Growing and Shrinking

Today was a much better day than yesterday.

My interview with Georgetown was this afternoon and it went very smoothly. There were no tricky questions, I was well-prepared, and she seemed to really like me. In fact, I was doing some research on the net before leaving this morning and I found a mock interview on the business week site that had the exact same interviewer and questions, so I felt very comfortable with the entire interview. I even had some relevant questions ready for her.

In the evening I went to the Forte Foundation event. It was way better than the one on Sunday. There were better schools, a better panel and little extras that made it feel like they wanted us there such as a gift from Fidelity (the hosting location was their offices) and really good food (that I didn’t really touch except for a cookie that I should have left alone since I was already full). There was no food at the event yesterday, and it was a full day event. Not even something cheap like donuts!

I got there quite early since I was on foot and public transit, so I got to start talking to the schools a few minutes early… before the din became unbearable and the aisles too crowded to move. If I had one complaint it would be that the room was too small for the number of schools and people. At the beginning it looked great, but once the people arrived it was crowded and hot!

I had a number of good conversations with admissions officers and students at a few schools that I am interested in. Sadly, they all really want to encourage applications so none of them are willing to come out and suggest that their school may not be a good fit. Of course, they are not willing to indicate any concrete interest in my application either, so I get lots of general encouragement but little specific encouragement. It’s very frustrating.

One surprise this evening was the emergence (briefly) of MIT Sloan as a potential contender. I stopped at a couple of GMAT/Admissions consulting tables and had Sloan suggested both times so I stopped by the table and talked to an admissions officer. She sounded enthusiastic that they could support my non-profit aspirations, but when I examined the website after getting home this evening there is really no evidence of related courses or philosophy. I was planning to stop by the school tomorrow, but now I’m thinking that I won’t bother. My list keeps growing, I need to work on shrinking it, and I think that Sloan isn’t a good enough fit when there are schools out there that do non-profit so much more enthusiastically.

Tomorrow I have Columbia in the evening and then Wednesday I am visiting Yale. Since I’m skipping MIT, I will have a free day and perhaps even pop into the Museum of Fine Art for some touristing!

 

Finally here…

Yes, I am now in Boston! I have wandered around the city for the past couple of days and the first thing that I notice is how young this city is. It looks like everyone is a student… and an undergrad. My friend that I am staying with tells me that there are 95 post-secondary institutions in the Boston area!

I stopped in at Boston University’s management building on Friday and spoke with a second year student about the MBA program. It was quite interesting, but also a bit disappointingly general. I’m starting to think that all the schools say exactly the same things to prospective students. Or maybe we just ask the wrong questions?

Then I went to the MBA Tour today, hoping for my decision to be clarified… and no such luck. Again, the admissions officers all start to sound the same. “We evaluate each application holistically.” “Just be yourself.” “We’re looking for leadership and teamwork.” “We don’t like to call ourselves The Finance School. We specialize in general management.” “Our school has a great community feeling.” I kept having to check my schedule to see which school I was listening to. Honestly, there were virtually no differences!

On the way back to my friend’s house, I had the great idea that we should suggest that the admissions officers follow their own advice. Stories and examples to make it come alive. More details. Just like they read a zillion essays, we are reading a zillion websites and going to all these presentations. They need to make themselves unique and stand out from the crowd!

Hmm… Wonder how that suggestion would go over?

The other thing that bothered me about the event was that the admissions officers also seem very cold. Many of them don’t seem to like talking to students very much, and really gave short, sullen answers. In fact, if I was to choose my schools based on the admissions event, I would be skipping some bigger names and applying at a couple of no-names. Not that all of them were that bad, but I was surprised that there wasn’t much of a “recruiting feeling” there.

The good part about going was that I realized that I am starting to have a pretty complete picture of the MBA admissions process. Almost nothing they said surprised me. I have read through the websites of most of the schools I’m interested in at least 2-3 times, and I really know as much about the program as what they will say in an admissions event. The only thing that I’m still looking for is the alumni/student perspective, and there weren’t any alumni there today.

So my conclusion is that it’s time to get down to serious work on the essays. I’m starting to have a feel for what I need to put into them, and now it’s time to move that process along. I will give myself a few more days to mull over my final school choices, so that when I return to Calgary I will be going full steam on essays and recommendations!

 

HBS comes to tea

Okay, so there wasn’t really any tea, but the water sure hit the spot and the cookie that I picked up at the end was really good. Yes, tonight was the night that Harvard came to town. And what can I say about of the evening? Well, only that I’m mired in the bog of school selection again.

The live case method admissions event didn’t inspire me, nor the video which is available on the website and I had already seen, but the three local alumnis who came out to answer questions sure did. For one thing, they were all very confident and well spoken. I sense that two years of 2-3 cases per day is the underlying reason for that. I used to be a good speaker, and I feel that I have somewhat lost that, so the notion of rebuilding that skill seemed very appealing.

But even more important, these three really seemed to care (although they were occasionally exasperated by stupid questions, and afterwards one of them had the tendency to cut people down to size rather too frequently for my liking). They all spoke of wanting to help people preparing applications, and gave out an email address for this purpose, and were willing to stand around and chat right until the bitter end. (And I should know… I was the last one there, talking to one of them!)

There was also an encouraging word on financial aid. Things look good for Canadians, if you are willing to return to Canada, due to a large scholarship fund aimed at us. Of course, returning is a rather large condition when you consider how many of the opportunities we see will be in the States…

So now, I’m back to the I don’t know stage. And my friend that I had coffee with after figured that five apps was pushing it for my recommenders; she thought that four should be the max. How will I ever get my list down to just four?!?

And how will I ever get my laundry done and get packed and get my butt over to Boston in less than two days time? Life is full of such BIG questions!

 

March of the Recruiters

Up until now, things were quiet on the recruiting front. Based on my attendance at the Boston events, I was contacted by exactly three schools up until yesterday. But today, that changed dramatically. I had emails inviting me to interview or check them out at the MBA fairs from SEVEN schools today! Their email programs must have hit some key date or something. Sadly, I am not getting agressively recruited by any of the schools that I plan to apply to, so I can’t get too excited about this, but it’s still kind of neat to see that this sort of activity really does occur.

I’m leaving for Boston in exactly one week, so suddenly the time is starting to feel really short. After my great weekend, I have had a run of family emergencies that have swallowed this week up completely and I no longer feel ahead of the game. I’m even considering putting all my applications off until Round 2, just to be sure that I get good applications in. In other words, I’m definitely feeling the pressure.

But hopefully things are going to ease off for the next week so that I can do some good preparation. I want to build my case so that I’m ready to present it at the fairs with conviction. I think that I need to rehearse an “elevator speech” since there are bound to be dozens of other hopefuls in attendance. Come to think of it, can anyone tell me how large these events typically are??

 

HBS Admissions Event – preparations

HBS is having an admissions event in Calgary, where I live, just a couple of days before I go to Boston. The event is on September 11, which I would have thought is a date that many would avoid, and yet I am triple-booked that evening. Weird.

Anyway, there aren’t going to be very many top b-schools coming through Calgary – we aren’t really on their radar screen – so I know that I should grab this opportunity. I signed up yesterday and was sent a link to the case so that I can prepare.

It’s very interesting that they do their admissions event using the case method. I read over the case, and it made me think about the people they presented but also made me think about trying to view my own application objectively as a case. It’s so hard to do, because you are never objective about yourself, but I think there is great value in this approach. I am looking forward to this event as my first insight into the admissions process from the school’s representatives.

I also found this blog post on how case analysis works, so that I can get slightly better prepared for what is coming. Looks like it might be useful….