The travel gods smile on me.

Well, sort of. I am in Singapore, and what should have been a nonstop flight from Newark to Sinagpore was diverted to Bangkok for fuel because we got rerouted over China. But other than arriving in Singapore 2 hours late, recently the travel gods have been nice to me. Last month my travel schedule resulted in weekends in Malta and the Dominican Republic, and now this weekend I am at the very nice Amara Sanctuary Resort in Sentosa, Singapore. These are certainly some of the perks I will miss when I give up my current role in the next few months. So this weekend, besides enjoying the tropical weather (current temp 86F, although with the humidity it feels much, much hotter than that), I will be giving some serious thought to positioning and themes for my essays, as well as how to best frame my career goals/aspirations/vision.

In the meantime, as promised in my last post, here are my initial pros/cons on schools. I'll start with the two schools I am considering re-applying to this year. Please recognize that these are my own subjective views, and that the characteristics that I've noted as pro or con are based on what I personally am looking for in a school and not any objective criteria.

Chicago GSB
Pros: academic powerhouse and intellectually rigorous program, high degree of flexibility of curriculum, very strong brand (though not quite as strong as Harvard or Stanford), nice location (I like Chicago) and facilities are top-notch and contribute to a strong sense of community.
Cons: despite efforts to build capabilities and reputation in other areas, still very much known for people looking to go into quantitative fields (I am not); student housing spread out between different neighborhoods (Hyde Park, downtown and northern areas).
Overall impression: I really like Chicago. I liked it when I first started school research last year, and liked it even more after I visited. The students I met and talked to were all very friendly and happy with the school (even the students that didn't work for the Admissions Office), the academics are incredibly strong (even though somewhat tilted towards quant) and professors are easily available to students, and job prospects (even non-quant) are very good.

Harvard Business School
Pros: It's Harvard - the brand name is second to none. Very strong academics and professors that seem to enjoy interacting with students. Best general management focus in the world, which fits with my non-quant career goals. Very large, very influential alumni network. Sections help build community within a large class. Great location (after NYC, Boston is my favorite US city) and facilities.
Cons: Very inflexible curriculum. I'm not entirely sold on the benefit of 100% case study as a teaching approach. Culture is more competitive than many business schools.
Overall impression: Last year, Harvard was my top choice (big surprise there). I do have my concerns about the rigid curriculum and teaching approach, and about the culture (I can be just as competitive as the next guy, but find I learn better in a collaborative environment), but these are minor concerns since the students tend to be positive about use of the case method and the curriculum. While they acknowledge that each class does have people that live up to the HBS stereotype (interviewing people for study groups, ultra-competitive, etc.), they stress that these people are a small minority of the overall class. As I said in my last post, I would still love to go to HBS - the only reason I'm on the fence about applying is whether I think I have a realistic chance of being accepted.

So there you have it. As I continue my research on the rest of my list, I will post my thoughts. Also, since I have another 19 hour flight ahead of me this week, I'll try and put up a post about GMAT prep for all you first time applicants out there.

It's application season again

In case you haven't seen this, HBS released their application calendar and essays for fall 2009 entrance. Not many changes, although there's one less essay needed and less options for the optional essays. And so it begins again.

Over the past month, work has kept me pretty busy, which means not a ton of time to focus on getting ready for application season. Although, I have been asked to lead a project at work that will be great essay fodder, and am also leading a solid project in one of my extracurricular activities, so I guess I could say I'm working on essay content...

You may notice that I've now included the current list of schools I'm considering applying/reapplying to. It's still longer than I'd like; the plan is to apply to 5-6 schools so I'll need to cut 4-5 schools off the list. At this point, based on my research, the most likely candidates for cutting are MIT, Wharton, Duke and INSEAD (the school is great, but the 2nd language requirement will be difficult). I'm also on the fence about HBS. I mean it's an absolutely stellar school and it would be a dream to go there, but after the DWI last year I need to consider how realistic my chances are. I'll post with more detailed pros/cons on the schools once I'm a bit further through my research.

A pleasant surprise

I have to admit I haven't been spending much time on the MBA blogs recently. Work has been pretty busy (it's budget time since our fiscal year end is June 30) and I've been feeling a little under the weather lately (hopefully nothing more serious than allergies), so it's been a while since I checked in. I was pleasantly surprised to see when I went over to the Clear Admit blog that I've been nominated for a Best of Blogging award for this year! Seeing that certainly picked up my spirits today, and made me feel good that perhaps sharing my experiences has helped other applicants out there. Good luck to all my fellow BoB nominees, and to anyone out there waiting for news in R3 or on waitlist status.

I promise that in the next month or so, as I start my reapplication cycle in earnest, I will start to post more frequently again.

Done...until next year

Well it's certainly been a while since I posted. Since then, I've decided not to rush an application into Columbia before their deadline, as I didn't think I could really put something of quality together given the time constraints and my work commitments. So, I've decided to call it a day and start looking ahead to the next cycle of admissions. My boss has continued to be great and completely supportive, and we are in the process of finding a new 1-year long project I can take on when my current job's rotation ends this July.

I've certainly learned a lot from the process this year and am certain I can use my experience to prepare better apps next year. I'll also be re-thinking school choice for this next attempt. I'll probably only post from time to time until the next app season heats up, since without MBA admissions my life can get a bit dull to read about. (Sample post: "Hey, I went to work again today, then came home, and will probably go back to work tomorrow.")

A big Thank You to all my fellow applicants and bloggers out there who have commented on my blog and lent their support. For those of you who were accepted in R1 - congrats! and good luck as you prepare for class this fall, and for those waiting for R2 decisions I'll keep my fingers crossed.

I'm still here

Just a quick post with some updates. As you can see from my sidebar, my applications did not go nearly as well as I had hoped. I've been spending the past few weeks thinking about options, and while there are some interesting opportunities in my firm's consulting practice that I could get into, I don't think I'm quite ready to give up on this year's application cycle. Columbia was my fourth choice and, while it's certainly late in the game, I'm pretty sure I can put together a good application by their deadline. I'll have to give it some thought over the weekend and talk to some people early next week to decide whether to give this year one last shot, or just hold off and try again for the class of 2011.

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays to everyone out there! I'm taking a bit of a break, but will be back to posting in January.

...and it's over

Dear Mike,

Thank you for your interest in Chicago GSB...Unfortunately we are not able to offer you admission into the Class of 2010...etc etc etc.