Tuck Reception - NYC

Tonight was the Tuck Reception @ the Yale Club here in NYC.  This event brought me back to the event last year when I had my first interaction with the school.  Aahhh nostalgia... although last year it was on the 6th floor whereas this year it was on the 20th floor.

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!

5000th Visitor!!! Special Guest!

I have surpassed the 5000 visitor mark! 

It's an exciting feat for me. You guys have kept me motivated and I love the little community that we have going on here!  I actually had no idea that my blog would become as popular as it is.  It initially started out as a venue for me to record my ideas in preparation for b-school essays.  It has evolved into an online diary and you guys have been great in keeping me focused!  I know I have been missing in action lately, but I have been incredibly busy...but that's ok right?

I'll give you guys some statistics about my blog, because some people have been curious:
Total Visits - 5,395
Most Visits in 1 Day = 250 - this was the day I posted my GMAT debrief!
Top Countries = United States -> India -> Canada
Top States = New York -> Canada
Top Referring Site = www.BeatTheGMAT.com

SPECIAL GUEST

On another note I would like to give something back to you guys for the continuous support.  Way back in one of my previous posts I received a comment from my now friend - Brett Nowak.  I think it was my Dartmouth post that caught his eye.  I don't remember the exact post and quite honestly don't feel like searching for it haha.  In any event, we bonded over the fact that he was admitted to Tuck! Yes... I'm jealous.  He and I have kept in touch since March because I think he's a great resource.

Brett Nowak - owner of www.IvyAppSuccess.com:

• Graduated Harvard in ’03 where he played varsity hockey and started the Harvard Fly Fishing club
• Drafted by the NHL then play professional hockey in the AHL for 2.5 years
• After hockey, I helped build Meteor Solutions, Inc., an angle funded startup, into a profitable company as the Business Development Manager 
• Was accepted into Tuck school of business in ‘09
• Caught a 17lbs Steelhead on a fly rod, a big accomplishment for an obsessed fly fisher like me
• Deferred a year from business school to start Ivy App Success and IAS Recruiting
• Attending Tuck this fall

Aside from having another person to meet when I get back up to visit Tuck in the fall, I think he can offer all of us some incredible advice over the next couple of months.  It's nice to be able to pick the brain of a student who just went through the application process.  Last month I told Brett about my upcoming 5,000th visitor as a thank you to you guys... and to him for the advice he's given me.

Disclaimer - "I'm asked to promote a lot of things via my blog, but I feel that I should be candid about anything that I post so it does not seem like it's not genuine.  I asked Brett to answer the questions below, because for me he's been a great resource since March and I wanted to share the wealth!"

Me:  Why did you choose to start IvyAppSuccess.com?

Brett:  There were many reasons why I started Ivy App Success but initially it was because I wanted to make it easier for people to apply to business school. 

The biggest reason why most people don’t get accepted is that they don’t apply or don’t apply well. I wanted to share my knowledge and abilities with others so that they too would get accepted into top business schools (regardless of their GMAT and GPA). 

I also spent time thinking about what type of business I wanted to start and what valuable skills I had. Since I had helped people get accepted into school even before I was accepted, I was very confident that I would be a strong admissions consultant and knew that I enjoyed the work. 

This year, I will provide more tools that facilitate the application process. I’ll be writing more tutorials and providing an online application management tool to help more people finish their own great applications.

Me:  As a student who has been through this process that many of us are looking forward to ending, can you tell me what you wish you knew when you were applying?  Why?

Brett:  I wish I had spent more time picking the right schools. There are a ton of great schools out there and although I picked a great one, I could have explored my options further.

I also wish that I had applied to some schools with the goal of getting accepted and receiving a scholarship. I would have applied to two top 40 schools, possibly in a later round, with the hope that I would get a decent scholarship offer. To me, a free MBA degree from a 35^th ranked school is comparable to a degree from a top 5 school that costs $180,000. I would have liked to have this option.

Me:  It seems as though there a lot of people who know they will be applying this upcoming season.  Even though applications have not come out yet, is there anything that one can do to prepare for application season?

Brett:  First, get the GMAT over and done with now. Take it twice and get a great score so that you don’t have to worry about it while you’re writing the essays and application.

Second, start to network the crap out of each school. The more people you know at or graduated from your target school the more likely you’ll get accepted. These contacts can give you valuable information on how to apply and sometimes even write in on your behalf. Reach out to them now so that you’ve built a relationship with them early. 

Me:  Let's say I'm an international applicant and did not get the best score on the Verbal portion of the GMAT nor did I score in the 50th percentile on the AWA section.  What, if anything, can I do to show competency in the English language?

Brett:  Write great essays and really practice for the interview. Take language classes or practice regularly to prepare for the interview because if you can’t communicate well in the interview, you’ll have a hard time getting accepted. Plus, this class will be a nice extracurricular activity on the application.

Then let your recommenders compensate for your poor Verbal score. Suggest to them to possibly mention things about your ability to communicate. And finally, include classes on your resume or extracurricular activities that demonstrate where you demonstrated English skills.

Me:  What's the highest GMAT score you've heard of being rejected from a top business school?  What's the lowest score you heard of that was accepted to a top business school?  

Brett:  Someone I know was waitlisted from Tuck with a 720 on his first GMAT attempt. I told him that he should take the GMAT again but he decided against it. When he talked to Adcom, they said he was waitlisted because of his GMAT score. As for the lowest, I believe there was a 580 person who got accepted into HBS last year. 

Me:  Piggybacking off of question 5 - Can you explain what a "Hollistic approach" is and how important is one's story in the application process?

Brett:  A better way to think about the “Holistic approach” is that the application process is a zero-sum competition, which means that you must beat other applicants for a set number of spots. For example, if you get a 720 on the GMAT and 500 other applicants get a 720, you are now tied with 500 other applicants for a class of 200. Therefore, to get accepted into a top school you must find areas – the holistic parts - of the application to BEAT THE COMPETITION. These are the areas that get you accepted into top business schools. 

Brett can be reached via www.IvyAppSuccess.com... You can also sign up for the newsletter which is very informative.  

GMAT Prep - Downside

First let me say that I've updated the Business school poll on the left hand side of the screen (scroll down). When I started the poll I put schools in it that I was genuinely interested in and some that I needed to fill up space. I have now updated it with the top schools from what you guys chose and added another batch of potential schools. GO VOTE - CHOOSE 3!


So I my GMAT prep hiatus is coming to an end... I had a phenomenal time off! The downside of not studying is re-injecting myself back into my circle of friends and spending $$$$ again. It's amazing how much money one saves when he or she (almost said THEY, but that would have been incorrect) goes out.

For instance, this weekend:

Friday -
$10 at a rooftop bar in Midtown with coworkers
$6 for a cab to a bar for a friends fundraiser/birthday.
$15 for the fundraiser and a wristband for 1/2 appetizers and 1/2 drinks
$15 for 4 beers
$10 for appetizers
$15 for cab crosstown to my apt.
$10 for pizza at 3am - didn't eat it fell asleep
$10 for cigarettes
________
$81

Saturday -
$10 for hamburger/fries/gatorade/chips (breakfast of champions at 1pm)
$30 for a shirt for a birthday party later that night
$30 for a bottle of Svedka
$10 for cigarettes
$20 for my omelet at the diner later that night
$XX for the cab home (yes it was one of those nights!)
________
> $120

Grand Total about $200 and for what? All I got out of it was some tagged Facebook photos!

Granted I needed to go out and have a weekend like that since I held back for so long. I am now looking forward to getting back into study mode. I refuse to go into hiding as a I did previously for two reasons. The first is that it's SUMMER TIME. The second is simply that it just was not productive. I burnt myself out...

Statistics Class - In any event, tomorrow I have to buy my Statistics book. I have a weird feeling that it won't be available in the bookstore! The first class was good. It was much different from (not different than....think about it.. you would say "Differs from" - thanks Brian@Veritas haha) my algebra class. So much so that multiple people knew the fraction for Pi (22/7) and someone else knew to the hundred thousandths digit for e.

There is this one girl though who tries to answer every question first, while being on her laptop. Like really girl? Put it away it's not that serious... but maybe I'll befriend her so that when we do our assignments I can have her my rolodex of go to people.


Miscellaneous: Hhmm let's see... what else is going on? I reached out to a couple students at UC Berkeley Haas who are members of Q@Haas, which is the LGBT group on campus. I really need to get all of the information out of them that I can so I can determine which school is my top choice Tuck or Haas. They are very similar but very different in a couple ways. That will be a post later down the road, where I'll list out the pros and cons of them both.

Friends update: I'm not sure if I mentioned this before but one of the girls that I met when I visited Tuck is from Canada. I email with her probably once every week. She applied R4 and found out that she was waitlisted. She's pretty happy about it and I think that goes to show that she had a great profile. I've never heard of anyone being waitlisted in R4, but I guess it can happen. Everyone please keep your fingers crossed for her!

GMAT Detox

Well hello again everyone! Nice to see you all still alive... so for the past week I have been detoxing my brain. After nearly 4 months of inundating my brain with GMAT material it was phenomenal to take a week off.

It got to the point where my GMAT books where on the floor in my room and I would step on them while going in and out of my room. My friend Brandon kept asking me when I would resume studying and my response would be "When I don't think that I should be studying in my free time!" So what does that mean? Well I don't know if anyone else experienced this but before my exam, if I had free time, I would feel guilty if I was not studying. Well right after my exam there were days when I of course I free time and I would say to myself "you should be studying" when in reality I didn't have to any more.

It's been tough to get out of that mindset. Everyone keeps asking me "so when are you going to take it again?" The answer is... I'm NOT! I'm so over the exam and I've spent so much money preparing for it that I'm done! hahahah just kidding, there's no way I could give up now BECAUSE I've spent so much money preparing for it lmao. I will retake the exam when my last three CAT exams are in the 700 range. As I said before, that's when you are truly ready to tackle the beast.

I wonder how that girl did who thought she could bring in the calculator... hhmm anyway I digress.

So last Friday I met up with Charles aka the GMATNinja for some drinks. I don't know it's always fun for me to discuss GMAT/MBA topics. I can talk about this stuff for hours...and that's exactly what we did. I think we spoke for about 3 hours... we even made fun of Businessweek for ranking Stanford 6th behind Michigan Ross. Don't get me wrong Michigan is a great great school, but does not deserve to be above Stanford in any other regard than being written in a list alpabetically!

Charles had some great advice for me and I took one of his suggestions to heart. Those of you who have been following my blog know that I enrolled in a Financial Accounting course and Statistics course at NYU SCPS (School of Continuing Professional Studies or something of that nature). Charles reminded me that I probably won't be able to study and do well in those two 12 week classes AND prepare properly for the GMAT. I forgot to tell him that I'll also be taking some marketing classes dispersed in there. Each one of those classes would just be over a weekend though, so it's not a big deal. I need to finish my Certificate in Digital Media Marketing!

In any event, I came to the conclusion that taking the classes is great and helpful, but if I don't score well on the GMAT the classes won't matter. Therefore, I need to devote more time to studying for the GMAT. As a result of that conclusion, I dropped my Financial Account course and will probably take it in the Fall instead. In my application I'll just write that I'm taking that class currently.

I'm not going to give a concrete GMAT date, but I'll just say that it'll be in the summer. Things may have gotten a little out of control the last time. I was more wrapped up in the process of studying rather than trying to retain the material.

Ok so enough about that...

Do you guys remember when I visited Dartmouth and I met the other prospective student from Washington, who was out visiting a myriad of schools? Well I still keep in touch with her, and she just took the GMAT on Saturday. She said she had been scoring in the 680 range. Well... when she took her exam she got a 730! How exciting?!?! So happy for her, maybe we'll be at the same school next year!

Another funny thing happened today... So I have a friend who went to MIT undergrad... She lives in the City now with her husband and I haven't heard from either of them in over a year. Not even on Facebook! So after brunch today with friends we walked over to the Dream hotel to go to the rooftop bar. I got stuck in the elevator so my friends were waiting at the top for me. When I got out of the elevator they're staying by the door and I say "why aren't you going up?" They said "you'll see..." So I go up the one flight of stairs and I see that everyone is in khakis and ties and it looks like a private event. So I walk back downstairs and I see a woman walk out of the elevator. She looks very familiar to me to I say Mrs. ______ she turns around and looks at me like "who are you?" I said "it's richard..." and she said "Richard... Battle-Baxter?" and I said yes.. she said "omg how are you? etc etc?" She tells me that my friend Christy was having a graduation party upstairs because she just graduated from Columbia Business School! Then I realize "oh that's why I haven't heard from her". So I go upstairs for a couple minutes and talk to her and her husband... I love the city... it can be very random at times.

In any event, I'm done writing now... and I have to get up at 8 for work. Until next time! Peace out folks