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 :)
Showing posts with label mba. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mba. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Saturday, October 11, 2008
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.
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.
Monday, May 5, 2008
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.
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.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Urban Land Institute
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.
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.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Free Admissions Consulting!
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
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
Friday, March 21, 2008
Snapshot
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!
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
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.
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.
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