The wait is not over

I have so much time in my hand that I don’t know what to do with it. It was like being on a second part-time job for the last one year; right now, I am unemployed. Seriously I have to come up with a plan to put this free time into good use – I cannot just waste it lying on the couch.

The wait for the Wharton interview invite has started – small number of invites have already started going out. I am not so stressed about it – I know if I am the right fit I will get another opportunity to present my case. I saw that Wharton will hold hub interviews in San Francisco between the 23rd and 27th of February. Good, at least if I am unable to visit Philly, I can give a face-to-face interview with a Wharton Admission Committee member. My essays were darn good for Wharton – Now I can only sit back and wait.

Berkeley will not send any interview invites until the middle of February. I still want to keep the Berkeley option open (if I get a chance to interview) because I don’t know what may turn up at the middle of this year. What happens if Ria gets a job offer in Bay Area? Then, I may have to rethink (thought it is less probable that I will choose Berkeley over Michigan.)

Kellogg – the best I can hope is a waitlist since I blew my interview (my gut feeling!!). But I am proud that I did a good job with the Kellogg essays. I am hoping for some significant development in my professional career in the next month or so, which may boost my application at Kellogg and Wharton. It will be sad if I get the promotion after the decisions are out (Darn it!!), but anyway it will help me in my post MBA career.

I already got the admit package from Michigan and I have to admit that they have done a pretty good job in marketing the school so well. I currently checked out their alumni presence in the bay area and was pretty impressed with it. There are lots of Michiganites around who are ready to help and so amicable – I am seriously blown away by their culture. I have also started looking at the Financial Aid options, especially FAFSA. (Hell lot of work to do before I go to school.) And I am attending the Go Blue Rendezvous weekend unless and until something really bad happens.

By the end of March I should know all the decisions. I have decided that I will choose the school based on fit rather than going through the traditional path of brand name, rankings etc. I will be spending 100000 dollars and 2 years of my life, so I have to really make a smart decision – I can’t just pick a school like that. I will visit all the schools once more, spend time with the prospective and current students, meet the alumni, judge how I would be able to reach my career goals in each schools, study the recruitment pattern and the classes offered and then make the final decision. [You get the real inside scoop when you get unlimited access to the school’s resources once you get admitted.] It would be a tough choice but I am confident that I will make the right one. And if I have no choice but Michigan, I am pretty sure already that I am a good fit. So, you can say that I am going to business school this year for sure, but for the end of the story you have to wait eight more weeks.