First, I’d just like to congratulate my admissions consulting clients from this season who have accepted offers to their target schools. Thus far, 2 of you are headed to Wharton, 2 to INSEAD, one to Duke, and 4 waiting to hear back from one of Wharton (2 more), MIT (1) or Darden (2). I only […]
October 6, 2013
My first quarter at Wharton has been an unbelievable experience. When I last posted, I was just getting my druthers after a fun but exhausting Pre-Term experience. I had also deluded myself into thinking that I’d do a couple posts last month. Negative. Out of nowhere, I was blind-sighted by a flurry of quant problem […]
August 8, 2013
The short version of this story is that I’m having the time of my life right about now. Here goes the long version… (I hope you packed a lunch!) The Fresh Prince of Philly I arrived in Philadelphia back on July 23rd, just over 3 weeks ago. While my flight had me landing several […]
July 13, 2013
I’ve never really been the jealous type. That notwithstanding, it can be quite a challenge to not become a hater when all of your rich banker classmates are gallivanting around the globe after having quit their pre MBA jobs months ago while you report to a cube each day. So naturally, I was more than […]
June 24, 2013
Every now and again (actually, quite often if I’m honest) I get yet another confirmation of having made the right decision in choosing to attend The Wharton School to get my MBA and focus on building a company. While I’ve never looked back or even so much as wondered about my having chosen the best […]
May 10, 2013
…And to think I once thought that I’d never see the end of the friggin GMAT. Looking Back Almost exacty a year ago, I hit “publish” on my very first blog post for MBAOver30.com. Real talk, no one could have told me that the past 364 days would have unfolded as they have. I am […]
April 13, 2013
So…I’m sitting at the computer while taking a break from some freelance writing work. I’m watching this clip on YouTube that always makes me laugh so hard that I fart when my my phone starts beeping and my email notices from Facebook start blowing up. Apparently, just as I was laughing and in tears to […]
March 1, 2013
I’ve chosen to invest my next two years into building a company and earning an MBA in Entrepreneurship and Strategic Management at The Wharton School of Business at UPenn. First World Problems From the moment that I first got “the call” from Director of Admissions Ankur Kumar welcoming me to Wharton’s class of 2015, I […]
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 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 16, 2012
I can finally see some light at the end of this very long tunnel of pre-MBA exam prep, test-taking, app and essay writing, interviewing, waiting, worrying, and just plain ‘ole stress. So here’s the status of my round 1 applications going into the weekend before Thanksgiving (alphabetically): Chicago – invited to interview; interview complete HBS […]
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 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 […]
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 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 30, 2012
I basically burned a rubber streak along LA’s streets between my job in the South Bay and downtown during the time that H/S/W came to town and hosted their info sessions literally on the same block over the past 2 weeks or so. While Wharton hosted its event in the Deloitte building (I did a […]
July 12, 2012
So it’s finally here…my birthday; which means that I am officially a 35-year old MBA applicant. And you know what? I have never been more clear about what I want, where I’m going and how I plan on getting there. Let’s just hope these adcoms concur LOL! Today is also the official 2-month-aversary of mbaover30.com; and […]
June 25, 2012
{{PROLOGUE}} I played classical saxophone for about 8 years between middle school and my first year of college. I also had the privilege of taking private lessons from Mr. Collins, who was hands down the best in my state at the time. His students consistently auditioned well enough to dominate all-county and all-state wind ensembles. […]
June 15, 2012
NERDS IN PARIS: Yesterday was the last day of work for one of my marketing interns. She was an exchange student who had just finished her masters degree in corporate finance from Institut National des Telecommunications in France and was completing her exchange studies certificate at one of the more well-regarded UC (University of California) schools. […]
May 31, 2012
Recently, Poets & Quants published an article highlighting the trend of more and more MBA students in top programs shunning traditional corporate jobs to start their own businesses. In particular, the piece highlighted that Stanford and HBS grads are 3x and 2x more likely to start a business upon graduation, respectively, when compared to their […]
May 23, 2012
It’s here. The 2012-2013 MBA application season has commenced. I must say, it seems to have come a bit soon. I was expecting for the first applications to be opened sometime in July–I was totally prepared for that; but MAY? Not so prepared–emotionally, at least. Apparently, I missed a fairly conspicuous memo because it seems common […]
May 16, 2012
You lose sleep over it. You sacrifice a normal social life as you scavenge the net because of it. You also re-read the same article at accepted.com 10 times, hoping that your next read will reveal some golden nugget of rare wisdom that you haven’t noticed before. I call “it” MBA failophobia (n): the fear of not getting […]
May 14, 2012
When you’re in undergrad and your major is engineering, you’re taught two basic mantras: 1) Unless they are studying pharmacy or some variation of natural science–everyone’s major is exponentially easier than yours. 2) Especially the business majors. So for years, both during and after undergrad, I unwittingly subscribed to this insidious, elitist idea and accepted it […]
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February 25, 2014
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