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

Stalking Email for Interview Invites

Exactly 365 days ago, January 27th 2010, I had my first Manhattan GMAT Prep class.  Boooy do I wish I knew then what I do now about this whole process!  I find it kind of ironic that on the day when I "officially" started this process a year ago.... Interview Invites for those who applied to Michigan Ross R2 started going out today.  That means that IT'S OFFICIALLY MY TURN.  Hopefully it turns out for the best, but at least I'll know one way or the other how chips are going to fall.  I do have a Plan B so I'm content now.

Even though I'm content now... as you guys know I live out of GMAIL.  It's on all day.  Today I didn't go to work because we have another friggen snow storm!  But even on a regular day I keep GMAIL open.  Let me tell you what not to do when you've applied to business schools.

Do Not Keep Refreshing Your Email!  - Funny that I say that even though I do it.  If you do not want to make yourself crazy then check your email in the morning and then again at night at most!  Do not live out of your email like I do and some of my friends do.  Sure you want to be on gchat, but still.. no it's not worth it and here's why.  Every time you get an email, no matter who it's from, your heart will jump.  Then.. god forbid you get an email from a business school, your heart will race 100 times faster than if it was just a random email.  And for that split second you think to yourself "Could it be?" and then you read the Subject line and you realize it's something totally not related to your application.  Usually about something the Dean of the school said or some new class that was just offered.  Stuff that two months ago you may have been interested in but now you're only interested in one thing.

It's even funnier when you get an email from a school that you didn't even apply too and your heart still jumps, races, and does flips.  I got this email today from Columbia:

and nearly died.  Then I realized wait - I DIDN'T EVEN APPLY TO COLUMBIA!?  Maybe I'm just overreacting, but I'm just being real in what occurs.

Then my friend called me and said, "My friend just said that someone in the admissions office as Ross just tweeted saying that the first wave of invites would finish going out by COB (close of business) today and then would continue to trickle out."  This put me somewhat at ease because I now know that if I don't get an invite today it doesn't mean that I won't be invited at all.  Just means that I'll have to wait a bit.  No big deal right?  Nope... but you better believe that I just started following that Ross representative on Twitter lmao!  I know I'm a mess!  But at this point we all are.  

How many people out there have just randomly checked their spam folders on gmail?  If you're anything like me, you have NEVER checked that spam folder because up until this point you've always received the emails that you were meant to receive and the ones you did not care for were filtered out right?  So why is it that all of a sudden we think that Google has failed us and we feel the need to check our spam folders?  I find that comical, but hey... WHAT IF IT DID GO INTO THE SPAM FOLDER?  Then what?  Needless to say, I will be checking my Spam folder more frequently.

Oh and this just doesn't just occur on the computer.  These DAMN Smartphones and their email syncing and vibrating is making me go crazy too!  I could be in the middle of saving someone from a fire and if my phone vibrates signifying an email, that person may just have to wait!  Every single time my phone vibrates I just HAVE to check the email.  Granted I have three email accounts that are synced with my phone so the chances of the "next" email being the one that I've been anticipating is slim to none, but when in this situation no one thinks realistically.

So on that note.... I have 3 new emails and I must go check them....  adios!  I know.. I'm not sane!  :-)