Christmas Eve

Just finished wrapping all of my gifts. I love wrapping presents. There's just something about it. I'm not much of an artist, but gift wrapping is a creative outlet for me.

It's really nice to be home, with the exception of sleeping in my old twin bed on a 15 year old mattress. It's not nearly as comfortable as my bed back in SD and my back is not happy about that. Lucky for me, my folks have a hot tub, so I spent the morning soaking and reading Skipping Christmas.

My mom and I went and saw Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events yesterday. We both thought it was clever and pretty good, but dark and certainly not a movie for children. I wouldn't recommend paying full price for this movie...catch a matinee or wait for the DVD.

To be honest, I'm still in a haze from Wednesday. So much good news and a great homecoming. I can't help but dance a little jig from time to time. When I get the urge, it doesn't matter where I am...I did it in the breakfast aisle at the grocery store yesterday. I really can't believe my good fortune and I am so thankful for it. A substantial weight was lifted from my shoulders and now I can enjoy myself, content that things are falling into place.

A couple of people have asked what my top choice is. I'm waiting to see what happens with Kellogg & Chicago before I put too much thought into that. Then it will come down to admit weekends (which I plan to attend as many as possible) and if there's any scholarship money offered. Right now, Anderson has a slight edge on McCombs due to my CA residency & the entertainment management opportunities.

Others have asked if I'm still going to apply to Wharton R2. My answer: You bet your ass I am!

Merry Christmahanukwanzakah to all!

And the hits just keep on coming!

Not another admit, but I did get invited to interview at Haas. Woo-hoo!

Thanks for all the notes of support and congratulations. I really can't tell you how happy I am right now. My folks and I are headed out to dinner at my favorite Mexican restaurant here in my hometown and trust me, we will be throwing back the Margaritas!

The next time I whine about being stressed about my applications...

Please smack me and tell me to shut up!

I got accepted to Anderson & McCombs today...Merry Christmas to me :)

Got into Seattle around 10 am this morning, turned on my cell phone to find a voicemail from McCombs....hmmmm :) Wonder what that might be about? Talked to Claire about an hour later and got the good news.

Then my dad and I finally got home from lunch and walking the golf course about 15 minutes ago, and I log on to find an acceptance email from Anderson.

Wow. I'm on Cloud 9. Thanks to those who have been keeping me positive the past couple of weeks (Dirty Martini & Classy particularly). Happy holidays to all!

I've been inspired...

So I'm throwing my hat in the ring for Wharton Round 2. 4 essays in 16 days? No problem!

What pot?

BTW, congrats to all the Wharton Round 1 admits, and double congrats to Brit-Chick for the Wharton/Kellogg Double Play Day! For those who didn't get in, best wishes for the rest of your apps. Come party with me in Limboland!

A watched pot never boils

That's my new theory. I'm thinking so much about getting notification of a decision that it's somehow cosmically preventing a decision from being rendered and/or released.

Since dings have been among the decisions released from Kellogg & McCombs, I guess no news is just that, no news, at this point. It's neither good nor bad. So here I sit, stuck in neutral.

Haas released a batch of interview invites last Friday, but I don't expect to hear anything until January. No action from Anderson yet, or at least none that has been posted on the BW forums, as far as I can tell.

Good luck to Wharton Round 1 applicants. I am a tad jealous of your position. Not only will you know your fate tomorrow, but today you know that you will know your fate tomorrow. Much better than Limboland.

Nervous

First off, let me offer my congratulations to Classy & Aregon on their Cornell admits. Way to go guys, you totally deserve it!

Now, as to the post title, it's my current category based on Clear Admit's definition. The wait is starting to get to me. I'm completely distracted at work, mainly because there's not a ton of stuff to be done right now. All the hard work was last week, now I'm just tying up loose ends before the holiday and completing year end review stuff. Trying to come up with specific behavioral examples for peer feedback while refraining from speaking in platitudes is a bit taxing. Completing my self-appraisal has been easier since I've just put myself through all these introspective tasks for b-school apps. I have plenty of examples ready and waiting in my arsenal. However, it's not really helping my efforts to ignore the fact that my phone is not ringing. Re-reading already submitted essays isn't a good thing, yet that's what I'm doing for my self-appraisal and now I'm finding I'm not as pleased with my essays as I once was. As I've mentioned before, this process has inherent peaks of confidence and valleys of doubt, and I'm currently kicking it in a valley. All I want for Christmas this year is just one decision.

Speaking of Christmas, I cannot wait to go home! A week from today, I'm headed back to the Pacific Northwest for a week with family and friends. I haven't seen my folks since my trip to Hawaii and I haven't seen my brother in a year. I will also get to see my two best friends from high school...one had her first child a couple of months ago and the other is 7 months pregnant. We're going to have a little mini-shower for both of them. Hard to believe that many of my oldest friends are married with children now, especially when those types of life events are not even on my radar right now. But I grew up in a small town and most of the people that never left (or left but went back) settled down pretty quick. Completely different life from mine. I can't imagine being satisfied with that, but everyone has their own unique vision of happiness and satisfaction. I'm happy that my friends are happy, and I can't wait to spoil their children!

As for stress relief, I'm getting my hair cut & colored tonight, one of my favorite activities. You see, I'm a tomboy in the sense that I love sports, camping, and getting dirty, but I'm a girly-girl too. I love hair and make-up stuff...I am a product queen. The gal who does my hair is really cool. She's a few years older than me and she's going to school part time for her English degree (and she studied in Spain during the summer), so we talk more about literature and travel than typical salon gossip. Plus, she gives a great head/neck massage during the shampoo...that's worth an extra $10 in the tip, at least in my book.

Circuit overload

My nerves are fried. The first McCombs admit was posted today on the BW boards, so now I've got two reasons (K & McC) for my heart to stop every time the phone rings.

I was already on edge from the weekend. My upstairs neighbor and his buddies decided to go on a bender and wake the whole apartment building up at 3:30 am Sunday morning. I even heard my neighbor warn his buddy to shut up or else he'd wake up the neighbors...too bad he allowed him to continue to holler obscenities for the next 45 minutes. Then yesterday, I had a ton of laundry to do, 5 or 6 loads, so I had the dryer running all late afternoon and into the evening. We have a shared laundry facility that is adjacent to my apartment on the ground floor. I went in to get my last load out of the dryer around 9:30 pm and was startled to hear snoring outside the window. Some homeless person had found the space between our building and the brick wall next door nice and cozy and warm due to the dryer. I know the homeless have to sleep somewhere, and we certainly have a lot of them in San Diego due to the climate, but I'm not comfortable with one snoring outside my bedroom (my window faces the same brick wall about 10 ft from laundry area). I'm a single woman, and my building is pretty much all single women, save for the guy who lives upstairs. However, he is a doctor and works crazy hours. Plus, he's a little guy, I'm pretty sure I could take him. Anyway, it's a personal safety thing. I don't want this guy figuring out he's got a prime spot, then figuring out we're all women and hanging around long enough to figure out our daily routines. Not cool. So I talked to the gals next door to me, then called the police non-emergency line. They took down my information and said they'd send somebody out. I finally crawled into bed around 1 am, having given up on the cops making an appearance after waiting 3 hrs. Of course I didn't sleep very well because my senses were on high alert and I was wide awake with every noise. The cops never did knock on my door or call me back, and I never heard anybody confront our camper. So now I've got to keep an eye out for him and I've been playing phone tag with my landlord this morning because I need to bring him into the loop. Fun times.

Holiday Eating Tips

Got this in an email this morning. I thought it was pretty funny and worth sharing. I don't know who the original author is, otherwise I would credit him or her. Whenever I get a really good email joke, I always wonder why the creator doesn't brag to the world that this was their little piece of genius and contribution to workforce procrastination. Take credit, funny people!

Holiday Eating Tips

1. Avoid carrot sticks. Anyone who puts carrots on a holiday buffet table knows nothing of the Christmas spirit. In fact, if you see carrots, leave immediately. Go next door, where they're serving rum balls.

2. Drink as much eggnog as you can. And quickly. Like fine single-malt scotch, it's rare. In fact, it's even rarer than single-malt scotch. You can't find it any other time of year but now. So drink up! Who cares that it as 10,000 calories in every sip? It's not as if you're going to turn into an eggnog-aholic or something. It's a treat. Enjoy it. Have one for me. Have two. It's later than you think. It's Christmas!

3. If something comes with gravy, use it. That's the whole point of gravy. Gravy does not stand alone. Pour it on. Make a volcano out of your mashed potatoes. Fill it with gravy. Eat the volcano. Repeat.

4. As for mashed potatoes, always ask if they're made with skim milk or whole milk. If it's skim, pass. Why bother? It's like buying a sports car with an automatic transmission.

5. Do not have a snack before going to a party in an effort to control your eating. The whole point of going to a Christmas party is to eat other people's food for free. Lots of it. Hello?

6. Under no circumstances should you exercise between now and New Year's. You can do that in January when you have nothing else to do. This is the time for long naps, which you'll need after circling the buffet table while carrying a 10-pound plate of food and that vat of eggnog.

7. If you come across something really good at a buffet table, like frosted Christmas cookies in the shape and size of Santa, position yourself near them and don't budge. Have as many as you can before becoming the center of attention. They're like a beautiful pair of shoes. If you leave them behind, you're never going to see them again.

8. Same for pies. Apple. Pumpkin. Mincemeat. Have a slice of each. Or, if you don't like mincemeat, have two apples and one pumpkin. Always have three. When else do you get to have more than one dessert? Labor Day?

9. Did someone mention fruitcake? Granted, it's loaded with the mandatory celebratory calories, but avoid it at all cost. I mean, have some standards.

10. One final tip: If you don't feel terrible when you leave the party or get up from the table, you haven't been paying attention. Reread tips; start over, but hurry, January is just around the corner.

Remember this motto to live by:

Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, martini in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WOO HOO what a ride!"

I love that last bit. I fully intend to enjoy the gastronomic pleasures of this season, then get right back on the diet and exercise wagon after the first of the year. In fact, I'm kicking around the idea of starting another blog for diet/exercise/weight loss. I'd really like to get in better shape before summer & b-school. I found my blog to be helpful in keeping me on task with b-school apps and it might provide the same outlet fitness-wise. Something to think about.

Doubleheader, baby!

Only in California...

Today, I wakeboarded AND snowboarded, and I was home by 6 pm. Unbelievable! I made plans earlier in the week to go wakeboarding this morning with my friends, B and A. A had been planning to go ride motocross after wakeboarding, but that was moved to Sunday. So she sends me a text message last night to tell me that and ask me if we should hit the mountain instead. A is definitely a little crazy and she has the ability to bring out my crazy side. Last night (still hungover from the office holiday party Thursday night, mind you) I was just crazy enough to say "Sure! Let's do it!"

It sounds ambitious, but it really is do-able here in So-Cal (assuming your body is up to it). A and I met up in Escondido at 7 am and headed up to Lake Elsinore to meet B at 8 am. No fog this time, nothing but clear blue skies, so we launched the boat right away and got to it. The water temperature keeps dropping, it was down to 52 degrees F today, but the air temp was high 60's and we had a dry suit so we were toasty. It was only the three of us and the water was beautiful glass so we each took two nice long sets and got off the water by 11:30. Cleaned up the boat, grabbed some food, then started the trek up to Mountain High. It's right on the border of LA & San Bernadino counties and it's just an hour drive from Lake Elsinore. We were up there by 1 pm and got ready pretty quick for part two of our little doubleheader. This was only the second time I've snowboarded in California (thanks to last year's ACL injury) and my first time at Mountain High. It was pretty nice, although a little crowded which is to be expected on a Saturday at LA's closest ski area. It was warm & slushy spring-like conditions, but we had a good time. We didn't last too long though. A couple of runs and both of us had legs like Jell-O, so we called it a day.

Needless to say, I am one tired kid and I'm going to be one sore kid tomorrow. I think a hot bath with epsom salt is in order. Was the doubleheader fun? You bet. Would I do it again? Maybe. We'll see how I feel tomorrow.

I feel like a real California girl now.

And so it begins...

News flash from the BW message board: Kristen, from Kellogg Adcom, recently announced that they have started releasing decisions for Round 1.

My stomach is in knots now.

Best wishes to my fellow blogging Kellogg applicants Brit_Chick, Kalki, Aregon, and Swoop!

Wishin' and hopin'

And thinkin' and prayin'
Plannin' and dreamin'

*but*

No news on the b-school front.

I went to the Chargers-Broncos game yesterday and had a blast despite horrible weather. I felt like I was back in Seattle. It was 55 degrees and pouring rain most of the day. We had a group of about 50 people and we started tailgating around 10 am. I had to break out my ski jacket because it is the only waterproof jacket with a hood I currently own (really not necessary for life in San Diego). Anyway, started the day with bloody marys and shots of Jagermeister so that kept us warm. The Chargers are doing really well this season. They are currently leading the AFC west and the Broncos are right on their heels so this was a big game...hence a sell out. It was very loud in the stadium and it was an exciting game that came down to the wire as the Broncos rallied in the 4th, but the Bolts pulled it out. My voice was gone at the end of the game and I fully expected to wake up this morning with a nasty cold, but I feel pretty good.

The Seahawks just blew a 10 point lead in the final two minutes of Monday Night Football to lose to the Cowboys. Ugh. At least my fantasy football team won.

I was a little surprised by the BCS selections yesterday. This system sucks. We need a playoff (just like every other sport at every division level in the NCAA), but money talks so we get the status quo and something to talk about Monday morning. I'm happy for Texas that they finally got a BCS bid, however I really feel like Cal got shafted. They are more deserving of a BCS bid than either Pittsburgh or Virginia Tech. And I'm a traditionalist so I don't like the idea of a non-Big 10/Pac-10 Rose Bowl...it's just not right.

Why not?

So yesterday I get a call on my cell phone around 11 am PST. It's a number I don't recognize from an area code I don't recognize. At first, my heart skips a beat..."Is this a call from McCombs?" Nope. It's someone from Arizona State's MBA program, calling to make sure I was aware of their San Diego reception. It was held tonight at a hotel in downtown San Diego right near where I work. The guy has me on the phone, I've revealed that yes I know the hotel and it's less than a block from my work, so naturally I agree to attend. I get off the phone and I'm kinda feeling...ugh...I've been to so many receptions, my applications are done, it would take a total failure of five applications to get me to consider applying to ASU and now I've been talked into going to this reception during one of my busiest weeks at work. Great. Little did I know...

Earlier today I tell my co-worker that I'm going to this reception. He asks if there's going to be free food. I tell him there's a pretty good chance of that, so he decides to go with me. We head over there around 6 pm. Well I'll be darned if this isn't the best reception, food & beverage-wise, I've been to all year. It was hosted at the W hotel, which is very swank and cool. They had fantastic heavy hors d'oeuvres and get this...open bar. Nice. This was the only MBA reception I've attended that offered booze. It's unlikely that I'll even apply to ASU, but hey, thanks for the free goodies! It felt a little funny when alums asked if I was applying to ASU, trying to spin a story about having a couple apps in to other places first round and maybe applying in a later round. This was completely different than any other reception I've attended. There was NO formal presentation. Zip, zilch, nada. No powerpoint, no brief words, nothing. Just mingling with alums, a couple staff members and current students. Anyway, we had a good time, met a really cool prospective applicant for class of 2008 and I gave her my business card so I can hook her up with information, and I enjoyed exchanging snarky comments with my co-worker (who now wants to accompany me to any and all future MBA-related events even though he has no interest in an MBA).

Tonight's reception was also a nice preview of the fare the W has to offer. Our office holiday party will be there a week from tonight. It should be really nice. I hope we've ordered the beef wrapped asparagus spears, they were awesome.

Now, a couple of folks have asked when I expect to hear back from schools. Here's a run down (in order of anticipated decision notification, with area code noted because I am a dork and looked them up after yesterday's gut check):

McCombs/Texas--(512)--Could hear any day, supposedly 3-5 weeks post interview. Looking at the BW thread from last year, it looks like those who submitted apps in early November were notified by mid-December. No decision deadline due to rolling admissions.

Kellogg/Northwestern--(847)--Probably won't hear until after the holidays, however some R1 applicants last year were notified of favorable decisions in mid-December. It was only a handful so I'm betting on January. Decision deadline for R1 is January 17.

Anderson/UCLA--(310)--Pretty much same story as Kellogg. Decision deadline January 19.

Chicago--(773)--Last year decisions started being release about 2 weeks before the decision deadline. This year's R1 decision deadline is January 21st, so this will be mid-January at the earliest.

Haas/UC Berkeley--(510)--This one is a little different. Interviews are by invitation only. Looking through BW thread for R1 last year, invites really didn't start going out until the beginning of January, then decisions started going out after the Super Saturday interview weekend in late January. The decision deadline for R1 this year is January 31, so this is probably the last school that I will hear from.

EDIT: I've re-read through this post a couple of times. I'm not going to change it because I feel like it was kind of a funny experience and I had a couple of glasses of wine and it captures that. I do want to add that I think this post may come off a little snobby, but that is not my intention at all. All of the ASU alums I met tonight were really cool and it is a respected regional program. It also has a pretty good sports business program, and the dean is a former Whartonite, so I have a feeling this program is going to continue to improve. I don't think it's the right place for me at this time, but I think it is an up and coming program.

Quick turnaround

Logged into the Chicago application system this evening. My interview is already showing up as "Complete" just two days after it happened. Gotta love interviewers who are on the ball.

On the other hand, the check I mailed to UC Berkeley over a month ago has still not cleared. Huh.

Just finished watching a Tivo'd show and ended up on ABC, which is showing the Nick & Jessica Christmas special. Sugar shock! And quite possibly the worst lip sync job ever by Jessica, which is saying a lot considering her sister Ashlee's botched SNL lip sync. You'd think they'd at least try to make the lip sync flawless this time around. Ugh.

The Amazing Race is back on and this season has been entertaining so far. It is by far the best reality show on TV. Love it. However, they seem to have this recurring theme of subservient, weak women who just take heaps of verbal abuse from their male partners. Last season it was Colin & Christie, this season it's Jonathan & Victoria. I think every episode so far has featured at least one scene of him absolutely SCREAMING at her. We are talking complete meltdown, screeching at her like a little bitch. Where do they find these people?? Anyway, last night's Detour happened at the world's largest IKEA store and was a choice between counting misc items in a large crate (2K+ of all shapes & sizes) or building a desk. So I'm pretty sure I would have opted to build, and I certainly would have switch to build if we were wrong after two counts. There were a couple of teams that just kept counting and getting it wrong, over and over again. It was pathetic. I really think the key to winning this thing is not worrying so much about speed and focusing more on making smart decisions and planning ahead when possible. So many teams have caused their own demise by getting so wrapped up in the race/speed aspect and making really horrible decisions. Although it does make for good TV!

The secret is out

As I've posted on here before, my boss and my close co-workers (all 2 of them) are all in the loop with my business school plans, but I've kept it quiet at work outside of that small circle. I really wanted to keep it on a "need to know" basis until I had some decisions in hand and my boss was down with that. So imagine my surprise when I sit down in a meeting with several representatives from each department and have one of the senior managers (from a department other than mine) ask me how the b-school apps are going. Loud enough for other people to hear and go "What's that you say? You're applying to b-school?"

{picture my smiling face trying to hide the shock and desire to kick my boss's ass}

Yeah, not so happy about that, but what's done is done. I had my regular one-on-one development meeting with my boss shortly afterwards and I grilled him a little. I definitely felt betrayed by him and was not happy about the public ambush, but so it goes. He explained that at first he only told his boss (which is perfectly acceptable) and wanted to keep it that way. However, with the departure of one of our team members in early November and some reluctance by our site director to backfill the position, he had to bring more people in the loop and make the case for the backfill to maintain continuity of the business since I'll be leaving in less than a year (unless a catastrophe happens) and it will take a few months to hire someone and get them up to speed. He was in a crappy position and I understood why he did it, I just wish it could have been a little more discreet and I wish he would have told me before or immediately after he let the cat out of the bag so I wouldn't be caught off guard like that. The other thing that I'm worried about is corporate politics and what impact this might have on my performance rating/bonus. People are much less inclined to promote or reward someone who has plans to leave and they may make assumptions about checking out/slacking off in the final weeks. We'll see what happens, I just have to keep kicking ass and taking names and hope for the best.

My long awaited Chicago interview

Well, the fourth attempt was a charm and tonight I completed my interview for Chicago. I think it went pretty well. It was so conversational that it's hard for me to remember what specific questions were asked/answered, but I left feeling like my interviewer understood what I'm all about. He was a fairly young alum (98) and he works in the same industry as me so it was easy to lay the groundwork of the interview and really spend most of the time talking about why Chicago and why strategic planning/sports media & management. He was enthusiastic about my career plans and told me about his consulting experience and how that could be a back-up plan for me (work for a large consulting firm in their media/entertainment division or an industry specialized boutique consulting firm). He said that if most of my job search was off-campus, I could horde my bid points and use them to specifically target the big consulting firms and guarantee an interview. I thought that was helpful and indicated some confidence in my candidacy. We also talked about his experience with LEAD, both as a 1st year student and as a 2nd year facilitator. I think being a LEAD facilitator would be something I'd be interested in doing should I end up at the GSB. It sounds like an awesome experience.

I spent Turkey Day with a bunch of friends who are also non-native San Diegans. We had quite the spread and I'm glad it wasn't at my house because otherwise I would have gorged myself on leftovers. A couple of those friends are MBA grads who are working on starting up their own company, so it was really interesting talking to them about the whole MBA process and how they are making use of their knowledge (and of course their network) in their new venture. I went in to work for a few hours on Friday to get a couple of things done and make sure there were no fires to be put out since the rest of our team was OOTO. Saturday I met up with some friends for a little wakeboarding. IT WAS COLD! So much for that 120 degree rule I was talking about earlier. We met at the lake at 8:30 but it was pea-soup foggy and we couldn't launch the boat until the fog lifted 2 hrs later. Even then, it was still cloudy so the sun hadn't warmed up the air all that much. 54 F air temp, 55 F water temp. BRRR! Actually, it wasn't so bad while I was riding (except for my toes, and they turned purple to let me know when it was time to call it quits). It was worse in the boat afterwards. Thank goodness I packed my ski hat. And my friend just installed a heated shower on his boat...that warms the feet up quick :)

Stayed as far away from the malls/stores as possible this weekend. I'll have to go later this week to find a dress for our holiday party, but otherwise I will do all of my shopping online. It is just so much easier, especially when you have to travel. Rather than trying to fit everything in my suitcases and hope it doesn't get broken by careless baggage handlers, I ship everything to my parents' office and have them set it aside in my old room. I've done it this way every year since I moved away from home and it works like a charm.

The monkey has left the building!

After losing the last 6 straight to the bad guys (including the last 3 as the heavy favorite), my Cougars have finally brought the Apple Cup home to Pullman! This win salvages a less than spectacular season, and it means the puppies of UW have gone o-fer in the Pac-10 for the first time in decades. BUWAHAHAHAHA! I love it! I will admit that last night when all was said and done, it hardly felt like a celebration. All I felt was relief. I couldn't really enjoy the game as I was watching it because I was so tense that shit was going to happen, AGAIN, like it has the past 6 years. The Cougs have such a knack for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, they even have a personalized verb for it....to Coug it. So while it looked like the game was in hand midway through the 3rd quarter with the Cougars up 28-10, I felt like I was going to throw up as I watched the Huskies start to rally in the 4th quarter. I don't think I've ever been so relieved to see time run out. Those last 90 seconds felt like forever. 28-25, Cougars win. Phew! I'm really happy I Tivo'd the game so I can watch it again and actually enjoy it and celebrate this victory the right way. I'm so happy for our seniors and for Wazzu fans everywhere and I hope this is the start of a new streak of Apple Cup wins for the good guys.

This morning was weird. We rarely get thunderstorms around here and we had a doozy around 6:30 this morning. Lots of very loud thunder and pouring rain. Now, it's beautiful, so I'm going for a walk around the bay!

FINALLY!

I finally got my Chicago interview scheduled after the 4th attempt. Yippee! Man, that was frustrating! I had almost given up hope. I had been in contact with a member of the admissions committee this week and she told me if I still hadn’t heard anything from my assigned interviewer by Monday that they would either waive it or consider a phone interview. I’m really happy to get this thing scheduled because I feel like meeting someone face-to-face and being able to ask me questions and get to know my personality is a really important piece of my application. It’s interesting that the first interviewer assigned to me (that had recently moved to Cleveland) used to work for the same company as me, and the guy who is actually going to interview me works for a competitor. It’s a small world here in San Diego (definitely in terms of financial services companies)!

I’d like to send a shout out to all my fellow bloggers who received Wharton interview invites…you guys rock! Good luck with your interviews

TGIF…it has been a long week at work. Our quarterly forecasting process is ramping up and I’m taking the lead this quarter. In addition, we put together a pretty comprehensive strategic reporting deck this week and presented to senior management today. My boss was WAY stressed out about it and was in turn stressing me out, but the presentation went really well and I got great feedback…best presentation to senior management yet! Just in time for year end performance reviews, gotta love it. Is it happy hour yet??

No major weekend plans here. I need to get caught up on the chores I neglected because of long hours & stress this week. Never again will I rent an apartment without a dishwasher! Apple Cup is tomorrow, 4 pm PST…Last time WSU won was 1997, the game was in Seattle and I was a sophomore in college. It was an awesome game; they clinched a Rose Bowl berth and we all partied hard in Husky Stadium. It has been much too long since my boys won, but this is the year we get that damn monkey off our backs, I can feel it. Go Wazzu! Go Cougars! Beat those stinkin’ mutts!

UT/McCombs Interview

I completed my interview for McCombs today. I met with an alum who graduated a couple of years ago at his office. It lasted about 45 minutes and was a very casual conversation. I was a little nervous because the website said the dress code was business or business casual…which could mean a variety of things. My office is casual (I mean casual…I wear jeans most of the time and wore flip flops pretty much every day this summer). Since I would be leaving mid-day for the interview and didn’t want to change, I went with business casual. My boss and direct colleagues know what I’m up to, but people outside our team don’t and I’d prefer to keep it that way. Anything dressier than slacks and a sweater set would draw way to much attention at work. The alum I interviewed with works at a local investment management firm, and while I was pretty sure they’d be business casual (this is San Diego not New York, after all), there was a chance my guess would be wrong and I’d feel uncomfortably underdressed. Lucky for me, I was right.

It was interesting because he asked me if I had trouble finding the place and I said no, I didn’t because I had been there before. He of course asked why and I answered him honestly…I had been there a couple of months ago for the Kellogg information session. Gaaaah! Have now admitted interest in another to school to interviewer!!! Doom. Dooooom. (Yes, I’ve just re-read Bridget Jones Edge of Reason, so that was Bridget-inspired.) Anyway, he put me at ease and said obviously you’re applying other places, don’t worry about it, this interview is just about your fit with UT/McCombs. Phew! A brief summary of the things we talked about:

--walked through my resume
--future career goals/why mba/why now/why McCombs
--talk about experience working as a part of a team in work experience
--hypothetical situation: you’re a part of a team and someone is not carrying their weight, what do you do
--what part of your application do you think could use some improvement
--any questions I had for him about UT/McCombs/Austin

He told me he was going to go off the script a bit and I’m glad he did because I think I was able to genuinely portray myself in my answers to his questions. I felt like it went really well and he confirmed that when he told me he would be strongly recommending me for admission and that he felt I would be a good fit for UT. He gave me his card and told me that he knew I’d be getting admissions and that if I needed to bounce some ideas off him or one of his colleagues (they have quite the range of MBA program representation) to give him a call. Very nice guy and a great representative for McCombs.

Wakeboarding & Football

Hit Lake Elsinore today for a little quality time on the water. It's been about a month since I've been wakeboarding due to weather, friends in town, too many things to do, etc. I needed a wakeboarding fix BAD. I left San Diego at 7 am; it was a beautiful morning and a nice drive. Unfortunately, when I got to the lake it was pretty much blown out (i.e. wind chop), but we were all dying to ride so we gave it a go. It was CHILLY but tolerable, especially with a drysuit. My minimum requirement to ride is 120 F combined air & water temp. We were well above that (water 60 F, air 68 F) but the wind made it feel a lot colder. The lake was all chopped up except for one little corner, so we each got a couple pulls in and called it a day.

Washington State got waxed by Arizona State yesterday. (And the Seahawks lost today...ugh...at least my fantasy football team is kicking ass.) Always sucks to see my team lose (especially when it eliminates their chances a bowl game) but I thought TBS did an excellent job with the broadcast, especially the halftime ceremony to honor Pat Tillman and retire his jersey. All the ASU players wore "PT" stickers on their helmet. WSU coach Bill Doba & the team also wanted to honor him by wearing PT helmet stickers and did so after getting the OK from his family. I thought it was a very nice gesture and it reaffirms by belief that Doba is a class act. Time to move on from the loss as today is the first day of Apple Cup week. The Apple Cup is the annual rivalry game between Washington State University & the University of Washington. WSU has lost the last 7 in a row and it is time to get that monkey off our backs. These guys now have nothing to lose, and this will be a psuedo bowl game for both teams, so I think it will be a very good game. Wish I could get back to Pullman to see it, but I'll have to settle for getting together with a big group of San Diego Cougs at a bar to cheer our boys on. Beat those stinkin' Dawgs! Go Cougars!

One apple farmer has used the rivalry to create new marketing idea..."branding" apples with the WSU and UW logos. Pretty cool!

No Whammies

I had to take mandatory anti-money laundering computer-based training at work today. That was 30 minutes well spent. Now I know a lot more about money laundering than I did before and if I’m ever in the unlikely situation where I need to launder some dirty cash, I have an idea of what NOT to do. Somehow, I don’t think this was the intention of the training. Anyway, every time we have to do stuff like this, I think of that old Warren G song… “REGULATORS!!! Mount up!” …Bank Secrecy Act, Patriot Act, FCRA, TILA, FDCPA, OFAC, AMLA, GLB, Sarb-Ox…you want job security? Work in Compliance!

I think the 4th attempt might be a charm on the Chicago interview. This time I was assigned an interviewer, given contact information, and he actually lives in San Diego. No reply from him yet, so I’m not officially declaring victory, but I feel closer to it. No word yet from Haas on an interview invite; keeping busy preparing for McCombs interview next week.

Speaking of Chicago, it’s been report by PowerYogi that Chicago has extended it’s Round 1 deadline from 11/12 to 11/15. Interesting. At least they notified people before the R1 deadline, unlike Michigan. Makes no difference to me, my app has already been launched into adcom-land. I think there were a couple other bloggers out there with Chicago R1 aspirations that had given up, hopefully you guys can pull something together for Monday.

Now that the apps are done, it’s time to start worrying about paying for this little endeavor. So I will spend this wait time investigating scholarships, financial aid, etc.

I have two recurring b-school related dreams. One worst case scenario, the other best case scenario. The first dream slash nightmare…I don’t get in anywhere, I don’t find out until the end of January so I’ve missed all R2 deadlines, have to re-take the GMAT, roll the dice in R3, and end up stuck in a job I don’t particularly like. The second dream I wake up with a smile on my face every time….get in several places and they offer me lots of scholarship money, I get a great performance rating and therefore a big bonus in March, quit in April (or they decide to downsize and I get a severance package, even better!), put my stuff in storage and travel until it’s time to go to school. Just picture me crossing my fingers, knocking on wood, rubbing a rabbit’s foot and saying a Hail Mary (even though I’m not Catholic)... "C'mon Option #2, BIG MONEY, NO WHAMMIES!"

Done!

5 applications, 4 visits, 9 recommendations, 22 essays, and approximately 12,000 words later, I'm done.

Well, sorta.

I submitted by Chicago app this morning after one final read-thru. Feels good to be done with the application part of this process. Although I can't say I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders because I think I've traded one weight for another "wait." Time to keep myself busy to avoid dwelling too long on questions like "Will they like me? Am I good enough? Did I just spot a typo?! Did I bomb that interview? What happens if I don't get in anywhere? What happens if I get in everywhere?" Now that last one's a problem I'm sure we'd all love to have, but it's not very likely so I won't spend much time worrying about it. However, there are things I really like about each of the programs I've applied to and if I am faced with a decision between two or more, it's going to be tough.

I've got my McCombs interview scheduled for next week and I'm really looking forward to it. They turned the interview invite around pretty quick (3 days after going complete) so hopefully if I get the interview done quickly they will be inclined to send me a final decision quickly. I am still struggling to get an off-campus interview scheduled with Chicago. I put in my first request at the beginning of October. I hadn't heard anything from them after three weeks, so I had to cancel that request and re-request the interview. That time I got a pretty quick response. However, it turns out the alum assigned to me recently moved to Cleveland! How's that for luck? So, my second request was cancelled and I made a third request. It has now been a week and *nothing*. I attended a Chicago GSB Women in Business reception here in San Diego last week and the alum assured me that there are about 100 GSBers in this area. Not sure what the deal is, but since I'm on my third request with no prospects, it's looking pretty bleak and I'm thinking I'll probably end up in the "interview waived" category. At least I've shown a serious interest in the program by making a visit, attending events, and making several attempts at scheduling an interview. So it goes.

Interview news

Got to work this morning and, to my pleasant surprise, I found an email from McCombs inviting me to interview :) It's amazing how validating it was to read that email. It's confirmation that things are moving along and that my application is competitve. Word on the BW boards is that McCombs interviews about half of all applicants and 96% of admits. I have two weeks to register for an interview and since their admissions are rolling I'd like to get it done ASAP to help expedite a decision. Since work is really busy for me this month, I don't think I'll be heading to Austin to interview, so I was happy to see there are several alumni interviewers in my area.

Took the afternoon off to drive up to LA for my interview at Anderson. Lucky for me there was also an information session and a "Women & the MBA" event. Three birds, one stone! The interview was with a 2nd year student and last about 40 minutes. Nothing out of the ordinary with this interview, basic resume review/why mba/why now/why Anderson. The interviewer and I established a quick rapport and I feel like she understood my motivations, so I feel like it was a good interview. The information session was with two 2nd year students. I really enjoyed hearing about the Applied Management Research project, which is a two quarter practicum required to graduate. You can do a field study with an existing company, work on starting your own company, or do an academic research project. You get to pick your team and your project. One example project was consulting for the Santa Barbara Fire Department, doing a feasibility study for a potential merger of the city and county fire departments. It seems like an awesome program and a good way to build on your internship with even more practical experience, which is great for career changers. It also sounds like due to the flexibility of the program in year 2 and the location, that it's totally feasible to continue to have an internship during your second year. The Women's event was pretty cool. It started with a social hour with snacks and mingling with 2nd year students at tables by industry/function. I was impressed with every student I spoke to. Although the formal presentation started a half hour late, it was interesting. Linda Baldwin gave a short address and told us that it was an excellent time to apply (I'm thinking maybe round 1 apps are low?), then there were two panel discussions. One was with alums, one with current students. It was interesting to hear the career changing stories of the alums. There were some good questions from the audience and some head scratching questions. One woman was really determined to find out exactly how many hours a week each panel member worked after her MBA. Ah, call me crazy but that's not an MBA issue, that's a choice of employer issue. An MBA doesn't mean you have to work 100 hrs a week in investment banking. If anything, an MBA gives you way more options. I'm beginning to realize that many women have misconceptions about the MBA, and I'm glad that organizations like the Forte Foundation and this UCLA event exist to dispel some of those myths.

Sounds like Anderson releases decisions weekly and will probably start releasing Round 1 decisions around Thanksgiving up to the January cutoff. I'll be waiting...and waiting...and developing OCD checking my email and status! :)

One other thing...for those of you out there with little to no work experience, the folks at Anderson were really pushing the message that they are open to early career folks (0-2 years work experience). I'm not an advocate of b-school without work experience, but they said if you feel like you're ready for an MBA, go ahead and apply. I think you'll get more out of it with experience and the context it provides, but I think they see this early career thing as a way to get more women interested in the MBA. Women do the math...22/23 out of undergrad + 5 years work experience + 2 years MBA, means you're 29/30 and re-starting your career...when do you start a family? It's probably a deterent to some women, like the one who was so worked up about how many hours a week the panel members work.

4 down, 1 to go

Submitted my Anderson app today and my Texas app over the weekend. I'm in the home stretch now with just Chicago remaining. I have procrastinated like crazy on a couple of the Chicago essays (because they're a bit off the wall) so I need to get crackin'. I'll be headed up to LA later in the week for my interview. I'm still waiting to hear about a Chicago interview. There were none available while I was visiting and my original off-campus interview request was received but not matched up so I had to re-request it last week. Still no word on that. Cue the Jeopardy theme music for all of this waiting.

My boss received his thank you gift on Friday, but told me today that he could not accept it. So awkward! I'm really disappointed that he won't accept it. Well, now I have two nice bottles of wine from my home state for a special occasion. My friends and I will probably have an orphans Thanksgiving since we are all from other places and unable to go home until Christmas. I'll break out the good stuff for that. Plus, my parents went to the Oregon-Washington State game a few weeks ago and picked up some Cougar Gold, a delicious and award-winning cheese produced by the WSU Creamery. She promised to send me a can for Thanksgiving and it will go great with the wines I selected.

I am soooooo ready for the election to be over, but I fear that it will drag out even more than it did last year, with all these teams of lawyers geared up in their Lear jets, ready to jump on the slightest hint of impropriety. I'm trying to finish reading up on the 53,426 propositions I must vote on tomorrow (really, it's more like 10 local and 20 state, but still...that's a lot of information and MISinformation to sort through and arrive at an informed decision). I talked to my mom earlier and I wanted to vomit when she dropped a "Fair and Balanced" on me and made fun of C-SPAN for giving full coverage of today's final push of the Kerry stumping. Hey mom, lay off the Fox News, they aren't exactly fair and balanced either. Damn, just got another spam phone call from the Lori Saldana for Assembly camp. They've been averaging 2 a day! Enough already!!!! Yes, I'm voting tomorrow, and no, I'm not going to promise my vote to anyone because it's noneyabizness ;)

Two down, three to go

It has been an interesting 24 hours, filled with good things and bad things.

First the good, which is actually MBA related. My Kellogg application is showing up in the system as “complete” (after a minor scare yesterday, when it went from “in process” to “no record found”, a phone call this morning cleared that up). Next update will be “Admit, Waitlist, or Deny”…oh my goodness, it has finally sunk in that this is REAL. Yikes! My Haas application is out the door. Conducted the final proofread yesterday and the super anal "just in case" proofread this morning before dropping the hammer. I feel pretty good about it. Haas is looking for interesting essays and I feel like mine are a good balance of personal and professional. Will they win the Pulitzer? No, but I think they serve their purpose. As I was submitting today, I tried to pay the application fee online. I wish I had tried this a few days ago because it was not working and causing me all kinds of stress. It must be a firewall problem or something along those lines. I dug around the site and realized I could pay by check and as long as it was postmarked today I'd be OK for Round 1. Phew! I caught a lucky break...I wish the same could be said for Aregon, Brit-Chick, and PowerYogi...I feel for you guys, I hope it all works out.

Now the bad, which is more personal. I usually don't get very personal on here but I need to vent. I broke up with my boyfriend last night. Which sucks on a normal day, but even more so when you're temporarily homeless and staying at his place. Called a friend at 11:30 pm and arranged to crash on her couch. Some warning signs had been surfacing as I began to notice some trust and jealousy issues. We were talking about that last night and I asked him to talk to me if there was ever anything bothering him. I was not expecting him to bring up stuff from my past (not “ours”, just mine) and basically reveal himself to be a bigot. He has issues with the fact that I’ve dated outside my race and said some things last night that absolutely disgusted me. It’s amazing how someone’s personality can make them more or less attractive. The attraction is now gone. Tolerance is one of my core values and I cannot fathom allowing this man to pass along his intolerance to our (hypothetical) children. This is not an issue of compromise and there is no point in being in a relationship with someone who doesn’t share your values. I'm sorry he feels that way and I think there are a lot of great things about him, but they were completely negated by the things he said last night. I’m angry, but in a way, because it was a deal-breaker type situation, I’m kinda at peace with it. There is no coulda woulda shoulda. Plus, it’s reduced my stress level for this whole b-school process because I’m free make decisions and only worry about myself. Everything happens for a reason. Except now I have to worry about finding a date for our company holiday party, damn!

Happy Halloween everyone :)

Leadership Development

Just spotted an interesting article on MSN. I think there's some good advice for MBA applicants in there related to demonstrating leadership potential and how to convey that in an interview and/or on a resume/application, especially those of us who have never had direct reports. Check it out...

Could you be the boss?

Rainy Day

And the wet weather continues! It POURED last night, big puddles on the roads today, lots of accidents and whatnot.

Southern Californians + Automobiles + Rain = Bad Things

My morning commute is usually a piece of cake, except when it rains. The rain has no where to go but puddle and the folks around here aren't too experienced with driving in the rain. Lots of hydroplane action. I was supposed to head up to Irvine tonight for a UCLA information session, but I would rather poke my eyes out than drive 90 miles during the evening commute while it's raining. I could also use the extra time to put the finishing touches on my Haas application, not to mention bag up all of my food & medication so that it does not get contaminated when the fumigation starts tomorrow. I'm headed up to UCLA next week anyway for an interview and a women in business forum so I'll get the info and face time eventually. No worries.

All of my recommendations are now complete and submitted. I just Fed Ex'd all my Texas stuff (since their recos are paper-based) so they will arrive a few days ahead of the Nov 1 recommended deadline. They are rolling admissions so it's not a hard and fast due date, but the sooner the better IMO. My current boss & former boss really came through for me and I ordered their thank you gifts today. Current boss is a wine aficionado so I ordered him two bottles of my favorite Washington state wine from wine.com. Former boss is back in Virginia and I found this palm bonsai at Red Envelope and I thought it would be a cute way to send him a little slice of California.

I still have no idea what to do for a Halloween costume. I have a great Marilyn Monroe costume, but after two years as Miss Monroe, I'd like to do something else. Although I may not even end up doing anything for Halloween since it's on a Sunday and I could really use the weekend to finish up my UCLA & Texas applications. I'm invited to a house party on Saturday, so we'll see. It makes me feel old that I would rather spend the weekend doing work & chores than going to a party! Plus, I've been invited to go wakeboarding Sunday morning and I haven't been in a few weeks so I'm itching for a fix. It won't be as much fun if I'm hungover. Decisions, decisions.

Back from Chicago

What a whirlwind weekend. Great trip. Here's a recap:

Wednesday...Scrambled to get out of work on time. Gave my boss one final reminder on the due date of the Kellogg reco. The weather in San Diego was pretty nasty. It hadn't rained here in 182 days (which is more than a little bizarre for someone who grew up in the rainy Pacific Northwest). It started raining on Sunday and hadn't let up by Wednesday. Totally reminded me of fall in Seattle. San Diego is one of the toughest landings for planes in the country, apparently, and it's especially bad in rain/clouds/fog and we had all that on Wednesday. From my building downtown, you can see (and hear) the planes that have to pull up and try again because they're coming in too high. Normally there's only one or two of those a day. I counted at least 10 a day this past week. So it was no surprise to get to the airport and be warned that although my flight was currently "on time" it might end up delayed. Fortunately, we left on time and I got into Chicago no problem. I also sat next to a very entertaining young Marine who made the flight time go by quickly. I stayed with two friends from undergrad in their apartment near Wrigley. Cool neighborhood, lots of restaurants, bars, and boutiques, really close to the "el". I could totally see myself living there. It was really good to see J & T, two of my oldest friends from WSU (we lived in the same dorm freshman year). Made it to their place in time to catch the end of Game 7 of the ALCS....YEAH RED SOX! Love it. Not particularly a sox fan, just a yankee hater. Plus, it's an awesome story. Can't imagine what it's like to be in Boston right now.

Thursday...Caught the el up to Evanston, super easy to find and use, and the Jacobs center is literally 2.5 blocks from the stop. Checked in around 9 but my first activity wasn't until 10:30, so I headed down to the atrium to get some coffee and review my essays/resume and get my wits about me for my interview later in the day. I liked that I had total control over my activities for the day and could attend pretty much any class and do whatever I felt I needed to do to get to know Kellogg. Talked to some students about which class to attend that morning and ended up choosing "Research Methods in Marketing" with Angela Lee. The lecture was about questionnaire design and sampling. One of the students I talked to said that this was a pretty typical class, but there have been a lot of guest speakers, often related to the latest case. Lee used humor and personal anecdotes to liven up the class, relating questionnaire design to the art of picking up a girl. She got into some stats with the sample size stuff...she lost about a third of the class and everyone had a good laugh about it. Next up was a tour. Nothing in particular stood out to me, just seemed to have all the typical things you'd expect from a b-school facility. I had lunch with a couple of other Kellogg hopefuls from the tour and we talked application strategy. The atrium was packed for lunch and seating was a challenge. After lunch, we attended an info session. It was led by the same woman who led the San Diego info session. She actually recognized my face, couldn't place a name or a location, but she knew she had seen me at a previous session. Not much new information as expected, but it was nice to hear a little more about LEAP and GIM than at the SD session. I ducked out a little early for my interview with an associate director of admissions. It went OK, I feel kinda neutral about it...I didn't walk out feeling like I nailed it, but I didn't feel like I bombed it either. Everything I read about Kellogg interviews told me that it would be typical questions and that it is mostly about establishing fit and that it's important to show enthusiasm and energy for Kellogg. My interviewer had probably been conducting interviews all day, she seemed tired and less than enthusiastic, kinda low energy. It's a challenge to maintain energy & enthusiasm when it's not being reciprocated, but I did my best and it's out of my hands now. For my fellow Kellogg applicants, here's a recap of the interview:

--walk me through your resume
--tell me about your career goals
--what's your plan B (if you can't get into your industry/function of choice)? (this may be just because my target industry is non-traditional, but who knows)
--how do you receive feedback at work? what are your areas for improvement?
--talk about a time when you had to work with your peers and there were issues/conflict
--what kind of critical feedback would you get from your peers?
--what has been your most significant leadership experience?
--what do you do outside of work?

After the interview, I met up with two co-chairs from the Entertainment Media Club. It was a very casual conversation, we chatted about their classes and internships, what they do for fun, etc. They are both very dynamic people and reaffirmed my interest in Kellogg and confidence that I can break into any industry with a Kellogg MBA and the network. Very cool and friendly student body, great curriculum flexibility, etc. Very impressed. I headed home and bundled up since I would be going with J to watch her flag football game in Lincoln Park. That breeze off the lake is ch-ch-chilly! They won and we hit their sponsoring bar, The Bird's Nest, for wings, beer, and baseball, then we called it a night. One other thing happened...we were going to take J's car to the game but discovered that it wouldn't start. We tried jumping it to no avail and came to the conclusion that it was probably the starter and thus would be out of commission for awhile. THANK GOD we tried to start her car Thursday night because the plan for Friday was that the easiest way for me to get down to U of Chicago/Hyde Park was to drive myself since I had to be there by 8 am. I'm very lucky we discovered this Thursday night and not Friday morning so I could create a back-up plan with the el and Metra to get down there in time.

Friday...Woke up before the crack of dawn to make sure I got downtown in time to catch the 7:35 train. Ended up getting down there with time to spare and was able to grab some breakfast at the GSB cafeteria. U of Chicago is beautiful, the gothic architecture is really interesting, especially with the fall colors. The new GSB building is STUNNING. WOW. It still smells new. The gothic touches like the arches in the winter garden are really cool and tie in the otherwise sleek and modern building to the rest of campus. The facility blew me away. Lots of bathrooms (apparently a problem in the old building), very high tech classrooms, group study areas that have plasma screen TVs to review presentations! First item on the agenda was a class visit. There were 5 visitors (2 women, 3 men) for the first class and 2 current students (one woman, one man). The guy was heading to new venture strategy and the gal was heading to business policy (aka existing org strategy) and funny enough, the guys went with the guy, the gals went with the gal. Not sure what that says about us :) Business Policy was taught by John Gould (former dean of the GSB, come to find out). He kicked off the class with a metaphor (I guess he assigns a weekly metaphor to his students). The metaphor the student used was the Red Sox...overcoming incredible odds, overthrowing the evil empire, rewriting history, etc. This class discussed the various business applications of this metaphor, then they talked about some of their readings. Next he divided the class into two teams of ~10 and gave them alternate situations for a previously discussed case, kinda a "case on the fly." Apparently he likes to do this, keep the students on their toes and keep the 3 hour Friday morning class interesting. He also showed the results of a recent assignment in strategic analysis: draw a company as a person or character (in a group) and give the corporation human characteristics, the process of telling a story with a picture as a way to get a more diverse set of contributors, the idea being that a visual reference in picture format allows you to convey an idea in a non-linear form, resulting in a livelier write-up. There was definitely a lot of moaning and groan from the students about this assignment and the results were pretty funny (ever try to draw a picture by committee? LOL). The students I talked to gave mixed reviews of the class--some liked it, some were totally bored. We cut out of the class at the break and I met up with the chair of the entertainment management student group. He was really candid about his experience at the GSB, talked about his summer internship, networking, classes, social life, etc. He was actually the only person I've had tell me "if you're serious about entertainment, go to Anderson"... flat out. Interesting because everyone else I've talked to has said go wherever because you're going to face the same challenges no matter what, even at Anderson. Something to think about, but that's neither here nor there at this point, I need to get admitted somewhere before that even becomes an issue. I caught back up with the group at the info session and I have to say, I was unimpressed (for the first and only time that day, but still...). I don't think Chicago put it's best foot forward with the student leading the session. She seemed a bit immature and was "not sure" about too many things to be in that position. Just not the best person to be in a marketing position, IMO (and the opinion of a couple of my fellow visitors). After that we had lunch with current students and we were supposed to attend another class but no one came to pick us up and at that point I had reached critical mass for information intake...plus I was at the perfect time to catch a train and get back downtown before rush hour and meet up with my friend. Kinda sucked though because it meant I missed out on meeting up with Byron (a fellow blogger...sorry, B! I was bummed). Impressions of Chicago GSB: AWESOME facilities, cool but fairly independent students, incredibly flexible curriculum, amazing faculty. I found it interesting that most other schools put a lot of effort into creating the sections and study groups with evenly distributed talent/experience, but that is left up to the students at Chicago (yet our visitor day was very structured...hmmm). Very libertarian/free market culture...no surprise from a Milton Friedman school. It was a very nice gesture that they gave us a $7 voucher for lunch. Big props for that :) Made up for the shortage of tables in the cafeteria and the fact that we had lunch outside in the cold! When I got back downtown, I had some time to walk around and get a little sightseeing done before meeting up with my friend. Later that night, we went out for dinner & drinks at a couple of establishments in their neighborhood. Laughed so hard I cried at some of their stories, had one too many Jack & Diet Cokes, then went home. It was a long day and my dogs were barking from all the walking.

Saturday...Slept in, then ordered some fantastic deep dish pizza and watched college football for awhile before heading downtown for some shopping. We also went up to the Signature Room on the 95th floor of the Hancock Building...amazing view of the city. Witnessed a proposal (she said yes). I really like Chicago. It is a cool town. So much to see and do, so easy to get around via public transportation, great restaurants and nightlife...it's only the winter that scares me. We watched game 1 of the World Series at a bar (great game), more laughter (this time at T's stories from her time working for Jerry Springer), then went dancing. Didn't make it a very late night since I had to be up early to catch my flight.

Back home to beautiful San Diego this afternoon. Got caught up on my email and blog reading. Confirmed that my boss submitted my Kellogg & Anderson recos on Thursday...whew! Anxiously awaiting Wharton/Columbia/HBS news on behalf of my fellow bloggers. This week: finish up my Haas, Anderson, & McCombs essays. Start on Chicago essays. Get kicked out my apartment to get rid of the bugs. Figure out a Halloween costume. See my boyfriend, I miss him!

New shoes

Followed the lead of FMG, I bought new shoes today at DSW. I don't know if there's any validity to her theory, but it's worth a shot :)

Kellogg application submitted

As of 10:58 AM PDT, I have officially become a Kellogg applicant. My mom and I had one final proofreading conference call this morning and I decided my application was ready to be sent off into the wild blue yonder. The past few nights have been late ones, making final adjustments to my essays, trimming them down as much as possible to make sure I stay within the guidelines. Reading through my application as one package, I feel I highlighted my strengths, addressed my weaknesses, laid out my career progression and future goals, answered the questions asked and allowed my personality to come through. I sincerely hope the admissions committee feels the same way.

My Kellogg application is not quite complete. I will submit my transcript during my visit on Thursday. Also, my boss has not yet submitted my recommendation. I'm getting kinda frustrated with him. The first recommendation he started working on was UCLA, which isn't due until Nov 3. He says he wants to finish that one before he starts the others so he doesn't have to generate everything from scratch. That's all fine and good, but why are you working on a recommendation that's not due for two weeks when one is due this week? He assures me he will submit it tomorrow. I'm a little worried because I know he's busy today with his boss in town and one of my co-workers just put in two weeks notice. Crossing my fingers and saying a prayer.

Now that I've broken the seal, so to speak, I feel really good about finishing up the remaining four applications. Some of the stuff was actually pretty fun to write about and I think the process is a good experience, no matter the outcome. I'm really excited for my trip to Chicago and I can't wait to see one of my best friends from college. Should be a really good weekend and I will be sure to post a recap when I return with all the info about my campus visits and fun times in Chi-town.

Haas visit

I made the trek up to Berkeley yesterday to learn more about Haas. It was a great day and I have oodles of information to spice up my essays in the next two weeks. With my work schedule and my ambitious plan for 5 round 1 apps, I had to squeeze my visit into a single day. Lucky for me, Southwest has a direct flight between San Diego and Oakland so it wasn’t too bad and they have great deals on inter-CA flights. I woke up around 5 am and caught the 7 am flight. That put me in Oakland just after 8:30. I was able to take BART into Berkeley than catch the campus shuttle bus up to Haas. I love public transportation and BART is one of the best. It’s clean, easy to use, convenient, and efficient. I had no problems and checked in at the admissions office around 9:30.

That left me some free time before the tour/lunch at 11:45, so I went down to the café to make some notes/list of questions, proofread a couple essays, and read the latest “Economist” (has a great section on the presidential election). Plus, I wanted to just sit back and observe Haas students in their element. People were very friendly, smiling/happy, and most people were working in pairs or groups. I talked to some students who were in the morning section of Microeconomics (the class I would be visiting in the afternoon) and talked to them about the pricing presentation they were working on. Everyone seemed very casual and laid back. I definitely got the “collaborative environment” vibe.

The tour through the Haas facilities was nice. I like the layout and central courtyard, lots of common space for interacting with your fellow students. I did notice the presence of the undergrads, but the tour guides and info session leaders said that there were very few issues sharing space and/or professor time with them (except for scheduling the study rooms, which can be done online). The campus itself is pretty cool, and of course Haas is situated at the top of the hill so all the older MBA folks get their exercise. We got some lunch and continued to bombard our hosts with questions.

After lunch, we attended the information session hosted by two student ambassadors. I didn’t get much new information out of it since I attended the Haas info session here in San Diego, but it was nice to get two new perspectives on life at Haas. My overall impression of Haas remains the same: a laid-back yet rigorous program filled with intelligent, down-to-earth folks who care just as much (or more) about the world around them as they do about making money, all in a very collaborative and student-driven environment.

Next, I attended the core Microeconomics class. It was different than a typical class since it was their final class of the half semester. Rather than a lecture or case study led by the professor, the learning teams each did a 5 minute pricing presentation on a variety of companies as a culmination of what they had learned. There was a wide range of presentations: some with one presenter and some with two, some who played it straight and some who went for funny, some with PowerPoint slides and some with no visual aids. I was happy to see that a handful of the companies selected were sports related and this showed me that even in a general class you can tweak a project for your industry of interest. The students I spoke with at the end of class told me it was a really interesting class, great professor, very “laid back yet rigorous”. As Dave reported a few days ago, the classroom was stifling hot! Public program = Less money for the luxuries.

Finally, I met up with the co-chair of the Entertainment Management Association. This was probably the most informative part of my day and will have the most impact on my essays. Two pages of notes from that discussion full of advice on using an MBA in the sports/media/entertainment industry, searching for jobs/internships, tailoring the curriculum to work for you, networking with alums and MBAs from other programs, different projects and seminars available at Haas related to the industry, etc. It was invaluable and I’m so glad I’ve set up similar meetings at Kellogg and Chicago next week. We wrapped up around 5:30 and I headed back to the airport. I tried to get on an earlier flight but failed, so I didn’t get home until around 11 pm. It was a very long day, but a great day.

I am physically exhausted and with 5 apps due in the next 4 weeks and my trip to Chicago next week, there is no reprieve in sight, yet my campus visit has me mentally energized and ready to attack my remaining application tasks. MUST…PUSH…FORWARD!

Don't you just love landlords?

I typically enjoy the benefits of renting vs owning. I like not having to do yard work, fix things, buy appliances, etc. and having the freedom to pick up and move pretty easily. Sometimes it sucks. Like now. My landlord called me last night to inform me that our building needs to be fumigated and he wants to do it before the end of the month. We will need to be out of the building for 3 days/2 nights and I have no choice in the matter. Of course this can't be done while I'm in Chicago, that would be too convenient. I will be homeless Oct 28-30 and it's just my luck that I have 3 applications due within a week of that (Haas on the 29th, McCombs on the 1st, and Anderson on the 3rd). Fan-f'n-tastic. As if I don't have enough stress in my life right now!

I submitted part 1 for Kellogg last week. It's the first application piece I've formally submitted. It was terrifying! I triple-checked for typos, spelling, and grammar, but I was so tense when I hit that submit button. I now have one recommendation submitted for Haas and my recos assure me that more will be coming by the end of the week. I'm looking forward to spending Thursday at Berkeley. I've set up a lunch, tour, info session, class visit, and a meeting with someone from the Entertainment Management Association. It will be a whirlwind day and I'll be taking copious notes so I can finish up my Haas essays before my trip to Chicago next week. I'm getting nervous anticipating my Kellogg interview. I need to get some quality copies of my resume made, go over some practice questions, make sure I know my app/resume backwards & forwards, and pick up my suit from Nordstorm. Ended up buying a beautiful black pinstripe suit that should last me a long time. I also need to dust off my overcoat. It hasn't seen the light of day since I moved to San Diego.

As for the BW rankings, it all seemed like much ado about nothing. Not a lot of change, and those few changes didn't seem unexpected. It will be interesting to get current students perspectives on the Haas slip.

Sleep

"Elephants sleep only 2 hours a day."

This according to the lid from my diet Snapple iced tea this morning. Well color me jealous, I wish I could survive on 2 hours of sleep. As it is, that zombie feeling is starting to creep in and I don't see it improving anytime soon, even after my last deadline there will still be admission decisions to worry about, then financing and moving.

I've been working later into the evenings on my applications, and I'll plow through the sleepy feelings only to be ready to wrap up and hit the sack feeling completely wired. I'm having a hard time shutting my brain off when I go to bed. Makes it hard to fall asleep when I'm thinking about all the things I need to do, questions that still need to be asked and answered, etc. Once I do fall asleep, it's restless sleep. I've tried to do the watch a boring show or read a book thing, but I have this MBA ADD and my thoughts always drift back to my applications or all of the what if scenarios.... What if I don't get in anywhere? What if I get in to more than one program, how am I going to decide and how will I finance this little project? What if my recommenders let me down? What if I bomb my interviews? What if things progress with my boyfriend but he doesn't want to move with me? WHAT IF A THOUSAND RINKY DINKS COME ROLLING DOWN THE HILL???! (one of my father's favorite sayings when I start playing the "what if" game, a funny reminder to KNOCK IT OFF because it's useless)

Business Week rankings come out in just an hour and 15 minutes. I'll be tuned into the chat. Do I really care about the rankings? Are they going to change my application strategy at this stage? Definitely not, but all the hype surrounding the rankings, the snub by Harvard & Wharton, the endless debates on the forums....this thing is like a train wreck and I can't help but watch. I'll post my reaction later tonight.

I have a friend who is a department manager at Nordstorm so I'm going to pay her a visit tonight after work and buy a suit for my interviews. I haven't worn a suit since I interviewed with my current employer in the spring of 2000! Back then, I couldn't afford anything nice so the one I had is a bit beat up, dated, and doesn't fit me that great. It's time to be a big girl and buy something nice that will last at least the next 3 years and hopefully longer. Credit card is going to get some exercise tonight, ugh.

That didn't take long

Mount St. Helens had a little eruption this afternoon, but it sounds like that will be it. She just needed to let off a little steam...don't we all?

My boyfriend and I had a real, proper date last night. We went to dinner downtown then went to the theater to see the traveling production of "Rent." I love the music, but this was just an OK production of it. It's interesting that in less than a decade material that was once controversial is now pretty mainstream.

I missed the presidential debate because of the show, but I Tivo'd it and plan to watch it sometime this weekend.

A sleeping giant is stirring

Most news services reported yesterday that the USGS has issued a "volcanic advisory" for Mount St. Helens, the most famous of 6 active volcanoes in Washington state.

I grew up in Washington state and I was 3 years old when Mount St. Helens blew in 1980. I don't remember much of it because I was so young and because I lived in the least impacted part of the state. However, volcanoes were always a big part of our science curriculum and they've always fascinated me. I was watching Nova on PBS a couple weeks ago and they had a special on volcanoes and how the USGS monitors them for seismic and magmetic activity. It's amazing how they can pick up on the smallest of tremors and even the slightest shifting of the mountain, then use that information to try to predict erruptions and other volcanic events.

It sounds like the recent activity at Mount St. Helens is likely leading up to some sort of volcanic event, but nothing like the catastrophic event of May 18, 1980. What's interesting is that Mount Rainier and Mount Baker pose a much bigger threat to the Seattle/Puget Sound region, should another catastrophic erruption occur. Rainier has the largest glacial load of any peak in the lower 48, and Baker has it's fair share of glacial coverage, too. If those glaciers melt and/or a debris avalance occurs, it will mean big trouble for the river valleys coming off those mountains. My hometown is in the Skagit River valley and it would be in deep doo-doo should Baker errupt because the debris avalance and glacier melt would likely cause Baker Dam to fail (unless they had enough warning to be able to lower the level of the lake in time). Scary thought. Let's hope that guy on Nova gets his erruption prediction model fine tuned.

Back-to-back-to-back hurricanes in Florida, earthquakes in central California, and now volcanic activity in Washington state...this season Mother Nature sure seems determined to make us aware of how much we are at her mercy.

Haas info session and a belated weekend recap

Last night, I attended a Haas information session here in San Diego. I thought the representatives from the admissions office did a great job of communicating a lot of information in a fair amount of time, despite warning us that their presentation might be a little rusty since it was their first road trip of the season. It was entertaining and gave me a feel for the Haas culture. Since I've already decided to apply and I got a lot of information about Haas from a friend, it was nice to just kick back and enjoy the show rather than furiously take notes and try to think of a bunch of questions on the fly. I found the panel of current and former students to be really interesting. One of the panelists just graduated and is working for a golf equipment company here in SD County. I was able to pull him aside later and get the scoop on a sports business seminar he initiated with the help of a fellow student and what it was like networking to get his internship and job. I also got answers to my more tactical application questions from the adcom folks, and I ran into a friend from undergrad (same one I saw at the Wharton info session awhile back) so we were able to catch up and compare notes on this whole application process.

I booked plane tickets for my visits to Berkeley and Northwestern/Chicago, so I'm working on schedules for my days on campus. I'm really looking forward to seeing the schools, meeting students, checking out some classes, interviewing, etc. I've made contact with people in each program's sports business/entertainment/media clubs so I'm hoping I'll have some folks in my area of focus lined up for lunch or just a meet & greet. It is going to be a BUSY month of October, but I seem to do my best work when I'm busy. I'm trying to schedule my Anderson interview and it is a pain in the rear. They just released another group of interview slots, but they all conflict with my schedule. ARGGHHH! I wish they'd get their San Diego/La Jolla info sessions scheduled soon so I can see about a local interview. Other than that, I'm just plugging away at my essays and data forms, waiting for my transcripts to be delivered, and making sure my recos have all the information they need. I updated my resume with feedback from a couple friends, my mom, and a co-worker. I have to say...I am damn proud of my resume. I may not have started my own company or commanded billion dollar Wall Street deals, but considering I'm four year post undergrad and I've been with the same company that whole time, I have a foundation of solid, significant experiences to build on in business school. This is obviously a high self-confidence week. Tune in next week when the self-doubt will surely resurface ;)

It was a great weekend for me, football-wise. My Wazzu Cougs beat Arizona in a barnburner, the Seahawks destroyed the 49ers, and my fantasy football team won. The guy I beat in our fantasy league is quite embarrassed that he lost to a girl, but this chick knows her football and is a force to be reckoned with. Next weekend will be a sad one since both my teams have BYEs, but that will be to the benefit of my application essays.

I put in some time at the beach on Saturday, then I hit Lake Elsinore for some wakeboarding Sunday morning with my usual crew, plus two of my friends who wanted to learn. One of my favorite things about wakeboarding is teaching other people. I remember that feeling of pure joy the first time I popped out of the water (followed shortly thereafter by "Oh $#%@! What do I do now?!" to faceplant). I love passing on that feeling to other people and I get the biggest rush from the look on their face when they finally do it. I have become very efficient at coaching people and it usually only takes them a couple tries to get it. The guys I ride with now refer to me as "coach." I know how good it feels to progress to the next level with my riding, and it makes me feel even better to help other people do it, too. Anyway, both girls got up and got some decent rides. At the end of the day you could tell that they had caught the wakeboarding "stoke" (to use a REALLY overused "extreme" sports word, but it is the best way to describe that feeling of excitement and desire to conquer a new challenge). You could not wipe the grins off their faces.

Forte Forum

I'd rate last night's event a B-. It was OK, but it wasn't great. 6 months ago, it would have been great, but at this stage in the game most of it is useless or it's stuff I already know. I'm kinda feeling that way with all of these information sessions. They are geared more towards people who are researching MBA options, not those of us who have done the research, narrowed down the list of target schools, and are currently working on applications. That's definitely the last time I'm driving to LA for one of these things, it's just not worth it.

It was cool to be at a "women only" event and I did enjoy the panel discussion even though many of the questions were pretty surface level. The presentation was definitely targeted at those who are still deciding if an MBA is right for them. The GMAC presentation ran long and was laced with marketing pitches for the various products they offer. They are the primary sponsor of Forte and I realize they should get some plugs in there, but at $225 a pop for the GMAT and $28 per score report I feel like I've already forked over more than enough money to them. After the presentations, each of the member schools had representatives available to answer questions. I was able to talk with an adcom from McCombs and get some insight into their essay questions, how to survive the Texas Common Application (it's a bear, let me tell you), and what to expect from career services with my intended career path. I also got to chat with a Chicago adcom and an alum. This conversation would solidify my decision to apply to Chicago. I like that it's big, but not too big, the curriculum is extremely flexible, and my experience with Chicago folks has been very positive. Chicago is one of the schools I originally applied to back in 2000 and I feel that it's only gotten better since that time. The alum told me about a student/faculty project that is of high interest to me and could provide interesting material for my application, so I sent an email to the adcom I met and she is going to send me a presentation about the project. Now I just gotta figure out an idea for the mascot question! So, that means that Wharton is off the list. A little disappointing because it means I won't be taking a gamble on any of the big 3 H/S/W, but I'm just really not sold on a program that big and I'm definitely not sold on living in Philly. The early deadline doesn't help either. I know this is the right decision for me, and it's one that I've arrived at while focused on my own thoughts and opinions, tuning out all the ranking and message board distractions.

It was nice to see Dirty Martini last night and hear all about her trip to NYC. She has definitely got her stuff together and is way ahead of the game. I will be anxiously awaiting her admission decisions. I'm confident they will be positive.

Work is much slower this week, my co-worker and I think our boss is taking it easy on us since the last two weeks were a bit crazy. I'm moving offices tonight...well, actually big dudes are moving my stuff tonight, but I had to pack it all up this afternoon. I'll be in something smaller than my current office and I'll lose the window, but I've enjoyed it while I could the past 9 months. Our team is lucky, most people at our level in the company are in cubicles, but we all have offices by some stroke of luck. In a way though, I miss life on the cube farm. It's much more social than an office. However, it is nice to be able to shut the door when I need to concentrate or when I have a conference call.

I'm making dinner for my boyfriend tonight. This is the first time I've cooked for him. In the two months we've been dating, he's cooked for me twice (and brought flowers 3x :) chivalry is not dead!) so I owe him one. On the menu tonight, chicken marsala with garlic mashed potatoes and green beans with caramelized red onions, served with a nice Chianti Classico. Then we'll watch Survivor with full bellies and pity those poor fools in Vanuatu.

Mid week check in

Just wanted to pop on here quickly during lunch before I leave for LA. I'm attending the Forte Forum this evening and really looking forward to it. Looking forward to catching up with Dirty Martini, too, and hearing all about her New York trip. I'll provide a recap of the Forte Forum later in the week.

I kicked some serious application butt this week, but I still feel like I'm behind the 8 ball. I completed the majority of the data forms for each application, distributed my resume to a couple of friends for review, requested transcripts and/or completed the self-reported transcript option if available, finished a couple essay drafts, and compiled all the information my recommenders will need to be sent to them tomorrow. It's the essays that are really stressing me out and I'm wondering...how in the world is it already September 22?

Southwest Airlines is currently running an internet special for intra-California flights one way as low as $39 so I'm trying to figure out if I can squeeze in a trip to Berkeley before the Oct 19 Round 1 deadline since it would be nice to be able to answer their question with, "Yes, I have been to Berkeley..."

More to come later...

Kellogg info session & other ramblings

Last night I attended a Kellogg info session here in San Diego. To be honest, I was disappointed, but I don't think it was an accurate reflection of Kellogg. I left feeling that I didn't learn anything that I hadn't already found online. I don't know if other participants felt the same way and I'm curious if this experience was unique to the San Diego session. There were only four alums and one person from adcom present. They had technical difficulties so rather than giving a nice presentation with Powerpoint, the adcom representative had to read from her notes. I found it to be contradictory that they were telling us Kellogg is very collaborative, all about teamwork, known for strength in marketing, and has a large and extremely loyal network, yet they were only able to round up FOUR Kellogg alums in San Diego??? Things that make you go "hmmm." Still, I feel like I need to give them the benefit of the doubt, San Diego is definitely a smaller metro area than LA and it's not the adcom's fault that the host was unprepared technically. I also had really high expectations based on my experience with the Wharton info session I attended in LA. They really set the bar. I was glad the Kellogg session was local because if had I driven up to LA for that I would have been a little ticked off. However, I'm still really interested in Kellogg and I think it's probably a great program that just had a bad night. The alums that did attend had interesting stories to tell and seemed like they sincerely enjoyed their time at Kellogg.

Last week I spoke with a friend who is a Haas alum. Great conversation with lots of good tips for the application that I'm happy to share here. He served as a student on the adcom so he's got the experience to back it up. I think some of his advice is unique to Haas, but a lot of it is applicable to other programs as well.

1. Be sincere & be original. Don't say what you think they want to hear. It's boring and it dilutes who you really are, which is what they are after. The adcom is looking for diversity in the class so if you're trying to sound like someone else, you're not helping your case.

2. Be consistent. Make sure the story you tell in your essays aligns with the story told by your resume, recommendations, short answer questions, etc.

3. Short answer questions are very important! Take them seriously. Be creative and have fun with them. They are just as important as the long essay questions so give them the same level of attention and due diligence.

4. Give your recommenders plenty of lead time and do not be passive. Don't write the letter for them, but give them some guidance. Also, sincerity in the recs is just as important as in the rest of the app. Make sure your recommenders have an understanding of business school in general and the application process so they can write their letter in that context. (It should be much more professional than recs for undergrad and you need to set those expectations with your rec providers, he had a personal experience with this issue.)

5. Student involvement is a big deal at Haas so make sure to incorporate how you plan to get involved into your story.

Work should be getting back to normal next week. Today we make our final budget submission to corporate and then I get to breathe again. Woo-hoo! I had an excellent birthday Labor Day weekend and last weekend we had an awesome crab feast at the bay. I have several friends here from Maryland/Virginia so about 25 of us went in on getting 2 bushels of crabs (~150) overnighted from MD and we had a 3+ hour crab picking extravaganza last Saturday afternoon. Beer, crabs, & sunshine...it was perfect! Well, almost perfect. After winning their season opener at New Mexico, my Wazzu Cougars lost to Colorado in an ugly game. I was glad I was too busy with the crabs to watch it (although, I did Tivo it and watch some of it later). Tomorrow they play our neighbor university, the Idaho Vandals. WSU & UI are the two closest D-I public universities, separated by only ~8 miles. An old tradition is for the losing team to walk home after the game. I don't think my fellow Cougs will be making the walk this year.

Survivor returned last night. I Tivo'd it while I was at the Kellogg info session and watched it as soon as I got home. This season is battle of the sexes and the ladies won it last night. Go team! How much would it suck to be the first person voted off one of these shows? Actually, it would be embarrassing, but then you'd get to spend the rest of the time on a 35 day vacation in paradise...that might be even better than staying in the game, except for the million bucks, of course!

Tonight I've got a date with the boyfriend, we're going to do the traditional dinner & a movie. Tomorrow, the girl that I mentor and I will be participating in Hands On San Diego and volunteering for Meals on Wheels. Should be fun. Other than that, it will be a weekend filled with football & b-school apps.

College football is back!

This is going to be an awesome weekend. Holiday on Monday, birthday on Sunday, and countless hours of college football on Saturday, but it will start with a bang tonight. My beloved Wazzu Cougars kick off their season tonight at New Mexico (check out ESPN at 8 ET/5 PT). I'm so excited I can hardly stand it. I don't know how I'm going to stay focused at work today, but I've got a ton of work to keep me busy and have no intentions of coming in to work this weekend so I need to bust tail.

Happy 3-Day Weekend to All!



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