Two years have gone by fast...

I never thought I would return to this blog since I abandoned it so long ago. It is not that I dislike the idea of blogging now, it's just that once you leave something for too long, it almost feel wrong to come back, to disturb a piece of history.

Yet, I felt compelled to come back today. I just had dinner with a first year Kellogg student who has been my Kellogg-buddy since his admission days. I mentioned I used to blog. Surprisingly enough, he had followed my blog during his applicant days. I did not know that after I left the blog, it was still making some sort of influence on people.

Now, after almost two years at Kellogg, I came back to where everything started. Reviewing my old posts triggered all kinds of feelings: nostalgia, a sense of achievement and satisfaction, a sense of peace and determination. It's funny to look at my old DAK post, because just last weekend, I was hosting DAK I as a section leader. I was standing at the podium where my old DAK leaders did. How time flies.

Many things have changed during the two years, yet many things have not. I have grown yet I am still the same DreamChaser determined to define my success and happiness in life.

Maybe it is a good time to come back to this blog, to write something about my past two years and give this blog an official closure.

Just maybe.

Winter on Northwestern Campus, overlooking Lake Michigan, with downtown Chicago in the distance

BoB Awards

I was genuinely surprised this morning when I saw the ClearAdmit tweet about the winners of their annual Best of Blogging Contest. I won? really? seriously? I felt a little embarrassed since I haven't posted anything since early April...not to mention all the wonderful blogs out there in the MBA blogsphere. I admire the focused content of MadBubbles, the sleek design of a beautiful mind, the extremely informative blog of Hari's. How on earth did I win among all those dedicated and talented bloggers~

Interestingly, my post "Don’t Let [the B-School] Application Defeat/Define You" won the best single post. I think for many reasons, this message really resonated with us MBA applicants and probably won me the BoB award in the end. So thank you all for reading my humble post (and voting for me). I am just glad that some folks took it to heart because I really believe that neither the application process nor the result define who we are.

I think getting this award is a really good thing. It gave me the extra motivation to keep blogging at just the right time. As life becomes tedious again with all the moving to school preparation, I needed the extra push to produce meaningful posts. And this award gives me just that :)

So congrats to all the bloggers! and a big shout out to Orlando, a fellow Kellogger (do they actually call it that? I will find out this fall I guess~ ) who won the student blogging award and whose blog is of top, top quality. Also, if you haven't noticed, there is quite a large number of Kellogg bloggers on the list, which, in some way, demonstrated the Kellogg community/sharing culture. Or, as my friend puts it, we are just a chatty bunch :)

Somewhere in between

I haven't posted much this month. What happened? Hum, it seems that time just flied by when you don't have all the business school applications worries. Although I did receive a rejection sometime in between, but after all these months, I have developed high immunity for rejections, so I smiled and moved on. Also, sometime in the past month, I bought my ticket to go home, submitted my letter of resignation, and had a panic reaction about all the stuff I need to sell and pack-up before quitting and heading home in June. I can't believe my So-Cal life is coming to an end in two months.

Yet I look forward to this summer. Dealing with visa stuff will not be fun, but having my boyfriend coming to visit for the first time will surely be an exciting experience. Plus, I will be helping my mom develop and expand her business. This woman is the inspiration of my life. She courageously started a totally unrelated second career after she retired and she is the most energetic 60 year old lady I've ever seen. After spending less than 3 months total at home for the past 8 years. I am glad I will have full two months with my parents before my new chapter in life.

So here I am, somewhere in between my soon-ending chapter in So-Cal and my new exciting 2 year bschool adventure, with so much to do yet so much to expect and dream about.

Dare I say that I am still waiting for R2 results...this extremely long journey is finally coming to the end...one more week to go till I can tell people "yes, this is where I be going for sure!". :)

The forever Mac and PC debate

image taken from http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~jshersh/

My poll on "Mac vs. Pc" has been interesting during the past days. The competition started out neck to neck in the first few days, occasionally one took a 1 vote lead, but the other always quickly caught up. Yesterday, Mac was leading by a solid 3 votes and seemed to be eying for the triumphant finish. But guess what, it's back to 50:50 again!

I am actually very interested in your opinion on this. Is a MacBook or a PC laptop better for b-school students? Let me give you a little bit of background. I am long overdue for a laptop. My current HP pavilion is 7 years old. The hard-drive had been swapped out and so was the powerjac. It runs as slow as surfing online on a dail-up. And some of the side buttons haven't been working for long time. As a long time PC user, I am ready for something new, refreshing, reliable and fast. The main problem I have with PC is the windows system. It runs super fast when it's new, but the speed usually drops pretty significantly once you start using it for awhile and run more programs. Recently my two year old windows mobile system on my cell phone started acting up strangely, and I don't even surf the web or use any programs other than sending text messages on my cell phone!

Of course I see the upside of buying a PC for b-school. With all the excel and statistics programs that we are supposed to use in b-school, PC is probably a better choice for compatibility reason. Plus I do have a tiny bit of knowledge about how to troubleshoot a PC gone haywire~ (although sometimes that becomes the problem...).

But MacBook is so tempting! From what I heard, it's just a superior operating system, in addition to all the "cool" features that come with it. I can see myself picking up making video projects in school if I have a MacBook. After all, having a "fun" machine might just take away a little bit of the boringness navigating through spreadsheets :)

And then there is the price difference. I have been used to using large screens and am a little hesitant about a 13" MacBook. The 15" MacBook though, drives the price gap bigger between my two options.

So what's your opinion? I would love to hear from a converted Mac user about their first-hand experiences comparing the two operating systems. I am more concerned about mid to long-term performance. Given that I will be broke after bschool, I am not looking to buy another laptop anytime soon after this purchase! Thanks in advance guys! :)

I hear ya! (and free service!)

After two weeks of attending various social activities and catching up with a number of friends, I am back to the blogging world! My poll has ended and looks like the majority of you (who voted) wanted to see some advice on interview prep. Sounds about right as most R2 applicants wrap up their applications and moving into the anxious interview waiting phase. I will write up a post about that this weekend to serve my dear readers. I am also glad to learn that a few of you care about my random thoughts on life~ I am definitely gonna keep writing those, for I think life is more than just b-school and applications. And I encourage b-school applicants to step out of the ever addicting forums once in awhile and pick up a good book or read the international section or the cultural section of the news. I think developing a broad perspective from the everyday life outside of the business world can do business people a lot of good. And I hope my blog can help convey this idea. As this application cycle finishes up, I will move away from writing about applications and focus more on life before b-school, the b-school experience, my thoughts throughout this process among other random things. That's what's in store for you. :)

On the application front, nothing much has happened recently. My Haas application went under review, and hopefully interview invites start coming out soon. MIT result will come out this Monday, I hope I will get to visit Boston in the Winter! (it's 15 degree there today according to my co-worker....) Lots of schools' R1 decisions were out the past few weeks, congrats to those who got those exhilarating calls! For those who didn't get the result they wanted, don't lose hope as I always say. And really, I don't think application results determine who you are and your future. (I've recently encountered a few so-called H/S/W admits on a forum who I think I would never like or associate with in b-school, so there you go~ school's reputation/elite status does not necessary guarantee the quality of people)

The last thing I want to mention is that I realize that some applicants are still applying for R3 or Jan round of a few schools. I want to offer my free service of essay review to those who want a second pair of eyes before sending off those essays. I can also help provide some feedback for those who unfortunately didn't make it this app season, sort of like a "ding report". Please do not ask me why you didn't get into MIT when you have an offer from Haas. There is a level of randomness/mystery in the admission process which nobody understands. Why I am doing this? Because I got free help from people, some who I only met once or never met, so I want to give back to the community. Do I want to become an admission consultant? Not really, one I think it's a crowded space, two I did it without spending a penny on consultant and I think you can too. Will post more on this later as I slowly move to my application advice posts.

So hit me up if you need some extra help. You know how to contact me. Have a good weekend!

Asia's rise - past and future

Came across this awesome TED presentation by Hans Rosling on an ESADE student's blog. I suggest anyone who is interested in India and China's development take a look at it. As many economists agree, Asia is the future. This presentation can give you some perspective on its past (well, focused on India and China) and its future through Hans ingenious presentation. This is one of the most engaging presentation I've seen for a long time. I guarantee it will be 20 minutes well spent!

What do you think of the future of these two giants? and the new world order? in both economic and political terms? Discussions are welcomed! (I know there are a lot of Indian MBA applicants out there reading my blog, so chime in :)

Done Done Done!

Update: I put a survey on the right to get some advice on what you want to see on my blogs. Please vote if you follow my blog :) always feel free to send me a note to suggest other content too!
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Five minutes ago I submitted my last b-school application! I can proudly say that I am officially done with this stressful and ever-lasting process! Hurray!!!!

Outside of the window, the scary storm has stopped (well, scary by LA standard...) and the sun came out! What a great day!

Now I can start thinking about all the things I want to do but put on hold for the past 6 month. I already have 3 trips lined up for the next two months. Snowboarding, Kellogg's DAK and a birthday trip my bf planned for me last year! Just hope I have enough vacations to cover all those! And here are a few things that are on my to-do list.

1. Decide whether to run the 10k or the half-marathon in March and train for it! Finally getting back in my running routine and getting my muscles and immune system back!

2. Schedule hang-out times with my dear friends who have been ignored by me for awhile. Already have several events lined up! can't wait to catch up!

3. Read the long list of books that I have been wanting to read! Will write a seperate post on that.

4. Explore LA with bf and spend as much time with him as possible. Despite having lived here for so many years, I still have so many things that I haven't done! Griffith park observatory, wine tasting in Malibu, hiking on Channel islands, just to name a few. Let alone all the great restaurants and hole in the wall eateries that I haven't experienced. I want to do all these things with my dearest bf who I will definitely miss a lot while away for school.

5. Write blog posts on my advice on b-school applications. I want to share my experiences and lessons learned and help you, my dear readers, to succeed in your process. So send me suggestions on what you want to see on this blog.

6. Basically live life to the fullest! :)

The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs

We all know the basic rules about how to make a great presentation. But it's always incredibly hard to actually stick to it in real life. So this kind of reminder always help! Enjoy!

The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs

View more presentations from Carmine Gallo.

Last weekend writing b-school app!

While I am still sitting in front of my computer, I am leaping for joy inside. I have been waiting for this day since I started the app process back in July. Last weekend of essay writing, of not being able to go out, of not embracing the gorgeous weather~

I start to think about things I want to do after this weekend. My list is already long.

3 more days, and I can't wait to be done.

Google pulling out of China?

Just read this news, to be honest, it was a shocker. Will post more thoughts later.

As the world learned about Google's decision to pull out of China (if they don't come to agreement with Chinese government on un-censoring Google search engines) and reacted in all sorts of different ways (most of them expressing a notion of surprise), I finally got my thoughts together and came back to write it down here.

What do I think? Well, let me start with what do I feel. I discovered Google while I was still in high school in China and have been using it since. It was love at first sight. The simplistic design, the speed and the superior performance at searching relevant information have made me a royal user since day one. Although I haven't got many chances to use google.cn (as it was just google.com before Google entered China), I have no doubt that despite the fact that google does not hold the majority of the search market in China, it has given Chinese users tons of information and awesome free services over the past four years. So hearing that Google is leaving, is saddening, especially for Chinese Internet users.

On the other hand, I admire what Google did, although I still don't understand the real reasons behind their decision. Google has done something no other major US corporation has done before, which is to challenge the Chinese government, on an extremely sensitive issue, and in such a public way. For those who are not familiar with China and the way things are done there, the government-business relationship can make or break a company, any company wishing to do business in China. And the second key point is, while Chinese government is very open on the economic front, it certainly doesn't tolerate anything that interfere with how they rule the country. So even though Google didn't say for sure they are leaving, to make a statement like that in a blog~ without talking with the Chinese government before, is an indication that they are ready to pack up and leave. I would be very surprised if Chinese government works something out with Google regarding censorship.

What I don't understand, is the business rationale behind this decision. It is true that doing business in China was frustrating for Google and dealing with Chinese government doesn't help with Google's global (or mostly Western) image. But just as one blogger asked "Will Google make the decision to leave if its market share in China is 70% rather than 30%?". What about the potentially huge smartphone market that just started to gain momentum in China? With Nexus coming out, is Google really willing to give up all that potential? Does it really come down to their adherence to their motto "do no evil"? or is it an act of well thought-out strategic plan?

The bottom line is, I hate to see Google leave. If I am in one of the ethics class in b-school, I will make an argument that Google has made before, that the benefits of doing business in China outweighs the compromises. This is not just from a business point of view, but also from the heart of a Chinese person who really hope the best for her home country. Yes it's not ideal that Chinese can't search about the Tiananmen Square incident or investigate for themselves if Dalai Lama is good or evil, but the presence of Google still brings the wealth of the world's information and knowledge to Chinese citizens. And that presence can help China advance, both economically and socially, slowly but surely. And now with Google leaving, we are left with Baidu, a great local search engine for gossips and social news, but by no way comparable to Google at finding information for English searches (the intellectuals and business people will really hate this....). Plus Baidu has tight relationship with the government, so there goes the hope of changing the freedom of speech in China.

In conclusion, I want to share a few articles on this story (thanks Hari for one of the article). Take a look yourself, and tell me what you think of this whole story. I think this is the kind of discussion that I will find particularly invigorating in bschool.

The official Google blog announcement

Reuter's article, more on the political implication, very interesting perspective
U.S., Google and China square off over Internet

TechCrunch Artile, very good insights

A Tsinghua Professor (American)'s blog post, offered some new development on the story and his perspective (thanks Hari)

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)

I am restless...

It's 75 degrees outside. Sunshine, blue sky, such a beautiful winter day (well, considering the temperature, I am not sure if it qualifies as a winter day).

I am sitting in the poorly lit study room, typing away my last set of essays. Oh I hate to be inside on such a nice day!

It's finally coming to an end, this strenuous essay writing process that seemed to last forever. After Jan 18th, I will be done and I just can't wait for that day to come!

Last week as I was driving down the scenic route (to avoid traffic) to my MIT interview, I couldn't help but notice the beauty around me. The gorgeous canyons, the blueish green ocean, the golden beach and the birds flying along the water. I know I am really going to miss all of this when I finally have to pack up and head to a different city. It was at that moment, driving through the canyons with breathtaking views, that I realized that I have taken all this city has given to me for granted for so long. There was a saying from a TV show that I recently saw, "so many of us focus so much on the goal ahead of us that we forget what's important is right next to us". So I made a mental note that I am going to start appreciating the wonderful people and things around me and make the most of my life here for the rest of my time before bschool. After all, this city has really become my 2nd hometown.

MIT Interview + the Power of Social Media! (Again!)

So I had my MIT interview today. I think it went pretty well considering that I found nearly all the BEI questions I could find on clearadmit and accept.com and thought of no less than eight stories to answer them...I think I only ended up using 3 or 4. Well, I tend to over-prep for interviews...but as I always say, over-prepping is better than under-prepared. As usual, I will post my interview report after MIT decision, but I will remember to take notes today so that I don't forget everything :P

There was a surprising moment in my interview, when my interviewer told me that MIT Sloan's Admissions Director Rod Garcia knew of my blog and liked it. That was a total shocker. Although I knew b-schools admissions read applicant blogs (see how I found out Haas re-tweeted my blogpost), I never imagined they actually spend the time to put the blog with the face. So much for keeping my blog anonymous :)

While I feel flattered that b-school admission officers find my words and thoughts interesting, I am again overwhelmed by the power of social media. It's really true that you can't hide your identity in the world of Internet and everything you write/post will forever be a search-able reference to who you are (and perhaps be added to your b-school application~) . It again shows that you need to stay true to yourself in every aspects of life, whether online or not. It's also a rule of life in my mind. hum~ I just hope my blog adds points to my MIT application :)

Welcome to the New Decade!

After a sickening (literally, in every sense) new year's trip to SF, I am back at my desk and churning through the last bits of my Stanford essays, with a running nose.

The new decade has finally came. This past 10 years has come and gone so fast~~~I still remember in 2000 I was imagining what kind of crazy thing I would be doing in 2010. Well, actually I still remember in 1990 thinking ahead into 2000 and feeling I would be such a grown up at the age of 16....time flies....

So it's about time to think ahead into 2020. First of all, a little side track. I am just very curious about how they are going to make those ridiculously looking new year's glasses for 2020. I was pondering this question for 2010, but the innovative human race always pull it off~beautifully or stupidly, that's your call.


Ok, back to looking ahead the next 10 years. It's kind of exciting to think that I have NO IDEA what the future holds for me. Sure, I have many goals but b-school can lead to many things which I can't imagine at this point. It's sort of exhilarating. On the non-career side, I think the picture is a little clearer and that happy family image hopefully will provide me with the stability I need in my life. I believe in the art of balance, between the predictable and the unpredictable, and between work and life. So I think I am quite content with my fuzzy yet holding-a-shape 10 year outlook, It's like driving in the fog, you don't know what the destination would look like, but you know the road is always underneath you (as supposed to walking and getting lost in the woods in the fog~).

Welcome to the new decade everyone, may it be a new exciting chapter of your life! (as always, ending my random thoughts abruptly~ back to essay writing!)

Beautiful B-School Photo Contest

Like many of my fellow MBA bloggers, I was invited to become a judge for accept.com's Beautiful B-School Photo Contest. As an armature photographer (in high school) who always wanted to pick up her old-time hobby, I think this is a really fun idea. After all, even though I don't take them anymore (maybe will start taking them again in the future!), I always like looking at beautiful photographs.

Not surprisingly, I don't have any pictures of b-school during all these visits...so I am borrowing my friend G's photo of Kellogg to add a bit of color to my blog. She tagged me when she took the picture back in early fall, and it brought me good luck! :)



So I encourage you to submit a photo for the contest as a way of having some fun during this strenuous process. Plus, you can win some prizes! So why not :)

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!

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~

about leadership @ Kellogg

I stumbled upon a blog post from a current Kellogg student. He provided some great insight on leadership @ Kellogg. He writes,

"...I wanted to quickly address a misconception that I've heard from a few applicants during the past couple of weeks on Leadership at Kellogg. Basically, there are a lot of opportunities to develop leadership skills here, but as far as I've seen, you will rarely, if ever, have formal authority over anyone (or a team). Instead, you will be working with groups of classmates that are all pretty much equally qualified to be the "leader." In these situations, you have to find a way to work together with your teammates to arrive at the best possible solution or successfully plan and execute something, and if you think that you have the right answer, it is up to you to convince the rest of the team. This is a lot harder than it seems, and I think it is representative of the situation you are likely to find yourself in most often throughout your career."

Will post more on my thoughts on this topic, but now need to get ready to take my dear bf out for his birthday celebration! I planned a mystery wine tasting and a mystery dinner to surprise my special man :) Look forward to this afternoon/evening!

it's graceful to be thankful

Given that I am sick and sitting on the couch all day watching top chef, hoping that my painful throat and low fever would go away soon so that I can start being productive again, I decided to write this post in the spirit of Thanksgiving.

Since Thanksgiving is an American holiday, and I had never celebrated it for the first 17 years of my life, I do not have the sentimental attachment some of my American friends might have to the mash potato, cranberry source and the football game on TV in a buzzing Thursday afternoon. However, I always thought that it was nice to be thankful (although the European settlers did kill the Indians after all), to be with family (mine is too far away, but will be thinking of them), to be with people you love.

I came across the ClearAdmit's poll (which was always a fun distraction from all the tough application work) about "What are you thankful in regards to your admissions process". I have too many people to thank honest speaking. My boss and my boss' boss who tailored 6 recommendation for me, each carefully written and long (according to one of them); my boyfriend, who is my editor in chief, my psychiatrist, my cheer-leader, my care taker, my best best supporter in all ways; my dearest mom and dad, who do not understand the process that much but still sent me ideas on how to put my best foot forward and who would without a word, donate all their life time savings towards my bschool account; my friends, old or new, familiar or just acquainted, who took in my essays despite their super busy schedules and edit them without any complains; my co-workers, who would check on me from time to time and give me those supportive words to brighten my days....the list goes on.

But then here I am, totally surprised by the result of the Clear Admit poll. Close to half (42%!) of the poll takers actually answered "I'll only be thankful when I know the results." That is just not right! As an applicant, I know fully how stressful this process is and how one might want to pull one's hair out when waiting for the results from schools. But dear applicants, are you so absorbed in yourself that you cannot be thankful for all the work others have put in for you only because you haven't heard back from the schools? For one thing, I would still feel thankful towards all those who helped me throughout the process EVEN IF I didn't get into any school. And honestly, as an applicant, I knew, nobody, nobody, can achieve b-school acceptance alone. You have someone to be thankful for.

Maybe I am over-reacting, after all, it's just a 52 people poll and those applicants who are enjoying family and friends time probably don't even check blogs these days. But still, it's dis-heartening to think that b-school applicants MIGHT just be a group of typical type-A and only care about self people.

One certain part of my brain, however, does sympathize with that mentality. I myself, almost lost it through the process. It's so easy to only be thinking about yourself, your application, your interviews, your essays, you, you, you in this highly competitive process. When you focused too much on yourself, that's when you lose others, and in a sense that you lose the real you, who cares about other human beings.

So to those 12 people who read my blog, please, please, don't lose perspective in this process. After all, an acceptance or a deny does not define you. And you are much much more than just an application.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, be thankful. Sending a thank you note to your interviewer or to your host at school visit is not just tactics to kiss up but to show you really felt thankful for their time. It's graceful to be thankful. And grace, is such a rarely seen but highly needed quality, especially in today's world.