Two week recap - Chicago, Wharton, HBS

It’s been a while since my last post so I have a ton to report.

For starters, I went to the Chicago GSB’s open house and it was absolutely fabulous! I had already known that Chicago was a perfect match from a career goals and curriculum perspective, but after the open house it was clear that it was a good fit in terms of the culture of the program as well. As usual, what made it great were the people. The current students, particularly the members of AAMBAA and HABSA, were very open and welcoming. The admissions staff was friendly and candid in discussing the strengths and weaknesses of some sample applications that we reviewed. We had dinner at the home of one of the Nobel Laureates on staff (Prof Fogel) and after that kicked it at a lounge with the members of AAMBAA and HABSA. All in all, it was great weekend and was well worth the trip. I encourage anyone thinking of applying to b-school to go check out their target programs open houses; they are invaluable as a source of info for your essays and in finding out if you really want to be there or not. With the info I gathered at the GSB event, I feel like I can put together an even more compelling application. As such, I've decided to delay my Chicago and Kellogg apps until the second round.

The following Tuesday I was back in Chicago for a Wharton Diversity session at Goldman Sachs. The entire event ran about two to three hours and consisted of a presentation, an alumni panel and some Q&A afterward with the alumni and admissions directors. The session was great, particularly talking with some of the alumni panel members. The admissions folks were cool too. Since I had already submitted my Wharton app, most of my questions centered on what to expect during the admissions interview (hopefully that wasn’t too presumptuous of me). Based on what the admissions folks covered I think I did a good job on the application. The thing about my top four schools (Chicago, HBS, Kellogg and Wharton) is that you can count on everybody coming with strong applications: great stories, solid scores, solid LOR’s etc. At the end of the day you have to just put to together the best possible app and hope for the best. That’s something I learned from track and field- focus on your own race; don’t worry about what the guy in the next lane is doing.

Finally, this past weekend I went out to HBS for their prospective student day. Unlike the other events I've attended this one seemed to be almost entirely student-run; I didn’t get a whole lot of interaction with the admissions folks at all. Aside from this though, the event was great. The students again were very welcoming and helpful. Again, I had already submitted my HBS app so I was less focused on application questions and more on interview questions (there I go again assuming I’m getting an interview). From an interview perspective, the feedback was inconclusive: some of the folks I talked to said their interview was cool and laid back, some said it was pretty tough with hard questions about their application and the decisions they made in their career thus far. There was an application tips and strategies session and I almost wish I hadn’t gone. From what they discussed I feel like I covered all my bases in my essays but the session left me wishing I had focused on a few other areas of my story and even wishing that I had gone a different direction on the first essay question. Let this be a lesson to all of you- once you submit your app don’t even look at it again; it’s out of your hands and it makes no sense driving yourself crazy thinking about what you should have done differently. Still, I’m lowering my HBS expectations from “Cautiously optimistic” to “hopeful”.

Next up is Kellogg on 11/10. By then my essays for both Chicago and Kellogg should be close to final and by then I should have some idea of if I’ll be interviewing at my two east coast schools. Fingers crossed.

Laters.