MBA on the Horizon

Two interesting things happened simultaneously (or nearly so) this week. First, I had decided categorically that I would tell my boss Monday - two days ago - about my plans to apply to business school and my need for her recommendation. I initially wanted to tell her earlier considering the fast-approaching Oct 1st deadlines, but the last few weeks have been terrible timing. Two weeks ago we lost a member of our team to lung cancer, which was a sad and difficult time that was highly inappropriate for any kind of announcement. The following week was before a wedding of one of our colleagues that we would all attend, including my boss. She has a tendency to loosen up on secrets after a couple of drinks, so I decided that sharing the news just before a drinking event with co-workers was a bad idea.

So, Monday it was. I spent the weekend a little nervous because after I tell my boss, it really becomes real. It started to feel real after the GMAT, more so when I first started writing essays, but now that I've shared my plans with my boss, I've really set things in motion.

I'm pleased to report that it went very well. When I walked into her office and closed the door, I had to quickly alleve her look of horror by assuring her that I wasn't putting in my notice, or at least not anytime soon. At first she thought I meant that I wanted to attend b-school part-time while working, but she was still excited for me when she figured out that I meant full-time which = my departure.

I mentioned that it's certainly not for sure, and it was nice to hear her say that she had no doubt in her mind that I would be accepted. Nevertheless, it was a bit of a leap of faith for me - kind of a no-turning-back moment - to tell her.

The simultaneous, and much appreciated, lift came from an entry on the accepted.com website about my blog. Believe it or not, I stumbled across it via Hella's list before I found the comment directing me to it on my blog, and was pleasantly surprised to find myself reading a very complimentary article about my own blog this morning. Although family and friends tell me that I'm doing well, I do take it with a grain of salt because of 1) their obvious bias and 2) their lack of intimate knowledge of the MBA admissions process, requirements, and quirks.

Because of that, it was wonderful to hear an "atta girl" from such a knowledgeable outside source. I'm sure that my moments of doubt will return throughout the essay writing process, but I'm told by others who have gone through this that it's a roller coaster of pride and self-hatred, so I plan to hold on tight and enjoy the ride.

I do hope you all read the article, particularly the last portion with the STAR tip for essay writing. It's a very concise and simple way of hitting the important points, and a good place to start for those essays that leave you staring at a blinking cursor on a blank Word document.

Finally, a quick note on this surprisingly close-knit blogging community of MBA hopefuls - I never expected to find such support and vast amounts of knowledge online. I don't personally know a soul who has ever attended or wanted to attend a top business school, so this network is particularly important to my process. In short - I appreciate it!

Posted in: essays, recommendations on Wednesday, July 22, 2009 at at 9:59 PM 3 comments Links to this post    

I have to be honest, I've been putting today off. I have read blogs and my "How to Get Into.." etc book on marketing yourself and positioning, but I hadn't yet sat down, outlined what I need to say, and started putting it into essays.

Today, I started. Despite the beautiful Southern California day, the offers of friends to go to the movies/beach/etc...I started.

It was kind of a hot and cold situation. I started by outlining my accomplishments, stats, and other details, then broke it down into the key stories that I feel I should make sure I tell the adcom. I have to say, seeing it all down on the page made me feel better about being able to make a good case for my admission. I decided that I would group my essay writing efforts by schools, not by essays of similar type for different schools, because I want to make sure each group is truly focused towards the particular school.

So, I took my lists of stories and stats and started to try to fit it into my first set of prompts - Wharton, in my case. This is where it gets a little less fun. Wharton happens to offer a tough set of questions for my particular list. Some of theirs aren't as "comfortable" - or maybe they just make it harder to provide them with nothing but shameless self-promotion - but anyway, it was tough to fit in all of my points.

I honestly still haven't figured out how I'm going to structure it. I'm going back and forth about an idea that I have to answer the question about adapting to people with different perspectives - I'm not entirely sure if the story I'm thinking of answers the question completely enough. I'm going to run the idea by a few people and see if I'm being creative or just crazy.

I will say that I feel better about having this problem than about the problem I was afraid I would have. I think part of why I had been putting this off is because I was terrified that I would sit down and not have the stories or accomplishments (because I haven't done enough) to give convincing answers. I am a little stuck on fitting said answers into the requested prompts, but it's a much more fixable problem!

Posted in: essays on Saturday, July 11, 2009 at at 8:46 PM 5 comments Links to this post