Marquis' Weblog

More good news...

I just got a call from the Director of Admissions at Darden and I was offered a spot in their class of 2006. I loved it down at UVA while I was earning my first Master's degree so I am grinning like a champ at this news. Now, I've got to see if the Consortium feels like choosing me for one of their fellowships :-D

I just realized I left something unfinished yesterday

In my excitement about yesterday, I remembered that I didn't give the update on the second halfof what I was worried about...HBS.

Harvard ended up rejecting me, but I was surprisingly unphased by it. I know that Stanford was my first choice, but I thought getting dissed by HBS would sting a little, but I honestly didn't feel a thing. I guess it was God's way of letting me know that Boston wasn't the place for me.

On other fronts, I got notice of my scholarship award from Fuqua today and all I can say is..."DAYUM!!!!". They really brought the thunder on that. I've got a lot of thinking to do over the next couple fo days...

Stanford finally gave me the word...

OK, I'm seriously running on fumes right now because today is the notification day for Harvard and Stanford. As I said in my last entry, I haven't been sleeping much for the past few days because I've been so worried about what I'd hear today. Well, things got worse yesterday when my boy Detavio told me that he'd gotten a call from the admissions office at Stanford saying that he got in. I was happy for my boy, but I was also upset because I didn't hear from them at all yesterday. My stomach was in a knot all evening long and, when it came time for me to crash for the night. I couldn't sleep. I might have caught a 15-30 minutes cat nap last night, but I spent most of it doing pushups, dumbbell curls, and crunches in an attempt to make myself get tired.

Anyways, when I got into the office this morning, I was a wreck and felt like a member of the walking dead. The first thing I noticed when I sat down was that the voicemail light on my desk phone was blinking, so I checked it and there was a message from Derrick Bolton on there telling me that I'd been accepted at Stanford. All I could think at that point was...

HOLLA!!!!

but I was at work, so I had to chill...and wait until I could walk outside to call my mom with the news and act like a complete nut. :-)

I'll be hearing from HBS in 2 hours and I'll be posting another entry right after I hear the news. I'm on Cloud 9 right now...hell, I haven't even been able to breathe right for the past hour. I feel like I'm having an asthma attack from the excitement.

Dang, I'm tired as a mutha...

Tomorrow is D-Day for Harvard and Stanford and I haven't gotten a full night of sleep since Saturday worrying about whether there was something I could have done to increase my chances at those schools. I went into this whole B-school application process not expecting to get in anywhere because I thought my undergrad GPA and lack of business/management work experience would be weaknesses. All along, people kept telling me that I would get into any school I wanted, but I wouldn't let myself get too excited about my chances. Once I got interview invites at HBS and Stanford, I realized that I was a viable candidate and, when Fuqua accepted me, I started to think that these folks might have been right about my chances at the schools where I applied. My confidence was sky-high and then Kellogg did away with that last week when they dinged me. Now, I'm sitting here stressing like crazy about whether I screwed up my chances at HBS or Stanford at some point during this process. You guys already know about the debacle that was my HBS interview and I'm also concerned that I might have let myself get too comfortable during my Stanford interview. I can't wait until I get tomorrow over with so I can stop worrying about this issue.

I know one thing for sure....your boy is going to be right tipsy tomorrow night because, if I get accepted to one of these schools, I'll have to have a few drinks to celebrate and, if I get dissed by both, I'll be drinking away my sorrows. I need a nap in the worst way...

Well, I had to get it out of the way eventually...

Something just compelled me to go to Kellogg's website and check on the status of my application and, to my surprise, saw a letter on the screen with this as the first paragraph:

"The Admissions Committee has completed its review of your application for admission to the Kellogg School of Management. Despite your many merits as a candidate, I regret to inform you that we are not able to offer you a place in the entering class. "

Oh well, I was halfway expecting this after I had a so-so interview with them, but it still feels like a kick in the stomach to get that first ding. Hopefully, the rest of them will be easier to take now.

Thank goodness I got into Fuqua because, if I hadn't, I'd be all kinds of distraught about having Kellogg diss me.

One more week until I hear the word from HBS and Stanford...

Happy new year!

I don't really have anything of consequence to add for this entry, but I wanted to wish all of you a Happy New Year. I won't be hearing from any of my other schools for another 3 weeks, so this weblog may end up being pretty light until then. I'll be hearing from Stanford and HBS on Jan 21, so that will either be very lovely or very ugly. I guess y'all will have to check back in to find out, huh? :-)

Take care.