Admitted to Wharton and Duke!

WOW.

I've been waiting to write this post for a LONG long time. and the time has finally come... and it's even better. 2 decisions in one day, and both of them are a thumbs up. YAY!

I got the call from Wharton AdCom this morning (2 business days before official decision date) with the good news. They said they were making some calls out early to their super star candidates- and when I heard this, i seriously just floated to cloud nine. I was so thankful and appreciative of their early call and releasing my anxiety/doubts/etc. that have been looming over me all week.

Two minutes later, i checked my email and i got in at Duke as well! I loved the campus and the environment when I went to go visit, but was concerned because I didn't think I interviewed very well. So getting in at Duke was another very pleasant surprise as well.

This double-whammy news completely made my week and my heart is still racing with excitement right now. I need to go celebrate...

Kellogg Visit and Interview

So here's the recap from my Kellogg visit:

First off, let me just repeat myself from the last post- Chicago is really REALLY cold. I knew it was going to be quite chilly, but I definitely did not anticipate the my-ears-are-going-to-fall-off-my-head coldness. I wish the weather was a bit more bearable, because Evanston seemed like it was a cute little city with a lot of charm. I would've liked to walk around the streets and do some sightseeing to get a better feel for the area.

But anyways, my visit to the Kellogg school itself was a great experience. It's an older building, but that didn't mean much to me. They had everything an MBA student really needs- large studying areas, a central eating area, free printing, lockers, cafes, etc.

Unlike my other interviews, Kellogg's on-campus interview was by a member of the Admissions committee. This was an interesting change as I had to think of other questions to ask besides the "in your experience at Kellogg" type questions.

The Admissions Director was a very nice lady who put me at ease right away. She really just wanted to get to know me and we went through my resume in detail as she asked me some follow-up questions. Here are the questions I remember:

- Walk through your resume (went into details and specifics about each of my previous jobs and responsibilities)
- So how was your experience hiring and managing your own team?
- Give an example of a type of project you led at your current workplace.
- What type of involvement did you have in your extracurricular activities?
- What role would you play in a team?
- If you were admitted, what will you bring to Kellogg?

I also sat in on a class and got to sit with a bunch of 1st year students for lunch. The group of people at Kellogg were very friendly and genuinely nice. I spent a good amount of time talking to a first year student who was interested in brand management like me. She is also part of the committee who is putting together DAK (Day at Kellogg- the admitted students weekend at Kellogg), so I'm hoping to see her again very soon!

And last but definitely not least, a couple photos from my visit to top off the post:





So this concludes my rounds of school visits and interviews. It was definitely quite a lot of work with the traveling and all, but it was very worth it to see the schools in person and to talk with the people there directly. R1 decisions are coming up very soon... in just a matter of weeks, I will know the fate of my Duke and Wharton applications. Well, at least I'll be catching up on all the work I missed this past week so I won't have too much free time to think about the wait for the decisions. I hope to receive that congrats call and to see many positive blog entries from other applicants very soon!

Wharton Visit and Interview

I just came back from my long and winding travels to Wharton and Kellogg. Let me just say, coming from Southern California, I completely underestimated the weather out there in Chicago. I mean, I thought Philly was bearable, but Chicago... man oh man, twas a different story.

But first things first, Wharton. My interviewer was a 2nd year student who was very nice and friendly, which made it easier for me to interview with him. He mentioned that Wharton students really don't have the "jerk" factor and people don't have their noses in the air just because they're at Wharton. I really liked that because I wouldn't want to be in an environment full of big-headed people.

I absolutely loved the campus and the small college town surrounding the university. Philly is such a small but cute city... I can totally see myself here next year (i hope!). My Wharton interview went pretty well and I'm feeling good about how everything turned out. I believe this week was the last week of interviews for round 1, so all we need to do now is wait and see the results in a couple weeks.

Here are the questions I was asked:

- Walk through career path
- Why MBA/Why Now?
- Why Wharton?
- More detail about extracurriculars
- What do you want to learn/gain through Wharton?
- Anything not covered in interview/application?
- Any questions for me?


Nothing too surprising or out of the norm. I actually thought it was a breeze compared to my ill-prepared Duke interview. I guess practice does make perfect in this case.

Well here are some photos from my Philly/Wharton visit:












I'll put together my Kellogg recap together in another post. Best of luck to all Wharton R1 applicants waiting along with me!!

Duke Interview and Visit Recap

Though it's been almost a month since my Fuqua interview, I thought I'd share some of my experiences and insights on this blog for 1) future interviewees who may benefit from my experience and 2) to sort out my thoughts as I prepare for my upcoming interviews.

So I had my on-campus visit/interview with a 2nd year student in early November. I told myself at the beginning of this application process that I would go visit every school during the interview phase and Duke was no exception. I flew from LA all the way out to NY for a biz trip, then took a short flight out to NC.

First things first, the whole on-campus visit experience was so organized and friendly. I was pleasantly surprised at how they had a 2nd year student greet me at the admissions office and prepared a folder for me with agenda of the events that I had signed up for that day. I first went on a tour of the school with a bunch of other prospects. Let me just say- I absolutely loved the facilities. They had recently renovated and expanded the place so everything looks new and clean. And I could really tell that they go out of their way to make sure that things are very convenient for the students. For example, each study room has a motion sensor that detects whether the room is being used or not, and there are TV monitors out on the hallways that tell you which rooms are vacant vs. occupied. This way, students don't have to waste time peeking into each study room to find a free spot.

But more importantly, the environment was very laid back and friendly. I could tell right away that this was truly a supportive and collaborative learning environment. There were lots of interactions in the hallways and everyone was so happy to see other as they were grabbing their lunches and mingling in the cafeteria. It was definitely a pleasant surprise compared to my experience at Columbia (which I may write another post about later).

Anyways, so this was my first interview for b-school so I felt a bit ill-prepared and nervous. The interviewer was a 2nd year student and the interview took about 45 minutes tops. Here are the questions I recall:

- What are your short term and long term goals?
- How are you and Fuqua a proper fit for each other?
- Tell me about an ethical issue you had to face.
- What does "leader of consequence" mean to you?
- What is your weakness?
- How will your friends describe you (3 adjectives)?
- If you had your own company, what type of people would you want to hire?
- What is a criticism you received that you didn't like?
- Tell me about a situation where you had a difficulty motivating an individual.
- Give me an international business problem that you want to solve.
- Tell me more about your extracurricular activities.
- What was the most challenging part about working in [non-profit A]?
- Any questions for me?

I don't know if it's just me, but I thought some of my interview questions were a bit out of the norm. I stumbled a little bit on a couple questions, but all in all, I hope I did enough to show the interviewer that I was very interested and excited about their program.

I regret not taking pictures of Fuqua's beautiful facilities. I will try to take some pictures on my next set of school visits.

So up next- Wharton and Kellogg interview next week! If any of you have already completed their Wharton or Kellogg interviews, feel free to provide me with some tips and advice... I would greatly appreciate it~

interview invite from Wharton!

Wow, it's been too long since I updated this blog. Since my last entry, I have applied to four schools in R1 (Wharton, Kellogg, Ross, and Fuqua), visited Columbia and Duke, and interviewed at Duke. I've updated my target school list and status of each application on the right side of the blog for quick reference on my progress.

Now that I am caught up to speed, my most recent status: I just received the email to interview for Wharton! I am so excited and relieved that I am given this opportunity to go to the next step in the process. Man, the online world can be stressful and very scary- everyone at the Wharton s2s discussion boards or the BW forums are walking on thin ice right now waiting for interview invites by the hour. Reading those posts got me more nervous as the final notification date was getting closer and closer. Well, I am ever so grateful as I am going to chug along and prepare for my Wharton interview (which I will probably do on-campus). I also have my Kellogg interview scheduled in early December, so I will need to plan my trips wisely around my hectic work schedule to make sure I can manage my workload.

Best of luck to all the applicants who are still waiting for the interview invite email. You still have one more day so keep your head up!!

GMAT update

I took the GMAT last Saturday and scored a 710 (92%) with an AWA score of 5.5. It's a solid score, but nevertheless a bit anticlimatic for me. I was really hoping for at least a mid 700 score but decided to move on and focus on other aspects of my application. I already feel so behind on my essays because I've been focusing on the GMAT for too long.

Now that I have the test out of the way, here are my two cents regarding test prep materials and practice tests:


[Books]

1. Official Guide: a must-have book for GMAT prep; great for real test questions, but was personally too easy and not a true reflection of the real deal.

2. Cracking the GMAT (Princeton): good for first time GMAT takers; gives lots of tips and tricks that can be helpful. the book also comes with access to full-length practice tests online. tip: beware of their online access time limit! once i enrolled onto their online system, i only had about 2-3 months to take all of their practice tests and utilize their materials. maybe this just happened to me, but if you're thinking of using this resource in the long term, your online access may expire and you may not be able to take any more practice tests from their system.

3. GMAT 800 (Kaplan): some very tough and tricky questions that's great for those scoring in the 700's already. i did find some errors in the book though that made this resource a bit questionable. (which reminds me, i need to write a letter to the publisher about this...)


[Online Practice Exams]

1. GMAT Prep: the best source for practice. it's exactly like the real thing (the blue screen, the fonts, everything!) and it's adaptive, so you will get a true sense of what your score will be. feel free to retake the two practice tests more than once because the pool of questions is quite large and you can get more practice out of this. tip: if you practice your AWAs on this software, you will never see your writing ever again. so if you want to see what you wrote, make sure you save it elsewhere so you can go back to it later for review.

2. Manhattan GMAT: very great resource for practice, practice, and more practice. For only $39, you get one-year access to 7 full-length computer adaptive exams. the great thing about this software is that they give you detailed explanation about each question and answer along with the category that each question lies in. this gives you a good sense of what your strengths and weaknesses are so that you can focus your studying and be more efficient. i personally found the math to be too wordy while the verbal was a bit on the easier side. but nevertheless, a great practice tool and highly recommended.

3. PowerPrep: the test questions reminded me a lot of GMATPrep since it was the older version of the GMAT when ETS used to administer the test. the scoring is fairly accurate as well, but if you solved all of the problems on the OG, you may see some repeats.


Hope these insights are helpful to those who are in the GMAT studying stage. Best of luck to all!!

tomorrow's the day

time flew by way too fast. my GMAT is finally tomorrow morning. i really hope that this will be the last time i'll ever have to think about the GMAT. ever again.

by this time tomorrow, i'll be at the beaches of southern california soaking in the warm sun~~ =)


and i promise i'll have more posts to come. sorry for the lack of updates... it's been crazy. but that'll change very soon.

back and ready to attack

hello blog world! it's been way too long since i've posted something here. i apologize for my long absence. i have been extremely busy with work and family responsibilites, which temporarily put my GMAT studying on hold for a couple months.

i finally signed up to retake my GMAT on August 9. it doesn't give me too much time to study, but i think it should be fine as long as i review the materials once again and take some additional practice tests. i'm at the point where i'm pretty exhausted with GMAT studying and just want to be done with it so i can focus on other elements of my application. since the last time i blogged, many of my target schools have already posted up their essay questions and many of our blog friends have already begun to write away. i will catch up once i'm done with my GMAT retake.

it's so good to see our c/o 2010 blog friends making their final preparations to go to b-school and slowly making the move to their new home. it's amazing how fast time flies; it just seems like yesterday that i was reading about their application/interview stories on their blogs. and now, they're finally starting~. this is such an exciting time of the year. i hope to be in the same boat as them just one year from now. =)

GMAT aftermath

first off, sorry for the delay in this post-GMAT entry. after the exam last monday, i decided to take a break from all things MBA related... including my blog. it was a good rest for a full week, but now i'm ready to get the ball rolling again.

so, in terms of my GMAT, i did.... pretty average [Q49 / V36 / AWA 5.5 = 700(92%)]. [edit] ok, it was above average, but i couldn't help but be a little disappointed in myself as i was hoping to score a lot better. all of my practice exams were in the mid-700 range, but i only barely broke the 700 mark. hence i made the decision to take the exam again in a couple months. 700 is an acceptable score, but not quite what i was aiming for. so, it's back to the books, the reading, the studying all over again. since the verbal section is what killed me, i need to go back and make sure that i perfect all the SC rules, and fully understand the CR and the RC like the back of my hand.

it's kind of a bummer to think about studying for the GMAT again. but on a positive note, i'm very thankful that i actually have another chance to get this right early on in the application process. =)

here's to another few months of studying!!

time to get serious

it's officially crack down time. work decided to take over my life and left me with no time to study for the last 10 days or so. now, i have just about a week left before the big exam day and i'm already starting to feel butterflies in my stomach. i really hope i get a good enough score that would free me from taking the GMAT again. oh, what a wonderful thought...

i'm going to take 3-4 practice tests over the course of next week and visit my testing facility ahead of time to make sure i know where it is. any suggestions on the types of snacks i should take to the testing center? 4 hours is a mighty long time to run without fuel.

let me just say though, the community of mba bloggers here has truly been a great source of motivation and inspiration to me. without this support, i wouldn't have ever thought of aiming so high and pursuing my dream schools as fervently as i am right now. thanks to all who have directly or indirectly encouraged me to reach for the stars. (<--- yea it's cheesy, but hey, it works!)


D-8!!!
(hopefully i can write a big whoopin' "i rocked the gmat!!" entry in 8 days!)

climbing up the GMAT ladder

i just took the last of my MGMAT CAT exams. i was so tired today and had a bit of a food coma from dinner, so i wasn't really expecting a stellar score. after finishing up the verbal section, i clicked to view the results... and my jaw dropped to the floor. i got a 770?! i blurted a loud "OH. MY. GOSH." and ran to the next room to tell my sister my little victory news. could it be that i'm almost ready to take the test? wow, i just hope it's not a fluke.

just to give my readers some perspective, here are my practice test scores from the very beginning:

01/19 GMAT Prep #1- 660
01/21 MGMAT Free Exam- 650 (Q40, V39)
02/02 MGMAT CAT Exam #1- 700* (Q47, V39)
02/09 MGMAT CAT Exam #2- 730* (Q49, V41)
02/18 MGMAT CAT Exam #3- 710* (Q49, V38)
02/23 Kaplan Onsite Exam- 710 (Q47, V43)
03/06 MGMAT CAT Exam #4- 740* (Q49, V42)
03/16 MGMAT CAT Exam #5- 770 (Q50, V45)

* the scores with an asterisk are the ones i don't count as accurate scores. i actually went over the time limit on the quant section for these exams.

but today's exam was strictly timed and i hit a new personal best. maybe i work better under timed pressure after all. this definitely made my whole weekend~ =)

now to april 7 --> D-21!

signed up for the GMAT!

after weeks of hesitation and doubting myself time and time again, i finally signed up for my GMAT exam. the d-day is monday, april 7. now i really have no excuse but to study like there's no tomorrow. i am a little nervous because i feel like i locked myself in to a date that i may not be completely ready for. but reading past entries from fellow applicant bloggers reassured me that no one feels 100% ready for the test and that you just have to go for it. my dreams and hopes are high, so the stress level and anxiety are that much higher.

too bad there's way too much going on in my life. (isn't that the story of everyone's life? =P) of course, life would be dandy if we had all the time in the world to devote to GMAT studies, schools research, applications, and interview prep. but given the situation i am in right now, this will be a true test of my ability to multi-task, manage my time super wisely, and (hopefully) conquer it all.


ALL THE BEST TO 2008 APPLICANTS WHO ARE INTERVIEWING/HEARING BACK FROM SCHOOLS!

experimental section- say what?!

i took a practice GMAT exam hosted by Kaplan this past weekend and one thing that the proctor said to the class really bothered me. according to this proctor/teacher, the actual GMAT exam has four sections- the writing, the quant, the verbal, and an experimental section that can either be quant or verbal. now, i've been looking into the GMAT for a few months now and have read countless blogs and discussion boards... and never did anyone say that there was a whole experimental section on the GMAT. i've heard of experimental questions spread out within each section, but having a whole another section is brand new news to me.

can someone please advise as to whether this is true or not? i'm really hoping that the kaplan teacher guy is wrong, because building stamina for an additional 75 minutes on the actual GMAT day is something that i am definitely not prepared for.

crankin away...

quick update on my GMAT studying:

things are going fairly well. i've been studying little bits and pieces during the weekdays and taking full practice exams on the weekends. i was a little concerned at first, because timing was a BIG issue for me on the quant section. on one of the very first practice exams, it took me over 2 hours to finish just the quant! i quickly had to calm myself down and started to focus on time management. needless to say, this past weekend's practice exam was a LOT better; i only went over the time limit by about 5 minutes.

my practice exam scores have been slowly rising up as well... this past weekend i scored a 710. not too bad, but i can definitely do better. since my goal is a 750+ and my exam day is still over a month away, i'm gonna start crankin it up a notch and go deeper into my studies.


on a last note: i just realized i was added to the mba applicants blog list. if this is your first time reading my blog, welcome! feel free to drop by anytime and leave a note or two. i've been one of those anonymous lurkers of many mba blogs for a couple months now, so i will probably know a lot of you already. =)

schools

in the midst of studying for the GMAT, i have been researching schools and narrowing down the list of schools that i would like to apply to. because i want to go into marketing/brand management with an international twist, i looked for schools that have 1) a strong marketing emphasis(both in curriculum and recruitment) and 2)an opportunity for international exposure. now the second point is important because i do want to have an int'l learning exposure of some sort while i'm in school. many schools have classes that allow students to take a 1-2 week trip to a foreign country to help a company solve an issue that they are currently facing. i think experiences such as these are very special and i must take advantage of them. so with that i present to you my school choices as of now:

Round 1
1. Wharton
2. Kellogg
3. Ross
4. Fuqua

Round 2
1. McDonough
2. Anderson
3. Marshall
4. Haas(?)

I broke down the schools into 2 rounds just because there's too many to do all at once. for now, i'm 99.9% sure that i'm applying to all the round 1 schools, which are my top school choices. then given whether i get accepted to them or not, i will apply to the round 2 schools. all of my round 1/top choices are the best in the country for their marketing programs, and there are a lot of recruiters that go to those schools for marketing related internship/post-mba recruitment. i'm super excited about the possibility of attending any one of those schools. hopefully, my top 4 will be good to me so that i won't have to apply to any schools in round 2. hahaha, it's a nice thought for now. =)

yikes!

so i just found out that i will have visitors staying at my place in late april for about a month. this means that i will have to take my gmat and be satisfied with my score before then. now, this really doesn't give me much time to study AT ALL, given the rate at which i've been so bogged down with work and other responsibilities.

but now that i have this deadline before me, i'm even more motivated to crack down and study any spare moment i have. it's hard trying to juggle a job with long hours and 3 hours of commute daily along with family obligations, community service activities, and church responsibilities all at the same time. sigh* well, this will be the true test of my time management skills. we shall see how it goes.

on a different note, i'm ever so thankful that my bosses are so supportive of my decision to pursue my mba. they've been so willing to give me advice and encouragement in order to come out successful in this process. =)

lagging/too busy

work and life has been keeping me from focusing on my GMAT studies. i really need to sit myself down and dedicate some serious time to studying as soon as possible. my plan is to take the exam in late March/early April. this should give me more than enough time to do proper research on which schools to apply for and work on my applications EARLY. "early" will be the key to my success throughout this journey. i refuse to fall into the trap of procrastination/last-minute frenzy that happens all too often.

as for my GMAT prep, i took a diagnostic test a while back (before any studying/practice questions)and i scored a 670. not bad, but definitely not acceptable in my books. i will need to get cracking on the practice questions and read up on the study materials if i want to reach that high 700 score. i'm hoping with a little bit of practice it shouldn't be too bad.

MBA, here i come!

so it begins...

i decided to start blogging about my mba application journey. i've been reading up on other mba blogs and i think it would be a great way to document each of my baby steps. i hope to read back upon this blog and see that all the hard work eventually does pay off.

i'm in the super EARLY stages of applying- my plan is to start b-school in fall '09. so i am in the process of studying for my gmat right now and want to take it in late march or april. given my current situation, i need to kick butt on the gmat in order to compensate for my very average gpa. my stretch goal score is high 700's, but anywhere from mid to high 700's will be great.


for new visitors reading my blog, welcome! i hope to provide you with some good insights throughout the process as well as share my personal experiences, joys, and frustrations. well, let's hope there will be more joys than frustrations. =)