Food for Thought

Interesting post on the thought-process behind a Wharton MBA acceptance (or lack of it)…

Makes me wonder what Tuck would have said to me had I taken them up on their offer for a sit-down chat.

Friday Blues

I definitely didn’t have a very good day yesterday. For some reason I am experiencing extreme PMS which is not normal for me. My mood swings were all over the place and I had to switch out my contacts to glasses because my eyes kept watering up for no reason. I proceeded to eat two very chocolatey cookies for dinner and chased it with a chai latte. Nutritious and delicious!

After work I bummed around Copley for a while and then went over to the movie theater to meet up with Rima. We watched He’s Just Not That Into You which was surprisingly better than I thought it would be. I couldn’t stop all these random thoughts from running around inside my head though. I am feeling very conflicted right now and I just want to crawl into bed, pull the covers over my head, and not come out until summer arrives. Doable?

PS- only one school left in the running now.

Ugh

Do not want to be at work anymore. Uggggggghhhhhhhh. Am having major emotional drama about what will happen in my life in the next few months and it is completely taking over my mental process right now. Have been considering going to see a psychic ’cause what I really need right now is someone to tell me what will happen/what to do. Don’t want to figure things out for myself anymore.

Countdown to hear from Wharton- 34 min.

Ummm

I think I just signed myself up for even more torture… instead of one application to finish by mid-January, now I have two. Just sent off the notices to my recommenders. I thought about it long and hard, and it was a tough decision. But I just think I would regret it if I didn’t try and shoot for Wharton. I will give it my all and see what happens. You never know how things will work themselves out. !!!

In related news, I watched a CNN special on HBS tonight. It was pretty interesting. I was surprised at the access the cameras had to some aspects of the school. They didn’t touch on the social aspect at all, which is interesting considering that Boston Magazine did a whole “expose” of the hard-partying HBSers earlier this fall. No mention at all of the drinking culture. I thought it was funny when the interviewer asked the married couple about what they wish they’d known before coming. Their answers were so lame! “I wish I’d known how fun it would be.” and “I wish I’d known how hard it would be.” Hello???? It’s business school, PLUS it’s HBS!!! Of COURSE it’s going to be harder than you could even imagine!

I also attended a Cornell event tonight where a first year student hosted people who were interested in Johnson. The space was pretty small, so it got relatively crowded. I wish there had been more than one student present, because I think most people ended up talking to other prospective students rather than the Cornell student. Me, I made sure to get in early and at the end with all my questions. I am showing true business skills and savvy, no? Willing to be pushy to get what I want!

It was really enlightening in terms of meeting the kinds of people who were interested in applying. Honestly, I wasn’t that impressed by anyone I met. There was the one guy who sounded like he was more interested in touting the benefits of UMass Boston’s program than finding out about Johnson. He’d also been unemployed since September, and was applying to b-school because he didn’t want to look for a job. And he also hadn’t applied anywhere yet, nor had he taken the GMATs. After talking to him I felt extremely “with-it” and light-years ahead in terms of planning and preparedness. I also talked to a girl who was working part-time but couldn’t find the time to get her applications together. Again, I kept thinking about my October. October 2008 was spent studying for the GMATs round 2, preparing my first application (including writing 4 essays from scratch), and working full time in a relatively new position, while training my replacement. Can we say time management, anyone? I had no sympathy for the part-time girl.

In any case, I am looking forward to the holidays. I definitely won’t make my goal of getting everything done for my last two apps before Christmas, but I’m OK with that. Things are definitely manageable for both apps, and I am confident that I’ll be able to put two very good packages together. Wish me luck! Here comes the (sort-of) homestretch!