The Others Applying For Admission  

I attended a few presentations for business schools during October. In each, I repeatedly came across some of the same people over and over again. You'd think everyone was applying to the same schools. I have got to know a few of these applicants since. I thought I would bemuse over some of their antics.

I was speaking to one such applicant applying for '09 admission just last night. We were talking about waiting for interviews. In his thickest French accent he said:
He says all of the above like he has applied to only three schools and has yet to hear from any of them. In reality, he has applied to six and already has an offer from Columbia. He has also received his Wharton interview invite. In my book - that puts him in a better place than most!

Then there is the Chinese girl. She has only applied to three schools, but she is utterly calm about it. It might be because she has CIMA accountancy exams in a few weeks and wants to get past those first. We've quizzed each other lots on each others' applications. Every time I rave about a bit of my application, she says:
       "There are lots of people that have done X.
        Why would they pick you?
        What's you X-Factor, man. What's your X-Factor!"
Speaking to her can be depressing.

Depressing, until I speak to a particular banker girl who starts every conversation with...
And then often continues with something like:
She is one of these people who has jumped on the MBA bandwagon out of the financial crisis. She is applying to eight schools in R1 (at the last count). It's funny when you meet them. They are as flustered as I thought they would be. I hear that they are in particularly high numbers at the presentations for the New York schools.

Then there is the Reapplicant. He is serious about doing it properly next time around - so much so that he is not applying for '09 admission, but '10. He turns up for the presentations to do research on the schools. He applied for '08 and was interviewed by a couple of the schools, including Tuck, Chicago GSB and Wharton. In the end, they all denied him admission. Worse, he says he got on great with the interviewers and he is still in touch with some of them! Funnier still, he says that last year Wharton offered to provide feedback to some applicants. You had to apply for the feedback, but he was denied for that too!

The variety of people applying to business school, and their varying attitudes towards the process, is amazing.