The R1 admissions process is well and truly entering the interview stages. My bet is that most of the B schools have maybe 20 or 70 or maybe more student readers right now giving the applications a first pass. This number will vary by the size of the school. Each student reader probably has 50 applications to read. Each application probably takes an hour of reading time. The student readers will also have been given a deadline to get their application reading done by. Some of the student readers will have done all their readings early. However, since student readers are first and foremost students, I reckon most of the kids will be getting their readings in at or near the deadline. Hence, if the school's interview invite policy is determined by early readings of an application, an early interview invite is probably just indicative of how proactive your application's student reader has been.

So I reckon the real worry is not that the your application is already read and rejected. Oh, no. Rather, I think the real worry is whether your application gets read at all. I mean, think of the deadline for the student readers... and all those 80 applications they have to get through (Yes, I've just given them another 30 on top of the 50). On top of these applications, they have school work, partying, clubs and recruitment to fit in. Plus, how many applications can a person read without getting bored and falling asleep. The questions we should be asking ourselves should not be about the quality of our applications. Instead, I think they should be along the lines of, is that career goals essay going to hold up to being skim read on the morning of the readers' deadline by someone completely hung over (and possibly still drunk) ?

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When you are sitting around, bored and waiting for responses from your R1 applications... you can not help but let your mind wonder about what the other options are. Particularly when you look around and the applicant blog-pool from last year seems to be filled with with sorrow such as this and this.

The plan behind pushing five apps for R1 was so I would not have to dip into R2. Hopefully that will still be the case. If I do need to dip into R2, these are the schools I have been thinking about...

INSEAD - I like the continental European feel of the school. I've always wanted to learn Spanish as another language; their requirement to know a second language in some depth appeals to me for this reason. Perhaps the only true world class international school, with options to utilise their great links to Wharton in the US and the INSEAD Singapore campus.

Chicago Booth (GSB) - Probably the most flexible curriculum there is. You get what you want from this MBA. The facilities have great style and class. Would be a great place to study I think.

Columbia - A rising school in my opinion (yes Tieny, you heard that right), and set in New York, New York. What more is there to say?

LBS - A top business school in my back yard. The only deterrent is that I have been in London most of my life. I don't think I will gain as many new experiences here as at other schools.

Tuck- A strong sense of community. For some reason or other, I've met quite a few of alum from this school in various places. They have all been likable and the network seems very, very strong.

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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.

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Wharton interview invites opened for business last week Thursday, Oct 23rd. They close Thursday Nov 13th. Anything can happen in the next two weeks, but the longer I wait... the more I get that sinking feeling. I hate waiting.

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People talk about what an awful time it is to graduate from an MBA degree. For an international applicant, it is surely an awful time to start one too!

Firstly, the price of my MBA education has skyrocketed over 20%. This means a bigger amount to pay off and, in this credit crunch, a bigger headache.

Secondly, in many an MBA application it asks for your salary in US dollars, but does not ask you to state the exchange rate. Given the drastic exchange rate changes over the last few months, even people applying from the same country are going to give wildly differing accounts of what their salary is in US dollar terms. I wonder if the adcoms realize that they just won’t be able to compare applicants’ salaries!

Thirdly, what if the dollar strengthens further over the next two years? Will I be able to get a high enough paying job to pay off this headache? How long will the coming recession last? Will I be able to get a job? This has to one of the worse years to apply to business school.

It looks like the hey days are over.

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I've had my Kellogg interview. Overall, I am satisfied with it. I want to shout out thanks to HappyBunny and Soni for posting their experiences. The themes were similar to what they mentioned, but the questions were quite different. In fact, I think it is the type of interview where you can not really prepare a huge amount, even if you know the questions. You really just need to know who you are and have some stories to tell that are anchored in your resume and consistent with your application.

The first half of the interview was centered around walking through the resume. The interviewer asked very specific questions on this and various experiences I mentioned on the resume. The second half consisted of more generic questions that were very much in line with the original Kellogg essay questions from this year and previous years (look them up). If anyone wants to discuss specifics, punt me an email.

I think I rambled in several places and my delivery could have been much, much better. If I am fortunate to get further interviews, I will definitely have to work on this.

Best moment: He starts the interview by saying, "you have a very interesting resume". [This was a confidence boost for me].
Worst moment: "Is the colour of the tie you're wearing Harvard red?" [*cringe*]

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On Saturday night, I was at a party and met a guy who was a Harvard undergraduate and Yale Law graduate. We spoke a bit about business school. He had some definite and strong views, which I have recited below. As always, controversy and emotion are never far away when Harvard is concerned. Remember, these are not my views, but his!

--

• "If you get in, you'd have to be an idiot not go to Harvard".
• "Walking around the Harvard Business School campus, you can just smell the wealth, the $3 billion dollar endowment. You can feel it in the strength of the floor as you walk around." [He mimed the smelling and walking as he said this]
  
• "No matter which part of the world you go, whether it is the outer reaches of Cameroon, Mongolia or where-ever else, they know what Harvard is. It is the only international brand". [Interesting, since it is considered to have a weak international curriculum].
• "Harvard just emanates power".
• "The kids at Harvard Business School won't be any smarter than the ones at London Business School; in fact there will be some real idiots at Harvard. But they will think they are smarter. And so will everyone else."
• "Harvard Business School is so beautiful and just has such amazing facilities and resources... it will amaze you. There is nothing like it."
• "There are some top private equity and hedge fund firms that are full of Harvard and Wharton alum, and they will only hire from these two schools as well. They have nothing against the other schools. They just like to keep it in the family."
  
• "You're not applying to Columbia!? You have to apply there! People walk straight out of there into Goldman Sachs."

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