...and a surprise from Duke!

So I wasn't expecting a decision from Duke until 9am tomorrow. Nowhere had anyone even hinted at the possibility of decisions being released before 9am tomorrow. Yet I checked my email this afternoon and there it was: a note from Duke Admissions. Nope - not a survey or info session or any of the other crazy things that Admissions Offices send out in the midst of the application season. It was an email saying my decision was available.

I log into the application system, click on the decision link, and up pops this flash animation about the Duke MBA. After a second or so, it says "Congratulations!". Well, top marks to Duke for creativity. The admit letter was hidden behind the animation, and I am in! Definitely a nice pick-me-up after the disappointment from Chicago earlier today. Info on scholarships will be sent in about 2 weeks, so now I get to look forward to my official admit package from Kellogg and Duke scholarship info. All in all, not a bad way to head into the holidays.

No news was not good news

Dear Mike,

Thank you for your interest in Chicago Booth...Unfortunately we are not able to offer you admission into the Class of 2011. Again.

Ok, I get it Chicago. We're just not right for each other. The chemistry isn't there. It's not you it's me. There's plenty of fish in the sea. Yada, yada, yada.

I am disappointed in not getting an admit at Chicago. I really thought I had put together a better application than last year, but I guess it just didn't cut it. However, since I already have an admit from one of my dream schools, the disappointment is mild. I guess it's really just ego at this point to want to be in a position to have to choose between top-tier business schools. Well with my decision of whether to enroll in Kellogg or Chicago conveniently made for me by Rose & the Adcom, I can say I'm 99% sure I'll be in Evanston next fall. The 1% is really only if something extraordinarily unlikely happens - something on the order of HBS admitting me even though I haven't even been invited to interview yet, or Duke admitting me and offering some massive scholarship $$.

Nothing from Chicago

Well, it's pretty late in the day and I haven't received a call from Chicago. Last year this was a pretty bad sign, so I'm thinking I'm getting the dear John letter tomorrow morning. If I don't get in, it'll be disappointing, but also on the bright side it'll make my enrollment decision a heck of a lot easier. Only 15 more hours and I'll know for sure.

Pre-holiday push

It never seems to fail that the week before Christmas is one of the busiest of the year at work. I guess everyone's trying to get things wrapped up before they go on vacation for the holidays. This year sure isn't an exception - this week has been crazy at work. I have back-to-back-to-back meetings and conference calls all day (and sometimes even am double booked in simultaneous meetings and conference calls). Then at about 6:30 or so the meetings all stop and I can finally start doing the work I actually need to accomplish that day. The upside of this is that it's made it easier to wait for decisions from Chicago and Duke, since I don't have much time to think about waiting. Hopefully I'll be one of the lucky ones to get a call from Chicago when they start contacting the admits today. Of course, the odds are pretty good that I'll be in a meeting so I'm actually looking forward to the voicemail. I guess this is good practice for the kind of time management skills I'll need at school.

Motivation

Or more accurately, the lack of motivation. Ever since getting the admit call to Kellogg, I have not been able to focus on work. My productivity has dropped dramatically, and I spend more time than ever checking out the BW and GMATClub forums. Part of it is the fact that I know that I'll be resigning from my job in 6 months so I really have the mindset that I'm just marking time at work, and also unfortunately the work I'm doing at the moment isn't all that exciting.

I can't wait for next week to be over. First, I'll have my decisions from Chicago and Duke, and can start more seriously thinking about where to enroll. Also, it means the beginning of a 2 week vacation for the holidays. It can't come soon enough.

Still waiting

So, you ask, what's it like to be a newly admitted MBA student? Well it's much less stressful, to be sure, than to not have an admit yet. But it still involves quite a bit of waiting. I've already read through the entirety of the Kellogg admitted students portal, but it's still too early to make an enrollment decision. I like Kellogg a lot, but also like Chicago a lot so at a minimum I am going to wait until next week's Chicago decision. If I do get accepted to Chicago, then I probably won't be making a decision until after both schools' admitted students weekend. If I don't get into Chicago, then my decision becomes easier since I haven't gotten an interview invite from HBS.

What about Duke and Columbia? Well, this week I'm going to withdraw my application to Columbia. I just never got as excited about Columbia as I did about the other schools I applied to. I was really impressed by Duke when I visited. It's got a solid healthcare program, the students were incredibly friendly, everything seemed very well run, and the facilities were very impressive. But, I wasn't excited about the possibility of living in Durham, NC, and while the quality of the program is very high, it doesn't match Kellogg. But with the decision date so close, and with the impressive campus visit, I plan to see what the outcome is before making any final decisions on Duke.

I know it's premature to start weighing Kellogg vs. Chicago vs. Duke since I've only actually been admitted to one school. Quite possibly, I won't have a decision to make. But with nothing else to do for admissions, I can only wait, and think about what if's?

I'm Back!

Wow it's been a while, and a lot has happened since the last time I posted. The weather has turned wintery cold (there was even a dusting of snow on the ground when I woke up this morning). After two years of dominating the news, the Presidential Election finally ended. There were holidays and vacations. The New York Giants are off to their best start in franchise history. I applied to 5 schools in round 1 (not exactly the list I wrote about in my last post). Oh, yeah, and I WAS ADMITTED TO KELLOGG!

So why have I decided to restart this blog now? Well, I think I lost the inspiration to blog through my application experience because I had been here before, last year. But now, with the admit call, my excitement is back. The experience is new again. My ambitious plan is to blog right through until I graduate, both to keep a journal of sorts for myself, but also to share the experience with my family and friends. Of course, any other interested people who care to read about my experiences are more than welcome here.

So welcome back, and stay tuned.