It’s always a bit sad coming home from vacation, isn’t it? I was away for just about two weeks so I can’t complain that I didn’t get a good break, but a part of me is still wishing it didn’t have to end. On the plane ride home I had the strange coincidence of being seated next to someone who is pursuing a remarkably similar career direction to me. He is currently studying in Finland, in a program that they don’t call an MBA but is clearly the same thing, and his concentration is on corporate governance, which is an area that I am very interested in, albeit on the nonprofit side. I gave him my email address and told him to let me know where he ends up working. This world is so small that I wouldn’t be entirely surprised to run into him again in the future!

Anyway, I’m back now, and I was certainly happy to sleep in my own bed last night. I sent off the acceptance and resume for the Michigan interview invite when I got in last night and this morning a response was waiting for me. The bad news is that their requests for alumni interviewers are up 300% and so I have to interview with the admissions committee. Since I have to interview by November 21 and I don’t live anywhere near Michigan this means I will have to interview by phone. I think that this is a disadvantage, for me at least. It’s so much easier to have a nice chat with a person you have never met when you can see their face at the same time.

I’m not quite sure when to book it because I am going to be somewhat jetlagged this week. I’m thinking of making it Monday, which will give me time to recover and prepare. Of course, I’d really rather get it over with sooner so that I have less time to worry about it, but I think that it’s smarter to make sure I am awake for it.

Before I left I was too busy to post much, between the final push on my applications, getting ready for my trip, and clearing the decks at work, so here’s a quick recap. I submitted Columbia and Haas on Oct 28 just a few hours before I left. I ran into a small snag with Ross in getting my transcripts scanned, and I had to get my dad to prepare and upload the file for me. He put the transcripts on up October 30 (but I wasn’t able to check them) I did the submission from an internet cafe on October 31. I was a bit worried about that one, so the interview invitation came as a relief.

Despite weeks of planning, the last minute is always the last minute for me. I didn’t get the Haas “why MBA” essay up to 1000 words like I had planned. After struggling mightily to edit it down to 500 words for Michigan, it suddenly didn’t feel like I had that much more to say. Out of the 14 essays I submitted I would estimate that about 5 were great, and the rest were various shades of acceptable. By the end, I was so essayed out that doing final readings was probably a complete waste of time.

I have returned to the usual backlog of work, so I plan to let the MBA quest remain dormant for the next couple weeks, except of course for the Ross interview. After I’m feeling more caught up, I will need to address the question of R2. Hopefully I get a R1 acceptance early enough to save me and my reviewers this extra work, but they don’t guarantee this so I will have to be ready.

I would like to thank everybody who has sent me interview congratulations. It’s so nice to have a community to share this journey with!