Monday 2 July 2012

Preparing for R1 this Summer

Its the start of summer - a great time for bbqs, long weekends at the cottage and MBA essays!  According to my Fuqua waitlist councillor, my decision should be handed down shortly and I'll finally get closure on my last R2 decision.  At this point, I'm not particularly optimistic about my chances.

The consolation is - the 2013 MBA application essay topics are starting to come out.  After a 6 month hiatus from MBA essay writing - I'm ready to the process all over again.  This Canada day long weekend I spent sometime looking over schools and essay choices.  Think I'll start off by tackling the Cornell Johnson essay set first.  Last year I spent a lot of time debating whether or not to apply to Cornell.  Couple of things turned me away - first I was a bit skeptical about winters in Ithaca (which is a terrible reason not to apply to a school), and second found the 'legacy' essay a tough one (fortunately it looks like that one is gone).  After a bit of research (and some forum reads) - found quite a few people that applied to Fuqua, also applied to Ross and Johnson.  Get the impression that all three place students at a nice rate, and maintain rankings in a similar group.

Big plus for me - is that a disproportionate number of Canadians head over to Cornell - so this is pretty much the only top MBA school to which I have alumni access through my personal network.  Wish I'd known how much easier that would have made my life last year, since tracking down current students/alumni was one of the most difficult parts of the application process.  Think it will help tremendously with the 'Cornell/Goals' essay.

In other news - I'm also 1/2 way done my first financial accounting course - which is something I'm doing to help address GPA concerns.  Currently sitting at roughly a 93% - Think this is a big one to help my candidacy.  Last year I definitely overestimated my chances for admission - had a nice 730 GMAT, an engineering undergrad from a top school here in Canada, and four years of experience in an important sounding job title.  Had no idea that my profile sounds like just about every other top 15 MBA applicant that I met last year.