MBA Veggie: The Journey of a Fall 2009 Columbia Incoming Student

byebye blackberry

2009-05-25T22:53:00.002-04:00

So my Blackberry Curve died this weekend in NY... even though it's been under a year, AT&T's warranty won't cover it because they said I damaged the "charging port" myself. Yeesh. So apparetly my options are 1) pay $400 to upgrade to a new AT&T blackberry, 2) pay $300 to get a new AT&T phone of the same model, 3) pay $190 to RIM for an exchange of a refurbished phone, or 4) pay $230 to RIM for repair. Ugh.

I'm going with option 5 instead and asking if anyone has an old (yet functional) blackberry that they'd like to send or sell me. Bonus points if the phone used to have AT&T as the carrier (cuz then we don't have to get the carrier to "unlock" the phone). You generosity is appreciated!

And yes, I understand this is the most blatantly off-topic post I've written ;)

Eyeroller

2009-05-20T23:38:00.005-04:00

We had another informal happy hour this monday in DC... except this time, it was a joint one along with admits from 2 other top b-schools! I won't bore you with needless details but it was very fun. There were even nametags! And I met the cat known as Soni! Cool guy, cool blog, but unfortunately I will have to crush him at basketball too (I've been playing very well the last week or two). I bet you all are jealous that I've met Soni, HappyBunny (remember her!?), and Samantha. And I might catch up with D.G. in London for a pint too! BTW, I will no longer be going to Paris for my 8-day mini-trip starting May 30. Due to time restrictions, I'm going to visit Brussels instead... that way I can still save my impression of Paris for my honeymoon :)

I just purchased a new laptop yesterday. It came down to the Samsung Portege A605 and the Lenovo Thinkpad X200. In the end, I went with the Lenovo. I've always hated Dell (due to past experiences) and Sony was way overpriced. Lenovo was a bit expensive too but I've had a great experience with them after using a T61 issued by my company for the past 19 months. The laptop's tiny, lightweight, very fast, and has superb battery life. There's no touchpad but I plan on using a mini travel mouse. Also, I need to get an external dvd/cd drive but that's okay cuz I never use the darn thing anyway. The Samsung looked hot and was even smaller and lighter but durability concerns scared me away (along with the slower processor) despite its much cheaper price tag.

For Memorial Day weekend, I really wanted to go to Montreal... I thought I'd be willing to go alone but the airfare only came down in price today! AFTER I had already decided to go home to NY and see some old friends instead (not many CBS people this trip). No sweat though.

There are still 26 (or maybe 27) work days left before I'm free... the countdown continues.

Happy Hour, Asia, Europe, and Roomies!

2009-05-09T00:52:00.004-04:00

Last night was yet another informal CBS happy hour organized by one of my classmates. It was in DC on the Georgetown waterfront. We had a decent turnout with about a dozen people and one classmate even brought a couple friends of his who are prospectives for next season's application cycle. We started on the waterfront and then moved to a typical Georgetown bar to drink some more and eat some food. Afterwards, the six of us who remained went to another bar for some bad dancing ;) Interestingly enough, I believe some sparks may have flown between 2 classmates (if mine and another classmate's interpretation of the body language was correct). I won't start any rumors though hehe. I did not, however, anticipate getting home at 3 am which explains why I'm staying in tonight.

Oh, and a tidbit of sad news. It looks like I won't be getting a merit scholarship. My hopes weren't up but still, I have the best applicant blog of the year (supposedly)! Surely that's worth at least a 3k scholarship right? I'm not asking for much when the tuition's already 47k per year! Scholarships haven't officially stopped being released yet but it's winding down for sure and it's looking very bleak now. Aye.

I'm moving my resignation date from July 3 to July 1. Slowly getting there. It stinks though because I'm supposed to be slacking more (if that's possible) yet I'm actually working harder now. I'm on a new project and the people are nice so I don't want to let them down. Arrgh. Too bad they don't stink like my current managers, in which case I wouldn't mind letting them down just a little :P

The reason I'm leaving on July 1 is because I'm strongly considering (80% likely) going with classmates on the CBS Pre-MBA World Tour to Hong Kong and Macau which starts on July 1. I would then be a day late but it'd still be fun. It's a shoe-in because I'm spending the next two weeks of July in Beijing (and surrounding cities) with my parents so I might as well leave a few days early and see two huge metropolises that are nearby. I'm 75% likely to join the World Tour again immediately afterwards for the Russia leg. That means I'll be gone all of July (literally). The cool thing is that one of my CBS roomies next year is helping lead the Russia leg which lasts a week. It'll be a good bonding experience and I'll meet some new peeps. Plus, I probably wouldn't see Russia otherwise.

The other great news is that I've finalized my roommates for next year! They're both CBS classmates and we've been talking about it for a while now... but now it's pretty certain. It's one guy and one girl and we actually complement each other very well. Our personalities are a bit different (in a good way) but we're all clean and responsible and fun. They're a couple of my fav people in the class and I'm not just saying that- this I knew before any roomie talk occured. We don't have a place lined up yet as it's far too early for the Manhattan real estate market but I'm very optimistic. We plan on living right in Morningside Heights within walking distance of campus. Sweet!

Lastly, I'm 85% (I love assigning probabilistic values don't I?) going to Western Europe for the first time in my life later this month for 8 or 9 days. It's embarassing that I haven't been yet and I'm already in my mid-20's! I can't wait any longer and it doesn't look like I'll have much more time this summer so I might as well do it while still employed since I still have a few vacation days left. I'm thinking in 8 or 9 days I can only see 2 or 3 cities max. I definitely want to go to London (for 4 days maybe) and Amsterdam (for 2 days)... that means I still have 2 or 3 days for another city. Any suggestions for this rookie? I feel like Lisbon, Madrid, and Barcelona should be done together at some other time and I feel like the various Italian cities should be done on their own too (rather than squeezing them all into one short trip). I'm intrigued by Stockholm and Prague and Berlin too. Darkhorses (but not really) are Antwerp and Brussels. But I feel like the obvious choice is Paris due to proximity to London and Amsterdam. My one concern is that it's supposed to be such a magically romantic city that I don't want to ruin my first time by going alone as a backpacker. Much rather go there for my future honeymoon. I've finally put up a new poll on the right side of the blog so please let me know which city should be my 3rd destination. I'd appreciate it! Oh, and there's a chance I get to meet up with one old high school friend and one CBS classmate but both are very tentative. Sooo if you want to meet up in Europe in one of my cities from May 30 to June 7, let me know!

So I guess my immediate future looks like this...

May 30-June 7: Psuedo-backpacking in London, Amsterdam, and ?
July 1: Last day of work!
July 2-7: CBS World Tour in Hong Kong & Macau
July 8-23: Beijing and random Chinese cities with parents
July 24-31: CBS World Tour in Russia (Moscow and St. Petersburg)
Aug. 1-6: Move to Morningside Heights!

P.S. I also discovered a new ab workout which I am very optimistic about :)

Open House II, Sydney, and Retirement

2009-05-02T21:32:00.001-04:00

Long time no blog! I’ve been incredibly busy the past couple weeks and there’s a lot to mention so I’ll aim for brevity.

Of most interest is probably CBS’ Open House II on April 17-18. I already posted about the first Open House (which I loved) and had some reservations about taking a 4+ hour bus ride from DC to NY for more of the same ole same ole. However, rumors were flying about the Bloomingdale’s reception (CEO is an alum) and potential goody bags. The choice was easy after hearing that! I was originally going to Australia for vacation but postponed my trip by a week for the Open House… I know that sounds like an insane decision to some but it was an easy one for me.

I am incredibly happy I went. It was a blast. It was a lot more relaxed and fun the second time. Not that the first time was stuffy or anything (because it wasn’t), but the second time seemed so much easier and familiar. There were tons of familiar faces which was good! Acquaintances became friends… and friends became lovers (j/k about the second one). Some of the panels were different but CBS did a great job of trying to mix it up a bit. Highlights included a great welcome speech by the CEO of Coach as well as some great informal (aka student-organized) post-event happy hours. Sadly, the financial crisis made an appearance and no goody bags were given out at the Bloomies reception. This was a disappointment to most admits as news of the goody bags (received by previous incoming classes) had circulated pretty well. Can’t complain too much though. BTW, I hope the student happy hours are even half as good as the ones that have been informally organized by my future classmates. The thing about living in DC (well, one of the many things I guess) is that I can’t attend most of the events in NY. That really eats me up because that’s all I really want to do these days is go out with my classmates. NY already had another cocktail hour a week ago and on May 15, sixty (yes, 60) are doing a CBS-alum-owned steakhouse & bar hopping. Jealousy.

Also interesting is that CBS and Stern planned their open house schedules together. CBS started Friday morning and ended at Saturday 3pm. Stern started on Saturday 3pm and went until Sunday evening. Nice teamwork, guys!

The day after Open House, I took a 23 hour flight (and that’s direct too!) to Australia. I left NY on Sunday evening and arrived in Oz on Tuesday morning! Crikey. It was an amazing time though. The first 5 days I actually flew again (ugh) to New Zealand’s South Island and did a quick tour of the major spots (Christchurch, Queenstown, etc.). Queenstown in particular is suh-weet though most of it was a little too scenic if you know what I mean (read: boring). The week I was actually in Sydney was the exact opposite. I spent 2 days doing the tourist stuff like Sydney Opera House, Harbour Bridge, the Rocks, Darling Harbour, Chinatown, etc. I even re-visited my old university where I studied abroad, University of New South Wales, and my old apartment/neighborhood, Bondi Beach. The rest of the time I partied my face off. On 2 of the nights I went out with 2 friends who I knew from my study abroad days (5 years ago! thank goodness for facebook). The other nights I was on my own but I was determined to meet people. Living in a hostel made it easy especially if it’s a great one like YHA. I met tons of backpackers and had a particularly fun 2 nights in the Sydney suburb of Newtown. It used to be a blue-collar area but now it’s becoming indie, alternative, and cool. Downtown Sydney was also fun and even tried Oxford Street (no jokes from those in the know please).

The best part of it was that I felt so independent. It’s an empowering feeling to know that you can go somewhere by yourself and make friends spontaneously and have ridiculous fun for a week straight. Backpackers are my new favorite people! Sorry, hipsters. As one of the few people left on this continent who has not visited Western Europe, I’m heavily considering doing a mini tour for 3 weeks this summer on my own if I can’t find anyone else. They have to be backpacker-friendly places though- preliminary agenda to include London, Amsterdam, Paris, Berlin… ? Or maybe I should actually do some research first.

Also, if you can see the graphic on the right side of the page, then you know I’ve won Clear Admit’s Best of Blogging award for the best applicant blog of the season. I actually found out when I got a text message from a future classmate while I was at a punk dive bar with backpackers in Newtown! It’s a bit crazy to think that my blog was originally spawned as a way to keep me focused (a bit too focused some would say) on my goal. I know that the graphics suck and that my posts are too long but I’m really happy if this has helped some people in any way. I try not to mention specific consulting companies in my posts (don’t want to seem like an advertising tool) but I really do appreciate Clear Admit’s generosity.

That said, this blog has run its course and will likely be fazed out in the coming weeks. I’ll still keep it online but updates will eventually trickle into nothingness. Not sure if I’m up for posting a student blog next year yet (due to the time constraints) but in the meantime, feel free to send any and all questions before I become defunct. Maybe I can do a “mailbag” post soon!

DC Happy Hour

2009-04-03T11:49:00.002-04:00

On thursday night, I attended an informal CBS happy hour in DC for the local admits. This was an informal one organized by a couple of the admits which was nice cuz the only DC happy hours before this were sponsored by the CBS Alumni Club of DC. This one was admits-exclusive which hopefully meant for more debauchery. The location was Bar Louie, an upscale-ish sports bar in DC's Chinatown. It was also underneath the Verizon Center, where LeBron James and the Cavs were visiting that night, so the place was packed. Luckily, we had a few tables reserved.

It started at 7 and the turn-out was good. Considering there are around 35 local admits (an alarmingly large number at first glance but then you gotta consider that DC probably contends for the second largest applicant region next to NY), we had a turnout in the low 20s which seemed pretty good. I got there early and met everyone except for 2 chicas. I had already met half of the people previously so there was the comfort factor, but the newbies were all very cool. Fun crowd.

The drinks/ordering was terrible since the waiter put up a real fight to do separate tabs (understandably so) when the bar's management said that it wouldn't be a problem. Most people paid in cash anyway. People started clearing out around 10 and by 11, the five or six of us who were left decided to go to a club which was okay. On any other night I probably would've liked it a lot (though I've historically hated clubs but not so much since I learned to "dance") but I had work the next morning and hadn't really expected a clubbing night. Highlight (or lowlight) of the night was probably getting hit on by a so-called senior cougar (not just a cougar, but a senior cougar) who immediately slipped and fell on the floor after making her advance. I wound up taking a taxi home around 1:30.

All in all, good times. Funny enough, there's about 5 or 6 other admits from my company in DC! Granted, my company is humongous (can we say oversaturated?) but still. I guess CBS wants one of us in each cluster hehe. The second Open House is in 2 weeks but I'll be back in NY this weekend to see family primarily.

Mini Updates

2009-03-30T12:30:00.002-04:00

I've always wanted to do updates using a bullets-only format but I know I'll never be pithy enough. So screw it. The big news is that there's a DC happy hour for CBS admits this thursday. I'm really looking forward to this one. I've already met some of these people a few times now so I feel comfortable enough drinking in front of them. I'm not looking to get super duper drunk but I do plan on it being a fun night!

Since it's tax season, I've been dealing with a ton of personal finances recently and it's been giving me quite a headache. I'm really hoping CBS steps up and gives me even the smallest of merit-based scholarships. They don't even announce them until May and I'm sure my Early Decision status doesn't make me the highest probability recipient for an award but I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Every little bit helps.

On the career front, I'm starting to veer away from Trading again. I think I want it for the wrong reasons which is materialistic in nature. I'm heavily considering real estate again. It remains (along with luxury retail) one of the few areas that interest me on an innate level. If I keep coming back to it, then it must have some legs right? Then the entrepreneurial bar idea can still be in my long-term vision. What would I do in real estate though? Development? That would be great but not likely. Analyst for a REIT or real estate focused fund? Sure, that sounds good. Geez, suggestions welcome!

Lastly, let's send out some good vibes to all our friends on the waitlist. I'm sure they'd really appreciate some.

Open House - Day 2

2009-03-09T16:13:00.002-04:00

About time I posted Day 2 of CBS’ February Open House for Admits huh? But before we get to that, let’s have a big round of applause for Samantha as the only other person (aside from Maxwriter) to get an admit from Columbia. Kudos indeed! Now she has the tough decision of choosing between Kellogg, CBS, and Tuck… I’ll try not to sway her too much with this post ;)

9:00-9:45 am – Registration and Breakfast. I intentionally arrived late at around 9:30 because I wanted to sleep in a little extra. I didn’t bring the schedule with me and merely assumed the breakfast would be in Uris again but I was wrong. I arrived in Warren (a nicer, newer shared building with the Law School) and most people were already there. I met a few familiar faces and then we were ushered into our respective panels. I got some orange juice but didn’t get a chance to eat anything.

10:00-12:15 pm – Panels on Chazen Institute’s “Globalize your MBA”, Financial Aid, and Housing/Student Life. We were then assigned to 2 of 3 panels. I got the Housing/Student Life one first. It was the same ole info that I knew before. Then I had the Chazen Institute panel which is about international/study abroad experiences. CBS really has a plethora of them. I can’t even begin to think about them though. My energy level is really down and I don’t recognize a lot of the people there. I wasn’t assigned to the Financial Aid panel which seems like a bad omen. I am praying that I get something!

12:30-1:30 pm – Affinity Group Lunches. We then had boxed lunches (decent) with current students. We were broken up by interest which mostly meant ethnic/racial background. Instead of choosing one of those, I chose the only other option which was Student Life. Coincidentally the student we sat with was into Sales & Trading and I got some good info from him. Despite all the terrible recruiting news coming out on message boards and forums, it appears that everyone who has wanted a S&T internship has been able to find one. I’ve thus far been very impressed by Columbia’s placements. I met a couple cool admits too including the product manager for the video game, Guitar Hero.

1:45-2:30 pm – Career Management Panels. We all walked back to Uris and heard from the career management office. Details are fuzzy (I knew I should’ve posted this a week ago).

3:00-5:00 pm – Reception at Lincoln Center Penthouse. The final official event was drinks and finger food at Lincoln Center. Nice touch. The admissions offices gave everyone subway passes to commute there which felt like a cutesy little field trip. I got my energy back up during the reception, meeting a few new people and a bunch of the people I had met on Friday or even in the weeks leading up to the weekend. It was a lot of fun. I realize that I need to definitely be standing and doing active things instead of sitting in lectures/panels if I want to stay engaged/awake. Not a good sign for classes! The group of admits from DC continues to grow (we have identified at least 15+ now) and my buddy and I are going to start organizing happy hours. Highlight of the reception is at 5:30 pm when I was about to leave. I said a casual “thank you and goodbye” to one of the senior admissions officers and he/she said “I hope you had a good time. Write about it in your blog.” Of course I was flabbergasted. He/she revealed that I was found via the ClearAdmit blog links. Apparently they (including Linda) liked my post about the December Reception too! Funny stuff. Embarrassing stuff too. I don’t know if they found out about the blog before or after I was accepted but it doesn’t matter now hopefully!

A lot of admits exchanged numbers and then went their separate ways. Several of us (around 15) wound up a couple blocks away at the rooftop bar of a fancy hotel. Then I went with two others to a little get-together “pre-game” for the Pre-MBA World Tour which was fun. At around 10:00 pm, a bunch of us (maybe 15) met up at a pub downtown to cap off the night. I didn’t leave until the early AM hours.

All in all, twas great fun! But also incredibly exhausting after only 2 days. I can only imagine what Orientation week will be like. There’s another open house on April 17-18 that I’ll definitely be attending. Rumor has it that there is a Bloomingdale’s reception with goody bags! At least that’s historically been the tradition. I was going to Sydney that weekend but have since altered my trip to depart one day after the Open House. Yup, it’s that important :P I'm completely serious too.

In sadder news, I missed a recent CBS Alumni Club of DC happy hour here this past week due to my intramural basketball team competing in the finals. Don’t worry, we won. I’ll also be in San Francisco this weekend for the first time in my life so send me good/fun vibes!!

Open House- Day 1

2009-02-24T01:55:00.001-05:00

This past weekend was Columbia’s Open House for admitted students. It was 2 days (fri and sat) of jam-packed introductions, panels, classes, receptions and networking. It was all incredibly fun and simultaneously exhausting. A few people actually recognized me from this blog which is embarrassing enough but one of them was an admissions officer! (seems like I need to get better at this anonymity thing) Read on for the juicy details. Today I’ll post Friday’s events. Saturday’s post will come in a couple days. Bon appetito.

While Open House doesn’t begin until Friday morning, there were several (6 or 7) happy hours sponsored by various student clubs on Thursday night as well as a couple on Wednesday night I believe. I took the bus up to NY on Thursday and decided to grab dinner with an old friend instead at the restaurant, Rice (really like that place). I figured there’d be enough boozing in the coming days and wanted to be fresh. This is the first time that I turned down a CBS event but no biggie.

On Friday morning I had to wake up at 7:40 to catch an 8:04 train to Penn Station from my parents’ home on Long Island. I got to Columbia at almost 9 am, fashionably late for the first event.

8:30-9:15 am: Registration and Welcome Breakfast. All the admitted students (roughly 160-200) gathered in Uris Deli to mingle. I was late and by the time I got there, Linda (Dean of Admissions) was already on the podium giving a welcome speech. She talked about some of the interesting people in our class (including a Miss New York) but I didn’t hear all of it since she was already speaking as I walked in. I don't believe she gave any stats on our class profile. I didn’t get to eat or drink anything because after her speech, we immediately broke into 4 (or was it 5?) clusters and went to do icebreakers. I recognized one of the adcom that I became friendly with from the December Reception and she asked me where my other friend was. I was shocked that she could remember him by name since there are hundreds of us (and thousands more applicants). Impressive.

9:30-10:45 am: Cluster Welcomes- Introduction to Columbia’s Program on Social Intelligence. This was the introductions and icebreakers part. The 40 people in our group were assigned numbers and then we had to do 1-on-1 introductions. I paired up with a super cool chick formerly from Jersey but who is now a New Yorker. (note that most people here were from the area or at least the East Coast as not everyone, especially internationals, may have wanted to make the trip for the non-mandatory Open House... there's another Open House in April too) She had a ridiculous amount of enthusiasm and we hit it off pretty well. Five minutes later, the two of us had to meet another pair and we were instructed to describe our original partner as a color and as a food (and why). She determined that I was turquoise (ehhh) and bubble tea (spot on!!!) Afterwards, all 40 of us had to introduce our original partners to the entire cluster which made for some nice unintentional comedy. Everyone was a good sport and only a surprisingly tiny amount of people seemed nervous. I shocked myself when I received a round of applause for my mildly humorous food description of my partner. Good start.

11:00 am-12:30 pm: Class Visit. Our clusters then went to sit in on 1 of 3 different classes (not actual classes but ones prepared for this event). I got the least interesting topic of the 3 in my opinion, “Strategy and Competition in Pharma and Biotech”. Would’ve much preferred Bruce Greenwald’s talk about Wal-Mart’s strategy which apparently included a lot of commentary on the current economy.

12:45-2:15 pm: Lunches in Morningside Heights. Next, we broke up from our clusters and were randomly assigned lunch groups of 6. My group was assigned to Havana Central, a local Cuban restaurant/bar. The food was blah but it was nice that CBS picked up the tab. My table was also fortunate to be joined by a Hermes (student welcome society) rep as well as someone from the Financial Aid Office. I kept joking that she should hook us up with extra fin aid but she remained steadfast. I’d say we were done with lunch by 1:30 which is good because at 1:50, everyone started walking back to campus.

2:30-3:30 pm: Intro to the Academic Program. This talk was done in the SIPA building’s auditorium. SIPA is the School of International and Public Affairs (top-notch program) and their building is really sweet, much more modern than Uris. The Vice Dean Amir Ziv explained everything about the Core, electives, exemptions, and all that stuff. I already knew all of this from my obsessive research though. Vice Dean Ziv was a really good (and witty) speaker which is funny because I now realize that he was the same speaker with the heavy accent whom I couldn’t comprehend at the December reception! Oops.

3:45-4:30 pm: Nonprofit Board Leadership Program. We had a short break for soda and coffee and then went back into the auditorium to hear 4 students speak about the nonprofit board. I was surprised that they had everyone attend this because several classmates seemed bored.

4:45-5:45 pm: Keynote Address. We stayed in the auditorium for a final speech by Paolo Scaroni, an alum and current CEO of Eni and a member of the CBS Board of Overseers. He is a realllly funny guy.

6:00-8:00 pm: Reception. Finally, we convened back in Low Memorial Library (site of the first event) to have some adult beverages and mingle some more. The famous Dean Hubbard made an appearance as well! The event was sponsored by Deutsche Bank and we received free DB backpacks. Not gonna lie, I was exhausted by this point. I found it hard to be “on” and continuously network for almost 12 hours straight but I met some more cool people. Good times. Also, I should note that I only had 1 drink because I didn't want my face to get flushed (which it does very easily). I have no problem doing this with my classmates but didn't want to make a tacky impression on the very first meeting :P

After we were kicked out around 8:30 pm, a bunch of admits (maybe 25?) went to The Pourhouse on Amsterdam. It was really crowded at first and I was really tuckered out. I had 2 drinks and then left around 10 pm with my buddy, a fellow admit from DC, who was crashing at my place in Long Island. I am such a good classmate :P

All in all, a really fun and exciting day. My favorite part was meeting all the new classmates and the introductions/icebreakers. I was really happy to see how enthusiastic most people were about CBS. It was obvious that the adcom did a great job of selecting people who actually wanted to attend CBS and weren’t just using it for a backup for another school. The students were also very impressive in their experience- I feel like the least impressive for sure. While a couple were very shy, the vast majority were outgoing and fun. Good stuff. About three admits shocked me by asking me if I was the blogger which is kinda embarrassing. They were all really cool though. I won’t embarrass them by giving them shout-outs hehe.

My buddy had to pick up his luggage from his hotel and we just missed the train back to Long Island so we didn’t get back until midnight. Had some KFC at Penn Station too. Exhausting but well worth it. Little did I know Saturday would be even moreso!

About TienyChesney

2009-02-16T00:35:00.002-05:00

So I'm sure most people on Facebook have probably seen the "25 Random Things About Me" note that keeps popping up. If you haven't, the idea is basically that you enlighten your buddies with 25 random facts about yourself. I thought it might be fun to share some embarrassing info with you guys since MBA news is going slow here (disclosure: I changed 3 of them because they were too private) ... bon appetito:

1. Watching professional wrestling is a guilty pleasure of mine. I've been watching since I was 10 years old.

2. The only non-vegetarian exception that I allow myself is gelatin. My favorite foods are gelatinous (e.g. gummy bears) in texture.

3. I believe it’s economically rational to tip waiters/servers based on their level of service. I don’t hesitate to tip abnormally high or low amounts.

4. I’ve worn a pig necklace around my neck for about 50% of my life.

5. I believe my feet smell more than most people's. Plus I think I have an arthritic toe.

6. I won my 5th grade math bee.

7. I used to love punk music. Now I love country. Go Taylor!!

8. I over-analyze constantly.

9. I’ve tried really hard to overcome my shyness as a child.

10. It really bothers me when other basketball players label me as only a “shooter”.

11. If I could have one dog for a pet, I would have a Yorkie.

12. I’m really conceited about some things and really insecure about others.

13. As a small child, I believed my sister's explanation that lit up buildings on the city's skyline were actually stars that fell and got stuck on buildings.

14. I used to be a pothead.

15. I watch Food Network programming every day.

16. I think Charlotte from Sex and the City is perfect.

17. I don’t know how to swim though people have attempted to teach me on at least 3 separate occasions (including YMCA classes).

18. I despise driving and hope to never do so again in my life.

19. I’m terribly squeamish and faint of heart, to the point where I can only watch movies that fall into the romantic comedy category.

20. I love the adverb “terribly.”

21. I know all the lyrics to all the songs from Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, and Aladdin.

22. The thought of a tattoo intrigues me. If I ever get one it will be of a basketball or some “mom” scrawling.

23. My right leg is almost a half inch longer than my left.

24. I firmly believe that Survivor is the most compelling program on TV. I LOVE Survivor!!!

25. I'll give you anything you ask for, as long as it's not something I don't want to give.

CBS Alumni Happy Hour

2009-02-10T16:04:00.002-05:00

This past thursday was the CBS Alumni Club of DC Happy Hour. It was from 6:30-8:30 at a swanky bar/lounge at the bottom of the ritzy Hay Adams Hotel. It's located about a block and a half from the White House.

One of my fellow admit buddies backed out due to work and I started hesitating about whether I wanted to attend. I wondered if it'd be a bunch of old alumni with nothing in common and only a couple admits. Plus it was like ten degrees outside. I got there at 7 pm (fashionably late of course) and was pleasantly surprised. There seemed to be about 8 alums and 8 admits, a nice ratio. The organizer said there were about 12 DC area admits so we had a decent turn-out given that some people probably had work or whatever.

The other admits were decently cool. You could tell that some of them needed a little while to warm up but after a drink, everyone was getting along swimmingly. I always think it's odd when I'm one of the most social people in a group because I've always been painfully shy as a child, and even up through some of college. I've been really pushing myself in the last couple years though as I've come to realize the value of an outgoing, friendly disposition. The upside of networking is a good motivator (otherwise how the heck am I gonna get a job in this economy?) I wound up hitting it off with one other admit really well in particular and I now have a potential roommate for the 1st year. We seem like a good match in terms of cleanliness and location preference. The surprising thing is that she brought up the idea within 15 minutes of talking to me but to her credit, we talked like old friends.

Amazingly, myself and 2 others were the last ones to leave... at 11 pm! We overstayed by two and a half hours. Be jealous, Soni! Almost all the admits there will be at the Feb. 20-21 happy hour so I'm sure I'll see them again (if I can recognize them!) Maybe they won't recognize me either cuz I plan on getting a haircut this weekend. I haven't had one since September for my CBS interview haha!

Meanwhile, my Rosetta Stone studying is going nowhere. I haven't touched it in a month. Oi. Can I go on a tangent here and say how much I love Taylor Swift's music? I revisited her first single, "Tim McGraw", the other day and it's just beautiful. I can't believe that was 3 years ago. Also, my favorite tv show, Survivor, is debuting its new season this thursday- I know you're as excited as I am.

Final note: I need to go back to Sydney pronto.

Itinerary

2009-02-05T01:24:00.003-05:00

So I finally purchased my San Francisco tickets... I'll be going from the night of March 11th to noon on March 15th. I figure I'll spend a day and a half in Berkeley and then a little over 2 days in San Fran. I know that I won't be able to see everything but I'll try to cram everything in. I def want to check out Berkeley's campus, the Golden Gate Bridge, perhaps Alcatraz, Russian Hill, Chinatown, and the neighborhoods of Mission and Haight-Ashbury. Am I missing anything stupendous? It'll be good to finally take a trip since I've been admitted for almost 4 months now and have only sat on my ass.

If things work out well, I'll be going back to Sydney sometime in April for 11 days or so. If I'm lucky, maybe I'll even take a side trip to Melbourne. Keep your fingers crossed. In May, I figure I can use Memorial Day weekend to take a 3 day trip to Montreal or Toronto. In June, I'm going to London for 5 days. In July, I'm going to various parts of China for 3 weeks with the family... we have a place in Beijing but I'm going to convince them to go to Hong Kong since I've never been. The CBS Pre-MBA World Tour website is still in development but many of the destinations don't intrigue me that much... I'd be down for places like Japan, Russia, Turkey, UAE, and some of Latin America but some of the other stuff might be a bit too exotic for me. I am a novice traveler afterall. They've discontinued the Western Europe leg that went through London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Paris, etcetra last year. Maybe I'll tag along for a Russia or Argentina leg though. At least this is my plan. A destination a month to keep me from hating my job hehe.

I wish I could just quit my job. I'd be bored doing nothing so I would try to get a cool pre-MBA internship (even for no pay) or at the worst, work retail at J.Crew or something. Unfortunately, the draw of the paycheck keeps me tied to my go-nowhere, hate-it-all consulting job. I've determined my resignation date to be July 1st... still 5 months away. Sigh.

I haven't thought about post-MBA careers much but I'm certainly leaning towards Trading. Even if the compensation potential doesn't match what it used to be, I still think it's a great fit for me (analytical, competitive, potential for high pay, relatively great hours, market driven, new york location).

Tomorrow evening is the CBS Alumni Club of Washington DC happy hour. It will be real cold, around 15 degrees, but I will be in attendance. I'll have all the dirt here too.

Happy Hours

2009-01-28T00:56:00.002-05:00

I was in NY this past weekend for the Chinese New Year and it was a smashing success on all fronts but one. I'll start with the sadness. On saturday, I met up with my friend from DC who is also a prospective CBS applicant. I gave her a tour of Columbia's campus (even studied the Columbia wikipedia page for factoids!) but she was less than impressed. I think many factors contributed to this. First of all, it was fricking cold, at least in the teens Fahrenheit. Secondly, we couldn't get inside several attractions such as the majority of the Lerner Center, Butler Library, or Watson Library. Third, there wasn't much going on campus since it was a saturday. There were some CBS students around but not many. They all had robust lives I'm sure and after all, it was the weekend. Fourth, CBS' main building, Uris Hall, is objectively not very impressive... after all, it was built in 1985 or something. She decided not to apply. Oh well, I could tell she was never that motivated anyway so I guess more CBS for me :) Also, she's not a super fan of NYC... while I consider it the only place to live (obvi), she doesn't know if she could spend more than several days there. So there ya go.

A great thing came from her visit though. She was staying with a friend and I met this friend's boyfriend who just so happened to be a CBS recruiter from a bulge bracket bank for Sales & Trading! What a coinky dink. I tried to ask him questions about how recruiting was going and stuff like that but he wasn't really interested in talking about it. The expression on his face was fairly bored. Then his face lit up when the topic changed to the pros and cons of Duane Reade versus Walgreen's versus CVS versus Rite Aid! Crazy. It sucks because I feel like I missed a golden opportunity but there was nothing I could've done differently. I wasn't being obsequious or overtly exploitative in any way. He just wasn't that cool (or displaying cool behaviors I guess). Maybe he gets b-school kids asking him about that stuff all the time or whatever the case may be, but he wasn't interested in talking more. My alternative hypothesis (I was a psychology major in undergrad) is that he was kinda put off because I asked him if he chose to do equities trading or not after he mentioned he traded equities. He might've thought I was looking down on equities (which I wasn't) since equities have a reputation of being boring/old/not-as-profitable in the trading world... so maybe he was just feeling defensive and insecure. Oh well, still better to have met him than not met him I guess.

Later that night I met up with an old friend from high school which was great. He's a litigation lawyer living in Brooklyn and he lives a great life. He lives in a cool up and coming neighborhood, Clinton Hill, (from what I could gather) and he had a sweetheart girlfriend and some cool friends too. He had a job he loved and made good money. You could tell he was happy. Funny enough, his girlfriend is the head of marketing for an industry media company (can't say which) which I may potentially be able to call upon for future job leads. Niiice. One note here: I don't go around assessing whether new acquaintances/friends can be valuable in my network or not... it's just coincidence that I met those two people and obviously being the analytical guy that I am, I noticed their outstanding characteristics :)

On sunday I met an ex-coworker who now does Risk Management for a large bank. It was good to see her again and we caught up on everything for 2 hours. We got bubble tea in the East Village. She, like many that I've met, has no idea what kind of job she wants post-MBA. Funny how many of us there are, isn't it?

Lastly, I received invitations to 2 happy hours in the DC area. One is from the CBS Alumni Club of DC and the other is from a CBS student who organized DC happy hours last year and continued this year even though she is now a student and no longer around (how nice of her!) ... unfortunately, they both scheduled the exact date and time at different venues! I informed them so hopefully they'll do a joint one or one will alter their time. It would be sweet to attend both so I can get as much CBS in me as possible.

I got a separate happy hour invite for the Thursday before CBS' Open House in late Feb too. It was for the Milstein Center for Real Estate happy hour and I received it because I indicated real estate as my original interest. I don't want to go but I'm wondering if anyone received a happy hour invite from a different campus group/theme? Maybe the Lang Center for Entrepreneurship or perhaps a Sales & Trading one? That would be awesome and I'd totally go to one of those instead.

If there are any finance/market gurus reading my blog, maybe they'd also like to chime in on this: What do you think are the chances that the Prime Rate (aka Fed Funds Target Rate plus 3) reaches 6.5% (aka Fed Funds Target Rate=3.5%) by the year 2015? I imagine it'll definitely happen but wanted some other opinions. I'm asking because of a potential loan scenario I'm entertaining (no, it's not a student loan).

I'm starting to cringe at the realization that my tuition and living expenses are going to be a tougher burden than I originally anticipated. I'm thinking of cancelling the Morocco trip (still going to San Fran though) and quitting at the end of June. Then I'd take a week or two trip during June with the CBS Pre-MBA World Tour (maybe Russia?) and travel all of July (China, Australia, London). Much less than my original hope of traveling for 2-3 months. I should try to get a better picture of my travel plans this week.

Columbia Visit #43, Using the Network, & Dunking

2009-01-23T12:50:00.004-05:00

I'm delighted that the CBS 2011 group on facebook finally broke 100 members! Granted, a few of them are actually 2010'ers who joined to welcome us but I'm glad the class is shaping up. I registered for Open House on February 20-21 already (probably one of the first couple people to do so since I registered within 5 minutes of receiving the email haha). The agenda for the Open House looks pretty good, lots of presentations on important topics like the Chazen international study trips and panels on student life and clubs. There are a couple happy hours too. I should really try to learn more about Entrepreneurship and my Sales & Trading post-MBA job outlook. But obviously I'm most excited to meet my future classmates.

This weekend I'll be back in NY for the umpteenth time, primarily to celebrate Chinese New Year which is technically monday. I'm excited because on saturday, one of my favorite friends of 2008 (from DC) will also be in NY and I'll be showing her around Columbia's campus! It's funny that I'm doing that considering I'm not a student yet nor do I know the names of the buildings and history but I do know where to get bubble tea (Lerner Center). She's applied to a couple MBA programs (mostly for sustainabilty/social enterprise) for Fall 2009 and she's really interested in CBS, however, she lacks the motivation to start her app because she doesn't believe she has a good shot which is silly. She's actually quite talented and I think she stands an excellent shot so our tour tomorrow will be my marketing tool to galvanize her app. I'm debating whether to show her the horrific conditions of Levien and University Blue Gymnasiums though... she's a gym nut and I don't want to make her cry.

I'll also be meeting up with several friends and also an ex-coworker who I just learned will be a classmate too. Fun times. Oh, and I also started leveraging the network! As a techy consultant, I'm supposed to work on projects for different clients. Unfortunatley (or fortunately should I say), I haven't been assigned to any projects recently so I've just been sufing the web. I was starting to become paranoid that I'd incur my managers' wrath so I asked a different future classmate/current co-worker if he knew of any projects that I could work on... and it turns out he does! On tuesday, I begin working for him (haha, he will be my direct project manager) on designing an internal portal/website... it doesn't sound exciting but I think it'll be good for me because there'll be some intellectual engagement to it (e.g. how do we market the site and encourage greater user participation?) and I'll meet a host of team members from all other parts of our humongous company. That's the good stuff, baby!

Travel plans aren't looking great. Greece is out but Morocco is in (but not until March 6th I think). I'm excited for San Fran cuz one of my fav cousins apparently lives there plus a couple friends, but I can't book that for a while. I am also registered for a 1 day retreat with my undergrad alma mater in late February that will allow for relaxation in some rustic-looking part of Maryland. I really need to look at CBS' pre-MBA World Tour destinations too.

Lastly, I am re-upping my efforts at the gym. I never benchpressed until a couple months ago but my goal is to bench my body weight before the summer. Also, I'm doing a jumping program to work out my legs... the goal is to dunk (a guy can dream can't he?) by end of April. I even had a dream about it last night (seriously). My CBS classmates will thank me for this once the Cluster Cup basketball and volleyball competitions start!

Doom and gloom and Kroll too

2009-01-16T15:45:00.004-05:00

I'm typically nothing if not positive when it comes to dreaming about the MBA future that awaits us all. BUT there's a recent thread on the BusinessWeek forums which really has me thinking. It's from a current Top 5 MBA student (probably Kellogg or Booth) who is talking about how dire the recruiting situation is for both full-time and internship positions. He says that students outnumber internship postings by 2 to 1! That's insane. I know it's just one person's experience but I've heard similar stories and from my own research, a lot of students are giving similar accounts (though maybe not as soul-crushing).

This begs the question. Is the MBA worth it? I've adamantly resolved that the MBA is the next phase of my life no matter what. I'm going to do this regardless of the job situation. But if I take off my blinders for a second, I can't help but wonder if the $175,000 (my personal calculation for CBS) for 2 years is worth it if it won't yield my dream job. Granted I don't know what my dream job is but I want to be able to get it once I determine that obviously. Yes, the experience and education and personal development and network will be worth it. But if internship recruiting is so dire now, how will it be in the fall when I start myself? Probably not much better. A lot of analyts expect the economy to start rebounding around Quarter 3 of 2009 but that might be a bit too optimistic. I always told myself that we'll be recovering (at the very least) by graduation in May 2011 but the reality is that I need to prepare much sooner. In fact, I believe Columbia recruiting events start within weeks of getting on campus aka September 2009! Ay carumba.

Perhaps there's a silver lining. Maybe the lack of a super attractive full-time job option will force me to dive into my entrepreneurial idea head-first. That's a good thing. But I originally wanted to ease into that venture while I worked a normal corporate job, preferrably as a trader at a big bank (so I think currently). I realize that no trading jobs are out there right now. I believe I have a decent shot of getting one of the few ones that pop up by graduation since I have experience as a trading assistant but I feel like I need the internship too. Ugh, maybe I should stop stressing.

In other words, I have submitted my Kroll application and it's MUCH simpler than originally anticipated. It's different for each school (I believe they can customize what info to check) but Columbia asks for the bare bones. CBS' Kroll app asked for my current job, recommender info, undergrad info, and biographic info. It did NOT ask me about extra curriculars or past jobs or anything I wrote in essays. This should be a relief to some. I did not get an official "passed" yet but I fully expect to receive one.

On another note, I received a voicemail from Linda Meehan, the Director of CBS MBA Admissions, this week congratulating me on my admit. I'm kinda sad it took her this long to get to me considering I was probably one of the first 10 apps in their pile this season but it's cool. I'm sadder that I didn't get to pick up the call myself. Oh, and other sad news: my trip to Greece is off though I will probably still go to Morocco. San Fran is coming up in the next month or two too.

Alright, I'm going to run to the gym so I can dunk on some freshmen. And by "dunk", I mean shoot mid-range jumpers. I'm meeting 2 of my future classmates (whom I've already met a couple times) in the DC area for dinner afterwards. Tex-mex or pub grub?

Entrepreneurial New 2009 Attitude

2009-01-03T00:17:00.002-05:00

I want to wish you all a happy 2009. I'm really optimistic for this year. There's always something about new beginnings, the unlimited potential, the unbridled hope, the promise. But it's more than that. Each year we get smarter and become better people (I like to think that we are always striving toward our ideal selves). Anything is possible right? Theoretically at least :) I'm happy because 2008 wasn't that great. World economy aside, I hated my job and didn't feel like I took advantage of all the social opportunities I should've. I guess we all feel like that every now and then but it still sucked. 2009 is wonderful because I will be resigning from my soul-sucking job in several months and embarking on a new adventure, CBS, and making new friends, learning new things, and making a new life. We all love the promise of re-inventing ourselves, don't we?

I have several resolutions for the new year (a dozen actually) but I won't bore you with all of them. After all, half of them pertain to how I can dominate better at pick-up basketball and my gym routine. The other half is about personal development and I guess, more important (arguably). No need to share them all but I do want to read more. I have never been an avid reader (or any kind of reader) before a couple months ago. Then I read "Ahead of the Curve" and enjoyed it thoroughly. Today, I read "Who Moved My Cheese?" (really cute and good-for-you kind of read, I do recommend it). One of my favorite new friends of 2008 got me an unexpected holiday present too: a book. Who'd have thunk it? It's Malcolm Gladwell's "Outliers" and it's a really good read thus far. I've gone through half of it in only 2 days, an unprecedented pace for me. I found it so intriguing that I stopped by the bookstore earlier today and read the intro to his other popular book, "Tipping Point", and enjoyed it too. Good stuff. The best part of it is that the books have a motivational message. We can all be entrepreneurs and set our own courses, create our own fortunes. We are fortunate in that we can do whatever we want. We're lucky.

With that sense of optimism, I have come to a new revelation in my b-school potential careers journey. I'm thinking I could be an entrepreneur and start my own business. It's not earth-shattering and it's not a new invention and it's not terribly innovative or important. It's merely a very small-scale business idea but it tickles my fancies. I get excited about it. I'm not going to sound like a fool and attempt to describe my idea but it does give me some direction. During my MBA, I can focus on entrepreneurship and learn about managing my supply chain, attracting investors, managing personnel, and marketing and all that good stuff. After all, I've always thought that entrepreneurs gained the most from MBA curriculums. Maybe I could even take advantage of Columbia's Entrepreneurial Greenhouse (doubtful tho cuz my idea isn't that kind of thang). But it's something to pursue that would let me enjoy my life. I'm thinking that I could also study finance and try to go into Sales & Trading post-MBA while I simultaneously cultivated my business idea at night. The good thing about trading is that you primarly work market hours and thus have your nights free. Trading is also incredibly interesting to me (and I actually have the experience to get a full-time job when the economy rebounds by 2011, fingers crossed). In fact, I really like trading as a job/career option except for it's lack of exit options. And that's where the entrepreneurial venture comes in. Maybe my business can be established by the time I want to (or need to) exit trading and I can just do that full-time. Love it.

So new directions and new ideas are exciting to me. I have other resolutions too but they're not particularly interesting. For instance, I want to eat more fruit and less junk, I want to be more outgoing and make an effort to make more new friends, etc. But I gotta say that this reading thing is awesome. Makes me feel like more of a person. Plus it gets me thinking, a fun pasttime despite what Gaston and Lefou might try to say (free Sloan or Yale SOM pen for anyone who knows where that reference is from).

I know resolutions sound dorky but I only make realistic ones and I enjoy the ones I've made. In fact, I think my next resolution should be to actually write my first business plan (dun dun dun). My idea may suck but the possibility of success is there. Then I wouldn't have to live a corporate lifestyle (something which I hem and haw over at times) and could live the rest of my life in the East Village happily ever after :)

Not thinking about school

2008-12-19T14:52:00.000-05:00

Long time no write...

First I gotta congratulate the rest of the blogosphere as they've been raking in the acceptances like nobody's business! D.G., Soni, Samantha (and more I'm sure) are all attending tip-top schools and deservedly so... but obviously MaxWriter made the best decision of all :P hehe, hope to see more admits in the coming days.

As for me, times have been weird. I haven't been thinking about b-school much though I am still officially "researching" careers. It's all up in the air for me. I talked to an old colleague who just got fired from his trader job which is unnerving because absolutely no traders are getting hired now. And just last week I thought I had a revelation that I was going to be a trader! The pro's were overwhelming. For one, I have experience as a trading assistant so I could conceivably get an internship and a full-time offer by the time the economy turns around in 2011 (fingers crossed). Also, the work-life balance is good because they work market hours or slightly more. I'd much rather get in super early and leave around 6 or 7 pm (unless in times of market turmoil) than work late. The salary is obviously good and the money would be good with great upside potential. Plus I would get to follow the markets which I'm really interested in. I really like following the world economies on a macro-level. Plus, I really like the strategy involved in trading. Perfect right? The only con is the exit opportunities. If I flamed out as a trader, there aren't a lot of avenues to pursue. The traders that I knew who blew up millions wound up becoming brokers. That'd be a terrible consolation prize. Some traders could go into sales (becomes salespeople for other traders) but that doesn't sound that appealing. Otherwise, the trading skillset is so specific that I couldn't go into another field. In fact, traders who flame out would be good candidates for an MBA but i obviously couldn't go back a second time. Ugh.

I'm still considering brand management, marketing, and general management but not really doing much to learn more. But in general, I haven't been thinking about much. I've been working (riiight), and then going to the gym religiously for 4 hours a day (to play basketball, not really to work out), then I get home and watch tv and eat. Fun. But the lifestyle gets pretty routine and boring after awhile. The vacations won't start until late January at the earliest. I'm feeling antsy and it kinda bothers me that I'm not thinking more about CBS. Stupid TienyChesney!

I did finish reading Phillip Delves Broughton's book "Ahead of the Curve: Two Years at Harvard Business School" last week. Great book. I don't think it's as negative about HBS as people advertised it to be... instead, I think Phillip was extremely honest about his personal feelings and experience. An opinion can't be wrong! And some of the so-called negatives would be positives for others. For instance, he mentions the ice luge and frat mentality but for some (ahem), two years of party time sounds great. I'd highly recommend this book to anyone who wants a look into HBS or a top b-school in general because you can learn a lot about the culture (a great anthropological report actually) and he does a good job of explaining how some things work (i.e. the recruiting process, what private equity firms actually do, etc.)

Coincidentally, CNBC had an hour-long documentary debut on Tuesday night called "The Money Chase: An Insider Look at Harvard Business School" ... it made the school look really cool (especially with all the interviews with famous alums like Jamie Dimon) but it would've floored me more if I hadn't already visited campus. It's worth a look if you happen to catch the re-run.

What else. Oh, I bought the new Taylor Swift album! It's awesome and most of the tracks are available on YouTube too. It's definitely pop with only a hint of country which disappoints me but the music is so good that I don't care.

Next week I return home to NY for a week to see my family. I'm really dreading this as my dad (estranged relationship) is finally back from being abroad for nearly a year. My mom and sister have already confirmed that it's been weird in the house. Ugh. I gotta discuss b-school plans and financing options too. sjfjjf;lsajf;lkjfasdkfj

Also, mortgage rates are really low right now so if you're like me, you might consider refinancing that mortgage. Could be realllly worth your while. Do any of you know how much higher the rate for an investment property is compared to a primary residence? I know it depends on many things but I was hoping there might be a standard (e.g. 1/8 of a percent). Arrrgh.

Admitted Students Reception

2008-12-05T11:50:00.002-05:00

Columbia's Admitted Students Reception was this past Tuesday evening. It took me about 0.04 seconds to decide to make the trip from DC to NY and back for this two-hour event. Of course I was down. In fact, I'm thinking of attending both Open Houses later in February and April.

The event was held in Low Memorial Library. It was nicer than I expected. I hadn't been inside Low since I visited campus for undergraduate admissions so I forgot how majestic the inside was. I had hopped off the bus just 30 minutes prior and walked through the Alex Lerner Center which is this large, transparent student center on Broadway. I had never been inside so I took a quick tour (the parts that I could access at least) and found Citibank ATMs and a bubble tea shop inside- nice! I can't wait to make bubble tea a part of my diet again :)

So I go the reception and I'm happy to learn there's a coat/bag check. I'm 5 minutes early for the reception but there are already around 20 people inside. There are drinks and attendants in the middle of the room and finger food off to the right. I was going to walk right up to the first person I saw but everyone was already in their little clusters. I decided to actually put on the little nametag that they handed out and when I picked my head up, Bob Shea, one of the admissions officers was there in front of me with a current 2nd year student. Pleasant conversation ensues. I then meet and talk to many more current students, incoming students, and admissions officers. Alumni were present too but I didn't speak to any of them by coincidence. In all, there were maybe 250 people in attendance I would guess? Half were 2009 J-Term and half were Fall 2009 full-time. Women were roughly only one-third of the room from my estimation but I'm happy to report that they were all very attractive :) Most everyone was dressed in business or business casual. I'd say that I was dressed in business casual casual though- sweater over a dress shirt with grey chinos and brown boots. I knew that incoming students often dress up for the first few events and then wind up throwing sweatpants on once class begins. I wanted to push the envelope and go casual with jeans (to show how confident and independent I was hehe) but stepped it up right before I left DC. Good thing too because only 1 or 2 people were in jeans that I noticed.

The event passed quickly. It wasn't one of those tiring networking events where I keep glancing at the time. The two hours passed in no time and many people had to be ushered out as the room was closed down. All the incoming students were really nice and pleasant to talk to. I even recognized some from the Facebook group but didn't mention this so as not to creep them out. It was really refreshing to see that so many of them were completely relaxed, normal, fun people. No super duper stars like some of the people I met at HBS. The incoming students I met were bankers, consultants, media people, entrepreneurs, but nothing insanely mind-blowing like Egyptian national team gold medalist in the hammer throw or anything like that. I enjoyed being around them- they were pretty unassuming. I could picture myself being friends with them. I didn't make plans to keep in touch with any of them but it was nice meeting them nonetheless. There will be plenty of other opportunities at Open House. Plus, I found the website for the pre-MBA Tour. It's not an official club but some incoming students will be touring the world over the course of 3 months prior to the start of school. Basically we just meet future classmates and travel together. It's all self-funded. I'm down for much of it- most likely the legs that go through Europe, Latin America, and Japan.

I've compiled a spreadsheet that details my remaining vacation time and my anticipated travel locations. I've really grown to appreciate Excel in the past year. As someone who has traveled minimally in his life, I'm a bit worried that all the travel prior to school might prove exhausting. I need to budget enough recovery time so that I can fully enjoy/appreciate everything.

Oh yeah, there were two speakers at the reception. One guy I don't remember his name or his position at all due to his heavy accent. The other person was Linda Meehan herself! Linda (the Dean of Admissions) was a short but incredibly energetic woman. She did a great job of working the room and I was shocked by how much enthusiasm she had. I joked with her about how I didn't receive a phone call from her yet. She also revealed that they're anticipating total application volume to be around 7,500 this year. They had 5,999 last year so that would be a 25% jump overall. Of course this is just what she said she anticipated from current volumes. She did say that she expects the Regular Decision volume to be even higher than the ED volume due to the amount of prep time it usually takes for those applicants who might've recently been affected by the financial crisis.

I left the reception and actually met Samantha (sorry, i'm too stupid to figure out how to put a link in here so go to the right and click on her Best MBA Blog Ever) at Pinkberry briefly. I promised to keep her anonymity but to you, my readers, I will reveal this: Samantha is not her real name... it is Bruce. Directly afterward, I met another future classmate for a quick dinner (same guy I had brunch with last time in NY) and then called it a night.

Happy to Be Alive

2008-11-26T15:53:00.002-05:00

So Big Bird Day is tomorrow and I usually find this to be one of the more depressing holidays. My family doesn't celebrate it and I don't know how to cook so I was imagining getting myself drunk on cheap wine and watching tv all day :P A few friends were nice enough to invite me to their family shindigs but I politely declined. I will be coordinating a volunteer event tomorrow morning at a senior citizens' home though, so that should be cool.

I just started talking to my folks (they're both abroad right now) about financing my MBA and it looks like they're on-board to help me out which is huge. I won't go into specifics obviously but any help is a godsend.

While skipping around the GMATclub threads last night, I realized that my plan to stop working in early July is actually quite late compared to other peoples' plans. Most people anticipate resigning in April/May! What does one do with so much time? As it is, I would have a month and a half to travel but 3 months sounds like a ton of time- I wouldn't know what to do with myself. But reading the various comments made me realize how lucky I am that my immediate future is relatively stress-free and certain. I was starting to get stressed about hating my consulting job and how our current project is ending... I'm having difficulty finding a new project so I was concerned that I might get laid off. But in reality, it isn't that bad because I hate my job and it would only be a few months early anyway. Plus I think I'd be eligible for unemployment :) Maybe with half a year left, I could just do volunteer work full-time or work retail at J.Crew full-time. Interesting ideas that I would never have the guts to do... but if I got laid off, then they start sounding intriguing ;) Also, one of my roomies just lost her job which is stressing me out because I wonder if she'll be able to make the rent for the next 8 months... she is technically a subletter/resident because I'm the sole person on the lease so I hold all of her risk! Aye carumba. This sucks but even if I get screwed, at least it's only a few thousand bucks... aka a drop in the bucket compared to the upcoming b-school costs.

So all in all, I'm in a weird mood. Kinda down cuz of the holiday season (dreading this Black Friday thing which I feel like I need to check out) but also happy because I realize my problems are relatively trivial in the big scheme of things. I'm starting to look for airfare for my San Francisco trip (late January) and maybe I'll contact my super friend in Sydney to see if I can/should visit Australia in the early Spring. That'd be sweet. And I'd still have London in late Spring/early Summer as well as room for the Columbia pre-MBA tours in July.

Oh yeah, almost forgot. This upcoming Tuesday, December 2nd, CBS is holding an Admitted Students Reception for incoming Jan 2009 and Fall 2009 students. I'm going to take a super-cool bus there on Tuesday afternoon and then take the bus back that very night. The commute will suck but I'm not missing this.

Happy gobbling to you all!

Classmates, Career Services, Bookstore, Bars & Brunch

2008-11-13T15:15:00.004-05:00

So I made yet another trip to New York this past weekend and stopped by campus again- I think this is campus visit #4 or 5. I wanted to grab gear from the CBS Bookstore (duh) and also check out Career Services. The first thing I did, however, was meet up with a Hermes student ambassador. He was actually assigned to me by the admissions office and we played phone tag for a little bit before deciding to grab coffee. I met him at 97th and Broadway and we went to Starbuck's a block away. He was very nice, and answered all my questions pretty candidly I think. The most important things I learned were that General Management is interesting in function but you would not be living in NY (a big deal-breaker for me). Instead, you would be working (and living) at the company's headquarters which would more likely be in Minnesota, Pennsylvania, etc. That doesn't sound too appealing any more. But what if I did General Management for luxury retail goods? Does anyone know if the corporate offices of Chanel, Louis Vuitton, etc. are based in NY? In the words of my BFF, Paris Hilton: that would be hot.

He also reinforced the importance of being socially competent and likable when it comes to recruiting, something I'm learning more and more about (and thankfully getting better at). Lastly, we talked about housing and he said that most MBA students live in the 80's through 120th street. I will try to live between 106 and 116th ideally :) He also stressed that internship recruiting hits you about a month after starting the program so it's imperative that we try to narrow down our career choices as much as possible before school starts. I'm basically leaning towards GM for Luxury Retail at this point but obviously I'll change my mind a million times before then. We chatted for about 40 minutes or so and I have to say, he was a genuinely nice guy. After we parted, I walked up Broadway to CBS.

It did feel a bit different being on campus now that I consider myself a student (somewhat). Campus looked prettier hehe. It was almost 5 pm on friday but I decided to see if I could pick up any info/brochures from the Career Services Office. Let me tell you, boy, were they surprised to see me. I was able to snag some informative flyers and brochures though, and they even gave me the Wetfeet Guide to Careers and Industries for MBA (or something like that) which was a $28 value! Looking back on it, I think the student at the desk made a mistake in giving it to me (it was probably intended for people to browse) but I sure appreciate it :) Very informative book.

Afterwards, I went to the bookstore and was pretty disappointed. The t-shirts I liked didn't fit me very well and they were out of stock of the sweatpants that I was clamoring for. My favorite sweatshirt also fit weird and there were no cool shorts that I would wear for basketball. After 40 minutes of intense deliberation, I left with only 1 t-shirt for myself and 2 more for my recommenders. Sadness.

I hopped on the 1 train and jetted down to Wall Street to meet a couple old co-workers from when I used to do the trading assistant thing. I had pizza at Adrienne's (my fav pizza in the world actually) and almost exploded from the 7 slices. We hung around Ulysses (a popular Wall Street bar) for a little bit and I must say, I'm glad I came back because it reminded me of exactly why I exited the financial services industry. Let's just say it wasn't my kinda scene. So Sales & Trading might be out as a career... for now. It was also weird/fun to step back onto my old trading floor. Nostalgia.

The next day, Saturday, I hung out in the city all day with an old friend from my alma mater. We went to my favorite veggie restaurant, Red Bamboo, on West 4th street and saw the movie, "Man on Wire" at the Sunshine (I think it's called) theatre downtown. It was a really interesting movie about the guy who wire-walked between the Twin Towers. Intense footage. We also had some cake and drink at Teany (the Moby-owned tea shop). Nice day.

Saturday night I met up with my co-worker who transferred to NY for dinner and then we met her boyfriend who is an Architecture student at Columbia. I checked out his student housing and it was pretty nice! It was just off 120th street and Broadway and rent was cheap, only $900 per month. He shared it with 2 other guys but the rooms were decent sized and there was a decent sized living room and even a guest room/office/den. Not bad. Then we went to some local Columbia bars. We went to 1020 which seemed like a huge sports bar that was super crowded so we immediately left and went to another place which seemed okay. I want to say it was the Pourhouse but I don't really think so. We ended the night at Havana Central (which oddly enough closes down at 2 am on saturday!?!?) ... I guess late nights will have to be spent downtown. It was relatively low-key and I didn't meet any CBS students.

On sunday, I had brunch with a future classmate that I was introduced to from another friend. I had never met this person but he turned out to be pretty cool. We got Korean food in Korea-Town since it was close to Penn Station. Both food and conversation were great... it turns out that he and I have very similar career backgrounds. Eerily similar actually. BTW, I can't wait for someone to start the Facebook group for our class. After a one hour conversation, I headed back to DC with my stomach full of noodles.

All in all a good trip! Tonight I will be meeting 2 future classmates for dinner/happy hour. I've met both of them before but we're going to celebrate because the 2 of them just got accepted within the last week or so. Fun stuff.

For some reason I feel like I'm no longer that involved in the blogosphere so let me take this moment to send out some positive vibes to Soni, Samantha, D.G., V2B, and of course, the MIA HappyBunny. I hope they're all kicking some admissions tuckus at this very moment!

MBA Veggie Rankings 2008 (aka Bored at Work)

2008-11-06T14:54:00.003-05:00

Wow, I am ridiculously bored at work so I will start posting about trivial updates. I learned yesterday that the co-worker whom I met at the CBS Info Session in DC in september just got admitted! That is great news. We are planning on getting dinner/drinks sometime next week since we work from different client sites (I'm a lousy consultant for those who don't remember). We might also meet up with another admit from DC whom I met through the forums. This will be fun because we'll already have a bond, and then when we get to school next year, we'll hopefully be able to introduce each other to our separate clusters/networks. Speaking of which, HappyBunny has a friend in NY who got admitted insanely early (mid-September) to CBS and I will be grabbing brunch with him on sunday. On a sidenote, I'm sure everyone's noticed that HappyBunny has taken her blog down at least temporarily. She hadn't found much that she wanted to blog about any more and I think she wanted to re-focus herself on the rest of her apps. But whatever the reason, maybe she'll want to do a "guest blog post" on MBA Veggie some day :)

So I am going back to NY this weekend. Taking friday off to do it too! I have a huge list of Columbia gear to purchase from the bookstore and I'll probably stop by the Career Services office too to see what literature I can pick up. Otherwise, I'll be basically meeting some old friends and co-workers (keeping the old work network alive plus I am genuinely excited to see some of my old buddies again). Might go out hard on saturday night. Just a quick 2 day trip.

Work is terribly boring, perhaps even moreso than it used to be which is hard to believe. But I am coping better with it as I've built up some immunity over all this time. Obviously I'm just cruising nowadays. I started thinking about where I will travel before school starts. My only international experiences have been to Taiwan, China, the Carribean, and Australia. I'm thinking maybe I can go back to Australia in January (it's summer there) and London in early Summer. And hopefully San Francisco in mid-spring. Then I can still go on the pre-MBA World Tour with CBS students in July/August :)

So most of you know that BusinessWeek comes out with its MBA Rankings every two years. While I don't think their list is as accurate as U.S. News' list, it's still interesting and garners tons of debate/discussion amongst the aspirant world so I was excited that I heard it was going to be released today. Apparently that is false. I emailed one of the BusinessWeek editors and she said that the magazine hits newstands next thursday, November 13th, and that the list won't be released beforehand. Darn it.

Well I can't wait and I am extremely bored at work, sooo...... I decided to create the first annual MBA Veggie Rankings for 2008 :P This is based on my own biases and extremely subjective "research". Yes, I am a believer in the "M7" and I have no good reasons for some of the ranks I've listed below other than randomly guessing about programs that I do not know enough about (and am too lazy to research). Don't flame me please- this is just for fun!

1. HBS
2. Stanford
3. Wharton
--------------------
4. Chicago
5. Kellogg
5. MIT Sloan
5. Columbia
--------------------
8. Tuck
8. Berkeley

--------------------
10. NYU Stern
11. Darden
11. Duke
11. Yale SOM
--------------------
14. Ross
14. UCLA
14. Cornell
--------------------
17. McCombs
17. Tepper
17. Kenan-Flagler

Internal Job Switch, Ahead of the Curve, etc.

2008-11-02T21:47:00.004-05:00

No postings in a week- must be some kinda record for me. I guess I don't have as much to write about now and the stuff that is on my mind I'm afraid would be uninteresting for anyone to read. I guess i'm kinda struggling right now as a blogger- can my readers really relate to me now that we're on different sides of the app process? I don't mean that in a haughty way believe it or not. I just wonder how much people care about my post-app experience since it wasn't the original point of the blog. My site stats have taken a dip recently too... bleh.

I haven't actually ordered Rosetta Stone yet, though I did try the free sample 1st lesson on their sample disc. I was impressed- it was simple, vivid, immersive, and I can see it being effective. But for some strange reason I didn't find myself motivated to go back and try the other lessons (it turns out that I wouldn't even have the option since only the 1st lesson was free). Do I really want to spend a few hundred bucks on it and never use it?

I am such a waste of space right now. I do little to no work at work, and then I play basketball at the gym for 4 hours daily. Literally. Apparently 1st year MBA life doesn't afford time for such luxuries so I'll get in all my playing now :) But seriously, I need some goals or something. I did borrow my co-worker's Financial Accounting textbook though. It's not the one that CBS uses but I just want to grasp some of the concepts so that everything won't be new. I hear accounting is one of the big ass-kickers for 1st years at most programs. And about work... I have the opportunity to switch teams to the economic analysis part of our company's business. It sounds cooler but it isn't... essentially I would be working as a scheduler and using Microsoft Project for 8 hours a day. It sounds terrible! But I would also use Excel a lot more and might improve my Excel skills which is important to me. Should I switch or not? The other option is to stay on my current team which is super easy and unchallenging (I basically do 1 hour of work per day!) and I could try to learn Excel on my own instead. Might be nice to take it easy before school starts but then again, I've been taking it easy for a year now. I have actually been chatting with a fellow admitted CBS student who quit her job the day after she got accepted... guess she's just having fun for the next 9 months!

By the way, I was in Barnes and Noble the other day and read the first 15 pages of Ahead of the Curve, the insider look at 2 years at Harvard Business School. It was a pretty good read, obviously very interesting and relevant since he graduated in 2004. I will probably go back and read it a few more times for free hehe. But that got me thinking: should I write my own insider experience about CBS? I don't mean that in a negative way... I don't expect to smear the school at all... if you haven't noticed, I am very pro-Columbia :) But maybe it would be good for my memoirs and a good fallback if I can't get a high-paying job... then I could just publish a book! haha, maybe I will keep a blog while I'm at school but looking around at other student blogs, it looks like there isn't enough time to post every couple days... once a week if you're lucky. Who knows.

Hopefully I'll have more interesting things to blog about soon. I'll actually be in NY this coming weekend to see a friend or two and take my old manager out to dinner (the one who wrote me a rec)... oh, and I'll be stocking up at the Columbia bookstore ;) On my shopping list are 5 t-shirts (3 for recommenders, 2 for me), sweatpants, and a hoodie. Maybe I will sample Hamilton Deli too.

OH! I cannot believe I almost forgot. Last thursday was a happy hour with co-workers to celebrate my acceptance... it lasted from 6 pm to 12:30 pm! I actually got pretty darn drunk and there was lots of dancing. Stuff that I normally wouldn't do if I still cared hehe.

Core Exemptions, Future Careers, Recruiting Strategy

2008-10-22T23:40:00.006-04:00

It looks like there's been a spate of dings recently on the BW and GMATclub forums for CBS. Like everyone else, I don't know why this is the case, especially after they seemed to accept such a high percentage of the early submitters (yes, I consider myself extremely fortunate). My guess is that they may have realized how many people they were accepting and decided to become a lot more stringent and selective, knowing full well that the volume of apps at the very end of the ED cycle and RD cycle would be ridiculously high. I'm sure they've already started seeing signs of this. In an Accepted.com chat with the Dean of Admissions, Linda Abraham, several weeks ago, she revealed that ED apps were up "double digits" in terms of percentage points at that time.

As for me, the euphoria is slowly wearing off but of course I'm deeply appreciative of my situation. Let's just hope I pass the Kroll background check!

Anyway, I've been spending my last couple days researching the Core curriculum. I want to exempt out of either 1 full semester course or 2 half semester courses. That way I can take an elective (or 2) while still spending the bulk of my courses with my Cluster-mates. The electives will allow me to take something interesting or to take a course in preparation for my summer internship. Originally I wanted to exempt out of either Financial Accounting or Corporate Finance, both full-term courses. But after emailing people from the Hermes Society (CBS' student ambassadors), I realize that I should probably take those courses since I have no background in them. Instead, I'll try to place out (via exemption exams) of 2 courses that I am well-versed in, Managerial Economics (aka Micro Econ) and Managerial Statistics. Taking 2 half-semester courses might be even more interesting! Plus this will allow me to meet some 2nd year students which might be helpful for networking.

The great thing about this new plan is that I don't even have to learn a whole new subject. I can just brush up on what I already know a month before the exemption exam and I should be golden. In the meantime, I'm still going to learn some basic Accounting principles. I heard that the course really flies by and I don't want to be caught off-guard. Btw, kinda sux that CBS has grade disclosure.

In other news, thanks to everyone for voting on my poll (on the right side of the page!) ... I'm really surprised how much support General Management has received. This has totally changed my perspective on it and I recently learned that it's more than just managing people; it's also about managing the bottomline and thinking about strategy, marketing, pricing, etc. Sounds realllly interesting. At least that's what Wikipedia's description makes me think hehe. I'm gonna put investment/asset management on the back-burner for now. My primary 2 career paths I think will be Sales & Trading (more trading than sales please) and General Management. For GM though, I'd like to focus on the luxury retail sector- just sounds much more interesting unless it's something else I find interesting such as GM for basketball-related organizations. On the same note, my 2 areas of focus/concentration I anticipate to be Finance & Economics and either Entrepreneurship or Leadership/Management.

Work sucks but it's easy so I can't complain too much. I did learn from one of the Hermes members an important tip though (sidenote here: only 2 of the 4 I emailed actually responded which doesn't seem too good considering that they volunteered to be student ambassadors). She suggested that I have fun and do enjoyable things before b-school starts. She revealed that recruiting is less about what classes you take and what experience you have (since so many people are career-switchers anyway), and more about effort and interpersonal skills. She emphasized that if you want a job, you need to attend all their recruiting events and be a personable person when you meet the recruiter all those times. Basically the recruiter needs to think "this is a person that I'd like to work alongside". That means it's more important to travel and try new, fun things before b-school than it is to learn accounting. Makes sense especially cuz I used to interview candidates when I was a trading assistant at a bulge bracket bank. We basically took whoever we liked the most (aka fun and personable) out of those who met the competency/hard-working threshold.

In other news, the friend whom I've been GMAT-tutoring pro bono just took her exam on Monday. She did okay but didn't get her goal and is incredibly discouraged. We'll whip her back into shape though.

And on a final tangent, I started thinking of names for my future children (please stop reading now if you don't want to be nauseated). I think my top choices for girl names are Avery and Paige. For boy names, I think Penn isn't bad... or maybe TienyChesney Junior! I'm a big fan of naming kids after locations. Maybe one of their middle names will be Morningside :)

HBS Visit - Part 2

2008-10-19T21:53:00.004-04:00

We take a hiatus from my CBS revelry to finish my recounting of my HBS visit which was a full month ago now. When we last left off, I was walking into the Technology and Operations Process Management class (or something like that).

The classroom (forget the building name now) was in the basement. But don't be fooled. The halls and facilities were immaculate. There were students milling about happily and conversing. The hallways were actually quite crowded as class was just about to begin. Everything was clean and comfortable and there were student mailboxes everywhere and free food (I think) on some tables. We entered a classroom and our student host introduced us to the professor who was very welcoming. We took 2 vacant seats near the front (all classes have assigned seats as per the norm at most b-schools I think). At the beginning of class, the professor introduced us to the rest of the class which surprised me. Then even more surprisingly, the entire class applauded! I was astounded by this. It was kinda strange but the unity of it all really made an impression on me. It was a good thing.

The class went on and I was surprised at how much everyone participated. There were probably 90 students in the class and for any given question, maybe 10 to 30 of the students would raise their hand. People really participated! The students were excited to participate and the professor really guided and steered the lesson. He would take the salient points and write them up on some cool chalkboards. I noticed that HBS even used some high-end, really thick chalk hehe. The students applauded whenever a fellow classmate made a good point and they all laughed whenever anyone goofed up or said something funny. Never was anyone condescending. I was really astonished and impressed. The community feel was definitely there. After the class, I would learn that TOP Management was supposed to be the most boring class! Yet I had a blast. I didn't even come close to nodding off (falling asleep) which is something that I've battled at every other class visit I've ever had anywhere else. I think this is attributed to the participative atmosphere and the insightful and sometimes humorous comments made by the students. At the end of class, the professor came directly over to me and my friend to ask us what we thought of the class! Amazing.

The classroom facilities rival those of any school I've visited. They are tiered stadium-seats like any other classroom but super nice and clean and large with great acoustics and tons of chalkboards. Each seat also has a voting panel so that the class can take impromptu votes at any time!

At the end of class, the Cluster held their end-of-week awards which is their way of poking fun at each other. For about 15 minutes, they handed out silly and hilarious awards like "person guilty for having a calculator with the most flair" and it was accompanied by a knee-slapping powerpoint presentation. I laughed my ass off. The class then voted on where to take their October cluster weekend trip. This generated a lot of open debate and almost caused a riot. I thought it was funny but some people were actually getting riled up which kinda put my friend off. It was probably the only negative (slightly) thing I experienced. All in all, the case study method at Harvard is unbelievable. I am a super fan!

Afterwards, our student host had to go meet some people (forget what) so my friend and I went back to Spangler cafeteria. We sat down with some random students for lunch that we recognized from the class and they were obliging. It was a good conversation and they were encouraging me to apply even though I said I thought my chances were slim. They insisted that they were all normal people but that wasn't necessarily true. For instance, 2 of the guys we were sitting with were an energy trader at a hedge fund prior to entering HBS and the other was an Olympic gold medalist on the national ski team. Normal guys huh? I don't remember what the third guy was but he was talking to my friend more while I was talking to the other two. I asked them about the "HBS douchebag" stereotype. They laughed and estimated that maybe 50% were douchebags and that it was probably even a conservative estimate. Then they followed that up by saying that there are all sorts of people in such a large class so you'll still find people you love hanging out with which is true. Afterwards, I told my friend that the "HBS douchebag" stereotype wasn't apparent at all. She said it's funny because she considered the students we sat with as "the douchebags"! Haha, I can see what she means by that but considering my undergrad alma mater, I guess I didn't really notice it (she went to a liberal arts school instead). I guess that means I am more immune to douchebags because I was around them so much already. Then we ran from lunch because we were late for the admissions info session at 2 pm.

We were stressed cuz we were actually 5 minutes late for the info session cuz we got lost. There were about 25 people there and the admissions officer was obviously a rookie. She was visibly nervous and talked extremely fast. No new info here (as usual) but she did mention that HBS was trending younger (in response to someone's question). This is an interesting trend because other schools (Wharton and Columbia are specific examples) who have also stated explicitly that they are seeing and accepting more early-entry candidates. At the end of the session, I lined up to talk to her and ask her real estate-specific questions. Unfortunately, there was a scattered line and three people actually cut in front of me! I was not going to make this an issue obviously but I was kinda staggered by their gall. I guess it is competitive to get into HBS hehe.

I felt bad for the rookie admissions officer because she said she had a meeting in 10 minutes and that she was going to grab a quick lunch from the Spangler cafeteria beforehand. Four other prospectives and I walked alongside her with our questions. I had a nice, brief, 2 or 3 question chat with her and then I let her go. Unfortunately, she stopped right in front of Spangler and the questions kept coming hard and fast from the other prospectives. Wow, these HBS prospectives are really motivated! She was so nice and such a rookie that she took all the questions and Spangler closed behind her and she couldn't even get her lunch. In the end she walked out late to her meeting without any lunch. I kinda felt bad for her that us ravenous aspirants overwhelmed her (not me specifically but you know what I mean).

Seconds later, my friend bumped into her friend who she recognized from high school who was there. He was a 2nd year and apparently turned down a private equity job offer to attend HBS. He was looking to become a portfolio manager for a very specific kind of fund and said that he's been networking like crazy and still hadn't found the job he wanted. He said he was definitely feeling the economic downturn but I have a feeling that he was being super selective. He seemed like a superstar.

Afterwards, we went to the HBS Co-op (aka the bookstore) and it was huge! Harvard Business School has its own bookstore which is the size of most university bookstores! Seriously. I could not believe all the merchandise they had. It seemed to be priced a bit higher than most other school's merchandise too. It was crazy how many shirts and pants and mugs and knick-knacks that they produced, but it made sense. After all, I'm sure all of the students are super proud and buy aparell for all their friends and family.

That was the end of our HBS visit. It completely blew my mind in every way possible. The campus and facilities were definitely top top top. The professor and case study method was unbelievably engaging and stimulating. I was entertained. The caliber of student body was amazing too... everyone seemed incredibly articulate, attractive, bright, and had perfect teeth. They all looked like their clothes were purchased yesterday. I cannot imagine a better b-school. Seriously. I gave serious thought to applying to HBS after the visit but in the end, the extra recommendation (3 instead of 2) and non-transferrable essays (for the most part) made me decide against it. I will say this, however. I would only give up my CBS admit for one other school, and that is HBS. I understand there are plenty of schools that are generally considered "better" such as Stanford, Wharton, etc. But for me, I would only trade CBS for HBS. But I don't have that decision to make and obviously I'm ecstatic about Columbia :)

Afterwards, my friend and I walked through Cambridge. What a nice town, really! Then we rested and met up with a bunch of her friends for dinner, one of whom was an executive for Teach For America. We called it an early night and then took a taxi to his apartment (where we stayed) in the Back Bay area of Boston, which was reallllly nice. Quite impressive. The small but intimate and high-quality apartments reminded me of Manhattan. We had some really good conversation and had a great night's sleep before waking up for brunch and catching a flight back to DC the next day. All in all, HBS rules, every other school drools (except CBS of course hehe) j/k.

Quick Updates

2008-10-17T00:38:00.002-04:00

I submitted my deposit the day after I got admitted- never been so happy to spend $6,000 in my life. I mailed my official transcripts today too. There are a million things on the school's to-do-list but that's a good problem to have. Many of the tasks can't be completed until after January 1, 2009 anyway.

I just signed up to be a research participant for Rosetta Stone. Coincidentally, they need participants for Spanish (Latin America) which is precisely the language I am trying to learn. I would also get paid if I am selected! I should find out by Wednesday whether they've selected me. In the meantime, I need to do some self-study. I want to get either a Financial Accounting or Corporate Finance textbook. I will read it myself (no continuing education for me, probably not worth it) and if I'm lucky, I'll be able to text out of a Core class and replace it with an elective. Even if I don't pass, I will have a leg up. Corporate Finance sounds more interesting but we'll see. I'm going to see if I can get the syllabi to learn which textbooks that CBS actually uses.

I've also been thinking about post-MBA jobs and career tracks and all that. It's really quite difficult. I no longer want to do real estate development (though I'm still highly intrigued by it) and recently considered investment management. The problem with that is that I'd start off doing research and I don't know if analyzing securities appeals to me that much. I'd much rathe analyze something on a macro-level; I would rather analyze the market. So I considered a trading career which seems to match up well with my interests. However, I don't get that excited thinking about it, which worries me. It's funny that I used to be a trading assistant and left, and now I might return!? Also, what are the exit strategies? From my personal experience, the traders that flame out wind up being brokers. I don't want to get a top MBA to become a broker eventually. Trading is extremely risky in that you can have massive losses in the short-term and be laid off after a week. I've seen it happen myself.

General management sounds interesting but I feel like that is settling. Plus, aren't middle managers the first people to get fired once hard times arise? Lastly, I've thought about Luxury & Retail Goods. Sounds really interesting, right? But what is it exactly? It seems to me that it is basically upscale brand management (marketing) but a lot more strategic. That's really appealing and of course, everyone likes luxury goods. Is it right for me? I like fashion but don't know if I can represent it. Lotsa research to do.

Anyway, I have a new poll up on the right side. Please vote :) Thank you!

Preparing for B-School

2008-10-11T10:38:00.006-04:00

Wow, that was exhilirating. Thank you to everyone who expressed their support throughout this journey and congratulated me recently. I'm still taken aback by the high level of community support and encouragement I've gotten from the blogosphere. The fact that my last post (my shortest one ever) got the most amount of comments is really telling. Ya'll have been wonderful and I'm really glad to share the rest of my adventure. Even if my applicant life is finished (kinda), a new one begins. I'll be sure to keep bloggin though I might change the name of this at some point.

I figured I'd recount what happened on Thursday, Oct. 9th. The "status change" email was sent at 11:41 am EST but I didn't check my email until 11:50 am. I had been checking it obsessively (nearly every ten minutes) that morning becuz I had a feeling that it'd be the day. To be honest, I had felt every day was going to be the day for the past week hehe ;) When I saw the email in my inbox, my heart jumped. I sat back in my chair and accessed the all-too-familiar CBS website to click through the jungle of links that one must navigate before accessing the applicant status page (couldn't they make this more streamlined? hehe). While clicking, I breathed heavily and kept telling myself "NYU is a great program and you'll love going there for 2 years. Are you ready to apply to NYU Stern?" I said that to myself a couple times to brace myself for disappointment if it were the case. Then I clicked onto the final page and the first word was "Congratulations..." and the rest of the line read "on behalf of Dean. Glenn Hubbard and the rest of the Columbia..." and the end of the sentence read "... to offer you a place in the class..." !!! That was it, I stopped reading. I couldn't even read the rest of the three paragraphs that talked about the deposit and next steps. I started shaking my hands in flustered disbelief, grabbed my phone, and walked out of my office building with a ridiculous grin on my face. I probably scared everyone who walked by me. Then I made the obligatory calls to family and a couple friends before I realized that I'd be spending way too much time on the phone (and i'm actually working on a proposal effort right now) so I went back to my desk and emailed some others and updated my blog. Then I went back to work (kinda).

And that's it. That's how it happened. I did go out for just a little bit that thursday night. I'm still not sure which is the greater feeling: 1) being in the Columbia MBA class of 2011, 2) being done and happy with the certainty of my future for the next 10 months, or 3) not having to do any more applications which would be such a huge investment of both time, money, and energy. Oh who am I kidding- I guess number one trumps them all. Yesterday I mailed in my check for the infamous $6,000 deposit. CBS allows 2 weeks for you to mail or wire it. I don't think I've ever been so happy to write such a large check. Later that day, I updated the GMATclub and was delighted to find that some had already known about it from my blog... same with the BW forums. I also went on the CBS online bookstore to pick out t-shirts and sweatpants. Yes, I am that much a tool.

So what do I do now for the next 10 months? Aside from the mountain of virtual forms and to-do-list that CBS gives its admitted students (well over a dozen tasks ranging from health forms, to transcripts, to submitting a deposit, to filling out career development surveys, to housing forms, etc.) and the overwhelming wealth of info on the Admitted Students Page, I want to prepare for b-school. I want to position myself to take advantage of everything. So here's my personal plan in no particular order:

1) Transfer to the economic analysis unit within my company to learn more quantitative work.

2) Beef up my excel skills. This will go hand-in-hand with number one.

3) Learn spanish via Rosetta Stone discs. Seriously. I really like the little spanish I know and CBS has such a large contingent of Latin American speakers that this will prove very worthwhile for me.

4) Take an intro accounting course or corp finance course. Or at least buy and read a textbook gradually. Maybe I can place out of one of the Core courses (just one cuz I'd like to have the other courses with my cluster-mates) and take an elective instead.

5) Learn more about investment management careers, jobs, recruiting, etc. I think I want to go into this (tough I know).

6) Stay abreast of current economic news. Seriously. I don't do a good enough job of this. I need to make CNBC my homepage.

7) Keep checking out the housing market in the UWS and Morningside Heights for ideas/possibilities.

8) Consider taking an unpaid internship at a local investment management firm. It might be worth it because I'm not in dire need of salary right now but the experience could help me a land a good internship which in turn will help me land a good full-time job post-MBA. I might need the leg up as a career switcher if the economy's not rebounding by then.

9) Purchase much Columbia gear (Columbia gear in general, not CBS gear because I hate the branded logo- so ugly!)

10) Help fellow blogger community join Maxwriter and I as classmates. I'm looking at you Soni, HappyBuns, Samantha, and everyone else. For those of you who are Regular Decision, I will persuade you to matriculate upon your acceptance.

Obviously I'll try to attend all the admitted student events. There's one on December 3rd that is still not finalized but I'll definitely make a one-day trip up to NY for that. I can't wait to get involved. I wonder if I should update my facebook to show the Columbia network? But then again, I don't want certain co-workers to know... Okay, it's actually my alma mater's homecoming weekend so I will be getting blasted tonight but maybe I'll play with my resume a lil right now to see how it might look in the future :)

I attended a Wharton presentation on Tuesday but I won't be blogging about it. I'll still finish up my HBS Visit post at some point though. And I'm going to post my own personal guide to combatting (and hopefully conquering) each stage of the admissions process. Maybe it'll prove helpful to a few who are still in the earlier stages. Again, feel free to reach out if I can help in any way.

ADMITTED!!!!!!!

2008-10-09T12:10:00.001-04:00

My heart is still pounding... got the status email right before noon. Frantically calling friends and family now. Will post more later. AY CARUMBA!~

HBS Visit - Part I

2008-10-07T12:07:00.004-04:00

I’ve heard that the waiting period after Columbia’s interviewer feedback is submitted (and before a final decision is rendered) is the most torturous wait. Luckily, I haven’t found that to be the case. I was much more anxious on Aug. 13th while waiting for my app to change to “under review”. I’ve been fairly relaxed, checking my inbox for that “status change” email only once every half hour as opposed to every ten minutes. I’m sure that the wait will become much more excruciating as the days drag on and my chances of a ding increase (shudder). I will attempt to pass the next half hour by debriefing ya’ll on my HBS visit from a couple weeks ago.

We stayed at a friend of a friend’s place in the Back Bay part of Boston, which was really nice. Really impressive. The tiny but beautiful apartments reminded me of Manhattan. Boston certainly is cozier/more intimate but still a pretty nice city. It was nice to sleep in a real home as opposed to a post-college den. The friend of a friend is actually one of the execs for Teach For America and he (and his girlfriend) were excellent hosts.

That morning, we wanted to catch the early Finance class (I think at 9:15 or so) but it took us forever (nearly 15 minutes) to catch a taxi in Cambridge (inexcusable) that we were 5 minutes late. The student (another friend of my friend) was already in the class and we didn’t want to disturb it so we walked around campus for the next hour or so. The HBS campus is astonishing. It blew me away in every respect. It is literally its own campus and situated on the Boston side of the Charles River as opposed to the Cambridge side with the rest of Harvard’s schools. HBS is made up of approx. 7 or 8 very nice, modern buildings. They are all connected by underground tunnels so you don’t even have to step foot outside when the weather stinks. I quickly realized that having its own physical campus was a plus, not a minus. I originally thought it would be a disadvantage because I wanted to be able to fraternize with the students from other schools and feel a part of a larger community. But the thing is, HBS is so freaking large (900 students per class) that it is its own community. It is still a bustling and vibrant campus without having all the other schools around. I totally didn’t foresee that.

The first building that we entered was Shad Hall aka the gym. HBS students have their own exclusive gym (other students can’t use it) but HBS students can use the other gyms! Awesome. It was really nice. There were 3 new basketball courts and the weight room and exercise machines were all in these really rich mahogany-walled rooms with crimson carpeting. It looked like somebody accidentally put the exercise machines in the library of a mansion! All the machines looked new. The locker rooms were unbelievable and had tissue boxes and hairdryers in every row. The urinals were weird and super fancy- they were “98% waterless” and used some microbacterial technology that kept it clean. It sounded disgusting but I’m sure it does the job. The gym got me so pumped!

Then we walked into the non-faith-affiliated Chapel which is in the shape of a stout cylinder. When we walked inside, it was really pretty. The stairs into the ground floor of the chapel had its own garden with lush plants surrounding the staircases. There were 2 workers watering the plants. It appeared to me that HBS really had a ton of excess money to spend on such luxuries which I guess shouldn’t have surprised me. The auditorium itself was very nice and basic with several dozen chairs and two pianos (I think) and an alter. Tasteful.

We didn’t have any interest in checking out Baker library so we went to the Arthur Rock Center which is their center for entrepreneurship. I don’t remember much except that there were lots of cabinets and glass cases showcasing all the inventions and products that alumni had created over the years. Sorry, I don’t remember anything of particular note though I’m sure there were plenty of good ideas.

Then we decided to walk into the Admissions Office located in Dillon House which was definitely the most low-key of the buildings, it looked like a small townhouse. There appeared to be only 1 person working there at the time and they were in the back. When we walked in, we were unattended for the first ten minutes. This is probably because class visits and tours don’t start until October and we visited in mid-September. We browsed the various magazines and pictures and I took some candy from the mammoth candy bowl. There was a stack of really cute and innovative fold-out maps of the HBS campus sitting on the receptionist’s desk. It folded out to become a really artsy (it was illustrated) map of the campus. It’s hard to describe but it was really impressive and I could not imagine any other school having the resources to commission such a neat little thing that was unnecessary but so, so nice. When an admissions person (she seemed like staff, not an officer, but I don’t really remember) finally came out, she told us that visits had not started yet but that an info session would be held at 2 pm. She suggested that we walk around campus and maybe grab breakfast in Spangler, the student center and cafeteria.

We opted to grab breakfast at Spangler and wow, was it nice. It was the nicest school cafeteria I had ever seen. The food was prepared by Restaurant Associates, the same firm that did our food at Deutsche Bank’s cafeteria, but it looked better, maybe because it was so spacious and clean. The presentation really matters I guess. I got an egg and cheese croissant while my friend got a smoothie. When we sat down, we were amazed at the furniture. There is typical cafeteria tables but they were much smaller and nicer. The wood looked really rich (maybe just the paint or whatever). There were also a lot of other areas that you could sit since Spangler is the student center as well. Those places you have to check out on the HBS website’s campus tour because there were rugs everywhere and rich leather couches and loveseats. It was the difference between having $200 chairs and $800 chairs (note: those values are wild conjecture). Completely unnecessary but so luxurious to have! There were only a few students there eating breakfast and reading simultaneously. I noticed that the women at HBS are certainly more attractive than any other school I’ve seen. They were on par with the NYU Stern girls except the HBS women had more expensive-looking clothes hehe.

The food was good though. I can totally imagine eating there every day for 2 years (okay, maybe not every single day but still). After eating, we met up with my friend’s friend, Amy, at 11:30 or so to sit in on her next class, Technology and Operations Process Management (TOP Mgmt) or something like that. We met in front of her class's building, Aldrich, which was very state of the art.

I’ll post on that and the rest of my day in Part 2 because I’ve already written 2.5 pages single-spaced. Oy! Oh, and the funny thing was that there wasn't a sign-in sheet at the Admissions Office. My friend and I joked that HBS probably didn't care about keeping track of which applicants were truly interested in the school (in order to manage their yield)- instead, HBS probably just assumed that you would matriculate if accepted! hehe

Interviewer Feedback Submitted

2008-10-01T14:14:00.001-04:00

My interviewer submitted her feedback a few minutes ago so that's great news. Hopefully I will be one of those quick turn-around decision cases. Judging from last year's trends, quick decisiosn tended to be acceptances while long decisions tended to be deferrals or dings (with a couple exceptions of course). So hopefully a decision will be forthcoming quickly :)

For some odd reason, I was starting to lose hope and went through the entire NYU Stern website today for the past 5 hours (yes, I am serious). I was just about to start the application when I got the "status change" email from CBS. I will be visiting home in NY this weekend so it would be sweet to have a decision by friday. One can dream :) If I do get accepted though, rest assured that I will continue blogging and even provide in-depth posts on every single stage of the admissions process, from GMAT prep to managing recs to deciding what tie not to wear during the interview hehe.

Yup, this was a short post for once. I just wanted to keep ya'll in the loop :)

Yale SOM Visit

2008-09-29T14:08:00.002-04:00

I visited Yale SOM on my birthday almost a week and a half ago. It was the second school on my New England trip (MIT Sloan was the first and HBS would follow). Apologies for not writing about it sooner but the whole Columbia interview thing sidetracked me.

So on Thursday morning, we woke up early to meet up with HappyBunny (yes, that very one!) and her friend who had kindly offered to drive us from Boston to New Haven for the day. Happy's friend was also a prospective for Fall 2009 so we were all excited to check out SOM. There was some bad traffic for some reason but HappyB was a great sport about it and got us all munchkins!! We got to SOM right at 11:30 am for a welcome from the Student Ambassadors. As soon as I walked into the admissions office, Kathy Frost, one of the staff whom I spoke to on the phone a couple weeks prior, wished me a happy birthday. I was shocked that she remembered me! That was really nice though and caught my friends by surprise as they didn't even know. When I walked into the next room with the student ambassadors, I learned that Dave, my GMAT prep instructor from Veritas (and all-around super cool dude) was one of the ambassadors! He is a 1st year MBA student as well. We caught up for only a minute when the welcome started.

After the ambassadors introduced themselves (there were 5 of them for only 14 prospectives!), we walked over to Donaldson Commons which is the SOM cafeteria. We received free vouchers for lunch which was really nice. The cafeteria was good too. I got a Thai tofu wrap, some pineapple, and an Odwalla shake. Lunch and the smalltalk was nice. The cafeteria was cool and intimate-feeling.

Then we had our choice of classes to visit. I opted for "Careers" since I thought it would give me useful stuff to think about. The classroom, however, was a bit disappointing. The acoustics were not very good (people couldn't hear each other unless they used the mic) and the floor was flat as opposed to raised. This meant that people in the back had their view of the blackboard/projection screen obstructed by the heads of students in the front. I would also say that roughly half of SOM classes are below ground which is kinda unusual. The class was lackluster because it didn't talk about careers at all. Instead, it focused on personal development and Levinson's 8 stages of development (and Piaget's stages too perhaps, I don't remember). I had already learned all that stuff from my extensive psychology coursework during undergrad so I was disappointed. Another prospy I spoke to and a student told me that they didn't think the class was that great either. I was super embarassed when my phone made the largest tone ever when I received a text message. At least half a dozen people turned their heads. Stinks cuz my phone actually was off but then I must've accidentally turned it on again. Ugh.

After class, we had a Q&A with a member of the Adcom which was actually quite boring. I did learn one important piece of info though. She said that we can actually use another school's essay for Yale's "create your own question" option! Seriously! I can't believe she said that but she said that if we created a great story then there's no reason we shouldn't be allowed to use it for Yale's app just becuz another school coincidentally asked for it. I agree- just surprised that she would actually say so! I asked her if the other adcom members felt the same way and she said yes. She also said that the word limits were not strict limits but that a few words over was okay. This is in direct contrast to what Shelley at the Yale Reception (which I wrote about a couple weeks ago) said when she said that the word limits were indeed strict. Oh well.

The Q&A was really boring and monotonous though. I was happy when it was over. Afterwards, we went into downtown New Haven to pick up something from CVS and get HappyB some sandals since she had been wearing heels all day. We then went shopping at J.Crew and the Yale Coop bookstore. I had been super ecstatic about getting myself a Yale t-shirt (not SOM, but just "yale" on the front). When I finally found the perfect one (that fit perfectly too!), I couldn't bring myself to purchase it (even though the price was right). Yale's campus was very nice and the SOM facilities were decent but I wasn't in super love. I would've just been a poser if I bought that shirt I think. Plus I would've had to explain why I was wearing the shirt to people who might ask. So I didn't buy it :(

Dave, one of our student ambassadors and my former GMAT instructor, then told me of a happy hour/bbq that he was hosting on his lawn! That was really cool of him. I said that we'd drop by after dinner because we had dinner plans with some of HappyB and her friend's friends who were also SOM students. We met them for Thai food (don't remember the name of the place) but the food was good enough. It's funny because one of them was actually a co-founder of Google China and the others kept referring to her as "the founding member" which embarrassed her. The SOM students were really warm and friendly though. We had a great time at dinner and we felt very welcomed and included. A part of that might be because we were all Asian though hehe. In fact, everyone could speak Mandarin (including yours truly) and the 3 SOM students were actually international students so maybe that contributed to the bond/kinship. Anyway, we had such a good time at dinner that it was late for Dave's bbq. I still wanted to stop by but unfortunately, HappyB's friend had work the next morning so we drove back to Boston. I did thank Dave for the generous invite though- I really hope he didn't take it the wrong way.

We got back to Boston around 11 pm and we were pretty tired even though we slept in the car hehe. All in all, it was a very enjoyable and fun trip. One of the students was actually looking to do real estate finance so he was a helpful person to talk to as well. Plus, we got to meet "the founding member" haha! A funny thing is that all 3 of the students admitted that HBS was actually their first choice school! Yale's community were definitely very warm and welcoming but the facilities were just okay. The food was good though. I didn't see too much of New Haven but it didn't seem as run-down as I expected. It seemed okay I guess, which is how I would describe SOM overall. I'm sure it'll be amazing once the new building is built but that's not until 2013 or so. I think Stern might have the edge on Yale at this point, not really sure.

I will post about my HBS visit towards the end of the week.... unless I get accepted by CBS in which case I might just say "screw it." My interviewer still hasn't submitted feedback but I'm going to wait til Thursday (1 week) to contact the admissions office and ask them "how long should I wait?" ... don't worry, I won't contact the interviewer directly. A lot of people have commented that I shouldn't have asked the interviewer for feedback on how I did which I now agree with. She was definitely surprised by the question and gave me some generic response about how Columbia looks for people who are very enthusiastic about the program. But the past is the past and I still think I had a great interview (despite that 1 question). So I guess I should stop freaking out :)

CBS Interview Scheduled... and Done!

2008-09-26T00:44:00.004-04:00

Thank you to everyone who provided their advice on my interviewer strategy. Seriously. I got a lot of perspectives and good suggestions- I was quite surprised by how many helpful comments and shows of support there were. You guys are so good to me! Anyway, you'll be happy to know that I decided to email 3 additional interviewers. The crazy thing is that I didn't even know much (if anything) about them. I chose them because I didn't like the people who I was able to find info on. In this case, not knowing anything made me think they seemed alright so I emailed them all. I figured their responses might provide me clues (i.e. their signature). Anyway, one person replied only 8 minutes after I sent my email yesterday. She works only 4 blocks from me and said that she could interview me thursday. I waited until thursday morning to confirm with her as I wanted to give my 1st choice interviewer a chance to respond. When I didn't get a response, I confirmed with the super-speedy interviewer (let's call her Sarah).

I confirmed the interview for 3 pm the same day (I had anticipated this and bought hairspray and a leather portfolio to the office hehe). I even got a haircut on wednesday. I logged into the CBS website to confirm out interview time and to upload my resume. Literally 1 minute afterward, my 1st choice emails me back to suggest coffee this weekend! Arrrgh. Oh well, I didn't want to live in regret so I just forgot about it. I spent the next 4 hours of thursday by practicing my answers to common questions and doing 3 mock interviews with co-workers. Their help was invaluable, not only for the repetitions and ideas, but also the confidence it instilled.

Some background on my interviewer: All I knew was that Sarah worked at a Big 4 accounting firm. I figured she was a management consultant given that I am in Washington DC. That's all I knew. I was very business-like in my emails and worried that I wasn't setting a casual enough of a tone for us. But I figurd it was safer to veer on the side of professional than overly casual. N

Now for the debrief.

I arrived at my interviewer's office building 15 minutes early and relaxed myself by calling a friend and getting my tongue and comfort level flowing. Two minutes before 3pm, I went up the elevator to her floor and waited for her by the front receptionist's desk. I made small talk with the receptionist which I will recommend as a great idea. This calmed me down (rather than waiting silently) and got me in a good, jovial mood. The other plus is that when Sarah showed up to interview me, she saw how friendly and casual I was already. This ensured that Sarah and I would take on a more casual tone than business professional tone (though it might have turned out that way anyway judging from the other debriefs I've read). The other potential plus is that Sarah might've gotten the impression that I'm a genuinely nice guy who treats even the support staff with respect. Good stuff all around hehe.

Sarah took me, not to her office and not to a coffeeshop, but to a tiny interview, empty interview room. I didn't like this but as soon as we sat down, it was obvious that it'd be a friendly interview. It wasn't super casual but it was friendly. I tried to sit up straight and watch my posture (one of my flaws) the entire time which made me feel very business-like. But it went GREAT! It turns out that she went to my undergraduate alma mater as well and even walked onto the women's varsity basketball team! This is great because I am a basketball junkie. She asked for suggestions on where to play pickup games and I told her I still play at our alma mater's gym, and she said she has a friend who plays there. It turns out that her friend is actually on my intramural team!! That friend is also on another team that I played for over the summer where we won the championship. Small world huh? I felt great after that.

The interview went very smoothly. There were no questions that gave me a hard time. Everything was expected from the other debriefs that I've read on Accepted.com or the Clear Admit wiki. We basically went through my resume and I told her my goals and career story thus far. We talked about why Columbia and why MBA. She asked me about my thoughts on leadership and the infamous "ethical dilemma" example. I had answers ready for all of these. There were no questions about technical matters or even current events. She asked me about my current job and what I liked about it and what I actually did day-to-day. She asked me about my extra-curriculars and what I want to be involved with while at Columbia. She asked me what I would bring to Columbia that other applicants wouldn't. All easy stuff! If you read the other debriefs online, you'll be ready for the only mildly difficult questions which were "what will you do if you don't get accepted to Columbia?" and "what other schools are you applying to?" ... nothing should catch you off-guard. That was about it- pretty obvious, straight-forward questions. We were done in only 40 minutes which was fine by me. Obviously the longer the better but she revealed that she was going to be in a meeting from 6-9 pm so I knew she was busy (she revealed that when I asked what she was doing the rest of the day). We got through everything I wanted to say (for the most part) and I left the interview feeling great and energized.

She gave me her business card at the beginning and I made sure to send her an email thanking her when I got home from work. Oh, by the way, at the end she asked me if I had any questions for her. I asked her if she had any feedback for me and what she thought about me. I think this caught her slightly off-guard and she didn't really answer the question. She did say, though, that CBS is obsesssed with identifying applicants who are "extremely enthusiastic about the school." This is a well-known fact due to their ED policy and obsession on yield. She reiterated this a couple times in her answer and I took that as a good sign since she knows that I am super enthusaistic (I was great at conveying this) and she even knows that I submitted my application 3 days before the review period cycle. She told me she was surprised to start interviewing so early this year since she's been an alumni interviewer for a while now. I also asked her what the "next steps in the process" were. She replied that she would submit feedback and that I would then receive a decision in probably a week to a month. That's a bummer. I was hoping she would say that she'd submit her feedback that very day or something but oh well. Still a great interview. Definitely won't hurt me and should actually help me a little. But from the sounds of it, I think most people enjoy their CBS alumni interviews so it won't give me much of an edge.

The great thing is that CBS does not view the interview as a final hurdle in the app process. CBS actually uses the interview as just another factor in the applicant's profile- it just so happens that it comes at the end of the process. So it could very well be the case that the adcom thinks the applicant is stellar and plan on admitting him/her unless he/she completely bombs the interview. That is to say, the interview wouldn't matter much for this kind of applicant. But for those applicants who barely made the threshold of receiving an invite, then adding a positive factor to their applicant could definitely help.

So a great interview overall. I couldn't have asked for better though maybe I didn't need to ask the "do you have any feedback for me?" question. I am very happy though. Too bad she is very busy currently and may not submit feedback for a while. I'll call the admissions office and ask them how long is too long once it hits the 1 week mark. I'm sure the adcom will say something like 2 weeks but it doesn't hurt to ask (anonymously that is!) I guess now I play the waiting game. I actually feel pretty comfortable with my chances of admission and I'm going to hold off on my Wharton app for now.

P.S. new poll is up!

Columbia Interview Invite

2008-09-24T09:57:00.002-04:00

Okay, so I know I'm supposed to write about my Yale SOM visit and then my HBS visit but there is more important news. Yesterday, at 5:16 pm, I received the long-awaited "status change" email from Columbia. It took me what felt like ten minutes to check my status on the website and what do you know, I finally got an invitation to interview! I am ecstatic. So last night I researched all 9 interviewer names (you don't get anything aside from name and email address) and put together a spreadsheet of their traits and pros and cons. I'm trying to avoid hard-ass types or those who have worked at my current company and thus know what a joke it is or are hardcore finance/real estate types who might grill me on questions that I don't know. I'm being very strategic about this hehe.

There is one interviewer who seems perfect. The problem is that her alumni email address from her undergraduate school is listed (not work email and not even her CBS email!) so I wonder how often she actually checks that. I emailed her last night and hopefully she'll be able to do it soon. I really want to interview asap and then hopefully drop hints for her to submit her feedback asap. Actually, screw the hints. I will just ask her sincerely (in a super nice and casual manner) when she plans to submit her feedback. Once I ask that, she will probably say something like "oh, I'll submit it tonight or this weekend at the latest." The reason I want them to submit quickly is that it can take anywhere from the same day (no chance with my luck) to nearly 2 weeks to get a final decision. Those are valuable days since Wharton's Oct. 9th deadline for Round 1 is fast approaching. But first I have to secure the inteview with her!

6 of the 9 interviewers are finance people who might ask complicated questions and another 2 of the 9 I couldn't find any info on. The last 1 is her, who I really think is ideal for me. Since the interview can be a decently vital part of the application (why risk it? i might as well finish strong), I would rather wait for her schedule to free up than to take a potentially bad interviewer, even if the delay screws me with regards to Wharton's deadline.

I have a bit of a conundrum then. Should I risk interviewing with the 2 people who I couldn't find any info on? (assuming my ideal interviewer is unavailable). If she doesn't respond within, say 48 hours, would it be grossly inappropriate for me to email her on her work email? (this was not provided by Columbia but I was able to find it by researching LinkedIn). That might be able to get her attention but what if she is offended that I disrupted her work? Any advice is appreciated on how I should proceed. It could very well turn out that she is unavailable (unresponsive or maybe on vacation) and will have to go with one of the 2 "no info" interviewers... or even the dreaded hardcore finance guys! :::gulp:::

MIT Sloan Visit

2008-09-20T16:35:00.002-04:00

I'm finally back from my New England trip. Boston is a much nicer city than I realized, as is Cambridge, so I'm pleasantly surprised. I have now updated my favorite American cities list to (in order): NYC, San Fran, Chicago, and Boston. I won't comment on the banking debacle just yet, but I will post my thoughts on Sloan from my thursday visit. I'll post Yale SOM and Harvard Business School in the coming days.

My thursday flight was at 7:30 am so I was tired as heck but arrived in Cambridge around 9 am. We took a taxi to the Sloan campus and it was really quiet with few people milling about. I thought things would pick up later in the day (and it did) but not to the extent that I would've expected. It's not as bustling a campus as I would like. Sloan is also on the northern tip of the larger MIT campus so it's pretty isolated. There isn't a lot of interaction with the other parts of the campus community. There's also a lot of construction going on now which isolated the Sloan buildings even more. The admissions office was kind enough to let us drop our bags off there while we walked around and got breakfast. We came back for an 11:15 info session with the adcom. The adcom were very personable and friendly (even moreso than other schools) and talked about the school for an hour and took questions. I thought it was funny that the adcom mentioned how their students were very bright and down-to-earth. She chose her words very carefully and I expect this is to combat the perception that MIT students are nerds.

Unfortunately, anyone who walks around for half an hour can see that the nerd stereotype is definitely befitting. What shocked me was that everyone refers to the buildings as "E50" and "E27" rather than the name of the building. This stands for East Buliding #50 and so forth. The professors also refer to the courses by their course numbers, not course names, though the students don't practice that convention. I guess they like their numbers. The thing is, MIT students aren't embarassed about being nerdy, rather, they embrace it. This can be seen from the current MIT logo which looks like large computer pixels. It's definitely a different culture.

Oh, another funny thing, the entire group of prospetives in my info session were Asian (including me)- all 11 of us! Some were half-asian, some were east asian, and some were international but you get the point. It's funny because MIT's brand name really is HUGE in Asia.

After the info session, we split into groups to eat lunch with current students. We actually ate lunch with a military guy who confirmed the nerd stereotype. The lunch was boxed, pretty good, and free courtesy of the adcom. I was impressed by this. By the way, there was also a bunch of free food lying around everywhere we walked, whether it was pizza or mediterranean. Apparently the clubs are currently trying to attract members at this time.

After lunch, I attended a finance class with Professor Lo who is supposed to be very, very good. Before class I spoke to a current student in the core class and he was very friendly and not nerdy, but he confirmed the nerd culture. Professor Lo started out talking about the subprime mess and I agree, he was very good, very engaging. I started falling into my food coma when he started talking about formulas though. What I saw of the class was impressive, however. Afterwards, we dropped off our bags at our friend's place in Allston and came back to MIT for a 4pm pro-seminar.

The pro-seminar was supposed to explain the current subprime mess (which Professor Lo presented and did a great job with) as well as explain careers in finance. Apparently the pro-seiminars are a series of talks that get you ready for recruiting. Nice stuff. The event had free food (all gone by the time I arrived) and was packed, standing room only with about 250 people in attendance perhaps. Afterwards, we milled about some more in Harvard Square and got dinner at Grafton Street which is a nice bistro across from Harvard College. Harvard Square was definitely the hot spot. After dinner, we met up with some MPA (Master's in Public Administration) students, many of who were dual degree HBS students actually, and attended a cocktail party at one of their apartments. Everyone was really nice and I liked all the Harvard MPAs (and dual MBAs) a lot. They all exuded a healthy self-confidence but not arrogant at all- I was pleasantly surprised and had a great time talking to several of them. Then it was bed time. I'll write more about my actual HBS visit later.

All in all, my Sloan visit confirmed that I'm not interested in the school. The class and the pro-seminar were great and the facilities were definitely nice. However, I just don't see the fit with the student culture. Before we left Cambridge on Saturday morning, we had breakfast with a friend who is studying at the School of Urban Planning. He said that the Sloan students that he's met are definitely the best adjusted of all MIT students. I was shocked to hear this and then he quickly added "which is to say they are not completely socially awkward." I hope I don't sound like I'm bashing the school because the programs were really good, but these stereotypes were confirmed by at least 3 of the students themselves. And besides, the campus bookstore (called the COOP) even sold t-shirts that said "Nerd Pride" on them. Oi!

CBS Reception & Birth of Networking God

2008-09-12T14:35:00.002-04:00

Thursday was the CBS Admissions Reception in DC. I'll try to keep this brief :) They actually started quite late because they accidentally sent out an email with the wrong time. Ugh. The prospectives I would say were roughly of the same caliber as those at the Yale reception and a noticeable notch below HBS. Interesting that there were considerably more minorities than at HBS though. Anyway, it was pretty packed, I would guess maybe 150-160 people.

The presentation was the same one as the one they show for the campus visits so it was all old news to me. The Q&A session was also pretty lengthy and featured some terrible questions (1 or 2 were answered during the presentation already!) ... not a good showing for my future alma mater (hopefully of course). I did get to meet Christina from the BusinessWeek forums though. She was very nice in-person though she seemed a bit new to delivering the presentation. Jennifer, another assistant director of admissions, was there as well. They are both relatively young, mid-20's, and very easygoing to speak with. At the end, there were about 9 alumni who spoke to prospectives. I only spoke to one of them, a graduate from 1966 who works in real estate investment. He was trying to talk to 8 people at once so I couldn't get any specific questions in but I got his business card so I'll hopefully ask him stuff when he gets back from his business trip in October (such a long time, I know).

I did meet a couple other cool prospectives though, and one of them is super knowledgable about real estate. I think I definitely need to pick his brain before I do my Columbia interview because it'll flesh out my career plan much better (my one weakness, though a major one). I already emailed him so hopefully we can meet up for drinks next week. All in all though, this was the most comfortable that I've felt at one of these functions/receptions. I guess practice does help. I actually spoke to several people and made some good contacts, hence the title of my post :P

Speaking of the interview, apparently none went out this week! That's very surprising given the timeline from last year. However, there is one poster on BusinessWeek who said he got an interview on 8/27 and accepted on 9/10. I've got several reasons to believe that it's just a prank so I'll just disregard for now. I'm not going to get super nervous until I find myself empty-handed after seeing a good 3 or 4 interview invites for the super early submitters. Waiting is hard :(

Also, a shocker today. Some of you may know about NYU's Discover Stern weekend for minorities. Anyway, my application for the free weekend just got rejected! Crazy huh? My profile is higher than their averages and there isn't much to the application other than biographic info and a resume (mine isn't too shabby). I'm really surprised that I wasn't accepted to their little discovery program. I'm thinking that it's primarily for under-represented minorities (not just minorities) which is why my over-represented butt got kicked to the curb :( Hopefully this doesn't happen in the actual admissions process hehe.

Yale & HBS Receptions! Wow

2008-09-10T11:38:00.002-04:00

On Monday I attended the Yale SOM Diversity Reception. It was at the same place as the MBA Tour on Sunday and Shelley from the Adcom recognized me immediately. I asked some more questions and sent a "thank you" email the next day. She won't be at SOM when I visit next thursday but she at least knows who I am at this point.

The reception went well. I felt comfortable talking to Shelley and there were 4 alumni on hand to talk to about 35 of us. I learned that Yale does have a Real Estate Club even though only one person went into real estate post-MBA last year. Their Investment Management Club also has a fake fund that invests theoretical money rather than a real fund. There were little tapas put out but this was one of those rare situations where most of the people were talking and ignored the food. I talked to one alum who was cool and then left. It was a decent event all in all.

Last night, tuesday, I attended the HBS Reception. It was held at the offices of Ogilvy, the public relations firm, which was pretty cool. As soon as I walked in the lobby, there were 10 guys dressed in sharp suits waiting at the front desk. Let me say this. You could definitely tell the difference in caliber between the HBS and Yale prospectives. The difference was substantial. For the most part, the HBS prospectives appeared like the bankers in American Psycho. They all had tasteful, nicely tailored suits and nice shoes. Many of them were actual leather-soled shoes rather than the rubber-synthetic soles that have become the norm in business these days. They all looked like they shaved and got a haircut that very day or something. They were all attractive and professional. Definitely a cut above every other event's prospectives that I have seen. In general, the women were more attractive as well.

The Harvard Business School event was over-attended. There was seating for maybe 100 people but there were at least 20 people standing too. At Yale, seating was only 50% filled when the event began. At HBS, seating was replete 5 minutes before the start of the event. Here's the thing that impressed me though. A couple of the other prospectives whom I interacted with were pretty cool. I fully expected to have nothing in common with some of them (and perhaps that's true with others) but they were personable and dare I say: charming. When prospectives asked questions after the presentation, they were mostly articulate and you could tell they felt comfortable speaking in front of an audience. Future business leaders of the world indeed. Seriously! Obviously there were plentyof snobby-looking, pretentious people in attendance too but the point is that an alarming majority actually seemed kinda cool. Another difference is the Harvard kids were really bustling and talking up a storm with each other prior to the start of the presentation. These kids really know how to network! This is a stark contrast to the start of other presentations which I have noticed is alarmingly silent.

The presentation was great. It was reallllly inspiring. The admissions officer (forget her name) did a great job representing the school and presenting it as the best and down-to-earth. There was also an alumni panel with 5 really helpful alumni who provided very articulate, helpful, honest answers. It was a model admissions event for other schools to follow. Some notes... the alumni and the adcom used the word "transformative" a couple times each. The presentation had a section on "HBS Differentiators" and the last one was "Network" with an asterik after it. The adcom heavily emphasized that gaining admission to HBS does not provide one with the network. Rather, the network is gained by actually participating and spending time with your classmates and staying involved with the school and community. This was interesting because I'm sure it was a direct response to that new book by the HBS grad who couldn't get a job post-MBA and hated the network there. It was also alarming how many times (3) a cell phone went off during the presentation. Just terrible. The adcom's presentation also had a section on admissions factors and unlike most schools which list academics (GPA, GMAT) first, HBS actually listed it last. I guess they have such academically gifted applicants to choose from that they don't need to stress it.

They also talked about how leadership was very broad and can come from being a visionary leader, a thought leader, a leader by example... not necessarily being a vocal A-Type personality leader. The last thing that struck me was how funny some of the alumni and the adcom were at times. I was truly charmed (and surprised). By the way, for those who don't believe that top MBA programs are trending younger, you better believe it. 41% of the new class had THREE or less years of work experience.

All I can say is "wow." I've talked shit about Harvard in the past but now I am drinking the kool-aid. The presentation really inspired me and the caliber of people there (adcom, alumni, and aspirants) blew me away. Truly world class. I am excited to visit HBS in the flesh next Friday now. I still don't think I'll apply though. Honestly, I just don't think I have much of a shot. I don't think I have the leadership potential they're looking for. But the presentation did convince me to take another look at their essays and reconsider... if even for a moment. I probably won't apply. By the way, thursday is the CBS Reception!!

On a sidenote, the person who I met at the MBA Tour on sunday (the girl from the gym whom I recognized and it went awkwardly) I saw again right before the HBS event. She wasn't going but she recognized me and it turns out we live in the same apartment complex. Small world. The conversation went really smooth this time (I wonder if it's because I looked aka dressed better than I did for the MBA Tour). We chatted on the street for about 5 minutes regarding our MBA searches (an easy topic of convo for me obviously) and then I had to break it off cuz I'd otherwise be late. I hope to see more of her in the future though :)

MBA Tour in DC

2008-09-07T16:49:00.002-04:00

Hey, buddies. Just got back from the MBA Tour in DC. Registration started at 8:30 am (I pre-registered online though) and the Fair doesn't end til 5:00 pm. Long day huh? I actually left at 3:45 pm. It was held at the Grand Hyatt which is a really nice hotel. I was surprised that only about 180-200 people showed up for 29 schools. A good showing of maybe 40-45% of the prospectives were women. Seven top-15ish programs were there though few of the tip-top tier. Funny enough, Georgetown's MBA program had the most prospectives clamoring at the booth. From 9:00 to 9:45 am, there was a panel discussion on the factors that go into the admissions process. After that, there were six sessions of individual school presentations that you could attend. I was only interested in Yale but attended other presentations as well.

The panel was useless to me. Been there, done that. The first presentation I attended was Yale SOM. Shelley Clifford, Deputy Director of Admissions, was in attendance and talked alot about the new curriculum and also some about career services and student life. It was actually quite informative though I knew most of the info. There was also an alum from '91 in attendance (I may have the wrong year) who dressed like a schlep but was pretty enthusiastic and a bit eccentric. He made a couple really good points but looked like such a wreck. Anyway, I need to get over my fear of public speaking quickly!

Then came Cornell's presentation which was really good. The adcom (didn't bother to get his name) sounded really down-to-earth and gave amazing statistics. For instance, everybody got an internship last year and out of approx 100 students he spoke to, all of them got a full-time offer after their internship prior to the start of the 2nd year! That's ridiculously amazing. I think he said everyone who wanted an Investment Banking internship got one too. Some crazy stats. He was a cool dude.

I didn't pay attention at all for the Duke Fuqua presentation. I basically thought of questions to ask the Shelley from Yale. I had asked her a quick question after her presentation but the cat still had my tongue so I decided to visit her again at the actual "Fair" portion after the presentations finished at 3pm. At this point, however, I went to get Potbelly's for lunch.

When I came back, I attended Berkeley's presentation which had Diana Fiji (whom I met last year). I sat in the back and must've nodded off about five or six times. Afterward, I took a break to wake myself up and skipped the next presentation. For the last presentation I saw Chicago. Interesting that it was about 90% men in that presentation though there were 40-45% women at the event! The adcom was helpful but talked at us much more than the other schools. Also, they are trying really hard to dispel the perception that Chicago is 1) competitive, and 2) quantitative. He railed against those misconceptions at least 3 times.

Then the actual MBA Fair portion started with all the boothes set up. I lined up for Yale and snagged a sweet SOM pen! I also talked to Shelley again and she said "I alread talkedy to you" (in a good way) and I asked her some stuff about real estate and finance. It went really well and I told her I'd see her tomorrow since Monday is the Yale Diversity Reception. I know I don't need to attend but I want them to know how much I love them (as my second or third choice hehe). She did reveal that Yale's word limits are strict, hard caps aka no 10% overage rule! I also filled out a card to show that I was in attendance. Apparently Yale has another Admissions Reception on Oct. 2nd with one of their professors too which I am going to register for on their website now.

After that, I walked around the room and saw no other school that I cared to line up for and left. It should be noted that I did learn of the Toigo Foundation that gives fellowships for minorities who work 3+ years in finance after earning a top MBA. They give small a small grant and also alot of mentoring and job placement help. Looked cool and Kia, the representative, was really helpful and cool. I actually may apply (deadline's not until February thank goodness). I also received from her a huge pen. This is the largest pen I've ever had. It's bigger than the Dr. Grip by Pilot! The reason is because you can unscrew the pen and it becomes a 1 gig USB drive! Sweet, I've never had one until now :)

I did bump into a girl who used to go to Georgetown's gym religiously at the MBA fair whom I always thought was attractive but never talked to. I said hello and I think it kinda alarmed her. It was awkward and made even moreso when her friend walked by and started talking to her about something else. Bummer.

I may wait to report on Yale and Harvard's admissions receptions together. But in the meantime, thanks to all the blogger buddies out there that have shown such great support to me in my MBA quest. Ya'll are tight. And ya'll are right when you say my app strategy is super risky. I agree that waiting until I hear more from Columbia before even starting other Round 1 apps is a bad idea. BUTTTTTT here's why it isn't that risky. I'm only applying to 3 other schools. I probably won't get into Wharton if I can't get into Columbia ED so I'm debating even submitting a Wharton app (after all, I may not even have time to visit). Yale's deadline is not until Oct. 22 so I'll still have a month which is plenty of time. And NYU Stern's deadline is not until Nov. 15 which is plenty of time too. Thus I'm only screwed for Wharton which probably wouldn't have mattered anyway. That's the way I rationalize my laziness :P

Submission Revelation & Risky App Strategy

2008-09-06T12:27:00.003-04:00

Remember how I had imposed a 2-week silence on application talk on my blog? Well that time's elapsed and I can now reveal that I've already submitted my Columbia app. I'm sure you all could've guessed that just from my enthusiasm for CBS. Here's the crazy thing. I actually submitted it on Aug. 10! That's right, a full 3 days before the review period started on Aug. 13. I was hell-bent (to say the least) on being at the very top of the pile for their rolling addmissions process. The crappy thing is that, unlike last year, no applications went under review until a day after the review period opened. My app went under review on Aug. 14 and judging from all the BW posters, the same holds true for them. Here's the other mildly annoying tidbit. I got the email saying that my app was under review around 12:30 pm on Aug. 14 whereas someone who submitted on Aug. 13 (three days later than mine) got his email on around 11:00 am on Aug. 14. I know that means nothing and I was probably reviewed first but I wanted that distinction :)

Judging from ChristophW's spreadsheet on last year's ED applicants, the first interview invites should go out either Friday, Sept. 12 or early the week after (if last year's trends hold, which it very well may not since apps have spiked this year). Last year, most of the submitters who went under review on the first possible day got their interview invites around Sept. 10-11 and up to Sept. 15. The crazy thing is that a re-applicant actually got an interview invite last year on Sept. 6. But he was definitely an outlier. I fully expect next friday to start generating some interview invites. Since CBS adcom has stated that they expect a 20% increase in app volume, I think it's logical that they'd be reviewing even faster or more efficiently this year to avoid getting swamped by the volume. That's why I think that last year's timeline will hold. But if the volume is just too great, then maybe they'll be backed up anyway. I think I will ask the adcom when I visit the CBS Admissions Reception Event on thursday next week in DC. Do you think I'll sound like a total tool if I ask such a specific question?

I actually have quite a busy slate of receptions lined up. Tomorrow, sunday, I will be attending the MBA Tour. It's really annoying that they don't reveal who the participating schools are, especially since the event is from 9am to 5pm! I guess I will plan on hanging around there all day. The school's have individual presentations and then an MBA Fair afterwards so I may have to stick around the entire time to get the face time I need. Yale will be there though. No word on NYU Stern or Wharton or Columbia. Then on monday, there is a Yale Diversity reception. Now I'm not an under-represented minority (though I am a a minority) so I doubt they'll care to see me but I want to gather more info and get my name in their heads. Then on tuesday the very next night is the HBS Reception which I probably shouldn't bother attending but it's free and I will get some info so why not? If anything, it's interesting to check out the type of people who apply to top places like HBS. Then wednesday I get the evening to myself and on thursday is the CBS reception. Whew! Too bad Stern doesn't visit for awhile.

I've been thinking again about what happens if I don't get into Columbia. And it seems like if I don't get into Columbia ED, then I probably have little to no shot at Wharton (though I'll probably still try). Thus my secondary choices come down to Yale SOM and NYU Stern. I just looked into the Consortium becuz Yale and Stern both accept applicants thru that program. Too bad I don't really count cuz 1) I'm not under-represented, and 2) my background doesn't show a commitment to the Consortium's mission. Yale just joined the Consortium this year so I feel they'll certainly be saving a decent amount of spots for Consortium applicants.

Want to hear about my risky application strategy? I'm researching the other schools but I'm not actually going to start any apps/essays until I find out if I got an interview from Columbia or not. I expect to know by Sept. 15 or so but the tricky thing is, if you don't get an interview, CBS won't tell you and won't reject you right away. Plus if I wind up not getting an interview, then I will be in a time crunch though Yale's app is not due until Oct. 22 I think. Wharton's app is due on Oct. 9th I believe and Stern's not until Nov. 15th. So that's the risk. But if I do get an interview, then I think I've got a good shot at admission to CBS and I will have saved myself sooo much extra app work. There's a part of me that only wants to apply to CBS and Stern actually. Not the smartest idea but my heart's in New York.

By the way, I am completely dismissing the idea of beoming an investment banker. Before I was intrigued because of the obvious reasons ($) but after reading the "Mergers and Inquisitions" blog (the website is their name plus .com), I realize that I'm kidding myself if I think I'd be happy with 90+ hour weeks. I mean c'mon, seriously. There is also a hilarious video on "The Faceoff" from the "Leveraged Sellout" blog that is a rap battle between consultants and bankers. It's great, right up there with "every breath bernanke takes" though different. I found these on Soni's blog so I'm not going to link them myself. Just go to his site and check out the hilarity (and great info!)

It's a super rainy Saturday here in DC and I'm about to tutor my co-worker/friend on GMAT math. We'll be studying on Georgetown's campus and then I'm going to hop to the gym directly afterward. Hope everyone in bloggerland is staying happy.

Stern Nights & Moral Dilemma

2008-08-31T21:13:00.003-04:00

As you may be aware, I'm in NY this weekend and last night, I went out around the East Village which is NYU territory. We started at Continental which has the cheapest shots in Manhattan (hint- they're watered down) then went to Bar None and Plan B to dance like an idiot. Then finished at Union Bar. Fun night. I didn't meet any Sternies and the kids at Continental were mostly undergrads but it really made me envision how much fun living downtown would be if I were to go to Stern. I think it might be the funnest school to go to and that impression is only reinfornced by the Stern Follies video below. Fast forward to 1:35 and there's a spoof on Summer Nights from Grease. It's hilarious! My favorite line is "got our backpacks, we looked like fools, met some people, thought they were tools."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVqp6H8dZ3U&eurl=http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=11981670394&refurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fs.php%3Fq%3Dstern

I also took the liberty of checking out the Stern class of 2010 facebook group and HappyBunny is right, "Stern girls are the shiniest." That Grease spoof should lay the debate to rest. So I guess there may be life after Columbia after all (but let's pray that it doesn't come to it). I didn't intend to spend Saturday night researching Stern, but it certainly reinforced how fun downtown living is. If I could live anywhere in the city, it'd probably be the East Village. No joke. Depending on what vibes (or lack thereof) I get from Columbia, I'll visit Stern for a class visit and more research in late Sept or early October.

By the way, I think it's hilarious that Stern students are such avid beer pong players- at least from what I've noticed in other random videos and random comments. I guess my being an excellent beer pong player demonstrates strong "fit" with the program :) and nope, I don't call it beirut. One of my favorite lines from attending Georgetown undergrad actually relates to beer pong. You know how you're allowed to re-rack the cups in the middle of the game to create a better formation? Most people ask the opposing team to re-rack the cups into a pyramid, square, or "I" formation. But my favorite requests were "can I get a rhombus please?" !!! Yes, this kind of request happened more than once but it's funnier if you imagine a preppy Jack Hoya type saying it in a completely serious tone. How I love my alma mater :)

I also have a moral dilemma. I've been a vegetarian for 5.5 years now. I do it purely for moral reasons. That is, I don't want to kill animals. The health and economic reasons don't really resonate with me as much. Anyway, I'm starting to wonder if I should add chicken to my diet. This would help solve the protein problem and I wouldn't be fully reneging on the vegetarianism. It sounds stupid to me that I'd be a vegetarian except when it came to chicken. I feel really bad for those birds :( The way I see it, if I believe killing is wrong, then I should avoid it completely (hence full veggie-ism). Plus, eating chicken might make my life a little easier and help me avoid being a hassle for friends to dine with at crappy restaurants that don't even have 1 veggie option. Not gonna lie though, part of the reason I've started thinking about this is because I've finally caught onto this thing called "working out." Can't be a skinny guy forever. But this strikes me as a bad, vain reason. I shouldn't kill birds in order to look manlier. I guess that solves my ethical dilemma =/

P.S. I just got a Blackberry and have thus joined the 21st century. I'm not doing it for showboating reasons cuz I hate technology (really complicates my life) but rather because I think it'll be really useful to get acclimated to the thing before b-school when it almost becomes a necessity.

Columbia c/o 2010

2008-08-30T11:06:00.003-04:00

Arrggh, I just found the stats for Columbia's incoming class of 2008 (both J-Term and Fall). Apparently only 32% of the class is women. That's a disaster. The link is below:

http://www4.gsb.columbia.edu/mba/learnmore/applicant

I've heard that J-Term is always disproportionately men (even in b-school terms) though. The weird thing is that I heard women were about 35% of the latest incoming class. I don't like how we're starting to trend towards MIT (close to 30%) instead of HBS (close to 38%) in that respect. Maybe that's another reason to apply to Stern. 42% !!

Explaining the Criteria

2008-08-30T01:06:00.002-04:00

I'm back in NY this weekend. Mom's been in Beijing for nearly 3 months so it was really good to come back and see her again. She got me 5 mini bobbleheads of the Friendlies (those cute mascots for the Beijing Olympics), a deck of cards, and some headbands featuring the red Friendly. I will look like such a fruit but I'm kinda excited to wear it the next time I play basketball. I've learned that moms don't change :)

Anyway, I've been reading up on Wharton and Yale recently. Yale's really my 2nd choice next to Columbia in terms of fit but it's impossible to ignore Wharton's stature as the best MBA program in the country (in my opinion). Just because of that, Wharton is my second choice and Yale my third. But here's the thing. If I don't get into Columbia, there's a considerable chance that I don't get into Wharton (duh). If I only apply to 3 schools, then I'm putting all my eggs in the Yale basket. I'd go there in a heartbeat but what of my love for New York? I almost feel like I have to apply to NYU Stern. Have to. Upon second glance, their essays aren't as easy as I remembered them being. Luckily, their deadline is not until November but that means the wait will be even longer. Ay. But truth be told, I would probably have a great time at Stern and it would probably allow me to do what I want/need career-wise. I don't even mind the lackluster facilities (in my opinion only!) and the "city campus". I guess the thing that really bugs me is that I will feel like I settled in terms of prestige. I've written before and I'll write it again: I'm a prestige whore.

I wonder if that means Yale or Stern is my real 3rd choice? Hmm. Well I thought I'd take a page from OMGparishilton's book and explain the factors that I care about when ascertaining fit with potential MBA programs. I've actually covered these in depth in my old, now-defunct blog but I'd like to explain myself.

Location: This is super important to me. I want to be in Manhattan, NY. Anywhere else is compromising. NYU Stern wouldn't be on my radar at all without this key factor.

Brand/Prestige: This is super important too. The thing is that rankings only account for part of this (though a considerable part). In my head, I have my own idea of what the top schools are and rankings can only sway the order so much. That means I will always consider Columbia prestigious even if it's been at #9 in the rankings forever. The whole superficial M7 and Ivy League association are good enough for me. Similarly, that is why I will consider Yale but not any other school outside the top 10 or 12 or whatever we want to debate it is.

Career Prospects: This is almost a moot factor since most of the top 10 schools will get you where you need to go. But it helps if the network or program or recruiting is particularly geared towards real estate or finance for me.

Culture: This is a tricky one to describe but I don't want snobs (even if I have snobbish tendencies at times) and I don't want nerds (yes, I realize that we're all nerds to a degree by virtue of our GMAT scores). But I do want to enjoy the company of the other students. I want to feel comfortable. And having only 30% females doesn't help (sorry, MIT).

Curriculum: Obviously the more flexibility the better but it doesn't matter that much to me. I pretty much accept that the 1st year is mostly core and the 2nd year is electives at most anywhere. I don't care about being able to exempt myself from certain courses because I have no previous coursework anyway.

Hmm, I thought there'd be a lot more factors but I guess everything kinda loosely falls under "culture." And seriously, most things are not that important. Facilities are important but c'mon, they are not that important when compared to location, career prospects, and culture. Similarly, % of international students, food, grading systems, and all that stuff are small.

Since I'm a wackjob, I thought I'd also list my likelihood of acceptance at each of my target programs (assuming I put in my best application) as of today. These are all untenetable hunches.

Columbia 78%
Wharton 41%
Yale 55%
Stern 77%

Oh, and how could I forget? Harvard 102% :)

New York, Campus Visits, Beautification Day, Lax Apps Progress

2008-08-24T23:17:00.002-04:00

I haven't been back to NY in about 10 weeks. Crazy. But mom is finally back from Beijing so next week I'm going home for the long weekend. I know my mom will want a lot of my attention but I'll have lots of other stuff to attend to too. Friends and personal business stuff. So much so that I don't think I'll be stalking Columbia's campus at all hehe.

As for my New England trip, it will definitely be Sept. 17-20. Wednesday is MIT, Thursday is Yale, and Friday is Harvard (Harvard and MIT may flip flop though). Then on Saturday we depart but not before checking out Boston a lil more. And it looks like HappyBunny will be joining us for the Yale trip... she actually offered to drive! That should be fun and you know I'll be blogging like crazy when I return. I've promised Samantha a detailed HBS report.

This past saturday was DC Public Schools Beautification Day. I led a group of 25 volunteers to landscape Eliot Junior High School (apparently middle school and junior high are synonymous these days). Waking up at 6:30 am was painful. But the day went really well. People really enjoyed themselves and the front of the school looks sooo pretty. It was literally dirt and dead grass when we got there. Afterwards, it was still kinda dirt and dead grass but there was also lots of pretty flowers and mulch. Not bad. More than half of the 25 volunteers were from the same Christian Bible group and they were radical. Super fun and super hard workers. When they found out we only had 4 flowers to plant (ridiculous budget), they went to Home Depot and purchased a bunch of flowers themselves! Insane. Plus, I think one of them took a liking to me but alas we will never know now. The project did reveal that I need help in refining my leadership skills. There was one volunteer who works for the DC Office of Accountability (or something like that) and she was a "strong personality" and tried to usurp the reins of the project a little. Plus the principal came out and tried directing us which sucked because I should've told him that I was the site manager. Ay carumba. I suck at being authoritative. I don't want to come off as a know-it-all dictator. It worked out in the end though.

Students just started returning to campus at Georgetown this weekend and it is cool. I like seeing a college campus full of life. I wish I was a student.

Would you believe that I haven't done anything app-related for almost 2 weeks? It's true, Lafou.

Yale and HBS Trip

2008-08-22T01:33:00.003-04:00

Did you know I've never been to Boston before? Never had any desire to visit either. As a proud New Yorker (is there any other kind?), I never saw the point. Well it turns out my good friend is going to visit HBS, Sloan, and Yale on September 17-19 so I'm going to keep her company. I'm really going for Yale and perhaps put the nail in the coffin when it comes to deciding whether to apply to Harvard or not. I'm sure I'll fall in love and want to waste my time and apply (dammit). But maybe I'll meet an arse or two and decide otherwise :P I have no interest in MIT at all but I'm going to treat this as a mini-vacation. Even if I don't want to attend the school, it's always interesting and fun to check out the campuses of world-class universities. I've never been to Harvard! I've been to Yale only once when I was terribly young (my cousin went there for undergrad). This'll be a fun holiday becuz I do need to get away. My friend is also super fun so it should be enjoyable. And you will benefit too cuz I will blog about it hehe. Time to start looking for airfare from DC to NY. Does anyone know the easiest way to get from Boston to New Haven? I'm assuming Amtrak or cheapo bus (my kinda style).

Wharton and Yale are going to be the other round 1 schools I apply to, but I'm going to procrastinate as much as possible before starting those apps in earnest. Maybe I'm delusional but I feel good about my chances at Columbia. I'm still on the fence about HBS (high input of energy, low likelihood of success). And my interest in Stern is starting to wane. While it suits my needs (program and recruiting-wise) and I know I'd have lotsa fun, I really want a super elite brand. I know it's stupid to care about such things but it's true, Lafou (prize for anyone who knows what movie that's quoted from!) Since Stern has such a late Round 1 deadline, I guess I'll decide whether to apply much later. So the order right now is Columbia, Wharton, Yale, and maybe HBS and/or Stern.

By the way, my friend is super smart. She went to Brown for undergrad (is it just me or are all Brown alumni super cool?) and she's also visiting Berkeley and Stanford on her own the week before our trip. I'm so proud of her cuz I got b-school into her head. She works at a non-profit and is not happy with the way things are going. Her ROI will be sweeeeeet.

So that's the big news. In other news, I am the site manager for DC Public Schools Beautification Day this saturday. I have to be at the school by 7:30 am! Oi vey indeed. It was impossible to get in touch with the school's point of contact too. I just found out that there is major construction going on inside the school so we will ONLY be landscaping and sidewalk clean-up. It's a liability and safety issue. So I guess my volunteers will be done by 8:30 haha.

I'm an idiot and actually volunteered to be Project Coordinator for 2 OTHER volunteer events on Saturday too. One is keeping senior citizens company at a senior home and the other is performing yard work for the elderly. I actually volunteered for these two events over a month ago so I didn't keep track of the dates. Oh well, looks like I will be attending DCPS Beautification Day instead. I'm also excited because I will get to see a friend for late lunch this saturday whom I haven't seen in a year.

Everyone knows I hate my job but today I had a conversation with my manager and almost yelled at him which would've been really bad. My company is such a campy, feel-good, hand-holding embarassment of a consulting firm that screaming at my manager is probably the only way anybody ever gets fired. Basically he was being a piss-poor manager (too much to get into) and I had enough and gave him some harsh tone in my voice in front of all the the other team members. I was going to really let him have it but he had to run to a client meeting. I cooled off in the meantime and apologized to him later so that I don't get fired needlessly and do something that realllllly hurts my admission chances at a top MBA program. Trying to play it smart :) Since I used to work on one of Deutsche Bank's trading floors (the Emerging Markets-Latin America floor which is a notoriously volatile market), I am so used to yelling and cursing. Looks like I'm in the minority ;)

Tutoring, Carlyle, & the Upper West Side

2008-08-17T23:59:00.002-04:00

Today I tutored one of my co-workers who is taking the GMAT in October. He is actually more than a co-worker, I would definitely consider him a friend. He sought out my help a couple months ago when he learned of my b-school ambitions. The tricky thing is that he doesn't have a strong academic background. He is a good writer (though I don't know if that will translate to proficiency at Verbal) but he has a lot of problems with math fundamentals. As we know, the GMAT tests those fundamentals hardcore. Things like fractions, integers, decimals need a lot of freshening up. Anyway, I've helped him several times at work but today I actually went to his place. Almost three hours of work today and I'm happy to say he's definitely learning a lot. I can see the improvement and comprehension. Unfortunately he makes a lot of careless mistakes and needs to stop giving up those free points. He has one thing going for him tho. He is applying for extended time (up to 100% more time aka up to 8 hours!) because he has an eye impairment that keeps him from focusing and can induce dizziness. No word yet on whether his request will be approved.

I met one of his roommates and the guy is cool. He's a Dartmouth alum currently working at the Carlyle Group as an analyst in domestic real estate. Sounds like he has my ideal job! He is really into it and considering an MBA too (realllly early in his though process). He simply wants one but doesn't need one because he loves his job (as he should). I really advised him to hold off until he finds a real need for the degree. He seemed to agree.

It's funny cuz I didn't realize Carlyle had its headquarters in DC. Weird! Anyway, he definitely has the best job of anyone I know in the DC area. By far. I asked him if Carlyle would hire anyone for just one year (hehe like me) and he said he didn't think so. Duh.

Oh yeah, and before you guys think I'm a d-bag, I'm not charging my co-worker for the tutoring. I let him buy me Panera for lunch but that was it... it just doesn't feel right to take money from a friend for something that doesn't cost me anything but time. But it'd be cool if we could do the majority of the tutoring at work hehe.

Also, I've learned from a Columbia ambassador on the GMATclub forum that most CBS students opt to live on the Upper West Side (UWS). This disconcerts me. I already know that I won't get on-campus housing due to the space crunch and my current proximity to NY. But I really had my hopes on living around Morningside Heights so I could be as close and involved with the Columbia community as possible. I wanted to be able to walk to campus without hopping on the train. I had even talked myself into loving the indie, artsy, somewhat rustic feel of the neighborhood. But I guess I can see why students would favor the UWS. After all, it's still close (only a few subway stops away) and safer, nicer. Unfortunately, it seems like they usually stay around the upper 80's to upper 90's which is the blandest, yuckiest area of the UWS. It isn't as nice as the 70's aka it's lower-income. That's because of its proximity to Morningside Heights, but unlike Morningside Heights, it doesn't have that artsy culture. In fact, it's rather sterile. Like DC. Morningside Heights gets its feel becuz it's dominated by Columbia. The upper Upper West Side is just sucky.

If I was going to take the subway to class, then I would just as soon live in the West Village which is euro-cool. The train ride would be about 20 minutes as opposed to 10 minutes so might as well right? But I guess the difference would be more pronounced in the late hours that I would keep as a busy b-school stud... ent. It would all be mitigated if my apartment was close to the subway stop though (aka 1 block instead of 3 or 4). In the end though, I think it would be more important to live with a cool Columbia roommate regardless of location. It would be sweet to find a super cool Morningside Heights apartment super close to campus, maybe right off Broadway. In the absence of that, then I guess I might as well be in the 70's or lower 80's if I have to be in the UWS. No 90's please, pretty please!

And for those of you who think I'm getting ahead of myself by thinking of apartments (actually, I've searched for such apartments many many times online already), you would be correct. In fact, I've also completely plotted my two-year class schedule on a spreadsheet. I was going to post it but I can't find an "attachment" option or icon on blogger :( If anyone knows how to do this, let me know.

Restless Rant w/ ScoreTop & Off-Topics

2008-08-14T05:24:00.003-04:00

Geez, it's 5:30 am and I can't fall asleep... too much going thru my head that I won't get into... also didn't help that I inadvertently fell asleep at midnight for 2 hours.

I thought this might be of interest though. I know that the ScoreTop scandal is no longer on the minds of many (at least not of the innocent) but I just found this article posted over 2 weeks ago on BW. It's a Q&A session with a GMAC official, Peggy, who seems very friendly and smiley in her photo but then gives a lot of machine-like answers. Apparently GMAC will only cancel the scores of people who either posted live questions or posted to confirm that they saw live questions. That's it. The link is below:
http://businessweek.com/bschools/content/jul2008/bs20080727_833217.htm

The last line of the entire article made me laugh. At first, I thought that Peggy, the GMAC official, said this as her parting words: "The field that MBA aspirants run through is fraught with land mines. Caveat tester." Then I realized that the line was actually the BusinessWeek writer's closing line. Wouldn't it have been a hoot if the GMAC official actually said that as a parting shot though!? Ha!

I also attended an Orientation session for Site Manager training for DC Public Schools Beautification Day on August 23rd. I will be leading some volunteers to beautify Eliot Middle School and get it ready for the first day of classes. I met 2 people from my company there (completely coincidental) and they said they were making company t-shirts and offered me one. Sweet! There is nothing I love more than free t-shirts of random events. I'm being completely serious. Did you know I already own 3 Columbia shirts? I know, I know. The crappy thing is that I made plans to go home to NY on the weekend of the 23rd. My mom has been in Beijing for 2 months and is returning that weekend so I wanted to see her. Now I obviously can't and will have to go back to NY the weekend after instead. Hope she doesn't mind.

One of my good friends who lives in College Park, Maryland told me some big news today. I thought he was going to tell me that his girlfriend of 3 years (maybe longer?) just got engaged... instead, he told me they just broke up. They are currently living together so he's trying to move out asap and into my neighborhood coincidentally. Tough stuff. Completely unrelated, my biggest high-school-crush-turned-good-friend just returned to NY after living in Berlin for 2 years. She will only be here two more weeks before moving to London for some prestigious Courtald master's program in art history (I think) though. Have you ever met someone so extraordinary that you feel as if you'd definitely have to marry her (or him) if the opportunity ever arose? (I'm assuming most of my readers are single) No? Well, whatever. This was getting just a bit off-topic with my blog's theme anyway.

I just realized the other day that Clear Admit (not positive but I think it's them) has a MBA applicant blog summary every friday and that they sometimes mention me. If this is my last post by then, I wonder how they're going to summarize this post considering it's largely off-topic. Last week they mentioned how I got a sweet MIT Sloan pen from the admissions panel thingy though :P Cool beans! Maybe I will mention something school or app-related to get me onto that summary thingy... how about...

... um, blanking here. For once. Maybe that's a good thing.

Tomorrow I have to go to a project team outing at RFK Stadium to watch the Nationals play some crummy baseball. I only went cuz I thought it would be fun but none of the fun co-workers are going apparently. Plus, it's supposed to rain! Drat. It will look really bad if I cancel (not that I haven't been making myself look really bad at work for the past six months already). But then again, what else am I going to do? Sit at home and become an alcoholic while watching the Olympics? errr, but I hate rain! I melt in it.

Okay, 5:45 am. Time for some ZzZzzzZzzzZzzz.

Silence of the Applicants

2008-08-12T15:21:00.002-04:00

Has anyone else noticed an eerie silence from the blogosphere (first time ever using that word, I swear)? Many of our fellow 2009er's haven't posted recently and I suspect it's because they're busy busy busy on their apps. That scares me. That makes me anxious. So I will not post about my CBS app for at least two weeks. That's the plan. This will keep me from getting too worked up and maybe it'll keep me working hard instead.

But it's so hard to work hard now that I've realized GMATClub's Columbia thread is so informative. I just started becoming active on it (much moreso than I ever was on BW forums). The link to the CBS thread is below. HappyBuns and Sons are on it too.
http://gmatclub.com/forum/103-t63151&start=260

I was bored an hour ago so I started re-reading some of my earlier posts about my Columbia visits... what a tool I must sound like. That's what makes me a great candidate for b-school I suppose :P Also, my alma mater's gym is closed for renovations for a week... arrrgh. That means I am stuck at home getting fat and watching the Olympics every night. Exciting stuff. Fortunately tomorrow I have orientation for a big volunteer project coming up and thursday there my team at work is going to the Nationals game... I hate baseball but don't mind it all that much in person. I hear we (the Nats) suck. I hope the beer is subsidized.

Oh yeah, I also found a roommate. Nobody cares about that though. I wonder what I will blog about now that I've put the muzzle on myself. Suggestions welcome.

Exhausted... & New Poll Up

2008-08-07T14:58:00.002-04:00

I am tired as heck of writing. I wonder how many hours people spend on each essay on average? 10 hours? 25 hours? 5 hours? I currently have to write a Self-Assessment for my annual review at work and to say I am half-assing it is an embellishment. I literally copied everything from the last review haha. I am sick of writing. Thus this will be the shortest post ever.

There is a new poll up on the right of my blog. Feel free to click away. What did I learn from my last poll? Basically that most people dislike CBS' commuter school rep and that a surprising number of people hate Uris Deli too. Not a single person hated the gym which is actually a pretty big deal to me. But then again, there's a decent chance that visitors don't even check out the gym I guess. Let me tell you, we will all be fat and unsightly by the end of our two years because the facilities are so high school junior varsity-ish. But then again, we may all be skinny due to Uris Deli-induced anorexia... j/k.

I'm considering taking a hiatus from blogging for the next few weeks to focus on my app. Would anyone object? Yeahhh, didn't think so ;)

Top 5 B-School Admissions Panel

2008-08-05T01:13:00.002-04:00

This evening I attended the Top 5 B-school Admissions Panel (or whatever unoriginal name they're calling it) in Washington, DC. It was held at the Capitol Hilton, a very nice, large conference room in a ritzy hotel. The link to the event is here, first provided by Soni (who sadly couldn't make it due to work) : http://www.alumni.upenn.edu/club/bsap/ There are other dates, all this week, in the other big urban centers like NY and Boston and San Fran so check it out. Mine was sponsored by the Penn club in DC and Kaplan (bleh) too. And it's free.

So I got there early and you could tell it was a high-powered affair. Only the top 5 schools (in the sense that they're the only schools to ever hold the top slot in either BW or U.S. News since 2003 according to Son). Their fancy brochures were laid out on tables for grimey hands to pick up. MIT Sloan even had some sweet pens. A funny thing I noticed is that HBS had 2 smaller pamphlets that didn't have any title or discernable point to them other than the generic propoganda. 3 hours later I realized that one was targeted towards women and the other towards minorities. As an over-represented majority minority male, I guess I shouldn't have touched them. Oops.

A couple observations. The vast majority of the aspirants in attendance looked very well put-together. Definitely like future business leaders. I didn't talk to any of them as I had a friend with me for a crutch but still, I could tell. They were all dressed smartly, had good posture, clean hair/teeth, didn't scratch their butt, etc. The future business leaders of the world will at the very least be presentable and well-groomed :) The other great thing is that a good 40% of the room of 800-900 were women. Considering the top b-schools only have around 35% women, this was a welcome sight. And they were attractive women too in many cases. Win win all around. I also recognized someone I dislike from work and a girl whom I hadn't seen since college in attendance.

So apparently there's a silent auction for a group Kaplan class. I didn't stick around to learn the winning bid. The panelists from left to right are: Judith Hodara from Wharton, Eileen Chang from HBS, Derrick Bolton from Stanford, Sloan lady, and Kellogg lady. Sorry, I don't remember their names. As you may recall, I am a Columbia ED guy so I was only there to glimpse some insight into HBS and Wharton. Mostly Wharton though. I think I'm deluding myself with the HBS pipedream. Anywho...

They've split up the topics so that each school gets to talk about only one admissions factor even though what they say is meant to be broadly applicable to all the schools on the panel. So in otherwords, one school is speaking for all five schools. Weird format. Judith Hodara from Wharton starts off with "Academic Standing and GPA". She says what we all already know about there being no limits and cut-offs and how admissions is a wholistic process. No real info. Eileen from Harvard is next on the topic of "work experience." No info either. Derrick from Stanford then talks about interviews. And then the two nameless ladies speak but I've fallen asleep so I don't know what's going on. Seriously, I dozed off because they were speaking in such platitudes! Then there was an open Q&A session with some stupid and some surprisingly entertaining questions (one older applicant if it's okay that he write about formative experiences from the 90's).

I did find the dynamic between the schools interesting though. Judith and Eileen both clearly dominated the talking during the Q&A session. They were very assertive with the microphone and both were extremely articulate and well-spoken. They sounded like they knew exactly what to say and gave just the right proportion of response and ambiguity that is needed of public figures such as themselves. Impressive. They really represented their institutions well as the best in the country. Derrick from Stanford took a different approach. He didn't dominate the mic though he definitely was 3rd place in terms of amount of talking done. He spoke very sincerely and sounded like he was having a conversation with the entire audience... he seemed like a nice, personable guy and tried to give the most honest answers of the three. I can see why Stanford has the offbeat reputation. I liked him. The two nameless ladies from Sloan and Kellogg were kinda embarassing to watch. They never siezed the mic and weren't particularly articulate. I was kinda taken aback.

Eileen and Judith kinda leaned towards each other when the others were speaking too, almost as if they have a secret pact to raise themselves up as the 2 best MBA programs in the country. They could've convinced me tonight. Once the Q&A was done, the room full of aspirants flocked to elbow each other for a chance to speak to their fav school's rep. My friend and I walked out to get some dinner. California Pizza Kitchen. Mmm.

So what did I learn? Not much. I fell asleep. The panel was useless (almost) to me because I am probably a bit ahead of the game judging by the general questions being posed during the Q&A session. Also, the adcom themselves admitted this is the very start of the admissions season. At one point, I wanted to jump up and ask how Chicago and Columbia felt about not being included in the panel :P So that's my report. I know you didn't find it helpful but I was honest.

In other news, neither of my recommenders are done. I think I'm going to have to step up the annoyingness. I am making steady progress with my essays though. Also, I need to stop stressing. I am kinda stressed that I have to find a new roommate during this busy time but truth be told, I still have 25 days until I need a roomie to move in. Unlike New York, where I feel like people find their new apartment well over a month in advance, people in DC don't seem to finalize their living arrangements until 3 weeks beforehand. The uncertainty kills me but I need to just breathe and chill the heck out. I need a mojito. I don't care that it's 1:40 am on Monday night. Sorry for sounding so ornery :/

My Secondary Schools

2008-08-01T01:30:00.002-04:00

For some reason, I've been thinking about my secondary schools. I don't like thinking negatively but I'm a realistic guy. I'd probably say I have a 80% chance of getting in Columbia at this point... just my opinion. I reserve the right to slide that percentage up and down in the coming weeks as my essays take further shape. If they start resembling turds, you can bet it'll plummet.

Anyone else self-conscious about using the optional essay? I have to use it to address two points. It's not really subjective because there are two points in my candidacy that Columbia has explicitly stated should be addressed if it was pertinent. I won't say what it is. I'm also thinking of addressing a third point which is specific to me: the fact that i've had many jobs. But I'm such an over-analyzer that maybe it isn't a big deal and I'd be better off not mentioning it. No need to call undue attention to it right? But I don't want to risk not mentioning it in case the adcom views it as a red flag. But then again, I don't like the idea of ending my essays with a "weakness" (or at the very least, not a strong point). Oi vey.

Also, I'm stressing about how much to write in the Work History's duties section. Should I write them matter-of-factly? Or should I write them with flowery prose that illuminates my candidacy in a bright light? If I choose the latter, it may be viewed as unprofessional. If I do the former, I may be missing out on a chance to showcase myself. Arrrgh.

Oh yeah, I was talking about my secondary schools. You know what, I just read on Samantha's blog that HBS re-did their website so I checked it out. And man, it is sweet. It certainly looks befitting of the best school in the world (in some minds that is). I particularly like the 3D map showcasing the different buildings and facilities. The photos and descriptions are great. Truly impressive. It's funny how marketing and propoganda can affect applicants so much but now I'm thinking I'll add HBS to my secondary list. I know I've been anti-HBS in the past, what with their snooty alumni (in my experience), but the best is the best right? No matter that I have like a 5% chance of accceptance there. I'm still holding fast with Wharton, Yale, and Stern. I guess Chicago will have to go even though I like the city so much but the combination of weather, socially awkward students (stereotype some say but not in my limited experience), and my comical inability to create decent slides for their essay kinda seals the deal. I'm still on the fence about Berkeley. There's just so much to write for them and I want to live in NY the rest of my life so my network wouldn't be as strong as it could be. I'm also kinda worried about their longitudinal prestige/ranking. Berkeley's hot now but it's one of those schools that I could imagine dropping in five or ten years. I think Yale's here to stay and there's no questioning H and W. People are going to crucify Columbia for their ranking but I don't really see them falling out of the top10 soon. Their nadir may be 11 or so. Stern I could see falling to top15 status though. Ah, who cares. Pure speculation and unfounded opinions on my part.

But I guess that makes my list, in order: Columbia, Harvard, Wharton, Yale, Stern.

For now :P I guess once I finish my CBS app by September, I can start looking at the pretty websites and materials of the other schools. Fun stuff. And perhaps all for nothing cuz I'm hoping for CBS first and foremost.

And I gotta say I'm sorry but alot of people have emailed me asking for the name of my consultants. I revealed them to the first bunch of people who emailed me but I think I'm going to stop. I just feel kinda weird about it. Sorry :(

Just a dozen days until the review period begins... ay carumba.

Another CBS Convert

2008-07-30T19:48:00.003-04:00

If you think I'm crazy for loving CBS as my number one choice, check out Soni's post on his CBS visit. His blog's link is on the right side of the page under "Fall 2009 bloggers." Yeah yeah, he still likes Wharton and GSB more but whatever.

My days are a bipolar mix of anxious and content. Content cuz I feel like I'm making steady progress on my app but anxious because there's still so much left to do. I'm sure some of you are well familiar with the feeling. One of my recommenders said he'll submit by this weekend and the other said he'd submit by next weekend. That's good- at least I can cross that off my list. Afterall, recommenders are the one part of the app where you don't have 100% control.

I've also started pondering the format of my short answers to the "Activities" and "Work History" section of the app. The activities section is confusing because the directions tell you to list up to 3 activities (each for college and post-college) and to keep it under 400 characters! Christina on the BW forum even clarified that it should be 400 characters for all 3 activities. Yet the text box allows you to write up to 60,000! Hmm, I wonder if they'll notice if we don't abide by their rule. Not that I'm going to risk it but why do they tempt us so? :P 400 characters is also incredibly little if it hasn't hit you yet. You basically have to describe it in one tiny sentence. Good thing one of my essays is about an extra-curric but then again, maybe that's not a good thing because if they don't emphasize extra-currics on the app, then how important can it be to them right? I still don't know if the 400 characters is with or without spaces. Sigh.

The "Work History" section seems easy- just a straightforward list. Until you start filling it out. It asks you for your duties and reason why you left. Does this mean we have to write them out really nicely? Or can we just be direct and answer the questions? I feel like the anal-retentive side of me wants to write super sweet answers but that's yet another thing to edit and draft and stress over. Sadness.

Also, breaking news alert! It appears I will definitely be submitting an optional essay. An adcom member had originally said the best way to use the optional essay is not to use it. haha! Talk about cryptic. Well I have no choice, I have to use it to address why I didn't use a current supervisor (very legit reason as our current project manager has only been there for two months). I also have to explain my grade conversion of my study abroad coursework because I am not following the CBS guidelines (which is okay, I called them and they said so). I'm debating if I need a third paragraph explaining my work history though. I've already had 5 jobs (not counting my part-time family business stuff) so i know that can be a red flag. But upon closer observation, I've really only had 2. That's cuz the first job after graduation was a crummy sales position for only 1 month... and then I worked at Refco for 3 months before it had the accounting scandal and went bankrupt (not my fault i swear)... and then before I was a hired temp at a staffing agency that placed me at Deutsche Bank so technically I worked for the staffing agency for 5 months even though I was at Deutsche. Oi vey.

Having to address three points in the optional essay worries me a lil :/

Thoughts on New App and... New Consultant Hired!

2008-07-25T15:07:00.002-04:00

Things are moving briskly. I figured I'd give my thoughts on the new CBS app that was released yesterday now that I've had a chance to look it over a lil...

The Essays are exactly what were leaked a few days earlier. They are indeed the first 3 from the J-Term with no "passion" essay this time. This is good news I guess since I have rough drafts of all 3 essays now. I also need to write the optional essay to explain why I can't get a rec from my current supervisor (he's only been with us for 2 months). This will probably just be 3 sentences.

The Activities Resume is revamped. According to Djhouse on the GMATclub forum, you used to be able to list as many activities as you wanted. Now you are limited to three activities (in order of importance) from your collegiate career as well as post-collegiate. This makes things interesting! I haven't ascertained whether it's 400 characters or 400 words allowed per activity but thank goodness we won't have to stress over wording every single activity ever conducted.

The biographical info asks for parent's college. This will be tricky cuz I have to transliterate it from Chinese. Also, parent's occupation is a tricky field because they're kinda retired though they're still general partners in the family business. Any ideas what I would put?

Recommendation questions are only 8 instead of 10 now. But that's actually misleading because they combined some questions. They look good though. Oh, and an update! I am switching out one of my recommenders... you may remember that I had 2 Asian recommenders but I was afraid of falling into the cliquey Asian stereotype so I switched one out for a Caucasian. Yay. I will be meeting him for drinks/dinner on Wednesday to fill him in on my backstory and reasons. He has promised that the quick turn-around time won't be an issue. Let's hope!

The online app system sucks. It wouldn't let people in until last night. But once in, it looks okay so far. I guess I won't start pulling my hair (and I have lots of it) out until I start pasting stuff from Word (or Notepad as they suggest).

Nobody seems to know (on both BW and GMATclub forums) what a Salary PIN is... I guess that will be ignored.

I am a limited partner in my family business and I do some work for them though I do not get paid (but then again, I'm a partner), so do I put this as an activity or work? I called and they said work. Darnit. I wanted it to be an impressive activitiy :(

The biggest bit of news is that I have officially hired and paid for a new consultant. The old one wasn't doing anything (literally) except counting his millions stolen from anxious aspirants. My new one is good thus far. Just hired this morning. I already have his comments/edits on my rough drafts and it is going to be a long, long, super arduous journey to rework them. I thought I was so close but now that I see all his comments (and there are a ton), I see I have so much work left to do. This stinks. Do you ever think that your essay is good and then someone reviews it and gives you a million things that can be changed/improved upon and you can't help but agree with them? Even though it breaks your heart to know that you'll have to input so much more energy? Sigh. I really wanna go out this weekend but part of me is saying that I should sacrifice hard for the next several weeks and it'll soon all be over and worth it.

Oh, and in more stressful news, I need to find new roommates (plural) as my old ones are leaving at the end of the lease in September. I really don't want to move. Oh well. Normally this would be fun because of meeting new roomies but I just don't need extra work right now :)

In other news, Soni is the man.

And other news, I know Bunny's identity!

And other news, apparently Samantha is a hornball ;)

Out.

Fall 2009 App Released!

2008-07-24T12:34:00.001-04:00

Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale.

Beach, Essays, New Consultant?

2008-07-24T00:06:00.003-04:00

This past weekend, I went to my friend's beach house in Maryland (Kent Island) and didn't think about applying for b-school for an entire day and a half. It's amazing how good life feels when you have no worries. Really is. But 36 hours later, reality kicked in but at least I felt slightly rejuvenated. For those super-stressers out there, try taking a break, even for a day. You might be surprised at how happy you can feel in a beach house bubble.

So Columbia's supposed to release their app this week and it's just turned Thursday. In anticipation for this holiest of events, I've taken my essay efforts to another level. I now have topics and rough drafts for the three topics! No small feat. Sometimes I'll try to write and I'll sit there for four hours with only a paragraph of garbage to show for it... and then a minute later, I'll hit a groove where everything out of my fingers looks like Hemingway and I churn out 80% of the essay in twenty minutes. Odd bit, isn't it?

Oh, before I forget, thanks to HappyBunny for showing me the GMATclub website. For those who are bored with the BusinessWeek forums, I'd recommend popping over for a look. There are some really good info there as the posters seem to be a lot more serious and mature about the process. They ask helpful- though slightly OCD (just like me!)- questions. For example, the Columbia thread actually revealed the essay topics for Fall 2009 a few hours before Christina (Columbia adcom) confirmed it on the BW forums... now that's the stuff! A lot fewer spammers too.

For those who haven't been following Soni's blog (shame on you), he recently told us about the Top Five Business Schools Panel coming to a major city near you. I signed up for the one in Washington, DC. It's free! And apparently only H, S, W, Chicago, and Kellogg will be in attendance. For those curious, they're the only schools to ever be ranked as #1 by BusinessWeek or U.S. News since 2003. I bet Sloan and Columbia are seething. Anyway, pop over to Soni's blog (on left hand toolbar) to register if you're interested (and you should be). I'm just too lazy to post the link myself.

And in a juicy turn of events, I'm really starting to hate my admissions consultant. No, I won't reveal who he is (at least not publicly...) but he's really taking the "deposit client's money and run" method to the extreme now. I understand he's immensely popular and probably has 300 other clients already, but he's not even pretending to help me at this point. I recently revamped my first draft of Essay #3 (Team Failure) and the only comment he had was "good, and done." That's it! Jerk. Maybe I should open an admissions consulting company so I can type 3 words and charge mucho dinero. Bleh.

So here's the tasty gossip. I may be on the verge of hiring someone else and kicking him to the curb. I know this is stupid because I have eaten the cost of his services already but at least someone will actually help me if I hire a reputable editor. I've gotten an initial consultation already and was floored by the amount of edits and suggestions provided so I'm doing a bit more research before shelling out more money. I'm leaning towards it though. Will make a decision in a couple days.

In the meantime, I need to figure out which college and post-collegiate activities I want to include in Columbia's "activity resume." Apparently they want organization names, office held, hours spent, etc. So I guess that means I can't list something like personal investing? Probably a good thing though since I have terrible returns. I'm probably down 15% overall but not entirely my fault... my timing was off. I started investing last year!

P.S. Let's give a clappity clap clap for the equity markets these past few days. Go Financials! :)

Columbia Fall 2009 Essays Released!

2008-07-18T11:22:00.002-04:00

This morning at 9:30 am, Christina (from the Columbia adcom) confirmed that the Fall 2009 ED/RD essays have been finalized. They are same as the first 3 essays from the J-Term application. These essays are "Goals/Why Columbia?", "Practice v. Theory", and "Team Failure". They've eliminated the short 4th essay on "Passion." The link to her post, along with the full questions, is below:

http://forums.businessweek.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?tsn=3870&nav=messages&webtag=bw-bschools&tid=57996

She also confirmed that the official application will be released next week. This is interesting because only a month ago, the adcom was confirming (over the phone) that Essays 1 and 4 would remain the same. Now they've eliminated 4. I guess we shouldn't be too surprised since many viewed the 250-word "Passion" essay as less important. It was the essay where the adcom trys to learn about the personal said of the applicant but I guess that's not as important given the spike in applications they're expecting this year. So only 3 essays. Sadness. I just finished my final draft of my "Passions" essay three days ago so I guess I wasted all that time. I'm going to write my first draft of the "Team Failure" essay this weekend. I have a decent topic in mind. However, I'm absolutely flabbergasted over what to write for "Practice v. Theory"... in fact, I've spammed the BW forums asking for ideas (at the risk of everyone discovering my identity and hating me but oh well, I gotta pull out all the stops!) hehe.

I guess it's time to cut back on the basketball and to dig in deep on my essays. I still think I'm on track. The activity and work resumes shouldn't be too difficult. I'm saving those for last. I'm also interested in seeing if the recommender questions have changed so I can really start harping on my recommenders. Don't worry, I'm not really that much of an ass. I just write like one.

In other news, I just got a new functional manager this week and she is hot. Also, hooray for the stock market finally showing signs of life!

ScoreTop, Columbia, Chicago, Berkeley

2008-07-14T01:26:00.002-04:00

I don't want to be one of those blogs that just links to other articles and has zero original content... BUT I found this interesting. BusinessWeek asked a bunch of b-schools what they would do with ScoreTop cheaters and the answers basically ranged from "suspend/expel the cheaters" to "treat them on a case-by-case basis and let's wait to hear more info from GMAC." Almost none of the schools are being overly lenient which I guess they would never want to do from a PR standpoint. Anyway, the link is below.

http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/jul2008/bs20080713_236462.htm

I finally revisited my Columbia "passions" essay... I think it's okay, not great. Just "okay" is not going to cut it though my admissions consultant insists it's the least important of the 4 essays. I may agree but still. I want to knock every part of the application out of the ballpark. I'm aiming to finalize the essay this week before the Columbia app comes out. It will probably be released anywhere from the end of this week to end of next week. Exciting stuff huh?

Also, Chicago released their essays and Soni's blog has some nice commentary on it. Basically it's only 3 questions (nice!) but 1 of them is the dreaded slide presentation... it sounds easy but hard at the same time. I hate my powerpoint skills. Looks like I won't be applying to Chicago as a secondary. I don't want to be with a socially awkward student body anyway, even if Chicago is a cool-ass city. Looks like Yale, NYU, Wharton it may have to be.

In news that none of you probably care about, I'm enjoying summer and life in general but not that much, if you know what I mean. One of my friends suggested it's because I have too much routine. I essentially go to work, go home, go to the gym, then go home every weekday. On weekends, I go to the gym every day and go out once. Boring me. He suggested I visit friends in other cities. San Francisco/Berkeley comes immediately to mind but I feel like I need to stay focused with Columbia apps being out so soon. Maybe after I submit. But what if I love the area so much and then become tempted to apply to Berkeley? Actually, that would be a good thing I guess so nevermind. Silly me.

Other Schools & Joe Lavorgna

2008-07-09T15:26:00.000-04:00

When it rains it pours.

I had b-school running thru my head again as I went to bed. That hasn’t happened since April I think. Anyway, I have some other things on my mind. I would be remiss if I didn’t comment that Berkeley essays are out! Thanks to Soni’s blog for reminding me. This is important because Berkeley was one of my backup plans in case Columbia dings me. My original plan was to apply ED to Columbia and if that didn’t work out, I was going to either re-apply next year or apply to my secondary choices (secondary in terms of personal preference so please no hate mail cuz I certainly realize these are exceptional programs in their own right). My secondary choices are NYU, Wharton, Yale, and Berkeley, in no particular order. I chose NYU cuz obviously I want to live forever in NY going forward. I chose Wharton because they have a top real estate program and I feel it’s the only one of the M3 that I could realistically have a shot of getting into. I chose Yale because I love their revamped curriculum and the community feel (and yes, the brand name of their larger institution). I chose Berkeley because I feel like living on the West Coast for a bit would be eye-opening for me and perhaps calm me down- I also feel like I’d love the area.

Anyway, upon seeing Berkeley’s extensive application questions, I decided there’s no way I can do it. Also, I’m on the fence about Yale because my admissions consultant told me that I don’t really fit into what they’re looking for. Part of me doesn’t buy that though so I’ll plan on applying still anyway (if rejected by CBS). So my secondary list is now Wharton, NYU, and Yale. I also wanted to apply to Chicago but I need to see if their Powerpoint essay is still required. I don’t like the socially awkward stereotype of their student body but I do like the city a lot (as previously blogged about) and the curriculum flexibility sounds super sweet. I should find out what their essays are. This is all moot if I get into my first choice, Columbia but I figured I should start to realistically think about my options upon rejection. I figure I just can’t wait another year to apply. I don’t want to wait until Fall 2010 to matriculate! That’s crazy since I’m already mentally checked out at this point haha.

Work has been slow (as usual) and I’m starting to get neurotic and worry about my lackluster work ethic. I occasionally start thinking crazy thoughts like “what if I get fired?” but maybe I’m being stupid. After all, yesterday I just got a dinky award! Haha, this federal consulting stuff is such a hoot.

You know what I think the coolest job is? Back when I worked at Deutsche Bank, the head economist of the bank, Joe Lavorgna, would always come across the squawk box on the trading floors and deliver up-to-the-second news and data. He would also interpret the figures for us on the fly. I think that’s such a cool job! I really like the idea of following the market and interpreting world trends. It’s funny because I used to love micro economics but I guess macro is where it’s at nowadays since everything’s tied together in this global economy. Plus, Joe Lavorgna is commonly on CNBC (shows such as Kudlow & Company) providing market commentary and opinions. I would love to do what he does but it doesn’t seem like an MBA gets you there. Those super economist dudes all have PhD’s and I don’t think I could do it. I’m not willing to settle for anything but a top-tier school and in doctoral programs, those placement rates are like 3 in 400. Crazy. Oh well, I guess asset/investment management is the other option :)

Sweating Bullets

2008-07-09T00:30:00.002-04:00

Okay, maybe I'm not really sweating bullets but it just dawned on me that the Columbia ED review cycle begins in a month! A month! (a month plus a few days but c'mon) I remember thinking about this stuff in January and thinking that there was so much dead time to kill and now it's really hitting me. It's go time.

GMAT is obviously done. My essays are up in the air... I have my goals essay and I'm happy with it (despite being terribly over the recommended word count). I have my passion essay though I'm not happy with it and it still needs a few edits. The other 2 essay topics we won't know until the app is released though some have guessed it will be the same as the J-term questions. I may look at them if I have time and the Columbia app isn't out yet. Crazy that the app should be out in 2 weeks (or so)... no date has been given but late July is the commonly accepted timeframe. From then, it'll be a frantic 2 more weeks before the opening of the review cycle. Ayyyyy!

Sidebar here. You know how there was a big stir when Harvard decided to release their essay topics in May? Then schools like Stanford (and I think Kellogg to an extent) released their essays early as well. The whole online b-school aspirant community was lauding HBS for being forerunners and pioneers once again (first with the case study method and now with the super duper early app I guess). Well I'm kinda glad Columbia stuck to their guns and stayed with their traditional late July release date. They didn't let Harvard sway them to and fro in an effort to keep up with the Joneses. And I'm proud of them for that. Even though CBS gets a ton of flack for their ED policy (and how it lets them inflate their yield slightly) and for being the supposed laggard of the M7, I'm really happy that they didn't follow Harvard's lead like a little lemming. I do understand why Stanford did it though (since they're HBS' primary competitor for the creme de la creme, they understandably didn't want applicants' minds mulling over Harvard's application and falling in love for too long a time before remembering Stanford has an app too)

Anyway, my two recommenders are in place and by tomorrow, one of them will have made some major progress. I gave them last year's set of 10 recommender questions to "prepare with" in the hopes that the questions stay the same. One of them said that they expect to be done tomorrow so at least one guy will be in the bag. I can "encourage" the other one too. One interesting thought here though. I am Asian. Coincidentally, both of my recommenders are Asian. I wonder if this will send up a red flag in the eyes of the adcom? Will they think "oh grrreat, here's anothe cliquey Asian anti-social who is only gonna hang out with other Asians." They better not! I am so not that. I listen to country music and my best friends from high school are all Jewish. Oi vey. Maybe I'm being neurotic but let's pray they don't think that.

On an unrelated note, I've noticed that Samantha and Soni and HappyBunny (fellow 2009 bloggers) have all received offers for "sponsorship" by ManhattanGMAT. I learned this by reading comments left by a ManhattanGMAT blogger on those 3 aspirants' respective blogs. The term "sponsorship" is actually incredibly misleading though. ManhattanGMAT is basically asking them to post a link to ManhattanGMAT on their blog in exchange for ManhattanGMAT posting a link on their own website. Haha! What a ridiculous offer. This is great for ManhattanGMAT because obviously they get more hits and potentially more customers and revenue and profits (since the GMAT prep business has such high start-up costs and minimal continuing operations costs). But is this equally great for the aspirants? Not really... I mean, they get more hits but they don't have the opportunity for great economic gain that ManhattanGMAT would get. It would be more fair if Manhattan GMAT offered to give a tiny, tiny royalty to the blogger if any of their referrals become a paying customer. Now that would be equitable. Thankfully, I don't believe any of them have accepted this dumbass "sponsorship" suggestion. Kudos to them. Or perhaps I'm just being a prickly, jealous idiot who is insulted that I didn't receive such a "sponsorship" suggestion. Haha! I understand they're the standard in GMAT prep but if they don't like my blog, they can... well, let's just say that I shouldn't write about that stuff. :)

Another observation. My blog's hits have been up by something like 50% since the ScoreTop scandal. I wonder if I'm coming up in search engine queries. Maybe I should investigate. Maybe I should shut up and go to bed.

GMAC Issues ScoreTop FAQ

2008-06-30T17:26:00.002-04:00

Just a quick post. GMAC has just issued a short FAQ that talks a little about their plans regarding the ScoreTop subscribers. The link is below:

http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/blogs/mba_admissions/archives/2008/06/gmat_cheating_s_2.html#more

Some of the questions and answers are ambiguous but the biggest takeaway that I received was that people who accessed the site but did not pay for VIP membership, will not be punished. That's a relief for many I'm sure. There's also a funny line in there from the BusinessWeek editor who published GMAC's FAQ... in response to the common question "how could subscribers know that ScoreTop questions were live and illegal?", the answer is "one must be blind to not have known"! What a riot. Sorry to make light of this but I'm feeling light-headed after reading hundreds of posts on this topic. I'm going to give it a rest til tomorrow.

ScoreTop Scandal

2008-06-29T23:03:00.002-04:00

How about that scandal eh? For those unaware, GMAC (the administrator of the GMAT) just won a lawsuit against a website called ScoreTop, which was providing live questions. Apparently one could pay $30 for 30 days of access as a VIP member and gain access to current questions that were still being used. The difference between this and Kaplan or Veritas' questions is that those questions are either proprietary (created by the respective company) or actual retired questions purchased legally from GMAC. ScoreTop had a message board where users would provide questions and some schmucks even wrote incriminating stuff about how they saw 10-12 questions on their actual exam that were posted on the website. Crazy. The amazing thing is that 6,000 people were registered VIP members! GMAC is threatening to cancel scores and notify the schools which received them. More should be known in a week.

This has got to be really scary for some people. The people who would use a website like ScoreTop are probably the super driven, super obsessed types who are applying to top programs. Those affected will likely come from the ranks of the Top 20 programs or so. Those schools will have a really tough decision coming up especially since it's still debatable which subscribers knew what they were getting into. The website certainly seemed legal and those subscribers probably viewed it as a way of getting extra practice and preparation. I can understand how the GMAT-obsessed aspirant could completely lose sight of the unethicality (not a word I know). After all, if something is available for purchase online, then most people probably think it's legal. A flawed heuristic to be sure but not an unfathomable one. Since ScoreTop has been around for 5 years, it's entirely possible that some of the incriminated have already graduated. The worst case scenario for them would be getting their MBA revoked and their careers derailed. I'm sure some programs will kick out current students. Just crazy stuff all around.

I really hope GMAC is 100% positive before calling out the subscribers because I'm sure we all know friends who could've walked into this trap somewhat unwittingly. Hopefully their momentary lack of judgment doesn't completely screw up their MBA dreams. I imagine cancelled scores will be a permanent part of one's GMAT transcript which means even if they retake the exam, schools would know about the previously cancelled score. Troublesome indeed.

I'm really sympathetic to those who must be terrified right now. I mean, I was one of the super obsessed types who was pretty insane in their GMAT preparation (luckily it paid off). In fact, I even remember stumbling across ScoreTop's message boards myself. I remember it distinctly. My Veritas course offered 4 different sets of practice exams (created by GMAC, Veritas, Arco, and 800score). The sucky thing was that my sample scores fluctuated like crazy so I was really nervous and did internet searches to ascertain which sample exams were good indicators. That's how I found the ScoreTop message boards. I remember seeing the threads talking about actual problems but luckily for me, I only read the 1 thread about the different sample exams (which was like 200 posts long!) ... I gotta say, the users of that website were definitely hardcore in their obsession. And I thought I was obsessed! I didn't look around the rest of the site so I never even knew about the $30 membership. Good thing huh? The fallout from this will be crazy. Much bigger than the Fuqua scandal for sure.

In brighter news, I took the PMP certification exam this saturday... I am now a certified P(i)MP. In consulting, it's the top designation that one can get certified in (I think): Project Management Professional. My company sponsored it. All I had to do was take a 4 day bootcamp class and then take the 4 hour exam (only need 3 hours though). Pretty easy stuff. I think it's ridiculous that people can get certified as such from just taking an easy class and then paying for the exam. It almost seems like a money-making scheme. Especially since the class teaches you how to pass the exam, rather than how to manage projects. The learning is very shallow. The positive takaway from this, however, is that I do have a better broad understanding of the consulting world and what it's like to manage projects. In the sense that every endeavor is a project, even applying to b-school, the course provided a decent framework for how to approach these projects from a planning, management, risk, and what-else-have-you perspectives. Last week I was about to use Microsoft Project to plan my b-school application schedule as a fun lil exercise but was too lazy to do so in the end. Silly me :P

Another One Bites the Dust

2008-06-19T15:26:00.002-04:00

You may recall that my old project manager resigned a month ago for a rival firm. Thus the Deputy Project Manager stepped into his role. Well surprise surprise! The Deputy (who is now the project manager) has just resigned this week to leave for the same firm! Haha, how rich is that? He is the third person to leave for that firm in the last 2 months actually because a more senior person was the first person to leave (but she was not on my project). I’m sure my client is realllly happy with all the turnover at the project leadership level. In fact, one of the managers who left has revealed that he’s already spoken to our client about using his new firm instead! I don’t know if he should be talking that openly about his strategy but it makes for juicy gossip! It’s also crazy how much of a raise they got when they left. I would leave myself but it’s pointless since I don’t even want to be doing this federal consulting schtick.

I’m currently helping my teammate revise her resume. She’s only 25 and has a 2-page resume! It has way too much info on it in my opinion and I heard that b-schools like you to keep it to one page. I know that two pages is acceptable at this stage but only in some instances. She definitely doesn’t need two though. She uses about 7 lines to talk about her college! And she has full paragraphs for a number of community activities. Admittedly, they are major activities, but still, an entire paragraph is a bit much. Plus, she still has her “Data Entry Specialist” position from her college part-time days listed. Yikes.

It’s full-fledged summer and I’ve broken out the seersucker suit combo for the first time ever. I’ve owned it for 2 years now but never had the guts to wear it until next weekend. For some reason it feels more acceptable to wear it in DC than in NY. Plus I don’t care what the heck my co-workers think. Funny scene yesterday. I’ve recently taken to wearing hairbands (not headbands) to manage the surfeit of hair that I now possess. My project team has teased me about. Yesterday, one of them called me into the other room to look at a document and when I walked in, the entire team was standing there staring at me… and all of them were wearing hairbands! It was quite funny and stupid. But I liked it hehe :)

BusinessWeek Columbia ED 2009 Thread Up!

2008-06-15T00:29:00.002-04:00

I know this isn't as exciting to others as it is to me but I'm kinda excited that the Columbia ED 2009 thread is up and running on the BusinessWeek forums. After only a couple days, the thread has 50+ posts and once again, ChristopherW has done us a tremendous service by starting a public Google spreadsheet tracking the stats and dates of each applicant's admissions journey. Fun stuff! It kinda scares me that other people are already thinking about Columbia ED apps but maybe this will be the motivational tool I need to galvanize my own preparation. After starting my first goals essay, I kinda hit a rut. But I'm happy to say that this week I've finished my resume (I think) and approached one of my recommenders. Tomorrow I will approach my second recommender.

I've also started brainstorming possible topics for the other essays. Too bad Columbia isn't releasing the topics until late July. But maybe that's good, because I'll have time to put together my "recommender coaching packages" to my recommenders. I suspect it'll include my resume, my goals essay, and some pointers about what Columbia values in its applicants/students (e.g. entrepreneurship). I'm excited because it seemed like there was a big lull in my admissions journey and I'm sure some readers felt it as well from the lack of energy in some of my blog posts. But now we're only two months away from the start of Columbia's review period and I'm pumped :) In other good news, one of my co-workers just signed up for a GMAT prep course and has asked for my mentoring. I am more than happy to give it. Coincidentally, he is the junior-level consultant that I manage so I'm happy that he's looking forward in his professional career. This will be fun!

In sadder news, our favorite Samantha from Best MBA Blog Ever has not updated her blog in a week. :( just kiddin!

Wedding Aftermath & Rec Strategy

2008-06-11T00:01:00.002-04:00

I am back from South Bend! As you may recall, one of my best friends from high school just got married on Saturday and I was a groomsman. South Bend isn't that exciting (didn't even have time to see Notre Dame) but the wedding was great. It wasn't gaudy and ostentatious like the kind I would personally want (hehe), but weddings between two lovebirds is just a beautiful thing in general. I'm really glad to have been a part of it. Luckily for me, I was the only groomsman who had to walk two bridesmaids down the aisle. And they were the two prettiest ones too. Unluckily for me, they were both married.... at ages 19 and 23! There were very few single people for me to hit on. Everybody over there just gets hitched at a younger age. Oh well. I did do some extended dancing in public though. And it wasn't half bad from the reviews :P

My flight actually got into Chicago (since South Bend is such a small airport) so I spent all of thursday checking out the city. I walked around the Miracle Mile, around Northwestern (undergrad and medical campus, not the Kellogg campus in Evanston unfortunately), took a cruise on Navy Pier, saw Wrigley Field, ate some deep dish pizza, caught the free blues festival in Grant and Millenium Park, and went out in Lincoln Park. Great time despite the humidity. Chicago really impressed me as a city. The closest thing that I've seen to NY. In my uneducated, completely biased opinion, it's probably the 3rd best city in the country next to San Francisco and New York. This is good news because I originally thought that I wouldn't want to live in Chicago but it was a great city. Too bad I didn't get to see University of Chicago GSB's campus (didn't have time and I was with a friend so he wasn't interested) nor Kellogg's. But like we all know, I'm obsessed with Columbia so hopefully it would've been moot.

Back to the wedding for a second... the song for the 1st dance was "Me and You" by Kenny Chesney! Beautiful!! I don't know if anyone knows this but I love modern country. Sad that I probably won't get married til a couple years after b-school graduation which will make me around 30 years old. I'm a romantic at heart but a bit too ambitious/competitive sometimes. I'm really scared of becoming one of those people who fall into the trap of becoming obsessed with work and start ignoring their family, friends, and relationships. :(

I am making zero progress with my essays and it's nearly the middle of June! Ack, I will not speak of this any further. I also want to get my consultant to review my crappy resume.

Let's talk recommendation strategy. For me personally, I want to give 2 months notice to my recommenders. Since I'm targeting a mid-August submission date, I need to notify my recommenders immediately! I know they're not going to do anything for a while but at least I'll know they've agreed. So my strategy is this. I'm going to use my latest project manager (the guy who just resigned for a rival firm) because I don't think the current ones will write a good enough of a rec. He already said he would do it which is good. He volunteered a month ago but I just asked him formally today and he agreed. The difficult part is that he'll need a ton of coaching. For my second recommender, I want to use my old manager from Deutsche Bank who knows I'm applying for b-schools but doesn't know (though may suspect) that I'm going to ask him. I emailed him yesterday saying that I'd love to treat him to lunch in 2 weeks when I visit NY... I plan on springing the question on him over a free meal hehe. Unfortunately, he has yet to respond. I will text message tomorrow afternoon to check his email.

That's it for now. My stock portfolio continues to suck. I am sad that Hilary did not win the Democratic ticket. I'm catching a cold.

Shallow Me to Chicago & South Bend

2008-06-04T16:20:00.002-04:00

Another tornado warning! Crazy. I will still brave the elements to go to the gym but pray that I don't get blown off the Key Bridge. I'll be attending my best friend's wedding this weekend in South Bend, Indiana (grrrreat) but first, I'll be in Chicago for a day. Wish me luck.

I'm sitting here at work and I've done everything I absolutely needed to get done before I leave. Just killing time now. We had a luncheon with our team's Partner and Principal today. It's amazing how everyone becomes tools and monkeys around such a trivial event. We wear business casual every day but yesterday, everyone decided that we should all wear suits. We were all smiling and standing up straight like corporate dorks. I tried to fake it during lunch but after 2 minutes, I was done. The conversation went something like this...

Teammate: Oh, I'm from New Jersey too.
Principal: Oh really? Where from.
Teammate: Morristown (or whatever).
Principal: Oh really? I have a friend from blah blah.
Teammate: Oh yea, that's right by there.
Principal: Yeah, that's great.
Myself: zzzzzz

I am all about being myself nowadays. I understand that I will ultimately have to do the whole corporate idiot thing once I start recruiting at b-school but at least it'll be worth it then cuz it'll be for things I desire and have respect for. Here, everyone is really low-caliber and do no work and basically steal money from federal agencies in exchange for typing up useless documents and surfing youtube. I can't believe how seriously they take themselves sometimes. Shocking that nobody asked our Principal for a photo afterward.

My favorite teammate told me a juicy rumor today. Apparently our current Project Manager (the one who used to be Deputy Project Manager up until 2 weeks ago when the old Project Manager resigned) might be leaving for a competitor too! haha. Doesn't change much for me but I guess that means I wouldn't even bother asking him for a recommendation. I'll probably just wind up asking the old Project Manager who already said he'd do it. His intentions are great but I'd need to coach him a lot with the writing.

As for my essay, I've been finding it hard to motivate myself. Now I'm going to lose the next 4 days to wedding related stuff. I love weddings so I'm happy to go, especially for my good friend from high school. Let's hope South Bend is mildly entertaining. It'd be cool to check out University of Chicago while we're there and maybe even Northwestern which is a couple blocks from my hotel.

Oh, and recently I started thinking about i-banking. My mind flutters to the topic every now and then. It's a hellacious lifestyle but the work is interesting enough. The compensation seemingly makes up for it. Or does it? That's the debate I always have with myself. I learned from the Million Dollar Man, Ted DiBiase that "every man has his price." You'd probably work 18 hours in a day if you were paid $1 million. So what would your price be to work like that for a week? For a month? For a year? That's my problem... I actually care about prestige and wealth and pretty material things. I'm such a shallow fool.

Rosetta Stone

2008-06-01T02:31:00.003-04:00

We had a tornado warning in DC today. I didn't even know that we ever got that kinda weather here. I was sad that I might have to spend all day huddled in my room working on my essay but there was a break in the downpour and I ran to the gym. Stayed for 5 hours. Not to work out but play basketball :) Oh, and for those who've been reading long enough, no, my broken hand isn't cleared for contact again but I tape it up and it feels fine. I'm not going to go full-speed until June 8th or so. That's what I tell myself. Today I went only 95% speed hehe.

So I won't write more about my essay woes at this point. Tis pointless. Let's just say that when you start, you find yourselves reading it over a million times. This is why I've always heavily favored exams over essays in school. With an exam, you can study to a point where you think you know all the material. But with an essay, you never know when you're done because you can always fine-tune further. I've probably read my essay and its various iterations over 20 times already. Yes, I am slightly obsessive.

Anyway, I just saw the commercial for Rosetta Stone and it sounds too good to be true... it's supposed to be so easy and fun to learn a language. Apparently the website says learning is like playing a video game. Hmm. I'm tempted. I would want to learn Spanish as I used to work for the Emerging Markets-Latin America trading desks at Deutsche Bank. Unfortunately, all I learned there were "bueno", "sympatico", and a couple curses. I also took a year of Spanish in 8th grade but it was so low-level that it felt like working at Booz Allen. Zing! Seriously though, I like throwing in random spanish words every now and then and I usually say hello by saying "Bueno" sooo... I think it'd be sweet to learn Spanish! It doesn't seem that hard, especially with this program. But if I pony up the $300 for levels 1, 2, and 3, then it might distract me from my application. Maybe I'll learn after Columbia makes its decision on my fate (Octoberish).

I also had a horrible thought today. I really have my heart set on Columbia and I'm optimistic of my chances, so much so that I didn't seriously think about starting other applications until after heraing from Columbia. But if I do that, then I'll have about 2 weeks (even less in some cases) to submit apps by the Round 1 deadline, which is the round that I'd want to submit. Well maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. If Columbia rejects me, I still haven't decided if I'd just wait a year to reapply so... ack, I'm scaring myself. Just pray for me.

Aside from more basketball, tomorrow I'm going to have brunch at a place called Busboys and Poets. The place looks really cool. Reminds me of an East Villagey kinda restaurant, the kind that I didn't think existed in this sterile city called DC. I'm muy excited for its vegan sausage! mmm, or perhaps I should have vegan bacon instead? Either way, the tempeh sandwich looks good. It's not a veg place but it caters to an eclectic crowd and I am just so excited. I wish I could take a photo of my brunch and post it but alas, my blog is not that cool.

P.S. Please vote on the new poll to the right :)

I H8te My Job

2008-05-29T16:10:00.002-04:00

Work sucks. I recently wrote about my increased responsibility here though they did not give me the title of Management & Operations Lead. Essentially I'm doing everything except for the financials which I am not allowed to do according to company guidelines because I am not an Associate. So I asked my project manager if he could still give me the title and he said no. He said he wanted all the Leads to be on the Leadership Team which he felt like I wasn't ready for, mostly due to my communication style. For those of you who don't know, I'm rather blunt at work because I have no patience for the idiots that pretend to work here. Idiots comprise about 95% of the company now that the strategy/private-sector group has split off as Booz & Company. Anyway, the caliber of people that I work with are so low-level that they need to be reminded a million times to do their jobs. Things that they should be doing on their own anyway! It's really frustrating to work with chimps. But I am still nice about it. I never yell or curse at them like I did back when I worked on Wall Street. But apparently my style is still too blunt. Blah. I told my manager that I have no interest in babying or hand-holding these losers but he says that it has to be done because that's how the company culture is. Basically, this joke of a company is not for me.

So I left that meeting in low spirits because it's just so obvious that there's no future at this place for me (or anyone else with a semblance of a brain). I haven't been able to do work all day. I have plenty of things to do now but I'm not interested in doing any of it. This place kills me. I spent the day looking for a hotel (settled on the Wyndham) in Chicago for next Thursday as I visit the Windy City for a day before my buddy's wedding. If anyone has any suggestions on places to see or do in Chicago, I'm all ears!

Maybe I'll start plotting out my next Columbia essay soon. Or updating my resume again. I need to get out of this place. In happier thoughts, is it stupid to hope to find love at b-school? I know some people do it. Maybe it won't be another business school student but certainly some cute brunette studying philosophy or dance or journalism will cross my path right? Pfft, I probably shouldn't be thinking about this on my blog... don't wanna lose credibility :P

I Suck at Networking

2008-05-27T23:48:00.002-04:00

My worst soft skill is probably my networking ability. I am a likeable enough of a guy and I'm also sociable enough. I'm not that awkward when meeting new people, especially after a drink or two ;) But I suck at networking because I hate putting on a phony face. I understand the importance of it and understand that I don't have to be a charlatan to do it, but it just takes so much energy out of me sometimes that I'd just rather be myself (even if I am occasionally introverted and would rather go to the gym than go out). Also, it doesn't help that I get red after one drink (it's in the genes!) which makes me self-conscious since everyone thinks that signifies that I'm drunk even though I'm not even buzzed. GrRrrrRr! hehe, so most people are shocked to learn that I got 3 of my 4 jobs through networking (my initial sales position that I had for a month, my internship at Refco before its accounting scandal, and my current Booz Allen job). In fact, you could also say my Deutsche Bank job was obtained in a similar fashion since I used a headhunter/recruiter.

So today I got a call from my old project manager who quit 2 weeks ago to go to a rival firm. He said that he is going to Beijing (and I already told him that I could solicit hotel recommendations from my parents since they go there all the time). He said that he wants to get his visa really soon but needs a "sponsor"... basically someone to say that they are hosting him while he is in the country even though he wouldn't really be living there. He would actually be staying with his wife instead at the Embassy though he cannot put that info on the visa application. So! That's the nature of his requested favor. This is easy enough... I just need to get my sister to get me the phone number in Beijing and convince my mom which I should be able to do. I expect that she won't have to do anything except provide her address anyway. So the funny thing is that he left me a voicemail and was telling me how grateful he'd be and that he would "owe me big time, maybe even help get me a job at _____ (his new firm)." Then he followed that with "just kidding haha, well, actually I'm not, but anyway, I'd really appreciate it so give me a call." !!! Insane stuff huh? I'm such a bad networker but I guess I'll settle for being lucky huh? :P

I don't need the job... after all, I hate this federal tech consulting stuff. It's mind-numbing almost. But if his firm has something real estate-related (which it doesn't) then I'd take that! Plus, I wouldn't be able to leave before getting accepted by Columbia (cross your fingers) anyway since I don't want to alter my story. But I WILL use him for a backup recommendation in case my current project manager isn't down. That'll be enough for me :)

Hmm, what else... oh yes, I am tremendously encouraged when I get hits on my blog. Makes me want to write more. Curious where the hits come from though. I know it's not from BusinessWeek any more so it's probably all from that Hella site. But the crazy thing is I get a lot of hits the day after I post... but how do people know that I've just updated my site?!

In other news, work is surprisingly busy now that I am the lead of Management & Operations. I am trying to train the junior consultant too. Almost no time to goof off nowadays while at work hehe. Also, I'll be getting my PMP certification (Project Management Professional) on June 27th by taking some stupid week-long course and then an exam. Should be easy stuff if my co-workers can do it haha.

And in happy news, good ole high school friend is having a wedding in 2 weeks in South Bend, Indiana. I like weddings but don't get to go to many. In fact, he's my first good friend to get married. I'll be in Chicago for one day prior too, just to check out the city a lil (no Chicago GSB for me though). Looking forward to it.

Resume Updated

2008-05-27T00:08:00.002-04:00

So I've been working on my first Columbia essay, the typical "Why MBA? Why now? Why Columbia?" essay, and it's really quite frustrating. I've always been notoriously terrible at word limits. This year's essays haven't been released yet but historically, this essay has always had 750 or 1,000 word limit recommendations. Last year it was 750 :( I don't really understand why they keep fluctating back and forth between the two limits but I am working under the assumption that 750 is this year's limit as well. My first draft had over 1,600 words! I've been able to get it down to 1,400 and then 1,200 but it's a struggle. I keep hearing that 10% overage is standard and acceptable which means that I need to get it down to 825 max. I will probably wind up settling for 850ish though.

My obnoxious admissions consultant insists that I shouldn't worry about the word limit and that 1,000 for a 750 word limit is fine! I am not taking that risk but I can't say that to him cuz he'll just yell at me. Looking back on it, I don't know if I made the right choice with this guy. We'll see. There are still at least 3 other essays to work on after this so maybe he'll provide some keen insights but in the early going, he pretty much just berates me via email about my "juvenile and breathy" writing style. Sigh. I don't mind the abuse if it gets me in but sometimes he says things are good or bad without explaining why, and I'm too reluctant to just take his word on everything. He's not God, even if his reputation is such in the admissions realm.

I'm intent on getting my first essay done before the application is released (probably mid-July) so that I can concentrate on getting the latter 3 done by the opening of the review period (mid-August). I decided to revisit my resume today and update it for Columbia's standards. I had previously found some student resumes on the Columbia Real Estate program's website so I decided to mimic their format to an extent. Not surprisingly, our formats were already alarmingly similar as mine was already using a standard Finance layout. I'm satisfied with my resume for now but think some of the diction and descriptions under my work experience could be better chosen. Not bad for now though.

We're now at the 2 and a half month mark until the opening of the Early Decision review period... I bet I'm the only loser keeping track of that stuff. But this means I should probably ask my recommenders in the next two weeks since I think it's best to notify them 2 months in advance of their due date. One of my recommenders (my old manager from Deutsche Bank whom I have a great relationship with) is in NY so I will want to make a trip up there to take him out to lunch and then spring it on him. But it will suck if he's busy and cancels lunch on me, which basically will waste my entire trip/weekend. I guess I can just call him to catch up and then ask him? I'm very confident he'll say yes but I'm such a worrier. The other recommendation from my current manager will be a much tougher card to play. I want to ask my current project manager because he is a fan of my work but he is a stickler who will say both positive and negative. I can't risk that. My co-worker who is applying to part-time programs said that she already talked to him though, and apparently he said that he understands the need to "soup up" the recommendations so maybe it'll be cool. But the other issue is letting him know that I'm thinking about leaving the company already, even though I only joined 7 months ago! In fact, he was one of the people I interviewed with. I think I'll wind up asking him anyway but it'll have to be at the most opportune moment. I might have to get him drunk, j/k! I just need to ask him when he's not stressed and in a good mood (most of the time) and when we're alone.

I met an old college friend for dinner and billiards yesterday evening and she's currently enrolled at Cornell for their Master's in Public Policy program. Funny thing is that she's here in DC for an unpaid internship and she can't afford rent! I know money is not the be-all and end-all but it seems kinda impractical to me to get jobs that don't pay the bills. I totally dig doing something that you're passionate about but maybe it should be a side project or hobby if it means you can't even afford $800 a month for a crappy apartment in Virginia. Or maybe I'm just a narrow-minded idiot :P Oh well, Memorial Day weekend is over and tomorrow I must return to the mines...

The Blahs

2008-05-23T16:16:00.002-04:00

Wow I miss basketball. It's been 6 or 7 weeks since I've played now. Actually, that's a lie. I played half-court the other day but that doesn't count and I played without using my left hand at all. I've been going to the gym anyway to do some running and light working out (emphasis on light). I also started dribbling with my left hand to see if I could put pressure on it, which I can a little bit. It's amazing how much better my handle is now than it was even a couple years ago.

Today my company had a huge picnic to celebrate Memorial Day weekend. I have no plans this weekend other than seeing my old college friend who moved down here for the summer. I need more things to do. Oh well. I'm starting to meet random people in my company that work on real estate-related projects but so far no offers to bring me aboard. At least I'm on the right track though it's going painfully slowly. I'm also going to get my PMP (project management professional) certification in late June by taking a crash course. It should be easy and at least project management is somewhat related to real estate development right?

I wish Columbia would release their darn essays already so I can obsess over them. I've started drafting my "Why MBA? Why now? Why Columbia?" essay. I need to learn to be more concise. As you can see from my blog, being concise is not my strong suit. Need to learn from the other bloggers out there. Also, you may have heard that my company Booz Allen Hamilton split in two. I don't really care. Though I wish we were still one unit so that other people might be fooled into thinking I work for the more prestigious commercial side haha :) Lord knows I fit in better there anyway.

Okay, so that's it. Just some minor blabbing. I think I'll go gag myself with a spoon now. Or I guess I can get a headstart and refine my resume now that I've been "promoted" on my project.

Busy Busy Everything

2008-05-18T14:28:00.003-04:00

It's raining on a sunday and I can finally catch my breath... I've been pretty busy at work (which is highly atypical) and thus haven't been focusing on school stuff much. Probably a good thing.

Last weekend I was back in NY for a day and a half for Mother's Day. It was great. My sister and I took her to a huge plant nursery since she loves plants and flowers and that kinda stuff. We wound up buying some flower that I don't even remember. My sister also picked up a Starbucks card and two dozen roses. That evening we had dinner at my Mom's fav Japanese place where we presented her with sapphire and garnet earings. I know she really enjoyed the weekend, not because of the gifts, but I think she was glad that the three of us spent some time together. Even when I come home, my sister's usually off doing her own thing so I think my mom enjoyed the company. That night we played mah-jongg.

In less happy news, our Pomeranian doggie, Bushy, had surgery. It turns out that she was in pretty bad shape with some rotten teeth and two hernias of the lower intestine. That's crazy news. The teeth is inexcusable because we just never took her for regular check-ups since everything seemed fine to us. I guess that's why she has bad breath :( So some of her teeth got pulled and they also sutured her hernias up. Man, poor Bushy!! We also learned she has an enlarged heart which takes up 2/3 of her ribcage and is the reason she coughs a lot. The enlarged heart and hernias are actually common genetic problems for Pomeranians according to the doctor and my sister. Bushie is 12 years old too. She wouldn't move the day after surgery but she was walking around again the 2nd day after. Poor poor doggy!

Oops, didn't mean to sidetrack from the MBA stuff. I know nobody cares about my personal life. So the work week was busy cuz I'm in charge of revamping the entire project's master schedule (600+ tasks). A bit stressful because some of the people who are supposed to provide inputs for the schedule are dragging their feet. Aarrgghhh. Also, my project manager resigned and we had 2 happy hours on Monday and Tuesday, meaning those were late nights. Thursday I was the project coordinator for a volunteer event where we hang out with some elderly at the Washington Home. Then I had another happy hour on friday with some college buddies. Saturday I tried finding a suit for my high school buddy's upcoming wedding but that's a disaster thus far. His bridezilla is demanding a certain type of suit which I think is just hideous. They want 2-button, black, center vent, with pleated pants. Gross. I hate 2-buttons (even if they are in right now) and who the hell wears black suits any more? It's such a hard, extreme color. I understand it's formal for a wedding but still, pleated pants? I'm neither fat nor an octogenarian so that's just hideous. The suggested suit is some discount number for $159.99! Hahaha, I would never wear that thing again. But it doesn't matter, they don't even carry my size. In fact, next to nobody carries my size. I'm a 38Long which is just too lanky for most sizes. And Bridezilla is having all the ladies wear different dresses! What!?!? It doesn't make sense that the guys are being pigeon-holed into one (ugly) suit when the girls aren't going to match except for color. I don't know what's going to happen. The suits that I do have are from Charles Tyrwhitt who carries 38L... most American brands cater to fatter people hehe. Tyrwhitt doesn't have black suits though (and rightfully so). Last night I met up with my old roommate and painted the town red.

Also, a funny thing at work. I might be getting more responsibility due to my project manager's leaving. The deputy project manager will now become the project manager and the guy whom I report to within the Management & Operations area, is going to be the new deputy project manager. Our new project manager informed me on friday that he wants me to manage the entire Management & Operations area even though I won't have the title. I will, however, have one junior-level person (person not yet decided) reporting under me. I'm wondering if I can ask for the title, something like Management & Operations Lead or something like that. I know that titles are meaningless since its your actual work function that's important, but it'd be nice to have. I kind of feel like they're just thrusting more work onto me without giving me anything though... maybe I can put in for a compensation adjustment hehe.

In other news, I called my co-worker's best friend who used to be Miss India and is a former model too. She gave me some advice and basically told me that if I were to do high-fashion, there's no way to do it part-time and I'd have to essentially move to NY. Fine by me! But she said that I gotta get 3-5 photos and start submitting them both online and in open calls. Exciting stuff. So my co-worker is going to be taking the shots in 2 weeks. I will use these 2 weeks to sculpt my abs (just kidding... no, but seriously) and eat nothing but salad. Haha, I'm crazy. I'm kidding. But am I? I know there's only like a 1% chance of this ever happening but I figure I should give it a try. Nothing to lose but some energy right? Hopefully it won't dilute my Columbia efforts. Yikes!

Networking Pays Dividends

2008-05-12T22:31:00.002-04:00

Okay, anyone who knows me knows that I hate to network. To me, it's just exhausting because I feel like I need to constantly put on a face. I don't enjoy it under typical corporate scenarios. I mean, the idea of pretending to enjoy socializing with people who I don't want to hang out with is just painful. I know this probably sounds stupid especially considering I've gotten 3 out of my 4 jobs from referrals... anyway...

As I've written before, my project manager is leaving the firm. So today we had a happy hour to bid him a farewell (we'll actually have one tomorrow too). I went because appearances are important and there was free food and drink. And Lord knows I need a drink after some of the drudgery I had to perform today. But at the end of it all, I also wanted to show my support because he is truly a nice guy. It's quite alarming when you meet genuine nice guys in the corporate world because they're so rare.... but he is. And so I went. Anyways, he knows of my MBA aspirations and started asking me 1-on-1 about it... I didn't lie. I told him that I was aiming for Fall 2009 and asked him his opinion on whether I should keep my mouth shut to the current managers on the team, a tricky situation considering I may need them for a recommendation though I don't want to alienate them considering I'll need to approach them for the rec nearly a year before even leaving. I don't want to give the unnecessary impression that I'm plotting my escape from them ya know? So he said "I'll write it" without my provacation or insinuation! Amazing. Even though he'll be 3 months removed from being my project manager, he said he would have no problem doing it. So that's a great relief.

Another great piece of news is that the project manager that's taking over for him is an option too... the problem is that he's a stickler for rules and goes by the straight and narrow. He seems like he'd be unwilling to paint a super rosey picture of me... he seems like he'd be brutally honest even if it meant mentioning negatives which is something that's not ideal for a rec. So I didn't think I could use him. However, I learned today from my wonderful co-worker, that she talked to him today and that he was indeed willing to write her a rec. She also clarified that she'd need the rec to "be souped up" and show her at her very best and he said he totally understood. So great!! Now it appears I have two viable options. I guess networking does pay off.

In the words of Happy Bunny, "Me likey!"

Alternative Career? Ha.

2008-05-11T01:45:00.000-04:00

I'm writing from a bus. I'm currently on the Boltbus up to New York to spend Mother's Day in Long Island. No Columbia visit this time. I'm bored and figured that I'd write about an interesting alternative career idea that my co-worker brought up today. This is the same co-worker who I am tight with and is applying to a part-time MBA program (that I wrote a rec for) in Fall 2008 hopefully.

She asked me if I ever considered modeling part-time. Now before you laugh or dismiss me as a fool, here me out. Her suggestion isn't as crazy as one might think. I'm tall, thin, have defined facial features, and a lot of hair to work with. Unfortunately, I'm not particularly attractive nor muscular ha! So I guess what I'm trying to say is that I may have some of the raw tools but not the total package. She suggested high fashion modeling which is probably the only type (and fortunately for me, the type that I'm most interested in) that I would even have a remote chance at. I have a lot of interest but c'mon, I don't consider it realistic. She was all excited and trying to get me to go to a hair stylist and take photos for that preliminary card that aspiring models need. I don't think this is very realistic, even in a part-time capacity, but it'd be exciting as heck if it happened. Coincidentally, her best friend is a former Miss India so maybe she knows what' she's talking about? Ha. Regardless, nobody else has ever suggested such a thing and I'm sure most would laugh in my face (rather rudely might I add) if such an idea was put forth. But obviously a hidden part of me would love for this to come to some sort of fruition. Ay. Doubtful though. I mean, I'm not really a mack daddy in the first place and models need to be confident. But I guess being a high fashion model means I could do the emaciated, sullen motif instead hehe. I will do my due diligence and see what it takes to get started. My co-worker is going to ask her former Miss India friend for pointeres too. Wish me luck! haha.

The more interesting thing that has to do with my MBA journey is that if such a crazy thing ever happened (that is, become a full-time model), I would definitely shelf my MBA plans for the time being. Well, maybe I shouldn't say definitely. How good I was at my new job would likely be the primary determinant. But isn't it crazy how I would give up this MBA journey for that completely unrelated job? Well actually, maybe it's not that crazy. We all have dream jobs...

By the way, I am starving. I cannot wait to have some real New York pizza. Yum! In bad news, our family dog, Bushy, just had surgery today to suture two hernias of the lower intestine and to remove rotted teeth that we never noticed! Horrible stuff. I can't believe she's been living with this the entire time and we never noticed... I guess that just goes to show that check-ups are indeed valuable. Hopefully Bushy is feeling better now and I will see her tonight. Aw, it looks like my blog is starting to get personal. Okay, back to b-school stuff!

I'm also starting to think about what if? What if Columbia rejects me? Should I wait to re-apply next year or should I apply to other programs and matriculate at whereever wants me that I like the most? The potential list is Berkeley, Yale, Wharton, and Stern for those keeping track. I keep going back and forth with whether I’d wait or if I’d take one of those other schools. Ah well. No point in really analyzing it further cuz I’ll probably just change my mind tomorrow.
I hope this post didn’t completely turn off everyone (all 3 of you) who actually read my blog :P

Servathon and Tidbits

2008-05-05T16:36:00.003-04:00

I figured that I might as well keep bloggin as I'm in the right mood now.

This past saturday was Servathon, the largest single day of service each year in the DC area. Greater DC Cares, a non-profit (duh), organizes a couple thousand volunteers to refurbish and beautify nearly 50 area public schools. The event is huge and only once a year so I figured this would be a good opportunity to try being a leader. I don't get too many opportunities to lead in my job so I seized this and volunteered as a Project Manager for a site. Each school has 1 (or 2) project managers (I was the only one at my site) and 3 to 5 project leaders. The PM is in charge of the entire school site. The PL's report to the PM and are responsible for individual tasks (e.g. landscaping, painting, etc.). Anyway, it was super stressful in the morning when we had to get there early for set up. I was really rather nervous and stressed, especially when the lady at the front desk of the school started giving me attitude because I needed supplies. It didn't help my cause when I spilled paint in the hallway and the janitor had to clean it up. The back of my volunteer shirt says "event staff" and the janitor was exclaiming "you're the event staff because you create events!" Not the best start to my day but I was so busy that I shrugged it off.

In the end, it was a smashing success. 34 of 35 volunteers showed up! It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day and we luckily had no manual labor tasks (except transporting some supplies). We only had 2 tasks, painting the blacktop (with a U.S. map, boxball, hopscotch) and painting a huge mural. The mural was beautiful and designed by a local artist who was there to help implement it. It was great. Most people had fun too. I sent out 2 emails to about 60 co-workers to ge them to participate but to no avail. I guess my company doesn't believe in community service even though it's the company's Spirit of Service Month! haha, what a funny coincidence. There was even an after-party that was fun. I met someone who plays basketball with me at the Georgetown gym too... we watched the Hornets beat the Spurs in Game 1 of the NBA playoffs later that evening too. Good times.

What did the above volunteer event have to do with MBA? Well, being a socially-conscious and responsible human being has a lot to do with being a corporate leader :) Also, big news! Rumors on the street say that my project manager (whom I wanted to get a rec from) is leaving for Deloitte! This is 99% confirmed though it hasn't been formally announced. Oh well. I'll ask him if he'll write one anyway. If not, then I'll just use two old supervisors and write the optional essay explaining that the manager that knew me best had already left. I don't think there's anyone else at my current company who I would feel comfortable receiving a rec from.

I also just wrote a rec yesterday for my co-worker who is applying to a local part-time program. It came out pretty well and I know she was really pumped to get it so I'm happy I could help. She's a really good teammate to have (and coincidentally was the person who leaked my project manager's resignation to me).

Separate note: I have NOT been completely addicted to the BW forums in the past two weeks. Merely scan the posts every now and then. I believe this to be a good thing.

Also, the most recent CBS Follies videos are now online at Youtube... if you can't find them, ask me (I no longer have the link readily available). In general, they're just okay... nothing hilarious except there is a long-awaited follow-up to the "Every Breath Bernanke Takes" video. This time it's a parody on the hit "On Bended Knee" by Boyz II Men. Decent stuff.

Let's hope my doctor's follow-up x-rays on Thursday yield good news so I can start typing more efficiently again.

Columbia Visit #2 - Part 2 of 2

2008-05-05T15:39:00.001-04:00

Sorry for the huge delay in posting the second half of my second Columbia visit. The broken hand didn't help things. Anyway, here it is...

When class ended I left without chatting up the blonde cuz she started talking to her friends. I walked across Amsterdam to Warren for a 12:30 class on Leadership with Professor Iyengar. Not 10 seconds after I had taken a seat did the TA accost me and ask if I wanted to introduce myself to the professor. I said of course and did so. There was enough room in the class so I didn’t crowd anyone and sat by myself in the seat closest to the door. I was hoping someone would wind up sitting down next to me but alas, it wasn’t to happen. There were only about 40 students when the class started and capacity was probably around 60. The class was on Motivation and was just okay. There was a video on the software company, SAS, which was entertaining and the professor asked students for a lot of participation (mostly soliciting examples of job characteristics they loved/hated and the like). Maybe it’s because so much of the topics touched on stuff I already knew from my extensive studies in psychology but I started getting bored and actually nodded off without realizing it. I startled myself awake when a little drool hit my shirt! I think the girl 2 seats to my left may have noticed but oh well. And to think, my admissions consultant specifically told me not to be an @$$hole on my visit. I waited out the last 15 minutes of class (twas semi-painful) then adjourned and grabbed a slice of cheese pizza for 2.95 at Camille’s right next to Warren. It was 2pm and the pizza clearly was not fresh but I was hungry. I wouldn’t recommend it, especially being in NY. I should’ve gone to Hamilton Deli instead.

I ate my pizza on a bench on the main campus lawn and people-watched. It was beautiful out. The improved, sunny weather made the campus look quite pretty. I love how Columbia and NY in general attracts indie artsy students. I’ll need that since I’ll be surrounded by sterile, corporate business people like myself :P I can really envision being a student there. Instead of going to a third class, I decided to visit the Paul Milstein Center for Real Estate. But first, I went to the admissions office to sign in, just in case they keep track of that sort of demonstrated interest from applicants hehe. Lo and behold, it was the same guy sitting at the desk as during my first visit! I wasn’t too fond of him as he wasn’t a particularly happy or helpful dude. In fact, he made me feel quite awkward though I think that was mostly my fault haha. Anyway, I tried to be as nice as possible since I doubt he remembered me. I asked if I could sign-in and visit classes and signed in for the Real Estate Finance class. Since I’m writing this 2 weeks later, I forget why I didn’t like him again but he definitely struck me as someone who wasn’t too happy with his job. I noted his name plate. I won’t reveal his identity but I did see that his title was “admissions counselor” or something to that effect. It definitely was not admissions officer or anything else. Perhaps he was part-time or student staff? Whatever. I headed to the 3rd floor to check out the Paul Milstein Center for Real Estate.

Boy was I surprised. I was expecting a large center room with various small meeting rooms attached. Instead, the Milstein Center was one of the small rooms! The Center was a tiny office, about the size of a closet, maybe 50-60 square feet. The lady I met was very, very friendly and helpful though. Cheryl is the Associate Director of the Center and she provided a lot of helpful info on the program. None of it was new as I had researched their website extensively prior to my visit but she did remind me of a few interesting points. She was really personable and friendly and even noted that her daughter is applying to Georgetown for undergrad. Of course, I offered to answer any questions for them if needed. I really wanted to learn more about immediate positions available to MBAs in real estate but she had to deflect those questions as she had only been with Columbia since last august. She did say that their executive-in-residence would be more helpful in that regard. Unfortunately, I cannot contact the exec-in-residence directly as that is a resource for current students only. She was definitely impressed by my knowledge of their program though, especially when I pointed out that the room number of the center on their website is wrong. She blushed and said they had just moved a month ago.

I asked about whether the Manhattanville move would allow current students an opportunity to get involved but she said that was doubtful. She also got me excited for their unique Masters Classes which are basically seminars/practicums. Really interesting stuff. All in all, it was a good visit. Though the center was ridiculously tiny, Cheryl was immensely nice and even gave me a nice little stat that I think I’ll stash away for one of my admissions essays. We probably chatted for a bit over half an hour as it was time for me to jet and catch my bus back to DC. Beforehand, I ran over to the University Bookstore to see if there were any more sales on t-shirts. Alas, no. J

Sooo, I guess that means Columbia remains my first choice. J/k, it definitely is my first choice. In the meantime, I’ve started drafting the typical “why MBA? Why now?” essay and I gotta say it’s really hard! The hardest part is probably the word limits. The recommended length is 750 words but I had 1,640 for my first draft. For my completely overhauled second draft I had 1,460. I know I can get it down to about 1,200 (I just tried yesterday) but getting it to 750 may prove near impossible. I’ve done some surveying on the BW forums and it seems like 10% overage is the standard acceptable amount to go over. This means I need 825 words max. I’ll settle for 850-900 to be honest, especially since I called Columbia (that same guy that I don’t like picked up too! I recognized his voice) and they informed me that the word limit is only a recommended guideline so it’s not like the reviewer will stop reading the essay. He did reiterate that it’s okay to go over the limit, but quickly added “but don’t go over by too much.” Yikes. And Sigh.

Class of 2011 Blogging Community

2008-04-27T12:48:00.002-04:00

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

Columbia Visit the Sequal

2008-04-21T22:22:00.001-04:00

I’m on the bus back from NY right now and figured I’d recount my second Columbia visit which happened mere hours ago. As Mario Batali would say, “bon appetito.”

I originally wanted to visit again to sit in on 4 classes (back to back to back to back) to perhaps get essay quotes/ideas but nixed the idea. For one, it would’ve been near impossible getting up early enough and commuting in from long island (my family’s home) to make a 9:00 am class. Also, I would’ve likely fallen asleep at some point. I decided to do only 2 or 3 classes starting with the 10:45 am time slot. I arrived at 10:00 am and stressed myself out on the phone for half an hour as I barked at my HMO, Kaiser Permanente, regarding my broken hand (I need surgery apparently). My first class at 10:45 was the main reason for my visit, Real Estate Finance with Prof. Tomasz Piskorski. The class is an elective unless you want to take other real estate classes (like me) in which case it’s a pre-req for everything else. I got there 3 minutes early and sat in the left-most seat in the second row. I didn’t introduce myself to the professor cuz he got there late and I didn’t want to make a scene. There were about 60 students in the class, maybe 25% female. There were a couple attractive ones but I could tell that my dating would probably be with students from the other Columbia schools. I introduced myself to the girl to my right, Gina. The dynamic was a little weird as she was eating but she was definitely friendly. She answered a couple typical questions about the class and confirmed that the quality of professors can be hit or miss. Apparently she’s interning at General Electric this summer which struck me as odd since she’s a real estate major. She said it was real estate related though I didn’t understand her brief explanation. She confirmed that real estate students need to take a bit more initiative when searching for jobs. It’s just the nature of the beast.

I picked up a class handout and realized that today’s class was the course review which is great considering I wanted a high-level overview. The class started and I was a bit surprised to see that it took the professor a good 7 or 8 seconds to get the class quiet and attentive. Maybe I’m being naïve with all the respect jumbo or maybe the weather was so nice and it was near the end of term that students’ attention spans were down and spirits up. He proceeded to go thru the course and I loved it. I paid attention to everything he said despite his semi-thick Russian accent (definitely still understandable though) because it was the perfect overview that I was looking for. Very informative with just the right level of detail. I cannot wait to take the class myself in 2 years. Ha!

The class was at capacity and about 5 minutes in, an attractive blonde (dyed but still) walked in and pulled a seat up next to me on my left. It was the middle of class so I didn’t introduce myself but I did lend her a pen. She wasn’t as pretty close-up L It was also funny cuz she kept drinking an iced coffee and eating radishes (with a very audible crunch with each bite). I smiled at her, she smiled at me, and that was it. She analyzed her nails for much of the class and didn’t seem very inattentive to the lecture. She was dressed stylishly, I’ll give her that.

I was impressed at how seamlessly the professor pulled a recent real-world example into his lecture- as he was talking about what a large component of a company’s value is contained within its property, he mentioned that when JP Morgan was valuing Bear Sterns, they had to consider the prime building location too. He also had a great international example of how German inflation affected the value of mortgages in the early 20th century. Interesting stuff. The highlight though, was when he shared an anecdote about his dinner 2 weeks ago with some Wharton faculty. They were dining in Chelsea (on 20th St and 8th Ave I think) and staring at some rundown lot across the street. One of the Wharton professors commented that it’s crazy that nobody’s developed that prime land into a building or something more useful. Professor Piskorski’s response was (and this is illustrative of one of his lecture points) that undeveloped land is like owning an option. Just because an option is in the money doesn’t mean you’d necessarily exercise it so why would you immediately develop the land? There’s value in waiting as you may obtain more information or the option may become even more valuable. Apparently, the Wharton professors mulled it over for 40 seconds then conceded “you may have a point there.” The class blew up in laughter. When the professor reiterated that these were Wharton faculty who had not considered this “option view” on undeveloped real estate, the class blew up again. Finally, he declared that the entire class was now more real estate savvy than Wharton faculty at which point the class blew up again.

I couldn’t help but be delighted by this anecdote too (it really was quite funny especially when 60 other students are busting a gut), but it somewhat slightly bothered me that the class was relishing his portrayal of Wharton that much because that conveys to me that Columbia students consider their school inferior to Wharton (they wouldn’t have been so giddy if the faculty in the anecdote was from a community college right?). I’m very much in love with Columbia so I don’t think of going there as me settling. I would definitely choose Columbia over Wharton if given the choice even though I know people usually view HSW as the top 3 MBA programs. Sigh. I guess I’m just a little sensitive because my undergrad alma mater, Georgetown, sucks in the rankings every year.

To be continued...

Just a Note

2008-04-19T00:14:00.002-04:00

So today I officially hired my admissions counselor. Mucho money well spent I hope. The reason I chose to do this today is because I realize it's past the half-way point of April. This gives me just under 5 months to submit my application by my personally targeted submission date. I know that 5 months is actually plenty of time but like I said before, I'm a worrier. I want my app and essays especially to be near perfecto. Since I've been commited to this process for close to a year now, to experience the countdown from 12 months to 5 months is quite anxiety-inducing. I know I'm not actually running out of time but that's my crazy brain at work. I'm also taking the bus (classy guy I am) to New York this weekend so I figured this would give me a great opportunity to brainstorm some essay topics during the 4-5 hour trip. Might as well use that time wisely. Also, maybe a small part of me was afraid of this particular consultant filling up with clients and not accepting my business later. Paranoid I know.

I was surprised cuz the phone call wasn't as informative as the free consultation. He basically reiterated the stratgy that he had originally given me for free and told me to do a first draft immediately. No real new info. He did send me several sample essays to take as examples. I haven't read any of them yet (will do so on the bus ride) but a preliminary scan revealed that these were probably first drafts themselves as they all showed egregious typos and one had no paragraphs. I'm sure the pearls of wisdom will arise during the editing/revising phases. I'm glad to finally get started. I also asked him if I should do anything in particular when I visit Columbia this coming monday. He said "try not to be an asshole." :) haha, I think I'm starting to understand him.

In other news, I had a nice conversation with one of the real estate portfolio managers at my company and he was super-nice and helpful. It sounds like his group is so small and specialized that I wouldn't be able to join them in the future but he did offer to introduce me to some of his high-powered friends. I'm going to meet him for lunch in a week and then maybe talk to one of his friends or two. Truth be told though, I don't know what the chances are of me switching jobs before my app is submitted. Seems like too risky and too much of a red flag at this juncture. It'll make me seem fickle/undecided and immature for jumping around so much. I'll have no qualms about jumping after receiving an acceptance though (fingers crossed) :P And on another note, I found out today that I'll require surgery on my fractured hand. Sucks. At least I'm typing around 35 wpm now wuth one hand hehe.

Oh, and one very last thing! My hits counter has informed me that someone from Tishman Speyer in New York has been reading my blog on a few occasions. Firstly, you're the man. Secondly, hook it up, my friend! ;) hehe, j/k.................. no, but seriously. Help me please. Just kidding. Or am I? Can't blame me for trying right? :)

Tishman Talk

2008-04-16T22:44:00.002-04:00

So it turns out that one of the new co-workers on my project has a friend who used to work at Booz too... except he left a month ago to wok at Tishman Speyer! I asked if she could put me in touch with him since he was a fellow georgetown alum and lo and behold, he was super nice and let me pick his brain for half an hour.

What did I learn? Well obviously I asked how he got the job... turns out it was thru networking as a couple of his friends worked in real estate development and urged him to give it a try. His good friend at Tishman got him an interview and he was able to wow them. Simple as that. Unfortunately he is the lowest guy on the ladder there so it's not like hecould've hooked me up but I did learn a lot from our conversation. He told me to learn as much as I can. He said it's really important to learn all the terminology so you can speak in the interviews as a knowledgable industry observer/student to show that you're serious. He said to have your story down cold as you were looking to switch industries and needed to be convincing. He was able to send me a couple links too, one to a real estate job posting board, and the other to a real estate development news site. Both very helpful.

He loves his new job even if he is the smallest guy there. He said it's amazing how lean Tishman is considering they manage so much property worldwide. For instance, their DC office only has about 20 professionals including him! His title is research sales analyst and I could hear the excitement in his voice when he talked about visiting potential sites, visiting architectural offices, looking at blueprints and spreadsheets, etc. I'm really happy for him to be honest. He mentioned that development is still an old boys' network in the sense that most people got their start via knowing someone on the inside (networking). He recommended that the MBA was my best bet as places like Tishman, Hines, etc. recruit their young studs from top b-schools like Columbia into thir rotational programs. He revealed that two hot roles available to graduate MBAs are in Acquisitions and Portfolio Management. His current role as a research sales analyst apparently pales in comparison to these MBA positions and he'd have to work his way up into those roles.

So the good thing that I learned was that I'm indeed going down the right path if I aim to pursue development. He also motivated me to start reading much more. I'm going to have to buy a textbook from the ULI bookstore methinks. I also shelled out $25 today for a ULI Young Leaders workshop on Zoning, Entitlement, and Land Development next tuesday. It's a bit steep for a 90 minute class but we'll see. I'm sure I'll learn something and it could get me more excited and motivated.

This weekend I'll be back in NY to see my mom and on Monday, I'll be at Columbia to sit in on a couple more classes, most specifically Real Estate Finance. I'll also visit the Milstein Center for Real Estate to see what ot has to offer. Next week is also when I hire ny admissions consultant hopefully and start essay wbrainstorming/outlining. I'm excited. Ya know, it's amazing that I'm now typing close to 40 words per minute with only one hand :P

Tomorrow I will be informing my project manager of my long-term desire to leave the project to pursue a more relevant project. Ehhh... slightly nervous I admit.

Polls, Emailing the Adcom, & More

2008-04-14T00:37:00.003-04:00

I just put up 2 polls on the right aide of my blog. Please do take them. I know some people may not respond seriously but I definitely appreciate the input and will be checking the results incessantly (even tho nobody reads this thing anyway hehe).

Also, I'm sorry that I can't reveal the actual spin or framing of my story. I've decided that I may need to be a little more discreet as I'm sometimes overly trusting and self-revealing. My hit counter showed that someone from Columbia's network accessed my blog a couple weeks ago via a Businessweek forum posting. Obviously I don't know if it's someone from the adcom but why take chances? As it is, I feel stupid enough that my username on there was "TienEtBerkeley" back from over a year ago when I first registered an account. I just started a new one called (don't laugh) "TienColumbiaLove". Terrible dork I am I know. My mind was drawing a blank.

I also decided to email the adcom and ask what approx date would next year's app be released. Apparently last year's app debuted on July 24th, giving about 3 weeks until the ED review period started. I also asked if it was okay to use last year's essays if I wanted to get a super- early start on them (the respected consultant said that most schools don't care). I wonder if the adcom will just think I'm a super anxious nerd given that I revealed both my real name and my brown-nosing username of "TienColumbiaLove." I apologize for anyone who may have just vomitted.

Lastly, I am trying to get on a project at work that is more real estate related. It will require a lot of networking, political navigation, research, entrepreneurial initiative, and relationship management. I'm screwed. There's no ETA on this but I mentioned it to my manager for the first time on thursday and he sounds supportive. Even if I don't get on a related project until after I apply to CBS, it would be great experience.

Mr. Admissions Consultant Himself

2008-04-08T22:05:00.004-04:00

I got a free initial consult from probably the most respected of the myriad MBA admissions consultants and all I can say is "wow." I don't want to reveal the consultant's identity out of respect to him but will reveal my impression. I talked to the fabled man himself and he is completely different from the other companies I've dealt with. In every way.

Firstly, he was very blunt and straight-forward with his opinions. He talked with a self-confience that gave the impression that he knew exactly what he was talking about. He appeared not to be telling me his interpretation of my situation or offering his opinion. Rather, he spoke as an authority. He told me not what he thought was the best way to frame my story but the only way to frame it. I was truly taken aback. When I played devil's advocate and asked if his spin could be interpretted negatively by the adcom, he bristled and told me to stop being "paranoid".

I tried to respectfully present other interpretations of how my story may be presented and he seemed really annoyed by my challenge to his authority. He told me to "stop being an @$$hole" which really shocked me. He sounds like he's done this so many times with so many applicants that he knew his way was best and that I should thus just accept it. When I tried to display some humility, he scolded me saying that I "should stop acting like a dumb kid who is trying to sneak in the back door" and that I should instead "believe in myself." Man, I was really taken aback.

I've never received such harsh treatment from a consultant before and typically would've just hung up. But I couldn't. His suggested framing of my story was truly strong and impressed me (and two confidants who I later recounted it to). I never thought of my story as unique but I now realize it indeed is. I simply wasn't focusing enough on the elements that were so familiar to ne that I had taken them as commonplace (even though they aren't). I feel like I have a coherent plan now.

The reason this guy was willing to be so harsh with me was probably because he didn't care if I hired him or not. This guy is so well-known that he doesn't need the business. He was not fawning or obsequious nor did he try to make me feel good as other consultants had. He got right down to brass tacks. In fact, he gave me the most valuable info, the framing of my story, for free (this was a free consultation). Why pay for the essay/app services then? The weird thing is that now I actually want to hire him despite his borderline rude demeanor. He was just too good. He acted cocky like he knew he was right about everything he said in such a manner that could only lead me to surmise that he indeed was right about everything. I still haven't decided if I'm gonna shell out for this dude but I'm definitely considering it.

Oh, and this occured last week. Sorry that I didn't post this earlier but I broke my hand while playing basketball that night. I'm typing with 6 fingers. No basketball for 5 weeks so I'll have plenty of time to think (and get fat).

Paranoid Musings

2008-04-07T15:18:00.002-04:00

Okie doke. So I'm feeling really nervous about two things right now.

1) My sad BusinessWeek username. Too bad I signed up my account over a year ago and incorporated (foolishly) another school's name into my handle huh? Hopefully nobody from Columbia's adcom sees it and gets the wrong impression because there's no aspiring MBA 2011 more committed than I. I pretty much believe that. I even emailed FrancescaBW, the BW forums moderator, and asked her how I could delete my username to start anew. She didn't have an answer and is querying her tech guys. Kinda crazy how nobody else has ever asked them to delete their account huh? But then again, I guess no one has ever had as good a reason as mine: paranoia.

2) This one was quite alarming too. Thanks to those lovely (and free) site counting tools, I am able to see how many people view this quaint lil blog and also from which larger network they're from. Apparently today around noon, someone from the Columbia.edu network visited my blog! uh-oh... And the referring website was one of my Businessweek threads. I wonder if Christina from the adcom was checking out my page? That would be unbelievable (well, not really but you know what I mean). This brings up a good question that I've considered before but never came to a real conclusion on: does this blog make me seem super serious and committed about Columbia? (which I am)... or does it make me seem super competitive and nerdy (which I assuredly am not hehe)? Let's hope whoever visited from the Columbia website was not from the adcom and in the event that it was, that they love my blog :) I know I shouldn't think that way... just watch, tonight I'm sure I'll have a dream where I receive an email from Christina asking me to matriculate before I even applied! Man oh man, that would be a sweet dream :P And nothing more than a dream :(

No Vision

2008-04-06T15:52:00.002-04:00

So my primary concern (aside from trying to get work on a project that's more real estate related) is that I have no vision. I told my story to a friend and he said the first thing that jumped out at him was that I had a reason to pursue real estate development but no real "vision". I agree. I wrote the following post on the BW forums to the Anonymous Admissions Consultant (gmatgenius) who has yet to reply. I decided to paste my post because I think it articulates my concern pretty well.

I do have a more pressing concern at this point. One friend of mine said that my story for wanting to become a real estate developer lacks the so-called "wow" factor. He said that the reason is because I have no "vision". To me, the attraction of real estate development is not only the challenge and ability to build something tangible, but the opportunity to contribute to a city (even one as great as New York). Helping to shape the landscape/skyline and re-invent what people think of as iconic buildings- those are the things that hold immense appeal to me. Obviously these are my feelings and opinions, not a "vision". Do you think this hurts me? I think that I can convey this well (read: sincerely) in an interview setting but I worry that I'll come off as simply a greedy slum lord wannabe in the essays.

So essentially I like the idea of helping to shape New York City. I want to be able to walk down the street or stare across from Brooklyn and point to something that I helped contribute to. Is this enough? I don't know.

In even more paranoid news, my BW forums username is "TienEtBerkeley". This is because I created the account over a year ago when Berkeley was my top choice (what a foolish thought at the time hehe). Anyway, BW will not allow me to change my username... it's funny cuz there is an option to do so but when you try to change it, BW doesn't actually process the change. Also, I cannot open a new account under the same email address! So I'm stuck with my Berkeley username ... my concern is that some of the Columbia admissions officer (i.e. Christina) will see it and remember me negatively come admissions time. I even had the insane thought to email Christina to explain the situation but I think no information would be preferrable in this situation hehe. I may have to start a new email so I can create a new username. Then I'll just forward all of that new email's messages to my current email.

Seeking Real Estate Experience

2008-04-02T01:51:00.002-04:00

So from the various free feedback that I've been able to glean from the admission consultant threads on the BusinessWeek forums, it appears that I am a competitive candidate for Columbia. I have the GPA, GMAT, undergrad transcript, well-known employers, a nice resume, good extra-currics though not overwhelming, just enough leadership activities (barely), and good essays and recs (assumed of course). I'm also applying super early in the Early Decision round and I should be a good interview, especially since I have a decent story and know a boatload of stuff about Columbia and why I fit. However, almost every admissions consultant pointed out one glaring weakness. I need to do more real estate related stuff (either work or activities) to flesh out my story. Currently the only real estate experience I have is as a Manhattan condo owner where I serve as the de facto landlord since I rent it out. I am also a minority partner in my family's business, a real estate holding company (dad used to develop apartment buildings on a very small scale but no longer). That's it. No actual work experience.

Thus I set out to do something about it. Some people say that with 5 months until I submit my application, that there is nothing I can do to change my profile. I aim to prove them wrong. I joined the Urban Land Institute on monday. The ULI (as I may have mentioned in my previous post) is a professional organization that provides research and info on land use, development, and urban planning. It's truly a wealth of info. I joined under a Young Leader membership (for those under age 35) which cost $175. Since my company sponsors one professional membership per year, my company will be picking up the tab on this one. I've been listening to their podcasts on real estate careers which has been helpful. I also wanted to attend an annual development conference on April 9th here in DC but unfortunately, it's during a work day and I'm not sure if I want to give up the entire day. But how can joining one professional society make up for my lack of industry experience you ask? Read on, dearie.

I was decently involved with my family business, the real estate holding company. When I was younger (high school and very early college), I would go visit the apartments on weekends with my parents and engage in various tasks such as cleaning, interviewing tenants, driving the construction crew insane with nitpicking, etc. When I was younger I also remember tagging along for errands to various federal building departments in addition to cleaning. Anyway, after college, I started handling a lot of the bookkeeping for the company. My father always hated it because English is not his first language. Obviously he can get by but it's frustrating for him, especially since dealing with finances in real estate (where contractors and ambiguous fees are always screwing you) is frustrating enough. Thus he employed my great English skills to manage much of the finances. Obviously he had all executive power but I ran the books, writing checks, collecting rent from tenants, calling contractors and plumbers and other random people. I printed statements and made sure everything ran smoothly from a financial point of view even though I didn't have any decision-making power. I didn't get paid for this as it's supposedly a responsbility of mine (I am a minority partner after all) and thus I don't get a salary nor pay taxes. I didn't even consider this work... more like a chore really. After I moved to DC 6 months ago, my sister took up much of the work (since proximity to the properties in NY is somewhat important) but I still advise her. I think I definitely need to talk about this activity. I can't put it on my resume as a job experience but it's definitely an experience to talk about since it took up to 10 hours a week of my time. Our company does hold 3 small commercial units, 1 house, 1 condo, and 2 investment properties (condos) in Beijing. So this is a noteworthy activity that fleshes out my story substantially. It doesn't make up completely for my lack of industry experience but does substantially mitigate it I believe. I will probably add a line in the "Additional" section of my resume for this. I'll also need to mention this in my essay #1 describing my short and long term goals (as background info). If I can't fit it in, then I'll need to include it in my Optional Essay #5 as info that I want the adcom to know about.

Besides, I can't quit my job now. I've only worked there for 6 months so it'll make me seem fickle, undecided, immature, etc. (all of which I am to a degree), since I switched from Finance to Consulting to Real Estate? and all within 3 years! I just can't do it. If anything, I've started to contact random people at my company regarding related projects with the Dept of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), or the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), or the Economic Business Administration (EBA). Maybe I can help out on those projects part-time if they have to do with land use, development, or urban planning. Even if I can make this happen (it'll take a lot of networking though), I'll only have a couple months experience by the time I apply which is why I need to play up my newly realized activity. Hooray for a plan! I think this makes me a strong candidate overall. Just gotta ace my essays and recs now.

Oh yeah, good news on the rec. I don't think I'll tell my manager that I'm thinking of my MBA as he's a bit narrow-minded about certain things. He may support my decision but if he doesn't, then there'll be no convincing him otherwise so I'd rather not even try. Instead, I'll try to get a recommendation from my Project Manager whom is very gung-ho about doing anything possible to help you out. My co-worker who is going to apply for the part-time MBA program at Maryland (in a month!) for enrollment in Fall 2008 is going to get a rec from him next month. So she'll kinda be my test case to see if I get a rec from him. He seems like he's willing and will be good about it though.

One last tidbit, the Columbia Early Decision review period begins Wednesday, August 8th! That is crazy early. I literally have 5 months then! I've already started revising my resume (more time-consuming than you think if you are a perfectionist) and have obviously made significant progress with the Urban Land Institute membership and realization of my family business bookkeeping activity. In 3 weeks I am going to visit Columbia again and sit in on their Real Estate Finance course (plus others) before classes end. Then I'll start plotting/brainstorming my essays using last year's app. Unfortunately, Columbia doesn't release their app until late July (that's what they said when I called). Hopefully it's more like mid-July, that way I'll have a good month to do it before submitting by Aug 15th at latest. I should probably start approaching my recommenders in early June to come to an understanding. Oh boy.

Urban Land Institute

2008-03-30T21:35:00.003-04:00

So the best piece of advice I received from soliciting the admissions consultants on their respective BusinessWeek threads was to participate in some real estate related activities, clubs, etc. This should make me appear much more serious about my dream job. I agree.

I went to Columbia's real estate website and realized that they actually post all the resumes of MBA students who have declared Real Estate as one of their foci (plural for focus). There's about 25 per class that take the real estate major (or focus). So I looked at all the resumes' extra currics sections for ideas. It appears that none of them are relevant to me except for the Urban Land Institute which apparently is a non-profit (I think) that conducts research about land usage. It doesn't advocate any specific point of view but rather, it tries to educate everyone about trends and such. The website is really cool as it offers podcasts and webinars (web seminars) that teach basics of real estate and even has professors from Wharton, UCLA, etc. that share their views on current events and trends in the industry. Useful stuff. This seems to be a treasure trove of info. I can apply for their Young Leaders membership (since I'm under 35 they call me a Young Leader). This is $175 instead of over $225. I tried to sign up right away but unfortunately they did not recognize my age for some reason so I'll have to call tomorrow during business hours. Hopefully my company will pay for it too since they pay for 1 professional membership per year. So this is another membership I'll have under my extra currics. There's a conference coming up next month too called Real Estate 101 or something in Washington DC. It costs $25 but I think it's worth it for me to go to learn and show my interest. I also listened to 4 of the podcasts already and they are definitely helpful as the topics were real estate development careers (how convenient hehe).

The other useful piece of info I got was that I should try to do something industry related at work. This is a tough hand to play. I don't want to abandon my team after only 6 months though admittedly, I'd be best doing so. I'm just afraid it will hurt my recommendation though it sounds like I can get one from the project manager who will just ask me to write it for him. But still, I'm hesitant. Ideally, I would stay on the project and do cooler tasks such as budget forecasting (that's certainly real estate finance related right?) or maybe I can help them research/scout out new office locations which I heard them mention. Both would be fun and interesting and related to my interests! The other thing is to look out (in the long-term) for real estate related projects. After all, I'll be at Booz Allen for another year and a half at least.

U.S. News Rankings released

2008-03-28T12:12:00.002-04:00

Oooh lala, isn't it crazy how all of us prospective applicants salivate when new rankings are on the horizon? The fervor is real and crazy. Some people on the BusinessWeek threads even leaked the MBA rankings 2 days before the official release date of march 29th. I think the new US News ranking thread generated over 200 posts in one day. Anyway, not much actually changed. Yale and UCLA got huge bumps but that was about it.

Most important to me was that Columbia stayed at #9. While I'd obviously like for it to rise in the rankings (and battle this reputation of being the laggard of the M7 that so many purport), I'd rather it rise after I get admitted hehe. Selfish I know. I think I read somewhere that application volumes do increase after schools get a bump in the rankings and lord knows I don't need more competition. Especially since Columbia is the 3rd most selective school already with about 6,000 applications for 911 acceptances last year. Also, the down economy will see apps rise next year (as the opportunity cost of forgoing employment is less) in addition to the typical small increases we see each year. Just like in NY real estate, the time to buy (or apply rather) was yesterday.

I' m glad Columbia stayed at 9. NYU Stern followed at #10 which surprises me considering the facilities didn't impress at all during my visit. I don't care to get into the methodology employed though and I realie that NYU has always hovered around #10 historically. Yale rose all the way to #13 (just barely edging out a three-way tie at #14). Wharton was #3 and Berkeley tied for #8. These are the only schools I care about :P The full rankings are available on the US News website though I couldn't access it (server probably crashing due to hit volume, something my blog never has a problem with hehe). I actually put more weight in the BusinessWeek rankings (it seems like this is the majority educated opinion as well, though by only a small margin) and I think those come out in October, which is strange considering Richard Montauk says that the US News and BW rankings are released alternating every year. Oh whatever.

Another interesting development is that my co-worker who was going to apply to NYU Stern full-time for Fall 2009 is forgoing that route. Instead, she is going to apply part-time to Maryland (Smith) starting Fall 2008. I don't know if I agree with that decision but to each their own. It would've been fun to have both been in NYC though.

Like the free-riding dork that I am, I solicited free feedback from 4 admissions consultants on their respective BusinessWeek threads 2 days ago. Surprisingly, only 2 have gotten back to me (Maxx Associates and Accepted.com) thus far. They both said I should be competitive (which I knew but still so good to hear) and advised that I get involved in more real estate related activities, perhaps club memberships or try to do something related at work. I think these are great ideas. I'm going to check out all the real estate student resumes at Columbia to see what memberships they have, then see if I can join those professional societie hehe :) I understand that it's only 5 months until my application is submitted but every little bit helps. Work will be a lot harder to manipulate not only because of practicability but also politics. I am going to fight tooth and nail to get involved with some of the financial aspect of project planning though (such as budget forecasting) which I may be able relevant to real estate development. After all, everything can be conceptualized as a project with a budget. I know our project team was looking for additional office space in the area (which we have to procure ourselves) so hopefully I can get involved with that search as well. I'll be lucky if even one of these two work tasks comes to fruition as my manager already shot down the financial tasking request 2 weeks ago with no explanation.

Good news is that my co-worker who is applying to Maryland has already asked our project manager about writing a rec. He said he would love to but due to time constraints, he wants her to write it and he'll just sign it. He seemed very gung-ho about getting her into a good program though so this is good to know. This bodes well for me but the difference is that I'm going full-time so they may think I'm abandoning them (after only 6 months too). Oh well, we'll see how this plays out.

BTW, does anyone know what the Consortium is? I've seen it mentioned on the BusinessWeek forums and it seems like a medium for applying to multiple schools. Not sure yet. Must research.

Free Admissions Consulting!

2008-03-27T01:36:00.002-04:00

In the last two days I've become a lot more serious about admissions consulting. Still not 100% positive I'm going to use a consultant but I feel any advantage (as long as it's legal) is worth it. I don't mind paying $2000 (hopefully not much more than that) if it paints my applicant portrait in the best light possible. Why risk it? I had used Accepted.com's free 15 minute consultation a month ago and thought Saichen Waikar was very nice and helpful with his insight. Then I stopped looking cuz of the hardcore GMAT studying. Now that that's done, I'm researching consultants again. First stop: the Business Week forums. Naturally.

Today I posted my first thread. It asked how those insanely high success rates boasted by admissions consultants are possible. Some places claim 95 to 99% success! How do they define success? How many schools are they looking at? Are they self-selecting the applicants they work with to boost their stats? I doubt it because I don't think an admisssions consultant would turn down a customer. After all, $2000+ to give advice and edit essays is pretty easy money. Which isn't to say that they don't provide some insight and strategy that can increase one's chances... it's just that I think the majority of services are a bit overpriced for what they do offer. Anyway, I only got 2 replies and it seems like I should just take the percentages with a grain of salt. I think if I do use a consultant, I'll probably use MBA Apply as Alex seems the most level-headed. He seems genuinely smart and insightful and isn't overly self-aggrandizing or condescending as I've seen in some other consultants' threads. His price and services also seem great.

I was about to close the deal but he said he's not accepting new clients until late summer! Crazy. I guess they do turn down customers. He said he wants to enjoy his downtime which I can understand but this would be easy for him because I have my sh*t together and he can get me out of the way before the flood gates open in late summer- at least that's how I rationalize it! ;) Anyway, I did send him my profile and asked him for a brief evaluation... little did I know it was going to be an incredibly brief one. He didn't give me any insightful information... he only said that I should be competitive at all my choices but that the economy will cause a jump in application volumes next year. Both pieces of info are old news to me unfortunately. I really got much less info than other people got but maybe that's because I emailed him instead of posting it on his BusinessWeek thread. Maybe he likes the thread because it basically serves as free advertising (that's how I found him after all). But he doesn't seem like the type who would be intentionally unhelpful so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. Especially since he's giving me his time for free. :) I'll try him again in July when the Columbia app comes out. He said that there's not much to be done now but I countered that Columbia's Essay #1 and resume editing and story refinement can be done. He replied that those things can be easily handled in 6 weeks. Yikes. I am aiming for near perfection with my Columbia app so I hope that's not the case. I guess I'm a bit of a high-maintenace kinda guy huh? :P

BTW, I was quite surprised to experience how rude Clear Admit was. I had a very nice free consultation with one of their consultants and was very interested in purchasing their services. Unfortunately, they only bill by the hour and do not offer school packages. Billing by the hour is highly suspect. Anyone who's ever "been on the clock" (i.e. sitting in a taxi) knows that this has the potential to be a horrible idea. However, I liked my free consultation so much that I inquired about customized school packages. The founder Eliot Ingram then proposed the same services that they offer at an hourly rate, except that I purchase them in bulk for the exact same price. Basically he was not going to offer me any of the unlimited services (Clear Admit limits the number of drafts or edits that they'll help with whereas other services will edit until they think it's near perfect). His so-called "package" was basically buying a chunk of their hours at the exact same rate (no discount, so what's the point of the bulk buying?). When I asked him to clarify why his "package" was essentially the same as his hourly offering, he gave me a pretty curt reply via email. Jeez. I guess when you're one of the bigger consulting companies, you don't need to worry about customer service.

Even worse, the super nice consultant who gave me the free phone consultation was so good that I decided to leave a voicemail on her phone to thank her for her time... I also said if she ever decided to go into business for herself, that I'm sure she'd be super successful ;) I even emailed her as follow-up. She never responded to either. I guess Clear Admit doesn't care about courtesy after concluding that they aren't going to make a sale. I'm kinda glad to find this out though. I'd hate to have hired them only to find out that their service sucks after having secured my money.

In other exciting news, I put the URL to this blog on the signature of my BusinessWeek forum messages. I've already gotten more hits today than any other day (an easy feat I know, but still!) ... that makes me happy. Oh and one last thing, sorry for the insanely long Columbia entries. You know how I can get :P

Columbia - Part 3

2008-03-25T10:44:00.001-04:00

I immediately smiled and said hi to the student I sat next to. He, in turn, did the same and seemed quite friendly too. I explained that I was just sitting in to get a feel for what the class environment was like, but I didn’t phrase it that eloquently… in fact, I’m sure I articulated it quite awkwardly. I think this really threw him off as he started talking to his friend sitting on the other side of him at the first opportunity. I also introduced myself to the friend, who introduced himself in kind, but then they resumed the conversation. It’s amazing how an awkward sentence or two can so derail a potential conversation when it’s the initial impression. Since the seat to my right was empty, I decided to just observe the classroom dynamic. (there were only 4 seats in my half of the row as we were the last row)

The class had not yet started and students were still trickling in. I was surprised to notice how friendly everybody was. Most everyone was talking to someone nearby and were smiling and seemed genuinely happy. I asked the guy next to me (his name I forget) whether everyone in the class is from the same Cluster (since clusters take their core classes together) and he replied yes but that some were from one other cluster as well. With that answered, he resumed his conversation with his buddy. This particular core class had approximately 60 students I would guess. It was really impressive how everyone seemed to get along with each other. You really did get the sense that these people knew each other from several previous classes, and not just from this particular class. I’d say about two-thirds or seven-tenths of the class was male. I am happy to note that the female students were more attractive than the ladies at the info session (which was comprised of prospective, not actual, students). I did notice a few instances where the girls sat together. For instance, the right half of the class contained the vast majority of the girls in the room.

There were handouts in the front of the room that included one packet of powerpoint slides (for that day’s class) and also a two-page recording sheet for the operations game that they were supposed to play later that day. The professor would soon explain that the students were going to learn the rules of the game and engage in a trial run during class. Later on in the evening, the students were supposed to gather in their individual games and actually “play” the game in a reserved classroom. The game was supposed to elucidate the communication and logistical problems of a supply chain. It did this by having four students represent the different types of suppliers in the beer industry. Students were to play the role of beer retailer, beer warehouse, beer manufacturer, and something else that I forget. They were supposed to give orders to each other and try to maximize profit despite the mandatory time lags from communication and resultant penalties from over or under-produced supply. It definitely seemed like a fun, interactive way to learn about supply management.

Before the class started, two students made announcements to the class about a fundraiser that one of the Clusters was advocating. Apparently the men in the clusters were growing mustaches and collecting donations based on the amount of mustache grown (similar to any charity race except it is the person’s facial hair that is racing in this case). It was pretty funny since one of the guys had a full mustache and beard whereas the other student had almost nothing (like me!). One of the last people to walk into the class actually came to the back row and sat in the empty seat to my right. We both introduced ourselves to each other immediately. It appears that everyone knows each other in the classes (or core classes at least) due to the cluster system so everyone was really friendly about learning everyone else’s name at the least. Or maybe these b-school student all knew the value of networking. Whatever the case, everyone I met today was pretty good at greeting me or being greeted by me at the very least. His name was Tony.

The professor finally started class (probably a couple minutes late) and everyone quieted down. He explained the rules and then asked for questions. One student sitting diagonally in front of me posed quite a clever question: “If there are only penalties from mismanaged inventory and no actual revenue from the sales, then wouldn’t profit be maximized by refusing to participate in the game?” This was really a great question and half the class chuckled. Professor Weintraub also smiled and clearly enjoyed the student’s ingenious query. He responded that we were to assume that all participants earned the same revenue and would have the same sales- we were simply interested in minimizing the inefficiencies resulting from communication delays. The professor admitted this was perhaps a bad assumption to make but that it would have to be utilized for this game. The student who asked this question got a pat on the back from someone on his left. The guys who were sitting directly to my left (the guys who I had met a few minutes ago) made some teasing comment to him as well. Apparently they were all friends. It was at this moment that I realized they all had accents, definitely European and Eastern European. The professor asked if everybody would be able to “play” the game that evening. He had even gone out of his way to order beer and pizza for everyone. What a fun learning environment! One of the girls (a cute one too) asked what kind of beer and everyone laughed. The professor responded that he didn’t know but there would be a variety. A few students (maybe 3 or 4) did indicate that they wouldn’t be able to participate in the game and the professor told them to show up to the next class section so that they could arrange a mutual playing time with those students from the other section that were in the same situation. At this point, he told everyone to take out their laptops and get into their groups so they could do a demo run of the game (as it was on an excel sheet).

I noticed that in between every other pair of seats, there was a little circular orb that had two electricity outlets and two internet jacks. I’m sure this is fairly common but I had never seen it before so I thought it was pretty cool. It was very clean and organized I thought. Since everyone was milling about breaking into groups, I took the time to chat with Tony a bit more. I asked him all sorts of questions such as how many students did he know from his class year, what he thought of career services, etc. He responded with positive answers to most all my questions. I was concerned that I was preventing him from getting into a group but he seemed to be in no rush and the rest of the class was taking its time and chatting too. So I kept asking Tony stuff and he kept giving me sincere replies (that’s my impression at least). I noticed that many students had IBM Lenovo ThinkPads and I asked him if that was the standard. He said that they were somewhat popular but by no means required. Satisfied that I had received answers to most of the questions on my mind, I thanked him and said that I was going to sneak out since there wasn’t much point in me watching them run the demo. I certainly felt like I had a good sense of their class dynamic (a really fun, collaborative learning environment for sure!) and I didn’t think I’d be rude since there was so many people milling about. Tony was really cool about it and offered me his business card in case I had other questions. Not sure if it meant anything but Tony did not yet have an internship secured and did say he was anxious, though I’m sure that’s natural. He did admit that it seemed like most everyone gets one eventually. Jairo, the Student Ambassador whom I met earlier, was a second-year student and had already gotten a full-time consulting offer. Happy that I got another business card, I grabbed my bag and walked away. The guy who I had the awkward intro with (sitting to my left) said bye as well even though we hadn’t really connected from a conversational standpoint. At least he was trying to be nice J

I snuck out of the class unnoticed I’m pretty sure and didn’t feel bad about it at all. After all, I saw two students walk out and then back into the class while the professor was talking. This was a break in the action.
When I got outside, one of the students was out there talking on her cell phone. I noticed pizza and soda sitting on the bench. Before I entered the class, there were about 6 boxes of pizza and a dozen cans of Sierra Mist. Now there was only one box and one soda. I opened the box and saw that it was spinach tomato pizza (perfect!) so I grabbed a slice (slightly cold but whatever, I was hungry) and grabbed a Sierra Mist and walked out. The pizza was real New York pizza too, not Domino’s or Pizza Hut. I ate the slice in the cold weather and walked back towards Uris to seek out some more students to chat up.

Apparently there’s always b-school students lingering around the main lobby of Uris which makes sense considering it’s a b-school dedicated building. I saw a student sitting down who just finished talking to someone who was walking by, and he seemed pretty cool so I introduced myself and asked if he’d mind my grilling. Surely enough, Andrew (I think that’s his name- I’m not positive because I didn’t get his card) invited me to take a seat. I asked him all sorts of questions (literally every one including ones that I had already asked other people) and he gave me most of the answers I expected. He confirmed that the Manhattanville campus was far from being completed. He said that if I applied in the next five years, I’d probably avoid having to move up to the future campus (at least this was his opinion). He cited that it “always” takes schools forever to erect new buildings which I don’t know is true or not. He also agreed that the gym facilities stink but reminded me that I wouldn’t be making my MBA program decisions based on that. He agreed that students live all around the neighborhood but that there is still a community feel to it, though it wasn’t going to be super close-knit like, say a Tuck or Kellogg, since we are in a huge city after all. He assured me that it’s no problem to find a friend who would be willing to grab some lunch if you wanted to (since I cited that as an example of the type of activitiy that I’d want to be able to do). He agreed that Columbia does not hold your hand through classes or job searches but insisted that there are a plethora of resources. He explained that if we want homework help, tutoring, or 1-on-1 sessions with the career services staff, that it was all available. If we wanted it, we could have it, but we would have to ask for it and get it ourselves. Nobody was going to check in with us to make sure we were understanding every single problem from homework (his example). I was glad to hear this.

I talked to Andrew for maybe fifteen minutes before I exhausted my list of questions and decided to thank him and leave him be. It was interesting to note that an Asian female classmate of his walked by and asked him about a decision brief they were supposed to review together. He said that he was reviewing it in half an hour with some other guy and she sounded startled because she didn’t know about it and wouldn’t be able to join. He insisted that the other guy just called about it a few minutes ago and that it wasn’t a big deal though she clearly seemed slightly disconcerted that she wouldn’t be able to join in. I don’t know if Andrew just didn’t like this girl or if he indeed saw it as harmless to review the decision brief with someone else, but I decided not to read too much more into it.

I walked down the hall to use the bathroom and was surprised how clean and spacious the bathroom was. I even heard there is one bathroom that has gold leaf in the urinals. I don’t know if that’s true but I was certainly impressed by the classiness of this particular lavatory. I then walked into Uris Deli to check it out since I know that a lot of b-school students eat there. It was nice, comfortable, and clean and the menus all seemed to contain the typical fare. There were unlimited topping salads for $6.25 (I can see myself getting this a lot) and also sandwiches, wraps, all the basic stuff, etc. Nothing out of the ordinary. It was a nice deli though and one wall was made entirely of glass which allowed a view of the outside which was very nice. This was around 3:30 so the deli was only 30% full. I noticed that about half the students in there were female though, and most of them were attractive. I can’t be certain if they were b-school students or not though, because I’ve read (in the b-school newspaper, The Bottomline) that other students, namely School of Journalism students, have been frequenting the Uris Deli too.

Happy that the Deli was sufficient for my needs (I think), I decided to leave early to catch a ride to NYU Stern, where I was attending a 4:30 info session and tour. However, I convinced myself that it was early enough for me to pop into the Columbia bookstore. The bookstore is on campus but the entrance is on Broadway so you have to walk out the front gates and walk south a block and a half to get to it. Interesting that the bookstore has a Barnes & Noble sign on it. I went primarily to check out t-shirts as I really want one. I know I am just setting myself up for heartbreak but I figure having the shirt may also further motivate me. When I got to the store, I saw a sign that said all hats and t-shirts were 25% off so I knew it was fate. I decided I would buy one if I saw any decent design. I eventually settled on a graphic Columbia University logo (not the b-school logo unfortunately, as the newly re-branded b-school logo is hideous; there was even an article in the Bottomline about it this issue!) on a light blue t-shirt. I would later find out that the shirt was incredibly long despite the small size. Whatever. One other thing I noticed in the book store was the inordinate number of young females purchasing apparel. I didn’t ask them but my guess is that they were all high school seniors who had just been admitted (and were planning on attending) Columbia next year who were all excited to show off their new loyalties. I guess I’m not much different huh? It appeared that most of the girls were Jewish too. It is true that a substantial amount of Columbia’s student population is Jewish (I think I heard 40% but I don’t know if that’s undergrads or graduates or b-school). It reminded me of high school so it’s a setting that I’m very familiar and comfortable with, but I thought I would mention that my observations did indeed echo the statistics. In fact, most of the demographic/stereotypes about the student population seems true from just walking around campus. There are definitely a lot of Jewish, Asian, and international students. Of the international students, many seem to be from Latin America. And it’s also true that Columbia students are smart, unassuming, artsy, and cool. I could definitely see myself fitting in hehe.

Columbia Visit - Part 2

2008-03-23T17:07:00.001-04:00

I walked into the admissions office and it was really tiny. In fact, it was a closet. I don’t think it was the actual admissions office, rather, it was just a 8’ x 10’ room for people to sign in and get name tags. I approached the table and signed in and the guy behind the table encouraged me to sit in on a class and showed me the schedule. I politely said that I already had my classes picked out and he said it would be a good idea to check that the schedule hadn’t changed. I did so and thank goodness I did because it turns out that the majority of the class options (I wrote down 4) had changed! They were in different rooms or had different professors from the ones posted online. Phew. I was curious to learn if the guy behind the desk was on the adcom, in which case I wanted to ask a couple questions, so I asked him what his role was. I guess he must’ve taken my question the wrong way because he seemed slightly taken aback by my question before replying that he was one of the Assistant Directors of Admission (I learned from Clear Admit that Columbia has 4 Associate Directors under Linda Meehan, and then an unspecified number of Assistant Directors, as well as part-time student staff). I was a bit haphazard with the schedule too, cuz I had to double-check it and he seemed to be alarmed by that action. All in all, he seemed a weird dude so I didn’t wind up asking him the questions I had.

I left the building to make my way to the info session which was supposed to be in Warren Hall. Warren Hall is actually on the corner of Amsterdam (the front gates of Columbia is on Broadway) and it was cool cuz right next door was Camille’s (apparently an Irish pub/restaurant), as well as a deli. I could envision myself grabbing many a sandwich/salad from there on the run before class. I was hoping to catch some b-school student on the way to class so I could chat and walk with them but no luck as I was too shy after the weird assistant director experience in Uris. I was so harrowed that I didn’t even want to look at his name badge.

I got to Warren 310 for the info session and sat outside for a few minutes to observe the gaggle of students in the hall socializing (it appears that a class just ended or was about to start). All the students seemed happy and sociable and got along really well with each other from what I could see. That’s a good sign. I saw some people walk into the info session so I followed. The room was (what I would soon learn is a) typical b-school classroom. The front has a couple large screens for the projectors so that everyone in the room can see the powerpoint slides. There’s a lectern in between the projectors. Then there’s about 7 curved rows of communal desks (split into 2 sides) with comfortable swivel chairs. There were about 10 people already there. I took a seat by myself in the middle of the fourth row.

We started about five minutes late at 12:35 and there were about 16 prospective applicants there at that time. A couple more would trickle in later. I would say maybe 12 of the 16 prospectives were males. And out of the few girls, none of them were lookers L hehe. Our host was Michael Robinson, one of the Associate Directors of Admissions. He seemed to be a very happy, nice, friendly guy. Apparently he’s a grad from 2001. He did a decent job going through the major themes of Columbia (new york advantage, broad curriculum, international, entrepreneurial, etc.) but didn’t reveal anything that couldn’t be gleaned from a thorough perusal of their website or other literature. I guess I’ve done much more research than most at this point. Some of the questions that were asked were pretty basic. A funny moment occurred when Michael couldn’t work a short film in the PowerPoint slide and when he finally got it to work, the volume was blaring so loud that it was almost painful. He didn’t alter it though because the last time he did that, the movie shut off and it took him awhile to get it back up. Just a bit embarrassing :P Anyway, I asked about the opening of the Manhattanville campus as I heard Fall 2011 as a target date and also 2015. He said that they don’t really know because real estate politics in NY is tough to predict. This is a positive development because I would really prefer to be integrated with the rest of the Columbia community while at b-school (as much as is possible that is) rather than stuck on 130th street!

He originally stated that we were going to get 10 minutes for questions but the presentation took a bit long so we only got 5 minutes. When I raised my hand for second question, he looked at me and asked if anyone “who didn’t already ask a question” had a good question to ask. Ouch! He said it in a nice, encouraging way for the other prospectives but unfortunately, the person he wound up choosing asked a really basic question that showed he clearly had not looked at the website for more than 2 minutes. Oh well. After the session, I waited to say hi to him and asked him whether the talk about reducing the J-Term class to 100 was true. He said that the talk is currently off the table but the thinking originally was that there’d be more resources for the other students… and something about recruiters that I don’t remember any more. He said that if the talk ever re-surfaced, that the total class size would then be 600 (which means the Fall class would remain fixed at 500). I also asked him if there were any plans to renovate the gym. I could tell he was slightly surprised by this question (I don’t blame him as it’s slightly off-topic but c’mon, it does effect the quality of student life and the gym really is that embarrassingly bad). He said he didn’t know J

It’s interesting to note that maybe 7 of the 16 prospectives in my info session were international students. Not just that, but they were all coincidentally from Latin America (same goes for Jairo, the friendly Student Ambassador who gave me his business card). I can definitely say that there is a large international contingent in the b-school since 40% of them are international. Too bad the female percentage wasn’t higher though. I think getting that 33% figure up to 35% would be a significant accomplishment (how does NYU get 42%???)

Since I waited to speak to Michael (whose card I also have as he laid them out on the table for everyone to pick up), there was no chance of me getting to speak to a Student Ambassador before the 2:15 class. In fact, I couldn’t even make it back to Uris for the Investment Banking Tax class that I had planned on taking. Since I wasn’t going to walk into a class late, I decided to wing it and attend whatever class I could find in Warren at that time. I went to the second floor and was glad to finally see some ladies walking around. I asked one of them what class she was going into and she revealed it was Operations Management (B-6801-007), part of the core. I thanked her and walked in after her. I introduced myself to Professor Gabriel Weintraub and took a seat in the back row next to a student.

Egads, this is already a million pages long. To be continued! (only one more post on this visit I promise)

Columbia Visit - Part 1

2008-03-22T01:24:00.001-04:00

Columbia Visit

On Thursday, Mar 20th, I visited Columbia for some information gathering. The plan was to sit in on a class from 10:45am to 12:15pm, take the info session from 12:30 to 2:00, maybe speak to a Student Ambassador quickly from 2:00 to 2:10, then run to another class from 2:15 to 3:45. After that, I figured I’d chat up a few random students before departing for NYU Stern’s info session at 4:30 (jam-packed day I know). I’ll talk about NYU Stern in a separate post.

Well the morning started off poorly as I woke up at 10:15 cuz my alarm didn’t sound. It takes me about an hour and a half to commute to campus from my parent’s home in Long Island (where I was staying) so I wound up getting to campus at 12:10. For those of you who don’t know, Columbia is located in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, not the choicest of locations considering how sweet the city’s other neighborhoods are, but still really cool because of its proximity. Though it’s sandwiched between the Harlem (not a good thing) and the Upper West Side (relatively good thing), Morningside Heights does have a culture all its own, thanks in large part to Columbia’s presence, creating a young, indie, artsy, intellectual atmosphere. I used to hate the neighborhood before I got to know it, thinking it was just a poor, dangerous area. Now I like it (again, in large part because of my positive Columbia associations). I like to characterize it as a “poor man’s East Village” for those of you who are familiar with the city’s coolest, trendiest, and most artsy area for young people (in the opinion of some, including mine). There’s no doubt that the neighborhood will become more “desirable” as the years go on (again thanks in large part to Columbia) but even now, it’s not half bad either. It can’t compare to NYU Stern’s premier location in the middle of the Village right below Union Square but still, pretty darn cool since it’s still in NYC and lotsa young people abound.

I’ve actually been to Columbia millions of times because I lived on the Upper East Side for over a year. It was (and still is) incredibly difficult to find a good place to play indoor pick-up basketball so I used my wits to acquire a membership to Columbia’s gym which goes by Levien Gymnasium as well as University Blue Gym (they are two gyms part of the same underground complex). I should probably take this time to note that Columbia’s gym is probably the least impressive thing about the school- it’s just plain horrid. I liken it to a crappy high school gym and the university blue gym actually has some blue artificial tack-like surface in place of a court. Space is really limited too, meaning that students are always fighting over court availability. I’ve personally witnessed more than one argument from people who want to play pick-up basketball and people who want the space for soccer scrimmaging. Sometimes they even split the courts up so that both groups can use it which makes for really cramped, embarrassingly limited play for both parties. Basketball is a huge part of my life so this saddens me greatly. However, I know the gym isn’t the most important thing in the world and that I’ll likely have far less time with which to play when I’m in b-school.
But I digress. Columbia’s campus is really quite pretty. The architecture is beautiful and there’s really a sense of history about the place. The Low Memorial Library and Butler Library are both iconic Columbia buildings and they sit on opposite sides of the campus green which is really pretty especially considering the fact that we’re in the middle of Manhattan (or in the north of Manhattan to be more precise). Columbia does not have a “city campus” like NYU which is a conglomeration of NYU-owned buildings in a concentrated area among non-NYU buildings. Rather, Columbia has actual campus gates with security (though anyone may enter) and a campus green to offer an enclosed community feel. I really dig that. I used to think the campus was small and unimpressive but the more you walk around, the prettier the architecture becomes, and you come to realize that the campus isn’t that tiny after all. Rodin’s sculpture of “The Thinker” is even on campus in addition to a huge sun dial and numerous other details I can’t recall right now.

Columbia B-School is situated almost entirely within two buildings, Uris Hall, which is exclusively business school stuff, and Warren Hall, which is shared with the Law School. I arrived at Uris Hall and went searching for the Admissions Office on the second floor. I couldn’t locate the room so I asked a random student. As luck would have it, he was one of the Student Ambassadors that was supposed to be at the info session later, and he was looking for the office as well! His name was Jairo and he was extremely friendly and helpful. With Jairo leading, we found the admissions office within 30 seconds and I thanked him, but not before I grilled him with some questions. I asked him about the student body and whether the career opportunities are really as great as they seem, and he answered them all with great sincerity and candor (at least I think). He was a really nice guy, no wonder he was an Admissions Ambassador. He even offered me his business card (all Columbia students are given business cards for networking purposes, a great idea!) so I gladly accepted, knowing that I’d see him again in the info session.

Looks like this is already quite long… I’ll give it a breather for now and continue soon.

Snapshot

2008-03-21T17:32:00.004-04:00

For those curious (read: myself and no one else), here's a lil background info on my profile, motivations, and preferences as they relate to the b-school app process.

Academically, I should be pretty competitive. I graduated in 2005 from Georgetown undergrad where I studied Psychology with minors in Economics and Cognitive Science (yea yea, I know no one cares about minors). I had a good GPA and even graduated with honors. Perhaps it wouldn't be a great idea to give out my exact stats so I'll borrow a line from AxeChick (anyone know who I'm referring to?) and say that "I won't be lowering the average at any of the top schools." Ditto for the GMAT, in which I fall in the highly competitive range with an even distribution between verbal and quant.

Professionally, I've held a lot of research assistant jobs during undergrad. The most notable experience was probably an NIH-funded diabetes study that I did for several semesters and collaborated on a poster for the annual APA convention. This is cuz I was convinced that I wanted to get my doctorate and eventually practice as a full-blown psychologist. Following graduation though, I changed my mind as I didn't want to commit myself to all those years of schooling and low starting salary without trying some real work experience first. My first real job was as a sales associate for an executive gifts company. I sold (or tried to sell) "tombstones" or "deal toys" to investment bankers. I sucked and got fired in a month cuz my personality didn't fit, which was very true. I networked into an assistant bond trader position for a very small retail desk at Refco Securities, which was the world's largest commodities broker at the time. Refco had a $500 million accounting scandal and went bankrupt 3 months later. So I took a temp-to-perm trading assistant position at Deutsche Bank. I became perm and worked on Deutsche's Emerging Markets trading floor as a lackey for almost 2 years when I decided that I wasn't going to do middle-office operations the rest of my life. I decided to try consulting and networked into a tech consultant position at Booz Allen Hamilton where I currently advise the U.S. Postal Service on security issues. A fun and storied career thus far, I know I know :P

Why do I need an MBA? Well, I realized right away (in the first two months) that consulting wasn't for me. I mean, it's a good enough job and all, but it wasn't very challenging (probably because it's public sector rather than private) and it didn't excite me. The weird thing is that finance kept pulling me back even though I thought I didn't like it any more. I started following the markets on my own (even losing a few grand thru personal investing) and have now come to the realization that I need to get serious and pursue my passion. Since professoinal basketball probably isn't a viable career move for me, I've decided to pursuer real estate development. I've loved real estate ever since I was fortunate enough to get my first condo two years ago. Actually being a homeowner made me really interested in the housing markets (and consequently other financial markets) and New York's housing market in particular. When I moved to DC, I became a de facto landlord as I'm currently renting my NYC apartment out to three wonderful tenants. Since I miss the market but don't want to be a banker or trader, I think real estate devlopment would be perfect for me as it's the intersection of finance and real estate, which I love. It'd be great to contribute to NY's skyline and it's also a lucrative career (which is still important) so it's my dream job... for now :) Also, I think it's a great blend of utilizing my analyical skills and tapping into my actual interests. I also happen to be a minority owner in a tiny family-owned real estate holding company but I don't have any active role in it (my father used to develop really small-scale apartments in Queens when I was younger).

So that's my story. Demographically, I'm 24 which I know seems young but I have a late birthday. By the time I apply later this year, I'll have a little over three years of work experience but I will have over four years of w.e. by enrollment so it's all good. I hear many programs are trying to snatch up younger applicants nowadays. I'm a guy and I'm also Asian American so those two over-represented demographics probably don't help my case. I was born in Taiwan though and do have dual citizenship so maybe that helps? Whatever. My family lives in Long Island and I recently moved to DC (Arlington, Virginia actually) several months ago.

Who knows how my essays and recs will turn out but I plan on spending a lot of time on my essays. And I've started the schmoozing process for recs already. I figure my essays will be competitive to highly competitive whereas my recs will probably be average (you never know). I'm also a good interviewer in my humble opinion but that's getting ahead or ourselves.

There aren't that many top MBA programs with real estate concentrations (focuses, majors, whatever they wanna call them) and I'm not willing to venture outside the Top 15 really. Another sticking point is that I really need to live in a city, preferrably New York City since that's where I would want to work and live the rest of my life hehe :) My top choice by far is Columbia Business School which I will be applying for early decision (probably in late August). After that is some combination of NYU Stern, Berkeley, Yale, and perhaps Wharton. All have real estate majors (or at least inordinately strong in finance, which is a huge component of real estate development) and are located in livable cities (I'm being generous with Philly and New Haven). Wish me luck!

Birth and Rebirth

2008-03-21T16:07:00.000-04:00

Bueno! A wonderful welcome to you. I've decided to chronicle my MBA admissions adventure via blog, not because many people will care, but mostly as a way of focusing my attention and capturing my thoughts. Maybe the blog will prove informative for other people who are learning about the admissions process. Even if it doesn't, hopefully it'll keep me on track.

I'm just a city boy (not born and raised in South Detroit though) who is looking at enrolling in full-time MBA programs for Fall 2009. My definite first choice is Columbia Business School though I will obviously be applying to a few others as well. Application season is only half a year away (Fall 2008) so I'll be documenting my thoughts and activities here. Hop along for the ride and feel free to comment/ask about anything your heart desires.