Post-DAK thoughts

After an intense weekend at Kellogg ("drinking from the firehose" is the term many students and admin used), it's a little strange to be back at home and at work. It absolutely was a great experience. From Day 1 of my application journey I had heard about the teamwork culture at Kellogg, but until this weekend I hadn't really known exactly what that meant. The people I met were incredible - they were all very smart and successful, but also very down to earth and friendly. In the opening session on Friday, Beth Flye (Asst. Dean for admissions) gave an overview of the R1 admits. The average GMAT and GPA were 719 and 3.62. There were entrepreneurs, teachers, military people, people from non-profits and government, and of course the bankers and consultants. For nearly 10 minutes she read accomplishments people had written about in their essays, and I found myself wondering how exactly I had managed to get admitted since I had never started my own company or NGO or launched a multimillion dollar product line.

I was curious before this weekend what it would look like to take 200 or so Type-A MBA aspirants from a variety of backgrounds and stick them together for a weekend. Well, what happened was that as soon as the admitted students started meeting each other Thursday night at the welcome receptions, people started becoming friends - and it continued throughout the weekend. I really hope that everyone I met decides to come to Kellogg (most had already decided that they will be back in the fall, but a few were still considering other offers). Based on this weekend, I know that Kellogg is the right fit for me and will be sending in my deposit and breaking up with Duke this week. I can't wait for KWEST trips and the start of school in August. Somehow I need to find a way to concentrate on work for a few more months, because my mind has already moved to Evanston.