The Reality of Business School

So I guess it finally hit me that I am going to business school. It started while I was on vacation, I got denied from the one school I was on the waiting list for and I received my class schedule. That was followed by my cohort assignment. I met the 65 people I will be spending the next year with taking classes. This was followed by the final sprint to finish packing my stuff. I have now moved and have setup my new home.
Well the reality has set in, am I ready to go back to school? ready to go from the grind of working to the grind of school. I have two weeks to explore my new city, before I jump into the world of orientation and all that entails.

Back from Vacation Ready for School

So I just got back from my summer vacation and after the jet lag wears off I will be ready for school. In 5 days I am leaving for DC. Since I already have a place to live, it a much more relaxed move.  I just need to get there and get my sea legs so that I know what I will be working and try to setup everything I will need to have a successful start to the school year.

I am also eager to start doing some informational interviews so that I can start the year with a laser focus on the industries I am interested in. I have decided to take an approach where I will tap my own network first and then slowly expand out to one and two degrees of separation. Hopefully by the time orientation starts I will be able to take what I love and find the exact career I could do it in.

Okay my jet lag is kicking in but will post for later. Hope everybody is having a safe summer.

Tip for Reapplication

So, the first time I applied to grad schools I got shut out, 0 for 5. So here are some tips I have about the reapplication process.

• One Minute Gut Check- Do the one minute gut check to make sure you really want to go thru the entire process again. It should only take a minute and if afterwards so you say its still for you, then go into it gung ho
• Review your letters of recommendation- I was only able to review one of my recommenders but after reading the letter I soon realized that they weren’t doing that great of a job, so I cut them for the reapplication process
• Expand your school search, maybe there is a school that you think is a diamond in the rough, or a place which may not have a good program, but you know if you hustle in the city you can make the connections you need for the career you want.  Give it a shot and try to get in.
• Re-categorize your school-Instead of applying to all dream schools, its time to apply to a  safety school. So I would say 1 dream school, 2 fighting chance schools and 1 safetyschool.
• Start on the essays now- Hopefully your not worried about the GMAT anymore so start on the essays now. It could be as simple as pulling last year’s essays and working on those. Schools don’t really change their essay prompts too much
• Create a one pager- For all your recommenders, making sure each recommender is hitting on a different part of your profile. Its kind of like a boxing batch, your stepping up with the first punch, and your recommenders are the second punch. Don’t let all the recommenders write about the same thing.
• Expand the people who good be recommenders- I started using coworkers and people I knew who would take the time to write good recos, I think it helped
• Talk to current students. Just go to the clubs website and start e-mailing presidents of clubs you would be interested in. Just one correspondence could provide a pivotal paragraph for your essays
• Write outside of your comfort zone. So my sister was given the writing genes, and I wasnt. But I feel that the one or two paragraphs I wrote out of my comfortable writing style really helped me find my voice in my essays (and also is a reason I am doing this blog)
• Find recommenders who don’t know and don’t know the process. Mostly people may not give this advice, but it helps in the fact that they don’t have preconceived thoughts on what should be in essays, they can provide good feedback.
• Don’t give up because persistence is the key ” Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘Press On’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.” (Calvin Coolidge)

Topics

Hi Everybody who reads this.
So I will be on vacation next week, but if you guys have any topics you want me to write about then leave a note in my comments section. I will def write about it as a filler until my program starts.

Waiting List

So I am still on the waitlist list for one of my schools. Yes I know the school year starts in less than 2 months. But yea thats the way the cookie crumbles some times. Tomorrow should be a big day in finding out details, so everybody please keep your fingers crossed. I am nervous as I have bags and ready to go to school A, but still want to know whatever happens with School B.

Hopefully something good will come soon.

MBA Math Online

As a non business, non engineering, and all in all a non-math guy, I feel that the online math school my program has put me into is a great help. Its been almost 6 years since I have done any really hard math on a daily basis. Sure splitting up bar tabs, and restaurants bills gave me some practice its still been awhile before I have done anything substantive.

Online Math is great, its a voice that narratives you thru module which last for about 10-20 minutes. Then there is a post test along with some sample problems.  Most of the problems you can check you work in excel which is nice. Though I still dont know why Excel is calculating covariance incorrectly. If somebody knows that one and wants to let me know I would really appreciate it.

I should be done with statistics today, and then will work on finance this week. Those are the two required modules and then I only have Econ, accounting, and excel left.  This should put me in good shape for to sign up for Math Bootcamp at the beginning of the term.

So for all you non quant people out there, rest assured most MBA programs will make sure your prepared for the math rigor.

Lists Lists Lists

So school is starting in the fall and I have lists everywhere. Hopefully this is not an omen on how the next two years of my life will be. My lists includes, things to get ready before leaving, people I need to talk to for career advice, the misc list, the packing list, and a lists that manages all my lists.

I think my stress level will go down once I know where I am living and I start the online math classes. This will really help me get back into school mode.

I also still need to give my notice at my job, hopefully I can do that next week

Advise for consulting who want an MBA

Hi Everybody,

So for the past 3 years I have been a consultant and somehow I was able to get into an MBA program after that experience. Looking back at it I realize that I might have taken the harder route to get in. This includes being denied from all schools my first time applying. So here are some advise  for those people who have embarked on a career in consulting or are about to.

• Pay attention to people who write your feedback forms, if somebody writes that well then those are the people you want writing your letter of recommendations.
• As much you want to try everything and do everything try to find a speciality. You want to be known for something because it will give you better materials to write your essays with.  When managers talk to you should have a tag associated with you. Be the data person, or the industry expert, or the numbers guy.
• Understand how you get ranked and who are the people on the call. Once you have identified the group of people who like you make sure you stay aligned with them and they will be on your call.  It will help when your up for promotion.
• Try to be able to link your projects together by a common theme, it will make essay writing easier.
• Even clients can write letters of recommendation so make sure you consider them as well.
• Do one thing excellently, dont try to do many things good. It makes it diffcult to write essays
• Dont worry if you cant work at a nonprofit, though it seems like it not everybody at a business school works in nonprofits
• Enjoy your time working with the young raw enthusiasm, it wont always be like that.

GMAT Tips Part 2

More GMAT  Tips-

-If your not practicing with the headphones then dont use them.

- Just tell yourself the guy next to you is not taking the GMAT. He is probably taking his bartenders test or driving test.

Computer for B-School

So for anybody heading to business school, there is a big question on what type of computer to get.

I decided to go with theDell XPS Studio 13

Here are the reasons I liked the computer:

• Light wait, at under 5 pounds its not going to be too heavy to carry around
• Its has character, after spending 4.5 years as a consultant I dont think I can look at another boring Thinkpad again
• LED screen- This new screen is supposed to be light and super clear. Its similar to the screens on the Macbook Pro Line
• Sadly I am going to quote the Microsoft Add- Its cheaper then a Mac. An equivalent Mac with the specs I got and the same terms on warranty would cost around $1500, I paid 1000. The difference is either going to my iphone fund, or less student debt. I better write a worksheet that does the work to figure that one out
• Sure Dell’s Customer service leaves a lot to be desired, but hey everything can’t be perfect
• I am not good at the whole dual booting, setting a virtual machine which I would need to do on a mac to get it running Windows, so I will just let the experts handle that.

You can actually go to Best Buy and physically hold the computer before ordering it. Its great and it has potential to be expanded later.