MBA to ?

HBS interview (And Stanford)

2006-02-27T11:13:00.000-08:00

HBS interview went well. Everyone was very friendly (staff, interviewer, fellow invites, students). I can't really give any non-redundant advice except that even though they've read your essays, they still may ask you Why MBA, Why HBS, etc. As for the rest of the quetions I was prepared for all of them. There are great lists of Accepted.com and on B/W forum.

Got the Stanford invite with some real big banking hot-shot. Hopefully he doesn't bat me around like a little rabbit. We'll see

Good and Bad

2006-02-09T18:43:00.000-08:00

Well the good/bad news is a single piece of news. I got an interview invite at Harvard today. So now I have to do my interview prep again, psych myself up again, and nail another interview.

If I get into Harvard then I don't have to make the tough decision between Wharton and Sloan. If I don't get into Harvard, then I'll feel regret for the rest of my life for potentially screwing up the interview. I think that a Harvard invite means a 2/3 chance of getting an acceptance over the "usual" 50/50 of other schools.

I'm not even sure how much more my life will be different if I go to HBS. HBS is great. I will learn, grow and meet amazing people. I know getting into Wharton and Sloan is great, and that lots of people would like to be in my place, but somewhere deep down I'll feel bad if I don't make it into HBS.

ps-- Stanford, you're my dark horse. You with your crazy, wtf, "What matters to me and why essay". Maybe I f-ed it up, maybe that's why you haven't written yet. Or maybe you're busy getting my essay framed?

Sloan loves me

2006-02-05T19:42:00.000-08:00

I got a call and email from Sloan. I think I am really blesse to have gotten into 3 great schools (Sloan, Wharton and Haas). It makes me want Harvard and Stanford even more now, but the other 3 schools are great and I shouldn't be greedy. Good luck to everyone out there.

In At Hass!!

2006-01-28T07:46:00.000-08:00

Got the call from Haas a little bit ago. MIT is Monday 5pm. Luck be a lady!

Berkeley done; waiting for Sloan

2006-01-21T15:44:00.000-08:00

So I took care of my Berkeley interview. It went well. I didnt' realize that if you are going to do an alumni interview they are never going to have anything but your resume. I have to say that it was a great relief and easier than Sloan with its super-probing questions.

I think this is the Super Saturday weekend at Berkeley and I think the decisions are coming out soon. As in, perhaps Monday. Haas has had the worst flow of information of any school. It isn't bad, just different.

Sloan is coming out with all R1 offers on the 30th, which is over a week away. I am quite worried. I think my interview went well, but one never knows.

How I studied for the Verbal section

2006-01-07T20:46:00.000-08:00

RC (reading comprehension):

There really isn't too much technique to these. I think around 75% of the passages are fairly easy nad aren't too long or too technical. The other 25% are a b*tch! They are long, have tons of technical terms, and are generally fairly hard to get a handle on. What I did to beat these was too basically take notes. When you start reading one of these you'll know it from the start. When they start dropping tons of names, or when they start mentioning flaggella, etc, you've got one. Just take some notes for each paragraph and you'll get through these.

CR (criticial reasoning):

These aren't too bad or have too much technique to them either. Sometimes on the really hard ones I needed to draw diagrams. I learned some interesting tips from www.gmatrescue.com and from the Kaplan 800 book. But is basically came down to drawing out their reasoning in a diagram. Also, the hard ones on the tests were harder than anything I've seen in any of the practice materials. I think it is really hard to write a good one of these questions.

SC (sentence correction):

I just couldn't get better at this section. I think I would get only 50% of them correct. My suggetion is to read books, lots of them. This gets you into the groove of understanding what propper sentences should look like. There are, of course, tons of grammer rules you can remember. I did manage to memorize some of these, mainly the more technical ones, like many/much, etc.

AWA

You know the drill. Just write a lot. And I did. The argument one is a joke. And issue one, you just have to BS it a little but, but that poor english grad student grading can tell if it is really bad BS.. thought the computer program can't tell the difference.

The test day

2006-01-04T15:16:00.000-08:00

Well I had my test scheduled for 1pm which is a good time, not too early, not too late. I got to the testing center in Chicago and there were many people waiting to take various tests. I was unfortunately informed that the ear-plugs that I have been practicing with for the last month were not allowed. I heard some information that they would be, but instead I was issued this CHEAP CHEAP unforfortable plastic ear-muffs. They did a POOR job of blocking out sound.

So I was called to take the test, they take your picture, etc, and I sat down. It was quite noisy in teh room, sweeky chairs, people going in and out, etc.

The Essays:

Let's start out with the result first. I got a 5.5.

I busted through each essay in 20 mintues. I was super-hyped up, and I wrote a ton. That's what all the books/guides tell you, just write a ton. Well I wrote a ton, and I thought I did a good job, but I still got .5 off. Well still not bad.

The Math:

Result: 95%

This part was HARDER than all the practice tests, besides Kapalan. Using the OG hard questions, www.gmatrescue.com , and the Kaplan 800 questions. You need to know things stone-cold for this. There were really tough probability questions which gmatrescue.com really helped me with. Going over and over the hard DS questions in the OG really helped me. You just have to find your own groove in doing these questions.

The Verbal:

Result 95%

I didn't need much help in the RC or Criticial Reasoning, but my SC was horrible. I think they only thing that helped this was reading many books, many months before the tests. I have heard of many people studying grammer to help out SC, but I knew I was "ok" with the rest of the test, so I just concentrated on the math. Also I figured out my own groove for doing the hardest CR questions.

Here's a funny/weird blog:
http://killthegmat.blogspot.com/

GMAT saga (pt 2; the materials)

2005-12-24T17:29:00.000-08:00

So once I knew that I had to study I decided to go out and buy some material and join some websites inorder to get to a worthy score.

Here's a materials of things I bought:

Official Guide

(commonly referred to as the O.G.). This was very helpful in the math for me. and the new OG will be even more helpful to future test-takers since it has been vastly improved. If you are going to buy one book, buy this one (old and new one). Used on Amazon they can get pretty cheap. I saved up doing a lot of these problems for the very end, and then for the week before the test I would just sit at home and do problem after problem. I would do 100 at a time to build up stamina. In the end I learned a great deal from the other materials, and then honed my skills with this. Also, their review of the fundamental material is very complete, albiet very dry, I think knowing that material, which wasn't covered anywhere else, earned me a few extra points.

Princeton Review:

Prince, you helped me out not-so-much on the SATs, and you let me down again for the GMAT. This book is aimed at people who don't want/need to do that well. If you're shooting for 700+ then this book ain't for you. THOUGH, the CD included it in does very accuratly predict your score. Some people said they had trouble with the software, but everything worked for me.

GMAT Rescue(www.gmatrescue.com)

This was a great website with great resources. Most of the books out there have the same take on the material, which is usually good, but it was nice to go to a place that had a little different way of teaching the things needed to know. Their math section was great. They gave a good indepth overview of the fundementals needed to kick GMAT butt, and they also have great material on the dreaded probability questions (which really saved me during the real test). Also, their verbal material was outstanding. They give you great statagies for attacking all the different problem types. I needed help in Sentence Correction and Analysis Problems (forget the name), but I did fairly well in Reading Comp. In addiation they sell you a document with answers to all the AWA questions along with another document covering 800 or so Sentence Correction problems (definally one of my major weak areas)

Old Paper Tests

I also bought old paper tests from the GMAT people, and found these helpful. Remember, don't let these screw up your timing, since it is different than the adaptive.

GMAT saga (pt 1)

2005-12-24T17:25:00.000-08:00

So being an engineer who did very well on the GRE, I was pretty confident that I would ace the GMAT. Around this time last year I downloaded the offical GMAT software and gave the tests a whirl.

I ended up with an evenly balanced 500 :( so I decided it was time to figure out my weaknesses and study up.

Lots of studying and study material later I ended up with a fairly well balanced 770. Remember, Stanford loves to ding people with 800 ;) so unless you know you can achieve the almost unheard of perfect 810, don't try that hard ;)

In my next few posts I'll discuss how I prepared for the different sections.

My Visiting Experiences

2005-12-24T17:14:00.000-08:00

Last year I managed to visit most of the MBA programs I was interested in. It seems that most people don't do this ahead of time, but I wanted to get things out of the way to focus on GMAT and applications.

UMich: Liked the school. Nice people. One thing was, it seemed like everyone there was unhappy they weren't at a better school. Cold as hell. I don't doubt that students get great jobs but it sucks traveling out to the mid-west to go hire people. Also, they are sitting on a ton of cash, and they're going to do great things with it later... I'm worried that there will be an attitude of "screw the present, let's just plan on what to do with all that money"

Wharton: Very nice place, friendly people. Huge class size made things seem impersonal. Not sure how well it aligns with my goals of running a small/mid sized non-tech company

Sloan: It is true what they say, Sloan students are VERY friendly and they don't seem to be arrogant. Also they are one school that the students don't seem to care that they aren't at HBS or Stanford

Stanford: Great school. I think they can get me where I want to go. The people in the class are incredible superhumans. Maybe I have enough interesting things to be among them.

Harvard: All sterotypes are true

Berkeley: Very nice people. Lots of people that didn't get into Wharton. Less of the 6'4" Ibanker type here than anywhere else.

The European school. Great schools, for Europeans of people that want to work in Europe. It is a romantic notion, but I want to play it safe and not make that leap yet.

So here's the scorecard right now

Wharton: ADMIT!
Sloan: Interviewed
Berkeley: Going to interview

Next time.. The GMAT..

First Post

2005-12-24T17:08:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone.

I am an aspiring MBA applicant who is almost done with her quest. I'll start with what is happening right now, then I'll give you some background about how I got here.

It is the Christmas Eve and I am happy. A few days ago I received a offer from Wharton. I'm not sure if I'll go there yet, but it does take some pressure off. I've interviewed at Sloan, and I am still waiting for an invite for Berkeley. Also, my Harvard and Stanford apps are almost done and ready to go out for R2.

Everyone loves stats:

F 29
GMAT: 770
Work Experience: 7 years of engineering
Undergrad: top-10

My next steps are to keep my friends, family, co-workers, and my anonymous readers informed about my current progress. Also, I will try to recap the rough and tumble journey that led to my Wharton (and hopefully X, Y, and Z) acceptances.