Rico, A reason to smile!

He is what keeps me calm through this this whole B-school process. How can I be stressed out when I have this adorable animal begging me to play with him?

Bella, And another reason to smile!

Rico's girlfriend. Although she's a little confused between being a dog and being a realtor at this point. Her dad is a realtor and she really wants to be like him.

GMAT Prep Course

Last night was my first class for the GMAT review. I liked the instructor. She was really upbeat and entertaining. THere are only 6 people total in the course. These courses are so damn expensive! I ended up signing up for Princeton because it was $150 cheaper than Kaplan and I couldn't find anyone that could tell me the price difference was justified. So Princeton it is. I've actually taken the GMAT before but without regimented studying, and my score reflected that! I'm hoping to score at least a 720 but would like a 750. I'm pretty sure I can do it.

Right now I'm only working part time so I can concentrate on the application process. However, I think that may end up hurting me in the long run? I'm not sure how b-schools are going to react to this? I'm hoping it works in my favor but who knows?

This past weekend I met a guy who went to Sloan. He has a mechanical engineering background too. He really liked it. He also told me about some of his classmates that did a three year program at Sloan with the Kennedy School at Harvard? He said it was a public policy program with the business program? I have to do some more research. I signed up for an info session at Stanford this Friday. I'm going to look into signing up for an info session at Haas too but I'm not so sure I'm all that interested in Haas? Veremos!

My First Time

I've finally stopped being a ghost reader and started my own blog. Here's my story:

I graduated from UCLA with a degree in mechanical engineering. I've been working as an engineer ever since and haven't been happy with my career choice since day one. I loved engineering courses in school but the real world is a little different. After lots of introspection I think maybe I should have gotten an advanced degree in engineering and gone into research, then quite possibly I would have enjoyed being an engineer. But I didn't and now I'm feeling a little stuck.

I've always done community service on the side and I like working at something I care about. Sometimes at work I see my boss get so excited about a new project and I think to myeslf 'when will I be excited about my job? When do I get to have that feeling of pride or accomplishment when a project has finished successfully?'. So far at work, I really haven't. But I do have the feeling of pride when I'm volunteering. I love leaving an event knowing I've done something to forward a cause I believe in, finding a homeless animal a new home or raising money for women's rights. The thing is I like my life too much. I can't give up all my free time to these volunteer events. After work I like taking my dog for a long run on the trails, repairing my old house, seeing my family, going for a drink with friends, going salsa dancing (this one especially ), going mountain biking. I don't want to give my life up so that I can be more involved in my volunteer work. So I've decided to go back to school so I can change my career. I want to find that job that satisfies both needs I have, to apply my education and be excited and proud of what I've accomplished at my job. Now it's just figuring out what exactly that job is going to be and figuring out a way to express all of this in the millions of essays I'll have to write come fall!!