Decision day for Haas (Berkeley)

Well, today is the day. Considering I have not been invited to interview, it's either a ding or a deferral. I had not one, but TWO separate dreams last night in which I was accepted to Berkeley. I cannot wait for this wait to be over so that I can sleep normally again.

UPDATE (as of 4:30pm): Yep, I am waitlisted. Oh well.

Oh Haas, where art thou?

Haas (UC Berkley) R1 notification deadline is quickly approaching on Jan 27, and I have not yet been invited to interview. I would be very surprised if I was dinged without as much as an interview, as I truly believe that I am a strong candidate for Haas. Therefore, I am predicting (based on nothing more than rampant speculation on my part) that on notification deadline, Haas will ding some candidates and merge the rest with the R2 pool. Any takers on this bet?

Cyber-assault on Google

All I can say is, wow. This feels like something straight out of a movie (The Lives of Others, anyone?).

http://arst.ch/cku

Donations for Haiti

The following organizations are accepting SMS donations in the US only:

• SMS text “HAITI” to 90999 to donate $10 to Red Cross relief efforts
• SMS text "YELE" to 501501 to Donate $5 to Yele Haiti’s Earthquake Relief efforts

You can use Google Google checkout to donate to UNICEF and Care:

http://www.google.com/relief/haitiearthquake/

Clean Energy Ventures: Creating Innovative New Businesses Through Entrepreneurial Management

This workshop sounds very cool:

Clean Energy Ventures: Creating Innovative New Businesses Through Entrepreneurial Management

Prisoner's dilemma in b-school decision timing

While this is not a classic "prisoner's dilemma," I still find that business school application ecosphere, by its nature a process where a decision to apply to additional schools by the applicant is based on the outcome of the earlier acceptance decision by schools, is an interesting case to consider. As I am counting days down to Feb 1 Sloan decision, I am thinking about the "optimal" strategy on timing for b-schools. Specifically, I believe Sloan and other schools with a late R1 admissions notification deadline are disadvantaging themselves. Why? Because before I know whether or not I got into Sloan, I have to make a decision whether to apply to other schools in Round 2. Thus the likelihood of me applying, getting into, and eventually choosing another school increases. Of course, since Sloan is my top choice, I would choose it regardless of R2 outcome, but there are multiple cases where candidates could be swayed. I am willing to bet that there would be a noticeable increase in R1 yield if the decisions were released before R2 decision deadlines for competitors. I do believe that a relatively "late" R1 application deadline is beneficial in this game, because you get better applications as candidates have had a chance to practice their latent art of essay writing. So - optimal solution: INSTANT admission decision. How awesome would that be?

And yes, I am just picking on Sloan cause I would love to get the wait over with :).

How I decided which business schools to apply to.

WARNING: many stereotypes and generalizations ahead.

I only applied to two business schools, both in R1 (first round). Some might call it risky, considering acceptance rate for top b-schools is well under 20%. However, I am happy with my current job, so I did not see the point of applying to schools I was not interested in attending. How did I decide on the two schools? I went through the list of the top US business schools, and identified which ones would be the best fit. I am a big believer that the classmates constitute a very important aspect of the business school experience, so I drew on my knowledge of alums whenever possible. Here are my snap judgments:

HARVARD (HBS)

No doubt, a very good school with a great name, but the size (at 1800, HBS is one of the largest in the top tier) as well as the case method were a turn off. The turning point, however, was when I met an HBS alum at Forte Forum event (Forte Foundation is an organization that promotes women in business). The first thing that the woman said about her experience was that "she was a bit of an outlier as she had 5 years of experience before entering HBS." I have 5.5 years of work experience now, and I am significantly more prepared for the business school experience now than I was even 2 years ago, so I can't imagine a classroom where half the class has less than 4 years of experience. PASS.

STANFORD (GSB)

Stanford did not even bother to show up at the Forte event. Everyone else was there: HBS, Kellogg, Sloan, INSEAD, etc. Apparently, Stanford does not care much about women in business. The age (median work experience of 3.9!) was again a turn off. I actually visited GSB and sat in on some classes as otherwise the school seemed great (small size, nice weather, focus on entrepreneurship, international exposure, etc). Sadly, the age did really show in class discussions. It is a bummer too, as a lot of my co-workers who I respect deeply are GSB graduates. Of course, they all graduated few years back before the trend of accepting younger students emerged. Close call, and I almost applied in R2, but PASS.

NORTHWESTERN (KELLOGG)

Eh, I just wasn't that excited about the school. A few of Kellogg alums that I know are still unemployed, which I gotta say does not fare well for the school. PASS.

UPENN (WHARTON)

I have a good friend that graduated from Wharton and did not enjoy her experience there much. She said the people were very competitive. From few casual Wharton acquaintances, I can definitely see that. In addition, I have no desire to go into Finance. PASS.

MIT (SLOAN)

Hallelujah! Sloan is perfect. It's small, with a strong focus on technology and entrepreneurship, and the best part of all - people are analytical but fun. I can see myself fitting right in. Keeping my fingers crossed that I get in! APPLIED.

UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO (BOOTH)

Another close call. Good school, solid curriculum, people are super nice, but I felt like the people were missing that special spark that made the Sloanies stand out. PASS.

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA -BERKELEY (HAAS)

Another school that has everything I am looking for: the size, the focus, nice people. Only minus is that it is not as well regarded as other schools, but on the plus size it has a strong brand in Asia. APPLIED.

DARTMOUTH COLLEGE (TUCK)

Another great school, and I gotta say that Tuckies are probably the closest knit of the bunch. Tuck is a bit too similar to my undergrad experience (small New England liberal arts college), so PASS based on the fact that I am looking for a different experience.

Feel free to throw flames my way now. :)

First post! My Sloan interview.

I have very much appreciated advice of fellow bloggers on business school admissions process, so I figured this would be my chance to return the favor. Today was my Sloan (MIT) interview. I applied in October in Round 1, a few hours before boarding the plane for a vacation in Peru, and had been obsessively refreshing my email and checking Business Week forums until December 18 when I got my interview invite. Weeeeee! I was overjoyed.

Finally, the day of the interview (today) arrived. I had made sure to review MIT Sloan interview guide as well as STAR method, and I jotted down a few recent situations in which I displayed leadership or faced a conflict, so I felt well prepared for the interview. However, about 20 minutes before the interview I learned that a dear family friend passed away suddenly. I got into my interview location 15 minutes early, and took the time to read the Economist and force my breath back to normal. I had to make myself concentrate on the interview, and deal with the loss later. To be honest, it still feels very surreal, and will probably hit me hard once the adrenaline wears off.

I interviewed with Jennifer Barba, the Assistant Director of MBA Admissions. From the start, Jennifer was very welcoming and easy to talk to. She explained the process (which I was already aware of thanks to Rod Garcia's blog on clearadmit). She then asked me a few questions, for example, something I was proud of, or a time that I asked for help. The admissions committee ask that you provide examples other than the ones in your essay, so I highly recommend spending the time to come up with a few situations. The interview lasted exactly half an hour. I am confident that Sloan is a great fit for me, and hopefully that conviction shone through. Now the waiting game begins: T-28 (decisions to be released Feb 1!).