What If Syndrome is creeping in!

With Duke safely in I am very close to accomplishing the goal I had set for myself, hit most of my schools in Round 1. I am only left with Michigan, which I would be submitting in the next two days.

Last few months have been a lot of hard work and I am happy that I was able to focus so much on the apps and gave it by best so far. Now begins the long and anxious wait for the interview invites. There were times when I was really confident about my chances of making it to one of my schools because of my profile and belief that I have done a good job at the essays. But as the interview wait prolongs I do get a self-doubt once in a while. There are lots of What Ifs in my head:

What if my essays were not good enough for the schools I am targeting
What if the story did not make sense to them
What if the qualities I focused on in my essays are not the ones Adcoms look for
What if there are spelling mistakes and mention of school A’s club in essay for school B
What if my recommenders did some gross blunder

I am sure each one of you also might be going through the same What if syndrome!
Every time I have this, I look out of the window and take a dep breath. I tell myself that I gave it my best, and this is the person I am. If I am meant to be, I would shine through the competition, If I am not, then I will sit back and re evaluate myself and fight it out one more time. But I wont give up and in the end that is all that matters. The rest is destiny.

On a lighter side, I am reading The World is Flat and listening to a lot of music. I am also spending a lot of time meeting up with my friends. Calling my out station friends, who have been trying to hunt me down for a long time since I went under ground J

I am also eating a lot of delicious food outside as no more I am scared of falling ill. Nov 1st is when I plan to hit the Gym and I have a bet on this with my roommates. The feeling of being on the treadmill, sweating and pushing myself for one last mile is something I love and nothing can beat that.

Interview or no interview, admit or no admit, I am dying to get my life back!!!

Kellogg Submitted!

A little late in updating. I did manage to put in my Kellogg application as well. It was not as much sweat as I expected it to be and did not really have to slog in the end to put a good application.

I think I did a pretty good job at researching the courses, alums and other aspects of the school. The self evaluation essay was the most challenging one. I did not have difficulty in pointing out the weaknesses in my profile. But somehow because of word limit I did not spend too much time on them.

From all the blogs, forums and discussions I had some idea of what the schools look for. Exploring Kellogg website helped to some extent in knowing what kellogg specifically looks for. I used these to evaluate myself on each of these aspects.

Outside of Work was my most creative piece so far. I did a great job at it in the very first draft and it hardly underwent any change later on as well.

Leadership essay here was very different compared to other schools as we had to talk about leadership experiences and about the most vauable lesson learnt. I used two leadership examples, one from work place and one from community service to bring out the common valuable lesson I learnt.

I sure have a lot to share on this if I am able to make the cut. Till then I wont advocate much as not sure if my approach is the best one :)
Good luck to all others aspiring for Kellogg

Done with Chicago

Chicago was the first application I started working on and it took a great amount of effort. The first essay was a killer and it forced me to think through all the aspects like career progression, WHY MBA, career goals and why a particular school. But after hazaar iterations I am confident I have given it my best and have a convincing and punch packed story.

It helped me get my foundation right. This essay is still very different from that of most other schools, which have a 500 word limit. I am not surprised to see that writing the 500 one is turning out to be a great challenge. You got to touch on all aspects without exceeding the word limit and not compromising the content.

Next is Kellogg in line. lets see if I can make that to round one. Finding it really hard as of now, but then I aint giving up yet.

Finally pressed the SUBMIT!!

Just now I submitted my Wharton Application and man I am relaxed now and happy !! I have put in a great amount of effort in the application and I think I am really satisfied with my efforts. I am happy I gave it the best I could have.

There is a lot I want to share, but I am really short on time:
Quick Tips:

1. Send your scores and get the transcripts as soon as you decide on the school. Dont delay tasks which can be completed much in advance till the last moment.

2. Do have a look at the online application much in advance. You can fill most of the stuff earlier itself as save yourself precious time and nervousness in the last moment.

3. Get your essays reviewed, everyone will have some comment or the other even after you have submitted. use your judgement to decide when you are done and what makes sense and what doesnt.

4. Ensure that you convert your essays to PDF and print them and sit in a relaxed mood and read. Some of the errors will definitely get caught, which otherwise would have gone unnoticed. Use double spacing, it makes for a better read.

5. Give your recommenders enough time and get that done much in advance as well.

Last but not the least !! Dont be scared to press the submit button. You have put in your efforts and given it your best. Its all destiny from here on.

Ok time to celebrate a bit. And Chicago here I come !!

Good luck to all fellow applicants.