Preparing for B-School

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.

Servathon and Tidbits

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.