The Consortium Fellowship D-Day

Remember waaay back when... it was actually in January.. when I posted about What the Consortium was? Well in it I mentioned that there's an uber important meeting that goes down where they decide who of the applicants gain membership into the Consortium and ultimately get a fellowship to one of the member schools.  THIS MEETING HAPPENS TODAY 3/1 (really tomorrow as I write this) in St. Louis!  It's important because historically 70% of ADMITTED applicants have received a fellowship.

The people in that room hold the fate of many many many applicants on their legal pages and notebooks!  I received a push notification message earlier today on twitter (my name is Money9111) from Jonathan Fuller who works in Admissions at Michigan rubbing in the fact that he was travelling to St. Louis!  I took a screenshot:

Lol yes I follow a lot of GMAT related people!  But now that I don't have to take that exam anymore I can probably unfollow them!  In any event... yeah... So right now I imagine all of the Admissions representatives from each school are just sitting in the lobby of some posh hotel downtown talking about "Hey... did so and so apply to your school?"  "Hey... what did applicant X write for your essay?  Did it sound anything like this?"  

I'm just joking I don't really think they're comparing applicants just yet!  But what will happen when they all go into that room and get down to business is left to the imagination.  The reality is simple.  There are some Consortium applicants who have found out decisions from different schools and there are other Consortium applicants who have not heard back from any Consortium member schools yet.  I don't think there's anything that one can read into that because it just varies by school.  Some schools notify Consortium applicants before they go meet in St. Louis.  Other schools notify after they meet in St. Louis.  The truth of the matter is... ALL OF THE CONSORTIUM SCHOOLS KNOW WHETHER OR NOT WE'VE BEEN ACCEPTED.  

So for me yes I applied to... Yale, Cornell, Tuck, Haas, Ross, and NYU.  All of those schools know whether or not I've been rejected, accepted or waitlisted.   They HAVE to know in order to be able to make a decision on whether or not to offer me a fellowship.

So while the last couple of days I've been on a high because of the Cornell acceptance... the reality has set in that I need $$$,$$$ so that I can go to school!

When all of the admissions representatives are sitting in that room I wish I could be a fly on the wall and just observe.  It's funny (not really) because none of us Consortium applicants knows exactly how the "Draft" is facilitated.  I will tell you the two ways that I think it could go down!

OPTION 1 - So we have all of the admissions reps in a conference room with their notes on which applicants they want that they've admitted.  So then the Applicants name and Stats and Rankings flash up onto a screen with the list of the schools the applicant has been admitted too by ranking.  (No sorry folks I'm not telling you my ranking even though the schools will know in a couple hours).  So once the applicants information is up on the screen then facilitator says "Hey... School _____  Richard ranked you first.. and you admitted him... you gonna show him the money?"  then School _____ says "DUH OF COURSE!"  And then they move on to the next candidate and any other school who had me on their "Must GET" list would cross me off their list and then give the fellowship they had planned for me to someone else.

OPTION 2 - All of the admissions reps are in the conference room.  Then the facilitator says "Ok we're doing 1st rankings first"  And then they turn to School _____ and say "Ok... persons A,B,C,D,E, and F all ranked you 1st.  Do you want to give any of them whom you've admitted a fellowship?"  Then the school decides and they do that for all schools.  Then they move on to 2nd rankings.  So then the shitty part comes when you're down in the 4/5/6th rankings and the schools don't have any more fellowships to give out.  

I know which one of these options would work best in my favor but then again... that depends on other schools I'm accepted too, AGAIN WHICH I DON'T KNOW.

Then on top of that...  us Consortium applicants don't know when we will find out decisions.  Some people are saying that we'll hear tomorrow about all of our acceptances + fellowships.  Some other people are saying that we'll hear by this Friday.  Some others are just saying that we'll get a letter in the mail shortly after March 15th!  We're all over the place lol... is it too much to ask for a decision just so we can all breathe?!?!

Who knew Tom Cruise had such bad teeth?!?!

Super Saturday on the Horizon

I am back from my relaxing weekend getaway in Fort Lauderdale! I went from 80 degree weather to 6 degree weather :-(  and now it's back to obsessing over business school.  In all honesty I'm not obsessing as much as I was last week and I imagine this will continue until I hear about or my friends hear about Super Saturday.

What is Super Saturday?  On February 12th, Consortium applicants who applied to Michigan have the opportunity to interview at the school should they be invited.  Here is the blurb from the "We've Received Your Application" email that I got from Michigan - "


Consortium Interview Saturday – Ross is hosting a special Consortium candidate-only event on the afternoon of Saturday, February 12^th in Ann Arbor.  More details will be included in the interview invitation." 

We (applicants) should be hearing about potential interview invites within the next two weeks.  I don't remember exactly when, but they did say that the invites would be sent out in waves.  So after my nice relaxing weekend it's back to monitoring my email like a hawk.  I still like being in this position better than say... a month ago when I didn't even have time to think about when to go to the bathroom!!

So while a host of R1 decisions will be sent out within the next 14 days, I am thinking about potential interviews.  I know that for Consortium applicants interviews are not necessary and are at the discretion of each school, but I really hope that I do get interviews at all of the schools that are "curious" to know more about me!  I will feel much better about my chances if that happens.  Not because I believe that an interview is a necessary barrier to entry for the schools I've applied too, but I know my strengths so an interview would serve me well - I HOPE.

This is just one more thing that people think about when going through this process.  I may be using that sentence a lot in the coming weeks because as I've said before, THIS part of the process is something that not many people have insight to.  I really hope that I make it to the next 'step' in this process.  If I do get into a b-school I'm going to be able to share a wealth of knowledge and insight into the process...moreso than I've done thus far - trust that.  HHmmm maybe I'll write a book!  ;-)  Foreshadow much?  Naaahhh not really. Or maybe?  Um no... lol won't have time for all of that!

I'll tell you what I'm trying NOT to do-----think about my essays and wonder if I got everything across that I wanted too.  That would probably give me a major headache, but you can believe that if I get an interview invite I will be going through all of my essays just to refresh my memory.  I should actually remind my friends to do that!  I have a friend who got an interview invite from Chicago as well as Columbia.  And then another one who just got an invite to Kellogg (yeah they interview everyone).

In addition to reminding my friends to go through their essays again... I need to check to make sure that my suit still fits!  I think I've gained weight since I last wore my nice one and that would be a shame!

On that note... I'm going to do some random internet browsing before bed.  Adios!