Sunday, April 27, 2008

Class of 2011 Blogging Community

I know it's been a week and I still haven't posted the second half of my Columbia visit. Apologies! I will get to that I promise but I just wanted to take this post to say that I feel excited to be welcomed by the class of 2011 bloggin community. The other day I actually got a couple comments on my posts which made me happy. But even more amazing, I saw that 3 other applicant blogs actually posted links to my blog. Unbelievable that anyone else would think my blog worth linking to, I was so honored.

So I want to give a shout-out to Soni, HappyBunny, and V2b!!!

Who'd a thunk it? I feel bad that I don't have any links so I think I'll be adding a section soon to link to other informative and worthwhile blogs. Those 3 plus Samantha's Best MBA Blog Ever are the 4 that I follow somewhat regularly. I've never blogged before so it's really quite cool how I do indeed feel a sense of welcome and acceptance from our lil community. And fortunately, it's a bit different than the feel of the BW forums.

Also, a sidenote: a Columbia student who is graduating this May just created an excellent post on BW forums entitled "what's wrong with Columbia?" or something similar (his username is "mbaCBS"). He illuminates many reasons why Columbia may be a poor fit (from a student's perspective) in a very sensible, non-troll-like manner. Some of the things he cites are the bureacratic administration, commuter student body (especially on weekends), the crappy cafeteria in Uris Deli, and the hit-or-miss quality of professors. Definitely worth a read. Good thing for me that the need to be in NY overrides all that. I don't need a ton of friends, just a few non-commuter ones will be good enough to help establish my NY social circle and network. I don't know how much the administration will actually effect someone like me but the deli isn't that much of a concern. I eat like crap anyway and you can always go off-campus in a pinch. The professor problem is an oft-cited one and definitely a concern as they can really make or break the quality and happiness of your education... I guess I'll have to research my professors for 2nd year and pray for 1st year Core profs! :P

14 comments:

Unknown said...

hey there, you might wanna try to add your blog in Hella's list.. it will definitely bring more traffic to your blog! :)

Good luck with Columbia! :)

TienyChesney said...

aww, thanks for the good wishes, good advice, and smiley faces :P where is this Hella's list you speak of?

Unknown said...

http://hella.opencoder.org/mba-applicant-blogs/

and welcome to the MBA applicant blogger community!

Anonymous said...

I would format a 3.66 as a 3.6 if you only wanted to show one decimal. Would you format a 3.98 as a 4.0?

TienyChesney said...

thanks, curliest of bees!

hey hella, all i can say is "yikes!" cuz I would indeed format a 3.98 as a 4.0... i actually wouldn't have even thought twice. oh man, guess i'm just gonna use 3.66 now. different strokes for different folks right? :D

John said...

The commuter school thing is not accurate, at least if you are looking at full-time CBS...there are plenty of folks who live near and around school. Should not be an issue.

-J-term Johnny

http://j-term-johnny.blogspot.com

Soni said...

Thanks for reciprocating my link :) As for the CBS post, yes it was a good post, but there's a few other top schools that students would have similar complaints about. Maybe CBS has a higher percentage of NYC-based students who have their established lives, but there are hundreds of students who are from out of town that you can bond with.
As for the hit-or-miss professors, is there any school where 100% of the professors are a hit?

TienyChesney said...

Hey J-Term Johnny! Hola Soni!

You guys are of course right about the commuter school thing. I don't see it being much of a problem either cuz so many students will be living really close to campus regardless of their previous network... if anything, that means I'll be meeting even more new people, right? :P So yeah, I am into the close-knit feel factor that some schools have, but not nearly enough to sacrifice the NY location.

The hit-or-miss professor thing bothers me slightly more though cuz it can really make or break your academic experience. I know it happens everywhere to an extent- I just wish it didn't come up so often at Columbia! hehe

Urban Frolicker said...

Hi Hi, I just started blogging about this process too... would you mind if I linked to your blog from my page? Good luck, and fun blog!

Urban Frolicker said...

Eesh, socially awkward? I feel Northwestern suddenly replacing Chicago as my #1. Thanks for the info!

Mo Zhou said...

hi veggie, thanks for the shout out. Do you know if people use this year's topic to start on essays for early decision?

TienyChesney said...

Hey Happy,

Are you Columbia ED!? I thought you were RD. Must read more carefully in the future :) I've heard mixed answers from the adcom (i've asked three different people) on whether you can use this year's essays so I wouldn't risk it. They said sometime in July it'll be released (I suspect early-mid July due to Harvard pushing the schedule). However, they said the most important essay is #1 which will NOT change. So the strategy is to start brainstorming that one if you can (it's the typical Why MBA? Why Now? Why Columbia? question)

Samantha said...

thanks for the nice words! I like your blog too. Columbia is definitely great but I'm ready to leave the city for a spell. We'll see how I feel in another year though.

And oddly enough, I also have a 3.66 but say 3.7 on my resume. Rounding numbers up is perfectly normal and being so detailed makes more sense when you're right out of undergrad. I don't consider it necessary once you're in your mid-20s. Good luck!

theincarnated said...

Hey veggie..... gr8 posts on columbia........ jus keep em comin....... cool blog you have..... added to my list.....