Is it too little too late?

I know I shouldn't do it, but I've been reading the B-week forum. The thread on G-town worries me. Some people have already been accepted from the waitlist weeks ago and recently someone was denied from the waitlist with a letter saying the upcoming class was full?! I haven't received anything yet. I don't know what to read in to that, if anything. The anxiety is starting to creep up on me again...

Back to waiting

The euphoria of my 7xx GMAT score has now come and gone. I'm back to the waiting. And of course doubting myself. Thinking I could have done even better on the GMAT. I received a higher score in the quantitative than I did in the verbal, as expected, but strangely my percentile in the Quant was a lot lower than my percentile in the verbal! I'm an engineer for goodness sake! How could that happen? I feel like my career change is kind of turning the analytical side of my brain to mush. I cant wait to take some quantitative courses. I love math. Anyway, the waiting now isn't as painful as it was pre-7xx GMAT but still...it'd be nice to know. I already received my official score report so I am sure G-Town has received it as well. Hopefully I hear back from them soon.

In the meantime I'll be concentrating on getting back to marathon running shape and selling my house. I picked a bad time to sell my house. The market is not doing so great. Lucky for me I bought it in 2002 when the market was doing so great either. I'd really like to just keep my triplex and kick out my problem tenant but it gets complicated and it's so hard to know who will be a good tenant and who is going to be a pain in the a$$. Anyway, I'm in no rush so if I don't get an offer for a while, I'm alright with that.

Congrats to all of you BoB winners and runners up! Enjoy the subscriptions and the iPods if you were so fortunate!

Welcome me to the 700 club!

I left the GMAT test center after seeing my well above 700 test score and called my boyfriend to tell him that his girlfriend wasn't a moron after all and in fact she was indeed a genius ;-) He then responded with the exact same comment my mother said to me just moments before, "well since you did so well maybe you should just wait until next year to reapply to Stanford." (We haven't really discussed what's going to happen if I move to Washington D.C. for G-Town...My priority right now is my education...I think his priorities involve us a little more, this could get difficult :-( But I digress...I am set on G-Town!! So here is my theory...

G-Town put me on the waitlist with a really really crappy GMAT score (We're talking low 600s) so that means they must have liked me otherwise they wouldn't have even considered me. So now with my mid 700 test score they are for sure going to take me off their waitlist, don't you think? Rumor has it that they are trying to make their way up the rankings and they need their averages to increase so with my new score they totally get that! Either way, if I have to reapply next year (keep your fingers crossed that I won't have to please!) at least I won't have the stress of the GMAT. I have the top 10 b-school score!

I cannot tell you (although I'm positive most of you know already) how fantastic it felt to walk out of that room knowing the GMAT was behind me forever! It is amazing what relaxing and not stressing can do for your score. Serioulsy I think my horrible previous scrore was 100% due to anxiety and stress. This time I went in very calm thinking that there was not much else I could do at this point and it totally worked (that and I think the Peanut M&M's I snacked on during my breaks may have helped as well ;-) I am considering holding a bonfire to burn all of my GMAT materials...unfortunately, I am too environmentally minded and will have to recycle my old notebooks and study guides.

I had a great weekend after my exam Friday afternoon. I made my BF take me out to a very nice celebratory dinner, then we spent the day Saturday in Napa doing a little wine tasting before going to a friend's B-day party. And today we took the dog's to the park to tire them out with some fetch and then tired ourselves out with a little tennis. And I just made dinner and baked brownies. It is an amazing feeling not having any applications or bad GMAT scores hanging over my had. It is a FANTASTIC feeling!

So now all I do is wait. But now I wait with an optimistic mind and sunny days ahead. Cheers to all!

Decisions Decisions Decisions

And I'm not talking about B-school. Yesterday the Supreme Court upheld the first EVER abortion ban. They have taken the decision making away from doctors and pregnant woman and given it to politicians. Although the procedure they banned is used in relatively few abortions, it is sometimes the safest way to terminate a pregnancy for a women having severe complications. The health and autonomy of women has been endangered. This ruling will have far reaching implications that I don't think many people fully understand. Yesterday my office was abuzz with media interviews, press releases, phone conferences, etc. I was at the office at 7am and didn't leave until 8pm.

But maybe this is what I needed for motivation? When I got home I deleted the essay that I have been working on for the past two and a half weeks to submit to Georgetown's waitlist administrator and started all over. The single page essay was impassioned and solid and I hope that G-town will seriously consider allowing me to enroll. The SCOTUS decision reinvigorated my desire to go to G-Town, I want to be in the center of it all. I want their core general management education and their public policy expertise and their well connected D.C. network. I need to get off this waitlist and start at G-Town in the fall.

On the same note, my co-worker/manager wrote a second letter of rec for me and just submitted it to the waitlist administrator. And tomorrow I retake the GMAT. After tomorrow, there is nothing more I can do to try to convince adcom to let me in. Hopefully that will all be enough.

It's an Honor Just to be Nominated!

They Like Me! They Really Really Like me! (Just in case you didn't get it, that was a Sally Fields reference to the Academy Awards ;-)

I am still trying to figure out why I have the good fortune to be a clearadmit BoB nominee. Nonetheless, I appreciate the nod!

I have come down from my over the top stressed out week and am now being quite zen about the whole pain in the booty tenant and the waitlist status. I am pretty confident that whatever happens I will make it work. In the meantime I have made my house devoid of all personality to help sell it quickly (removed all my personal pictures, etc) and I have spent some time doing some practice GMAT questions. As I said before, remaining calm is key. If I don't make this GMAT out to be life and death for my b-school dreams, I tend to remain calm and do much better on the practice questions. Hopefully my new zen attitude will help me to do as well as I know I can do on the GMAT.

I also need to nudge my other supervisor on that letter of rec again. I think she sort of forgot with big holiday weekend and all (she just had 350 people at her house for Easter! Can you imagine!??!!). And then my little one page essay will be done by the end of this coming weekend. I will submit the essay and the letter of rec by Monday and then I'll have my GMAT done by April 20th. I still think I will end up at G-Town, let's just hope G-Town agrees ;-)

Remaining calm is key

Timing is everything. Why would my stupid tenant who has lived nicely in one of my rental units for nearly 4 years all of the sudden now, decide to turn into the wicked witch of the west?? Now, when I am so busy at work and every spare moment I have, I am trying to prepare to retake my GMAT and/or write a new one page goals essay to get off the damn G-Town waitlist? Why now?? Does she want to make me have a nervous breakdown? I have done nothing but be the ideal landlord. The second she tells me there is a problem, I fix it. I have NEVER, seriously, NEVER raised the rent on her in nearly 4 years! And now this stupid witch is giving me an ultimatum? I want to poke her eyes out. I am selling. The hassle isn't worth it anymore. I am just praying that it sells quickly and thanking my lucky stars that my very best friend is the greatest realtor ever and will take care of every last detail for me so I can focus on my waitlist status. Plus he's doing it for free ;-)

But I digress, this is a blog about an MBA. Let's discuss how I am preparing to retake the GMAT. Last night I took the official practice exam and scored over a 700. This is without studying or doing anything regarding the GMAT since November. So I think as long as I remain calm and confident and spend a little more time practicing I should do just fine. What I find slightly annoying about all of this is that if I would have just dealt with the GMAT earlier I probably wouldn't be dealing with a waitlist right. I'd most likely be choosing between a few schools instead of trying to get off the waitlist of one. C'est la vie. It' s my own fault, I have no one to blame but myself.

Thank you everyone who has commented on my blog and been so supportive of my journey to B-school. It's so great knowing there are so many others out there going through the same thing I am! Congrats to all of those who were accepted already and luck to those who are still waiting!

Cheers!

well m@, since you asked...

Yes I did hear back from Georgetown. They waitlisted me. The email came on March 30th in the late afternoon despite their promise of a March 29th decision. I stared at the email for about 15 minutes before deciding how to react. I am going to take it as a positive thing. I am pretty confident that the weakest link in my application is my GMAT score and I know that I can easily increase the score by 50 points, minimum (it was a score from my first time, the second time I panicked and had the worst allergy attack ever so I canceled my scores...therefore this third time really shouldn't be a problem. I know I should have taken it earlier but I just hate the fact that my future was going to be decided by a $250 test that does nothing but test my ability to remain calm under extreme anxiety, I was trying to prove a point...apparently they didn't like my point).

Anyway, G-Town gives very specific suggestions on what to do to get off the waitlist so I will do every single one of them. I report to two supervisors and in my original application I just had one write me a letter of rec, I will have the other one write me a letter of rec now too. I will also write a one page essay making clearer my goals. And then the GMAT. I am not so sure about enrolling in an entry level business course...my undergraduate GPA wasn't super high but all of my engineering and math courses were pretty much A's so I don't think taking another course is going to get me anything.

So that is my plan. Maybe I am being a little cocky but I am pretty confident that if everything goes as planned I'll be able to get myself off the waitlist.

However, there is one little hiccup in my plan. I have some serious stressful situations going on that have to be dealt with immediately...that sort of cuts in on my study/writing time. All I can say is that owning rental property is not all that it's cracked up to be! Nightmare tenants can be SERIOUS nightmares! My next investment is going to be in the stock market...real estate is a pain in the a$$!!!!