The Application Process

Hey Ultraeasy,

I've been following your postings for some time now... as I've also been applying to schools, it's been really interesting following someone else's posts who's going through the same thing. No doubt, it's a difficult time to be applying to bschools this year... yet incredibly rewarding

Anyways, just thought I'd share what's going on with my apps. I feel kind of guilty reading all your posts and not sharing my own experiences!!!

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

I'll be sure to keep this updated. And who knows, maybe I'll see you at UCLA sometime soon!!!!

ps. believe it or not, I'm actually born and raised in Seattle... but didn't apply to Foster because I went there for undergrad... the new building should be incredible though!

Cheers,

when will you hear about Tuck, USC, and Yale?

Since I applied through the Consortium, some of the decision dates are a little vague and unclear. Moreover, some of the programs may or may not require a second interview (in addition to the Consortium interview).... which makes things difficult to gauge.

Here's what I do know:

-Tuck: by the end of this week.
-Yale: by the end of this month.
-USC: no idea, although for regular applicants it's by Feb. 1st.
-NYU: will review the waitlist beginning of spring.


Cheers,

MisterRoboto can you post your stats?

As it stands right now, I'm in love with the programs @ Dartmouth & Yale. NYU is down the street from me, so that of course is on the list. I'm confident I can write compelling essays to get in there.

How did you rank the schools? That definitely has to be a mind game - trying to rank the schools on your application, just by the nature of how they give out the fellowships.

Alright. There is more news for the record. First, Darden's letter reported a warm welcome to the school and community but nothing else other than a nice leather binder. With no merit scholarship from them and a high price tag, I will not be attending. But I'm sure it would have been a great experience had it gone the other way.

And the news from USC is good news, too. I don't know how good, because they didn't give me a phone call and my status changed to "admitted" online a day after the notification deadline. They are supposedly sending out an admit packet, as well. So it looks like I will be waiting for another few days or a week to get their final offer.

So I am pretty sure I'll be going to UCLA now, but, again, reserving the option for a comparable school to make a sweeter deal.

Good luck with the rest of the decisions to everyone else!

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.