Financing Business School

I was going to title this post: and I thought APPLYING was expensive #ThinkAgain but then decided that it was too long.

I got my initial loan award notification the other day and nearly fainted!  I knew that would be coming but it was like looking at an employment offer!  I mean actually... 1 year's tuition is definitely someone's yearly salary!  I can't say that I was shocked because I knew what it would say but it's the magnitude of actually seeing your name at the top of the paper instead of "John Doe"  I know some people who saw that paper and said "yeah no I'm not doing this..."  For me though when I look down the road 10/15 years I need to have my MBA.  And by Need I mean Want and anyone who knows me knows that to me.. need/want are one in the same!  Therefore, I'm okay with putting down my deposit given calculations in the initial notification letter.

So all of my friends right now are looking for money from schools.  One thing I've seen from them is that they're able to leverage a Consortium fellowship from a "safety" school to get more money out of the school that they really want to go to.  This has been fascinating for me to see since I am not experiencing it myself first hand.  I will say that the correspondence with schools do NOT end once you've been admitted.

I found it comical to a degree when some of my friends would get a phone call and say "ut oh... I was admitted to school ______ with $$$$$"  and then I would reply "OH MAN.. sorry to hear that."  I remember one time I said to my friend "doesn't that sound weird?"  It's like "oh... sorry to hear that you just got offered $100,000 to go to school for 2 years!"  We definitely had to check ourselves.  But then if you think of the other side of things... out of my friends who applied to Consortium Schools... I am the only one that I know who did not get a fellowship.

There are many reasons for this which I probably won't go in to, but I will say that the knowledge they gained by being MLT members definitely gave them a leg up in terms of information throughout the application process.  I mean my ranking could have been different but of course I'm going to say that knowing what the outcome was!  Don't cry for me Argentina I'll be okay... but I do play the lottery on the regular now!  #RealTalk

I'm not complaining at all, because I'm still on my grind trying to find money out there.  THERE IS DEFINITELY MONEY OUT THERE!  TRUST THAT.  I'm seeing it being handed out left and right.  I just need to figure out how I can get in the same lane haha.  One of my friends told me about a scholarship application that's opening up today and I told him that if he's truly my friend he won't apply for it because he'll be competing against me!  I was half serious.  ::side eyes::

So even though I've applied and been accepted and will be putting my deposit down later today - once my paycheck gets deposited... there is still a crapload of work to be done!

1.  Need to stay motivated at work.
2.  Need to make sure my credit is on the up and up (oh trust me there will be a whole post on this after June)
3.  Need to fill out paperwork for the Consortium so I can attend OP in June.
4.  Later this evening is the NYC Johnson School at Cornell Admitted Students Happy Hour!
5.  Next weekend is Destination Johnson.

I think I may have some down time between 4/15 and 6/1.  I know that my second deposit will be due on June 1st but I'm going to try to get that in sooner so that I can start really saving up money for school. Plus the Orientation Program for the Consortium is in June so that's going to cost money.  Actually I think it's just going to cost the flight.  The hotel and food is paid for and then they'll reimburse us up to $300 of the flight.  So that will be good.

For those of you starting this process...  GOOD LUCK!  LOL  sorry I had to chuckle because I know exactly what you're going through right now!  At this time last year I was finishing up my MGMAT Course.

#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