Rehashing Michigan Ross Pre-MBA1 Post

The first order of business is that if you have not gone to vote for the Clear Admit Best of Blogger Awards then you must go do so first before proceeding to read this post:  Here is the link (and yes I track it with a bitly!) My handle is Ellipser if you didn't know!

Last year in July when I was being frustrated over the GMAT, I asked one of my friends who had been admitted to Ross to write a blog post about what someone does before his first year of business school starts.  I didn't have any clue as to what one does in the summer.  Needless to say, I had a lot of questions.  I asked him to write this post: http://money9111.blogspot.com/2010/07/michigan-ross-pre-1st-year-student.html and as I was just reading back through it I realize how naive I was back then.  I can tell just from the questions I was asking him, but that's okay because now I can answer the same questions.

I'm also very curious as to what an MBA2 student does to prepare to enter back into the workforce, so I have someone else who is graduating in May preparing to write a blog post for me.

But back to what students do now... well I think Jonathan brought up some incredible points in his post.  I'm glad that things for me have come full circle and I do thank god every day.  I'll break down some of the things that I found to be very poignant from his post.  Even if you have not been admitted to a program, you can still find little nuggets in what I'm going to discuss.

Question 7.  How did you prepare to essentially be salary(less) for a full year until your internship?  A lot in savings?


His Answer snippet: "To be honest, I don’t feel fully prepared to go 11 months without a four-figure sum of money being deposited into my bank account every two weeks.  I did save as much money as I could for b-school, but I will still be taking out substantial loans.  Since b-school tends to attract students who have already been professionally successful and who plan on being professionally successful in the future, the adjustment to a student budget and lifestyle seems to be a common concern.'

My Comments: Every day this becomes increasingly harder for me to swallow.  The cost of business school is not what I'm struggling with.  That will come with a simple signature on the dotted lines when I get the financial aid papers.  But the whole... not getting a paycheck... is concerning to me.  I know it will work out and everything will be fine and dandy, but I'm not going to sit back and say that I've fully come to terms with that aspect of going to business school just yet.  As stated before, I have friends who obviously are good to go and are now traveling the world and more or less relaxing until August.  Am I jealous?  No not really because I need to keep myself busy as I get bored very easily.  But... every week I find out about something else that I need to pay for.  These "payments" will cease once I'm in school because that's when all of the loans kick in, but preparing for it is no fun.


Question 10.  What do you know now about the whole pre-MBA experience, that you wish you knew prior to applying?


His Answer snippet: "As a bonus, here’s one thing that I did know before I applied that I’m glad I knew:  Why I was applying.  Truly understanding why you want to go to business school, why now is the right time, and what you plan to do with an MBA are invaluable.  This insight into yourself will not only make selecting schools and writing applications easier, it will allow you to dive into the b-school experience from the moment that you’re admitted."

My Comment:  By now I would hope that you all know where I stand on this.  If you don't know why you want to go to business school... don't apply.  You need to have an idea because yes like he said, the insight into yourself will not only make selecting schools and writing applications easier, but it will allow you to dive into the experience from the moment you're admitted.  And let me tell you... once you're admitted and have decided that a school is the school you'll be attending... THE WORK STARTS!  

Don't mind me.. I'm not complaining about being in this position.  I did do my finances and put it all in a spreadsheet and was like "wow.. ok yeah I'm definitely working up until I move up to Ithaca."  ::shrugs::  no big deal I suppose hehe.  Ok I'm going to go watch all of this Royal Wedding stuff...  later folks

#LifeAfterSubmission

Ok so as you can tell the last couple of posts have been about my friends whom I am incredibly happy for, but now it's time to get back to ME!  There is a lot that I have to cover so I'm going to hop right into it.  oh btw... lately I've become very hashtag happy.

1.  Anxiety over this Investment  - It's interesting when you are going through the application process and you're soooo wrapped up in making sure that your GMAT, Essays, Recommenders, and all that jazz is tight.  You always hear about the cost of tuition and what not but a lot of the time, at least for me, it was simply a necessary evil.  Sure I applied through the Consortium so the chance of my receiving a fellowship was/is (I don't even know at this point) refreshing, but now as fellowship decisions are being delivered the big elephant in the room is becoming more and more obvious.  I spent nearly a down payment on a house (in some cities) to get a mortgage (in some cities).  Essentially that's what transpired this year.  I'm okay with it... or at least I will be...but I think all applicants who are going to go through with business school and are paying for it, need to go through this mental wrestling match with themselves to fully understand what we are getting ourselves into.  I could not imagine doing this without having an end goal in sight.  That'd just be weird...  #HaveAPlan.

2.  Speaking of fellowships hahahah... Congratulations to all of my friends who did receive fellowships to various schools!  I know the joy one experiences when you get the acceptance call but I can only imagine what it must be like to get the acceptance call and then find out that you've received the fellowship too!  So... to my friends at whichever school I end up at... you guys are buying dinner that first night!  #JustFYI

3.  Admitted students weekends are around the corner.  Well not really arond the corner, but Destination Johnson at Cornell is in 30 days.  I have to register for that tomorrow actually - or maybe right after I finish this blog post.  I cannot wait to meet my potential future classmates.  I'm going to keep saying potential future classmates, because I have not received the final word from three schools just yet.  As it stands right now, I'll only be invited to one ASW, so I don't have to juggle 5/6/7 of them.  I have it easy compared to some of my friends.  #WhoaIsThem

4.  So do you remember when I met with a guy who was interviewing at Cornell and wanted to meet up with me?  Well I bet you're wondering how his interview went...  it went very well!  I'll probably talk to him tomorrow to get the full low-down but I hope he nailed it so that we can be potential classmates.  I was also just talking to him and we're plotting against our tutor lol. #GladICouldHelp 

5.  Tomorrow (today) I'm going to be doing a mock interview with someone who became a friend after we partied it up at the NYU Diversity Conference.  I actually haven't seen him since the conference but we're Facebook friends and talk all the time.  He applied to three schools and just recently received an interview invite for Columbia.  I told him to send me his resume and that we would do a mock interview.  I want all of my friends to get into business school so that they understand rather than complain when I say that I'm too busy for things.  No but actually...I really want him to get into Columbia.  He did go there for undergrad so I'm going to need to come up with some more difficult questions that convey fit.  I already told him that I was going to be hard on him.  #LoveRolePlaying

6.  Also tomorrow is a big day because I find out if I was waitlisted or dinged from the University of Michigan.  I have a prediction so we'll see how it plays out at 4pm tomorrow.  #DingDong

7.  JUST REGISTERED FOR DESTINATION JOHNSON!  #WOOPWOOP