I've got a lot to update you guys on, but it's getting pretty late so I'll have to make a more complete post tomorrow. Over the weekend, I attended Fuqua's Ford Workshop for Minority Applicants and it was a hell of a time...which I'll go into more detail about tomorrow.
A few hours ago, I had my admissions interview for Stanford with one of their alums here in DC. I was really nervous about this one because I know how hard it is to get an invitation. I thoughtI'd get grilled, so I spent a couple of hours prepping for it last night with my friend Maya (biggups to her ;-) ). I showed up a little early for the interview, but my interviewer didn't seem to mind. He was a member of the Class of 1993 and he was incredibly friendly from the start. The biggest thing that I noticed about him was that he exuded love for Stanford and its MBA program. He aked me a set of really good questions, but none of them were meant to confuse or stump me. He later told me that he was mostly concerned with getting to know who I was as a person. After he asked his questions, he gave me a chance to ask some of my own and this is where the interview got good. His responses to my questions were filled with great testimonials about Stanford's program and life at the school. I don't know if the school pays him to do any recruiting, but, if they don't, they seriously need to do so. After talking to him, I was very excited about Stanford...I just hope that he was as excited about talking to me. I guess I'll know in about 2 months when they release their admissions decisions.
Whew! I sure am tired. I just finished the last of my essays for the common Consortium application and I'll probably submit it either today or tomorrow. Next, all I'll have to do is my essays for each of my CGSM schools and then this first round will be finished for me. I hope I get into one of my schools because I don't want to have to rush to do any more apps for round 3.
I finally got my Kellogg application submitted on Tuesday, so I took it easy for the second half of this week. That application was a tough one because of the page/paragraph limits that they put in, so it seems like it took me forever to knock it out. I especially had a hard time with the first and third essays because I couldn't seem to keep them down to two pages. I still don't know how I was able to make it happen, but I'm glad it's out of the way.
Now, I've only for the Consortium application left ahead of me. I'm trying to hit their first deadline on Dec 1 and I'd actually like to submit the application a week earlier than that just to be safe. My mind is all worn out after dealing with these apps, but I know it'll all be worth it once I get this last one in. It's going to be a loooooong couple of weeks.
What's up, y'all. It is now a little after 8pm EST on Sunday night and I'm seriously beat. This has been one of the longest weeks I've had for a while.
It started out tough with Stanford's first round deadline on Tuesday at 8pm EST. I had turned in my app on Sept 23, but my recommenders didn't submit their stuff until the very end. One submitted his on Monday and the other two submitted thris on Tuesday at 10am and 3:30pm, respectively. It sure does feel like a ton has been lifted off of my by having that applications finished.
The week got really hectic on Friday when i had to get up at 4:15am to get ready for my trip down to Darden for the Discover Darden weekend. Charlottesville is only 2 1/2 hours from my place in the DC area, but I was riding with some friends and we had to leave before dawn to make sure that one of them got there in time for her admissions interview. Overall, I can't say enough about how they put things together fo us at Darden. The weekend was off the chain. It would take forever for me to put it all into words, so I'll just give some highlights:
1. I was able to do my admissions interview on Friday and I was nervous as Al Sharpton in a Klan meeting. Fortunately, my interviewer kept me at ease and I was able to get my ideas out smoothly. It was more of a conversation than an interview and I think I did pretty well.
2. The Darden BBSF arranged for us to have a presentation from Warren Thompon who is a Darden alum and the CEO os Thompson Hopsitality. This man has been an entrepreneur since elementary school and it was great to hear about his perspectives on being a Black man in the business world and at Darden.
3. The Darden students that I interacted with were fantastic. Everyone knows how busy their schedules are (especially as first years), but they had no problem donating their time to make our experience a good one and providing any information that we needed. I can tell that these folks really care about each other, the prospectives of color that were there, and Darden as a whole.
4. The mock case discussion with professor Sherwood Frey was very intense. It gave all of us a sense of what to expect when we get to Darden and I think it changed a lot of people's perceptions of the case method.
5. Dia Draper and everyone on her staff that helped put this all together deserve the biggest shout out of all. It took a lot of work to make this happen and it went off without a hitch. I'm very happy that I was able to be a part of it.