Haas oh Haas~

It's been very quiet on Haas front~ Super Saturday is coming fast~ and I still haven't got that coveted interview invite. I kept going back to my folder and read and re-read my Haas application. The fact is, I still love every word of it. Ok, maybe not every word, but it's certainly one of my strongest applications. So I keep being optimistic as I wait, although the time is running out...

To those still waiting patiently for Haas invite out there, best of luck to all of us!

p.s DAK post will be coming soon~ just need to focus on HBS interview prep right now~

quiet on Haas front~

Haven't heard from Haas for awhile. The school has been especially good at communication before the break, but sort of stopped there after the New Year~ I remember the very first email they sent after my submission is that an confirmation email will be sent out within 4 weeks to confirm everything has been received for review. Well, I haven't got that yet.

I guess it must be really busy up there, with R1 interviews, decisions and R2 applications. I sympathize what adcom has to go through~ that's why I think Kellogg/HBS/Stanford's approach might be a better one. Focus on R1, decisions all sent out, and then start R2. HBS adcom even get a few weeks break between New Year and R2 deadline. Anyway, hope Haas will start moving soon on my R2 :)

Btw, I believe today is Haas' R1 Super Saturday, which is the interview day + open house for most applicants in the US. I have a friend interviewing today. So I wish her and all the R1 applicants good luck!

Technology is cool!

Inspired by fellow blogger madbubbles's new contact feature, I looked into Kontactr, a free service for blogger to add contact forms on their blogs...and it works great!

So now you can send me an email by clicking on that small contact me icon without needing to leave your email address as a comment! Isn't that great! For someone who doesn't enjoy sharing email address in public and is too lazy to manage multiple email accounts, this is the perfect solution!

Kudos to Kontactr! and madbubbles!

In the spirit of sharing the excitement about technologies, check out a Haas student's post on the Tech Crunchies Award and the actual award list. Have to say it's great to see Dropbox win! (it really helped me through these multi computer essay writing days)

Quiet Monday + The Power of Twitter

The new week began as I lay in bed, nervously opening up my gmail on my iPod Touch....and of course, it has been a quiet Monday~ again.

It seems like everything repeats itself. I am back at the waiting days for Wharton invite, except this time I am waiting for a phone call from Kellogg. Patience, this is what I need, I keep telling myself. Yet I still can't help but watch my pot constantly.

On the other hand, as I was casually browsing through my twitter feed tonight, I was quite shock to find that the Haas School twitted about my last blog. I have no idea how they monitor the million blogs out there (probably through google alert or something like that...) and how they dug up my humble note (really? my blog show up in google alert?). I feel honored but also a little scared at the same time. The power of search engine and twitter just makes everything so transparent these days! You gotta watch what you say (type)! On the bright side, I am sure the Haas tweet will draw more traffic to my blog tomorrow. Just Hope I will have some good news to share with all my readers soon!

The last note, I am back to square one of the essay writing process again. This time is for Stanford. This is the big one, I will try my best to suppress my urge to worry about R1 decisions and really do a good job on this one. With a 7% admission rate, I definitely need my best foot forward (and a sprinkle of luck perhaps ^_^)

Happy writing!

All about Haas

9pm PST, Nov 10, 3 hours before Haas R2 deadline, application submitted!

After some 3 weeks of unfocused essay writing, I finally finished the 7 essays of Haas application. Reading through the essays for the last time, I have to say I actually quite like how they all turned out. I think I am slowly getting a hand of tailoring stories to fit a particular school's essay questions and tweaking them to reflect its culture. However, Haas' large number of short answer and essay questions did give me quite a headache, especially when I am distracted by R1 decisions. One word of advice, folks, 250 short answer questions are as hard as those long essays. It can be even harder sometimes because you really need to be super concise in telling your message. So do plan enough time for those. The total word count (including optional essay) for the 7 essays is 3,000, definitely on the high end of the MBA application spectra.

I want to spend a little bit of time reflecting on what I learned about Haas and also fill in on my Haas trip which I promised to write about. The more I learned about Haas, the more I like the school. Partially because it has a truly collaborative culture, but mostly because of the school's philosophy on "leading through innovation". I highly recommend listening to Dean Rich Lyons' Podcast on this concept. I truly believe that it's what Haas is really about, aside from located in the natural brewing ground for innovation and all the entrepreneurial hype about the school.

My visit to Haas was quite pleasant, although I did not have too much time to interact with students. The 1st day of my visit I sat in a 4pm class on Creativity and Innovation during which I witnessed a lively discussion on the case of Google. I was quite impressed by the level of class participation, given that it's an elective class (mostly 2nd years) and it was the last case of the semester. Nobody really reached out to me in the class though as I sat in the back corner of the classroom, which I did not blame them given the stressful final time. If I am a busy 2nd year student stressed out about finals, I would probably not notice the quiet perspective student sitting in the back neither. The 2nd day I went back to the school to meet a student ambassador for lunch and the info session. The 1st year student who sat on a long table with a group of us in the faculty club was very honest with us about his Haas experience. He actually had a lot of good thing to say about Haas, and told us what he wanted to see improved as well. The thing that stuck with me most was he really appreciated how diverse students are in terms of career goals. That's my impression of the school as well comparing to some of the top schools I visited on the East Coast. The West is still the wild west, where anything can happen and dreams are being chased. And now you tell me why I like Haas :)

A side note, if you want to get more out of your Haas visit, I suggest attend one of the diversity events. I went to a one day Women's conference in 2006, definitely got more chances to interact with students. Class visit as I figured, can be a hit or miss. And you should never judge the school's academic environment/culture on ONE class visit. (for example, the worst class I sat in was at Wharton...and it possibly can be the worst class at Wharton...according to current students.)

Just a quick update on my status. I still haven't heard a word from Kellogg or MIT. I did have a false alarm today missing a withheld call with voice mail. Turned out it was my eye doctor....so the waiting game continues....gotta take a small break this weekend, and then back to the last leg of the application process, Stanford and HBS apps! and more nerve wrecking decision waiting time~ wish me luck! :)

and of course, good luck to all my readers and fellow MBA bloggers (google analytics tells me I am getting some 20 new visitors everyday! thanks to Linda's feature in accepted.com and other blogger links!)

No news is good news?

I did not know that this waiting process was going to take such a huge toll on my productivity. Since my instrument is broken in lab, I am sitting in front of my computer a lot doing data analysis and other stuff. I kept going back to gmatclub and business week forum to check the latest news for MIT Sloan and Kellogg applicants. Well, hearing other people's invites, admits and dings is not exactly calming. Surprisingly Kellogg sends out a fair amount of dings with admits in the first couple of days, so I guess no news is good news? Come on, let the phone ring before I get hit by an email! :)

Just now, I checked my email and a blue tagged email (I label all school communication with a blue "MBA application" tag in my gmail account) just came in, I swear my heart skipped a beat (since I was just writing not wanting to get an email from Kellogg). Turns out it's my recommendation confirmation from Haas, phew....

I've decided to close up my browser window for the online forums. They are not doing me any good and I am just losing precious time. Now I hope I have some lab work to do so I can step away from my desk~ oh, the waiting game~

What Can an MBA Applicant Do To Stand Out - From GSB's Derrick Bolton

Came across this video today and thought Derrick gave some great advice, not just for applying to GSB but also other schools. I resonate with the comment he made about very very few applicants have the experiences that are truly unique and impressive, most successful MBA applicants are those who have done "ordinary things extraordinarily well". That's what I have been telling people who asked me for b-school application advice. Do not try to impress adcom with your achievements, but really showcase how your experience reflects who you are, what kind of leader you are, what you believe in and what you aspire to do.

MBA PodTV also recently posted an episode on GSB and how to tackle GSB application with advice from Accepted.com founder Linda Abraham.

As for me, I just learned that Kellogg started releasing decisions last Friday. So now I can be super anxious next week waiting to hear from both MIT and Kellogg while trying to focusing on Haas application! Let December be a fruitful month!

R1 vs. R2

ClearAdmit had a poll recently on how do applicants feel about their R2 application process. I had a hard time choosing between "it's streamlined, much easier" and "it's still just as painful". In the end, I picked the first one although the entire R2 process is more like the latter.

The fact is, writing has become easier for R2 for sure, especially when you have 3 application worth of materials to cut and paste. But I feel that my creative juice has been zapped out through R1 and so was my energy and intense concentration. I found myself hard to focus on R2 apps when sitting in front of my computer and kept going back to the dreaded online forums during my writing period. I have been keeping track of the time I spent on preparing MBA applications since early April (research school counts too). And I am definitely spending less time on application these days. Hopefully I am just getting better at it and not sacrificing application quality. Considering the last two applications I will write are my "reach" schools, I probably should focus more and spend more time really fine-tuning my essays as much as I could. I look forward to when I finish my last application though, by then I can publish my beautiful time chart~ oh well, I am still a geek after all. :)

Back to Haas essay writing at Panera in Alameda. I am up here for a work training, so took sometime to visit Haas. I sat in a pretty good class yesterday and will be going back today at noon to have lunch with a student and attend the info session afterward. Will write a separate post about my visit. Btw, it's COLD outside, 47 degrees! I guess I am spoiled by SoCal weather....

Friday Night Essay Writing~~~

So it's Friday, and I just finished my Wharton interview two days ago~ I should be going out and doing something fun~ but I am in front of my computer pondering over my Haas essay ideas....didn't I tell you this is a lonnng journey?

Anyway, just want to share a few thoughts on my essay writing process, which, I believe it's a scientific process (that's the scientist in me speaking). Before I start drawing outlines for any essays, I look at the set as a whole and try to jot down hints about what the key qualities the school are looking for in their programs. True, a lot of times these qualities overlap for different schools, but what distinguish different schools are sometimes their emphasis on certain values/believes (Kellogg-teamwork, Haas-innovation, ect). Btw, this should be something you pay particular attention to when researching and selecting schools PRIOR to applying. The next thing I do, is actually going over to all the admission consultants websites and read their essay tips. This is especially useful at the beginning of the application cycle when you don't know where to start. After doing 3 R1 applications, I felt that essays tips became less helpful since sometimes I can predict what consultants tend to say now, but it's still a good exercise to get some different opinions on how to tackle the questions. A couple of sites provide particularly good advice.

Ask Precision Essay
MbaMission
Adam Markus: Graduate Admissions Guru

Then it's the selection of stories. I tend to map out the topics for each essay then start delving into the writing. This helps you put the pieces together and have an overall picture of your candidacy. The actual writing part...well, let's say it ain't easy and requires a lot of time and commitment. But if you got your themes right and overall strategy in-place, good essay is just a matter of time.

hope that helps~

back to topic mapping for Haas!

oh, and here is a fun car analogy of top MBA programs for your amusement.