Chunky Pitbull's MBA Applicant Procrasteron

2004-08-30T22:12:00.000-07:00

Haas Stuff

Well, I'm not sure I'll be able to keep the blog up, as after my first day of classes I can see I have a lot of work to do. But I do have an excuse for the last week.

I'm not saying who did it, but a beer was spilt on my barnd spanking new laptop. Two weeks later, I have it back, and THANK YOU Toshiba, for taking mercy on me and not charging me to fix it.

Anyway, Haas orientation was amazing, a full week packed to the gills. Highlights:

*Haas has a few shining star programs, the most impressive being Management of Technology. Haas is the only school that offers this as I understand it. The program tries to leverage Berkeley's strengths in both engineering and business by throwing students into high tech managment classes together. Students often hook up to compete in the two b-plan contests here. The result is a history of sucessful and profitable companies and products. Entrepreneurism is also huge here.

*The culture here is extremely supportive, and very socially concious. Most of the students I've talked to really do give a crap about CSR and are somewhat considering some kind of not for profit work, if not as a full time position as an extracurricular. And guess what? If the mood strikes you, Haas will fully pay your loans while you work for a non-profit. As part of the culture, there are a wealth of worthwhile clubs to join.

*This is more of a personal highlight. During O-Week we did a practice business case. It was on Clif Bar. We broke into our cohorts - 60 people each, and then into teams of 6. We had to do a presentation after 45 minutes, then the cohorts voted on the best presentation. The team went with my product idea, and I presented it. They also added some great strategy ideas, and presented those. We won our cohort. We then had to present to the whole class. We won that too... except unbeknownst to us it wasn't judged by the class - the founder of Clif bar was is the crowd.

*We had cohort olympics. There was beer and kickball. Enough said.

So on to the semester. Haas is divided into two 7 week mini semesters with three classes each. First is Organizational Behavior, Micro Economics and Statistics, plus a 1 credit leadership Communication. Then we get Finance, Accounting and Macro.

Shit. I have a lot to read.

Go bears.

2004-08-20T07:44:00.000-07:00

Some Good Advice

My brother in law, an HBS alum and one of the smartest people I know, sent me this advice on going through b-school the other day. I thought it was so good I asked him if I could post it here, and he agreed.

As You Begin….

Write down your goals: What are the top 3-5 things you want to accomplish during your B-School run? Review these goals regularly – hang them on your wall or keep it in your planner.

Get organized: If you do not already have one, get yourself a Palm Pilot, Treo, or paper-based system (Franklin Planner) to keep track of your (1) schedule, (2) rolodex, and (3) to do list. The rolodex is especially important – as you meet people (classmates, interviewers, professors, alumni), enter them in so you have record. Entering their names also will enhance your ability to remember them – repetition is the mother of skill.

Keep your resume up to date at all times! There is no official “resume season” – you could be asked for it at anytime, and failure to present one may preclude you from a great opportunity. Before you get knee-deep in classes, add your last experience to your resume if you haven’t already.

It’s all about Networking….

Get good at small talk: The best way to engage someone in small talk is to (1) remember their name when they tell you it and (2) ask them questions. I always have four questions ready to go for anyone I meet:
– What is your name?
– Where are you from?
– Where do you/have you worked?
– Where are you living? (on campus/off campus)
Any of these four questions can lead you to “Level 2” questions: For example – “where are you from” leads to things like “I’ve never been there – what is it like?” or “did you like living there?” or “sounds like paradise on earth – do you want to return there?” etc.

Meet, Greet, and Meet Some More: Meet as many people as you can. Even if you do not regularly socialize with them, you will be surprised how your former classmates will welcome an email from you 10 years down the road, even if they barely remember you.

Keep Your Guard Up: One of the things I learned from my 1st year Negotiation class is that there are two broad sets of negotiators: Givers (“Pie Makers”) and Takers (“Zero Summers”). Givers are people with loads of integrity and are willing to work with you to create a bigger pie before negotiating on how to divvy it up. Zero Summers are in it for themselves; their sole purpose is to take as much as they can off the table. When a giver negotiates with another giver, there is huge potential for mutual benefit, but when a giver negotiates with a taker, the giver gets royally hosed every time. If you are, by nature, a giver, be very wary of the takers. (I typically assume someone is a taker until they prove they are giver.)

Don’t Become a Social Outcast: You are going to meet plenty of people who are just plain intimidating (Perhaps, you will recognize these people by the fact that they are going to pull up in Mercedes/BMW’s, talk about the CEOs they play golf with, and come from esteemed families/social circles). But there are plenty of people there who DO have things in common with you. Also, your social circles will develop over time, so don’t get freaked out if by the end of September, you have not found a group to hang out with.

Watch the Gossip: This probably won’t be an issue for you, but there will be plenty of opportunities (usually around beers) to make fun of people based on their classroom comments or other social gaffes. Try not to participate – it has a habit of coming back around, and you never know when you will have to work with that person on a team project.

Sometimes You Gotta Force Yourself: If you find yourself not feeling like going to a meeting, extracurricular, company brief, or social function, go anyway. I can’t tell you how many times I have dreaded going to one of these functions only to have learned something important or to have met someone that helped me down the road.

Today’s Professors are Tomorrow’s Colleagues: Meet your professors, get to know them. They value you – you keep them young and energized. Down the road, you will want to network with them. I did a horrible job of this.

The Classroom….

Go to Class: Not sure how classroom participation works at Berkeley, but at HBS it was a significant portion of the grade. Regardless, go to class – you will learn more that way. And don’t show up late – it is unprofessional and you will look bad – very bad. If it came down to being late or not going at all, I chose not going at all.

Recognize that you bring value to the table: Don’t be intimidated (as I was) by the I-bankers and Management Consultants. They will have really good, strategic work experience. But you have an equally relevant base of knowledge and experience. You have the advantage of having worked in an operational role, and knowing what works day to day amongst people who make the strategy happen. More importantly, not many have your experience in web marketing. Use these as your base.

Learn the jargon: You will find that the consultants and I-bankers will come in with a certain level of business savvy that you do not have (and I did not have going in to HBS). These people have operated at a more strategic level than you; learn from them. Listen how they talk and write down phrases you hear that sound good. Also write down phrases that sound equally ridiculous – you may be able to start a game of Business Bingo or even write a B-School comedy.
Have fun learning new stuff: You are paying a lot of money for this – focus less on grades, and more on learning.

Leverage other people’s knowledge: Form a study group with people with diverse backgrounds. Aside from the learning aspects, it is a good way to socialize.
Get the Wall Street Journal: Read it everyday, even if only for 15 minutes over coffee – it is the best way to get educated on business, and gives you tidbits to contribute to conversations in and out of class.

The Future….

View yourself as your own business: You officially work for YOU Inc. You are your own business. Figure out what things interest you (e.g. web marketing), and become THE expert on it. Then find opportunities (not necessarily “jobs”) where you can leverage your expertise. There will be times in the upcoming years where these opportunities will take the form of a job. Other times, these opportunities may take the form of a consulting/freelance role. Ultimately, these opportunities lead to the development of new skills and expertise, which open up a whole new set of opportunities.

Don’t settle for a job: Figure out something that interests you and go from there. I was interested in technology, I researched a couple of industries, and decided to go into telecom; I did not waste my time learning about other “hot industries” like Financial Services. Perhaps I could have made more money, but it did not interest me and I would not have been successful because I did not have the interest.

Don’t wait ‘til “interview season” to look for an opportunity: Devote time each week to learning about industries/companies/opportunities you are interested in. Get yourself a small notebook to jot down statistics or quotes that you can use in interviews, cover letters, and conversations. This is all part of the building expertise theme – you need to come across as an expert and part of that is industry knowledge.

Watch Your Burn Rate (a.k.a. Beware of Clothing Companies): In keeping with the “view yourself as your own business” theme, the #1 reason why startups fail is they run out of cash. So don’t let YOU Inc run out of cash. Rest assured, Hickey Freeman will try to sell you a $1500 suit, claiming that “you need this suit to be successful in your interviews.” Unless you are headed to Wall Street, a tailored $300-$400 suit will do you fine. The more general idea behind this is don’t do anything that unnecessarily raises your burn rate. Doing so will raise the amount you have to borrow and puts you in a deeper hole.

Organize Your Finances: Consider getting Quicken – it is a good time to get your finances organized. Also, keep good paper records around your school loans. We bought a plastic, portable file box with 2-3 accordion files to go inside – one was for our School Loans and the others were for bills, etc. Just don’t do anything to screw up your credit rating. You will need it later.

Debt Fears: Don’t worry about your debt – you will find a way to pay it off. We emerged from B-School/L-School with over $100K of debt; we paid it off, and we don’t exactly have Wall Street power jobs. (In fairness, they kinda do have big important jobs J )

2004-08-18T14:57:00.000-07:00

27

So it's my birthday. Yay.

Remember I said I was still getting paychecks from work? Well they just took the most recent one back by debiting my account the last one. Lucky I didn't spend it! It's a reverse b-day check.

School is great, loving finance & accounting. 2 more days of math camp. Tupelo has separation anxiety, and ate her way through the ex's door yesterday. Our stuff finally got here, they tried to charge us for 500 lbs, so we made them way the truck with us. We were right. Ugh, and I recommended those movers to two of my fellow classmates. Anyway, gotta run and celebrate with some excel work.

2004-08-14T16:17:00.000-07:00

California Love

Well, I am one week into my life as a Haas student, and things are going just fine. Math camp classes move rather fast, and in great detail. This intersected sharply with my quantitative weakness, so after the first day I was a little freaked out. The homework was basically a bunch of "hard" GMAT calc problems, and since I took the test in 2001, I couldn't remember how to do them. So I tried for a few hours and stressed. My fellow students were mellow though, and it seems that the homework comes a day before the class lesson does, so by the end of the week, I was comfortable enough to take Friday off. Not that I am acing the material or anything, I'm just trying to get rid of those class cutting impulses during the preseason. Thr prof reaches near genius level in the math area as far as I can tell. Also, he seems to genuinely love love love math. When we learn a formula, he starts with a general truth, then does a shitload of lightning round calculus to go through an explanation why the new formula is true. Then we get the formula. Then we do it manually. Usually, it ends with learning how to make excel or the 12c take care of it all for you. Personally, I'll be concentrating on this latter part. I like the hp12c. oooooo. Shiny.

Everybody I've met at Haas has been very friendly, and they definitely seem like a very smart/succesful bunch of people. I have to admit I am generally a bit intimidated. I'm really looking forward to hanging out with em all. Unfortunately, it does seem that everyone lives in Berkeley. It's definitely a trade off. However, while I am enamored with the redwoods of the university campus, I am still not all that impressed with the surrounding town. Plus I love where I live, so I' not too bumbed. Oh, and from the time I close my front door to the time my ass hits the seat, a little less than an hour passes. That's not too bad, and the BART ride is uncrowded with opportunity to get a little work done.

Other than that, not a whole lot going on, except me loving life in this very excellent little city. I got a job with the building manager cleaning/repairing and painting apartments during their transition. I am psyched. I make my own hours, love handy work (ok, not the cleaning : ( ) at make $12.50 and hour. This should help things financially. I ran my budget. I have about $200 a week to spend. Not too bad, until christmas, or generally any unforeseen expense comes up.

Lastly, my moving truck is still not here. I have gotten so used to having nothing, I'm not sure I want my stuff anymore. Like Thoreau says, simplify, simplify. Which is why I think I should try to trade everything I have for a flat screen plasma tv. That's as simple as it gets.

Anyway, good luck to all as you start classes, and hello to Trip & Yogi, congrats to 3app on the interview invite.

2004-07-25T18:01:00.000-07:00

Where to Begin????

I'll start at the endnd fill in the blanks a. Right now I am sitting in my own studio apartment in the Nob Hill section of San Francisco, typing on my sweet sweet swank new Toshiba laptop. Life is good.

So, after a very nice if not a bit emotional farewell fourth of July bbq at my folks house, we set off cross country, first stop Charleston West VA. It was as boring as it sounds, although Tupelo seemed to dig it. Next Nashville Tennessee, where I heard the phrase "In the infinite wisdom of George W. Bush..." uttered without a hint of sarcasm. Heard some kick ass country music though. Then New Orleans. We got drunk a lot. Had a fantastic run through the french quarter. The ex and I were getting along great. Friends. The friend she brought along? They weren't getting on quite so well. He made it as far as Austin, where his cross country expereince ended with the airport. Dispite that rather uncomfortable and awkward situation, and the days prior, Austin was amazing. Everything was 50's kisch. The people were friendly. Weather hot, but nice, and the bats are awesome. They have like 700000 bats that emerge every night from under one of the bridges down there, at the same time. Awesome. El Paso was entirely forgettable, especially since I forgot my passport and couldn't go to Mexico. Vegas was quick. LA we saw the directors cut of Donnie Darko, with a cast & crew discussion after. And now SF.

We arrived a week ago today. I spent the first two nights in t he city here. I really love it, so I started re-exploring the idea of getting an apartment in SF. I found an $850 pet friendly studio, close to BART (whcihwill take me to school and back for about $6/day). The difference in cost of the Berkeley apartment shares I was looking at was negligible ($725), the transportation do-able, and the apartment and area amazing so I went for it. I've spent the last few days in Vallejo with my best friend from HS, and having a great time. Went to a Giants game... sbc is an amazing ballpark. Finally moved into the place yesterday, and got the computer today.

The computer. Toshiba. 512 MB DDR, 60 G Hard Drive, Intel Pro Wireless, 1.5 ghz Pentium M, 15" screen, DVD burner. $1500 after rebate. They beat my corporate discount at HP/Compac.

Whew. Ok, now to start focusing on school. After 2 more weeks off just messing around of course.

Life is good.

2004-07-03T20:06:00.000-07:00

Post 100

This is my 100th post, and I wonder how many times I'll have to type it. I'm on my mom's 1995 PC and for some reason everytime I hit the backspace key, it goes back a page. Then everything is erased.

Lots and lots going on. Big news.

One, I got my loan. I went for the CitiAssist, as planned, with my mom as a cosigner. I got approved for the full amount, and amazingly,got the rate for "Excellent" credit, Prime +.25%! I was scared when reading the details as it said the the credit decision was primarily based on the borrowers history, not the cosigner's. It looked like with "Fair" credit and a cosigner, I would get Prime +3%, instead of Prime +4% (without a cosigner). "Good" credit would get me +1% (instead of 3%), and excellent was +.25% either way. I thought best case would be the 1%. Surprise. Yay. : )

Not only that, but I got a FULL paycheck from work. So I signed up for orientation and all that junk with the $930 bill. I opted out of the ropes course and San Francisco photo scavenger hunt, and in for the A's game and bar night. Also in for the challenge for charity picnic. Basically if it didn't carry an extra fee, I signed up (save the scavenger hunt, which sounded too geeky, even for an ice breaker). Yes, I did sign up for math camp, why?

On the personal front... that friend I wasn't speaking with turned into an email blow-up fight. Now we are definitely not speaking. I've never had this happen before... a multi-year close friendship end. It's pretty much as troubling and hurtful as a break up. I moved out of the apartement without much incident, people took a bunch more crap I threw on the street. I saw the Yankees lose to the Mets twice and beat the Sox once. I sold some furniture on Craig's list. I went to the zoo with my nephews. I've been busting my ass to do last minute chores for the family and prepare for our fourth of july bbq/going away party tomorrow.

And Monday we leave. 11 days. Still need to book hotels. Oh, and I almost forgot. The ex threw a new stereo in the car and got Sirius for free! After sampling it, I have to say, Sirius is m'f'in awesome. Seriously. On that lame pun, I'll take off.

2004-06-24T14:12:00.000-07:00

Emotional, Pissed

Ok, so I am feeling a bit better than this morning, when I finally started freaking out a little at the prospect of moving across the entire country, away from my family and friends. And not living with my dog anymore, who I love a ridulously large amount. Also, a person who was one of my closest friends stopped talking to me for a unreasonable reason, and the fact that it appears she'll leave it like this has gotten me pretty damned blue. So I was sad. Plus I waited on line 2 hours last night to see a band called the Killers, and then did not get inside the bar. Apparently, they forgot to mention that it was an "industry night". What bunk. Screw the mercury lounge. At least I was on line in front of these three dudes who made me feel like I was sitting in mystery science theatre 2000. And we had some road sodas.

Ok, the other thing that shocked pissed me ff is $930 in mandatory Berkeley fees, just to cover math camp, orientation, and membership in the MBA association which "98% of students join" for $450 a year. Crap! Not sure where that is coming from. I had some green set aside for the aforementioned computer, now it looks like it will have to go to this instead, for the time being.

Place is almost packed. People took a 1/4 full bottle of olive oil today which I put out as a test. My GMAT & B-school books are now outside, untouched. ALong with internet marketing books and the triathletes training bible, they mak eup some of the most unwanted items in Greenpoint.

My moving quote was $1400 for 2 people, with 30 days free storage in CA. Not too bad. I know I said I love the pooch a little too much, but the ex wants to buy her a little mini-suitcase, packed with her toys, that she will put state stickers on as we go cross country. SO I guess it's right that she gets her.

2004-06-23T09:34:00.000-07:00

Gotta Love It

Not working is everything I ever hoped it would be. I felt almost a bit jilted by the fact that despite working solely in internet startups for the first couple years of my career, I was never laid off, and never had a period of unemployment. SO now I have it. I got up at eleven today. Got some coffee, screwed around on the computer.

Ok, so if I didn't have to continue on my marathon of packing now until it's dark, it would truly be awesome. So far everything I have put out on the street has been taken quickly. I was walking out to put a little league baseball ba I've had forever on the pile, an a dude walking by took it from me on the spot. I said, "It's a kids bat." He replied, with fair amount of glee "Kids bat? That's a mna's bat son!". He's happy, I am not going to argue. They also took: a fifty year old circular saw, random piece of wood, wine rack, books. I posted my b school books on craigs for FREE and nobody wants them. If anybody reading this does, write me and pay shipping, They'll be yours.

In other news, I've calmed down about my loan prospects. I think the citi thing will work out ok. I think I have decided on a computer. I get a discount at HP, so I think I am going to pick up one of those. Pentium M 1.3, 512 MB, 40 Gig, wireless connectivity, XP Pro, 7 bs, $1300. SOund allright?

Also, I had a fairly easy time finding possible places to live, so I am hoping it won't be that much of a problem. Rent should be about $750 tops.

2004-06-14T07:07:00.000-07:00

Advice

I need it, not giving it. Should I attempt to apply for the Citi Assist loan without a co-signer, to see if I could get approved? Or does getting turned down for a loan affect my credit rating? Anyone?

2004-06-11T11:14:00.000-07:00

Dig Yer Own Hole

So after talking to some folks and researching mroe on the citi application site, it does seem like I can request to borrow the $35K, and that with a cosigner I will most likely be approved. In theory, I think I could borrow even more than that. So I guess I have some budgeting to do. I am kind of debating if I should find an apartment first, so I can better estimate exactly what I'll need. If I can keep rent to $800, I should be doing allright. It doesn't really seem like enoguh to live on, but I guess I have to remember that my costs are going to go down a bunch. Currently I have $1300 of rent to buy, and gas & tolls is roughly another $200 a month.

So $53K is a big crapload of money to borrow for one year. I really am going to have to focus on borrowing less my second year. I will get a $10K tuition break as a CA resident, but I definitely will need some sort of job. I suppose the internship during the summer is supposed to provide some relief. Honestly, I am a little worried though... I am a disaster with not spending all my money, unless it is automatically taken out of my bank account. I really need to get some control,and quick. Oh, and I have about 2K of credit card debt... wonder if I should pay that off with loan money up front?

My motorcycle plan just turned into a bicycle plan.

2004-06-10T11:22:00.000-07:00

Not a liar, but a credit risk

Kroll Background Screening Group has successfully completed your Berkeley MBA employment verification. The Berkeley admissions team looks forward to seeing you during orientation in August.

Sweet. I now have an official decree stating I'm not a liar. Got to hold onto this for when the ex and I are battling. (just joking, pzy ;)

Allright, so with that aside, I can focus on some loan procurement. I wish there was a Princeton Review course for credit score improvement. Shit - how many folks out there have a FICO score lower than their GMAT? With the aformentioned NY state judgement against me, mine is hanging at 660, on the border of Fair & Poor. So after reading up a bit, it seems that I will require a co-signer. That's not a big deal, as mom or aunt have both offered to sign their possible future financial health over to whoever agrees to give me the green. What does kind of suck however, is that the co-signer option has severely limited my loan provider options. Out of the five possible "most utilized" options provided by Berkeley, only the Citiassist doesn't carry a penalty for bringing a third party into the mix. So they're it. At .25% plus prime and 10 years to pay.

What am I faced with borrowing? This part makes me want to puke. I did receive the maximum federal subsidized and unsubsidized loans, which total $18500 per year together (split 50/50). This is where it gets hazy. So UCB puts my total budget at $53,538. Less my contribution, which the government estimated to be $18,466. So my entire financial need is $35,072. OK. So I already got $18,500 for uncle sam, so does that mean I can only borrow $16,572 from Citibank? If so, I am a bit screwed. As I have no savings. This would mean that the $35,072 I am allowed to borrow wouldn't cover the $36,060 that Tuiton,Fees & Books will cost me. I mean even ramen noodles are .25 each.

Crap.

2004-06-09T11:06:00.000-07:00

Not a damn thing to do with anything...

But I can't stop staring at this picture of a baby wombat. It's out of control. It's momma was roadkill, and some dude pulled it out of her pouch.

2004-06-08T06:59:00.000-07:00

Roommates?

I've been checking out Craigslist for pet friendly, cheap living situations in Berkeley and it looks like finding a place (or room) for under $900 shouldn't present too much difficulty. Remind you, I am used to NY style apartment hunting, whereas finding a decent apartment that doesn't require you throw $2000 to a broker who performs no service is literally a full time job.

A room in an apartment does seem like it could be the cheaper option, although it is not necessarily so (there are plenty of $1000 share situations out there too). So, money aside, I have been thinking a lot lately about what I would prefer - a situation where I live with others, or go back to my single serving style life. If I don't pause to think, I have to say I take living alone hands down. I really like living alone... maybe too much. I'm not the most social creature. Left alone, I can be perfectly happy for a long period of time. Since I moved to NYC, I lived alone, and the only friends I made were from work. So having roommates might keep me a bit more active. But then again, I will be meeting a lot of people through school regardless.

So, I'm not decided yet, but am leaning towards being a hermit again.

2004-06-07T06:44:00.000-07:00

The State v. Chunky Pitbull

2 years ago my HR paperwork got somehow fucata'd. I live in NY but work in NJ, and although that information was shared with the payroll department, for some reason NY state & city taxes were not taken out. I didn't realize it until I was putting together my taxes, and realized I had been running an enormous tab with the folks in Albany for most of the year. I had some cash on hand to pay for most of it, but was about $600 short. So I called the taxman, and was put on a payment plan. The first payment wasn't due for almost three months. I figured I'd get a bill in the mail and relegated the issue to the very back of my brain.

With this past year's taxes coming due, I started to wonder what the hell happened to that. I assumed they'd probably keep the debit on record and take it out of this year's return. That's kind of what happened. The money was taken out of my federal return, which I thought was great because I didn't have to do anything. I was happy, until I ran a credit check, and learned that what legally happened was that NY State took me to court and won a judgement against me for the latent tax money. How does that effect one's credit rating? Somewhere between a bitch-slap and a pimp-slap, I'd say.

So that has me thinking the Citi assist loan might be best, as the rest suggested by Haas have some kind of negative % fee associated with less than perfect credit, which I think I now qualify for. Ugh.

2004-06-04T05:46:00.000-07:00

My Battle Against Logic

My ex has spoken with a sense of pride that her Honda civic hatchback was purchased absolutely stock, with absolutely no options at all. Thanks to the persistence of midnight thieves in Greenpoint (Brooklyn), the true purity of that fact has been restored, as in now has its stock radio back in place. It still has no AC.

Soon, it will be time for me to move out to CA. The most rational way to do it would probably be to fly out. That would be logical. Instead, I am taking almost two weeks to drive cross country, in July heat, virtually hugging the southern border, with my ex... and we broke up because we fought all the time. Hell, we almost broke up the last time we drove across country, and that was in the new love phase of the relationship. So I'm not so smart. Maybe I'm straight dumb, as I'm really looking forward to it.

Truth be told what was a a negative relationship for a while has become a very positive friendship, so I don't think we'll be arguing. And we're taking along a friend for the ride, so it wil have real vacation vibe to it. As for the heat, I have no excuse, especially for the poor pitbull. I bought her a special dog bed that is supposed to cool her off, and I may get her one of those sharper image things for her neck. Sure she's spoiled, but for god's sake, the dog was homeless. Cmon people.

Right, so last time we went north, and this time it's south. The final city list is... Brooklyn - Charleston WV- Memphis TN - New Orleans LA - Austin TX - El Paso TX - Flagstaff AZ - Las Vegas NV - San Francisco CA. 4,146 miles.

2004-06-03T07:44:00.000-07:00

The End of Apps

So I am officially ending this as an MBA applicant blog. Now it will be a Haas/my life blog. The end results:

Berkeley R1 - Waitlisted then Admitted
Chicago R2 - Waitlisted, Waitlisted Again, Withdrew
Stanford R2 - Ding, No Interview
Duke R3 - Waitlisted/Withdrawn
UCLA R3 - Ding

My stats:
3.3 GPA, Marketing
James Madison University
5 Yrs Work Experience, Internet Pub, Financial Services
700 GMAT 44V42Q

2004-06-02T10:57:00.000-07:00

Jetlag

Back from Asia. My perfect plan for beating jetlag has failed miserably. Since the time difference from Japan is exactly the same as the flight time, you end up leaving and arriving at the same exact time. So, I figured if I could stay up until Monday night once I got in and got a normal NY time night's rest, I'd be fine. I managed to make it to 10:30 and slept until about 7:30 am. Generally it felt like a normal morning. However, I passed out from 3:30-7:30 and went to bed at 11. It is now 2 and I can barely stay awake at work.

Work. It's a train wreck here. While I was gone the reorganization is getting closer, and basically everybody I work with is wondering if they'll have a job or not when it's over. In fact, just about the only sure thing around here is that I am leaving. I feel awful for everyone, as it's kind of like I'm in the audience for the whole thing, rather than being a participant.

As soon as I do get my head clear and sleep in order, I have a LOT to do. I need loans obviously. I need movers. I need to get rid of stuff. Argghhh. Time is getting short.

Anyways, I want to take a moment to say sorry to Trip for the final Chicago decision coming in. Seriously, I would like to grab a drink sometime in SF, since I'll be there and all so if you're interested we'll catch up on email. For what it's worth, I bet your only problem was the round in which you applied, and if you still want an MBA next year I bet you'll have little difficulty. ANd good luck to 3app on the last app, and P-Yogi, hope you find yourself in London next year.

I probably won't write about the Asia trip here but if anyone has any interest, my buddy Jackson has already begun to describe it rather eloquently at http://blog.mooci.com. Cut and paste, I don't have the energy or desire to html it at the moment : P.

Oh, and I was re-WL'ed at Chicago. Still waiting for the final Kroll background approval out of Haas just to make sure before I pull it.

2004-05-18T11:29:00.000-07:00

Wait 'em Out

This seems to be my plan for everything lately. Currently, I need to:

*plan & pack for a two week trip to Asia
*plan to move, pack
*find a place to live
*get loans to pay for two years of pricey life
*book plans for cross country drive

So far I have
*played x-box

So, I am procrastinating just a bit. Also, I have to say I am thoroughly sicks of answering the following questions, so please don't ask them if you see me:
*When does school start?
*How long is the program?
*When is your last day of work?
*How are you paying for that?
*Why did you choose Berkeley?
*Do you have a place to live?
*California, eh?
*You live with your ex?
*Who gets the dog?
*Please get here before 11.
*Please wear pants to work.

Ok, so, I am leaving for Taiwan tomorrow, have not packed anything and am going out tonight. Not only that, but I am very close to beating my lord of the rings game on xbox. This is going to be a very busy night.

2004-05-14T08:05:00.000-07:00

Be prepared!

The class schedule at Haas runs Mon-Thurs. Now, I understand that there will be enough work and meetings to cover Friday as well, but the official work wee is four days. So, how could I call myself prepared if I continued to come to work FIVE days a week? I couldn't. It would be a travesty, almost illegal.

I took another personal day yesterday. It was beautiful, and the Yanks had a day game. I wasn't the only one who had the idea... about seven people from my department ended up in the stands. Next week is a two day week, then Asia, then a three day week, and then technically, two five-day weeks. I still have personal days to burn though, and the Yanks have more day games. Yay.

I am getting a little worried aboutthe whole background check thing, especially after reading FMG's post on Kroll. I was wondering what was taking so long, and, if they are that in depth, I've found it. I didn't lie at all on the app, so I should have no worries, but I am still kind of paranoid. My first company was bought by Thomson over two years ago... I have no idea how they'll verify my employment there. Pluse my recommender was laid off from the position she had when she receommended me... will they find her? Ugh. I just want a for-sure. Anyway, as a super-precautionary measure, I wrote a waitlist letter to Chicago today, just in case the unforseeable happens.

Poweryogi, I am very sorry to hear about the Wharton ding. Let's go LBS. Trip, I truly hope you get a call from the blues capital soon, my friend.

2004-05-11T11:52:00.000-07:00

Rumors Floating

There is a rumor going around here that I may be fired, imminently. Actually, laid off, and the exact date would be June 18th, my last day. I heard it from my boss, who along with "someone from above" (not god) is trying to put this deal together for me. Why? Severance! Honestly I am really kind of touched at such a nice gesture. And man, that bit of extra cash would be very helpful towards a motorcycle and travelling.

Speaking of which (travelling) I am getting ready to head to the East next week! I have been reading my Taiwan book and I am very happy to be travelling with some folks that know their way around already. I am a serious planner when it comes to travelling, but it is kind of nice not to plan a damn thing this time. The other trip goes across america in a honda civic , san ac plus pitbull. Right now it looks like ... Brooklyn-Richmond-Atlanta-NewOrleans-Austin-Junction(camping)-El Paso-GrandCanyon-LasVegas-SanFrancisco . Anyone have any tips for pet friendly activities in any of those places? Or nearby locations that would be better? Or camping spots?

2004-05-06T11:00:00.000-07:00

Battling

So I resolved the incorrect application thing. The HR guy got back to me and he does have the correct data. I explained the situation to the school, and I had forgotten that I also had to turn in a resume - that has the correct dates on it. So no worries.

That's not the battle though. How often do you get into a yelling fight with strangers? Me not so often, save this morning. So I was walking Tupelo, and she stops to pee. SHe is such a sweetheart about it, she always pees right at the curb, not on the sidewalk. So she goes and pees on where the 5 inch of curb at the street meets a tree on the block. There was a lady out in fron of her house sweeping the area in front. It goes house, area in fron of house, gate, then 8 feet of sidewalk, then curb. I am looking the other way, and then I hear this loud shhhhhhhhhhhhhh, sound. I turn around as she is making the shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh sound again, and going after my dog with her broom. I will walk away from most things. But seriously, don't ever, ever try to fuck with my dog. The voice coming out of me didn't even sound like me, I kind of suprised myself with how deep and angry it was. I tried to keep it somewhat civil though. I jsut yelled and told her to never come near my dog again, then somewhat threateningly said "try to do that to my dog again." I then retorted that she could go ahead and call the police, and that my dog was allowed to pee there. I finished by calling her obnoxious, and she told me to go to hell. Ahh, Brooklyn.

Well, at least I know exactly where my dog is going to go to the bathroom every day between now and when I move. If she had decided to express her dismay by talking to the person who could actually speak, I'd have tried to navigate the pooch to other bathroom areas from there here on in. Now, she's lucky if I don't go there.

2004-05-05T07:15:00.000-07:00

Does this end?

Ok, so I get an email from the HR department at my last job and he tells me that they ereceived an employment verification request and that the dates don't match up. He says they thin k I worked there from Sept 2000 - Sept 2001. I didn't. He says they have me on record form June to Sept 2002. That's three months. Neither is right. I actually worked there from June 2001 to Sept 2002. So I hope he just has a year typo. As for the verification agency, I went back and checked my Haas application and I FUCKED UP THE DATES. I have my first job going from Sept 99 - Sept 2001. My Second job start date is Sept 2001, and the end date is Spet 2000. How the hell did I manage that???

Actual dates are Job 1 Sept 1999 - May 2001 , Job 2 June 2001 - Sept 2002. So I wrote the adcom to tell them about the problem. I am a bit of a mess over this though.ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGG.

2004-04-30T10:53:00.000-07:00

UCLA Essay #1

Please provide us with a summary of your personal and family background. Include information about your parents and siblings, where you grew up, and perhaps a highlight or special memory of your youth. (Limit to 2 pages.)

Long Island has a strange geography. On a map, one can clearly see that it is indeed an island, and that it has four counties: Suffolk, Nassau, Brooklyn and Queens. However, a person would be hard pressed to find one individual from Brooklyn or Queens who would admit to being from “Long Island”. This claim is strictly to be made by suburbanite children, such as myself. I can . remember, on a trip to the city at a young age, commenting to my mother how horrible it was that the only playgrounds given to children were the walls they put up for them to write on. These are not the words of a child of the city. Thirty-five miles away from the Manhattan, I safely rode my bicycle on the quiet streets of Greenlawn.
My family’s history began on this island. All of my grandparents were immigrants, and arrived in America without a cent to their names. What they did bring was a set of old-world values that I believe comprise the core of the value system my family now holds dear. The experiences and hardships of their lives were instrumental in creating a deep respect for hard work and education, and a reverence for family. On my father’s side, my grandfather, who shared my name, worked his way up from a soldier in Hungary’s army to a Senator in its House of Parliament. He shuffled his young family onto one of the last trains leaving Budapest as bombs fell on the capital. He started from scratch upon his arrival in Brooklyn. He depended on friends and family, on hard work, and on his education to rebuild and create a life for his family in America. On my mother’s side, my grandfather, came from Germany on borrowed money. He was thirteen years old and arrived alone, without a mother or father in his life. A true entrepreneur, he built himself a successful business. Some of his favored words of wisdom to me were “Education is always a wise investment, because nobody can ever take it away from you.”
It is not surprising then that my mother and my father became teachers, my mother in English, and my father in French. Nor is it striking that together they developed in my sisters and me a strong sense of character, taught us to hold honesty in high regard, and instilled within us a powerful belief in the bonds of family. My mother and father taught through action. My mother is the most loving, dedicated, and giving person I know. She is also an incredibly hard worker, and fair in all her actions. My father is a
true man of the old school, a man of character, with a firm handshake and a word as strong as oak.
There is a children’s game called telephone, where one starts with a phrase and whispers it to the next in line, and so forth until it has gotten to the last, who says it aloud. The phrase is usually unrecognizable. Such an occurrence is not rare when passing information from person to person. However, I do not feel this is the case in my family. I feel that the core values my grandparents held close to their hearts are alive in my sisters and me today, in near original form. I am the youngest in my family; my sisters are seven and five years older. My older sister, was always a serious student. After finishing third in high school she continued on to Princeton and then Harvard Law. She has always amazed me as the smartest, kindest, and most down to earth person I know. Today she is a partner in her law firm (she found out just this year!) and a wonderful mother of two sons. My sister L took a less intense approach to her studies, although she achieved high marks regardless, and found great success as an athlete. She has a lovely, caring spirit and always awes me with her positive outlook and thoughtful treatment of people. A poet with her Masters in English, she is now a high school English teacher, and the caring mother of a three-year-old daughter.
I understand that I was a bit of a terror as a child. I am told I showed an early penchant for screaming, and came home from the hospital hoarse. I liked to go my own way. At the age of five, I very nearly convinced my mother that the church we attended had instructed me to tell her to follow the angel costume plans exactly but to use black fabric instead, as I was one of the “black angels” in the Christmas Pageant. Truth be told, I just didn’t want to be a white angel like everybody else.
I went through high school without much stress about my studies. I excelled in English courses, but I felt I had to: my mother was an English teacher in my school (although I, of course, was never her student). I was a dedicated member of varsity football and wrestling, and although I went through the
trouble of getting a lifeguard certification, I decided to keep the job I already had in my local pizzeria. I loved working in a business, and at the age of sixteen was already a manager, opening and closing the store and managing staff.
In 1995 I left Long Island for UNIVERSITY. After a misguided and mangled freshman year, I returned home for the summer in distress, about to make a decision that would change my life. I
decided that I wanted to start my own business one day and if that was ever to happen, it was time for me to get serious about my future and my grades. Long-term success is based on repeated short-term dedication and achievements. I set an initial goal for myself to graduate cum laude…no small task considering my dismal GPA at the time. I returned to school a changed man, dedicated and serious about my career, and it has never left me. After graduating cum laude, I returned home. Kind of. Now a proud Brooklynite, you would be hard pressed to get me to admit that I still live on Long Island.

2004-04-26T07:42:00.000-07:00

Out to Pasture

I thought I would be blogging less and less, but man, I have so little to do at work I have to find something to pass the time. I am considering being so brash as to slap Don Quixote right down on my desk. This combination of audit, merger and having everyone know I am out of here is a little more stagnating than I thought. I guess I might have tried to play this a little differently if I had known just how slow things could get. I think if I was in a smaller company, I'd be busy, as that's been my experience when I've given notice in the past. An entrepreneur will want to milk you for every last bit of wokr they can get. Here, in the land of corporate giants, they put me out in the field, allowing me to graz on my salary for a reasonable period of time until I leave. The only problem is it's really boring out here. Plus it is raining in New Jersey again.

My weekend kind of sucked, but only because I had such high hopes. I had tickets for a concert Friday night - this band called Elf Power. I had heard a bunch of their stuff and they sounded kind of unique, kind of 60's-ish with a lot of horns in the band and stuff. Unfortunately, they played their new stuff, which sounded like they were attempting to sell out but failed miserably with a completely homogenized set of crap. We left early. Then Saturday I went to the Yanks-Bosox game. Enough said. Sunday was my big run day. Which was fine, I did 10 miles, but I swear the moment I stepped outside the first windy-cold raindrop fell, and it didn't stop until I was finished.

The closer I get to moving, the more I think I might back out of my get a roomate idea. I really do like living alone, and it looks like the cost difference may be minute. Man, I just can't wait to get going!

2004-04-22T12:43:00.000-07:00

G-g-g-g-g-g-g G-Mail & Update on Life

This probably happened to quite a few bloggers today, but when I logged on to post I had an offer to test out a gmail account. 1 GIG. As a marketer I don't mind them checking out my subject lines at all... I'm actually very interested to see if it targets accurately.

I have been blogging quite a bit less lately, as I've barely anything MBA related to say. My mind is elsewhere, almost totally in personal hobbies. If I were to tell you that work is just a nine to five thing for me, I would be a liar. 10ish to 4:30ish with a lunch? Awful. I know. But seriously, a lot of what I normally do is launch new campaigns, and because I am leaving, and because we are being internally audited, that has stopped. In the meantime, I just make sure my current stuff runs smoothly, and prepare for audit, which really does not take that much time.

I read somewhere that LSU is the top program in the country for internal corporate auditing, and that their grads are heavily recruited. No offense to anyone, but I cannot begin to imagine making a career out of that shit on purpose. They have me locking my workstation if it's "out of my field of view" and locking my drawers if I go to the bathroom. I am suprised I don't have to show documentation for that particular endeavor, as I do for just about everything else. They love asking you "how do you know", leaving no room for inference of anything. If I had to apply this to my real life, I would need to be able to provide a verbal description of how digital video technology works, then provide suppporting documentation prior to attempting to press the play button on my DVD player.

Wow. What a terrific segue into a discussion of all of the movies I have been watching lately. As you may know, I saw Kill Bill 1& 2 last week, which had me all into the samurai thing, so I rented Yojimbo, directed by Akira Kurosawa. Looking into him more, he seems to be one of the most influential directors around, and in fact, A fist full of dollars, starring Clint Eastwood, is a remake of Yojimbo. The movie itself was fantastic, visually pleasing even in b&w, the story was compelling and I totally dug this Mifune guy who played the main samurai. So I added some more Kurosawa flicks to my que. Also trying to get my hands on a bunch of the films Tarantino uses as a basis for his films, like Shogun Assassin. If you see KB2, it's the flock bb watches before she goes to bed, and, you may recognize the dialigue of the Liquid Swords album. So if Tarantino, the RZA AND the GZA all agree on a film, I think I should see it, even if its story line sounds this awful: "a masterless samurai killing his way through life while pushing his infant son in a booby trapped baby carriage". But alas, netflix failed me, but I was able to grab "Return of the Street Fighter", which Christian Slater goes to see in "True Romance". Anyway, other than that I've seen a few other awesome flicks, including Bottle Rocket, Pi, Capturing the Friedmans, and Harold and Maude.

So what else have I been doing? Reading some. Howard Zinn's People's Hostory is an awesome book. I feel like it is really picking apart the truth to the way things happen, and separating propaganda from the core reasons that things happen. It seems that it always comes down to men in power getting what they want by selling it the populace in some other fashion. Media is a powerful weapon and always has been, and the more things chagne the more they really, really stay the same. I still in the American Revolution at the moment, but can't wait to get to the world wars.

And, I have been planning for the remainder of my time before school. I can really see the end now, it's right there on the calendar. I'll only be working until June 18th, and 8 of those days will be spent in Taiwan and Japan, a luxury my boss was kind enough to afford me. I can't believe I am going... I am so psyched I'm a little floored by it. I've always wanted to go, and to be able to experience with folks who not only now the area and speak the language but are some of my best friends in the world... its really gonna be quite awesome.

Besides that I've been running a lot... doing a 15 K in May, walking my pooch quite a bit, and cooking almost every night. This weekend I am going to Yanks/Sox. Can't beat that, unless they lose of course. Wow, this is way longer than most would read... I know I would have fallen of by now. So I better end it.

2004-04-20T08:26:00.000-07:00

Fuqua #3
Most of my Fuqua essays were rehashed elsewhere (there were only three) so I'll probably only post this one. I also used it as an optional on my UCLA app.

Outside of your professional persona, who are you? Please note this essay is intended to get a sense of your personality and potential contribution to the Fuqua culture. (Limit response to 750 words, double spaced)

Without discernable reason, this really seemed to be a glum event. The group, comprised of roughly fifteen retirees and myself, was sitting around a large conference table in total silence, admiring the walls and ceiling when our host arrived to begin the orientation.

"Good Evening," she began, as her first PowerPoint slide hit the wall, "I am very happy to welcome you all to NY Hospital's Volunteer Program. To begin, I would like each of you to go through the items on the slide for the group." The slide read, in bulleted points: your name, what you do, your hobbies, where in the hospital you will volunteer, and why you are volunteering. One by one, the neophyte volunteers told their stories and soon it was my turn. I faced the group. "My name is John, I work in internet marketing and one of my favorite hobbies is cooking. I am volunteering in the child life department to work with the children. Oh, and I am volunteering as part of my parole requirement."

Of course, there was no parole requirement. After an awkward moment,the laughter started, as I explained my love of working with children. This story is not only the introduction to why volunteering with children is a priority in my life,but also alludes to why I believe I get along with them so well. I like to think that I
approach life with passion, as a gift to be consumed with pleasure, a sentiment I share with most of the children in my life.
I decided to start volunteering shortly after my niece and nephew were born. After playing with them one afternoon, I realized that my time with them caused me to step outside of myself, drop everything, and just enjoy. At the same time a good friend of mine had just become a Big Brother, and our conversations on the topic inspired me to do something to help children in need. I decided to seek out an opportunity where I could spend time with children who might need a little laughter in their lives, which I found at NY Hospital. It was the beginning of what will be a lifelong commitment.

For the past few years, I have spent an evening each week in the hospital playroom, playing with children ranging in age from 7 weeks to 17 years infants to young adults. I still cannot fathom the bravery required to keep their spirits up while stuck sick in a hospital, especially those whose parents seldom visit. I plunged into the opportunity, and became one of the most active volunteers, forging deep relationships with several of the children. While most volunteers would close the room at eight o’clock, I would wait until the children were ready to go to bed. I put in the extra effort to make them feel special, with events such
as "movie night" when I would bring in my company's portable projector. As a result, I was one of the volunteers asked to help bring new volunteers up to speed by supervising them on their first few evenings.
Volunteering for children has now become a part of who I am. Recently, I have shifted my efforts towards helping a firm that bisects my personal and professional interests. XXXXXXXX is a start-up not-for-profit that promotes child abuse prevention programs. I have come on board with the company to lead internet marketing and onlie donation efforts. Currently, I am leading projects to revamp the online donation process, begin an online newsletter program, and promote current and future initiatives and events online.
Ultimately, we will build an online donation base, which is a vital revenue stream for the company moving forward.

I feel the time I have spent in my personal life volunteering has afforded me a unique perspective. In my professional life, it has made me more aware of and strengthened my ideals for corporate social responsibility; in my personal life, it has helped me become a more compassionate person. The bravery I have seen in these children under dire circumstances has given me hope and strength when I look at my own life. It has furthered my passion for life as a gift, and inspires me to continue my pursuit of happiness through action. I believe this spirit, when coupled with my professional persona, offers a powerful combination to the people in my life, which, I hope, will include the Duke community in the
near future.

2004-04-19T11:20:00.000-07:00

Asian Influences

What a fantastic weekend I just had. Lately, I've been feeling like I have been emerging from a life shrouded by b-school applications and getting back to personal interests, and finally the weather caught up! Had a great time at my nephew's first b-day party Saturday (save the why-are-you-moving-3000-miles-away guilt). Sunday knocked down an eight mile run, and saw Kill Bill Vol 2., which was absolutely awesome. The Netfliz que had to get shifted again, with some Kurosawa films taking a leap. And, speaking of Japan, it looks like I might be joing the crew of folks who do some travelling before they go to b-school. My good friends Sonya & Jackson (mooci.blogs.com) are doing an Asia trip and have invited me along, and it is just too damned tempting to say no.

So it looks like I will be hitting Taipei, Kyoto & Tokyo before May is over! I think I might have to cut my days at haas trip so I can minimize additional days off from work plus money. On that note, I have decided my last day will be June 18th, and I'll be out of my apartment by July 1. Things are coming together.

2004-04-16T07:06:00.000-07:00

THe Whole Chi-Town Shebang

Here are my very nearly sucessful Chicago essays. As they only problem they had with my app was a lacking recommendation, I think they can be taken as something the adcom viewed favorably. Enjoy.

Why are you seeking an MBA? What are your plans and goals after you receive your degree?

"There is no security on this earth. Only opportunity." - Douglas MacArthur

I see a great deal of opportunity in the current business landscape, as large companies consolidate to ensure secure holds on their industries, and innovation is left as a secondary goal. The major drivers of consolidation, such as competitive advantage, synergy, economies-of-scale - do not always translate into increased customer benefit, which leaves the door open for new entrants. Smaller, nimbler, more innovative companies focused on customer benefits have a distinct opportunity to compete.

My long-term career expectation is to be a successful entrepreneur, to seize the opportunities that this new environment will provide. In time, I hope to be the initiator and leader of a series of successful start-up businesses in the online publishing and internet marketing industry. As I write this I can hear the voices of a thousand nay-sayers screaming that the bubble has burst and that the time has passed for that opportunity. However, I believe the industry is largely the victim of the "pendulum effect"- when times were good, the pendulum swung too far to the side of unlimited promise, and now that times are bad, it has swung too far to the side of despair. Ultimately, I see the pendulum returning to the center, with realistic expectations and tangible growth prospects.

My career has afforded me with experience aligned with my goals. I have helped launch two new companies in the publishing industry, both of which used an innovative approach and enhanced technology to compete with century- old giants. I have seen many of the management challenges affecting new ventures, most notably cash flow and burn rate issues. Additionally, I have honed my internet marketing skills, a discipline in which I am now considered a subject matter expert.

As I contemplate my next steps, I realize that I need to take the pivotal leap towards initiating a business venture. I recognize that I will have a greater probability of success if I can address some critical development needs:

*General Management: While I have had a variety of strong business experiences, it is clear to me that I would benefit by strengthening my general management skills, to understand the ways that seasoned managers think about and manage their businesses.
*Entrepreneurial Finance: I seek to broaden my understanding of the means to raise funding and ways to structure a business, and learn associated valuation techniques.
*Networking: The success of a new venture is directly proportional to the quality of its management team and for this reason, I believe it is critical for me to improve both the scope and the quality of my networking contacts.

I believe that participating in a top-flight MBA program is the optimal way to address these development needs over the near-term. Such a program would not only position me for new opportunities and open doors that would before have been closed, but would provide me with the tools to be successful once I walk through them.

You find yourself on an elevator with the Dean of Chicago GSB. Please tell him why this is the right school for you, and what you hope to contribute if admitted.

Dean Synder, allow me to introduce myself. My name is John and I am a prospective MBA student very interested in the GSB. I hope you won't mind my elevator pitch for admission. What's that? No, no need to hit the emergency button, I will get this across quickly, in 500 words or less.

I am seeking an MBA to work towards my goal of becoming a successful entrepreneur in the online publishing and internet marketing industry. Over the past few years I have helped launch two new companies in the electronic publishing industry, and an internet marketing department at one of the nation's leading lenders. My start-up experience has given me an understanding of the issues facing small businesses, while my time with Big Ass Bank allowed me to hone my marketing skills with the benefit of a large budget.

From an MBA experience, I hope to gain a stronger general management perspective, further my understanding of entrepreneurial finance, and expand my network of contacts. I am attracted to the University of Chicago due to its world-renowned status as a leading business school, the high quality of its quickly evolving curriculum, the breadth and scope of its alumni network, and the freedom afforded to students to chart their own courses. The last attribute is a truly unique and distinguishing mark of the Chicago GSB program and as I feel I have a strong idea of what I want to gain from my education, it is a major selling point.

I have worked for both start-ups and multi-national Fortune 500 company, and I have moonlighted for a not-for-profit. I am an expert in internet marketing and usability, a powerful set of tools in the world of the web, and most likely, a unique set of attributes among your students. I would gather that as arguably the nation's top school for economics, finance and accounting, many applicants hold those disciplines as their strengths and are naturally attracted to your program. I am the opposite, as I recognize your traditional strengths to be my development needs, and therefore seek the strongest program to best meet my needs. My strengths are complementary and lay elsewhere, in the spoken and written word, marketing and creativity, the areas upon which I have polished the sharpest edge.

I like to think I attack life with a passion, both personally and professionally. I look forward to contributing to the GSB community via extracurricular clubs that fit my interests, such as entrepreneurship, volunteering, running and triathlon. I was a little disappointed not to see a blues club on the list. As a blues fan, I've always relished trips to Chicago. There is no city in the world with better blues clubs, and I'd bet a start-up blues club would quickly gather steam.

Well, here we are. Thank you sir. I hope to see you next year as well.

If you could be present at any event in time, what would it be and why?

Given my interest in entrepreneurship, I would like to be present during the great immigration boom that fueled the first wave of business entrepreneurship in America. That story has many chapters, millions, in fact. I have a favorite - it has all the aspects of the true entrepreneur - ambition, hard work, adversity, triumph...

In 1915 at age of 13 William borrowed the enormous sum of $1000, which he used for his passage from the north German town of Osnabruck, to Long Island, New York. He left behind not only his aunt, the only mother figure he had ever known, but also all his friends and family. He arrived penniless, his speech foreign, and was left in the care of a distant relation who was neither caring nor supportive. In fact, after working for years to pay back his debt, he learned that he had not yet repaid even a dollar. He had envisioned that after hi money shifted from his callused hand to his caretaker's plump fingers, it had been quickly shuffled into an envelope to travel across the sea, finally landing in Germany, slowly repaying his aunt's loan. In reality, his money never left New York, spent by his caretaker on household luxuries. He started over. He paid his debt. He continued to save. From nothing, he started his own business. Then the economy turned. He lost everything and took a job working for someone else. Eventually, he started his business again, and worked with pride for himself until the day he died. He was a survivor. He was a true entrepreneur. He was my grandfather.

Thomas Jefferson, one of America's truly great entrepreneurs, once said "I'm a great believer in luck, and find the harder I work, the more I have of it." He helped found a country, my grandfather only a fur exporting business, but I believe they would share this sentiment. With this in mind, I would like to be present the day my grandfather lost his business. His largest debtor went bankrupt and it was more than his firm could bear. Indeed, such an occurrence would break the spirit of many a man. Instead of breaking, he decided to rebuild. In my vision, calling it a "decision" is somewhat of a misnomer, as his belief that hard work is the solution to adversity would not have allowed him even a thought of giving up.

This is the experience I want to carry with me, to be there and witness him unbroken in the face of adversity. All of the previous injustice in his life must have seemed a mere appetizer, but he remained strong, regrouped, and made the loss only a story to tell. I believe he was as proud and strong that day as any other, such is the spirit that inspires me so deeply in my daily life. To witness it would serve as true inspiration for my future.

You've been given $1 million to set up a philanthropic organization. What would it support and why.

I have never been in a hospital bed. Not since the doctor passed me to my mother, anyway. I imagine, now, as an adult, if a doctor were to inform me that I had an ailment so serious as to require a packed bag and a toothbrush, it would unnerve me greatly.

I have seen many children handle this very situation with bravery and spirit, as while I have not spent a night in a hospital, I have spent many an evening. Over the past two years, I have volunteered in the playroom at a NY Hospital. In this position, I open a room designated as a play area, recruit children to come and play, and spend time with them.

I have found that the children with whom I interact most do not have their parents around. There are many more children in this situation that I would have ever imagined, and they need more than the volunteer network can give. Most volunteers are in high school, fulfilling a community service requirement. They may or may not be legitimately interested, leave the hospital after a few months, and don't stay past six o'clock. The children with parents around don't care. The others are lonely and desperately in need of a companion. My volunteer nights usually last until ten or later, as these children do not want to be alone. I don't blame them.

My organization will be dedicated to rectifying this situation by providing caring individuals to stay with children otherwise alone in the hospital. The firm will rely on a network of qualified, trained and screened employees and volunteers. Nurses will identify a child in need, call for a caretaker, and the organization will supply one from the network who will take the responsibility for the emotional support of that child.

The organization's ultimate success will rely on three key elements: The quality and training of its caretakers, the strength of its relationships with area hospitals, and its ability to raise funds to create a sustainable venture.

Caretakers are individuals who have received training in child psychology and music and art therapy techniques, and who care deeply about the welfare of children. The caretaker's responsibility ends at emotional support, and does not include medical training.

My organization will need to develop strong relationships with hospitals in the area. The key personnel are the nurses. Nurses always know which children on the ward are alone, and I believe will be more than willing to actively report the need for a volunteer.

2004-04-14T13:40:00.000-07:00

Natural Rehab

I't been a little longer than usual for me not to post. To be honest, I haven't had much worry to post about. I am settled into and excited about attending Haas. I paid my deposit, sent myself a "you made it" email from my new snazzy Haas address, and am trying to pick up some tix to see the Bears take on the Trojans down in LA next October. I've also been reading less blogs, and BW forums are a hell of a lot less interesting to me all of a sudden. It's weird how I use to really have to try not to go visit that site constantly and in the end it's jsut a natural progression towards loss of interest. It's pretty nice.

So, I have started focusing more attention on personal endeavors. Watching a lot of flicks. Going out. Taking up running in earnest again. Reading (not as fast as Mark!). And feeling good. So, in the order above. Just saw Kill Bill and it was one of the sickest flicks I have seen in a while. By 'sick' I mean it kicked ass, truly. It was like a live action comic book/video game/old cheesy action movie. I really, really loved it. Last night my 10 bucks went much farther than usual, because BAM was kicking it's Bill Mirray festival off with a live "conversation with Bill Murray" and that's all it cost to get in. They had a bunch of directors/producers involved also, including Jim Jarmusch (big time indie filmaker) and Tom Schiller(SNL writer who made one flick, "Nothing Lasts Forever" in '84). Both peaked my interest so I added a few more flicks to my netflix que. But anyway, I got back from that at about 11:30 at put Kill Bill on, just to check out real quick before bed. Bed ended up happening at 2 am.

Oh, and if anyone cares, I am slowly tackling Don Quixote and A People's History of The United States by Zinn, both of which are fantastic reads, although I feel like I can read either forever and never really make any progress. And they don't fit in my pocket either, dammit, which I highly prefer.

Lastly, I have to say I really can't stand work. I basically have two months left here, due to a sincere need for money. It's not so bad, I guess, I just am ready to move on and am resentful that I not only have to keep working, but that I have to spend so much time driving back and forth to do it. I am thinking about taking off one day a week here on in.

Yogi, Trip continued wishes of good luck and deserved recognition. Hang in there.

2004-04-09T07:38:00.000-07:00

Fancy

First off, thanks to Trip I finally figured out my MBA advice password thing and posted an article on there just. I would highly appreciate any feedback.

So this has been a pretty good week as I have had two of five days off. Tuesday I helped one of my recommenders move down in the city of Philly. My sense of direction sucks, so the drive took me about four hours. I'll blame one of those hours on an overturned asphalt truck, another on the fact that the only clue that registered "you are going the wrong way" in my mind was the Welcome to Delaware sign. Yesterday was the Yanks home opener, which they won, and was sweet. In between those two events of disproportionate enjoyment, I attended a Haas mixer for new admits in Manhattan.

Manhattan. I have a little bit of trouble with fancy bar type of places. The trouble is that I hate them. I love a dive. Make it dark, put it in a basement, serve PBR on tap, leave a marker in the can so people can tag the walls. If you can order an $12 appletini without so much as a clarification to the bartender as to wtf an appletini is, I am really not so interested in going.

So the Haas mixer was at a fancy joint, which is to be expected. There were a lot more alumni than admits there when I arrived. It started with my interviewer, who I felt I had connected with not remembering who I was. She recognized my face but asked if I was an admit or a graduate. The alumni were very hard to talk to. They were a definite well-to-do Manhattan set. Once they heard that I was decided on going, I think they felt they had little to talk to me or sell me on, so conversations were kind of awkward. One of them bragged to another about how well his business and position was doing in front of me. On the whole, the ones I managed a conversation with seemed rather fancy and full of themselves. I was rather dissappointed.

But things started getting better the moment I found another admit. She was deciding between Kellogg and Haas, and then an alumni came up to us who had originally been interested in Haas for non-profit and she was really nice. Then antoher admit found the group, this dude who I had emailed with a bit. He was incredibly cool... a bankrupcy consultant obviously making loads of cash but saying that he felt unfullfilled and was thinking about non-profit or start up work, which is why he was going to Haas. I felt very comfortable with this guy - the kind of person I could really see being friends with. Two more admits found the group, and we started by discussing the trouble we were all having talking to the alumni.

These guys were all very chill and put me totally at ease about the type of people I'll find at Haas. Two of us were decided, one deciding between Michigan/Haas and the other Duke/Haas. Where within the first 15 minutes I had started planning my escape, after meeting these folks I was one of the last ones to leave. It ended up being a very positive experience, and has me even more psyched about Days at Haas and the move out there this summer. One piece of advice I did take away from the alumni was that they all thought I should take some time off. I am not sure my funds will allow that, but I am going to take it into a bit more consideration.

2004-04-07T11:54:00.000-07:00

Feedback

So I volunteered for an innovation group a couple weeks ago. I've been going and being probably too vocal for everybody. The group is hosted by a mucky-muck here - he's a guy I personally like quite a bit so I was happy to have some interaction time with him. Well today he kind of surprised me pulling me aside after the meeting to talk about projects I am working on. I wasn't sure if he knew I was off to b-school or not, but after we were done talking shop, he asked if there was anything else I would like to tell him, so I figured he knew and was letting me tell him. Last week my boss told his boss and she announced it the whole group. So I guess word is out I just wouldn't think anyone this high up would care.

So, I told him I was going to Cal, but still kind of considering Chicago. He talked to me for another half hour about it, and in his view, he thinks the two are very comparable in reputation on the east coast. It was a great conversation about how the program fit into my goals, etc, etc. It had me feeling so good I went ahead and pulled my Fuqua application... and important first step for me finally ending my relationship with my apps.

I am having an issue with my password, but I'll be posting a mini article on mba advice later today. Let me know if anyone has any comments or suggestions.

2004-04-05T09:36:00.000-07:00

Check Please

Well, as time goes on, I am getting more and more settled into and happy about my Haas decision. If Days at Haas is as good as I believe it will be, I think I'll finally be ready to pull all my apps. I thought pulling them would be easy but it's not. Rationally, there really is not much reason to keep them active, but I feel some kind of connection to them, the work I put into the process, and it's sad to see them die, no less, kill them myself. I probably sound like a psycho.

Today my Haas admit binder arrives, an event I have been impatiently awaiting. Especially the financial aid part... I have no frickin clue what I am in for. Talked to the ex and she made it sound like I will absolutely have to build some credit card debt while I am in school. Man, I really do not want to do that. I got rented out of my first apartment and had serious trouble finding another a few years back. I ended up putting $4K on the credit card to pay a broker fee plus deposit on the day I needed to get out. I have carried that $4k since... it grew up to be $13K. It is now at $2K, and I really have hopes of getting it to zero before school. The thought of starting right up again is not so appealing.

I've been looking into apartment/room options around Berkeley and it doesn't look like it will be too bad. If I do my motorcycle plan I should be able to get a room on the outskirts for $500-$700, or if I stick close to campus like $900. It's striking how nice the people posting rooms seem. I can dig that.

Good luck to Harry and Poweryogi with the Sloan decision today.

2004-04-02T12:02:00.000-08:00

Hi folks. I realize most visitors to this page probably could not give a crap, but I'll take any audience I can grab to try to explain why pit bulls are not evil.

Owning one, I can understand why people are scared of them. They can be a little frightening to look at. They are usually all beefcaked, and usually have heads that are probably as big as yours, except most of their's is teeth and muscle. Some of them look like the devil. And there are loads of stories on the news about pitbulls attacking kids, and you probably think no one except for gangsters and shady dudes training the dog for fighting should own one.

Listen. I'll be honest. A pitbull is not like a normal dog, and a lot of them have trouble with dog-on-dog aggression. Pitbulls were bred for two things: fighting other dogs (and bull baiting) and NOT biting their owners. That's right, they were bred NOT to attack people. So pitbulls are in fact:
*Extremely loyal to their people.
*Awesome with children.
*Crappy, crappy guard dogs.

There are four dog breeds that qualify as a "pitbull". The Staffordshire Terrier(looks like a pitbull), Staffordshire Bull Terrier(looks like a little pitbull), American Pitbull Terrier (looks like a pitbull), and Bull Terrier (looks like Spud Mackenzie). Of those, the Staffordshire Bull, (which mine is a mix of) is the best with the kids. It's a British dog, and is also known as "The Nanny Dog" because it is so damn good with the kiddies. My dog is no exception. She adores people and kids. She never, ever bites, even in play, which is more than can be said for a lot of dogs. In fact, when the breed is tempermant tested, it is one of the highest scoring... it passes the test about the same as a golden retriever.

So why don't you see articles about Air Bud attacking children? The difference is responsible owners. Really, nobody looks at the retriever and decides they should abuse it and train it to attack people. Frankly, if that's your bag, you probably want to grab a dog that could do some serious damage, and, unfortunately, a pitbull is extremely powerful. There jaws don't lock, that's a rumor, however, PBs are extremely strong and obedient, and will grab and hold if that's what they are taught to do. Their loyalty can be used against them, as they'll do anything to please their owner. So, if you rough them up their whole lives to fight other dogs, you could have a problem on your hands. That would be true of most dogs.

The real bad part of owning a pitbull is that a lot of them do want to attack other pooches. Not to say a great deal of them are perfectly happy not doing that, but you do have to keep your dog socialized if you want them to be chill. And the thing to note is, that really is the bad part. Worrying about your pitbull attacking people, if you've raised it responsibly, is really not an issue. And you have to exercise them. It's not a dog you just have a let out, you have to be an active owner. Which is not what everybody wants. The trade off of having a dog that hangs on everything you do, is that you kind of have to reciprocate. BUt for me, it's been incredibly enriching and worth it.

Anyway, this site explains everything way better than I do if anyone has actually read this far and has further interest in this topic: Bad Rap

2004-03-31T10:23:00.000-08:00

Three Shall be the Number of Counting

Five is right out. Ok, so the waitlist streak ends at three with Stanford finally getting around to ringing my bell this afternoon. Which is fine, as I believe I am now supposed to officially hate them. Something about an axe, and a big game, and a big play with a band, and well, I guess I just hate those bastards now. Go Bears!

2004-03-30T07:18:00.000-08:00

Denouement

A large part of this blog has been me whining about not knowing where I am going to go next year, and talking about how much I love Haas. So, with the Haas decision in and my mind 98% made up, I think it's lost a bit of the suspense it used to have. Usually, the credits are rolling right about now, and you're wondering if you really have to go fishing under the seat for the popcorn bag to throw it out, or if you can just leave it there. Then you see the guy with the broom and swivel dust collector, feel guilty, and pick it up. But this isn't a movie, and I am going to keep writing, so if you leave, feel free to leave whatever filth has collected right where it is, I don't mind.

Ok. So I get it. Nobody gives a crap about what my pitbull looks like. She is seriously ugly-cute though, and has lost a lot of weight. She's like the Anna Nicole of the pitbull world, except smarter, and her reality show totally sucked. All she does is sleep, and apparently, that makes for bad tv.

So, as I said I am 98% sure I am heading to Haas, and adjusting into this new mindset where I do not have to br freaked about admissions decisions. I think I will stay on the Chicago waitlist, and might visit the school just to make sure, but if my reasons for applying all prove true, Haas is it. Stanford will come through with a ding Wednesday, and I have to withdraw my Fuqua application by April 15th. For some reason I want to wait to the last minute to do it... yesterday I had the email all written, and then I thought, what if someone in my family got ill or something and staying closer to home became a necessity? Then I couldn't bring myself to send the damn email. I am ridiculous. I am also leaving the UCLA app in, on the off chance I could get some money from them, or, to see if I can stake a claim to four waitlist decisions in one year.

So, things on my mind now are:

I have to get rid of most of my crap. I don't want to move it. By combining the powers of craigslist, ebay, and curbside trash pick-up, I shouldn't have to.

Buying a laptop. I get up to 15% off on HP & compaq. However, it seems everybody gets 6-7% off. So I really get like 6% off, plus 5% off dell. I really don't know what to do. M chip, no M chip, hard drive, brand, wait, buy now. I dunno. I have no money, so that helps with my decision.

Work. Actually trying to do some of it regardless of the fact that I am leaving.

Paying for school/budgeting. I don't even know how to get started on the worry for this one. As far as things to stress about go, five figures of debt is up there. Myah! Manifique.

2004-03-26T13:48:00.000-08:00

Chicago

Just talked to the Chicago waitlist guy. Said I had a "very strong application" and that it was a "very hard decision" to waitlist me. All they want is an additional rec. It doesn't surprise me as my second rec was non-traditional... it came from a friend/vendor. (My boy Jackson of the Mooci Blog... he did a great job on short short notice, but alas, he was never my boss.) They want another supervisor. All the "very strong" talk did surprise me, and it was quite a nice little pick me up! So I will do what they want, providing a rec from my original recommender, plus a little note of any updates and explanation of my continued interest. It's worth it to me to check it out. Call has me feeling good too.

Having a poker game tonight. I suck and will probably lose. I always invite a bunch of people and half cancel. This time, not so much... got 11 showing up! Damn. I hope you can play poker with that many. Will have the tournament on in the background, plus, I know I can lose my money quick and bow out if someone needs a seat.

2004-03-26T07:51:00.000-08:00

Tupelo

Well here she is folks, the pitbull of my obsession.

Also, I had a few brews with my buddy Jackson yesterday, and he mentioned he had a blog and that nobody read it. So go for a visit. Sure, it has nothing to do with an MBA, but there is an awesome link on there for real life "Lost in Translation" Japanese commercials featuring US celebrities. So visit the Mooci blogand leave him a comment.

2004-03-25T10:00:00.000-08:00

Air Fair

I have a ridulous habit of needing to cancel reservations I make online within 24 hours. I decided I definitely wanted to go to Days at Haas, so was looking into the two options. It was either, April 15-17 or May 6-8. Well I was planning on the May 6-8 thing but thought it was the ex's graduation. I called here and it's the weekend after, so I thought that was the one, until I went to mark it on my calendar and saw that the 9th was Mother's day. So April had to be it, and since yesterday was just barely three weeks out, I thought I should book it now. I don't know why, but somewhere in the back of my head I thought three weeks = fare hike. So, I got the tickets and a car rental (at www.cheapfares.com - great site usually BEATS priceline). I get home late, at almost nine, and there is a card from my sister. An invitation to my nephew's birthday party. On April 16th. Luckily, I already know the cancellation policy from when I tried to cancel last time. Sadly, it's gonna cost me $120 jsut to change the ticket. I don't know about the car.

So I still haven't gotten my call back from Chicago, and now realized my primary phone number is the number that is now disconnected with no forwarding message. They have my work numebr too, but, well, today is their deadline to call me and they haven't. Ach. Well. Maybe it's for the best anyway. I really am very psyched about Haas.

So, obviously, a congrats is due to FMG, who got into the big W. Nice. Poweryogi, Trip, our bloggers still waiting for decisions, hang in there.

So I am going to post some pics and more essays and stuff soon. I tried to post the pitbull the other night, but somehow it got all fucacta, so I took it off.

2004-03-23T08:59:00.000-08:00

Thanks and stuff

Thanks for your very nice and insightful words yesterday all. I am feeling much better today. I also had a long talk with my sister about things and just going back and talking about why Haas was so important to me in the first place really clears things up quite a bit. The only thing I am worried about is their East Coast presence, as I do want to return to Brooklyn after school. She also thought that I should leave the Chicago application active, until I am absolutley 100% sure, as opposed to the 98% sure I am now. So I think I am going to do that. I will definitely pull Duke though and I am wrestling with pulling the UCLA app. I guess I should really pull it, but personal curiosity is really driving me to leave it in. Maybe I will come up with a date to pull it, and do it then. I don't think Stanford is going to present me with any problem of this sort.

Other than that... it is very very hard to concentrate at work this week!! I can't keep up this level of inactivity for too long, it will drive me nuts. Although maybe I could get fired. I could go for the old office space trick and just stop coming in. Really, there have been some layoffs recently, and if I could get lumped into the next round of that it would be sweee-eeeet! I doubt it though, as my boss was one of my recommenders, and I have kept him, and others at work, completely in the loop as far as my application statuses has gone. I wish the plural of status was statusi. That would be better. Anyway, so everyone knows I am out of here between June and July, and probably knows I'm not working.

Also, I am really really getting pissed of at the weather here. Spring my ass. It was 30 firkin degrees when I walked the dog last night. Luckily, she has fur and I have a peacoat, but still.

2004-03-22T14:10:00.000-08:00

Anxiety

Man, I thought I was finished with worry. For some reason, I'm not. I had to sign up for a new wireless plan today, and you can only change your number when you change your plan, so I changed my number to a 510 area code. Suddenly this is all very real and I'm a little freaked out!

Also wondering if I shouldn't keep trying for/visit Chicago so at least I give it a fair shake. I might be regretful if I don't make an "informed" decision. I dunno. The whole rankings/fit thing is a bitch.

2004-03-21T11:01:00.000-08:00

Plans, Plans, and more Plans

Last year, when my girlfriend was moving out here, we took a cross country trip to get her car to NY. Two weeks before we left I had a binder, all based on a spread sheet, showing mileage from stop to stop, with directions from each place to place, including site seeing destinations, a preselection of restaurants serving vegetarian food in each town we were staying in, plus for lunches along the way. I had estimates for costs, gas usage, and arrival/departure times. This is how I like to plan things. This is why the indecision and unclear future has been driving me insane. All that is over now.

So, my plan is to get the official admit packet, accept, and only then remove myself from Waitlists and withdraw the UCLA application. I have had a small Haas vs. Chicago debate going on in my head. Chicago is technically the better school, I suppose, but Haas fits me perfectly, which is really what is important and is what is going to win the battle. I don't want to go into I-Banking. And I'm sick of snow. And I love that school.

So, I am starting to plan things out. Last day of work will be either 15th or 30th of June. I will take off for CA July 1. Driving cross-country with the ex. Not an enviable position. I think we'll also split a moving truck. Until then, I'll be throwing out/selling my crap on the regular. Looks like I am going to need about $1200 for a decent laptop. My company gets me a 14% discount with HP/Compaq... anyone have any recommendations towards those two? Opinions? Anyway, when I get to CA, I will be staying with my buddy in Vallejo. During this time I will be taking a motorcycle licensing class, looking for a room in Berkeley that will allow me to have Tupelo (my pooch, of course, named after Elvis's birthplace) part time, and then buying a cheap, old bike I'll use to drive locally. Then I think I may pop back to NY to go on a vacation with the family towards the end of July, then back to CA, starting school the 7th for a quant workshop. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAhhhhh. That feels so much better. A plan, I've got an actual plan and schedule.

As part of my previously made plan to share my essays, here's another of my H essays, this one concerning, well, planning, and how I can sometimes leave holes in my spreadsheet making. In answer to "If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?"

My whole trip is planned, impeccably as I see it. It's our first time travelling together, so I've spent a little more time and money than usual, and taken a great deal more care in our itinerary. Our bed & breakfast sounds wonderful, and it should be, it had such great reviews, and I made sure they knew my girlfriend was a vegetarian. Tonight will be fondue, her favorite, and tomorrow, cross-country skiing. Ben & Jerry's factory is on the way back from the mountain, so I plan to stop off there. Our bags are packed and in the trunk. The spark hits and the engine roars, and we are on our way to Vermont, about 600 miles. I think. I forgot to get directions and have no idea where I am going, save north.

If I could change one thing about myself, I would be reborn with an eye towards detail rivaling that of a Swiss watchmaker. I am constantly striving to improve my attention to the small and infinite items of any project, as it has become apparent that it is not part of my natural inclination. I tend to focus on the big picture and the items that I view as vitally important, but sometimes the details can ruin things in the end. As I grow older, I am becoming a greater user of things such as checklists, notes-to-myself and spreadsheets to keep myself in check. In my professional life, I feel I now have things firmly under control, as I make it a point to be extra thorough. But, sometimes, relaxed and in pursuit of personal leisure, I can still end up relying on star driven navigation.

2004-03-19T11:58:00.000-08:00

Love that joker

Woah. I woke up in a whole new world today, and I can't get the smile off of my face. I decided to take a celebratory day off, just me hanging with my pooch and some NCAA action. I feel like a new person, just so happy I could cry. Allright fine. I cried. Happy now? But damn I just feel so relieved, and most of all happy to be able to start planning things. That's the worst thing about waiting, not knowing where you are going to be. And now the Berkeley life I've been repressing in my head has burst into color. And I can't wait to start it.

This week was kind of crazy. My work was at it's best, the program I started has been kicking ass, and our whole team was out in Arizona meeting with the call center leadership. Things were busy, and we all felt great, because together, we have been making some changes that are getting noticed. All the while I am also going through internet information deficit, picking up tidbits here and there... after I saw my Haas application go to under review on Wednesday, I was a stressed out wreck. Wednesday night, I spent out at some Tempe bars with work folks, trying to forget about my cell phone. With no call, I woke up Thursday at 6am, and couldn't fall back asleep. I drove to a internet coffee house and hung around until 8 45(MT) . No email from Haas. The Duke decision was delayed, and I had to leave for breakfast with my co workers. Go to the airport and realized I forgot my jacket. Spent 45 minutes waiting for the van to dop it off. I thought they said wait "outside" not "Southside" and I never noticed the "Northside" sign they had where I was waiting. Found an internet kiosk. Broken. Found another. After 10 minutes on the dial up, I got the Fuqua waitlist decision. Which I didn't really care so much about, because I just did not have a fit with Duke. Got on the plane, 5 hours. Pick up the cell phone. I know if I have a message it will vibrate within a minute after I turn it on. I hit the button, and hold the phone and my head in my hands as I lean forward. About to give up and it starts to buzz. My heart starts to run. Call my voicemail. You have two new messages. Two chances. First message. Woman's voice. Dissappointment starts seeping in. I am waiting on Jett Pihakis to call... a dude last time I checked. "John, hi, this is Sharon from the Berkeley..." recognition hits, and I swear I started to cry, right there on the plane. I couldn't control it. Months and months of stress gets lifted off your shoulders all at once, and you really feel it.

So after calling a few folks I gave her a ring back in the car back to my apartment. Sharon was the adcomm member that showed up in my information session when I visited the school. Shen mentions that my interviewer realyl enjoyed her time with me, but that my effort to visit the school really put me over the top. The rest is a blur. She started saying some "sell the school" to me kind of stuff and I sort of cut her off - no need to sell me on Haas anymore - I'm already like an evangelist.

So. Thank you thank you thank you. To all you fine folks reading and commenting on the blog and going through all of this with me. To my now ex girlfriend who caught the brunt of me being a stress case. And to her, my sisters, brother in law and mom for reading and editing a crapload of essays. And my recommenders. To my friends all over who let me stay with them during visits, and to my pitbull for lbeing able to tell when I'm stressed and licking my face.

Think I am starting to get cheesy? I have barely begun.

My grandfather was an entrepreneur, and is my inspiration for seeking an MBA and trying to start my own business someday. So, this is all dedicated to him. With that being said, I'm gonna post my first essay, one of the H short answers:

If you could have dinner with one individual, past or present, who would it be? Why?

To the casual observer it may appear that I find my fork infinitely interesting. I sit and stare at it as my mind races in a nervous circle. Anticipation. I've been awaiting this conversation for a very long time. The spoon, plate and napkin each then receive equal attention as my eyes slowly move across the table, finally reaching toward the ceiling as I catch a glimpse of him walking into the room. My hands move nervously, pointlessly wandering. Recognition is instant, his image identical to that I'd seen in print and in the depth of my mind. He beams with the pride of a self made man, with eyes deep and kind and a swagger that reveals the hint of the mischief that saturates every story I've heard of his life. I stand, walk and extend my hand into the firm, proud grasp of my grandfather.

I didn't have to finish reading this question before my answer was decided. Although he died when I was very young, I feel an overwhelming connection and love for my grandfather. My memories of him, although brief, fill me with warmth and pride. And every time I hear a story about him, it makes me more proud of who he was, and more connected. We had the same sense of humor. My mother often tells me that when I am making jokes with family. It seems that we share the same easy going style, remembering the most important things in life and valuing character and fairness above all things. He was a self-made man, a true entrepreneur, a person who understood happiness and kindness, and is someone I hope to live up to in my lifetime.

That's it for now. Next time I'll post an essay with a lesser cheese factor.

2004-03-18T17:30:00.000-08:00

Speechless?

IN AT HAAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2004-03-18T10:43:00.000-08:00

Getting Ridiculous

Not a whole lot of time to talk, sitting on my suitcase at the Phoenix airport, but I just got waitlisted at Duke. Congratulations to Potter for getting the knod.

Berkeley application went "Under Review" yesterday, and it sounds like the first WL'er got in last night, although they wer an international. Expecting word soon. Going a little crazy again.

2004-03-15T09:45:00.000-08:00

All Quiet on the Western Front

Is an old movie or a book or something. Well, definitely a movie because I think I had to watch it in high school. I probably slept... academic motivation didn't strike until a little later in life for me. Anyway I can't remember right now and don't want to look it up. The point is, Haas Round 2 decisions appear to have been released, and I got no emails, status updates or word from Berkeley. Still in the game. C'mon cell phone, ring baby ring.

2004-03-15T07:40:00.000-08:00

Bowline

One summer I took a job as a camp counselour, spending my days monitoring rich little hellions as they learned the fat-walleted sports of tennis and sailing at their parent's country club. Part of the sailing gig was learning to tie knots, the most difficult of which was the bowline, a loop knot. I think I've managed to put my stomach in one all weekend. Which is great, cause it means I finally have mastered it. I think they owe me a badge or a pin or something.

So this morning no news is good news. In a few hours, Haas will release its Round 2 decisions. If the waitlist was lumped into that group, I will get an email shortly after noon containing either a Ding or a "Wait some more." So let's hope I get no email at all.

Trip, Yogi, hang in there and power through, you folks are almost to the promised land of sitting around and waiting for decisions, with no power to effect any change. Woo!

This week is a big one, with a probable Haas decision and a definite Duke decision coming. I'll be travelling for most of it thankfully, a welcome distraction. Also, it's supposed to be like 90 in Tempe, where I'll be spending the bulk of the week including the day we all pay homage to drinking Guiness.

2004-03-12T16:04:00.000-08:00

Craptastic

Man, what a lame day. Potter dinged at Michigan, and Poweryogi at Tuck. That sucks guys, especially the process of waiting while others get calls, then sitting around for the ding vs. wl email. Totally sucks.

On top of that Haas calls seemed to almost stop, save the part timers. This means that I'll be as cool, calm and collected as Farrah Fawcett on the Letterman Show come Monday morning. (I know this reference joke is somewhat dated, but I'm on little sleep and it's all I can come up with. No wait. How bout, I'll be as composed as a... naw, that really was all I got. Oh well.)

Well, sorry it's not a celebratory weekend for a few of us folks. Hopefully, our time will come.

2004-03-11T17:55:00.000-08:00

Haas has starting calling R2 admits. I am a mess. Got a note back from the guy who took me to his class, asked if there was anything he could do to help me get my foot in the door. What a nice guy. I asked him mention my extreme interest to the adcom if he could, and since I realized that my haas interviewer is in the part o the business exactly in line with his job hunt, I gave him her contact info. Can't hurt I guess. I really dig Haas people.

On a huge high note, CONGRATULATIONS to Future MBA Girl, the sweetheart of our blogging community, who not only got some nice shoes today, but also just got into Michigan. Awesome work.

2004-03-11T10:54:00.000-08:00

hee hee ho ho ha ha hee hee

The sound of my insane laughter fills the cube today. In Round 1, Berkeley admit calls started going out the Thurs before the deadline. Nothing yet today on the forums. My big problem is that I don't know what the hell to expect this time. Are the waitlist candidates reviewed before, after or right along with the other R2 candidates? So, if I don't get a call this weekend, do I assume the worst for Monday, or, might I hear nothing at all on Monday? Anyone know of a 3.5 day sleeping pill with no side effects, where the only way to wake up is a call from the 510 area code?

2004-03-10T14:57:00.000-08:00

A Dream Deferred

Allright, so I am starting to get freaked out again. Haas is driving me a bit mad. I don't know exactly when I am going to hear from them, btu I am pretty sure phone call is good, email is bad, so checking my email has now become a source of anxiety. Which is bad, as I do that a lot. And who knows, UCLA may email me something good. SO I have to check it. After two wailists, a phone call from an admission director is jsut starting to seem unlikely. I really do like the way Duke does it. Now reason to worry. You get to interview, and no matter what happens you'll find out via email, 10 am, March 18. Start worrying then. So I am not at all worried about that. It would be funny if it's a WL decision. I can then start my own consulting firm, "Clear Waitlist". Everything is looking good, but I think we need to bring the quant score down just a touch, and go ahead and cancel your visit to the school. Those may put you over the top. There. Perfect. I'll call you in June to find out how it went.

So this MBA advice blog is a great idea. I think I'll get on it once I see if I am licensed to give advice to anyone or not. For right now, I really do feel like I could hold my breath until I hear from Haas.

On the upside, I am feeling good about UCLA. My interview, in retrospect, went really well. The interviewer even asked me at the "So, are you coming to A-days? You should come, it is really a great time." Yeah, so that's the admitted student weekend. I think it was a bit of momentary confusion rather than insight on his part, but I'll take it. And again, very psyched with how great my chi-town interviewer's attitude towards helping me. So Chicago has already brought me one good contact. And, he was telling me about living in Chicago, and how UC is surrounded by south side Chicago, and that many of the students live there. That would be perfect. I would definitely buy a hoodie that said that on it to match my Brooklyn one. Then I'd move to Compton but nobody would mess with me, as I'd be claiming two bad ass neighborhoods. Probably get my grill done in gold while I am at it, after receiving some post MBA salary action. A flowered Berkeley shirt would not have the same effect, so I guess I couldn't move to Compton then. A dream deferred.

I am trying really really hard not to plan out my life in California, but damn, it is really in my nature and makes me feel so much better like I know what the hell will be happening to me so I find it hard not to, say, look at pitbull friendly rooms in Berkeley that are $500. The first one a check is across the street from and mentions by name the cafe my best friend may be buying... A while back I had listed the Berkeley "perk" as getting to live with my girlfriend. Well that ain't happening folks. So I've gone ahead and doubled up my UCLA perk, which was getting a motorcycle, like a sweet old Honda 450. So I go and look that up, plus motorcycle classes, which are run in Vallejo out of a used motorcycle shop that turns out to be down the street from my buddy's house, where I'd be hanging out for a month if I were to get in. Coincidences folks? God damn I hope nope.

AAAAAAAACCHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. (going nuts)

2004-03-09T11:52:00.000-08:00

And back to Grey

Ahhhh... New Jersey! Back to grey sky, yellow grass, cold temperatures and road salt. After catching up with some work stuff, I just spent a nice chunk of time with some old fashioned ass-kissing - sending thank you's to basically every Haas and Anderson person who crossed my path over the last few days.

The other day I also sent a note to my Chicago interviewer, who told me to let him know how things went. He offered to help me with some WL advice, turns out he was a waitlister himself, and a 2nd year who worked in the admissions office. Found out one very interesting piece of information. Chicago assigns you a "feedback advisor" to go over possible problems with your application. I knew that. But, I didn't know that this advisor is the only one who will make a recommendation on your app. They send it directly to the admissions director, Don Martin, who makes the ultimate call. They are supposed to give me a call back within 14 business days (3 weeks). I can also request an in-person appointment during a visit, which I probably will. Just added another $500 or so to my application cost. Finally, in late may, after all R3 decisions are made, they review the r2 waitlist.

So anyway, back to Haas. I had a very very enjoyable visit. These folks are smart, they are active, they are balanced. I would say that about everyone I met while at the school. During the info session, I had an interesting takeaway I had not heard before - every year the incoming class votes if they would like to disclose their grades to employers or not, and every year, without fail they choose not. Why? To foster collaboration, and to ensure students do not concentrate only on grades, and partake in all Haas has to offer. I loved hearing that. And they do have a lot to offer. Service is big, which I am very much into. Entrepreneurism is big, and the crossroads of those two, social entrepreneurism is huge. Haas has two bschool plan competitions, a regular and a social. The regular is a much bigger deal, however, the guy I had lunch with said he had the feeling that the social entrepreneurism competition had greater overall participation.

The campus itself is gorgeous, decked out in earth tones of beiges, browns and greens, with a weathered look to it, as if it were a hunting lodge up in the mountains, except with lots of old time street lamps around. It rained a little Friday and I heard one student say, exasperated "Why is it raining?!!" , as if it were a real oddity. The weather is obviously gorgeous here. On Monday I arrived at 9 am, and I was the sole person in the courtyard. I went up to the admissions office at 9:20 to meet my class escort, and when we returned at 9:25, the place was swarming with students. It was kind of weird how quickly they descended on the place. There are a lot of students around btw... true, the FT class of 480 is small, but there are alos part-timers around AND about 700 undergrads. I didn't see enough bathrooms to accomodate them all, but besides that, the campus is sweet. Wireless access, bay weather. Woo!

Snoop Dog had asked me to go into detail on my class visit a while back, so I'll try to be as in depth as possible without going into the course material. It was me and one other dude from NY on the visit, and we were assigned to one student. The blue and yellow Haas button I received totally kicked the Fuqua nametag's ass. The class I singed up for was an elective, Information and Technology Based Marketing (basically database marketing). It was an hour and a half long. The class room was small, probably would accomodate 45-50, there were about 30-35 in the class. A little old, but nice, lots of wood around and the chair was comfy. The material was thick, and moved at a pace much faster than the Anderson class I had seen, although of course the subject matter was entirely different. These students were far more serious. No one playing online poker here, I assure you. I think most found ( I certainly did!) that you had to focus to keep up with the professor. He was a good prof however, with a clean and clear teaching style, and definitely fostering an environment where questions and comments were welcome. His questions were as I thought b-school questions would be - they were deliberate, difficult, poignant,and important to the lesson. I think they assigned us the ringer because he answered 2 of 4 asked correctly. The class basically centered around formulas for constructing "neural networks" which use customer data, buying patterns and past offers to predict future purchase likelyhood ond response to offers and products. It took me a while to understand, as he started with the end of the last lesson, which was totally into the formula part without any of the basis. Once he started the current, I could put things together. This is not easy stuff though. The class was totally lectured based, and the students were assigned cases for homework, which sometimes they did discuss in class. At one point, the students were having a little trouble grasping the material, and he offered to write an quantitative case himself for them, if they would like. They wanted so he agreed to put it together in a few days.

Overall I would say that the Haas class was serious, collaborative and very intellectual. At the same time, it was not at all tense. After a student gave an off answer, the prof actually apologized, because he said his questions was not focused enough, and said it would have been hard to discern the answer he was looking for from the question he asked. Nobody seemed to have trouble speaking out, although instances and words were definitely chosen with care. I was impressed by both the students, material and the level of the instruction.

Now let me in.

2004-03-06T06:47:00.000-08:00

Mood Indigo gone Sunny Sunny Yellow

Thanks to everyone for your comments. You are all right, a waitlist isn't so bad, and I was a little too whiny about. Jetlag + drunk + unexpected waitlist decision had me feeling blue, but I am allright now. Sleep, perspective and California weather have turned things around.

First things first - UCLA.
I had some time Friday between my interview and class visit, and I had a conference call. Sitting on a bench on the UCLA campus, not a single cloud in the sky, the temperature a perfect 75, a squirrel came up and sat on one side of me and a little bird landed on the other. I felt like snow white, minus the dress and stuff. Thinking back to my office in New Jersey, the only color that came to mind was grey, and I kept picturing the office for Being John Malkevich. So I told them I am never coming back, and if I end up at UCLA, it might just be true.

The campus is seriously out of control gorgeous. Anderson specifically is brand spanking new. It is on the top of a hill, the four building are arranged in a cirle, and are connected along the top floo in the shape of the circle, creating a circular court yard. That's the most times I have used circle in a sentence. Anyway, the courtyard is the main area for the students to hang out, and there is a cafe up there as well. Also, they have there own library in a building off to the side. Everything is red brick and spotless.

My interview was with the student body president. I was in a suit, he in a t-shirt, shorts and sandels. His outfit was pretty indicative of the student body attitude. Relaxed but smart. Interview was easy. He did ask me directly about my quant aptitude, but said I explained it well. Also told me at the end that I had done well - its great to actually get some immediate feedback. I thought I had done well, we had a good rapport, and I liked the guy and all of the things he was saying about the Anderson program. Entrepreneurship really is a big deal there. I loved that.

The student body is totally not competitive. I wonder if maybe a little too much so, as in class I saw a bunch of people playing online poker and chess and stuff. They also seem a little cooler and better looking than other mba students. I swear I think they may scan candidates for these attributes. But anyway, so after the interview, I hung out for a while with the squirrels and stuff, then met the dude that was takling me to his finance class. He was very nice, introduced me to a bunhc of stundents and the professor. I kind of stepped into a new persona for the class... the student asked me where I worked jsut before we met the professor, I told him. He introduced me as a "banker". The professor pointed at me a few times during the class identifying me as one of the class members who probably already knew about the subjects he ws talking about.

The class was great, and has me so psyched about attending school next year. It was managerial finance, and he went over futures and options trading. Fun stuff! I also talked to one of the students about a venture fellows program they have... six students get to do a VC internship during the summer. Only 35 applied this year, and the selection is largely based on grades. That would be sweet.

Ok, so in the end, I left loving UCLA, and would be totally happy to go there.

And I still would be happy to go there. Just. Well, after visiting Haas - god damn. I really want to go there. Everyone I met seemed so smart. So concientious. Service and profit minded. Incredibly active. Totally collaborative, but not snobby. Haas campus is a little older, but charming,a nd has character. The spirit here is socially responsible innovation. I love it. LOVE IT.

Went to lunch with a current student with two other applicants who I gathered did not realize just how competitive the application process is. The dude who took us to lunch was a little dorky, but smart as hell. The students in the info session were awesome. People that just wow you with the fact that they are obviously genius-y, but also genuinely nice people. An admissions person came in at the end. This is what I got out of her - overall WL admission is 45% & I should here on or around March 15th. Get this though. The session ends, I say goodbye to everyone. I go to the building across the street. The info session chick waited for everyone else to leave, then ran after me, caught up with me on the second floor of the other building and out of breath told me that she was on the waitlist last year, and that a lot of the students here also were, and in here info session she had asked an admission person and received more supportive informationand she jsut wanted to tell me that. Hell yeah! Go Haas. Class visit Monday am... I am totally psysched. ONly problem I can see is the broken heart a ding will bring.

2004-03-04T22:30:00.000-08:00

Make a fucking decision please

Waitlisted at Chicago.

Was gonna make a post about how awesome UCLA was, but will wait on that, as I am too pissed off at the moment.

2004-03-03T11:55:00.000-08:00

It has begun.

According to the BW forum, Don Martin has made his first call. Add check portal daily at 12:01 am, glue cell phone to hip to my to-do list.

2004-03-03T08:18:00.000-08:00

Hittin the Road

So tonight I leave for LA and have done just about 0 interview prep. Figuring I will print off about a million pages and do it all on the plane. Yes, I may have to forgo some tv watching on Jetblue, which is big for me as I do not get cable. At the moment, I am not nervous at all and don't think I will be. I got nervous for Duke, but UCLA is easy to sell for me - their program really seems to fit my experience and goals.

So I was off reading FMG's Blog, and she is driving herself nuts on the BW forums. I am right there with you, driving myself absolutely insane checking that damn thing, and all of our blogs, fairly constantly. I am not going to even pretend to give it up though. I figure until all the decisions are in, or, at least one admit is in, my life pretty much sucks, as thinking about applications has become akin to breathing. My snacking has also increased considerably. I have increased my running as a result, so I don't get all chunked out like my pitbull. Maybe I could have her glean the useful info off of he BW forums, per Mark's suggestion, because unfortunately I think she would be the only one willing to do so. BTW FMG, you had me worried with your post yesterday. I kinda depend on your site for optimistic thought and discussion of fate working things out. Luckily, you are back on track today discussing how much fun a root canal will be. Hope that goes ok btw.

Naveen, congrats on USC and I dig your Johnny Cash comment below. And your post on the onion. As an aside, my all time favorite onion article. Also, it doesn't look like our schedules are going to work out while I am in LA, but it would have been pretty cool to grab a beer. On that note - techie - you have my official buy-in on the get together, if you get it together.

Back to my trip. Tonight leave at 8, in at 11:30. Cab to UCLA hotel. Interview at 10:30, class visit at 12:45. Friend picking me up on campus, taking me somewhere. Flying out of the OC at 8 am, cab to Berkeley, lunch with a student at 12, info session at 1. Friend picks me up, hanging out in SF/Vallejo for the weekend. Monday, 9:30 am, class visit, fly out at 3, in NY 11:30. Oh, and somewhere in there Jett Pihakis pulls me aside to let me know I am admitted.

I guess I will actually be taking a forum break now that I think about it.

2004-03-02T08:08:00.000-08:00

PSSMS

Do I love Brooklyn? Hell yeah. I even have two shirts that say so. Well, they don't say "I Love Brooklyn" but the do say Brooklyn, and why else would I wear that? That being said I have a sincere request of the residents of the County of Kings, specifically of the most northwest neighborhood: Please stop stealing my stereo. I can understand why you would want to steal my stereos. Even though the one you took last night had the detachable face detached, and you didn't find it. And I do appreciate the fact that you slim-jimmed instead of smashed, and the fact that you twice left my wiring harness was noted. However, in the future, please refrain from taking my stereo out the now 100% stock honda civic I drive to work everyday. Would you like listening to a shower radio balanced in the gaping hole that is your dashboard? No. It doesn't sound very nice does it. If you want the shower radio, I will leave the door unlocked for the next few days so you may take it. Please bring back my Johnny Cash cd though. If you can get it out of the stereo, which you probably can't, as I have the face. Also, I would like to mention that you suck, heartily.

2004-03-01T11:46:00.000-08:00

Email Analysis

I am fairly psyched about the news that came out of Berkeley today. As I have mentioned before, I am a total BWeek forum freak. As is such, I have read the Berkeley Waitlist stuff from the past two years. This email update thing with a review BEFORE R2 applicants find out is entirely new. I already know that apps are down about 21% on the whole. This leads me to believe that Haas is realizing that there are more spots than usual available this year for waitlisted peoples such as myself. In any case, next week is big. My best shot to get in for sure. Getting waitlisted before your interview seems to be a very different animal than getting wailisted after. If I get WL'ed again, all I have left to give them is an additional rec and a letter about my visit. The interview + additional rec + personal statement I just sent is far stronger information than I will be able to provide later. So get to retain my little fantasy that they will tell me about my admit in person on Monday for now. Wouldn't that be nice?

2004-03-01T09:26:00.000-08:00

Some word from Berkeley...

"Please note that we plan to re-evaluate the applications of Round One waitlisted candidates during the week of March 8. At that time, we will make offers of admission to some, and we will notify others that we are unable to offer them admission. Furthermore, we will be unable to make a final decision on some applications at that time, which will prolong this process a bit more for some applicants. All Round One waitlisted applicants, however, will receive a final decision from us no later than May 3, 2004."

Damn. This will be a big month.

2004-03-01T07:57:00.000-08:00

Finally.

March is here. Took its sweet ass time for sure, but I won't hold a grudge. Strange that the weather seemed to understand the change in month - today in NY you do not need a coat, jacket, scarf or hat. I feel like time is finally starting to move. Now I am just waiting for the ides baby. Or a couple days after the ides anyway. Unfortunately, March 18th and 19th don't have any cool Roman name attached to them as far as I know.

So tomorrow is officially the first day I could possibly hear from Berkeley, as February 2nd their WL letter said I "could hear from them as soon as a month from now". I am not expecting any word 'til the end of the month though. BWeek forums light the way. And Don Martin should start making calls as soon as Saturday! Yeah! I could be a normal person again in as soon as a few days! Woo. In any case, as of Wednesday I am off to Cali for some sunshine, and by the time I get back my wait will be down to a week for two more schools. I may have a trip to Tempe to further distract me from my application obsession.

Some news this morning. FMG - sorry bout the UT ding. I really think you are Wharton bound though. Reading Mark's description of dinging Stanford was NICE. Skipping out on activities? That's the equivalent of not giving them an interview invitation. Nice work. Luvshack may be Yale bound after all, and Naveen is the best claw player I have ever seen.

This weekend I saw American Wedding, which was tripe, and Matchstick Men, which I whole-heartedly recommend. Also went to the Nets-Lakers game and decided if I do end up in LA I am rooting for the Clippers. The Lakers are just too damned talented, and I am already a yankees and cowboys fan.

2004-02-27T10:49:00.000-08:00

For whom the bell tolls

Is a Hemingway book that I started reading, lost, and have never finished. I theorize the ending is about me getting a ding from Stanford. I wonder how he transitioned the story towards that end, but then again, he was a master. So I believe he could have done it. Damn. If i hadn't have left it at a Korean BBQ restaurant, I would have saved myself $200. Anway, today is the day I marked as the last for anyone hoping to get a Stanford interview invite. It's ok though. I am not upset. I am telling you, complete pessimism is the way to approach a b school app. I have had no anxiety about this one at all. Much better this way. And, according to FMBA Girl, I will continue to receive their applicant newsletter, which is all I was in this for anyway.

Everybody should go check out downlow's blog, which is not new at all, but is new to me. He announced 3 admits today, so have some fun reading something positive about MBA apps. And Joey, who seemed to stop blogging when I started, just got into Kellogg. Woah. Congrats.

As for my update, I am still sitting here waiting. At least my therapist is earning his money now.

Have a great weekend everyone.

2004-02-26T07:33:00.000-08:00

Thank God I didn't apply to Sloan

Does anyone else subscribe to the Harvard business review? A great publication for sure, but I think it is worth a subscription just to get your name whored out by their list brokerage. I swear since I signed up I have been receiving the best junk mail. I got an invite for a private test drive party at Mercedes- it came with this cool backstage pass thing - a $3k per spot Bill Clinton speech and, the sweetest brochure for private small yacht mediterranean cruises. Only 20K! I also get all these big envelopes from Sloan and MIT trying to get me to sign up for their pubs and invite me to their conferences. If I had an app in with them those trips to the mailbox would probably break my heart.

Damn Duke. Luvshack got the ding this morning. Sorry partner. Congrats to Potter on the MIT invite. I totally bet you are going to try the Max Mirinov 8:30 am interview trick. Damn. I really read too much of this crap.

4 more days I can switch my calendar to March. That's a little win in itself. At this point, I will take what I can get.

2004-02-25T09:39:00.000-08:00

Chi-Town

After another session of searching/snooping the bweek forums of yesterday, I found some heartening Chicago news. It seems that although the decision deadline is March 19th, decisions (admits, waitlists and dings) start going out much earlier. In all the threads the decision date is a Friday (this round the 19th.) Don Martin always starts making his calls two weekends early. So he should hit the phones on March 6th, or at least March 8th, a Monday. That means my decision probably will not come the 19th. So I should know my Chicago fate ahead of Duke. Unfortunately, I have already pencilled "Chi-town D-day" on the 19th of every calendar that has crossed my path in the last month or so.

So I read a lot of Blogs. And now I have a new one, as I wrote about yesterday, and all the blogs have now picked it up. We are like a press corp! Anyway, I was thinking that I really do dig how Mark has his real name and pics out there and stuff, so, towards the end of this all, I am going to do that also. After I shake this paranoia that adcoms are lurking to discern my interest in their schools, of course. I really do wonder what everyone does, where you live, etc. Anyway, sympathy out to 3app, although he/she probably won't know it cause I don't think the 3 is a blog reader. A 2 ding night is some seriously bad shit. Sorry. Also, Naveen - reply offline if you like, but my buddy in LA who I am staying with when I am out there works for a big-ass aerospace company, and it would be a pisser if you knew him. Your aerospace bit today got me thinking about it. He works in OC. chunkypitbull@hotmail.com. Anyway, tomorrow we got Potter and Luvshack facing the Big Blue Devil. Good luck to both of you on that one. Maybe you'll end up hanging out in the Fox center together next year.

One last note, thinking about picking up another Berkeley recommendation, from my first supervisor at my current job. I'd like to have something to send in at the end of March. And luckily, we are now friends so I can coach her through the rec, so I actually get some new information in there. I am just so worried that the WL reason was my quant abilities, and I have not improved in that area.

2004-02-24T10:19:00.000-08:00

That's enough.

I really have to stop reading anything about b-school. Stumbled on to this blog off a comment posted on Potter's site and feel like I want to throw up. Not in any judgemental kind of way or anything, they seem like great people. It's just that it is written by one of those elusive 83 people a year who actually are deciding between Stanford and Harvard. At the same time the dude appears to be in this really great relationship and his girl is going to go with him wherever he goes. He is probably rescuing puppies and turning it into a profitable business as I type. As long as he's on a streak, I say go all out, forget Stanford and Harvard and apply here. Anyway, welcome to the blogging community. You are not allowed to complain about anything though. Now make with the application advice.

Today is another complete non-event on the application front. Post on B-Week from a fellow Berkeley waitlister claimed that the interview has a huge impact on the admit decision. I think mine was A-ok, so I guess we'll see. I am actually trying to turn this into some kind of news and write about it, so I can update the only part of this damned application process that I have control of at this point, this blog. This blog which google ignores for some reason. I am about to sign an advertising contract with them... is it unethical to ask them to bump me up? They already have given some of the sweetest chachkies ever. A 32MB flash drive for the holidays, $5 at Starbucks for Valentine's, plus, I have this sweet google pen that lights up 3 colors. Fun.

2004-02-23T07:22:00.000-08:00

All Apps In

Got an email that said my UCLA app is now complete. I guess it just means that they matched my transcript to my application. The fact that it took 3 weeks to do that makes me feel like I won't be hearing anything else from them for a while. I have kind of tabled the UCLA worry for while. If I get in elsewhere, the wait for their decision won't be that bad. If I get dinged everywhere, the wait will be completely nerve wracking.

My current wait for Berkeley, Chicago and Duke and I would classify as totally nerve wracking. Seriously, I am really a mess. I honestly probably don't go much longer than 15 minutes without a thought of the upcoming decisions. The rest is pretty much filled with thinking about my failing relationship. Life has definitely been better. Work has been better.

On the upside, the weather is improving, and this past week I have started running again. And this weekend I hit the Met for a day, and saw Lord of the Rings. Great flick. I only thought about schools during a brief bladder-imposed intermission. So that's two solid 1.5 hour stretches. Also, movie popcorn and stadium seating both totally kick ass.

So a full work week coming up, and then a halfy and a trip to CA next week. By the time I get back from that, I'll be a week and a half away from learning a portion of my fate.

Duke R2 decision coming up for some folks this week. Good luck on that. I think Stanford will be a definite write off by this Friday for those with no interview invite. One week until I am at least in the Month where I hear decisions. Arggggggggg...

2004-02-19T13:20:00.000-08:00

Detective

I found out a few waitlist items today, none of which make me feel good.

1. I grabbed last year's BW week Haas waitlist thread. The first admitted applicant of the waitlist is March 28th. Blech.

2. There are currently 100 people on the waitlist. Got this from the Haas chatboard. That seems like a lot after 1 round with 700 apps.

3. Also on the Haas chatlist there is a subject about the next supersaturday, in March. It has 379 views. That seems like a lot. I hope the Round 2 applicants aren't infinitely more qualified or something (no offense Harry, Trip, Techie, 3app).

I have such a weird feeling about this Stanford application. I go on the b-week board. All of these people are freaking out about not getting an invite. I am totally calm about it. Maybe I am a bodhisattva after all. Or maybe I just got dinged in another life. Or maybe I was more nervous when I handed over my mega-millions lottery ticket to the gas station guy this morning. Guess what? I didn't win. I wonder what the chances are of winning your buck back are... probably 8%.

A moment of silence for all the hurt Wharton put on our blogging community today. As a result, I have been proselytizing my opinion of the city of philadelphia as a city of crap. And I am not doing this as an uniformed individual, like half the people who will tell you that New Jersey smells (no comment). I have spent some time there, and the sole redeeming "quality" I found was this bar called monks, where they had a slew of Belgian ales on tap and like 300 more in the bottle. That was sweet.

Oh I almost forgot this item, but as of now I really, really, really want to get into Duke. I was in the bathroom today, and this dude that is essentially my boss's nemesis got the urinal next to me and struck up a conversation. Which is odd becuase he is usually too full of a combination of himself and shit to make any conversation at all. But, it turns out, he heard I was applying to schools, and that he went to Duke. So I want at the very least to get in there. I am positive that if any Duke adcom member finds their way here and reads this reasoning, they will now surely admit me.

2004-02-18T10:24:00.000-08:00

Weight

How many posts can I complain about waiting? I really can't fathom all this fricking time between now and March 18th, 19th. DAMN IT. I need a fast forward button for my life at the moment.

Looks like the Stanford interview invites are starting to flow now. I think the bulk will be out by the end of the week. I wonder if they changed their interview policy, as last year they claimed to have interviewed 45% of the almost 6000 applicants. That's a lot of discussions of you career choices and why you want an MBA now and why specifically with Stanford.

Some dude posted the interview invite on a b-week forum. I appreciate that, it's helpful. And the other day, 3-app posted one of his essays on his blog. That was sweet too. I was wondering about this... who keeps the intellectual rights to your essays? Are they the property of the schools? Because I have found example essays very unhelpful. They are either great because the answers are obvious to the people answering the question, or suck so so bad. It's always like the "What unique perspective do you bring to XXX" question will have an example "good" essay that is from a blind orphan with one leg who won an olympic medal using an artificial leg of his own creation which formed the basis of the company he started and sold for 100M. Thanks that's very helpful! I exaggerate, but seriously, the Bweek Fuqua perspective essay is from a girl who grew up in Columbia. Who the hell does that help? Who is actually sitting there wondering what to write their essay on, and is then like, "oh, you know what? After seeing this, I now think I may somehow be able to work in that I was born and raised in Bolivia, and regularly travel back and forth to conduct business in both countries... maybe that could work. That or I should write how good I am with people and how I have a good sense of humor..." The Montauk book is even worse. I think they had a leadership essay written by Norman Schwartzkopf. And the bad are always so bad. I think they write them using those refrigerator magnet sets. Anyway, the point is it would be very helpful to other applicants to post all one's essays post-decision. I don't know if that's allowed somehow. Anyone know?

Anyway, got a few folks waiting on Wharton interview invites. Luvshack, Naveen, Trip, Techie I am pulling for you. This is a weird phenomenom, this little blogger community we have going here. I really feel like a win for you folks is a win for me. Realistically, it's not, but who cares? FMG, I really feel like you are going to Wharton. Reading your blog, (me along with the admissions committee) it sounds like you are writing a book titled "How to get into Wharton". If you ever do, please put some extra thought into the example essays portion. But seriously, you sound like you are kicking ass.

Anyway, good luck everybody. I'll rub my pitbull's (large, fat) belly for you.

2004-02-17T12:41:00.000-08:00

In the mail.

A few accomplishments today. Berkeley personal statement sent off priority mail. So week 1,2 and 3 of my WL I have hit them with something. Additional rec, interview and now this. And I think it is grade A essay writing. Ended up 2 pages, single spaced. Printed about 20 copies and had my fountain pen explode on my hand and mouth to get my best signature.

Who you calling a psycho?

Number 2. FAFSA sent off.

Good thing too. If I do get into Berkeley, someone pointed out in reference to my last post that they just raised tuition considerably. Instead of 22 out of state, 10 in state, tuition is now 16 in state, 28 out! Dammmmmnnnnn. That is a serious hike. Please insert your own Arnold movie reference joke here< >.

Potter did a countdown today. I like that. Here's mine:

Berkeley - Only god & the adcom knows.
Duke - 31 Days to go
Chicago - 30 days to go
Stanford - 37 days to go
UCLA - Uhhhh. Like 3 frickin months. WTF?

2004-02-16T10:34:00.000-08:00

I think I have decided that if by some grace I got into both Haas and Chicago, I would go to Haas. All "fit" considerations aside, strictly based on cost it is $32K + $32K for Chicago vs. $22K + $10K for Haas. So basically Haas is half price, and since I seriously hate paying retail for anything, that sounds jsut about right to me.

I am sitting at home right now casually going about a lazy day, enjoying the fact that I work for a bank. They just love throwing days off in there. I think we get Arbor day and Festivus off this year.

My Berkeley personal statement has gone through one round of edits and is out for another. I hope to send it out tomorrow. Looks like it will end up at about 2 pages, single spaced. I think it is good stuff, hope they read it all and everything. After that I'll be preparing for CA. Flying Orange County to Oakland only cost me $66 bucks on Southwest, btw. Again, I hate retail. Related to both of these statements is the fact that I hate the OC, which I was forced to watch again last week. Truly, this show is complete and utter tripe. It is kind of like watching one of those videos of a fireplace going for an hour, except that instead of a fire with flames jumping, it is a pile of crap with steam coming off it. With worse acting no less. I am coming up with something this Wednesday I swear. I will not be here.

But about CA, I got a note back from a UCLA student who will be taking me to class with him. Turns out he used to work for my company too. Man, we are like the government. I guess that's why we get President's day off.

Yankees got A-Rod. HBS should send some folks over to the Red Sox organization. That or they need a voodoo priestess or something. I mean, damn. How long can you lose.

2004-02-13T11:09:00.000-08:00

Son of a bitch.

Quant is not my strength. My little math-exercise is totally skewed:

PeteJohnsonHaas (Dec 17, 2003 1:21:38 PM)
Go-bears, we don't have a fixed number of individuals that we place on the waitlist each year, so it varies. Last year, about 24% of the applicants who were waitlisted ultimately received an offer.

So 24% is my chance. Considerably less than 75, 52, and even less than 27. This is weird though. B-week said that 309 WL, 82 enrolled. 26.5%. How could less than that receive an offer? I guess it doesn't really matter. I still have some essay to write. This dude posted on the Round 1 board today to say he interviewed on Monday, and was admitted Thursday. So I thought maybe I could get a call soon. But he was an international with a late interview, not a waitlister.

I am really digging that all of us bloggers seem to read each others blogs and make comments. Techie Dude suggested that we all get together on his blog this morning, and I think that would be awesome. Logistically difficult, but good times. I'll be the last to add congrats to Naveen on the UCLA admit. Sweet. Good luck to Trip on the Yale interview this weekend. 3app, sorry to hear about the Stern ding. You should hook up a comment board on your blog.

I am adding some more stuff to the Cali trip. Lunch with a student and a class visit to UCLA, and lunch with a student and an info session at Berkeley. Gotta go all out.

2004-02-12T16:05:00.000-08:00

Math to make me feel even better.

Last year Berkeley interviewed 16% of applicants and admitted 13%. Of that 13% 92% were interview-admits. That means they interviewed 595 people, and admitted 483, 444 of which were interview-admits.

So, of the 595 interviewed, 444 got an offer and 150 did not.

That being said, since I have now interviewed, I have a 75% chance of being admitted.

Want to argue with this logic? Please don't.

2004-02-12T15:30:00.000-08:00

Math to make me feel better.

I had thought that my shot at Berkeley was now around 27%. 82 applicants enrolled off a waitlist of 309. But it is better than 27%. Let's say Berkeley's waitlist had the same pull through as the regular admit pool, 51%. That means if 81 were enrolled off the wailtlist , then 160 were admitted. That means my chance is more like 52%. Niiiice.

2004-02-12T10:24:00.000-08:00

Damn it. I am a total B-week forum, b-school book, blog, email, website junkie. There should be a support group for this. Except we'd all just sit around and talk about our applications. Whatever. That would be great. Not as an aid to stop my obsession, but I as a marketing person I know the importance of sending/receiving messages in mixed media, and I really have no face-to-face contact in the area at the moment. Anyone who wants in, you can come over.

You can then also meet the real chunky pitbull. She's a dog, she is fat (it's my fault), and she is named after Elvis's birthplace (also my fault). It is really hard not to feed her. She was homeless. That's what I keep saying. "Ohh, you want a milkbone? You were homeless...I'll just leave the box." I think I'll need to post a pic once I figure that out. She actually is losing weight at the moment so maybe I'll do a before/after pic set, and claim she was on trimspa.

Anyway, if I get into Berkeley I will have shared custody of said dog. Not to heap some more pressure on this. Maybe I'll bring her to my class visit. It would be hard to turn me down then, right? I mean for god's sake, she was homeless! How could they say no? I mean, they are supposed to be liberal right? That plan could go bad though, as she looks like a jackal, and her jaw is misaligned so her teeth get stuck on her lip, and she looks like she is growling a lot of the time. She is friendly as hell but I walk down the street and people yank their children off the sidewalk. Ladies cry. Big men, wearing work boots, flannel and dirt daintily leap to the side.

So I am currently gearing up to write a killer essay. It is all laid out in my mind... so ready to get started Saturday. Rec 3 should have arrived by now. The interview write up will be there too, my interviewer told me she would send it right away. They said the earliest I'd hear back is a month. I have this fantasy that they will admit me, but then see that I am on the schedule for a class visit, and tell me in person when I arrive. Then we all congo line around the admissions office, I have a big sombrero. Awesome.

Let-me-do-some-actual-work-now. Right after I do one last forum check.

2004-02-11T16:07:00.000-08:00

Back from the interview. It was pushed upto 5:30. So relaxed. It was fun really. I wanted to keep talking. I think I actually asked her more questions than she asked me. Totally laid back atmosphere, very friendly, chill interviewer.

Talking about Berkeley makes me want to go to Berkeley so frickin bad. I think they might have moved up to number 1. That's right. 1. Above Stanford. Like I'll really have that choice. I really think of it as a Haas vs Chicago example. I dunno which I'd pick. Berkeley I think.

Anyway, I feel good, now I am just nervous about writing and absolutely sparkling personal statement. I am looking for a literary achievement in the field on this one.

Saturday. Coffee House. Here I come.

2004-02-11T07:12:00.000-08:00

Today is the Day

Haas interview today. 6 45. Got on a brand new suit. Feeling good. If anyone reading this has had a Haas interview, please post some comments, tips... anything. Or email me -chunkypitbull@hotmail.com.

Accepted.com Haas interview reports totally suck.

Man, I really want in.

I have been reading the BW Chicago forum and it sounds like apps are down at UC this year, which should pump up the acceptance rate. I remember when I first bought the US News ratings, I think it was 2000, Chicago stood out among the top tier schools because the acceptance rate was 30%, and GPA was 3.3. It dropped to 15% last year of course, but it seems like maybe it is normalizing a bit. Good stuff to hear.

I made yet another change to my California trip... I am leaving Monday so I can attend a Haas class. Unless they ding me first, in which case I'll switch back. Uggh. This feeling in the pit of my stomach is starting feel normal. Like I have been on a first date for 5 months.

2004-02-10T10:39:00.000-08:00

Can't Take it.

Man, I am really starting to feel cagy about this whole Berkeley thing. I want in bad. There was this string on B Week forums where they were trying to apply a baseball batting analogy to admits, rejections and waitlists at various schools. My at-bat analogy for the Berkeley waitlist? You take Barry Zito's 2-1 pitch and knock it into the upper deck, just slightly foul. So you are still at bat. Everyone know you have some power, but are waiting to see if you have the finesse to get on base. The first strike is equivalent to one of the reviewers probably wanting to ding you. The balls are the other two that were in some favor. Next pitches are interview, recommendation, personal statement.

Problem is I suck at baseball. I struck out repeatedly playing softball a few years back. Crap. I should really choose my own analogy, one that I can really see myself sucessful at. So I take all that back. My Berkeley waitlist is really more akin to Pong on the Atari 2600. How so? Because I kick ass at that game, that's why. Wooo! I am so in. California here I come.

Haven't been too worried about Chicago lately, mainly because I feel helpless. Everything is done. Nothing more I can do. Just wait. Bleh.

Gave my boss recommender a gift for helping out with 5 long recommendations today. I ebayed everything. He's a big sports fan so I got him a Manchester United golf shirt, and a Yankees Program for 1953. It all went over very well. My only question is if it is really possible for me to have appeared to be kissing anymore ass in the office this morning. I think I set the bar pretty high. Whatever. Hopefully I am leaving anyway.

Just realized I have Monday off. That's just awesome. Add that I am seeing Mos Def Saturday night at the Blue Note, and you really have the makings of an awesome weekend.

Berkeley interview tomorrow... more excited than nervous. Poker game after.

2004-02-09T07:10:00.000-08:00

Back From Duke

Back from my trip to NC this weekend. I drove down Friday which a "wintry mix" extravaganza. I believe I travelled under the same terential downpour rain cloud the entire trip. What are the chances I just spelled "terential" correctly? Probably about the same as the chance that I made it in under 10 hours. Not likely.

But Saturday I woke up to clear, warm Carolina skies. Fuqua is literally one building, located on the corner of the Duke campus away from everything else. It was pretty nice though, as far as a building goes. They had a brand new student center, which I found fairly pleasant and impressive. 8 classrooms, 35 meeting rooms, cafe... c'est Fuqua.

The interview was more probing and intensive than my last one. -- Give three attirubutes about yourself, Talk about an instance when one was challenged. What role do you take on a team? Describe a situation when you acted that way. What will you find most challengin if you come to school here? ---It all took about 50 minutes. All in all, I don't think I did all that great. I answered the basics solidly (Career desc, Why MBA, Why Duke) but wasn't as strong when I was working on the fly. I am also not sure I built a great rapport with my interviewer.

I think my problem was, after arriving there, taking the tour, and walking around the rest of the campus, I really was not feeling like I had a fit. It was hard for me to step back and act completely like this is the school for me in the interview. And when you read about Duke, a top 10 school with a low yield, the fit and eagerness of the applicant is one of their top criteria, especially for the interview. So I walked away with a sense of semi failure. Also the semi feeling that I had rejected the school also. So it is kind of mutual failure. Glad I went though. Duke is very beautiful - small, gothic architecture. There is also a hint of entitlement around I picked up on a bit, and didn't really dig. I think I might be more of a public university kind of guy.

Team Fuqua - have you read about it? From what I can discern, all of the feelings they describe are real... everybody down there really has them. They are an extremely tight knit, small, collaborative community. Hell bent on helping each other, and the school succeed. Again, this is one of those things that I looked at, thought was pretty cool, but then again, just couldn't really feel or get into.

If Duke was the only joint I got into, I think I would still give it a shot. Otherwise, I think our relationship is pretty much over.

Got my Stanford application under review email. I expect that is the last I hear until March 31.

Berkeley recommendation got mailed today. Interview Wednesday. Will write the personal statement later this week, aim to get it mailed next Monday/Tuesday.

2004-02-05T13:31:00.000-08:00

Going to NC with one thing one my mind: California

Bummer huh? Going to DUke, can't get my mind off Berkeley. Crap, no real time to be writing this right now, but have to get it out, and everyone I know is sick of hearing about it.

So I leave for Duke tomorrow am. Still have to get the ol' Civic some new oil and a bit of air in the tires. At least I won't be bored by the drive alone... it seems I will spend at least 4 hours of my day off on conference calls. It's ok... I went to school in VA so I already have like 3/4 of this drive burned to memory. I am not going to "miss" any scenery.

But, all I am really thinking about is my CA trip later on. Have a new plan. Still flying into LA Weds night. Still interviewing on Thurs. But, instead of a cab back to the airport I am going to jump into a rental car and head up to SF for the weekend. I'll hit Berkeley and Stanford for a visit (no class :( ) and spend the rest of the weekend with ym best friend from high school, who just settled down in Vallejo CA. Yay. My Berkeley optimism is still stting me up for a huge letdown. Thinking about where I would live this morning. UGH. Cut it out now boy, I warn you.

Oh, and, I started thinking, as I have no savings, I better apply for some loans!! Any tips towards that end would be greatly appreciated.

Also, I bought yet another b-school book yesterday, causing a work friend to tell me I had a problem. Wall Street Journal seems a little cracked out. Stanford ranked #30? C'mon now. And it's funny, all of the "negative" ratings that they got have to do with things like elitist grads, and not wanting to leave CA. I mean, if all of there graduates are obnoxious that sucks, I would rather not hang out with obnoxious people and everything, but really, is that what you are gonna rate a business school on? Crap.

Also, please check out these sites for mindless drivel>

Yahoo most emailed . where your local news & howard stern get their news:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=index2&cid=964

Cruel.com > often very sick, twisted, entertaining. Blocked by my firewall, but if you check out google's cached version you can still get to the sites. Enjoy.

2004-02-04T11:15:00.000-08:00

Optimism

This mood is killing me. I actually feel like I have a shot at Berkeley. I am getting my interview and personal statement together in my head, and it sounds good to me. I asked an additional recommender, and she agreed.

My personal statement plan. I have some good stuff to talk about. Since I submitted my my Berkeley app, my marketing plan was submitted and approved. My programs are planned to account for a load of cash next year. So that sounds good. Then, I can also mention that I got a bonus. I'll leave out that I spent it on credit cards, atari, and a printer/scanner for my girlfriend who kinda can't stand me at the moment. Next, I started a new volunteer project with a new company. It totally ties into my whole entrepreneurial thing, and plays up my social responsibility committment too. The CEO is my new recommender. Last, I feel like I did a much better job of explaining my MBA desires in later essays, so, I want to offer that clarification PLUS add more about why Berkeley. I basically love Berkeley because I feel they have a good mix of general management excellence/entrepreneurial focus/social & corporate responsibility. So I am going with that.

But seriously, this feeling of optimism is kind of knawing at me. I was so resolved to the fact that Haas gave me an outright rejection, that it has taken a few days to really accept that I still have a chance at all. Now, I am looking at myself and thinking I have a good chance. To walk away with a ding now is like being the dude who gets kicked out of survivor the first night. I can placate myself by thinking that they gave me the WL strictly based on my GMAT quant score, and I won't be improving that. Then my optimism fades a bit. And I stop thinking about taking my pooch into the muir woods. Man that would be amazing.

And really, I have to get my stuff together for this Fuqua interview that will be staring me squarely in my 9.5 hour drive-tired eyes in a few days. The blue hills are beautiful too, I suppose.

You know what I really have to do? Some fricking work around here. Unless my title changed to "Personal MBA Admissions Consultant" and I picked up myself as a client, I think I may be slacking a bit.

A large congratulations to Future MBA Girl, who will hopefully solidify her place as Future Wharton MBA Girl after the interview she just got invited to.

2004-02-03T18:14:00.000-08:00

Set up my interview with my Haas alumni. She sounded incredibly nice. Hence, I'm not really worried about it at the moment. Anyone got any Haas interview tips or questions?

2004-02-03T09:15:00.000-08:00

So I am going to set up my interview for Haas... strangely enough, the alumni interviewer works for my company! I wrote the adcom and they said it was fine as long as we don't know each other, which we don't. The only thing a little strange to me about it is that our titles are the same. You don't really expect to be on equal footing of any sort with your interviewer. I'm really not sure that if this is all a good or a bad thing.

Looking forward to getting the hell out of dodge this weekend. Leaving Friday am, meeting up with a friend I grew up with who now lives in Raleigh. Going to meet his baby daughter. Saturday, Duke tour, interview, over at four. Then I am driving to Richmond to spend the night with my buddy from college. The only guy I have ever met named Forrest. That gump movie made his life hell for a few years. I am very psyched to see them both.

2004-02-02T12:24:00.000-08:00

I am probably over-reacting to my waitlist news today but I can't help it. It has me very very happy for the moment. The thing that has really got to me about this whole admissions process is the complete subjective nature of a b-school application. Numbers don't really mean anything. Your essays mean everything. A written description of your career and who you are is the main admission criteria. How much more subjective could the judgement an adcom passes down be?

So, when I approached the whole application process, I really had no idea if I was even in the ballpark. I thought maybe I was, but hell, I didn't go to an ivy, a lot of my experience was with start-ups... who the hell knows what they are going to think of that stuff?

So, while this is just a waitlist, it does mean that my app was in the top 22% or so of the R1 Berkeley applications. So finally, I have evidence that I am "in the Ballpark". For that matter, I'm currently in the Pac Bell parking lot, looking for a scalper. Or maybe I am in a canoe in the bay, waiting for a homerun to fall into my boat. I believe this is what they call "pushing the ballpark analogy" though.

I totally stole that last joke from Jerry Seinfeld. Sorry bout that.

And you know what's really great? Now I have a personal statement to work on! The last few days have been kind of strange. Sure, I tried to stress about my Duke interview, but it was no use, I really am not that worried about it. I tried to act angered that I had missed Janet Jackson's nipple show because I was walking my dog, but it didn't take... I don't really care. There was no reason to got to the cafe and drink too much coffee and write anything. Now I can pull it together. I need a new recommender (or two), another interview, a personal statement AND could I possibly have to worry about retaking the GMAT or a statistics course? So many choices. A smorgasbord of things to worry and be pessimistic about hath been laid at my feet. And you'll hear about all of them.

So 1. Accepted spot on waitlist. 2. Started scheduling interview. Was willing to travel to SF but the interviewer said that interviews were weighted equally so I took the alum option. Mistake? Don't know. Step 3. Don't know.

2004-02-02T09:20:00.000-08:00

You say I said something bad about Berkeley's admission process?

Hmmm. Are you sure it was me?

I think you may be mistaken. What do you mean it is right here on this page? I am on their waitlist I'll have you know.

Well that would just be stupid. I love their admissions process.

Now that's it. The nerve of you. Accusing me of having some kind of rant prepared to post today. Honestly.

Waitlist at Berkeley = temporary elation for Chunky Pitbull.

2004-02-02T07:19:00.000-08:00

Berkeley decision day and they still have not released any information. Grrrrrrr.

2004-01-30T09:30:00.000-08:00

Procrastination Break.

My sister is a psychic. Allow me to test my abilities today, as I move from procrastinator to prognosticator for a quick moment before the first decision comes back.

Berkeley - 100% Ding, no interview,waitlist, phone call or pat on the ass.
Stanford - I don't even expect to get the "Under Review" email.
Chicago - Waitlist. I provide additional rec, and admit.
Duke - Dinged
UCLA - I am going to go out on a limb and say admit. No Ding. Coin flip says: In.

Now, if I get everything totally correct I will be faced with another difficult decision: b-school, which b-school for that matter, or, should I try to be like John Edward?

Scheduled my trip to LA. March 3rd, I fly in, cab it to a cheap hotel ($56!). Thursday morning, interview at 10:30. Flight out at 3 o'clock. I'm not spending much time there. Is it because I have to go to work? Maybe. Or it could be that my girlfriend has forced me to watch the entire first season of The OC and I can't take anymore CA? Seth Cohen, your indeciveness has ruined LA for me in the short term.

Not really. I just have to work. It's like 9 frickin degrees here. I can't wait to add 70 degrees to that for a day. But seriously, I still hate the OC. But still, I have to wonder who Seth is going to bed with from last week's teaser. Not that I really care. I just think the boy should make a decision already. I'm going to go watch PBS now.

Congrats to Luvshack on the Yale SOM admission.

2004-01-29T07:00:00.000-08:00

Onto rejection.

I have been thinking about the upcoming Berkeley decision date, and truly, I believe their decision system is kind of crap.

Things I do not like:

1. If you are neurotic, like me, and then you go and sign up for the berkeley forum/message board where you can talk to the adcom, they send you a confirmation email to say you have signed up. The email comes from the Haas address... the subject line? "Welcome to the Haas School of Business!" That is crap.

2. Berkeley inteviewed 16% and accepted 13% of applicants last year. They sent this stupid "update" email to all applicants (providing yet another heartbeat-skip to the 84% waiting for an interview invite).

3. In the email it had this "admissions process explained" blurp. You follow the link and it describes the admissions process. It says it starts with tow reviewers reading your application. Then "If they both concur the application is uncompetitive, the admissions process ends there." Fine. But you know what they should add? "... although you won't know it has ended for another 2-3 months, during which time we will send you 2 newsletters". What the hell is the point of not telling non-competitive applicants? Anyone? I'd really like to know.

A couple years back I was really into this girl. So I started hanging out with her all the time. You know that scene in Austin Powers 2 where Fat Bastard uses the needle to steal Austin's mojo while he is in ice? Well, I believe a doctor might have taken mine by accident while attempting an amniotic fluid test on my mom back in the day. Hence, I never really made a move, and when I did, I made the brilliant choice of pouring my heart out in a letter. So I sent the letter and waited. The first few days I wondered if she got it yet. After four days I convinced myself she definitely got it. After a week I decided she definitely read it. Somewhere around two weeks I started wondering why she was taking so long. After three I knew her answer would be no, and finally, a month later, she met up with me and told me so. I was basically a total stressy-mess for that onth. This is exactly what Berkeley, Stanford, Wharton, Harvard do to their rejected applicants. Their is no real decision date for you. Somewhere in early January I started realizing I wasn't getting an interview invitation. It was a slow, painful realization to come to. That pain was totally uneccessary. It's like watching a football game on tape. I can't really get into it, the decision ahs already been made. Luckily, I can go to ESPN and see what the score was. However, when I go to the Berkeley website, the score says "Application Under Review, Please check back on or near your decision date." I think it's crap.

2004-01-28T22:20:00.000-08:00

I guess I am getting better.

Techically, it is Thursday the 29th, but I am going to go ahead and pretend it's not. Therefore, I got my application in a whole day early. Wooo. I got spooked by a BW post and decided to schedule an interview, so it looks like I am going to LA.

My chicago interview went swimmingly afer I pulled a same day cross-country round trip, so I am going to to it again for Anderson. March 4, I am in lala land. For a couple hours.

Going to bed now. Also want to say thank to Trip Enel for the nice comment on my post yesterday, and to Luvshack for posting my comment. I read and enjoy both of your blogs on the regular. I am sure anyone reading this knows about you already, so I'll skip the link to your sites. But seriously I started this thing so my girlfriend would have some partial relief from hearing me bitch about my b school apps. Knowing that folks are out there reading my thoughts and commiserating is very comforting. So thanks to anyone reading this.

Good night. I doubt I'll get another snow day so unfortunately, I'll have to go to work tomorrow.

2004-01-28T06:41:00.000-08:00

Snow day!

It's times like this that I am caused to believe that there is a god, and he has no problem with me not going to church since confirmation.

I thought my procrastination was inproving with the DUke app. y stuff was ready a full day ahead of time. But here I am with the UCLA app due tomorrow, and I have one essay not even started. And what did I do last night? Completely screwed around and got 0 work done. I also have some stuff to do for a volunteer project. Wish I could say I worked on that instead.

I have to interrupt myself. I just checked my Chicago application for the 187th time and my status has finally changed to "Completed: Your application is being reviewed by the admissions committee. You will receive a decision by March 19, 2004." Cool. I can stop worrying about being in Round 2 now. Just have to worry about being admitted in Round 2. Whatever. That's less worrying.

You know what I am oddly not to worried about? Stanford. Not in a I-will-get-in way, but in a no-chance-in-hell-way. When they were announcing the OScar nominations yesterday, I was not nervous at all. I wasn't in the running. If I had been nominated, I'd frankly be very shocked, as the notion hadn't really crossed m mind. Such is my Stanford application.

Here is a list of non-career related bonuses I will get for each school should I go there:
Stanford or Berkeley: Will live with girlfriend
UCLA: Will be forced to buy motorcycle.
Duke: Will be forced to buy shitty car.
Chicago: Will be forced into small, shitty apartment.
No where: Will be forced into depression.

Ok. Now I will actually go get to work on theis fricking essay.
Ugh.

2004-01-27T07:48:00.000-08:00

Just want to mention that I just bought an Atari 2600 to fill my time once this last app is due.

I was inspired by this site:

http://www.tripletsandus.com/80s/80s_games/arcade.htm

Particularly awesome... Pitfall!

http://www.langleycreations.com/pitfall/

2004-01-27T07:26:00.000-08:00

Last night I rented the Shining. I think ignoring that I have to write an essay due Thursday was probably the scariest part about the whole thing, except for those two little girls. They totally freak me out. I am completely scared of ghosts. I admit it. If I lived alone, I probably would have had trouble going to sleep. Luckily, my girlfriend and dog were around, although my dog was totally freaked out by the movie also. I think the music go to her.

So it is supposed to snow a hell of a lot today. I am considering taking tomorrow off to finish up the essay. Also hoping to get feedback on my other two essays from my sister and brother in law. I heard through my mother that they are both very busy this week though.

While I am sharing my worries, let me also point out that my recommenders, who share my sincere affinity for procrastination, have yet to log in to the UCLA website. I sent another reminder, pleading with them to do the rec by tomorrow, because UCLA sent an email out which pretty much said their site will crash on Thursday, so don't plan on getting your app in that day.

I am also busy planning my trip to Duke for my interview. I have a friend in NC and a friend in VA, so I think I am going to pay them both a visit. Looks like I will be going alone though, as it is looking like it wouldn't be too much fun for the girlfriend and the pooch.

Chicago - no change in status. Berkeley - No change in status. Stanford - No change in status. Duke - no change in status. God damn it. I just want to hear something from anybody at this point. Almost looking forward to the Berkeley ding. At least its feedback.

Oh well.

2004-01-26T07:43:00.000-08:00

Not entirely feeling it.

I did not spend as much time on these essays as I should have this weekend. I now have 2/3 of the UCLA's near finished - just have to get edits back, clean up and they are good. However, essay #1, "Describe you personal history" , I have neither words on paper or an ingenious angle to take. It will probably be crap. Need an essay by tomorrow to get edits in time.

Really, I am sick of writing essays. Sick of thinking about decisions. Sick of wondering if I am moving next year or not, and if so where, and if I have to go on any more interviews and when I'll find out and if I am a clear deny , did my GMAT quant 42 screw me, who will tak ethe dog, my girlfriend or I, did I apply to the right schools, what the hell am I gonna do if I get dinged everywhere, how the hell am I going to possibly make it through the next 2 months without some kind of an ulcer. CRAPPPPPP.

Current worries:
1. Did Chicago get my 2nd transcript with their special form, and am I in round 2.
2. Did Stanford get my late recommendation, and if so, my application be used as toilet paper.
3. UCLA essay #1
4. UCLA recs
5. Duke interview.
6. General Chicago rejection.

Non MBA
1. Girlfriend situation.
2. Pitbull situation.

2004-01-23T07:10:00.000-08:00

BONUS.

I got my bonus today. This is the first time I have really been struck by the whole salary-deferred idea concerning the true cost of business school. This is my first large corporation job, and my first large-corporation bonus. I was seriously a little shocked. It's not exactly like winning the lottery I guess, but close enough for me. I am referring more to a scratch off kind of lottery win, btw. It is the most money I have ever gotten all at once, even after they take half of it to help rebuild Iraq. I guess it will make it a little brighter if I get quinti-dinged. Yet, a little harder if I get in. I am really not too concerned about depression if I get in thoguh, I must admit.

On a kind-of-downer note, all this money will actually do is help me nearly pay off my credit card. Which makes me happy. Not, go out and but a plasma TV for the superbowl happy, but happy, nonetheless.

No progress on any application.

2004-01-22T12:17:00.000-08:00

It looks like UCLA essays will have to be created in the same set of environmental conditions which gave rise to the rest: Saturday morning in a coffee house in Brooklyn. I wanted to get started at work but it jsut is not happening. NOt nervous though. Strange. 1 essay to tweak. 1 to put down on paper. And 1 to craft. Somehow I just feel that they will be kick ass. If I go to LA, I am getting a motorcycle. That's my little deal with myself.

I am driving myself crazy otherwise. Can I possibly look at the BW forums 20 times a day for the next two and a half months? I don't think so. It's kind of neat to see people post who just got into Stanford. Can you imagine. Damn... a call from Derrick Bolton sounds better than a call from Jesus. Or the Beatles for that matter. Myself, I have pretty much assumed a Stanford no-interview ding. I could have bought a playstation with that money. Weird... I go to Vegas and don't care to gamble, but here I throw the $200 down on this app that likely has about as much chance of being read approvingly as Howard Dean's Iowa speech.

I want to throw down some advice now which I think most who have gone through this process would agree with. Do not apply to your favored schools first. It's a bitch, but you are going to waste an application or two just getting your shit together. So don't make it the school you really really want.

I hate waiting.

2004-01-20T13:15:00.000-08:00

Heyy heyyyyy!

Just submitted the Fuqua application, with 45 minutes to spare. Got my rec, the rest was done and SUBMIT!

THat moment is always so stressful. My apps have gone through with typos before. It sucks. After you hit that button, its over, no more changes, just forget it. I refuse to look at the printout anymore... if I see a typo or mispelling I'll get nauseous.

So, onto UCLA, which is due next Thursday. Have no creative direction yet for Essay #1, Essay #2 written in my head, and #3 needs a tweak. Submitting one of my Fuqua essays as a #4 for UCLA, it talks about my volunteering, and I have a feeling that will play nicely with them. Plus it is creatively written, which they seem to like.

So, after that I will have 5 completed, best I can present apps, an accomplishment in itself. My fear, as is the fear of most applicants, is that I will get dinged EVERYWHERE. That would suck, truly, as I really do not want to go through this app process again. As a hobby, it truly sucks donkeys. Plus, I feel I have reached such a clarity in my answer to why MBA?, why now? that I deserve to fulfill my mission. No bullshit either, I really believe in my reasons, the skills I desire contacts and the like. That belied will make it that much worse if I get dinged 5x.

On that note, I may scrap the Harvard app due to the slim chance I have of making a successful bid. Stanford,Berkeley got apps against my better judgement because I want to live in SF to be with my girlfriend. I expect a rejection though. I was able to build a true belief in my chances when I wrote my essays, and I believe they are confident, however, I am not. 7.9%! WTF. I really wonder how so many people can think they measure up. I wonder that, but I am one of the 92 people in the room sent home. If I get an interview, there is a god, and he loves pitbulls.

I am alos holding onto the hope that I will get waitlisted at Berkeley. I really don't think I am getting in, but, a WL would give me some confidence towards some of my other apps. So far, I think Chicago is still my strongest application... the essays really came together for that one, and my interview was excellent. Wondering if my quant is really a problem? GOt an A in calc, but that was on repeat forgiveness, and only a 42 on the GMAT, 66%. Please, just make me take some classes.

2004-01-18T17:47:00.000-08:00

I really feel like I am hitting my stride with this. Not that I have gotten in anywhere, nor am I totally conifent that I will. But that I feel like I am churning out quality essays now. They represent my best, be it good enough for a Top 20, 10 or 5 school.

Fuqua essays are in really good shape. Strange, I sent them off for edits and was most worried about #3, "Who are you" as it was all new material. Nobody touched it. Everyone liked it. Btw, I have to point out that my girlfriend is also an excellent literary editor, and I had not given her recognition for that in my prior post. Number 1... a recap of my career, came back loaded with edits, which sucks, as it was submitted as is for Berkeley. Damn I hope I can get my foot in the door on the waitlist there. I feel like an interview would really help.

But anyway, Fuqua. Sent the essays out Thursday for edits, and got word back last night. Spent this morning at the coffee house working on them, and, with the help of aforementioned girlfriend, I think they are ready togo. All are a few words over, but close. Fedex goes out tomorrow with my transcript (got it!), boss gives rec on Tuesday, I submit, et fini. Disco. I might be off to the South again. I am visiting for an interview in early February, so I will see how I feel after that. I ave seen the campus, it really looks like Princeton.

Should I try to put in a Harvard app for the third round?

2004-01-16T13:38:00.000-08:00

I just want to say, after have communicated with adcom staff from both Stanford and Chicago re application issues, Chicago people are 10x nicer. I thought Californians were supposed to be friendly?

2004-01-16T07:53:00.000-08:00

I am kind of a freak. I hope that after I get DUke and UCLA apps in I stop obsessing so much. Last night my application disappeared for the Chicago portal for like an hour, while it was changing status to "processing". Why do I know this? Because I check it incessantly. I have to stop.

Duke. My transcript with Duke's form sealed in the envelope did not come yesterday. CRAP! My school said that they sent Duke & Chicago on the same day, and I got CHicago Monday. Why can't anything just go to frickin plan??? So I emailed Duke to see if they really NEED that, or if a sealed transcript would be ok. I hope it is. For Chicago too, as since I just got it, Chicago didn't.

Got my Duke essays in much better shape, and sent them out to family for comments. Paralyzed until I get them back. I am extremely lucky to have a supportive, wonderful family. They have put in a lot of time helping me out with my essays... I feel like I have a team of professionals working with me. My brother-in-law helps me focus on key topics - he's a Harvard MBA. My sister, a Harvard educated lawyer combine with my other sister and my mom, English teachers, to help with style, flow, and grammar. It's weird. I scored 98% on the verbal GMAT, but I could give a crap to apply the rules to my writing when I get going.

2004-01-15T08:14:00.000-08:00

Arg. I am pretty much in a constant state of anxiety. Yesterday, I attempted to get this last damned Fuqua essay done, with limited results. There are three essays. For #1, which is supposed to be 500 words (a complete recap of my career!) I have 750. For the last one, the wide open "Who are you?", I have decided on an angle that has so far peppered the paper with 500 words. Quality? I have not got to proofreading yet. Bleh.

Chic GSB site still says my app has not been processed. Freaking out a bit because I did not get their transcript request for in the sealed envelope, it is paper clipped to it. Oh well. I deserve what I get.

I snowed in NY last night. It was beautiful. The night was very cold, so the snow was rela fluff - the kind that sparkles on the ground. Not so lovely after an eighteen wheeler splashes it on your windshield, but , whatever, it goes with the season.

I wish I had gotten in more R1 apps. As it stands, I do not know how the hell I will make it to mid-march without a decision. I am a total stress case. I hope perhaps after Fuqua and UCLA are in (Tuesday, and the 29th, respectively) I will be able to relax. Still debating with myself over the prospect of a Harvard application. If I get dinged every else though, god will I be hopeless.

2004-01-14T09:20:00.000-08:00

In more atypical Blog style, I'd like to recap my quest for the MBA.

The GMAT.

I decided I wanted to go the MBA route in 2000, but thought 2004 would be the time. However, I really didn't want GMAT pressure side-by-side with essay pressure, so I decided to get it out of the way. Saved some cash, and signed up for the Princeton Review without ever attempting the test.

The course basically motivated me not to lose my $1000. So I did all the homework, which is massive, and my score went up. First test was a 590. In the end I got a 700. 5.0 AWA

Problem wiht the score is that I got a 44 Verbal - 98%, and a 42 quant.... da da da, 69% . I guess we'll see how that fares.

Does anybody else have scores like this? Ug, and yay, but... ug.

So far I have Berkeley R1, Stanford, Chicago R2, and just about done with Duke R3 (Jan 20) and UCLA R3 (Jan 29). Harvard is a maybe depending on my sanity, and if I want to give up my new hobbies: aggrovated essay writing and a bad attitude.

Further Background on my current angina.

My girlfriend is from San Francisco. She moved to NY to go to school. She applied because of me. She moved because of me. She finishes up in May... it was a one year program. She desperately wants to go back home, she hates NYC. Whereever I go, she is going there come June. I have told her I will give SF a chance, at least for the time she put into NY. But really if I end up with her SF isn't for a year, the girl won't live in NY. While that may say something about our relationship, I really don't want to get into that. So, I applied to the impossible bay area schools. Berkeley has all but dinged me, and there's a 92% chance Stanford will do the same. So, I am freaking out. I don't want to be without her or my dog, but it looks like that is an inevitability. So, now I just want to know where the fuck I am going to be. And if I get in no where, how the hell do I find an internet marketing job in SF that will increase my chances of b-school next year AND pay me 70K? Not very likely. Crap. Such is my dilemma.

2004-01-13T12:05:00.000-08:00

Chicago

As I started this blog at the last minute, this will of course lack some of the spontanaety of a typical blog. However, the lack of 800 complaint posts is probably ok. So. Chicago.

Chicago was due the same week Stanford. However, for Chicago, I had to send in paper recommendations. I was a little worried because my recommender had missed my Stanfrod deadline, however, she has been reliable in the past and said to me on Monday that "She will get it there, no problem, that's what friends are for." It was supposed to arrive fedex on Thursday, and I was going to overnight it for Friday.

Tuesday. Essays are near done, but will need a night of work. I then find out I have to go to Tempe Thursday. ACK. (I am in NYC). I have the Chicago alumini interview scheduled Friday at 3. I have 0 recommendations. I have a dog at home and my girlfriend is out of town. So, I :

Set up a fedex envelope and leave instructions for my friend at work. He is to: Get rec#1 from our mutual boss, put it in, then get the fedex from my ex boss, open it, put rec #2 in, and send it off.

Get a flight leaving 7 am from Newark, and a return flight for 1145 arriving 6 am. I live in Brooklyn an hour away.

Get the dogwalker to come three times and convince my downstairs neighbor to take my pooch overnight.

THURSDAY
Everything goes to plan, except, I have no 2nd recommendation. I am near tears. I break out of a meeting and call Chicago. (BTW, I should mention my frantic calls and emails to my recommender are ignored.) They say that the supplemental materials only need be postmarked, not received. I think by some miracle, maybe she thought this is what I meant, and that the recommendation would arrive Friday. I feel relieved.

FRIDAY
We have 2 fedex deliveries at work. Most stuff comes in the morning. I get home at 7 am, go to bed, wake at 11. Call work. No fedex. I don't even feel like going to the interview. I think 3rd round at Chicago is impossible.. not sure but. I feel defeated. Get ready for the interview. My friend is on the IM, so I begin to whine and bitch. She recommends her husband write me a rec. I say I need someone who I have worked with. She reminds me that in a freelance capacity, I have worked with her husband (a creative director at a hotshot nyc firm) in every position I've had. Not only that, but his office is virtually next to my interview. I call him, he agrees.

I nailed the interview. It really couldnot have gone better, as the alumni was practically a mirror of my experience (start-up marketing guy with an entrepreneurial focus now working in financial services). We hit it off.

Anyway, I pick up the recommendation, get in the car, and head for my job in Jersey, put it in the envelope and send it off fedex, 20 minutes before the fedex pick up. Now that's procrastination.

The call with my recommender to come...

2004-01-13T06:41:00.000-08:00

Fuqua.

I just got off the phone with my registrar. They did receive my transcript request and mailed it yesterday... so I should actually have it on time for the Tuesday Duke deadline. Now if I can just get an idea for Essay #3. "Outside of your professional persona, who are you?" Good god this is an unimaginitive question. This totally would not fly on a date... you'd be like "What do you mean?" or "What do you want to know?". I fear this answer will not fly here, as it would not qualify as an essay, even though it is technically less than 750 words. Mother-Fuqua.