas on the same day; however, that was before I decided to apply to my Consortium […]
August 22, 2012
Introspection About a week and a half ago I published a blog post about my experiences at both a Wharton info session and the Riordan Diversity MBA Admissions Conference (CA) just 2 days apart here in Los Angeles. Each event was exceptionally well-run and worthy of due praise. Though anyone applying during the 2012-13 season has […]
August 11, 2012
So I’ve logged quite a bit of face to face time with MBA ad/coms over the past few days. The first opportunity to that end was the Wharton Diversity Info Session held by two of its admissions officers at the Deloitte tower downtown last Thursday. When I first realized that the event was being held […]
August 5, 2012
“When man makes plans, God laughs” As a compulsive planner, I’ve always taken issue with that statement; yet, it has proven to be the gospel time and time again. So, I was minding my own business last night while watching the swimming and women’s track and field finals of the London Olympics; I was also […]
August 3, 2012
**Tiger Woods Fist Pump** So it happened today–THE conversation with the boss. While I will admit that I did not have nearly as much to be fearful of as some bloggers that I’ve read about (for reasons that I will get to in a moment), ANY conversation with your boss about how and/or when you […]
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