Ok so I'll walk you through my night.
I walk through the door of the Yale club into the lobby/waiting area and I see one of the guys I met at the Kaplan Destination business school event. I walk over to him and we make small talk and hop in the elevator up to the 20th floor. I don't remember the name of the ballroom but needless to say it's large. We walk over to the table and put our names on nametags. There were probably three other people there. The event was to start at 7 and we got there at about 6:40. So I was immediately greeted by an admissions officer and we talked for a couple minutes.
She asked what I was currently doing and all that jazz. I remember her saying "seems like you've done your homework... have you ever heard of the website Poets and Quants?" I think I cracked a smile and said "yeah... John Brynes right? I love that site because it offers insight into the whole pre-mba process which is a needed resources, at least I think." She said "yeah I just found out about it today." There was a little more about that but it's irrelevant. Then she asked if I had any questions about Tuck and I said that I didn't at that moment, but I'm sure I would later.
To be honest, I could have asked my questions then, but I didn't want to be THAT guy and I knew she would want to meet and greet other people. So I took her business card and went on my merry little way to get a soda - coke to be more specific. I went to the front of the room and placed my bag on a chair and then went to the bathroom. Post-bathroom break I went back to my seat because I was waiting for a friend. Let me tell you - THAT ROOM FILLED UP QUICKLY. I would say there were about 200 people there total.
As I was sitting waiting for my friend to arrive I was eavesdropping on the two pre-mba's sitting behind me. They were talking about schools they've visited and how one was not impressed with HBS. I thought to myself, "I don't care how much HBS is not a fit for you, there's no way you can walk onto that campus and not be impressed, the buildings themselves are impressive!" To each his or her own I suppose.... Darden seemed to be on the top of his list though. The person he was sitting with was talking about how no matter how much he likes Tuck and he said it was the best for him, if he got into a school in a city, he would go to that school. It's interesting to hear other peoples thought processes....
Then my friend came. We were debating over whether we should each the hor d'oeuvres coming around. We finally gave in. Before the event started we chatted about everything under the sun from his applications...to my applications.... to gmat... to his boyfriend and my lack of boyfriend...we're old time friends at this point. And to think... this is someone I met at the LGBT HBS event back in April. He lives 10 blocks from me so we're very close to one another.
So then an Admissions Officer got up and showed this video about Tuck - http://bit.ly/bsHqBj I've seen this video 100 times, so it didn't provide any new information for me.
I won't bore you with everything she spoke about during her speech, but it was the standard stuff that you can imagine. Then she brought up the T'09 and T'10 alum. I was expecting to see one of the students whom I reached out too prior to my visit back in March, but I didn't see him up there. I was actually surprised by that because there were about 12 Tuckies. They said that the admissions officer had to limit the Tuckies who wanted to participate to T'09 and T'10 otherwise there would have been exponentially more. No big deal though... so I took notes when appropriate but even the things they were saying did not surprise me. Remember...the research I've done on this school is phenom.
So then... after all of the questions... the alumni and admissions officers dispersed to answer individual questions. This is when I went outside to have a cigarette break. I've been to enough of these events to know that most people asking questions are asking generic questions that irritate me. Since I didn't want the admissions officers seeing me roll my eyes or huffing and puffing at "What's the mean gmat score?" type questions... I take a break... let the lines die down... then go back and ask my questions. Sometimes I want to blurt out the answers when I hear questions like that. "What's the mean gmat score?" then me from behind - "717"... "What teaching methodology do you guys use?" then me from behind "It varies by professor..."
Cut to me coming back from my cigarette... I get out of the elevator... and go talk to that first admissions officer I spoke too. I said to her "Hello _____, I have some questions for you now..." So I asked her everything I had questions about. These questions ranged from recruiting to the diversity conference. No nothing pertaining to recruiting that I could find on the website. I've learned from another Tuckie that given my background, I would be considered a non-traditional applicant. Hhmm who would have thunk? So after my questions I said "ok well it was nice meeting you _____ those are all of the questions I have right now." Easy Squeezy right?
Ok so then I was just listening to the admissions officer, who I've had contact with on a couple of occasions. 1.) When I visited I sat with her one on one and she gave me great advice on how to apply. 2.) She was the Tuck rep at the Kaplan Destination Business School event. and then now tonight. So as she was speaking with a couple other prospectives, this guy came up and stood beside her and started listening intently. To me it seemed as though he knew her, while to others it seemed like he was the eager beaver prospective. When she finally saw who it was she gave him a big hug and then I noticed he looked familiar to me.
Then it clicked... I knew who he was. I went over to him and said hi are you _________? He looked at my nametag and said "Omg Richard how are you... I was thinking about you today because I met with so and so." So who is this mystery character?
Ok follow this story - prior to my visit to Tuck I reached out to students who were in the club I would want to join. Well... obviously the LGBT club is a must for me. So I reached out to one of the officers. He was an officer at the time, but was doing his study abroad in France, so I couldn't meet with him when I visited. He forwarded my initial email on to another officer with whom I still speak with to this day. She's been giving me great advice re: my essays and is the one who reminded me about the Diversity Conference. So anyway, she couldn't meet with me because she was away on spring break , but she forwarded my email to another Tuckie with whom I also still speak too. He's actually one of the organizers of the Reaching Out Conference this year, and I was talking to him the other day with questions about the conference this year.
Clearly I digressed! So Anyway we'll call this person at the Tuck event Michael Jordan. So when he said that he was thinking about me it's because a couple weeks ago I emailed him - non Tuck related. I saw that he got a job here in NYC in the Luxury Retail industry. Since I work for Bloomingdales.com he and I are now brethren and I wanted to meet up for drinks. So he remembered that. So we talked for about 15 minutes as if we were old friends. Now when I say he gave me great insight into something at Tuck... HE REALLY GAVE ME GREAT INSIGHT! Don't worry it's nothing magical and wouldn't impact 90% of people out there.
So as we spoke I saw that the other admissions officer was free, and I had a question specific to something she told me previously. So when I went up to her we joked that I keep running into her. Funny how that happens O:-) definitely transparent, but I feel that if I'm myself when I speak to these people it will seem genuine. I mean I'm too old to be putting up a front and acting fake for anyone. It's too time consuming. That's where I think the difference is between someone like me who yeah I want facetime. I'm not going to lie, but I believe I do it in such a manner that is real.
So when I was speaking with her she asked how I knew the Tuck student, and I told her. Then after that I said goodbye to my friend... came home... tweeted that tweet you see on the left... and then did Quant. Ultimately... I still need a good GMAT score right? haha...
So right now I'm going to look at the information/application for the Tuck diversity conference and do the same for the Ross conference. I submitted my NYU application today. I also think I'm going to move back my Tuck interview because something just came up that I must attend on 9/24. Something funny happened at work today... we were going through the dates we would all be out in October. I said.. hhmm yeah... every Thursday/Friday for 4 weeks straight I'll be out. They laughed and looked at me as if I was joking, and I said... "yeah no I'm serious." Then my director (Kellogg MBA alum) said to the other analyst... well you guys can work that out right? And I said... "yeah I'll be away those weekends." He just shrugged.
Wow this turned out to be a long post... later gators!
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