Hello Blogosphere-
I just wrote a long a$$ post that just disappeared into cyberspace. I'm so annoyed. Anyway, the point of it was that I am super busy at work and am loving it! I have asked my previous manager and my current manager for my letters of rec and both were happy to do it. They were very encouraging too! My essays are coming along...not as great as I would like yet but alright I suppose.
So that is my update. I really had a lot to say with details...maybe I'll update this again later tonight when I have more time.
Ciao!
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Sunday, September 17, 2006
An Epiphany!
Last night as I was sitting at a coffee shop working on Stanford essay A, I finally found my theme! After reading the myriads of blogs discussing their "theme" and their "story" I was getting a bit frustrated trying to think of my own. I kept getting off on so many tangents. I was convinced that my life couldn't be boiled down to a simple "story" with a "theme" that can be told in a just a couple of essays! But alas, last night I found my own theme! I found a recurring theme on all of the important and even not so important decisions I have made throughout my life. It was so clear to me. I think I may have shouted "Yippee" at the coffee shop because when I looked up from my computer I had the entire coffee shop staring at me. Oops :-)
So now that I have found my theme/story it's just a matter of writing it in a clear, concise, yet interesting manner. Let's hope this part doesn't take as long as the first part!
As I was having trouble with my essays I would go back and forth with the Stanford application. I find the actual application almost as difficult as the essays. For the life of me I can't remember the names of the organizations I used to volunteer at while in university. I guess that is a sign that they weren't that significant. But I was working almost a full time schedule (had to pay for school on my own, minus some scholarships and loans of course) while getting a degree in engineering full time as well so my time was quite limited. But I know I volunteered every once in a while when I found myself with a few spare hours. I know I tutored at an elementary school for a quarter once a week. I also volunteered with a rape prevention group too. I just don't know the details of the organizations. So do I leave those out of my list of activities? I'm going to do a class visit at Stanford in the near future so maybe I'll ask the student or maybe I'll have some contact with an adcom person.
In other news, if you hadn't noticed my list of schools has grown. I am no longer sure about NYU or Columbia but I have added UCLA and Ross to my application list for sure. I've scheduled an info session, class visit, and interview at UCLA that is coming up soon. I'm a bit nervous about the interview. I'm planning on working on my resume the next few days and refining my answers to some standard interview questions. I think I need to make my answers a little more brief (or is that briefer? Maybe this is why I did so bad on my GMAT!...uggghh that's another problem I'm going to have to deal with soon...yuck!).
Enough of this procrastinating...now that I actually have a theme to write about I better get to it!
So now that I have found my theme/story it's just a matter of writing it in a clear, concise, yet interesting manner. Let's hope this part doesn't take as long as the first part!
As I was having trouble with my essays I would go back and forth with the Stanford application. I find the actual application almost as difficult as the essays. For the life of me I can't remember the names of the organizations I used to volunteer at while in university. I guess that is a sign that they weren't that significant. But I was working almost a full time schedule (had to pay for school on my own, minus some scholarships and loans of course) while getting a degree in engineering full time as well so my time was quite limited. But I know I volunteered every once in a while when I found myself with a few spare hours. I know I tutored at an elementary school for a quarter once a week. I also volunteered with a rape prevention group too. I just don't know the details of the organizations. So do I leave those out of my list of activities? I'm going to do a class visit at Stanford in the near future so maybe I'll ask the student or maybe I'll have some contact with an adcom person.
In other news, if you hadn't noticed my list of schools has grown. I am no longer sure about NYU or Columbia but I have added UCLA and Ross to my application list for sure. I've scheduled an info session, class visit, and interview at UCLA that is coming up soon. I'm a bit nervous about the interview. I'm planning on working on my resume the next few days and refining my answers to some standard interview questions. I think I need to make my answers a little more brief (or is that briefer? Maybe this is why I did so bad on my GMAT!...uggghh that's another problem I'm going to have to deal with soon...yuck!).
Enough of this procrastinating...now that I actually have a theme to write about I better get to it!
Monday, September 11, 2006
The MBA Tour and Interviews
I attended the MBA Tour this past weekend in San Francisco. I took this opportunity to interview with a few schools (thanks to Marina), some of which I was interested and some of which I was not. So the tour itself was alright. I think for me it was definitely worth it because it was only one day and an hour drive. I think if it took any more effort than that I wouldn't necessarily think it was worth it. The benefits of the tour were...Ross (Univ of Mich.), Anderson (UCLA), Columbia, Chicago GSB, back up schools, and interviews.
I had not considered Ross because I have no desire to live in Ann Arbor and so I didn't even research Ross. But for some reason I decided to sit in on the 35 minute Ross presentation. I was intrigued because the presentation stressed their non-profit management program, corporate social responsibility, and sustainability. They just made it seem that the school's values matched mine. I still need to look further into the school but they have a great dual degree program that I've been considering (MBA/MPP). So now I think I may be applying there too.
I had not considered UCLA because I went to undergrad at UCLA and I really felt like been there done that. But I, again, was swayed by the 35 minute presentation. More research to be done. In the meantime, I signed up to interview while I'm there on business in a few weeks.
I was convinced I wanted to go to Columbia because it's Columbia and it's in New York and from the website I thought it'd be a good fit for me. Now I'm questioning that after sitting in on their 35 minute presentation. I definitely am going to postpone that application until the second round if I still decide I want to apply there.
I wasn't really sure about Chicago GSB. I thought about it but I was not into living in Chicago. Turns out I was right questioning Chicago. After the presentation I was sure that Chicago GSB was not a good fit for me.
The other benefit to the MBA Tour was that I saw a couple of my back up schools there. I kept going back and forth on whether or not to apply to my back up schools. I am now completely convinced it is not worth going to a back up school or wasting the time, effort and money to apply.
Practice interviews are a great idea. I know now that I really need to be better prepared for them. I tend to chatter a little too much when nervous. There are benefits to this because they don't seem to have enough time to ask me the hard questions? There is a lot more I could add to this but I'm tired and have to clean my house. Maybe at a later date...
I had not considered Ross because I have no desire to live in Ann Arbor and so I didn't even research Ross. But for some reason I decided to sit in on the 35 minute Ross presentation. I was intrigued because the presentation stressed their non-profit management program, corporate social responsibility, and sustainability. They just made it seem that the school's values matched mine. I still need to look further into the school but they have a great dual degree program that I've been considering (MBA/MPP). So now I think I may be applying there too.
I had not considered UCLA because I went to undergrad at UCLA and I really felt like been there done that. But I, again, was swayed by the 35 minute presentation. More research to be done. In the meantime, I signed up to interview while I'm there on business in a few weeks.
I was convinced I wanted to go to Columbia because it's Columbia and it's in New York and from the website I thought it'd be a good fit for me. Now I'm questioning that after sitting in on their 35 minute presentation. I definitely am going to postpone that application until the second round if I still decide I want to apply there.
I wasn't really sure about Chicago GSB. I thought about it but I was not into living in Chicago. Turns out I was right questioning Chicago. After the presentation I was sure that Chicago GSB was not a good fit for me.
The other benefit to the MBA Tour was that I saw a couple of my back up schools there. I kept going back and forth on whether or not to apply to my back up schools. I am now completely convinced it is not worth going to a back up school or wasting the time, effort and money to apply.
Practice interviews are a great idea. I know now that I really need to be better prepared for them. I tend to chatter a little too much when nervous. There are benefits to this because they don't seem to have enough time to ask me the hard questions? There is a lot more I could add to this but I'm tired and have to clean my house. Maybe at a later date...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)