I Am In…Now How Do I Pay for It? Post 1 of 8

Like every other admit in recent B-school history, I have begun to seriously fret about my finances and wonder how on earth I plan to PAY for my MBA (it doesn’t help that this is the third question everyone asks me after I tell them I got in, right after “So does that mean you are moving to New York?” and “Is your boyfriend moving there..what is the deal there?”).

Columbia Here I Come!

I haven’t provided an update in a long time and I have A LOT to share!

Columbia Interview

My Columbia Interview went fantastic.  I really liked my interviewer and the conversation was very casual and I had a great time.  The best part of the interview was that I got to hear all about his experience before, during and after his MBA.  All in all, it lasted about an hour and a half and I never got nervous or tripped up on any of his questions.  He took a little while to submit the interview feedback, which made me super nervous, but that is okay.  I think Clear Admit’s section on Columbia interview questions ended up being all I needed to prepare.  I highly recommend checking it out if you have an upcoming Columbia interview.

Another Application Update and Interview Questions Galore!

Application Updates – Earlier this week I found out that I have been invited to interview at Wharton!  Also, I completed my Columbia interview and feel pretty good about it.  I am crossing my fingers that I get a positive response soon but trying to not get my hopes up too high in case the final decision is not in my favor…

To celebrate, I am posting all the interview questions that I have collected from all corners of the internet!

• Why are you interested in an MBA?
• Why are you interested in our school?
• Tell me a little about yourself
• Walk me through your resume
• Discuss a time when you were a leader
• What are your strengths
• What are your weaknesses
• What kind of instrument would you be and why?
• Why should we accept you?
• What are your short term career goals?

Application Updates – Harvard and Columbia News

It has been quite a couple of weeks!   I kept meaning to get a post up with my MBA Application updates, but wasn’t able to until today.   Here are my MBA updates (in chronological order):

10/9 – 10/11

As a lot of you know, after submitting MBA applications the waiting game begins.   The first possible day I could have heard any news on my MBA applications was 10/9,  which is the first day that Harvard releases their interview invitations.   The admissions blog is very clear; the first batch is released at noon on 10/9 and the second batch of invites are released at noon on 10/16.  At 12:30 on 10/9 I checked my inbox…nothing from Harvard.  I continued checking my inbox every hour on the hour…still nothing.   I started to get anxious and I asked myself all of the questions most people who were hoping for an invite were asking themselves, “did I mess something up on my application?”,  “was my profile not as strong as I had hoped?”, and most importantly, “how does this bode for my other applications?”.

All Three Round 1 Applications Are In!

Well, it has been a long road and today I completed my third and final Round 1 application.  I am both tired and excited.  Even though I (hopefully) have at least one interview ahead of me, I feel like I am at the finish line.  I am not really sure what will happen next, whether I will get an interview or be accepted into any of my target programs, but at least I know that I tried my absolute hardest and I can be proud of that.   I have learned so much through this process and a lot has changed since I started my MBA journey.  Today, I would like to take a moment to reflect…

What If I get an Interview?

Just a few hours ago, I submitted my Wharton MBA application.  I am over a week ahead of the deadline and I am so happy that I did not wait until the last minute.  I feel pretty good about the application and was very happy to have caught a last minute typo (eeeek!!).  This gives me all of next week to tweak my Columbia essays.  Two down, one to go for Round 1!

Application Short Answer Paranoia and Turning a Corner with Essays

Short Answer Paranoia:

I began really filling out my applications for Harvard, Wharton and Columbia last week and skipped over the short answer questions.  A big piece of my MBA to-do list today was to fill them in.  That is when I started to freak out a little.   Who would have thought a 50 word response to why I left an employer or a 200 character summary of my biggest challenge during a past job would cause me so much stress…and take SO MUCH time.  Yeesh!  How much importance are put on answers here?  They don’t really give you much space to mess up, but after laboring over essays for weeks and weeks and tweaking my resume over and over again, every little word seems incredibly important.

Update on all things MBA

Progress on my MBA Action Plan:

Applications:  Making good progress against my goals.  I have the applications essentially filled out and my Wharton essays complete and uploaded into the application.  

Columbia Campus Visit Recap

It has been a couple weeks, but I wanted to share the experience I had during my campus visit and info session at Columbia.  First,  I have to say that it was night and day vs. the campus visit I had at Wharton.  

Application Strategizing…Is Just So Difficult!

In my post where I narrowed down my top 5, I came up with the following list (in order of preference based on my criteria):

1. Harvard (a long shot for me), with a score of 90%
2. Wharton, with a score of 67.5%
3. Stanford & Booth, tied with a score of 45%
4. Columbia coming in 5th with a score of 42.5%

As I am attempting to get my applications together and this whole process is feeling a lot more “real” to me now (i.e. the idea of moving/not moving) and I am getting a better feel for the schools, I am starting to rethink the order of my preference (and some schools altogether).

Harvard:  My thinking on Harvard hasn’t changed.  It is a great school and I would be incredibly fortunate if I could actually get accepted.  But I must start being realistic on my chances of acceptance if I am going to have a successful B-school strategy.  Just directionally and based on research I have done about the school, I would place my chances at 20% to get an interview and 5-10% to get accepted.  I have decent stats, but with such a competitive group of applicants, I need to be realistic.

Stanford:  Time for a reality check here too.  I have Stanford and Booth tied for #3 based on my criteria.  When I really think about moving across the country for two years, I don’t think I could do it.  I actually think Northern CA is gorgeous, but I am in a pretty serious relationship here on the East Coast and don’t think thousands of miles will do anything positive for it or me.  Also, my chances of getting into Stanford are slimmer than Harvard (from everything I have read, they put a higher emphasis on stats and look for a certain type of applicant – which I don’t think I am).  So with it not being so high on my list and my very slim chances of getting in, I have decided that it is not worth the time and effort of doing the application.  Exit stage left, Stanford.

Booth:  Booth, according to my criteria and with Stanford dropping off the list now occupies the sole #3 spot…or does it?  I think Chicago is great and I actually have some family there which would be nice if I have to move.  However, the weather is terrible and University of Chicago does not have the same name recognition here on the East Coast as it does in the Mid-West.

Wharton:  UPenn is located right where I live, only a short 10 minute cab ride/bus ride away.   That is a good thing…and a bad thing.  It is great to save money but the more I think about the experience I want to have over my two years in B-School, the more I realize that I am totally drinking the kool-aid and really WANT it to be transformational.  I don’t know if that is possible if I stay in the city I currently live.  I think it could seriously hinder some important aspects of getting an MBA (like the networking).  If I have all my current friends and my boyfriend to fall back on, will that hinder my ability to be a part of the larger Wharton community?

Columbia:  Columbia is lower in the rankings than UPenn but rankings are not everything.  Also, Columbia is in NYC.  NYC is a place of a lot of great job opportunities and Columbia has amazing name recognition there.   It is also a little under 2 hours away from Philly and my boyfriend has to travel there a lot for work.   Meaning, that it is close enough where I don’t think it will hinder my relationship but far enough where I will really be able to throw myself into the Columbia community.  Also, New York is a place that I always wanted to live or work in for at least a couple years of my life.  I love big cities and although there are a lot of things I love about Philly, it is really a small big city.  The two big drawbacks here is that room & board is going to be A LOT more expensive and the base salary at graduation is less than Wharton.    Regardless, I think Columbia has really moved up the list for me and, depending on how the two years at Columbia go, I could even see myself working in NYC after graduation.  I have a campus/class visit scheduled for July, but bearing a really bad experience, I am thinking that Columbia is actually starting to be on par with Wharton in my list.  Maybe even slightly ahead.

So now it seems like my top 5 list looks like this:

1. Harvard
2. Wharton & Columbia (tied-ish)
3. Booth

Which brings me to my next dilemma…If Wharton and Columbia are “tied” (or even if Columbia pulls slightly ahead), should I pursue the Early Decision Columbia application route?  What if I do and the off chance that I get accepted into Harvard happens?  I am going to do some more research, but I am starting to get very antsy about this decision.  It would increase my chances of acceptance significantly, but I think I really need to be honest about what my #1 and #2 are and my chances at Harvard.   Ugh…I hate possibly life changing decisions!  Hopefully, it will all become clear after the campus visit!!