NYU Diversity Conference Day 3

Ok so NYU Diversity Conference Day 3 started off with... yup you guessed it... breakfast!

This time we were upstairs on the 5th floor sitting at tables and not in the reception area downstairs.  I got there around 9:30 and talked with people until about 10 when the event was to start.  It was funny because we were sitting with a current student during breakfast just talking about life in NYC.  She was amazed that we could order food from the grocery store and have it delivered to our houses.  Then she was like "yeah and some people have maids!"  I'm like... "I have a cleaning lady..."  and she's like "yeah see that's what I'm talking about."  and I'm like "but she's not a maid... I mean she cleans the apartment from top to bottom and does my laundry, but she's not a maid."  and then someone else sitting at the table said "I have a cleaning lady too..."  and another person said "Me too...and I'm addicted to ordering groceries!"  That's how the conversation went, but to us who live here it wasn't anything new or uncommon.  

Anyway - I digress...  So after breakfast there was an informal speaker just about things to get involved in at Stern and the student life.  This was for about an hour.

Then we went upstairs and sat in groups of 4/5 with a current student to go over our 60 second pitches!  Now this was incredibly helpful!  It's amazing how people interpret what your saying in a completely different way from what you originally intended!  I definitely need to practice my 60 second pitch.  Basically what you want to get across is:

Where you want to be -> what you've been doing up until now/background -> How an MBA will get you to where you want to be.  Someone in the group would go... and then the rest of us would make comments and so on and so forth.  Great exercise!

After the 60 second pitch practice was the mock admissions committee.  This was very interesting... So all 80/90 or so of us sat in a classroom with a mock application in front of us.  Upon reading the application we were to vote on whether we would Interview - Waitlist - Deny the candidate.  In the packet they gave us the following:

- Mean gpa/gmat scores for Stern Class of 2011

- "her" resume

- "her" transcript

- "her" 2 letters of recommendations

- "her" 2 essays

Initially the majority of the class (myself included) voted to interview her.  I read the application wanting to know more about the candidate.  So then we all started commenting on the pro's and con's of the application.  This is where it got interesting and because of this exercise I have a new found respect for admissions officers.  Just picture 40 people raising their hands emphatically tearing about this "poor girls" application.  Then picture 40 people raising their hands to defend the application.  Great points were brought up by both groups...  by the end of the sessions more people had switched their votes to waitlist this candidate.  I kept my vote the same because I still wanted to know more.  

It was an eye opening experience to hear people's comments about what some would consider minor things in an application.  I can't remember all that was said, but I have the takeaways and notes that I will be taking into account for my application.  A couple of comments made me say "damn that was harsh" but hey... everyone has a different perspective.

After this mock admissions committee it was lunch time with a Stern Alum!  I ended up sitting at a table with someone I've met before.  I met him last year at a Stern LGBT Reception.  I think it was last October actually.  I won't go into detail about what we all spoke about, because I'm tired of typing right now.  It was good though lol... 

So this was the last part of the Diversity conference but AHBBS was coordinating a night out at Tillmans on 26th street.  So as all of us prospectives were saying goodbye to one another we kept asking each other if we would see each other later that night at Tillmans.  So I went home... took a nap...took a shower... and then went down to meet everyone.

I will leave the rest of the nights events up to the imagination, but let's just say that there was a lot of Facebooking w/ current and prospective students and picture taking!  It was a blast!

One particularly funny thing happened though.  So one of the kids that was sitting at my table the day before at lunch (remember that omg you know so and so conversation?) Well he's now a friend of mine.. so when I was adding him to Facebook we saw that we had a friend in common.  Yeah so the friend we have in common is the girl that I met and talked to in the train station at Yale back in February!  Remember?  Which is also the day when I met my two friends at Ross!  Apparently they went to high school together in DC!  Small world....

So yeah... I have one more blog post to write tonight and then I have to write my essays.