Gay Business School Applicant memoirs

Hi World or those who read my blog.  I am writing this post at 9:40pm because I have a long night ahead of me and I don't want to be interrupted later by thinking "Oh I have to stop studying and write my post."  I have wanted to write this post for a while but the time never seemed right.  But now it is...

So today at work I was thinking about attending the Reaching Out Conference in LA in a couple of weeks.  Just to get you caught up it's a conference for LGBT MBA Students and Professionals with some pre-MBA students (me and 10 others) sprinkled in there.  Let me not forget that there will be LGBT Allies there as well!  :-) 

In any event, I was sitting at my desk and logged into my google analytics to see the types of things people were searching for on Google and how they found my site.  Today someone typed in "how to tell business school lgbt" and this simple query reminded me that yes there are other LGBT students going through this process and I will only speak for myself in saying that it's very interesting.

So back in August when I was writing my first drafts for my Tuck application I was answering the question "What's the hardest thing you've had to overcome and how did you overcome it?"  Something to that effect.  So for that initial essay I wrote about how the hardest thing for me was coming out to my mother.  I thought it was a great first draft for that essay.  Then my consultant responded with very good constructive criticism essentially saying "What separates your story from all of the other coming out stories?  Was this really the toughest thing you've had to overcome?"  I don't think she meant it as "yeah right this is not the hardest thing you've had to overcome." but more along the lines of..."this is a common story!" 

So then I will admit I got defensive internally thinking "of course it was the hardest thing!  who cares if it's a common story?  it's MY story and it was hard!!!" lol... yeah that's how I talk to myself in my head.  So fast forward to today.  I've learned a lot in the short weeks since that essay review discussion.  I now know that the hardest thing for me was not coming out to my mom (Hi Mom... cuz I know she's reading this blog right now).  I have honed in on what the hardest part of coming out was and that's what I will write about going forward.  (Sorry... too much competition out there right now for me to "give" my story or ideas away).

I had a friend ask me the other day, "Why are you doing so much research into the LGBT climate at these schools?  Everyone at the schools is an adult and will treat you just fine."  For me, it's not necessarily about being treated fine, but in order to understand why I take the LGBT culture so seriously is because living in NYC... it's a part of my everyday life.  Of course it doesn't have to be and trust me I would be comfortable at a school where I was the only LGBT student.  Let me take a step back though and give you some insight into my reality here everyday in NYC.  Yeah, I'm gonna pull the NYC card - BAM!

1. So... my roommate is gay,
2. I work for a Luxury Retail heavily invested in Fashion so by default I work with maybe 80% women, and of the 20% men 80% of us are gay.  So if the company had 100 people, 80 would be women, 16 would be gay men, and 4 would be straight men.  Needless to say there are a lot of shall we say...conversations about peep toe shoes and shopping and not so much about Monday night football. ;-)
3. 95% of my male friends here in the city are gay, so when we go out where do you think we go?
4. Then I come home and I'm around my roommate again...

I can and have gone a week without talking to a straight male.  Not by choice, but in retrospect, that's just the way it's happened.  I'm not saying whether its good or bad to be in said environment, but it's just the way it is.  Am I looking forward to changing that environment?  Most definitely!  I've done NYC and I may or may not be back here for the rest of my life post-mba, so I'm definitely looking forward to leaving for a bit.

With that being said, the reason I look into the LGBT cultures at each school is simple.  While I can bond with anyone it's just nice to have some people you can turn to/ talk to/ or just give a glance too and they understand what you're thinking and have been through what you've been through.  Don't get me wrong I haven't been through anything that I know a lot of other people have.  I don't think it's tough to explain, but I think people understand what I'm trying to say. 

Think of it this way... let's say you played football your whole life from Pop Warner up until College.  Then you go to business school.  When you watch the Superbowl, you just want at least one other person in the room who also played football and knows why you may be yelling at the TV when the referee blows the whistle!  Sure, there will be some people in the room who played soccer or basketball their whole lives and love sports too... but they may not get IT.   Of course you'll still have a great time but it may have been better with that other football player in the room.  That's the best analogy I can make guys haha...

I think it may also be a lot of my prior thinking that B-school was a bunch of type A I-bankers, and having that stereotype becoming a factor in determining where to go to school.  But, had I not had that mentality when I started researching schools, I would have never gotten to the place I am in now where I know that THAT is not the case.  B-school has a myriad of people most of whom don't even care about ones sexuality.  I got that sense when I visited Yale, Dartmouth, and NYU.

Also, at any school I attend I plan to have an active role in the LGBT club on campus.  If there isn't one then it's not so much that I couldn't start one, because I could, but not having one would give me a sense of the types of students that are at the school.  I don't think (I could be proven wrong) that a school with no LGBT club would be the right school for me.  I have also heard stories about people not feeling comfortable in b-school being out, which hey to each his or her own, but I can't fathom being in an environment like that.  Don't get me wrong.  I don't go around carrying a purse and dressing in drag although I have friends who do and let me say that they are looking forward to Halloween!  It's funny when real women are asking gay men in drag "omg who did your make-up it's better than mine!" Only to have the guy give her a nasty look like "How dare you even ask such a thing?  I did it myself!"

I won't even touch the prospect of dating someone in business school... lmao... I'm sure that's an issue in and of itself!  Not to mention there's probably no time for it!

I'm not asking for there to be 40 LGBT club members all wearing rainbow flags on their backpacks, because A) that's overwhelming...too many colors all over the place  B) it's not sincere.  But, an LGBT presence on campus says a lot to me about the school itself and the students.  If anyone thinks differently I'd be glad to hear your opinion, but you won't change mine.  Not on this!  Ok maybe you can...but probably not!  I'm stubborn (I'm a Taurus and an only child) so even if I think you may have a point I'll spin it so that you don't.   I should have been a lawyer but you all know how I LOVE THE LSAT!  lmao... ok now I'm rambling!

I am SOOOO looking forward to this conference though!  ;-)

Here are some resources that I've found this past year and I'd like to share them with anyone willing to click on them.  This is exactly the type of post that I was looking for when I was starting this business school process.

Gay Business School Applicant

Hi World or those who read my blog.  I am writing this post at 9:40pm because I have a long night ahead of me and I don't want to be interrupted later by thinking "Oh I have to stop studying and write my post."  I have wanted to write this post for a while but the time never seemed right.  But now it is...

So today at work I was thinking about attending the Reaching Out Conference in LA in a couple of weeks.  Just to get you caught up it's a conference for LGBT MBA Students and Professionals with some pre-MBA students (me and 10 others) sprinkled in there.  Let me not forget that there will be LGBT Allies there as well!  :-)

In any event, I was sitting at my desk and logged into my google analytics to see the types of things people were searching for on Google and how they found my site.  Today someone typed in "how to tell business school lgbt" and this simple query reminded me that yes there are other LGBT students going through this process and I will only speak for myself in saying that it's very interesting.

So back in August when I was writing my first drafts for my Tuck application I was answering the question "What's the hardest thing you've had to overcome and how did you overcome it?"  Something to that effect.  So for that initial essay I wrote about how the hardest thing for me was coming out to my mother.  I thought it was a great first draft for that essay.  Then my consultant responded with very good constructive criticism essentially saying "What separates your story from all of the other coming out stories?  Was this really the toughest thing you've had to overcome?"  I don't think she meant it as "yeah right this is not the hardest thing you've had to overcome." but more along the lines of..."this is a common story!"

So then I will admit I got defensive internally thinking "of course it was the hardest thing!  who cares if it's a common story?  it's MY story and it was hard!!!" lol... yeah that's how I talk to myself in my head.  So fast forward to today.  I've learned a lot in the short weeks since that essay review discussion.  I now know that the hardest thing for me was not coming out to my mom (Hi Mom... cuz I know she's reading this blog right now).  I have honed in on what the hardest part of coming out was and that's what I will write about going forward.  (Sorry... too much competition out there right now for me to "give" my story or ideas away).

I had a friend ask me the other day, "Why are you doing so much research into the LGBT climate at these schools?  Everyone at the schools is an adult and will treat you just fine."  For me, it's not necessarily about being treated fine, but in order to understand why I take the LGBT culture so seriously is because living in NYC... it's a part of my everyday life.  Of course it doesn't have to be and trust me I would be comfortable at a school where I was the only LGBT student.  Let me take a step back though and give you some insight into my reality here everyday in NYC.  Yeah, I'm gonna pull the NYC card - BAM!

1. So... my roommate is gay,
2. I work for a Luxury Retail heavily invested in Fashion so by default I work with maybe 80% women, and of the 20% men 80% of us are gay.  So if the company had 100 people, 80 would be women, 16 would be gay men, and 4 would be straight men.  Needless to say there are a lot of shall we say...conversations about peep toe shoes and shopping and not so much about Monday night football. ;-)
3. 95% of my male friends here in the city are gay, so when we go out where do you think we go?
4. Then I come home and I'm around my roommate again...

I can and have gone a week without talking to a straight male.  Not by choice, but in retrospect, that's just the way it's happened.  I'm not saying whether its good or bad to be in said environment, but it's just the way it is.  Am I looking forward to changing that environment?  Most definitely!  I've done NYC and I may or may not be back here for the rest of my life post-mba, so I'm definitely looking forward to leaving for a bit.

With that being said, the reason I look into the LGBT cultures at each school is simple.  While I can bond with anyone it's just nice to have some people you can turn to/ talk to/ or just give a glance too and they understand what you're thinking and have been through what you've been through.  Don't get me wrong I haven't been through anything that I know a lot of other people have.  I don't think it's tough to explain, but I think people understand what I'm trying to say.

Think of it this way... let's say you played football your whole life from Pop Warner up until College.  Then you go to business school.  When you watch the Superbowl, you just want at least one other person in the room who also played football and knows why you may be yelling at the TV when the referee blows the whistle!  Sure, there will be some people in the room who played soccer or basketball their whole lives and love sports too... but they may not get IT.   Of course you'll still have a great time but it may have been better with that other football player in the room.  That's the best analogy I can make guys haha...

I think it may also be a lot of my prior thinking that B-school was a bunch of type A I-bankers, and having that stereotype becoming a factor in determining where to go to school.  But, had I not had that mentality when I started researching schools, I would have never gotten to the place I am in now where I know that THAT is not the case.  B-school has a myriad of people most of whom don't even care about ones sexuality.  I got that sense when I visited Yale, Dartmouth, and NYU.

Also, at any school I attend I plan to have an active role in the LGBT club on campus.  If there isn't one then it's not so much that I couldn't start one, because I could, but not having one would give me a sense of the types of students that are at the school.  I don't think (I could be proven wrong) that a school with no LGBT club would be the right school for me.  I have also heard stories about people not feeling comfortable in b-school being out, which hey to each his or her own, but I can't fathom being in an environment like that.  Don't get me wrong.  I don't go around carrying a purse and dressing in drag although I have friends who do and let me say that they are looking forward to Halloween!  It's funny when real women are asking gay men in drag "omg who did your make-up it's better than mine!" Only to have the guy give her a nasty look like "How dare you even ask such a thing?  I did it myself!"

I won't even touch the prospect of dating someone in business school... lmao... I'm sure that's an issue in and of itself!  Not to mention there's probably no time for it!

I'm not asking for there to be 40 LGBT club members all wearing rainbow flags on their backpacks, because A) that's overwhelming...too many colors all over the place  B) it's not sincere.  But, an LGBT presence on campus says a lot to me about the school itself and the students.  If anyone thinks differently I'd be glad to hear your opinion, but you won't change mine.  Not on this!  Ok maybe you can...but probably not!  I'm stubborn (I'm a Taurus and an only child) so even if I think you may have a point I'll spin it so that you don't.   I should have been a lawyer but you all know how I LOVE THE LSAT!  lmao... ok now I'm rambling!

I am SOOOO looking forward to this conference though!  ;-)

Here are some resources that I've found this past year and I'd like to share them with anyone willing to click on them.  This is exactly the type of post that I was looking for when I was starting this business school process.

Attracting Gay MBAs

Out For Work

GLPCareers.com

B-Schools Gain a Lavender Tinge

Reaching Out MBA

Network-Q

My Motivation for Business School!

Hi All.... so I can't sleep right now.  The reason is because after the World Cup match today, I fell asleep for 4 hours!  So here it is 3:18am and I have to be at work at 9 and I'm wide awake.

So as the Title Goes... I found an article that I posted on my LinkedIn profile that sums up the exact reason I want to get an MBA - http://bit.ly/UnileverDigital - think about it... if budgets are doubling at companies like this... who is going to manage those budgets and expectations?  Need someone right, that's where I come in --- Hopefully!

So what does one do when they have free time on their hands like this?  STUDY AND RESEARCH B-SCHOOL stuff... I actually haven't begun studying yet, but I will after I write this post.  I did follow up on some emails though...

1. I responded to my Veritas B-school consultant.  I had some questions about my potential recommenders... the good thing about my consultant is that she doesn't let me get ahead of myself and lose sight of the fact that I need to score well on the GMAT!

2.  I have been texting all weekend with Brandon aka. Osirus (from Beat The GMAT).  He was at the MLT event in I think Minneapolis.  He got some great feedback regarding his candidacy.  He's so lucky that he got a 730 this time around.  He's keeping me going with words of encouragement.  I don't know if he's still thinking about Michigan Ross, because he was right before he went to the event, but now he realizes that he can get into higher ranked schools!  I was looking forward to finally meeting him (because we would visit Ross together).

3.  I responded to a "friend" whom I met during my Tuck visit.  Remember the girl who lives in Canada?  Yeah she's still waiting to hear back from Tuck re: the waitlist.  I can't imagine it being July and having not heard back from a school yet.  Like how do you wrap everything up in your life in a month or two.  I would like to at least KNOW if I'll be going to business school.  Hopefully she hears soon though... I mean the applications for this upcoming season will hopefully come out this week.

4.  I responded back to someone who emailed me regarding my blog.  I enjoy reading emails/comments from people and I ALWAYS respond...

5.  I emailed one of my friends (Yes one who I met @ Yale) who is going to Ross.  I'm actually supposed to have dinner with him on Tuesday.  He said he may have the Veritas prep pdf about Michigan Ross.  I think that would be good for me to read through before the event on the 19th.

6.  I emailed the other prospective I met at Yale.  I think he's traveling right now before he goes off to school.  It's nice that he's traveling now because the first event that Ross has for students is a trip abroad. I forget which trip he said he was going on, but when I find out I'll let you know.  Thailand maybe?  I could be making that up too!  Hahaha...

The Calm b4 the GMAT Storm - 4 DAYS!

So first off... I would like to thank everyone for wishing me good luck on Saturday.  I truly get excited when I check my email and see that I have another post on my blog...keep'em coming!  You guys are definitely helping me through this process!

Kulmiye - your post gave me a slap in the face - much needed i might add.  I need to be confident.  I've realized that I do know what I know.  I know all of the information that will be thrown at me on Saturday regardless of my scores.  Saturday will just come down to me putting it all together.  The ONLY way I'll be able to put the pieces together is by staying calm... I can do this right?  I mean it's just a test with a buncha questions that are worded awkwardly to throw me off?  I just need to see through the matrix.

I did not take the Kaplan exam on Sunday because the moderator guy said that it was not a CAT exam.  I didn't feel that I needed to take 3 hours away from studying, to do a non-cat exam.  So I just did a MGMAT CAT exam instead.  This was the beginning of my short lived depression.  I scored the lowest on this CAT than I had EVER.  The only good thing that came from taking this CAT exam was that I got 12 out of 14 SC corrections right.  I was very thrilled about that.  I proved to myself that I could do SC at the caliber that would be needed to score well on the Verbal section.  Now for the downside.... I think I had been drilling SC so much that I completely underestimated CR, which had been my best section out of all GMAT problems.  Actually that's not true... I have about a 95% hit rate in Geometry, but CR was always one of my highest scoring sections.  Here's a picture of my studying on my deck when I went home this weekend:

I think on that last CAT exam I got 4 CR's correct.  I decided not to read to much into that and just call it an anomaly.  I've realized that I do the best on sections that I'm looking forward too and that I'm calm for.  During one of my MGMAT Cat exams... out of the first 18 questions.. I had 1 sentence correction.  I don't think that will happen on the real exam... at least I hope not... or... maybe I hope so... because I like SC now.  OMG I didn't think the day would ever come where I would say that.  I guess I can say that about the test as a whole... I like trying to figure out the pieces to the puzzle.  Now I see why some people score 750 and try to take the exam again to get 800's.  I don't agree with it... but I can see why they would have that drive.

TEST CENTER DRY RUN 

So I've heard horror stories about people going to the wrong testing center...  not being able to find parking.... etc etc blah blah... so I decided to do a dry run to the test center.  I don't have to worry about parking or anything since I live in NYC.  I'm not even going to take the subway for fear of it breaking down with me on it.  I live in Hells Kitchen (Midtown west(ish)) and my test center is right by Bryant Park.  So on Monday - on my day off.. I was "sick"  ::cough cough::  I decided to time myself and take a walk.

Now I'm sure you guys heard about the bomb scare in Times Square on Saturday.  As a result of the bomb scare I decided to try to avoid Times Square.  Getting blown up on my test date would not be an ideal situation.  So I took a different route and encountered another issue... the issue being.. Mario Lopez filming something... so I had to dig through a crowd of people.  Of course I had to take a picture just to show you guys that I'm not lying.

So I took a couple of pictures and kept it moving...  I got to the Pearson building on 5th avenue and thought... ok that's enough... then I wanted to see what would be required for me to get up to the floor.. all I needed to do was show my ID at the security desk and he said 31st floor.  So I go to the elevator...  go up to the floor... saw the office where I would go... and clocked my time at 35 minutes.  I was walking really slow.  I could easily do that walk in 20 minutes, but I'm not going to be rushing on Saturday.

So that's that... last but not least... and this is my favorite part haha... So last week I got an email from the Kaplan center up the street from me...  Apparently Dartmouth is having an admissions event at the Kaplan Center on Saturday from 11 - 1.  I think it's basically an information session.  I WILL be in attendance.  Yes I know you're asking yourselves "Isn't your exam Saturday?"  Yes it is... So I will wake up around 9:30am... eat breakfast which will probably be Dunkin Donuts - I'm addicted... Then I'll go to this info session until 1... come home... probably go over things like what to do for AWA and stuff like that... then 3:15pm I'll start walking over to the testing center.  

After the exam I will come home... update my blog - MAYBE!  and then I have to hop on a train to go back to Jersey to go out with some friends... either way a drink will be in order.  If you don't see a blog post from me on Saturday you know it didn't go well.  If I do post.. it will just be my score!

OH!  I almost forgot... I'm kinda upset that Avatar isn't rentable on itunes!  I was looking forward to watching that Friday night.  Do you guys have any other ideas?  Nothing serious...