The Application Process

Congrats on the USC admit! You had impressive results with your applications.

ultraeasy... at least you're going somewhere! my friend was rejected from everywhere! can you imagine being in that position? thankfully you won't have too... i wouldn't wish that on anyone!

Thats funny that USC Marshall is making u wait considering the fact that they are not that highly ranked as the schools where u have got admits, was ur application weaker at this school? just curious

I'm just trying to wait it out until I have every school's final offer. Waiting a few weeks for UT-Austin ended with some cash on the table. But USC seems to be really distant in their admission's office. They still haven't called me and their congratulatory email was two sentences long. So I'm guessing that they will stay lazy and not report scholarships until they feel like it. That could take months. I'm anxious to get started with UCLA so I'm starting the matriculation steps now (sending in transcripts, etc...), but am holding off on the deposit for a little bit longer. They gave me until April to reply. But the other schools want to know my decision later this month.

But as far as my application strength went, my first one, Stanford, was the weakest because I hadn't quite developed my best story and plan yet. UCLA, was my second weakest because I rushed at the last second, literally, to submit in time. I started my audio clip at 7pm, finished it at 8:45, and found out the file was too large to upload at 8:50, and spent a nerve-racking few minutes on the phone to my friend who is a Garageband guru to talk me through the compression process. I ended up getting all of the boxes checked and audio uploaded, but with a few mistakes. I ended up submitting my optional essay at 8:58 that told them I was a great fit at "Stanford GSB". I'm glad they didn't hold that against me. But my Berkeley app was probably my best submission because they asked great questions in their essays so I could show a lot more than I could to other schools. But the other candidates who got interviews and admits must have shown them something more what they were looking for.

My thoughts are that you can't predict how admissions will view your application. Just do the best that you can, don't flip out if it's not perfect, and hope for the best.

Quick update for me. Bad news, but could be worse I suppose. Heard from Tuck and got placed on the waitlist... so still waiting to hear from two schools, but it looks like I'll be attending UCLA come autumn.

Harvard: Denied w/o interview
Columbia: Denied w/o interview
UCLA: Admitted
NYU: Waitlist
Tuck: Waitlist
USC: Waiting
Yale: Waiting

Here's my stats:

Age: 26
Current City: Tokyo, Japan
Gender: Male
Nationality: USA
GMAT: 710
GPA: 3.5
Full Time Work Experience: 2.5 years
1 year Japanese focused hedge fund (Seattle, Washington)
1/2 year Microsoft JV (Shanghai, China)
1 year German Conglomerate (Singapore and Tokyo, Japan)
Application year: 2010

Highlights: various leadership positions in student clubs, soccer team university/and local team captain, studied and lived intermittently in Asia for 4+ years, speak 4 languages (English, Spanish, Japanese and Mandarin- Chinese).

Career Goals: To get into Asia focused (and possibly Latin America focused) PE. Basically my idea is to bridge the funding gap between the three continents (i.e. Asia and North and South America).

Good luck everyone!

Nice! UCLA would be a great option. It has an amazing program and it is very hard to beat the location.

My news today was the offer letter from USC gave a half-tuition fellowship in it! That's about $49K based on their estimated tuition. That's pretty much the best offer that has been made so far.

So I'm not sure what to do in this case. I really need to know more about Marshall's program and figure out what they are all about and if they would be worth the discount to attend over UCLA. I was pretty set on just paying retail at UCLA and enjoy the program and reputation afterwards. But now that a good offer to go to a comparable, although lower-ranked program, more work is to be done! I did my interviews when school wasn't in session, so I think a trip to SoCal soon would be prudent to make a better decision because it doesn't seem like there is a clear choice right now.

Any thoughts would be appreciated. But I think the choice will come with research.

Current stats:

Stanford: Denied w/o interview
UC-Berkeley: Denied w/o interview
UCLA: Admitted
Kellogg: Waitlist
Chicago Booth: Waitlist
UW Foster: Admitted
USC Marshall: Admitted + $49K
UT-Austin: Admitted + $42K
Darden: Admitted
UC-Irvine: Admitted + $40K

Congrats Ultraeasy!!! Your admissions cycle has been nothing short of spectacular!

Good luck deciding which suits you best- USC vs UCLA. I definitely think that it'll take some careful research and analysis on not just the programs, but also your personal wants, needs, situation, etc...

Anyways, wish you all the best. And like I said before, who knows, maybe we'll run into each other at UCLA come Autumn.

Take Care,

ultra,
Do u apply for scholarship along with the application? or is it just offered? and what is the basis for shich it is offered? Nationality, age, background, work experience..any thoughts on this?

There were no separate scholarship applications, they just consider everyone who applies. They have different categories of fellowships and scholarships that do take into consideration just about everything from race, age, regional location (usually for local applicants), and field of industry. But many are straight-up merit based on your GPA and GMAT. Those were the ones that I was offered.

While these merit-based scholarships are automatic, schools can give away a similar amount of cash for need-based applicants. Basically everyone is going to have some need, so these ones are more competitive and often require that you apply separately after you've been accepted. Since I am taking all of the help offered, this means that I'm going to have to write some more essays and meet some more deadlines. Being first in line for this first-come first-serve money is the biggest reason I scrambled to meet the Round 1 deadlines.

All of these questions can be answered by each school's Financial Aid department, they each have their own methods.

There were no separate scholarship applications, they just consider everyone who applies. They have different categories of fellowships and scholarships that do take into consideration just about everything from race, age, regional location (usually for local applicants), and field of industry. But many are straight-up merit based on your GPA and GMAT. Those were the ones that I was offered.

While these merit-based scholarships are automatic, schools can give away a similar amount of cash for need-based applicants. Basically everyone is going to have some need, so these ones are more competitive and often require that you apply separately after you've been accepted. Since I am taking all of the help offered, this means that I'm going to have to write some more essays and meet some more deadlines. Being first in line for this first-come first-serve money is the biggest reason I scrambled to meet the Round 1 deadlines.

All of these questions can be answered by each school's Financial Aid department, they each have their own methods.

Ultra - what is the deposit amount for Darden and other schools? Does it vary by student?

thanks, you are a wealth of knowledge, I have learnt so much just by reading your thread, I do hope you still stick around (i don't see any reason for u to though:)) after you start school may be update your blog on how things go in your first year, It would be informative.

The deposit varies with the school, along with the amount of time they give you to make a decision. The time is anywhere from 5 weeks (UCI) to four months (UCLA). Although I've heard that you can extend your decision deadline by calling in and asking for more time. I'd just give them the classic line: "If you want an answer now, the answer is no."

UW- $650
Texas- Can't remember, $1500?
UCLA- $1500
UCI- $1000
USC- $1500
Darden- $2000

I do plan to stick around and share any insight that I may have after getting close to completing the application process. Right now I am in contact with all of the schools' Financial Aid departments to try to get estimations of how much need-based scholarships may be available for me. I told them that money will be an issue and I have multiple offers, so if there's any more money they'd like to give away, now would be a good time to tell me. So far no responses from my emails but I will follow up calls next week. I'm not sure that playing schools against each other is a recommended strategy, but I don't think that any school would retract an admission's offer because of someone not wanting to pay full price, so the worst thing that could happen is they tell me "No."

Hey Ultra -
Could you please post any updates?

Hey guys. Not too much news here. I'm in a very slow part of the admission's process. But progress has been made and the decision is down to UCLA and USC still.

I sent in my official declines and "I hope that we can still be friends" emails to UW, Texas, UCI, and Darden. It's a little unnerving sending in declines when I'm not officially enrolled anywhere at the moment. But I can see no reason why anything would change with the last two schools, as long as I meet the deposit deadline.

As for my luck in getting schools to increase their aid to me: not much luck. Only UT-Austin said that they could maybe find an extra 5-10K, after I enroll. UW, Darden, and UCI couldn't increase their current offer. UCLA did come up with a possible 10-30K in need-based scholarships and USC is still calculating that number for me. It seems like the financial aid departments are all on permanent vacation right now. Phone calls or emails are not returned. I had to keep calling a few times a week until I reached somebody in person and then work to keep them on the phone for more information. So, better luck to everyone else when you deal with the this office.

So, as soon as I get "final offers" from UCLA and USC from a slow office, I can make the decision. Fortunately, there is no rush, as I have until the middle of April to give them an answer.