So since this summer I've been making excuses for not doing certain things - Something I normally don't do. It was all in an effort to get myself into business school. I am now done with the entire process and just waiting for accepts or dings.
It started this summer with my company sponsored Kaplan gmat course. This took up not only the 3 hours a week of class time, but determined to get a good score, I also studied most week nights and weekends. Sometimes I missed the few nice summer weekends we had this year, but it was supposed to be worth it. You must sacrifice to get things you want in life right?
Then after the course was over, I scheduled the exam and began gearing up my studies for that date, which scarily enough was Sept 11! Seeing the results of the exam, I was not overly impressed with my return on the time invested. I didn't do poorly but would have liked to do better. I didn't need a great score (ie 750) but a good score would have allowed me to write my own ticket to any school I wanted. That obviously did not happen, so the schools I was to apply to had been limited slightly.
I decided to apply to 3 schools - INSEAD in France, university of Texas in Austin, and rice university in Houston. Very different types of schools offering slightly different things. INSEAD - strong international focus, 1 year program, located near Paris, strong global reputation. UT - top 20 us business school, Austin period, study abroad opportunities, strong reputation with recruiters. Rice - top 50 us b school, in Houston (where I grew up), global business specialization.
In terms of application process, INSEAD was by far the most difficult. This may have been because it was the first one. It may have been because I only have myself 10 days to finish it all because I decided to plan a visit to NYC beforehand. Most likely it was because it required 8 essays. Over the course of the ten days running up to the December 5 deadline I spent an incredible amount of time writing essays, getting them reviewed (thank you so much to all involved in that process. You probably know far more about me than you would have cared to know but I must say your help was incredible and I could never thank you enough), rewriting essays, getting reviewed again, starting from scratch and writing them again. Many late nights were spent, a couple days off work, and numerous phone conversations with people I consider far more intelligent than I to help me along. The result - interview with INSEAD. Receiving this notice caused me much joy, but I was very surprised. INSEAD was my long shot school given my gmat score. My experience and essays must have been at least somewhat impressive.
I had 2 interviews, the first of which went well. A Canadian. We met at his offices in Mayfair and walked over to the nearest coffee shop. The interview was very conversational and he was very friendly. He asked the normal questions of why MBA, why now, why INSEAD, what do think the MBA will do for your long term goals, etc. He also asked about my medium term goals and we spoke about extra curriculars at the school. He was heavily involved in rugby and suggested that I do the same as the networking opportunities there were great. We had a few laughs and clicked on a personal level, which through my research of the INSEAD interview is very key. We ended with a thank you and nice to speak with you and I left the interview feeling good. That night things changed....
The second interview not so well. It was with an Englishman and he did not seem very happy with life...In short, he was not a very good advert for the school. When he described his past work experience, he mentioned 2 failed efforts after graduating and a 3rd that he is 'trying his luck at'. He was not even successful!
Apart from the fact that he barely skimmed over the most important questions to the process (why MBA/why INSEAD/work and personal experience) and focused more on philosophical questions - including the question, if you knew that if you gave the 100 pounds you were to spend on an ipod to a charity would save a life, and you didn't do it, what makes you any different than a murderer (Chinese riddle for you), the environment was entirely uncomfortable and unprofessional.
A few things i noticed: He drank a pint of alcoholic cider while only offering me water. we held the meeting in his home office. I sat on the couch and he in the desk chair giving him an immediate superior stance. He spent most of the night with his hands interlocked behind his head, leaning back in his chair. Most of the responses i gave were received as if he was uninterested and as if he just couldn't wait to ask the next question. From the beginning to the end of the interview he downplayed the importance of the interview saying "if i like you, that wont guarantee you acceptance and if i donut, that doesn't mean you will not get accepted into the school".This was the tone of the entire interview, including responses to every question. I'm not sure if he repeated this to calm me, but given everything else going on in the interview, my assumption is that he wanted to be in control of the situation. I left the interview completely confused, angry, and scared that this but held the cards to my future. Both interviews were last Monday and the more I think about it, the more confident I am in my prospect of being accepted, whether that is right or wrong remains to be seen...
The university of Texas application was next and was far easier to complete given the hard work with the INSEAD essays. UT required 3 + 1 optional essay. i completed this one just before Christmas so was able to enjoy the period with only the rice essays left. While in France snowboarding I received notification of a request for an interview, which happened yesterday. The interview went very well. We discussed the usual why MBA, why here, why now, etc, but was proposed with a few questions I did not expect: what do you think you do best and what do you expect to be the most difficult thing to deal with when at McCombs, apart from academics. I think I have pretty good answers...when I left the interview I felt fairly confident that I was going to be accepted but will find out in the next 2 weeks.
Last but not least was my rice application. This one was easy and difficult all at the same time, easy because it was only 3 essays and the topics could be translated from the first 2 applications, but difficult given all the hard work I had put in for the other two. I was just coming back from the holiday season which consisted of eating and drink lots, while working little so my motivation had all but disappeared. Luckily I gathered myself and got the essays done and submitted the application ahead of the Jan 14 deadline. A week later I was invited for a phone interview with a 2nd year student. This interview I was extremely nervous for as it was the first one I was going to do, but I was put at ease once the interviewer started. He was reading from a script. This meant the responses the were looking for were formulaic and as long as I could relate it to my background and experience, I was golden. So golden in fact that last week I received notification of acceptance into the Jones program for the class of 2010 with a 20K/year scholarship to boot!
Knowing that I will be in business school next year gives me a great relief and sense of accomplishment, but the next 2 weeks will tell if I will be able to make a decision on the prospect of multiple offers or take the only one that's offered me a place!! Wish me luck :-)
