Sunday, December 2, 2007

Waiting is no fun

I mean this on a micro and macro level. I'm writing this from the SAS lounge in Copenhagen waiting for a flight to Berlin during my 2 week, 3 city trip through Europe (big shout out though to SAS for the free WiFi). Thinking back over the past year, I've spent a total of several days' worth of time waiting in various airports for flights both on-time and in various states of delay. It is no fun.

On a macro level, I'm not enjoying the wait on my apps. Still no word from either HBS or Stanford, and every day that passes I become more sure that I won't be hearing from them until the ding comes in January. So that gets me to thinking - what about R2? I'm still very positive about Chicago, and think I have a very strong application there. But just based on numbers, there's a very real chance I could get dinged there as well, and then what? My all-R1 application strategy was based on advice from several trusted mentors that said they "would be shocked if I didn't get into at least 2 of the schools I was applying to." At the time I was confident enough to believe them. Now, not so much. There are two other complicating factors at work. First, and most importantly, I can't think of what other schools I'd want to apply to. Sure there are plenty of other very good schools out there, but none that particularly got me excited with the prospect of going there, and for the investment involved here I want to be excited by my school of choice. Second, I made promises to my boss and others in my organization that I would let them know by January if I would be resigning from the company to pursue my MBA dreams. This would give us both plenty of time to find a new role for me in the organization if I don't get in to an MBA program, since my current position is due to end in July. So now I don't know what to do. I'm thinking that I'd rather put off the MBA plans for a year and try again at schools I REALLY want to attend, than to apply to R2 schools that really don't excite me, but need to give this more thought.

1 comment:

e.catharsis said...

Mike, you have to be kidding me. You're traipsing around the world for the nth time in a few months, command accounting and strategy experience, have highly-qualified people who believe in you, know how to write clearly, effectively, and persuasively, are motivated and organized enough to have polished off all your apps in R1, and have interests that you're clearly passionate about -- and this is all based on just your blog posts. I can't even imagine what your essays and recommendations convey about you. If you don't get invitations from HBS and Stanford, what chance do the rest of us have?