Cornell Johnson Interview Scheduled

CORNELL INTERVIEW - I realize that it's been a hot minute since I've posted.  I've just been incredibly busy with a lot of things.  My interview is scheduled on campus for Wednesday the 16th at 10:15!  I emailed my friend (one of the guys I met at the Reaching Out Leadership Conference) who is a 2nd year at Cornell to see if I could crash at his place.

I will be taking the Cornell Campus-2-Campus shuttle on Tuesday and will arrive infront of Sage Hall a little after 5:00.  Then I'll be going to my friends apartment.  I gotta remember to not forget to print out updated copies of my resume.  Note To Self

There is a lot going on behind the scenes now that I've been invited to interview.  I have a lot of research to do.  There's a lot of emailing going on... What are the emails for?  Well instead of talking to my Cornell friends on FB, I need a more formal venue.  I just want to make sure that the things that I have in my head make sense.  I've also dug out the information that I received at Johnson Means Business.  I told myself to keep all of that information JUST IN CASE I needed them for an interview or as a re-applicant.  Thankfully it's because of the former.

VIDEO ESSAYS - Tonight I sent my Tuck video essay to my friend because he wanted to see it.  Any time I send the video to people via YouTube, I upload it and then take it down immediately.  I do this even if the video is private just in case ya know?  Well I remember my friend from Saturday Night telling me that there were a lot of NYU ESSAY 3's on YouTube.  So after I sent my video to my friend I started watching NYU Essays on YouTube.  I watched about 5 of them and the main difference between their videos and mine was the time allowed.

My video could be a maximum of 1 minute and 30 seconds.  Some of the NYU Essays were 10 minutes+!  A.) I can't imagine editing and putting together a 10 minute video essay.  I know how long my video essay took so if I had to add another 8 minutes and 30 seconds to it, I would die.  I don't think they had a time limit but I wonder at what point does one tell themselves "Ok this is a long video"   Then on the flipside - how do X amount of application reviewers watch that many videos that are that long?  It boggles my mind!  ::shrugs:: Oh well I didn't have to do one for NYU thankfully, because that would have thrown a wrench in my plans.

Yale SOM - I received an email yesterday from Yale SOM saying that their decisions for my round would be released on February 25th.  Soooo......  I don't even have to say "Next month I'll find out official decisions."  It'll be THIS month!  Can't believe the time has arrived.

It Doesn't Stop - For all of those who are starting this process... just know this - once you hit submit.... "It" slows down but "It" doesn't stop.  After March I will tell you what "It" is.  There's too much competition now and the cost/benefit analysis doesn't warrant me filling in the blanks at this juncture.

This was a boring/forced post.  Sorry guys lmao - but such is the life of someone in my position right now.  Like I said... there's a lot going on behind the scenes.

Essay Writing Break

Unforunately, I never heard back from Dartmouth regarding my status on the Diversity Conference waitlist, but that's another story for another post.

So as you may remember back in September I requested a bunch of days off in October and November from work, so that I could visit schools and junk.  So Wednesday the 10th (yesterday) comes around and I was still prepared to hop on the Dartmouth Coach and head up to the conference that started today.  I had the days off so why not.  Around 5pm I still hadn't heard back and my manager asked if I was going to come in Thursday/Friday even though I had taken off.  She knew why I had taken the days off, so it wasn't that big of a deal.  I decided to take today off and work on my essays but I will be going in to work tomorrow.

I didn't want to take Friday off and have a three day weekend, because I would prefer to have a Thursday off and then go in on Friday and then have two more days off.  

In any event, I've been working on my Tuck essay for 4 hours.  Why have I been working on it for 4 hours you ask?  Well... it's difficult editing videos.  Oh yeah... since I'm applying through the Consortium I can either write an essay (they didn't put a word limit on it) or do a 90 second video.  Using context clues from above, I'm sure you can imagine which option I've chosen.  

I have a Macbook and this is the first time I get to try out all of the video editing features.  Very excited about that!  I'm also using something that I learned about during my digital marketing class in June.  Someone did a presentation and used a certain program, which shall remain nameless, and I'm using that to create my video too.

I needed to take a break from staring at my computer screen for so long.  I also took a break to go to Best Buy because I needed to buy a microphone.  I'm almost done putting the video together and plan to have it completed tonight - otherwise today was a bust and I can't afford to have a day off without getting anything done.

I didn't think making the video would be this difficult.  It's hard enough writing an essay, but when you write an essay (especially with no limit) you don't care how long the video version of it would be.  Of course I'm not simply sitting in front of a camera reciting an essay, but think about having to create sound bytes essentially for a 90 second video.  90 seconds is NOT a lot of time when you think of "Introductions" and "Conclusions."  

Oh well!  Don't cry for my Argentina - I'll get it done and it'll be phenomenal - I HOPE!  I actually need to find out if I can burn DVD's on either my Macbook or my mothers laptop.  Hhmmm...