Waitlisted at Ross

I got WLed at Ross and with this I am at cross roads in my decision making.

Ross is my top choice school owing to my inclinations to consulting and entrepreneurship. Ross has a strong consulting program and its highly reputed for entrepreneurship and research institutes. As per my understanding, wrt to the cultures, I believe Duke and Ross have similar cultures. Duke being more student driven and friendlier culture than Ross. All said, I would choose Ross over Duke if I get admitted.

Ross would release its waitlist decisions by May-15th (Yeah thats really really late). I need to send in the Duke acceptance and initial deposit by Apr-15th. As I am an international student, I also have to worry about the long drawn visa process, relocation and stuff. My prospective Duke classmates have already started finalizing accomodation and roommates. I should get started on my loan process for Duke by May. I am seriously considering mailing Ross Adcom about my Duke admit and requesting them to release my decisions early. Although, I know this would not be practically possible and I also wonder if it stupid and unwise to do so. But this is my best bet else I have to forget about Ross whatever be the case..

Also folks who have experience with waitlists, please share your experiences and suggestions on what to do and not to do to convert a waitlist..

Aside from all this, I received an interview invite from Cornell today much much after the R3 decisions have been announced :D. Cornell hadnt completed reviewing a part of the applications by the decision date. So most of them got their decisions on the R3 decision date while the unfortunate ones are as good as R4 applicants. Crazy stuff. Their mail also seems to suggest that they provide only on-campus interviews..

Got Admitted to Duke!

I have been wanting to make this post since I started my app journey.
Finally, today I get a chance to.
I am all excited and happy! My first admit and Duke is a great place to be in.
I have no words right now and it hasnt sunk in as yet.

The thought of going over the app process yet another time and not going anywhere this Fall has been haunting me since long. I am glad all that is put to rest now.
Yippeeee...
Thanks to my fellow bloggers for all the support and encouragement!
(Not inspired by Oscars or anything :D)
Good luck to all those awaiting decisions! :)

Interview Invite from Ross

In an unexpected turn of events, I got an interview invite from Ross today.
After 2 dings, All hope is not lost! :)
Could any R1 and R2 Ross applicants share their interview experiences?
What can I expect in a Ross interview?

Dinged from GSB and Kellogg

Hmm, officially denied from both the M7 schools I applied..
I guess my GSB app wasnt upto the mark. It was a last minute decision and I didnt put too much thought into it..Just did what I felt right. It seemed decent to my reviewers though :-S
However my Kellogg app. I had worked on that app for more than a month. It was my last app and I had applied all the learnings from the other submissions into it. The least I expected was an interview call. My interview was waived off even before my R2 app submission and then I got dinged. :(

Duke telephonic interview

I am updating this blog after real long. I wasnt away from the blogosphere. But there wasnt too much to update about. I applied to six schools and not having heard from anyone of them, I was going through this cycle of apprehensions and disappointments. I have seen many of them who are in the same boat and others who have received invites from their target schools. I am real sure that this one of the toughest phases in the application cycle. Keeping the hope and not letting self-doubt creep in.

The only update so far has been receiving an telephonic interview invite from Duke. I had requested an alumni interview from Duke. And they have scheduled an telephonic interview - kind of videoconference (with Skype and Webcam..not sure if anyone else has such an interview experience. If so pls share your inputs). Its something good. However Duke interviews most of its applicant pool, (the on-campus interview is for all, only the alumni interviews are by invitation) I am not sure where I stand.

All I can do now is prepare well for the interview and do my best!

Folks, wish me luck

I received valuable inputs from Achilles and Mbabound on interview prep. Thanks a ton!
Anyone else in the blogosphere who is interviewing with Duke for R2?

Lessons learnt in last minute app submission

Today I submitted 3 apps (Darden / Duke / Ross ) at one go and it was nothing short of a marathon.
I filled the applications forms in a frenzied pace and completed them with less than 1/2 hour to the deadline.

I learnt many important lessons in the process.
1) Application Forms - although I have read posts saying people overlook it, I never imagined it would be this difficult, the number of forms, the weirdness of questions and beyond all that it takes so many hours to fill them. I had assumed it would take max 1-2 hours. But I ended up spending more than 4 hours on some schools.
Lesson: Don't underestimate the effort or time for Appln forms

2) As an addendum to the first part, the application form might have some essay questions that you have known earlier. In my case, I weaved the Darden fit in my Essay1 only to realize that the application form had a specific question of fit at the last minute. I had to rework both my essays with just an hour for the deadline.
Lesson: Don't leave the appln forms for the last. Its better to go through it earlier to get an idea of what is required.

3) Recommenders not showing up at the last minute - One of my recommenders was on long vacation and promised to get things done by Dec 31. But he was still working on the draft version on Jan 2nd and on Jan 3rd night he was asking me for examples to fill for the questions and I spent solid 2 hours on discussions with him. I had regularly followed it up with him to the extent of not forcing him. Gave him all the relevant data sheets. I am not sure what I could have done better other than more persuasion
Lesson: Hmmmm...Don't trust their words, get things done. Be more proactive.

To add to the long list of problems, I had formatting problems with my essay questions and resume.
The kind of tensions I went through is unexplainable. I was worried that so many weeks of effort on essays would go in vain due to my careless mistakes. Neways, All is well that ends well. I am glad I managed to submit everything in the nick of time.
Hope the adcoms like my essays!

Another marathon week lies ahead as I plan to target Chicago and Kellogg essays from the scratch. (Poor time management or whatever you could call it :( )

Good luck to all the fellow applicants applying in R2 and Yeah remember to get stuff other than essays also in place earlier!