Assembly line or laundry list?

We are an assembly line for application hell

After much agonizing,  PDF churning, and formatting scrutiny, I am happy to report that I have submitted Stanford's and Yale's applications.  With Kellogg's first part long since submitted, I am just putting the finishing touches on those essays.  That just leaves Berkeley's data forms, which I can't complete until I get my questions answered from the adcom.  All in all, I'm left with frustrations, concerns, and advice for anyone who wants them...

Countdown, but is it a count up?

Stanford's application is due in one week, Yale's the day after, and then I have a week plus break before Northwestern's and Berkeley's clocks strike twelve.  I'm almost there, and my goal is to hit submit on all of them sooner rather than later. So what's left to do and is anyone else applying?

First item first: what's left to do?

My Template of Doom

Was my blog approaching
Escher levels of complexity?

My boyfriend complained that my blog was getting too cluttered.  I agreed.  I have a tendency to add, add, and then add some more. Fortunately, he's a good editor and has helped me parse down my imagery and my blog. Taking an aesthetic cue from fellow blogger, mbaover30, I'm using a cleaner, simpler template.  Many blogs out there are pretty dysfunctional looking, and I admired his for being among the least cluttered and most readable.  

So how does this relate to business school apps? Well just like with my blog, I continuously fret over what's missing and throw in more items, hoping that one of them will stick, in this case, with the adcom.

Visit Overload

Over the past week I have gone from extreme enthusiasm to utter overload. My exposure included alumni panels, informational meetings, all-day events, and networking activities. After 5 events in 10 days, my brain needs a serious reprieve from applications and business school.  I am hoping that a quick brain dump into my blog will empty the clutter and provide the respite I need.  Or at least keep my brain from exploding.

So in chronological order with the highlights and concerns either of the event and/or the school:

A Fetish and a Home for Numbers

There is an uncontrolled anxiety and insanity around the GPA, GMAT, and age.  The obsession over the perfect combination is practically a fetish. The way I see it though, the first is frustratingly fixed, the second is (perceived as) exasperatingly fixable, and the third fails the "goldilocks test" for most of us.  At the end of the day, these numbers are just that: numbers, fixed points.  The story they tell may or may not be simple, so for better or worse, the story will remain shrouded in mystery, until they find a home, a well-woven tale of accomplishments, values, and goals.  Your home.

Yale: a tale of two cities

Last night, I attended a Yale SOM event, hosted by Dean of Admissions, Bruce DelMonico and almost 20 Yale Alumni.  It was hard to believe, but there were almost as many alumni as prospective students.  It seems San Francisco is practically a sister city to New Haven!

Sassiness Scales

I am mostly done with my first round of drafts for my four applications, and I decided to devote a post to rating and discussing the relative difficulty of each school's overall application. The scale I'm using is my "Sassiness" meter.  How much sassiness does it take to ask these questions?  And how much grit and gumption will we need to answer them? Read on intrepid sasser and fear not.  Our sass is tops! 

Project B-school! (Part II)

Nina was not impressed with those outfits.  She demands more to prove that we have a unique point of view to make an entire collection!

Today, she and Heidi demand to see something a la Tuck, Kellogg, and Wharton.  Who am I to say no to fabulousness?

Grab your shears, knitting needles, and muslin, and away with thee!  You have a collection to produce!