Damn Cereals! Who needs those anyway?

Here comes my one and only ding. No love from Kellogg. Yes, I am disappointed, despite having been admitted to all other schools. Obviously my ego would have become even more inflated with an admit from Kellogg.

I am trying to tell myself that things would have become even more difficult with an admit from Kellogg - and that is obviously true - but still... having the luxury of choice is better than being dinged.

Interesting by the way, that Kellogg was the last application I turned in. Although I did begin with the Kellogg essays at the start of my essay writing (I read that in the Montauk book), I finished all other applications before going back over the Kellogg essays. So one would think that the Kellogg application was the one that I wrote with the most experience under my belt. Seems like this didn't really help my case.

Anyhow, this leaves me more time with friends in San Francisco when I fly over to Days at Haas. Now the question is whether to go to Haas or Tuck. Although I will pay Ross a visit also, just to see what I will be missing.

Good luck to all other Kellogg applicants waiting for a decision. I think Ding-season is over, so your admits should be on the way.

In at Tuck!

Okay, although I wasnt so sure about Tuck, they did admit me.

Well... this situation is getting increasingly difficult. However, I think Ross is now out of the game as Tuck is probably the better school when you compare the two.

Now, if Haas doesn't come around with some $$$ and Kellogg admits me, it will be between Tuck and Kellogg.

Although, I guess I should make this decision based on how I feel about the schools when I go to visit them in April. Admitted students week at Haas is 10-12 April, Tuck 18-20 of April. Haas wants a decision by the 15th. (they will have to extend that for me)

Kellogg's admit weekend coincides with Tuck's so that one is going to be difficult. I will have to visit one of the schools on a non-admit weekend day. Which will obviously make a big difference, I assume.

Aaaahh choices...if someone had told me 9 months ago I would have this choice, I would have seriously questioned his sanity.

Where would you guys go?

Obviously the best weather is to be found at Cal. Plus, they have the tech bonus and the Valley is around the corner. But they didnt give me any money. I think I got the money for the pretty strong GMAT score that is quite unusual for a candidate from my country. I think I would have gotten in at the schools that gave me one with a weaker GMAT score, but then they wouldnt have shelled out the cash. So passing up on those offers sort of feels like not taking full advantage of my score. Maybe I am wrong.

Tuck will be the school with the most tight-knit community. Plus they place very strongly in consulting, which is where I want to go. They actually have a better record than Haas in that aspect. And they have great skiing.

Kellogg is the only M7 school of the ones that I applied to and probably the one with the best brand name of all (especially in my home country). Plus, also a super-strong consulting placement record.

This is not an easy one.

Kellogg and Tuck interviewed, Berkeley postponed

Shortly before Christmas, I had my two interviews with Tuck and Kellogg. Both on the same day.

Although I was wondering if I would get myself into too much trouble doing two interviews in one day, it ended up being a relatively smooth ride as both alumni I talked to were incredibly friendly and made sure to hold the interview in a relaxed environment. (a cafe in both instances)

The Kellogg interview was rather short and about 50mins in time. We were chatting in our native languages about my previous work experience. It felt more like a conversation with someone interested in you, rather than a interview. This also holds true for my second interview that day. The alum was again very friendly, and took the first half hour to speak about Tuck, show me pictures of his class and professors and generally sell Tuck to me before I could even start selling myself. This really put me at ease. We ended up speaking for about an hour and a half with some classic questions on why MBA and why Tuck. However, he didnt ask me any particular hard questions.

I think both of these interviews went quite well, unless something happened that I am not quite aware of. However, I dont think so.

At the end of the day, I think for the international alumni it is also in their interest to sell the school to you as they profit from an extended alumni base in their home market. So, I think an interview really is a mix of selling the school to the applicant and vice versa.

My Berkeley interview of today had to be postponed one week until next week as the alum had a change of plans. Oh well, I hope that will be fine with the Haas AdComs, but I think it should.

Wish me luck! :)

Two interviews in One Day.

I am not kidding you. I will have my Kellogg alum interview this coming Friday around lunchtime and then my Tuck alum interview later in the afternoon.

Hey, that way I only have to suit up once. ;) Barney (of "How I met your Mother" fame) would of course not be happy. :)

At what point am I right now.

A few days until Christmas. Not much work to do at the office. They will kill the brand I have been marketing the last 12 months and things will change here. A lot. My boss left 8 weeks ago. There has been a better atmosphere at this company, I can tell you. I wish the MBA would begin earlier than fall 08. I cannot switch jobs right now for what would only be a few months, so I will be stuck here until the MBA begins.

And it will begin, because I got my first admit from IESE last week.

All the hard work put into the two GMAT exams I did this year, the TOEFL and the essays as well as the money spent has been worth it. Thank God. I wouldn't have known what to do if not.

Now I am hoping for successful interviews with the remaining schools: Kellogg, Tuck and Haas.

And in January, I hope to get accepted to a few more schools which would allow me to have a choice. Right now, I am leaning a little towards an American school, as I would like the real campus atmosphere of a US biz school. IESE is great, but it's only the business school - no University attached.

Also, I will have to look into financing this endeavour. This will be a tough one. Taking out a €80k loan? Wow. But I guess with my goal of getting into Consulting post-MBA it should be possible to pay back that loan in a decent amount of time.

more on interviews in the next post...