Sunsets

I think I'm close to done with my Wharton/Lauder apps! I just sent off a general draft to my reviewers, but I feel really good to be closing in on October 9th!

Cause beyond that is Harvard and Chicago on October 15th and then it's off to Hawaii for a week to tan, sleep, surf, swim, run, and sightsee like a good old tourist should do. Any advice on what to do, see, eat and drink on Maui? ;-)

close to deadlines

Alright. T-minus less than five days til GMAT. I made significant progress in critical reasoning studies tonight. And my timing is spot on, according to my gmat class prof. You know what? It'll all be good.

I've been spending a bunch of time review my essays and getting them to be easier to read, more personal, and less BS. Admissions essay reviewers know how to spot a canned explanation for why you should be admitted. They want to hear stories - good ones. Triumph, courage, failure, motivation, accomplishment, emotion, humor. And it took me so long to figure that out.

So if you're reading this and applying round 2 or 3 or next year, keep this in mind and start doing some thinking. It'll save you a lot of time later on! Promise.

crap

oh crap.

now i'm in trouble. less than 2 weeks til GMAT part deux and I've scored the EXACT same on my GMAT prep as I did before. WTF. I know this stuff better?!?

My strengths have gotten stronger (Sentence Correction and Problem Solving). My weaknesses have gotten worse (notable in data sufficiency and critical reasoning).

What do I do?

Advanced Mid!!

So I took my OPI (Oral Proficiency rating) test Thursday, which is a language test conducted by a native speaker. I was really nervous since I haven't studied Chinese since college, but this past spring I took a class and I recently bought Rosetta Stone and both have worked wonders.

I got my score today and it was an Advanced Mid! That's good. :-P The scale goes:

Superior
Advanced High
Advanced Mid
Advanced Low
Intermediate High
Intermediate Mid
Intermediate Low
Novice High
Novice Mid
Novice Low

The Lauder program at Wharton says "Students are admitted with an oral proficiency rating (OPI) at the Advanced level, preferably Advanced Mid (according to the guidelines of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages)," so I am really quite stoked that there's one less thing to worry about.

In other news, I have two weeks til the GMAT part deux, and hopefully I'll kick it's butt. Only another month til all first round apps are in...here goes a whirlwind month!

Doubts...and casting them aside

My mentor put a good thought in my head the other night. As she gave me a ride to a meeting we had down south, she asked me if I had considered the possibility of not getting an MBA. She had been admitted to Andersen (UCLA) years before but decided to stay with her company and now she's a very senior person at her firm (having been there since she graduated roughly 20 years ago).

This was one of the first times I'd ever thought about not getting an MBA. How would my life be different? A lot of times we find ourselves so committed to a path without acknowledging even the possibility of not going down that road. We always ask - how can I get to this destination or that school? But what if we don't even go in that direction?

It's worth asking yourself.

Now that I've articulated my doubts, let me re-affirm, that an MBA *IS* for me. I know it. I've known it, and despite letting my surroundings temporarily drown the belief, I have confirmed it is where I want to be. Will I be disappointed if my plans don't work out for this spring/fall?

Sure.

But will it define me as a person or discourage me from pursuing the dream later on?

Not a chance.

I know it's the right path for me. And if you're reading this and you have these kinds of doubts, ask yourself a simple question. Don't overthink it. You may find clarity is far easier to discover in silence than in a noisy room.