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 :)

Happy Holidays and Go Purple! :)

Just got my "big envelope" from Kellogg this morning. It's a big leather binder (wait, is that what it's called? I never had one before...ya I am frugal) with lots of purple in it! :) It reminds me of those college decision days as I waited anxiously for the "big envelope" to arrive. Thank goodness for email/phone notification nowadays!



Just want to share my joy and wish everyone happy holidays! I actually have quite a few ideas that I want to write in my blog but since time is precious during the holidays and I really need to plow through Stanford's essays right now and still leave time for family fun, I am gonna hold out on posting until I get a little break somewhere down the road. But yes, there will be more interesting posts to come, hopefully some good advice for fellow and future applicants too!

In this holiday season, enjoy your time with family and friends my fellow applicants, for they are ultimately what matters to you most! :)

Striked out @ Wharton

So after a semi-sleepless night (I have no idea why so even though I thought I would be so relaxed with my Kellogg admit), found out that the box theory turned out to be mostly true. Rejected @ Wharton.

How do I feel? Hum, it's hard to say. I can't say that I am leaping for joy that I don't need to make the difficult decision between Wharton and Kellogg, but I don't necessary feel sad or disappointed. Maybe a little disappointed since I did a good interview and felt pretty good about my essays. But in the grand scheme, I think this rejection might be good for me. First of all, I was imagining before the decision how would I choose between Wharton and Kellogg, and I couldn't make a decision. I applied to Wharton mainly because of its reputation. But after visiting Kellogg, I certainly had a better connection with the people there and felt great about the program. Secondly, this rejection really put me back into perspective in the whole admission process, which is really a black box. After Kellogg admit and MIT interview invite, I was feeling a little too good about myself and start imagining getting into lots of schools, which is a dangerous thing. While I still maintain high confidence in my ability to succeed, but I want to remain humble and grounded, and most importantly, do a great job for R2 and the interviews to come. The rejection helped that.

So to my fellow readers, best of luck with all your applications, and truly remember this, there is no rejection that can put you down, unless you give up on yourself already. So get up where you fell and charge forward!

A wonderful article on leadership development @ B-school

A New B-School Speciality: Self-Awareness

I came across this article on Tuck's new Center of Leadership. I think the philosophy is great. Often times people go to business school to get that stamp on their resume, or to get some finance, marketing, accounting skills, or to get the next big buck job, but to me, the leadership development part is essential. Not that I will magically grow into a better leader in 2 years, but I want to use the resources at the school and the time it provides for me to reflect on myself to become more aware of what kind of leader I want to become, how do I get there and to think about the challenges as a leader at the top and the ways, new ways and the responsible/ethical ways to tackle them. These are important reasons for why I want to go to a top business school.

I believe Tuck is doing a great job emphasizing on this area, so anybody who are lucky enough to go to Tuck, take great advantage of it! (I did not apply because of its location and the size of Dartmouth, but I've always thought highly of the school.)

On a side note, the Wharton box fiasco has gone out of control. As a 3 boxer, I am hoping for a happy surprise today or tomorrow. We shall see :)

MIT still likes me :)

Just got an interview invite from MIT. After my Kellogg admission I was a lot more relaxed and did not fret over MIT and Wharton too much this morning. So the interview invite sitting in my inbox after lunch was kind of a surprise. Although in my heart, I had sort of convinced myself that I would get an invite from MIT because I thought I did a good job on those behavioral questions. Glad that MIT honored my confidence :)

Now with two applications to write and one interview to prep...I am gonna have a busy holiday season! Did I mention I am going to Mammoth for snowboarding as a toast to my first admit? December truly has turned out to be a fruitful month! :)

In @ Kellogg!

Just got the call (actually have a story regarding the call) from Kellogg! I am in! Will write more later, but just want to share my joy! :)

Today has been an exciting day. When I intentionally left my phone on my desk as I went to a lab with no cell phone signal, I secretly hoped that when I get back to my desk at noon, there will be voicemail from Kellogg waiting for me. And indeed it happened! There was a small episode of confusion when the lady from the career center left me a message to call back, and I couldn't get through her phone. I was wondering why someone from the career center would call me and was seriously thinking if she was going to check on my career goals for considering admission. So FYI , Kellogg uses all administrative staff to call admits and they might not say "congratulations" in the voice mail~

As I bounced around the building, announcing the good news to my boss and my co-workers, and updating it to bf, friends online, I could feel a sense of reality deep inside the shell of excitement. MBA is, after all, a mean to an end. Getting into school is only the beginning. Now as the admission finally sunk in, I started to feel the weight of the loan (which I have never experienced in my life) and the pressure of job hunting to pay off the loan...especially when my boss' boss said "ok, now we can officially start planning for you leaving in 6 months". I am really gonna be leaving this job, having no income, moving to a different city, leaving my bf behind, it all sounds so scary...at the same time, I am truly excited about this journey, for I can see many doors opening and many opportunities coming at me. There will be a lot more thinking to do before selecting a school and getting ready for this incredible journey.

But at the moment, I try to stay grounded and focused so that I can put together a solid app for Stanford and HBS. I have to admit though, one admission really gives me a boost in confidence that maybe I CAN be a contender at my dream school.

Good luck to all the applicants out there!

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!