Engineer No More!

Back in the swing of things

2008-09-11T06:35:00.001-07:00

It's amazing how much smoother the second year is. Thank goodness. I don't think I could have taken the stress of the first year again. The great thing about this year is that we take electives and not core classes. I am actually enjoying all of my classes so far. Plus the amount of work is like halved in comparison to last year which is always a good thing.

My summer was fantastic. It was so nice to be in the same city as my boyfriend and family and my beautiful new niece! And I was pretty lucky that my job, albeit stressful, was truly a 40 hour a week job. I received the full time offer on my last day of work which is always a good thing. I'm deciding now whether or not I want to return, I have a little more time before I have to decide. There are a lot of pros but I think for me the cons are outweighing the pros right now, that may change. I'm going to attend some of the upcoming MBA career fairs to see if I get any bites on my resume and if I feel that there is significant interest in me then I'll be a little more confident and be able to turn down the offer. But the internship was great and I learned a lot...I'm just not so sure the culture is for me. Ya veremos!

This year I have several goals...all very selfish. I plan on having a life. I just bought a fantastic new road bike and I wnat to start racing! I'm broadening my horizons...not just marathons anymore, I want to start racing and actually winning on the bike! And if I take to it...maybe my boyfriend and I will head to France next July to ride parts of the tour and watch Lance take number 8? Who knows?

My other goal is to write at least once a month on this blog. We'll see how that goes...

Cheers-
Salsera

Half Way Through...

2008-06-26T16:34:00.000-07:00

I'm half way through my internship and roughly 15% through my internship project that I am supposed to present at the end of my summer here. That doesn't add up correctly now does it? So my internship....the jury is still out on how I feel about it.

The Pros-
-I am actually doing venture capital inside a large corporation. I had expected to take a more operations type finance role but got lucky and was placed in the the venture capital arm of said large corporation.
-I'm learning so much about VC that I didn't know I had an interest in it. I clumped VC with those types of jobs that don't allow for a reasonable work/life balance, but it turns out, there are possibilities.
-Working for a large corporation has its perks. There are a lot of employee programs in place that help the work/life balance. There are a lot of resources available as well.
-There is a rotation program when you become a full time employee. Every couple of years you can rotate into a new position, allowing for quite a breadth of knowledge in finance.
-The location rocks...home sweet home.
-Telecommuting is pretty common place here. Very easy to work from home at minimum one day per week.
-A lot of really bright, very driven people work here. You can learn a lot from any of the tens of thousands of employees here.
-You have pretty easy access to some pretty big players in management no matter what your level is.

The Cons-
-There are tens of thousands of employees working here, it's hard not to just feel like a number.
-The rotation program is more or less a requirement, you must change jobs every 2 years...is breadth better than depth?
-The very bright/driven people here tend to give off an air of competition? Not sure that's an environment I want to work in.
-There is something about the culture here that I can't seem to put my finger on that turns me off...but I really can't figure out what it is just yet.
-Pay is competitive but not on the high end of the scale for the area.
-There are a few other cons but I don't want to out the company so I'll keep them to myself an not list them on a public forum.

Random thoughts about my career...
I don't think I ever considered that the culture of finance in general is so very different than the culture of engineering. I think that's been a huge transition for me (as well as working for the first time for an ENORMOUS corporation). As an engineer you are concerned about the end product, and less concerned about cost. For obvious reasons, finance is all about the almighty $. There is something about that that makes me feel uncomfortable. Maybe it's something I should have considered a lot more before choosing finance as my career path? But I think if I can find a job where I am passionate about the end product, I can deal with the fact that my particular job description is just about the $$. Sadly I think that end product is going to be in the non-profit world....and because of the almighty $$ that Georgetown has taken from me, the non-profit world is going to have to wait for me for a few years!

Now it's off to happy hour with my fellow interns. Networking Networking Networking...I so despise that word...

Cheers-

No More Midday Naps

2008-06-04T20:23:00.001-07:00

I'm in the midst of week three of the internship. I'm still forming my opinion. It's such a large firm and everyone has nothing but great things to say about it...it's sort of strange. I feel like it's a bit cultish. I like my supervisor, I like my project, I like my commute, I like the perks of working in my department, and I LOVE being back home! However, being home sort of puts me at a disadvantage in the networking department. I can't make it to all of the intern events because I have so many obligations here. The other interns are out here on their own so they depend on the intern events for social activities and I just don't have time for all of them.

There are lots of things I could say about the internship but I'm reserving my judgements until the end of the summer.

In the meantime I have to say that Moab is AWESOME! The BF and I went on a little road trip before I started work. We went to Zion to hike the Narrows. Sadly, the Narrows were closed but we managed to do another hike. Then we went to Bryce Canyon. Then Escalante for some slot canyons. Then off to Moab to mountain bike. And finally to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Sometimes I forget how lucky we are to live so close to such beauty!

Anyway, Moab mountain biking is unbelievably fun! I almost killed myself about a dozen times but it was worth it! I was feeling pretty studly after finishing the Slickrock trail. Although, I can't wear any skirts anytime soon. I did some serious damage to my legs on some of my crashes. I look like a 10 year old boy. But I'll say it again...it was AWESOME!

And last weekend I ran marathon number 4 in San Diego. I haven't been to San Diego in so long, I forgot how beautiful it was. Perfect weather for running too. I didn't run anywhere near my goal but I did improve my time by almost 10 minutes. I was in the top 5% of my division and top 11% overall. I would have done so much better if I hadn't started flaking on my training 5 weeks ago. C'est La Vie. I'm thinking about Honolulu in December? Or maybe Nashville with a friend? But for now, I'm taking a week off of running and recovering...feels good!

More on the internship later. Until then I hope everyone is taking advantage of the summer!

So close to margaritas on the roof...

2008-04-24T05:38:00.000-07:00

In about 6 hours I'll be completely done with my first year of business school. Hallelujah! Praise whomever you feel the need to! Well, I suppose that is only technically true if I actually pass all of my finals? But I will assume that is the case...at least I hope it is.

I have lots to say about my first year of business school but I'll reflect on that a little later while I'm not thinking about margaritas on the roof of the car barn (the not so cozy building that Georgetown currently houses it's MBA program in). Today it's margaritas on the roof and then some party out at a club tonight. I'm not so sure I'll be going out tonight. I'm not a night club kind of girl, plus I have to run at some point today (my marathon is just a little over a month away!!). Tomorrow it will be the last time my cohort (my 70 or so classmates that I've take almost all my classes with this past year)will be together. The social rep has planned a BBQ. I'll stop by for a bit. It should be a nice day. Right now it's beautiful. Makes it difficult to study for my last final.

Speaking of finals, I have come to the conclusion that finals are lame. Thank you thank you, but really there is no need to thank me for such astute insight ;-) This is my problem with finals, first of all we're on the module system so we're taking 5 finals 4 times a year, and just in case you didn't do so well on the quant section of the GMAT, that would be 20, yes TWENTY, finals to take over an 8 month period. And really, that's just lame. Plus, it's not as if we have to take final exams in the "real world" that they claim to be preparing us for, as if we have never been there before, but I digress. I think they should require final projects. That's my two cents. But since no one seems to care about what I think, probably rightfully so, I must get back to pretending to study for my last final exam of Year 1 in business school! Woohoo!

New Internship...Time Off? To Float or Not to Float?

2008-04-08T07:47:00.000-07:00

As I was just trying to organize my calendar for the summer it occurred to me that less than two weeks into my internship I need to ask for a day off! How do I go about doing that? I'm running a marathon out of town and will be traveling the Friday before the marathon. I could probably get away with working a half day that Friday? Do I contact the intern manager now or do I wait until I start? Hmmm??

In other news it seems its getting more and more difficult to focus on school knowing that I have less than two weeks of classes left, then exams, then I get to go back to California! Woohoo! Give me sun and fun! I have a little less than 3 weeks to enjoy of no responsibility before I start the internship. I am sooo looking forward to that! I'm trying to figure out what kind of vacation I can talk the BF into during that time? I was thinking the Grand Canyon, a hiking/camping trip. Or maybe Alaska?! Or road trip north through Oregon and Washington for some cycling, hiking, camping?? So many choices ;-)

Do you see how difficult it is to concentrate on To Float or Not to Float the Chinese Renminbi? Which by the way was supposed to be read for yesterday's lecture...oops! And off to class I go...

Long Time No Blog!

2008-04-06T06:07:00.001-07:00

I almost forgot that I had a blog until I was reminded by two classmates that asked me if I was mbasalsera! My first year as an MBA student is about 3 weeks from ending. All I can say is Thank God! It's been a tumultuous year. I'm not sure I was cut out for b-school? Or maybe I just wasn't cut out, at this stage in my life, for being so far from the one's I love back home? The work, albeit huge quantities, is not all that difficult. It's not like we're learning rocket science here. Sadly I have enjoyed very few of my classes. Fortunately, the few classes I have enjoyed are all happening right now, so it's making the year end on a positive note. Professors are alright, some fantastic, some horrible, most just average. The administration has a general attitude of superiority to the students. Have they forgotten that, prior to coming to b-school, all of us had already been successful in this "real world" they always refer to condescendingly as if we have no idea what that is. I wonder if I should have waited a year and reapplied to some of the other schools I was interested in? I also wonder if any of those schools would have been much different? (As I re-read this I realize how negative I'm being, please note, I'm tired and grumpy at the moment, I promise to be more positive about my experience in my next blog ;-)

On the flip side, DC is a fantastic city. I really wish I had more time to enjoy it though. I think next year will be a lot better. I'll be taking classes I have an interest in instead of being forced to take core courses. By the way, the core courses are something I actually wanted in a B-school, because I felt like I had no idea about anything after having only been an engineer for so long. However, after having been there done that, I completely regret that decision. I wish I NEVER had to take a marketing class ever. It's not what I like, not what I'm good at, and if I have no interest in it why would I want to be forced to take it? So if you're reading this and deciding between schools or deciding what schools to apply to, definitely consider what classes you are required to take and really think about whether or not you want to go through that! That was bad planning on my part. C'est la vie.

Anyway, as I was saying, next year will be much better. I've obviously learned how to balance my work load a little better. I'll be taking classes of my choosing so the work load will seem less overwhelming and I can try to enjoy life in DC a little more and maybe even get a life outside of school...find some running team or cycling team or maybe even a salsa team to get out with.

As every first year MBA student stressed about an internship....I got lucky. I had my internship lined up back in early October. It seemed absurd to me that I had been in school for less than two months and I was already interviewing and had an offer!! There were definitely a million pluses and a few minuses to having a summer internship lined up so early in the year. The very large tech firm found my resume posted for one of the career fairs I attended. The recruiter called me for an interview. I went through one phone interview and one in person interview at the career fair and had an offer soon after. I took it. It was the right location, the right position in corporate finance and the right $$. I'm not sure it was the right firm but it's a big name and it will look good on my resume. Plus the two people I interviewed with were really fantastic and I contacted two other people in the finance department there just to chat with them about the place and they were wonderful as well, so I took the offer. Of course that was great in terms of me not having to worry about applying and interviewing in the midst of finals, papers, projects etc. However, I sort of wish I had interviewed elsewhere just for the practice. I heard about classmates interviewing in front of panels of management, having 5 interviews, etc and I have no practice with that now. If next year I don't get an offer for full time at my internship or if I don't want to return I won't have the experience of interviewing. Plus when other firms of interest contacted me I had to say I couldn't interview with them because of the commitment I had already made for the summer. But what can you do? Besides I think the benefits of getting a good internship early on definitely outweight the cons by a landslide!

I will try to maintain this blog throughout my internship experience and throughout next year a little better. But no promises! I hope that all those bloggers out there that went through the application process with me are enjoying their first year and have fantastic internships lined up for the summer!

Cheers-
mba-salsera! (I should give myself a new name, I haven't been salsa dancing all year long :-( I hope to make up for that this summer!)

Overwhelmed

2007-06-21T11:44:00.000-07:00

They don't tell you in the interview that your assignments start the minute you send in your deposit check! I attended the Career search Jump Start program that Georgetown career development office so graciously designed to get a head start on the resume building and career search for incoming 1st years. The program is required and if you cannot attend in person (they travel to several cities in the U.S.) then you must complete it on line. I am glad I was able to attend in person. I found that I am not the only one completely confused about everything that needs to be completed prior to stepping foot on campus. Not to mention totally overwhelmed. The two ladies from the career office were very nice an extremely helpful. But when one of them said "it's great to get this all started now, this summer, since you have the time" I cried a little inside.

Time? What time? I still have an entire house to pack up and move out of by June 30th. I have to dig myself out of this pile of crap on my desk at work and wrap up everything before my last day on July 6th. I have yet to plan a single moment of my trip to Costa Rica which I leave for on July 12th. And as of June 30th I am pretty much homeless in my hometown not to mention what the hell I'm doing about housing in D.C.??? Time??? Seriously? I have time? Where is it because I can't seem to find it?

I return from Costa Rica on July 22nd and have a week to get myself together before spending another week driving cross country to arrive homeless in D.C. by August 5th. But no worries because I'll have plenty of time to do statistics and accounting on line courses then read and prepare the first 4 chapters of my accounting text book. NO worries!!!! Plenty of TIME!

Why exactly did I want to go back to school????

Exhaustion

2007-05-30T20:32:00.000-07:00

Is it just me or is this process exhausting? I have been tired for the past 6 months! Seriously! Work has been so hectic and I have spent every waking moment researching scholarships and housing in D.C. The good news is that I think I found a place to live. A girl who has a 2 bed 1 bath apartment in Georgetown/Glover park area, according to Google maps, it is 1.9 miles from the Car Barn which is where classes for Georgetown's MBA are held. Grocery stores are within walking distance and the most important part, she's a dog lover! She has a dog as well and there's a dog park in the apartment complex too. I was pretty relieved to talk to her and she sounded like a normal laid back professional. I just hope it works out. I'm still waiting on pictures of the apartment. I have a good feeling about it though so I'm staying positive.

Georgetown has already sent the first mandatory assignment. I have to attend a career planning event in San Francisco mid June. I'm excited to meet some of my G-Town classmates at the event! It should be interesting. Also they have all the info for those Pre-MBA camps. I can't decide if I am even gong to bother applying. I just have so little time between now and the start of classes I can't imagine having to apply to anything again, then fly out and spend a couple days and $$ I am trying to save for tuition. I just don't think I have it in me. We'll see if I get motivated...right now it's not looking like it.

In other news, I'm still in the process of selling my house. Contingencies are being removed tomorrow and then I have to give my tenants their 30 day notice to vacate the property. Things can still go wrong between now and the close of escrow but at least once they remove contingencies if something goes wrong I get to keep their deposit $$. As sad as I am to sell my triplex, I do hope everything goes as planned.

I had a BBQ on Monday and had a bunch of friends over. I'm having all my family over this coming Sunday for a BBQ. Then it's time to pack up. I'm exhausted just thinking about that...Maybe I'm getting old? Maybe I need to get some sleep. It's 8:45pm and I think I'm going to go to bed...Good night bloggers!

Sold!

2007-05-22T10:17:00.000-07:00

There was an offer made and an offer accepted. Lots can go wrong between now and the close of escrow though so I'm not counting on anything until I have the money in my bank account! It's an exciting and sad time. Excited that my house sold so quickly, sad that my house sold so quickly. Excited to move to D.C., sad to leave California. Excited to meet all my new classmates, sad to leave all my friends and family. It's a lot of up and down these days.

Georgetown has done a fantastic job since I've been admitted and has had several current and graduating students contact me to answer questions and congratulate me. It's been very nice. Searching for housing hasn't been as nice. It's so hard to look on craigslist without being familiar with neighborhoods. I'm going to give myself until June just browsing rental listings and then I'll start the serious search.

Meanwhile my calendar is filling up quickly. I have every weekend booked between now and August 1st! It's insane. I have to learn to be more productive during the week since my weekends are taken up with social events. I still have to pack my house up, decide if I'm going to store or sell my furniture...or ship it all out to my apartment in D.C.? But will I be sharing an already furnished home or will I be furnishing my own studio apartment? Decisions decisions...I have to focus on one thing at a time. Right now I'm focusing on packing up my house and spending time with the BF, friends and familia...

Moving on...

2007-05-14T10:39:00.000-07:00

The celebrating has ended and it's time to move on to the preparing. I spent half the day on Sunday making my house sparkle because it was being shown to prospective buyers. It makes me sad that it took me almost 4 years to get my house to the point it is now...every piece of furniture the perfect piece found randomly at a store or handed down from my grandparents, every painting from one of my travels, every picture placed purposely in my hallway to highlight friendships, family and accomplishments....everything has it's place and purpose. And if I do say so myself...my house is so damn nice! (I love interior design, and would have totally gone in to it if I didn't have this whole civic mindedness crap stuck in my head ;-) The people who viewed my home loved it and want to make an offer...now I wait...again. No anxiety this time though. Just a little excitement and a little sadness. I don't think anyone can understand how much, literal, blood sweat and tears went into my house. And I don't think any new owner will appreciate it like I do.

But it's time to move on. The last time I had a roommate was 5 years ago. I am incredibly nervous about living with someone again in D.C. But 2 years...not even, more like 18 months, will come and go so quickly and my life will be a whirlwind of activities and studies. I'm sure it will be fine. I'm hoping anyway.

I also can't decide if I should drive cross country to have my car in D.C. or if I should fly and try life without a car for a while? Which, by the way I would LOVE to do. As much as I love California...public transportation here SUCKS! But then I also have to deal with transporting Rico, my dog. Originally my BF and I thought we'd take 2-1/2 weeks to drive cross country and do a lot of backpacking and hiking in all the national parks we'd pass but we can't go into parks with Rico. So we decided on Costa Rica instead. Leave Rico at home with his dog sitter (my mom or my ex-bf, long story, don't ask). Then I'd drive cross country with my mom in 3 or 4 days. I don't know what to do? I'll figure it out though.

Not much news from GTown these days. I just sent in my deposit check on Saturday so it's official. Started filling out my financial aid papers yesterday. Should finish with those tonight. Then I need to start looking for scholarships. Loans suck...I know this because I am still paying them off from my undergrad. Blech.

Happy Birthday to Me!

2007-05-09T08:33:00.000-07:00

Today reminds me of the birthday I had right before I left for Chile. I think it's going to be one of those good birthdays :-). I have a plan for the future, I'm excited to be leaving and I have probably the cutest bf ever. He was outside my door this morning with flowers, breakfast (including my coffee which he hates!) and chocolate cake with birthday candles lit. It was quite cute. Tonight a bunch of friends are taking me to a cute little Thai restaurant and then we'll go for drinks afterwards. I said I didn't want to do anything for my birthday but one of my girlfriends refused to let it go since I won't be here for my next couple of birthdays. So dinner and drinks it is!

I have joined the Georgetown MBA admit Google group. There seems to be some pretty interesting people in my class. I'm so excited to meet all of them. And, there seems to be a few people with dogs so hopefully we can trade off with dog sitting when out of town, etc. OK, I realize I sound obsessed with my dog, but look at him in that picture, isn't he the cutest thing ever!? And sadly, I am a bad owner and he is totally dependent on me and has anxiety when I'm not around and in a new place. He still doesn't even like to stay over at my boyfriend's house yet. So I'm pretty worried. But I'm sure it'll be fine.

Speaking of the bf, he finally asked the inevitable question that I so wanted to avoid until August. I am not all that great at communicating especially when it comes to relationship talk or any kind of emotion. And he, well...let's just say the boy can talk! Anyway, he asked me what is going to happen with us when I leave. I sugarcoated my response and he was a little more blunt about it. I said I didn't think we were at a point in our relationship where I felt comfortable with him coming to D.C. with me and that I don't know how I feel about long distance relationships. But I also said that we have 2 or 3 months to go before I leave so why did we have to decide right now? Who knows what 2 or 3 months will bring? When I asked what he thought he basically said the same thing but not so nice a way...I think maybe he was a little offended at what I had said? Who knows? But I am just going to enjoy the next few months with him and then deal with it when the time comes. That may not be the healthiest way to deal but it's my way.

So many questions!???

2007-05-07T14:29:00.000-07:00

My weekend was full of margaritas and celebrating! I was bombarded with questions from family and friends after telling them all the good news. I couldn't answer a single question. So now I anxiously wait for the admittance packet that should be coming in the mail any day now. (Funny how I thought the anxiety would be gone once I got an admit, silly me!) I don't even know when I start classes!? When should I move out there? How will I find housing with my 85 pound dog!? Will I have to buy my dog sweaters and booties?! He is a very spoiled dog! He does not do well in the cold! Do I move with furniture, dishes, my bed, etc? Or do I put it all in storage until I come back to California? Will I really come back to California? What if I like it out there? So many unknowns still! But at least these unknowns are fun to talk about! I'm still so excited...and I have the awkward limp and bruised knee to show it ;-)

Thank you everyone for all those comments on my last post. I felt very special :-P

I'm in! I'm in!!

2007-05-04T11:24:00.000-07:00

Accepted to Georgetown today with a scholarship, and a significant one! I was so excited when I checked my email this morning I started jumping up and down in my socks on my hardwood floor and I slipped and cracked my knee on my floor! I'm so happy I don't feel the pain but tomorrow it's gonna be black and blue!!! I'm moving to DC baby!! And tonight I'm having some margaritas! Woohoo!

Is it too little too late?

2007-04-30T11:43:00.000-07:00

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

2007-04-26T08:08:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-04-22T22:25:00.000-07:00

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

2007-04-19T08:10:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-04-09T14:24:00.000-07:00

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

2007-04-05T08:54:00.000-07:00

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...

2007-04-01T21:44:00.000-07:00

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$$!!!!

Ross has no idea what they are missing!

2007-03-22T08:06:00.000-07:00

I received my ding from Ross last week. It was completely expected since I never received an interview. That was the first time through this entire process that I didn't even get butterflies in my stomach when I saw the email. I knew what it said. And frankly, I didn't really care all that much. I did like Ross a lot but I didn't turn in the best application and plus according to some folks on the devil's website, Round 2 alone had something like 2500 applications or some absurd number. With a half ass application there was no way I could stand out in that crowd. C'est la vie.

I still really want Georgetown. And I still wait...there is a reason for the continued waiting but I don't want to share here just in case the Adcom does read blogs. I think I'd give myself away. I'll just say there was some frustrating circumstances that were just brought to my attention recently. They have all been dealt with and I should receive a decision any day now. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

In other news I have been trying to prepare myself for dings across the board. And there is one very significant benefit to not being admitted right now. My very best friend and old roommate from Santiago is moving here for a year with his wife and baby in July! I am so excited for them to be in the same country! And they are definitely depending on me to help them adjust to life here. So if I don't move to DC for school I'll be here to take advantage of their year here. I can't wait to see them! I haven't seen them in over a year! So that is the only benefit and in fact a huge benefit, to being denied everywhere this year. But of course...I'd still MUCH prefer acceptance! Mis amigos entenderan!

Springtime in California

2007-03-13T16:08:00.000-07:00

It's been over 80 degrees F the past three days. I love California. Remind me again why I was so desperate to leave California for Washington D.C.? I can't remember at the moment, I'm too busy shielding my eyes from the sun. Oh yes, it may have something to do with some sort of business school situation that I can't seem to remember??

I'm trying to fool myself into pretending that I'm not thinking about my decisions every second of the day...I haven't quite succeeded though.

Still waiting from all three of my remaining schools. I imagine I will be getting my rejection email from UMich tomorrow. I have no clue about Anderson or Georgetown, I did the voluntary interview at both of those schools. Therefore, since I submitted my application there has been no indication about my progress with those schools. C'est la vie.

Even though I am boasting about the lovely weather we have here in the good old Bay Area of California, I am dieing of seasonal allergies. Sunday was probably the worst allergy attack I've ever had in my life. I spent most of the day curled up in the fetal position in bed crying because I hadn't yet started taking my Zyrtec and Flonase. After taking three Benadryl and about 4 Advil (allergies caused a sinus headache that I could have sworn was a tumor about to explode in my head) I finally fell asleep. Monday morning I called my doctor to get prescriptions for relief. At this point I could easily step on my soap box and discuss the huge mess we call healthcare in California and why we desperately need healthcare reform (in particular SB 840, introduced by Sheila Kuehl) but I won't. Instead I will say how Zyrtec doesn't have a generic form yet and has just cost me $234. Flonase, thank goodness, has a generic form and cost me a mere $10. And before you suggest all the other drug options out there (Claritin, Allegra, Singulair, Alovert) don't bother, I've been there done that. The only thing that works for me is Zyrtec. And I refuse to spend another beautiful spring day curled up on my bed crying over my allergies. So instead I'll just cry about the cost of relieving the allergies. OK enough of that nonsense.

Another day closer to decisions! I'm off to the trails with my dog.

A cooler head prevails

2007-03-08T12:15:00.000-08:00

Ok I've calmed down a bit. I was pretty upset and frustrated this morning but I'm over it now. Mistakes happen. What can you do?? So I continue to hope and wait...

In the meantime I am going to shake my booty on the dance floor all night! I haven't been salsa dancing in a LONG time. And I need an outlet...running doesn't seem to be doing the trick right now. So salsa it is!

Are you friggin' KIDDING me??!!!

2007-03-08T10:12:00.000-08:00

So I get to work this morning and get the waitlist email I was sort of expecting from G-Town. Then I promptly went to the devil's website (b-week forum) and checked on the G-Town thread. There had been numerous posts since I last logged in. Some folks saying they had been dinged last week and received the waitlist email today and others who just received their acceptance packets in the mail said they just got the waitlist email?! And the last post I read said...

"Hey Everyone,WOW! So I just spoke to the Assistant Director and she said that a blanket email was sent to EVERYONE in their database. THIS IS A MISTAKE and do not take the email seriously. They are working on contacting everyone but of course that can take a while.Wow, I can still only say wow. I hope people don't freak out too much about this."

What the heck am I supposed to do now? Do I call them and ask? Do I wait for a follow up email that says "Oh just kidding, our bad, you've really been denied/accepted?" Really though, just what I needed more uncertainty and more waiting...

At least my aunt came out of surgery and the doctor was pleased with the result. My friend is a Physician's Assistant at the Stanford hospital so he checked up on her and gave us all the details the doctors tend to gloss over. He gave me the most details, the ones that my family probably couldn't take. Sometimes there is such a thing as too much information. Regardless, she is going to be fine and there is hope that she may be able to walk again! This is great news! So all in all...if G-Town is going to make me suffer through a little more anxiety and uncertainty...I suppose there are worse things that could happen.

UPDATE: Just got the follow up email from G-Town :

Due to a technical error in our Apply Yourself online application system, you may have erroneously received an e-mail waitlisting you for the program. This was an error, and we sincerely apologize. Your admission decision will be forthcoming shortly. We appreciate your understanding.

And we're back to square one...

Hospitals and Waiting

2007-03-06T09:16:00.000-08:00

I spent about half of 2005 at Stanford hospital. Day in and day out waiting for word on the fate of my aunt. The others in the ICU waiting room became part of our family. They would come and go; sometimes with hope and sometimes with grief as we continued waiting. Different surgeries, different doctors, different prognoses...always uncertainty. Always praying we would be the the lucky ones, leaving the ICU waiting room with hope. Those months at Stanford hospital stripped my family to the bone. After my aunt's health was stable and the fear of losing her was no longer, I disappeared into my own world, avoiding my own emotions. It was too much to take, I needed to breathe again.

Finally, more than 2 years after the accident, most of us have healed. We smile, we laugh, we fight and we cry, but now, never with uncertainty or fear. But today we return to the waiting room. Today, we hope, is the final surgery, the final prognosis and the final healing. This time we go back to the waiting room confident, comfortable, and certain that this time she will be able to completely heal. And now that we've had some time to breathe, we are all strong enough to bare the few hours of waiting in that cold, dank hospital where the doctors and the patients seem to blur into one. Doctors, tired and overworked, look as though they could be the patients. Patients, far too familiar with the confines of the hospital, look as though they could diagnose illness.

I hope today is the last time I step foot in to that hospital. But as I remember those months of uncertainty and waiting I feel a little silly. I feel silly being so anxious and frustrated over the uncertainty of a b-school acceptance. It seems so trivial today. To allow a group of people, people just like me, to have so much power over my mental well being is ridiculous. Today I will not permit a group of people, judging me based solely on a couple of essays and some test scores, to make me doubt my self worth or value. I know, whether admitted or not, I will be what I want and accomplish my goals. So today I'm just going to appreciate how blessed my life is and how lucky I am to be surrounded by family and friends as I wait in that room.

B-week Forums, Anxiety, and Stress

2007-03-02T09:14:00.000-08:00

Is it the stress and anxiety that is causing me to check the B-week forums regularly for some sign of something or is it the B-week forums that is causing the anxiety and stress? The chicken or the egg? Is there much more I could really say about how this waiting is KILLING me? I think I've said it all before. The silence from all my schools is driving me wacky.

Yesterday I had such a crappy day and it was gloomy outside and that didn't help anything. At least I was able to take out some of my frustration on the trail. I took almost a two hour lunch to do some sprints and then finished up with a quick 5 mile run. I felt pretty good afterwards. But that running high was short lived when I came back to work and found an unpleasant email from a coworker. I won't get in to details but I just wasn't in the mood to deal with her nonsense and I almost turned into one of those emotional girls and started crying but instead I turned into one of those bitchy girls and took it out on my poor best friend who had to listen to me whine about everything and anything for a good 20 minutes via phone. I don't feel all that bad though because I'm pretty sure he just had his phone on speaker while he was working and just mumbled some agreeable noises every once in a while. Lucky for him that's all I wanted :-)

Today there is Friday and there is sun and I got some good sleep last night and I'm sore from my run yesterday (I love being sore, yes I realize I'm weird) so I'm feeling pretty good. But what would make me feel even better is a damn acceptance to somewhere! This weekend I will not log on to my computer and I will try my hardest to just enjoy the weekend and not stress.

My friend and I started an intro to yoga series on Sunday mornings. I am so not into the feel good stuff of centering yourself and all that nonsense. I like high energy workouts but maybe this breathing crap and stretching will help with all the stress and anxiety? Although I think I just need a few nights of salsa dancing to do that...now if I could only find the time!

Have a great weekend everyone!

I want Georgetown

2007-02-26T08:35:00.000-08:00

This weekend I did a lot of reflection on what I want. And it surprised me that I really really want Georgetown. I was all talk early on about the big name schools. Not that Georgetown isn't a big name but it's not the typical name associated with a top 10 b-school. Anyway, I just kept thinking about the opportunities I would have living in D.C. to work in policy related non-profits. Plus every Georgetown student and alumni I spoke with while there was so impressive. And I think since the MBA program at Georgetown is relatively new, it'd be nice to be able to take part in shaping the program as it grows and matures. Plus the students I spoke to at Georgetown spoke so highly of the academics there. And I want more than just a networking group in b-school. I really really want to learn the fundamentals of managing a non-profit. I have a lot to learn and I want to have a high quality education in an environment that I feel comfortable as well as in an environment that will provide me with a lot of opportunities. So now I continue to wait...and hope.

As I wait for word on my fate I think it's nearly impossible to stop my mind from going down all possible "What if..." roads. Most frightening of which is the "What if I don't get in to Georgetown or any other school". What the heck am I going to do with myself? I know in the end something will workout. I always manage to make things work. But I don't want to have to make something work. I want to move out of the area, I want to be a student again, and I want change. Major change. I want this new career. Right now I still feel like an engineer trying to pass as a public affairs person. I want to be in this job, I feel like I'm pretending right now because I don't feel like I am contributing as much as I could be. Please just let me get in to school...I don't want to think about all the "What if..." options anymore!

OK I think this gloomy Monday morning is making my head go a little wacky. Maybe I should have slept in a little longer this morning...

TGIF! (non-MBA)

2007-02-16T13:04:00.000-08:00

The most exciting part of my day today was looking on the clear admit blog and finally seeing my blog mentioned! I have felt so neglected by those folks at clear admit! I've been doing the MBA blog thing for almost a year now and FINALLY they decide to mention me in the FFF post. Really, it's the little things in life that make me so happy ;-)

In other good news my job just got extended until June. This is such a relief for me! Technically it was supposed to end next Friday. I was having such issues trying to decide what to do since it would be hard for me to accept another job elsewhere knowing I'd (hopefully) be leaving in the fall to start b-school. June is perfect timing too. By then I'll know if/and where I'll be going to school so that I can spend the following two months doing a little traveling. Plus I can get my unit rented out and workout all the kinks with a new tenant while living temporarily with mommy ;-) And by then my two other units leases will be up so I can extend them for another two years or find new tenants while I'm gone so I won't have to worry about it while I'm away.

Or if the school thing doesn't work out at least I'll know by the end of March and I'll have time to make a concerted effort to find that ideal permanent job, or maybe even discuss taking on the position here permanently if that's possible. So many options...but at least now I know I'll be able to pay my mortgage for the next few months ;-) Life is good and it's Friday! Woohoo!

Happy Hallmark Day!

2007-02-14T16:12:00.000-08:00

I am not a fan of Valentine's Day, with or without a significant other I think it's...for lack of a better word...LAME! But I am not the most romantic person, nor am I the most emotionally available person so any holiday that I am required to tell people how I "feel" or buy some mushy card saying the "L" word is a nightmare for me. That being said, I have totally indulged in the sweets that come along with the lame holiday. My theory is if I eat the enormous chocolate chip cookie in the break room piecemeal...then it won't count as an enormous cookie! That's my theory and I'm sticking to it!

No word from any schools yet. I'm done submitting though and I am considering sitting for the GMAT again next week for good measure. Since I cancelled my scores on my last exam I thought I could use the boost from my god awful scores from my original exam that I took unprepared a while ago. I think Michigan and Georgetown wills till consider the scores if I update them within the next two weeks. UCLA, I'm not so sure about...they claim you have to take the exam prior to Jan. 31st. Anyway, Saturday I'm going too do a quick practice exam, if I do well enough, significantly higher than my current pathetic scores I'm just gonna spend the $250 and be done with it. I don't expect to hear much from the schools until decisions come down since I already voluntarily interviewed with UCLA and Georgetown months ago. UMich I don't think will consider me unless I boost that GMAT score...whatever.

I am so over this B-school thing right now. I am sick of the uncertainty in my life. I just want to know already and be done. Then I can spend the next few months playing and roaming around Central America or something of the sort...

But for now, I spent last weekend in the central coast wine country, visited Hearst Castle, and got to see the elephant seals nursing their babies on the beach nearby...they were adorable! Did some wine tasting too. It was nice to be away and not have an application hanging over my head for once! This weekend I'm going to the SAP Open finals...hoping the good players make it to the finals! Life is starting to seem a little more normal...now if I could get out of my post-marathon slump and get started on my new training program, life would be really good!

Anyway, to those people that enjoy the commercial holiday, Happy Valentine's Day! Hope your b-school dreams come true!

Georgetown

2007-01-26T11:05:00.000-08:00

I was impressed and pleasantly surprised! Georgetown did such an amazing job with their all day Women in Business recruiting event! Everyone I met, alumni, current students, prospective students, Adcom, was so nice and the school was so welcoming! At first I was little concerned that I wouldn't last through the entire day long event (10am-5pm!) since we took the red eye out there and arrived in DC at 7am. But the day flew by!

They started out the day with a little organization fair. Most of the clubs and organizations in the business school had tables set up and we roamed around and spoke with different leaders of the clubs. I was able to learn a lot about the student run internship fund for students taking internships at non-profits and I spoke at length with the students running the NET Impact group that I'm interested in participating. I also spoke at length with a girl who is getting a dual degree MPP/MBA and wants to go into non-profit. It was great learning about the programs form someone actually in them.

I can't remember the exact order of things (remember I took a red eye...and didn't sleep a wink on the plane!) but we had an info session type presentation given my two current students. We had the dean (previously the dean of NYU Stern) speak to us. The director of career services and the director of student affairs also gave little presentations. The highlight for me was listening to a professor presentation. She actually gave us signed copies of her recently published book on globalization! I'm really excited to read it!

After a brief walk thru/tour of the campus (which seemed so small to me) we had a really nice catered lunch with a key note speaker, an alum that now works in the higher ups of Sprint/Nextel. All of these presentations were geared towards women and helping women succeed in business school and industry. They were all done very well too!

After lunch there was an all women alumni panel that we had a Q&A session with. They were really nice, very honest, and just so laid back but still articulate and intelligent. I really was super impressed by all of them. Then they had a little cocktail hour with everyone, current students, alum, adcom, etc.

The Cons: To tell you the truth there weren't many! I sort have an issue with attending a Jesuit school but I could easily get over that. The weather was COLD and I am such a wimp in the cold! The program is really new and doesn't have that "brand name MBA" thing that I tend to be snotty about...but again, something I can and will get over. The facilities are not that great (but they are breaking ground on a new building that is scheduled to be done by the spring semester of 2008)

The Pros: I loved DC (minus the cold). The political opportunities abound! A very good public policy program for me to consider. The people truly were amazing. I do think since they are trying to build the program and they don't have a name for themselves yet that they stress the academics and truly want to make you successful in order for them to climb up those ranking charts. If the new building is actually finished on time there's going to be great facilities in a perfect location!

Now it's just a matter of submitting the application and waiting...again!

In other news, I gave my first sit down television interview yesterday for work. I've done short news interviews that turn into 10 second blurbs on TV. And I've been interviewed by newspaper journalists before. But this interview was 30 minutes. I was incredibly nervous but I managed to hold myself together and I was pretty proud of the result! The program is going to be aired next week. It's just a local program but it was awesome to have a platform to talk about teen pregnancy and what we are doing to combat it and the services we offer at our clinics. It was pretty exciting for me...I never in a million years would have thought I, the dorky, technical, mechanical engineer, would be sitting in a suit on a program discussing teen pregnancy! It was exciting!

Officially Denied

2007-01-18T10:20:00.000-08:00

So this process thus far has been quite a blow to my ego. I am a little arrogant I suppose. But up until now I don't think I've ever been denied something I've wanted? Looking back part of me thinks some of this was a little self destructive. Knowing how competitive Stanford and some of the other schools are, I may have purposely done a pretty crappy job on my applications thinking that I would then have a reason for being denied? I could blame it on my lack of effort throughout the process. I don't know. Anyway, I knew long ago that Stanford was a long shot regardless if I put in my best or worst effort. Just seems such a waste of money to be denied. C'est la vie.

In other news I leave tonight on the red eye to Washington D.C. for the event at Georgetown's B-school tomorrow. I hope I like it. My friend has made a list of tourist attractions that we will be seeing while we're there. I'm most excited about the White House and the Capital Building. Policy in motion! And I get to see it! I am a geek deep down inside.

I was surprised to see how many marathoners there are applying to business school! That's exciting! Hopefully I'll end up at a school with a few so I'll have some training partners! What's even more amazing is that I'm not even sore anymore. Seriously I was a little stiff for about 2 days and that's it! Which of course leads me to believe that I definitley did not run as hard and as fast as I could have. There's always Marathon #4!

Good luck to all those admits and all those still waiting and still applying!

Marathon #3

2007-01-15T11:01:00.000-08:00

So in the midst of my application stress I decided I wanted to run another marathon. Eventually I plan on qualifying for the Boston marathon but I didn't train hard enough this time around for that. In fact I really didn't train much at all. But luckily it was a flat course and I've been feeling pretty good lately. I beat my last time by 15 minutes. So if I keep that up for my next marathon, which I think will be in San Diego, CA in June, then I should have no problem qualifying for Boston. But for now I have the pain of my knees, hips, and joints to keep my mind off the fact that Yale rejected me and Stanford is bound to do the same any day now. But how many of their b-school students can say they have run 26.2 miles on three different occassions! Damn, I thought maybe that would make me feel better, but alas it did nothing...sigh.

I am going to Washington DC to the Georgetown event to recruit women into their business school. I've never been to DC so I thought this would be a great excuse to go. I'm headed out on the red eye Thursday night and Friday will spend all day at Georgetown. Then Saturday and Sunday my friend, who is coming with me, and I will tour all the sites we possibly can squeeze in to 48 hours! I'm looking forward to it! And please let me like Georgetown because at this point, I fear it may be my only possible acceptance...

UCLA Submitted

2007-01-04T09:27:00.000-08:00

I just submitted UCLA. Talk about last minute. I am awful at that! I just have such a hard time writing about myself intelligibly. I was at a friends house late last night while his mother helped me edit my essay to make it sound better. I absolutely hated writing about my family. I am not the greatest communicator when it comes to my personal life. At work I am great, I can make very clear my intentions and thoughts in the office but when it comes to any personal emotion or feeling I freeze up. Believe, this has been an issue with all of my boyfriends in the past. Anyway, it's done. Out of my hands now.

Yale released some decisions before X-Mas and has just said they will release more decisions this week. Wouldn't it be awesome to just get that phone call today. I am already imagining jumping up and down in my office just being happy to have the anxiety over with! Previously I thought I'd be a shoe in at Yale, but I'm not so confident anymore. They're applicant pool has doubled in size. At this point, I'll just be happy to be admitted anywhere. I just really want to know what I'll be doing with my life for the next two years, where I'll be, how I'll manage. I hate this uneasiness of not knowing. I am positive I am not the only one. Can we all just throw ourselves a little pity party (those of us who have not been lucky enough to hear word on our fates yet)?!

Good luck to everyone and I hope you all had an awesome time bringing in 2007!

Losing Faith...

2006-12-12T11:43:00.000-08:00

I have finally stopped checking my status page every 5 minutes. However, I check my email every 10 minutes still. But I am losing faith in the Stanford interview. According to the B-Week forums and apparently admissions411, a lot of invitations have already gone out. And I have not received one. I think Stanford was a dream school for me by far but I still had some hope, thinking I wasn't the typical applicant and my demographic is quite different. But my numbers aren't there. I haven't lost complete hope just yet but I'm getting there.

The only benefit to this is that now I'm motivated to work harder on my Ross, UCLA, and Stern applications.

BW Forums Killing Me!

2006-12-06T20:26:00.000-08:00

I was never really one to check the b-week forums but recently, due to lack of anything else to check on, I've read some of the posts and the anxiety that it gives me is unbelievable! I am trying not to go back. People take a chill pill! You have no control and knowing what someone else's stats and location is isn't going to get you that ever elusive inteview invite! Seriously, go for a run, a bike ride, a hike, watch a movie...do something! Just step away from the computer! Whooo...Now that I got that out of my system I feel much better. Good luck to all those still waiting...

Finally! Progress!

2006-11-16T10:50:00.000-08:00

My application is submitted and complete. I am now officially "Under Review" by Stanford! Woohoo! Although the relief was short lived. Now I am back to anxiety. I have had my fingers permanently crossed since I submitted the application. I may have to have them surgically uncrossed once all of this is over :-)

Stanford Update

2006-11-14T13:15:00.000-08:00

So about 15 minutes after I posted my last post I got an email from Stanford saying that my transcripts were missing! I uploaded them per their instructions though! I nearly had a heart attack. I left work in a whirlwind, ran home, found my unofficial transcript and faxed it over immediately with a letter of apology. I have no idea what happened there but now I'm so upset about it. Stanford has so many competitive applications to look at and now mine is going to be less desirable because it looks like I don't know how to follow simple directions. I hope this happens frequently and I don't look like a complete moron. Stanford is my dream school and I pray to God this won't effect my candidacy. I'm going to keep my fingers crossed from now until mid January in hopes that I'm accepted. I wonder if that will help my candidacy?!

What the heck?

2006-11-14T10:22:00.000-08:00

What is going on with Stanford? Does anyone know how their review process goes? Do they give any updates on an applicant's status page? I suppose I could ask their adcom about it but I don't want to be the pestering type so I thought I'd ask here first.

I am having a phone conversation with a UMich (Ross) alum this week. He is a local guy. I'm looking forward to getting a feel of Ross' alumni. I've decided that out of all the schools I want to go to I am assured a great education at all of them. The most important part is whether or not I can see myself working as a team with the students at a particular school. I guess I'm trying to judge that ever elusive "fit" with a particular school.

My current job has extended my stay through January. By then I'll at least know about Stanford and Yale. If I'm lucky and I'm admitted to one of those then I may just play around until school starts. Maybe Mexico, back to Chile, or possibly Central America. I've always wanted to hang out in Costa Rica. So now I'm dreaming a little but what is life without dreams??! Boring!

I've also finally gotten back on track with the running. I'm going on 4 days in a row with the running. My wonderful friend fixed up my road bike the other day so I can start riding to work now. Hopefully this will all be very helpful for my marathon in January. It really is nice feeling human again. I was running on adrenaline for so long. I actually had time to read last night! Ahhh life is good again :-)

We Won!

2006-11-09T08:47:00.000-08:00

The election is over and I have finally had a chance to sleep and I can almost see straight again! Woohoo! We won and we won big! For the moment, a woman's right to choose is safe and I feel like I had a hand in making that happen. What a great feeling! I've never worked so hard, so long, and for SOOOOO little $money$ before in my life. But I've never been happier. I have to say, it is a bit humbling to be a bottom feeder again. I mean I had responsibilities and all but I definitely was not the one making big ticket decisions. Going from leading a $10 million defense contract to sending out invitations for a board member's house party is VERY humbling. And as much as I loved what I was doing, I'm not so sure my ego could take much more. That's why I'm glad I'm going to grad school...I'm hoping that will allow me to start a bit higher on the food chain in this industry.

I'm not sure what happens now. I was hired on just for the campaign so officially my job ends next week but my manager is trying to get me hired on for at least another couple of months. I also had my last engineering consultant job contact me and see if I was interested in consulting on a new project for them. They apologized over the last incident (long story) and promised I wouldn't have to work for the same guy again. I'm not sure if I want to go back to engineering again but the money is so good it's hard to pass it up especially knowing that I'm going to be making nothing and spending $120k over the next two years at grad school. But we'll see what happens here. Maybe I can work part time at both jobs until I hear back from all the schools. Once I am confident that I'm accepted to at least one of the schools, I may take off to Chile to hang with my compadres over there for a couple of months. I don't know...something will come my way and I'll figure it out.

In other, actual MBA,news, there was FINALLY a change on my status page for Yale, they put my GMAT score with my application. Still waiting on them to match up my transcripts with my application. I can't believe they haven't even put together my application and others are already interviewing? It was making me nervous before but I guess they just start reviewing apps and sending out interview invites immediately? Should I be nervous? And Stanford, there has been no change on my application status page. Does anyone know what goes on there?

This weekend I will finish my UCLA application and submit that, long before the second round deadline. Then I'll start on UMich (Ross). I'm still deciding between NYU and Columbia or both? Enough of my ramblings. Good luck on the interview invites people!

Last Minute Submit

2006-10-25T09:55:00.000-07:00

Two down, three to go. I submitted Yale at about 4 this morning and I just submitted Stanford. I think I gave both schools a very honest and open idea of myself and made clear my goals. I'm not all that hopeful. I went to Stanford recently to have Lunch with a current student and she reiterated how amazing all of her classmates and ridiculous examples. I am not nearly as accomplished as these people are. I'm just a regular girl with a really strong passion for changing the world. I hope that is enough. But I have my doubts.

Now I am going to stop thinking about B-school for the next two weeks. Now I am just going to stress about work and the election. If I make it to Nov. 8th still standing I'll be happy.

I am looking forward to my UCLA and my UMich apps. Not sure what the final app will be or if there may be more than three? I was talking to my cousin and she was making some good points for applying to more schools. We'll see. Good luck to everyone, those round one deadlines are here!

Tic Toc Tic Toc

2006-10-21T12:27:00.000-07:00

Time is of the essence in my life right now. Not only is the Stanford application due in just a couple of days but the election is just a measly 2 weeks away. I haven't slept in weeks. Working really late hours (until 10pm!) and on weekends. I am nervous about my Stanford application since I've been so busy with work and the campaign. But I am determined to hit submit before the 1st round deadline. I refuse to hold off until 2nd round. I'm actually having lunch with a current GSB student next week. I'm looking forward to that. Maybe they'll have some words of wisdom for me.

All of this stress has made me gain 5 pounds! I'm not happy about that at all! I've only been running roughly 3 days a week. That's not good. I feel slow and sluggish. It's just that I can't seem to get up early enough to get out for my run because I'm getting to bed so late. I figure after Nov. 7th life will get back to normal. Regardless, I did find time to do a quick half marathon a week or so ago and I managed to kick my best friend's a$$ by 12 minutes! Neither of us trained for the run but he has been stagnant the past two months so he was totally unprepared. But that didn't stop him from talking smack weeks before the run and saying how he was still going to kick my butt. Ahh...victory is so sweet, but a 12 minute victory is heaven! I'll be holding this over his head until our marathon in January when I suspect he'll probably kick my butt. But that won't stop me from talking smack up until that day :-) Beating him so badly did a little job on that fragile male ego of his so this time around he is inspired to get off his booty and start training. At least I know I got him back on the horse and that was my intention.

OK I am procrastinating. I've read and reread my Stanford essays so many times they are making me dizzy.

Good luck to everyone!

Stanford and UCLA

2006-10-10T20:43:00.000-07:00

So much has been going on the past couple of weeks. I feel like I have been saying that for months? Anyway, work really is crazy. I’ve been working 6 days a week about 10-12 hours a day. I seriously have never worked this hard for so little $$ before in my life. And although it irks me at times when I wander through Neiman Marcus (which I try to avoid like the plague these days) it really doesn’t bother me much at all. I feel good about it. It’s really amazing and it’s hard to explain that to my family and my best friend where money is so much more of a priority. Oh well. It’s my life and my happiness so they need to get over it.

Anyway, I sat in on a class at Stanford a little while ago. It was awesome. The class was mostly second year students. It was the standard b-school U shaped classroom. Pretty full class, I’d guess about 50 or 60 students maybe? The class was on Power and apparently it’s a very popular elective. The professor was great. The entire class was very conversational and almost every student had something pretty insightful to add to the conversation. I had warm fuzzies the entire time I sat there thinking how I desperately want to be one of those students. It was awesome. There was one other prospective sitting in on the class too. We had been picked up by a second year host to take us to the class. The host seemed a bit frazzled and wasn’t the most friendly host in the world but I won’t hold it against him/her. I imagine since classes just started he/she was a bit overwhelmed. But regardless there was something very intimate feeling about the visit and I am seriously in love with Stanford. I am trying so hard to put together an amazing application so they can’t refuse me!

I also went down to Los Angeles for a day to visit Anderson, sit in on a class, an info session and an interview. I hadn’t been on UCLA’s campus since I graduated and it was great to be there. I had completely forgotten how stunning that campus is. It really is such a beautiful campus. I don’t think I really appreciated it when I did my undergrad there. The weather was typical LA weather, sunny and perfect. The traffic was typical LA traffic, unbelievably obnoxious and irritating. It took me over an hour to get to campus from LAX and I had to take a cab because the morons at Super Shuttle were too late to pick me up and couldn’t promise me that they could get me there in an hour and a half after I waited 20 minutes for the damn shuttle!

Anyway, the visit was alright. I was exhausted from the get go so I don’t think I got as much from the visit as I could have. I had an interview with an associate director of admissions. I have no idea how it went. They really are intent on not giving you any feedback or maybe it was just that the interview didn’t go well? Who knows? After the interview I sat in the café that I used to study at to escape South campus (the engineering side of campus) and had a coffee and read the Daily Bruin. Then I sat in on a marketing management class. The class was interesting enough. It held my attention the entire hour and a half. The students, I won’t hold it against them since it was their first week of classes, weren’t as insightful or as articulate as the students at Stanford. But again this was a first year class with students just starting out on their mba journey so it’s hard to make a comparison. The class was a lot less conversational as well. But I did enjoy the class, minus my splitting headache. (I had a bit of a mountain biking accident about 2 days before my visit and was covered in bruises and scrapes and had two big bumps on my head, it wasn’t pretty). Then I hung around wandered a bit and sat in on an hour and a half long info session that was more of what I already knew so that wasn’t all that helpful but the person I interviewed with was leading the presentation so it was good that I attended the session.

So that is my long winded update. I’m still hoping to get UCLA, Yale, and Stanford apps done in first round then I’ll decide what 2 schools I’ll be applying to in the second round.

Letters

2006-09-28T18:17:00.000-07:00

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!

An Epiphany!

2006-09-17T11:42:00.000-07:00

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!

The MBA Tour and Interviews

2006-09-11T20:08:00.000-07:00

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...

Blog Crushes

2006-08-25T23:02:00.000-07:00

So as I sit here and try really hard to focus on what matters most to me (thank you Stanford Adcom) I procrastinate. I read blogs. I read and read and read more blogs and blogs and blogs. And as I read these well written blogs about incredibly successful and bright people I realize I have some major blog crushes! There's something about well written introspection that is so attractive! I have great respect and admiration for the women bloggers out there as well...it's just not as fun daydreaming about them (such is life). Am I the only one that falls for these writers? Is it a little sad and possibly slightly pathetic? Good thing no one out there will know who I am :-)

Back to the essays I go. Tomorrow morning I am asserting myself as the official Regional Campaign Coordinator and trying to forge a coalition between our camp and another local progressive camp. I hope it goes well! I'm kind of liking this public speaking part of the job. I never knew it could be so fun with so much improvisation...engineering presentations weren't nearly as exciting. Good night all!

14 Miles from Civilization

2006-08-22T16:56:00.000-07:00

I'm home from Yosemite and all I can think about is when I can go back. There's something to be said for being completely and totally inaccessible to anyone or anything and surrounded by nature...redwoods, mountains, fresh water streams, glaciers, lakes, wildflowers, and just plain old silence. It definitely helps to keep things in perspective. What's strange about being 14 miles away form civilization into the mountains and over 10,000ft above sea level is the people that you run into. We met a human rights activist on his way to Harvard law school to be a Human rights attorney, a guy that was building houses for habitat for humanity, a lady that was a social worker, another lady that worked on health care policy for MediCal recipients, a bunch of guys that work for the U.S. Forestry Service with the desire to keep these forests pristine and untouched by bulldozers. It was odd meeting so many "do-gooders" there. I think I've been a bit jaded being in the Silicon Valley surrounded by so many people who are here just to make money for themselves. It was nice to see so many people that were concerned about others or the environment or whatever cause they happened to be proponents of. I did however learn how to answer the question of "what do you do?". I m officially in transition! That's my answer and I'm sticking with it until I'm going to classes at Stanford or Columbia or wherever my essays may take me.

As of tomorrow, I am officially employed and working as a campaign assistant for Planned Parenthood. It's temporary, only until November. It's a pretty big undertaking for me. The hours promise to be long, the nights late and the weekends full of activity. I'm not sure I could keep that up any longer than November. I'm a little nervous considering all of this is happening alongside of me turning in at least three of my 5 applications for b-school. But I think it's worth it for the experience and for me to determine if this is really the route I want to go.

I have decided that I will apply to Stanford, Yale, and Columbia in the first round and second round I will apply to two more schools that I haven't quite decided on yet.

I've officially started on Stanford's essay A. I have about one sentence down and I'm guessing another 200 to go???? This is tough. What matters most to me and why? I know the answer but how do I relate that to career, life decisions and how do I write 3-4 pages on it? This promises to be a very good writing exercise for me as I absolutely suck at communicating my ideas verbally much less on paper! It is sort of weird though after coming back from my trip...there's part of me that's looking forward to this essay.

Wharton Info Session, etc...

2006-08-12T16:51:00.000-07:00

So the other day I attended an info session for Wharton held at the Wharton West campus in San Francisco. It was specifically targeted for Women and minorities. It was a pretty good turn out. The presentation by the staff was pretty standard. They had an alumni panel as well. I though the alumni were pretty down to earth people I would enjoy working with.

I'm not sure how I feel about Wharton. Based on the info session I have a pretty good feeling about it. But it has its drawbacks. First of which is the class size. I feel like having a class size of 800 at the top b-school would probably foster a pretty competitive environment. The other drawback is that they don't really have a good program in terms of what I want to do. But really, I think any b-school program will apply to whatever you want? I'm not so convinced any top school's program is better than the next? But I could be wrong...

Anyway, I'll consider Wharton. I want to go there to visit and see what I think about it in person. But if I apply it won't be until the second round. I've already decided on my first round schools, 1) Columbia, 2) Stanford, and 3)Yale. I am pretty sure the second round will be only 4) Georgetown and 5) Sloan or Wharton or UCLA. But I make no promises!

In other news...to all those Californian's reading this Vote No on Prop 85! I just spent my entire afternoon signing up new volunteers and handing out literature about Prop 85, a repeat of last year's Prop 73, the parental notification proposition. The title alone irks me. The supporters of this prop could care less about parental notification...they just want to chip away slowly at a woman's right to choose and they know that coming right out and yelling anti-choice propaganda will get them shot down in California so this is there way at limiting access to woman's health care. Read up on it and make sure you vote and if you want to get involved send me an email and I can put you in touch with the right people! Now I'll get down from my soap box.

Tomorrow is always a better day

2006-08-09T12:57:00.000-07:00

Today is my tomorrow of yesterday and it is definitely looking better! I just wanted to thank everyone for the support regarding my miserable GMAT experience! I really do appreciate it!

Yesterday I enjoyed my own little pity party for a few hours then got back on track. I mapped out my goals over the next few months. Goal and priority number one is to get a job! That being said, when I walked into my unpaid internship this morning they offerred me a full time paid, albeit temporary, job on a campaign! I haven't decided yet if I'll be taking it but I'm leaning toward yes. There are a few cons and many pros to the job.

The cons:
1) It pays next to nothing (but I knew that money was not my goal when I decided to switch into the non-profit sector).
2) No health insurance or vacation time, it's contract work.
3) The hours will be insane thru September and October up until the election in November when I need to be focusing on essays.

The pros are numerous:
1) It'll be GREAT leadership experience for me! Something I can definitely use on my apps.
2) Satisfies goal #1 that I outlined for myself yesterday.
3) The experience will be invaluable.
4) I'll be doing something I can finally be excited and passionate about.
5) It may lead to a full time real position with health benefits and vacation time here in public affairs that just opened up that they won't be filling until after the election.

I think I'm going to do it. I really need to learn to sacrifice my fun time if I'm serious about this career change and b-school. I've never chosen the easy routes in my life, I can't start now! So my days will be consumed with the campaign and nights consumed with my application essays (after I get back from my 5 day backpacking trip in Yosemite..damn this sacrifice thing is going to be difficult!).

Thanks again, all those that commented! It's nice to know there are others out there that feel my pain! Good luck to all of you!!

CANCELLED!

2006-08-08T12:33:00.000-07:00

I just took the GMAT. I panicked and basically just threw $250 in the garbage. I am at a loss right now.

The other day I took my final official GMAT practice exam and scored horribly on it. I messed up my time management and I just couldn't keep my head focused, which seems to be a recurring theme in my life right now. I tried to muster up my confidence the two days prior to my exam and apparently I wasn't successful. I had the same time management problem on my official exam. The last 10 questions on the quant I basically just rushed thru and guessed blindly. Then on the verbal I was so distracted by my performance on the quant that I couldn't even try to focus on the verbal. So I panicked. I stared at my options REPORT SCORES, CANCEL SCORES. It took me about 5 minutes and then I finally decided to cancel.

So now what do I do? I need to start working again. I need to work full time. My time management has sucked since I haven't been working. And now I'm thinking maybe I should just forget about these top schools and use my first offical GMAT score to apply to lesser schools? Or maybe I wasn't cut out for this MBA in the first place? OK so I'm just throwing myself a little pity party right now. Once I recover from this blow maybe I'll be able to rationally figure all of this out and determine what my next step will be. Until then, I'm going running with my dog...Happy trails...

Haas Visit

2006-07-30T19:38:00.000-07:00

OK so first thing's first...practice exam #5. I took my first GMAT Prep exam. Overall score was only 690 Quant 47 and Verbal 38. Wow, I missed a lot of questions. On the Quant section the first question I missed was #5 and we all know that's a big no-no. Then I continued to answer another 14 questions incorrectly! My time management was really bad as was my focus...again. I know this about myself alrady so why do I try to take these exams in public places? I was at Border's. I swear the next one I take (Wednesday) will be in a room at the library! The verbal section I didn't miss nearly as many questions but still there were a lot of incorrect answers, 9 to be exact. And again time management on verbal was horrendous. The last 10 questions I had approximately 2 minutes to answer. Oops. But I suppose since I seemed to screw up so bad and still managed to get a 690...that's a good thing? I'm trying to look on the bright side. My next practice exam I need to take really seriosuly because it's my last GMAT Prep exam and from what all you MBA bloggers say, those are the ones that tend to be closest to reality.

Now about my visit to Haas. I had to wake my lazy bum up at 6am to allow time to shower, get dressed into the suggested 'business casual' attire, get my coffee, and make my way to Berkeley (an hour drive). I got there just a little after 8 and was able to find parking really close just across the street. They had sent out an email warning us that parking would be difficult and suggested a lot that was about a 15 minute walk from Haas. I'd like to see you walk 15 minutes in heels! No thank you! So I paid $0.50/hr for the lot across the street that I'm not sure I was supposed to be at, but there was no ticket when I got back to my car.

I entered the Bank of America Forum and there was quite the spread of pastries, bagels, fruit and of course coffee. I definitley did not expect anything like this. The info sessions at Stanford and at Yale were so quick and short and informal, I guess I was expecting more of the same. They had people registering and eating until about 9am. I spoke with a few potential applicants but not too many. I was also surprised about the number of people in attendance. They said 250 people had signed up. This was their first ever Saturday, summer time info session...apparently it was a success.

We were seated in the Arthur Andersen Room, a rather large auditorium, and the info session began. First to speak was one of the Director's of admission. This was the first school to actually take advantage of the university's notoriety. When I went to Stanford and to Yale, neither of the presentations said anything about the fact that the business schools were at Yale or Stanford. I think those are big selling points and shouldn't be overlooked. Anyway, the guy from Haas took note of the fact that Haas is located at UC Berkeley and that Berkeley is a great university in itself. Anyway, he sold Haas and the rankings and the programs and all the basics. And of course adding that there's a collaborative, not competitive environment at Haas (Yale and Stanford said the exact same thing...hmmm??). At this point, about an hour into the presentation I was starting to think I might want to apply to Haas and consequently starting to panic about adding another application to my to do list. Then a second director of admissions spoke about the application process. I really liked how they presented themselves. They were very clear and honest about the entire process. So now, 2 hours into the presentation and I am cursing at myself because I like what they had to say and dammit, now I'm going to have to consider Haas too?!

At the 15 minute break we were able to ask the adcom guys some specific questions (I asked about the fact that as an engineer for years at the same company my title never changed but my responsibilities did and I had many salary increases, he gave some good advice on how to show that on my resume and how to work with my recommender so that he too could note that in his letter).

After the break the Director of Career Services came on. I wasn't impressed. The only thing that I liked about their career services was that they emphasized the interview counselors and how it's very important to take advantage of the mock interview sessions that are available to you, as many as you want as long as you sign up. Other than that I wasn't impressed. So now I'm thinking ok at least there's an item I can put on the con side of my pro/con list...maybe there's hope and I won't have to apply to Haas after all!

Then the financial aid guy came up to give his presentation. He covered all of the basics. No surprises there. They, like Stanford and Yale, have a loan forgiveness program for people who go into non-profit or gov't as long as their salary is below the standard $70k.

At this point I am pretty impressed with the time they took to prepare this info session and the comprehensiveness of it all. It was very informative and they did a really good job presenting everything.

So now comes the 6 student panel. 2 students were about to start their second year at Haas, 2 had just graduated in '06 and 2 had graduated in '05. Three men and three woman (definitely not representative of the class I'm sure). They took questions from the audience and a couple students answered each one. After the panel spoke they gave us a quick tour of Haas. And I have to say out of the three schools I've visited thus far Haas has by far the best facilities!

The student panel is where I lost my interest in Haas. To tell you the truth the the staff of the school had me sold but when I heard the students I decided this isn't where I want to go to school. No disrespect to that panel. They all seemed to be nice and incredibly bright people but for some reason I kept thinking that I couldn't imagine working on a team with any of those people on the panel. I can't place my finger on why? I'm just not sure? I mean it's hard to judge that from just listening to them answer questions for an hour but I think I have good intuition and I know myself well. I just don't think Haas is the place for me.

What this did teach me though is that I definitely need to go back to Stanford while it's in session and talk to some current students. I've met the alumni and I really felt a connection with them so at least I know that. At Yale I met students and didn't feel a connectin with them like I did with the Stanford alumni but I thought I could definitely work with them in groups and would have no problems. My point behind all this blabber is that I now FINALLY understand that word everyone keeps throwing around..."fit". I just didn't "fit" at Haas.

Practice Test #4

2006-07-24T16:39:00.000-07:00

I know the scores of these test don't matter but it is really nice once you get to that 700 score! I am really happy with my latest exam. Q-50, V-37.

The verbal score remains low but there is a specific reason for that this time around. I missed a bunch of questions right when the power went out (the heat wave in California is about to kill me with all these power outages!) and there was all sorts of activity around me and it was a series of reading comp questions that I missed. And since reading comp is my strong point, I'm not worried. I missed 6 reading comp questions, but only one sentence correction and one critical reasoning questions.

The quant score was fine. I had bad time management so I missed 4 of the last 5 questions and got everything else correct. Next exam I have to be a little more aware of the time.

All in all, I'm really feeling good now. My next step for this week is to take the two GMAC practice exams. Then the following week maybe try out a Kaplan practice exam. Or maybe I should reverse that so the Kaplan exam doesn't screw with my budding confidence? But what is most important is that I find an air conditioned, quiet place to take the exam. It's been very difficult to a good place to take these exams! The library has no wifi, my house has no A.C., and the coffee shops with free wifi have too many distractions. I may try my mom's house, but her internet connection is so slow. I'll figure it out!

Dinner with Stanford GSB Grads

2006-07-21T10:40:00.000-07:00

Wow! I am almost at a loss for words! Last night I was lucky enough to join a bunch of Stanford GSB graduates at dinner and it was fantastic!! All of them geniuses! Their successes before grad school and their successes after are just unbelievable. And their love for the school is amazing. They all spoke so highly of the program. They gave me a bit of advice and all said I would love it there. However, after hearing their stories I am really quite intimidated and feeling a little less confident about my chances. But all I can do is present Stanford with the best application I can come up with and hope for the best.

I know some of you who have read my posts regarding branding probably think I'm a snob. But last night I realized why brand is so important to me. I'm not saying that every graduate out of a top 5 business school is a genius nor am I saying you can't find geniuses at a lower level institution but as I witnessed last night, there is a reason Stanford is branded the way it is. These guys were incredibly bright and it showed in the level of conversaton at the dinner table. They weren't discussing the latest gossip about Britney Spears or what happened on American Idol...the conversation went from business to equality in education to the biological and social factors that divide men and women to the differences between good leaders and good politicians and then they reminisced a bit about their days at Stanford. It was a wonderful evening and I am so happy I was able to be a part of it. Every day I get more and more excited about my change of career and my decision to pursue this MBA. I know I've made the right choice!

Practice Test #3

2006-07-18T10:06:00.000-07:00

I finally sat down in my non air conditioned 100deg house yesterday to take my third practice exam from Princeton. I was finally very pelased with my performance on the Quant section. I answered only 2 questions incorrectly and ran out of time before I picked an answer for the last question. The two questions I answered incorrectly were done near the end of the exam. Now you'd think that with that performance I'd earn a pretty good score for the Quant section but I just got a 43? So now, there is definite proof that the scoring algorithm used by Princeton is a bit out of whack. Or am I missing something here? Regardless, I am thru stressing about the score on the practice exams. I was happy with my Quant section.

Verbal was another story. I did great the first half of the exam but by the second half I was losing patience and focus and just couldn't pay attention long enough to get the answers right. I did great on reading comprehension but only so so on the sentence correction and critical reasoning. What really surprised me was that the 4 of the last 7 questions were R.C. Once that long ass passage popped up I figured I was doomed, I was running out of time and there was no way I'd be able to answer these correctly. But I did. I answered all of them correctly and barely skimmed the passage. So now I am going to start spending less time reading the passages and see if I can continue with getting the R.C. questions right. If that's the case I can spend more time on the critical reasoning questions, where I seem to need more time with anyway.

All in all my overall score wasn't what I wanted but surprisingly it did boost my confidence a bit. Only a couple weeks left until the big day...better get cracking now!

And on the school front...I have a meeting with a couple of current students at Stanford GSB next week that I'm looking forward to. Hopefully I can get some more insight into the program. I also spoke with a guy who graduated from Columbia this weekend. He was very helpful as well. I am attending an info session at Haas soon as well as an info session for Wharton at the Wharton West campus in San Francisco. There is also the MBA tour happening in September in San Francisco that I will be attending too. I'd be happier if I had started this process about a month prior but I think I'm on track to accomplish my goals.

The Fear of Average

2006-07-12T16:53:00.000-07:00

I just completed the diagnostic exam in the O.G. Based upon how many questions you answer correctly there is a scale where you will fit into one of five categories: 1) Excellent 2) Above average 3) Average 4) Below average and 5) Poor. This time around I was mostly at the high end of above average and the low end of excellent. This made me a very unhappy camper. I was only happy with my performance on the R.C. portion of the diagnostic test, I only missed one question. The rest of the sections I felt I could have done much better. And there is no real pattern to my mistakes other than silly errors. So I'm not sure where to concentrate my studies? I really am having a hard time focusing while doing problems, even at the library where i've removed every possibly distraction! I suppose I could blame it on the recent unemployed status. I tell myself that everything is great but I think the stress is rearing it's ugly head in my practice problems. I'm giving myself three more days to do practice problems to work out all the lack of focus issues, and then I'm taking another practice exam. I've set a goal for myself of getting only a 680 for this practice exam. Then I'll increase it from there.

Is anyone else afflicted with the fear of being average? When I start reviewing the practice problems I've done from the O.G. I get this knot of anxiety in my stomach. I have this overwhelming fear of being average (it's the same anxious feeling I get when I'm hanging out with my married with kids friends in suburbia at their kid's soccer games...but that's another story for another day). Sometimes I feel like I'm fooling the people around me who have such faith in me. I'm scared that one day they will eventually catch on and I'll be labeled a fraud. If i think logically about my abilities I know I'm a smart girl but logic doesn't play into my insecurities over intelligence. And this whole GMAT/application process is not helping the situation at all! I know, I know, as my best friend tells me all the time "Get over it!". Well for today, according to the O.G., at the least I am above average and at the most I'm excellent. Next time I'll just be purely excellent!

All good things must come to an end

2006-07-10T10:32:00.000-07:00

The vacation has come to an end. If you haven't been to Lake Shasta I highly recommend it! It is beautiful! The weather was perfect. It was about 95 degrees but the water was around 80 degrees and there was a nice cool breeze. It really was perfect. I have also discovered that water skiing gets boring and wakeboarding can be the source of many a bruised limbs. I get a little too adventurous at times and my body pays the price. But it was totally worth it. I got a little gmat studying in but not much. I started to stress about it yesterday and then this morning when I got to work I found out that I have plenty of time to be studying between now and G-day.

After a week off on vacation I come to work this morning to find my job has come to an end as well. My boss left me a lovely note, yes a NOTE, that basically says "we are having some major financial setbacks and your services are no longer needed, effective immediately". Then the impersonal jack ass asks me, in the note of course, to give hime a rundown on where all my work is and what still needs to be done, etc. I just stood up and walked out. I don't plan on ever going back. I knew they were having financial difficulties and they had already let a lot of people go that's why I though I was safe. But alas, I was the final one to be let go. And it's fine, I understand their reason....they are marketing more their software than their packaging so it makes sense to let go of the single mechanical engineer...but a f'ing note? How rude!

After about 10 minutes of freaking out I realized there was definitely an up side to this. I am going to start looking for a job now but I don't plan on starting work until after labor day. I'll use this time to do lots of GMAT studying and then I'm going to Yosemite to hike and camp for a few days and then I'll relax a little bit before going back to work. The big suck about all of this is that I really wanted to only work part time so I could do the volunteer work with planned parenthood but I highly doubt I'll be able to find part time work that pays as well. But it'll work out. It always does for me :-)

So for now, off to the library to work a bazillion permutation and combination problems. My only weakness on the quant side.

Vacation Reading

2006-06-30T10:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I finally sat down with the Associate director of Public Affairs at Planned Parenthood. I am really excited to work for her. I'll be starting when I get back from my vacation next week. I think it will be a great learning experience. I expressed to her my desire to really learn how a non-profit runs, particularly one that involves public policy. I also told her that I fully understand that an intern is going to responsible for a lot of grunt work and I'm willing to do that with no complaints as long as I can really get a glimpse into this world of non-profit. I hope its everything I want! If it's not...god only knows what I'm going to do with my life?!

On another note, my week ends with a bit of a wimper. I have decided that I must sacrifice some fun in the sun for the sake of my b-school ambitions. But this sacrifice will begin after next week where I will spend the entire week on a houseboat in Lake Shasta. Wakeboarding, water skiing and probably lots of eating and drinking. But before you get too excited for me, the vacation is with my entire family...aunts, uncles, cousins, mother...let us hope everyone survives. 5 days on a boat with no escape but the vast waters of Lake Shasta. I fear for the life of a family member! :-o

I have compiled a list of reading material for my 5 days on the boat. Exciting stuff...brochures from Stanford, MIT, NYU, Columbia, Wharton and I may throw in The New Yorker and/or Rolling Stone magazines for kicks. And of course the good old O.G. I am determined to get in 1 hour a day (how hard can that be?) of practice problems while on the boat. Wish me luck! Happy 4th of July to all the bloggers from the U.S. and happy weekend to all the rest :-)

Not even close!

2006-06-27T13:18:00.000-07:00

Oh my god! I just took my second Princeton practice GMAT and am consequently freaking out! This is NOT OK! After having studied for a couple weeks my score has not improved at ALL??? WTH? My first practice exam before any studying was a 640, 41-Q 37-V which pretty much sucked, I should have done MUCH better on the quant. The verbal I expected to suck at. But I blamed it on the fact that my time management sucked and with a little review and practice I'd do fine the second time around...well it turns out I'm just plain stupid. This time I still got the 640 with a 42-Q and 36-V? I am borderline retarded apparently.

I am going to try really hard to not go crazy over this. I have to hunker down and stop playing so much. It's time to give up the salsa dancing until August. Dammit! I'm going to go take a nap now until I feel better.

Practice makes perfect, right?

2006-06-26T08:33:00.000-07:00

This weekend I did a lot of practice problems. Well "a lot" is relative I suppose. I did roughly 10 s.c., 35 C.R., 22 D.S., and 30 P.S. I made 1 mistake on the SC, 4 mistakes on the C.R., 1 on the D.S. and 2 on the P.S. What irritates me about my mistakes is that once I review the problem without knowing the correct answer I can find the correct answer immediately. The mistake I've made is either reading the question wrong or when I narrow my answer choice down to two choices, I pick the incorrect one. Doing each section separately I didn't make any errors until at least 10 to 15 prolems in (accept for the S.C., I made that error on the second question!).

I keep reading about how the Princeton Review is too easy and I'm starting to worrry. Although the practice problems they have me doing are from the O.G. 11, I still worry that I should be doing worse than I am? Or maybe I should just have a little more confidence and assume that my practicing is making me almost perfect ;-) ? I am going to take my second Princeton practice exam tomorrow. My first one didn't go so well (640) but that was done before I did any studying. So I'm hoping this time I'll get at least a 720. Then by my next practice exam I can reach my official target score of 750 and keep that consistent for the following practice exams.

I can't help but wonder if I should be taking more practice exams? At the moment I am only doing what is assigned by the Princeton Review course. Maybe I should start taking 1 practice exam per week? Maybe buy the Kaplan book with the CD of pracitce exams? I can build up my stamina for the real thing? One of my major problems with the GMAT is sitting still for that long. I think I have adult on-set ADD! Even at work I have to get up every 15 to 20 minutes. I just can't sit still for that long.

I'm also starting to worry about applications. I've done nothing in terms of figuring out goals, leadership examples, why now, etc., ...I just can't multitask. I am not the typical woman. I can't balance work, studying, and applications all on top of my regular day to day life. I have my properties to manage, tenants to pacify, a dog that must go on a 5 mile run every day, salsa dancing to do, etc. etc. etc. I guess I could change my priorities around a little bit like all of those other bloggers out there that are complaining of no life but the GMAT, but I just can't do it. I like my life too much. I just need to get teh GMAT out of the way first and then I can focus on apps. I just hope I am not leaving myself too little time for the apps considering I'm not taking the GMAT until the beginning of August? I suppose only time will tell!

The sun is an obstacle to a 750 GMAT

2006-06-19T10:23:00.000-07:00

How on Earth am I expected to sit inside and practice GMAT problems when it's 80 something degrees outside and the sun is calling my name? It's a serious problem! They really have this application process backwards. We should have to take the GMAT at the start of spring. We could study all thru the winter when the days are shorter and there are less fun things to do during the week (weekends are always good for some snowboarding at least ;-). Application deadlines should be at the start of summer. It may be hard to write essays thru the spring due to that damn sun again, but I seem to be more inspired in the spring so in the long run it'd be a benefit. Then we could have our entire summers to mountain bike, run, wakeboard, salsa dance, or just sit on the patio with a margarita listening to some music while adcom did their thing and we waited for word on our fates.

All that being said I did manage to squeeze in a few hours of studying this weekend despite the sun shining in a clear blue sky. I'm pretty happy though because I seem to be gaining that patience I so lacked at the start of the studying. I did about 40 data sufficiency problems and only made 2 careless errors at about 25 questions in. I also did about 35 sentence correction problems but didn't do as well. I missed about 4 of those questions. But once again those mistakes were careless errors so as long as I keep working on my patience I think I'll be fine. I will get that 750 on my GMAT no matter how distracting that sun may be!

Tonight my cousin's boyfriend, a Phd student at Stanford, has put together an event near the Stanford campus to watch the Espana world cup game. UNIVISION (a local spanish channel) will be at the event too. He had a similar event for the other Espana game and the TV crews were there as well. My cousin was the only female there so they forced her to do an on air interview. I fear that this time we will be the only women there and I will have to avoid the cameras like the plague! Anyway, I really couldn't care less about the World Cup but my cousin's boyfriend told me that some of his students (he teaches at the Stanford GSB) will be there and that I could interrogate them about Stanford GSB! Yay!!

Brand Name Whore

2006-06-16T00:14:00.000-07:00

I am a brand name whore. I like brand name clothing, sunglasses, jewelry, watches, etc. Don't get me wrong I have plenty of $5 sunglasses and clothing from Target but I do indulge myself on 5th Ave in NY once in a while.

And yes, I want the brand name MBA! One of my best friends tells me that I'm an education snob. But then again he only dates "hot" chicks...so he's not allowed to judge...he likes those girls for their bodies and I like men for their brand name education...I think both of us are probably in the wrong here, but that's a story for another day. Last night I went out with another friend. I've been quite the party girl recently, by Sunday I will have gone out 6 nights this week? Wow, I really should be studying for the GMAT!...but I digress. Back to my story. Some guy was hitting on me at the bar. We got to talking and as soon as he said that he had gone to a community college for a few years and then finally finished his degree up at State (mind you, finally meant that he had taken an additional 4 years to finish at State) I lost all interest. Now it's not completely fair to judge me at this point as I'm not sure I was all that interested in the first place. But I wonder if he had said that he had just finished up at Stanford or Berkeley or any other top school if that would have peaked rather than waned my interest? Regardless, it occurred to me at that moment that brand name in education matters to me. So I decided that I will not settle for getting my MBA at anything less than a top ranked school! Call me what you will, but I am a sucker for brand names and I've just come to accept this about myself. Now I will have to blog anonymously forever because anyone I meet at b-school in the future will have read this and, probably rightly so, will have decided that I am a complete snob!

The Internship and Salsa Dancing

2006-06-14T11:15:00.000-07:00

As of right now I am still an engineer but only part time. It's quite a cushy set up I have. I only work about 20 hours a week, I come and go as I please and I get very well compensated. You may be asking yourself "umm why is she only working par time?" Ok so maybe you aren't asking yourself that but I have asked myself that many times...trying to justify my laziness I suppose. I came up with the following excuse: I wanted to have more free time to do my applications and I wanted to find work part time in the non-profit world since that's what I want to go into after getting my MBA. So I did it finally! I got an internship at Planned Parenthood! I am so excited! I'll be working there 20 hours a week in their public affairs and clinic advocacy departments. I'll be working full time now more or less.

I'm hoping this internship will give me the chance to develop my leadership skills and show my desire to adcom that I am comitted to this career change to non-profit! Plus now I'll have more fodder for my essays and a greater pool of people to ask for Letters of Rec! Woohoo!

Totally unrelated to my MBA...Salsa dancing is good for the soul. I swear it. Every time I go dancing I leave totally refreshed and happy. Not to mention my ego is very well stroked over the course of the evening :-) I am so easy when dancing..."Eres tan linda, Que hermosa! nos casamos?, bailas tan bien! Increible!". Really they say this to every girl they dance with but I am putty in their hands everytime :-) (only if they are good dancers, of course! I am such a salsa snob, not sure when that happened?). Thank goodness I have my partner in crime to bring me back down to earth. She reminds me that we call them our "salsa boyfriends" for a reason! Not to be taken outside the salsa club! I've made that mistake before and sadly I've lost one of my favorite dancing partners. He won't dance with me anymore :-( I had a salsa crush on him and I thought just maybe the crush would last outside of the salsa club but sadly I was mistaken. And his feelings were hurt...girls who want to find a sensitive man...find a salsero! I swear they were all girls in their past lives! Or if you just need a nice evening of ego boosting...go salsa dancing! And boys, if you want hot, barely clothed girls (not saying I am one of these, but clubs are full of them) hanging all over you...learn to dance! Just my 2 cents worth for today.

The Back Up Plan

2006-06-12T20:35:00.000-07:00

I believe congratulations are in order! I've come up with a back up plan just in case Stanford or the others don't want me! My back up plan is to win the lotto. And just in case that doesn't work out I have even thought of a back up back up plan, I will marry a filthy rich man on the verge of death. I feel that my chances of accomplishing my back up plans may be much more likely than getting into Stanford or any other top 10 school.

After reading the billions of blogs and forums and student profiles...I have decided that I am not as impressive as I used to think I was. When comparing oneself to the general public it is quite easy to come out on top. However, start comparing onself to other top 10 b-school applicants and all the sudden it's not such a pretty picture! All of you mba bloggers are so damn accomplished and successful do you really need your MBA? Maybe you should reconsider and let the less successful folk, such as myself have a chance? Gee Thanks! That would be swell! Well I'm not that bad, after all I have run a marathon and I am a pretty good salsa dancer...you think that can compare with those mba applicants that have their own million dollar corporations? Hmmm? I have my doubts.

Yesterday I went car shopping with my mother. She brought a binder full of research that she had done on all the cars she wanted to test drive. She was driving me insane and I told her that she has over researched her car buying process and thus taking all the fun out of it! Maybe that's what I'm doing with this MBA? Ugghhhh now back to sentence correction drills.

Stanford GSB Info Session

2006-06-09T12:09:00.000-07:00

Well I had my first "official" info session at an MBA school. I have the sneaky suspicion that after every info session I am going to proclaim my love for that particular school? Anyway, Stanford GSB...

I Live near by Stanford so it reallyis not a problem for me to get there. However, I am directionally challenged and ended up passing up turns in my car while blabbing away on the phone. Once I found visitor parking ($3 for two hours), I ended up running from one end of campus to the other as to not make a late first impression! I walked into the classroom and immediately felt uncomfortable in my incredibly casual attire. I was wearing a tank top, cargo capris, and my flip flops. I live in Cali, I blend in with the general public! There were already 6 or 7 people seated in the exaggerated oval classroom (not sure I like this classroom set up? I'll have to see a class in action to see how the interaction is) and all of them looking quite professional in slacks and shirts. Oops, strike one for first impressions! Then walked in the Assistant Director of Admissions to give the power point pesentation.

She had us all introduce ourselves and a bit about our background. During this time about 5 people walked in late...all of them in casual attire. WooHoo! I wasn't the latest nor the most casual one there!! She began the presentation and I started to fall in love. Is this going to happen everytime I visit a school? Ugghhhh! So these are the immediate things I liked about Stanford:

Small Class Size
Location (I already own a duplex here. I wouldn't have to move. I have friends and family close by to help me take care of Rico, my dog, when need be).
Emphasis on team work and not a competitive environment (this is very important to me since I am extremely competitive. If I were in a competitive environment I imagine I would be less focused on actually learning and more focused on doing better than the guy next to me.
It's Stanford for goodness sake! need I say more?
Access to Professors there are no office hours, just open door arrangements between students and professors.
New Curriculum is more flexible I imagine this can be a negative as well as a positive considering next year's class will be the guinea pig?
Mentor. They are introducing a new mentor program with a second year as well as with a faculty member.
Emphasis on a community and not "networking" I hate that word and apparently, so does Stanford.
Heavily Quantitative based program. Although I don't necessarily want to be an engineer, I am. And I like Quant!

I'll have to make a more comprehensive list as the info sessions continue at different schools. And I'd also like to go back when class is in session to sit in on a class and meet with current students and discuss the environment a little more. I didn't expect to like Stanford all that much but their marketing campaign has dazzled me a bit. But there's always more research to do!

Am I a complete dork for getting so excited about this? Or maybe it's my hangover high from a good night of salsa dancing last night? Who cares, either way there will be a smile on my face all day today!

Grammar?

2006-06-07T16:47:00.000-07:00

Last night was my second class in the Princeton Review. Our assignment over the past week was to do some reading and to sit down and take the first of 5 (or 6?) online practice exams. My first practice exam wasn't so impressive, about 80 points short of my target score. The one thing I was happy about was on the verbal I got the first 10 questions correct which is obviously so important on the GMAT. Surprisingly I got 2 of the first 10 questions incorrect on the math! I'm an engineer for god's sake! What the hell? But I'm hopeful that the class and the practice will lead me to my target score.

The first hour and a half of the class the instructor reviewed grammar for sentence correction. The entire time I kept thinking to myself, "self, that year you spent in South America teaching English is so going ot benefit you now!" Seriously, tell me what engineer actually knows what an infinitive is, not to mention the past perfect tense? One of the guy's in the class, also an engineer I believe, speaks English just fine but with an accent. Obviously English is his second language. I felt awful for him. His speaking English really was fine, but how the hell does he know what an idiom is? And considering we speak grammatically incorrect here, how would he ever recognize the mistake? Poor guy! I have a new found respect for ESL speakers taking the GMAT!

In the meantime I am trying to decide if I should fly out to do a tour of the East Coast schools I want to visit in July or should I wait until classes start in Sept? The thing is, I want to figure out what schools I'll be applying to soon so that I can concentrate on those particular essays. But just visiting the campus and not speaking with a student nor sitting in on a class...is that really going to help me decide? I don't know? I suppose this whole B-School process is really going to help me refine my decision making skills.

A Back Up School?

2006-06-05T10:23:00.000-07:00

This weekend I was speaking with my uncle about applying to B-schools and as I was listing the schools I was considering applying to he asked me, "Aren't you going to apply to a back-up school?". My response to him was my theory that MBA's are a dime a dozen and in order to shine amongst the thousands of b-school graduates every year your resume better have a top 10 school listed on it! Plus I'm going to spend almost $150k for two years in b-school. To me, an MBA just doesn't seem to be worth the time, effort nor the money if it doesn't come from a big name.

But then I started thinking. What if he was right? What if I'm shooting too high? All of this work and preparation not to mention $$$$ to apply and what if I don't get accepted to a top 10 school? Is it worth going to a lower ranked school? Or maybe Yale is my back up school? Depending upon which ranking you look at, it's not even in the top 20! So now the question begs to be asked, what is considered a back up school? How far down the ranking pole do you have to go to ensure admittance? So back to the rankings I go...more school websites to read, more programs to research...does this process ever get easy?

Miss Domestic!

2006-06-01T19:25:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I just cooked...well prepared dinner for 4 people. I have finally started working on my patio. I bought some planter boxes some plants did some much needed gardening. And I just bought a new patio furniture set and decided I must put it to use. I was feeling ambitious and thought I'd try to cook for my friends. Now let me make this clear...I can barely tell the difference between my stove and my oven. Until today my refrigerator had some ketchup, some peanut butter and some corn tortillas (why must corn tortillas come in packs of like 500? seriously!)I DO NOT cook. But today I broke the mold! So now I am awaiting the arrival of a few friends, my patio table is set, my kitchen is clean and the food is waiting to be cooked. I am so impressed with myself and since nobody is here yet to pat me on the back, I must do it myself. I wonder if I could use this experience in my essays? Oh if Adcom only knew what an accomplishment it was for me to be cooking!

Meanwhile my baby, my child, my dog, is begging me to play catch with him and so I will!

Cheers!

Rico, A reason to smile!

2006-05-31T16:33:00.000-07:00

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!

2006-05-31T10:25:00.000-07:00

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

2006-05-31T10:03:00.000-07:00

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

2006-05-31T10:02:00.000-07:00

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!!