The 8^th Annual Beat The GMAT scholarship is now accepting applications.

Since 2006, Beat The GMAT has distributed more than $200,000 in scholarships and prizes to MBA applicants from all over the globe, including the U.S. and Canada, South America, Middle East, Africa, and Asia.

For the 2013 competition, there will be eight GMAT and MBA consulting packages awarded.  Each winner will receive a $250 voucher for GMAT registration fees, a full GMAT test prep course, and MBA admissions consulting services. The following companies made generous donations to make these prizes possible: AcceptU, Admit Advantage, Admissionado, Clear Admit, GMAT Prep Now, GMAT Tutor by The Economist, Kaplan, Knewton, Manhattan GMAT, MBA Admit, mbaMission, The Princeton Review, Stratus Prep, and Veritas Prep.

Beat The GMAT is now accepting applications until May 13, 2013. Winners will be announced on May 20, 2013. To learn more or to apply for the 2013 Beat The GMAT scholarship, please visit: http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/scholarship.

Applicants can receive exclusive updates and winner announcements for the 2013 scholarship competition by visiting Beat The GMAT on Facebook.

How would an admissions expert answer this year’s top business school essays?

Beat The GMAT is back with their annual Write Like an Expert series! In this 14-part webinar series, the world’s leading admissions experts break down this year’s top business school essays.  From HBS to Haas, experts analyze each essay 2012-2013 essay requirement so that you can craft your own story.

You can sign up for each of the sessions through this link.

“Write Like an Expert” Series Calendar

• Harvard – July 31 at 5pm PDT
• Stanford – Aug 2 at 5pm PDT
• Wharton – Aug 7 at 5pm PDT
• Columbia – Aug 8 at 10am PDT
• INSEAD – Aug 9 at 5pm PDT
• Yale – Aug 14 at 5pm PDT
• Kellogg – Aug 15 at 10am PDT
• Booth – Aug 16 at 5pm PDT
• Haas – Aug 21 at 5pm PDT
• MIT Sloan – Aug 22 at 10am PDT
• Cornell – Aug 23 at 5pm PDT
• NYU Stern – Aug 28 at 5pm PDT
• Fuqua – Aug 29 at 10am PDT
• Tuck – Aug 30 at 5pm PDT

Make sure you RSVP today!

The countdown begins until the next Which MBA? Online Fair, which connects prospective MBA students to business schools around the world.

On September 5-6, 2012, over 40 business schools from North America, Europe, Australia and Asia will be waiting to meet prospective candidates through an online, interactive virtual MBA fair. Visitors can chat with admissions officers one-on-one or in group chat rooms, join live webinars, and download school information.

Thinking about business school? Why you should attend the Which MBA? Online Fair:

Researching business schools takes a lot of time and energy. At the Which MBA? Online Fair, visitors can easily navigate a plethora of information and browse the virtual booths of business schools. With the click of a mouse, visitors can instantly download brochures and applications or flip through photo galleries and videos. Plus, business school representatives will be available to answer questions via personal instant message, group chat rooms, Skype chat, and webinar presentations.

You’ll be in good company.  In February, nearly 4,000 visitors from 142 countries attended the fair. Candidates came from all industries – business, finance, start-ups, marketing, sales, and IT, to name a few. September’s fair is on track to be even bigger.

Which schools are participating?

The fair on September 5-6 will include a variety of full-time, online and part-time MBA programmes. A few of the schools include:

• Aston Business School
• Audencia Nantes School of Management
• Australian School of Business (AGSM)
• Babson College
• Hult International Business School
• University of California, Riverside
• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• University of Virginia, Darden School of Business
• … many more to be announced soon.

Space is limited. Reserve your free spot at the fair today: http://registermbafair.whichmba.com/randomwok

Beat The GMAT (BTG), the world’s largest social network for MBA applicants, is now accepting applications for its seventh annual Beat The GMAT Scholarship Competition. This year, BTG will award scholarship packages for six winners, valued at more than $11,000. Each of the winners will receive one GMAT prep course, an admissions consulting package and a $250 GMAT voucher. BTG will accept applications until Monday night, April 23rd, and winners will be announced on April 30th.

“Giving back to the community is an important part of our mission,” says Eric Bahn, Founder of Beat The GMAT. “We believe that our annual scholarship is an important initiative to help talented individuals achieve their dreams of going to an amazing business school.”

Since 2006, Beat The GMAT has been able to distribute $193,000 in scholarships to MBA applicants.

The following companies made generous donations to make these prizes possible: Admit Advantage, Clear Admit, Kaplan, Knewton, Manhattan GMAT, Master GMAT, MBA Admit, mbaMission, Precision Essay, The Princeton Review, and Veritas Prep. For a full list of prizes, click here.

To learn more and to apply for a scholarship, please visit: http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/scholarship

Yesterday the market closed at 11,866.62, after our lawmakers decided to put a gun to head of the American economy during the debt ceiling crisis. The market has been down sharply the past few days and just slipped under the 12,000 mark. In a lot of ways, I feel like our economy – I experienced a big crash towards the end of the decade, I’ve been beaten and bruised for the past few years while trying to recover, external parties have made important decisions on my behalf, I’m currently nervous and uncertain about my future, but I’m hoping make a comeback in the next few years.

The bet that I’ve referred to is the bet that essentially every MBA admit is making on the economy – that when we enlist in our post graduate MBA jobs, the Dow will be higher than it is today. And when I say higher, it realistically needs to be significantly higher. Now obviously that’s a simple way to put it. The most important economic place-markers actually occur during the months before you get hired. This is when finance departments across the world are budgeting or updating their forecasts for summer interns and new hires. For people graduating this school year, this is when the foundation of their salaries is determined.

Perfect Timing. Thanks Congress.

When I originally decided to take on the MBA bet, we had just come off the worst economic recession in history. “Well, that’s never going to happen again,” I thought “I mean, things can only go up from here, right?” If the debt ceiling crisis and the resulting economic fallout were any indicator, we are certainly not out of the woods yet. If two years from now, or even a year from now, the Dow has not moved up significantly, the graduating salaries of my class and thus the overall value proposition of getting an MBA will be diminished. Were the Dow to take a huge drop, I likely would have been better off switching jobs today and waiting things out, rather than going into $100,000 of debt.

At the end of the day, you really can’t time the market. And while political dysfunction and looming economic recessions are fun to track, the honest truth is that these outside factors played very little into my decision to get an MBA. This year was the time for “me” to go to back to school based on “my” career progression. And while I wasn’t trying to time the market, I have definitely picked up the dice and tossed them forward – whether I graduate in a booming stable economy or another economic recession will be dependent mostly on luck. I’ve picked this day as my personal milestone because we’ve just passed (hopefully) the debt ceiling crisis and I’m nearing my last day at work. In two years, I’ll come back and look at this post with either a great sense of triumph or a feeling of futile sadness.

With that, there’s really not much more to say other than: “All-in on >11,866.62.”

You only need to look at my July post count to tell how active my blog has been lately. I had several posts that foreshadowed my waning interest in blogging, and the difficulty of blogging as an MBA student. But somewhere in my mind I still thought I would overcome it.

I was wrong.

My blog has become a ghost town because I’ve simply been too busy. I used to be able to take lunch breaks at work and have enough time to write up a post, but as I’m ramping down, there’s a surprising amount to do. In addition, I’m planning an international trip between my last day at work and the start of school. Once I get back, I have about a week to pack up everything and move out of my apartment into UCLA’s graduate housing. Lastly, I’m also planning to waive a couple of the core classes before I start at Anderson, which will require me to review the material before I take the waiver exam.

With so many things on my plate, I feel I barely have room to breathe much less contribute to my blog. Over the past few weeks, I spent some time pondering the future of this site and have come up with three primary goals:

Quality Over Quantity

First and foremost, I plan to keep the blog running. The hosting fees really aren’t that bad and I like the idea of having my own blog. With that said, my posting frequency will definitely drop significantly. With my MBA core courses this fall and the recruiting season picking up right after, I really can’t guarantee more than a couple of posts a month. But I’ll definitely make an effort to check in periodically.

I’ll also try to make my posts more substantive – any time I have a chance to explain a complex business concept or perform some interesting ad hoc analysis, I’ll share it on this site. (And I promise I won’t just complain about how much studying I have to do) In two years, once I’ve graduated from business school, my hope is that Random Wok will be a resource for both the MBA applicant and the MBA student.

Focus on Health

Over the past month, I’ve lost over 10 pounds and I’m working on losing 15 more. I’ve already stated numerous times in my blog how I need to focus on my health – now I finally feel like I’m living up to it. I’m working out five days a week and started tracking my weight loss progress with a site called My Fitness Pal. You can see my progress on the widget below and at the bottom of the right sidebar.

Every day I spend in an overweight and unhealthy state is a day wasted. I’m still learning the ropes on this thing they call “dieting”, but I definitely hope to share more about this experience as I push towards my goal weight. My blog will hold me accountable to making my health a priority.

Build Another MBA Website

I’m working with a fellow Anderson classmate to build a new MBA website, focused primarily on dashboard design and reporting. The content will be relevant to my business school studies and likely my postgraduate career. Running Random Wok has taught me a tremendous amount about the tech industry and helped me get through both the GMAT and the admissions process. Without having that experience, the new website would not be possible. We’re still finalizing our plans and I know I’m being sparse on details, but look for it to go live later this fall.

Created by Beat the GMAT and Clear Admit, “Navigating the MBA Admissions Process” is an online video course built on the Udemy online learning platform. The course covers all aspects of the admissions process using a series of lectures from admissions experts, supplemented by PowerPoint slides.

Stacey Oyler, one of the Admissions Experts

The benefit of having an admissions “course” is that it acts as a one stop shop for all of your admissions learning. Unfortunately, even after you’ve finished the GMAT, there’s still a tremendous amount you need to study before you even start filling out your applications. The Udemy course streamlines this process by providing you step by step guidance through the major topics within MBA admissions.

With an online course, you can learn and digest the material at your own pace. The material can be accessed at any time and all slides and outlines are downloadable. This makes your research more of a structured learning experience, similar to taking a GMAT course, rather than trying to put many pieces of a puzzle together.

Below are the topics currently listed for the course. The most interesting topic for me was the application calendar. I definitely got pressed for time towards the end of my applications and would have fared better had I planned everything out a little better.

• How To Choose Which Business Schools To Target
• Understanding Your Admissions Reader
• How To Market Yourself In Your Applications
• Planning The B-School Application Calendar
• How To Write The Most Effective Application Essays
• How To Ensure The Most Effective Recommendation Letters
• How To Interact With The Schools To Improve Your Admissions Chances
• How To Prepare For Interviews
• How To Manage Waitlists
• How To Make The Final Decision On Where To Attend

Now admittedly, doing your admissions research in one neat package is not an absolute necessity. However, you should compare taking the class to how I originally approached the admissions process. After taking the GMAT, I jumped on Google and began searching various terms, such as “recommendation letter” and “MBA school selection.” I found a variety of articles that I bookmarked and referenced and signed up for any webinar that I could attend (though many were scheduled during work hours). I jotted down notes occasionally but they were scattered between work and home. I was never really organized when doing my research. Taking the class would’ve definitely saved me some time and removed some of the ambiguity.

In terms of drawbacks, if you remember the Beat the GMAT Write Like an Expert webinars, one of the things I enjoyed most from attending those sessions was the Question and Answer component. Given that this is a canned course, you obviously won’t be able to ask questions of your instructor, though I do believe they have an associated discussion board for class participants. Also, even though different examples are discussed, if you have a very unique situation, the online course might not provide advice that addresses your needs.

If you’ve decided to go to business school, “Navigating the MBA Admissions Process” is a structured and well-organized way to ramp up on all aspects of the MBA admissions process. Buying the course will set you back $249, so I would consider this a mid-range admissions product, costing more than doing it yourself but much less expensive than hiring an admissions consultant. Beat the GMAT is currently offering a temporary discount of $50 off. Click here for more details about the course.

Every top MBA program places a significant number of graduates in the consulting function.  The high salaries, variety of projects, and fast-paced work environment all encourage MBAs to propel themselves onto this career path.  And while these benefits would be enticing to any professional, every career path has its dark side.  During my three years as a management consultant, these were the aspects I liked the least and have made it very unlikely for me to return.

(Please note that my comments apply primarily to the larger management and strategy consulting firms, made up of the Big Three (McKinsey, Bain, BCG), the current Big Four (PWC, E&Y, KPMG, Deloitte), and the various spinoffs from the original Big Five (Accenture, IBM, Bearing Point, Cap Gemini).  A lot of smaller boutiques have actually built their consulting firms around directly addressing the points below)

Work Life Balance

In nearly all recruiting presentations by consulting firms, there will be a lengthy section about work life balance.  Some of the ones I saw showcased an extremely busy partner, who had an overwhelming work schedule, but managed to spend time with his family and had a great relationship with his kids.  Strange how most other career tracks don’t make such a hard sell…

If the pre-emptive sales pitch wasn’t a giveaway, let me put it very simply: your work life balance will likely suck.  You’ll work longer hours and endure more stressful deadlines than your industry peers.  During my tenure as a consultant, I spent about 70% of my time in city away from home.  I knew the all of the quickest routes through SeaTac airport and some flight attendants knew me by name.  I lost count of the number of inconvenient times I’d receive calls from friends asking me to hang out.  My response if it wasn’t the weekend?  “Sorry, I’m kind of in Florida right now…”

Despite what the sales pitch may tell you, I know from what I’ve personally witnessed that a consulting career can ruin your personal relationships.  For many people this isn’t a dealbreaker, because they’re willing to forfeit their social lives for career advancement.  But as you get older, the sacrifice you make undoubtedly becomes greater.

Travel

My most lavish travel experience had me staying at the Ritz Carlton and the W Hotel in the Bay Area.  We played golf during a team outing and had amazing dinners at restaurants I would never get into by myself.  The bill for our team dinners was usually higher than my monthly rent.  On the flip side, I also had a project where I stayed at a Motel 6 for five weeks.  My most lavish dinner was provided by the hotel vending machine.

The likelihood of getting staffed in a great location with great venues is just as good as being staffed in the middle of nowhere.  I consider myself lucky to have wined and dined in New York and San Francisco as many consultants never get to experience the “good-life” of consulting travel.

Another thing to note is that just becoming a consultant doesn’t automatically give you first class service on airlines and hotels.  You have to pay your dues first.  You’ll spend numerous hours dealing with delayed flights, lost luggage, and loud, family travelers before United finally gives you a free cheese plate during your flight.  (The perks aren’t what they used to be)  And after you start counting all those hours spent in airports, cabs, and hotels, you’ll realize that they would’ve been better spent at home.  Suffice it to say, the perks and the miles never make up for the time you surrender.

The Staffing Process

One of the things that surprised me about consulting was how little control you have over which projects you get staffed on.  The staffing process, which had been sold to me as “endless variety,” seemed to be better characterized as “unfair randomness.”  Hoping to get on that sexy, channel marketing strategy project and utilize your marketing degree?  Well, if your partners are only selling Oracle implementations, that’s what you’ll be staffed on.  The consulting world is driven by the demand from clients, not by the expertise of consulting personnel.

Also, while the idea of getting a variety of projects may seem appealing at first, the scenario can quickly wear out its welcome.  It’s extremely stressful to get staffed on a project, in an area where you have no expertise, if you’re already billing hundreds of dollars for each hour of your time.  Yes, ramping up in an entirely different industry and entirely different function is a good skill to learn.  But you shouldn’t be doing it your entire career.

So who gets the cool projects?  Many times, it’ll depend on who you know, not what you know.  When politics come into play with the staffing process, it only makes things worse.  That dream project you’re perfectly qualified for, the one that you know you’ll knock out of the ballpark, can easily slip away simply because the project partner doesn’t know you.  Each staffing decision has the potential to make you feel like you’re going through the recruiting process all over again.

Think Long-Term

Despite everything I’ve mentioned above, I know I benefited from the time I spent in management consulting.  I developed a great problem solving capability and a strong tolerance for ambiguity.  In my opinion, those skills alone make consulting a great career investment.   The problem is that consulting isn’t a great long-term career destination.

The stats show that most consultants don’t last beyond three years, with very few ever being considered for partner.  Eventually the travel, the politics, and the workload all catch up to you.  If you do decide to make the leap into consulting, it’ll look great on your resume and you’ll build skills that you wouldn’t attain elsewhere.  But make sure you develop an exit strategy.  If you focus on building your expertise early on and plan your departure well, you’ll likely springboard yourself onto an even better career path.

I haven’t set my end date yet, but based on my travel and moving plans, I’m approximately two months out from departing my job.  The weirdest thing about planning your departure is that you have to deviate from every principle you learned about developing your career.  I’m no longer pushing for harder projects and more responsibility.  Doing so would only make my departure more inconvenient for my colleagues.  I also didn’t ask for a raise this year, even though some new hires with similar experience have come in higher than me.  In some ways it’s a relief;  this may be one of the few times I can legitimately ignore some of the tougher principles of Corporate America.

Saying that my emotions are mixed would be an understatement.  I’m going to miss a lot of co-workers I’ve come to appreciate and respect.  On the flip side, I often get a smirk on my face every time I have to do busy work, as I know it won’t be my responsibility much longer.  It’s amazing how things that used to stress you out so much in the past can just slide off your back as your end date approaches.  Conflicts and disagreements rarely arise at this point – all that matters now is the big picture.

As my tenure winds down, I’ve been working on various “sunset activities”, such as writing a job description based on my current responsibilities, creating documentation for tools I’ve built, updating my contact list, and organizing online folders.  It’s not the most compelling work in the world, but I definitely don’t want to burn the bridge I’ve built with my current startup company.  While working at a startup definitely had its challenging moments, I know I’m going to leave with new skills and a stronger tolerance for ambiguity.  And in my pensive, reflective state, I feel truly grateful for having worked here.

Sorry about the title, but I tried to make it as close to what I had put into Google when I was in this situation.  This is kind of a trivial post, but I’ve gotten enough emails about the subject that I thought I might as well write one to resolve future inquiries.

As a lot of UCLA MBA admits including myself have experienced, the process of submitting your SIR (Statement of Intent to Register) and SLR (Statement of Legal Residency) has been somewhat unclear.  While everything you need to complete the process is technically there, the communication between the MBA Admissions and Graduate Division offices hasn’t been totally in sync.

The first place where everyone should start is the MBA admit Master Checklist.  Here you’ll see that it clearly states that you’ll receive links to submit the SIR and SLR along with your formal offer letter.

This part is important because (as far as I know) you need to finalize your intent and legal residency before you can apply for student housing, the very next item on the checklist.

First you’ll get an email from “UCLA_Application_Decision@gdnet.ucla.edu” with a link, login (your email), and a random password.  After a few clicks and inputs, you should be able to view and download your formal offer letter.  No issues with that step.  The problem occurs when you scan through your offer letter and realize there are no links to submit your SIR or SLR.  All you get are a UCLA ID and an Application ID.

The fix for this is relatively simple, but can be extremely frustrating if you’ve called both the MBA Admissions and the Graduate Division offices, and neither can give you a definite answer.  Simply go to UCLA’s main student administrative portal, called URSA (University Records System Access), and request a UCLA “Logon” ID.  Note that this is different than the aforementioned UCLA ID you got in the decision letter.  Also note that you’ll need to submit the UCLA ID to apply for a UCLA “Logon” ID.

After you’ve successfully obtained a UCLA “Logon” ID and logged in, you’ll be brought to a main landing page with an “Admissions” section.  Within that section, you should find the long awaited links to submit both your SIR and SLR.  (It’s just a bunch of web based forms you fill out and confirm)  I can’t show it in my screenshots since I’ve already completed the process, but once you’re done it should look like this:

If any UCLA administrators are reading this and you’ve noticed something is incorrect or has been updated, please let me know.

Just go to school in California as a resident. 

I don’t think they’ve finalized the actual residential discount, but I’ve heard that it will be at least $5,000.  The process of proving your residency in California is a bit cumbersome.  The registration office sent me a list of required documents, based off of the information I had submitted before:

• Driver’s license
• Vehicle registration
• Year old rental lease
• 2010 Tax Return
• 2009 Tax Return
• 2010 W2’s
• 2009 W2’s
• Latest Pay Stub
• Confirmation letter from payroll manager
• Bank Statement with CA address

It took me about 2.5 hours to find, compile, scan, and print everything; at the end I had over 30 pages of documentation to submit.  And to top it off, they gave us a tiny yellow envelope to mail everything back.

My experience with UCLA’s Grad School administrative office hasn’t been great thus far.  First off, I never received an email from the graduate division with links to fill out my Statement of Intent to Register (SIR) and Statement of Legal Residency SLR).  I figured out online how to complete these tasks because I needed them to apply for housing.  Secondly, the curriculum has not been finalized yet and, therefore, the waiver requirements for each course have not been distributed.  I’m pretty sure I can test of introductory Accounting and Finance, and maybe take a more difficult course, but having been away from the core material for years, I’d definitely need some review first.

Anyway, I guess it’s still pretty early in the year.  Hopefully things will get better.

So I guess I’m going to Anderson.

As D-Day part two approached, I refused to make a big deal about this decision.  I didn’t stay up at night thinking about it.  I wasn’t checking my email every five minutes like I did last time.  I didn’t create any “positive imagery” and in fact had a lot of “negative imagery” in my head, to potentially help blunt a negative outcome.  And while the build-up to the decision was completely different this time around, my result was exactly the same. 

The wording of the decision was slightly different:  the letter said I’m a great, talented candidate… yada yada yada… and that the class of 2013 was already full.  The school said they would distribute another “final” decision on or before July 18^th (which basically means on July 18^th).  Problem is, I plan to give notice at work about a month before that.

At the end of the day, regardless of how formal the email, the school just doesn’t want me that badly.  And I need to move on.  There are a slew of things I need to get started on, including and not limited to:

• Reaching out to Career Services and charting out an initial career path
• Studying / preparing to waive accounting courses
• Finalizing my housing plans / getting a roommate
• Preparing for an international trip this summer
• Ramping down my activities at work

I really can’t sacrifice my career progress for what is now essentially a crap shoot.

Congratulations to all of you who did get off the waitlist.  As for me, it seems that Wharton and I were not meant to be.  I’m starting to see the writing on the wall and I can’t deny it anymore.  Sitting on a waitlist is painful torture, but after this point, any pain I suffer is self-inflicted.  I’ll probably pull myself off the summer waitlist soon, but I’ll definitely consult my friends / recommenders before doing so.

It’s that time of the year once again – prime time to start studying for the GMAT and begin the long journey known as MBA applications.  While the majority of MBA applicants choose not to, I know from experience that there are quite a few people who will blog about their journey and quite a few more that are considering it right now.  Let me just say first to those that are on the fence that it’s definitely worth it.  And to those that have already committed to blogging, I’d like to share a few key things I learned from going through the process myself.

Blog About Both the Good Times and the Bad

During the MBA admissions process, there were definitely times when I didn’t feel like blogging at all.  Some of my own worst moments included blowing a GMAT practice test and getting tough feedback on my application essays.  The MBA admissions process is a volatile rollercoaster ride with a lot of, if not mostly consisting of, low points.  My recommendation is that you shouldn’t flush them out of your mind, nor hide them from your readers.  It’s important to face your failures, learn from them, and use these moments to make yourself a better person.  Anything that’s bad for your ego can end up being good for your soul.

What I wouldn’t recommend is using your blog as a brag wall; that’s what Linked In is for.  People want to read about both the ups and downs, to get an accurate picture of what the admissions process is really like.  Every person who starts a blog early on in the admissions process has the potential of getting rejected from every one of his or her desired schools.  Applicant bloggers put themselves out there and take a risk.  There is no guaranteed happy ending and the possibility of failure and embarrassment is real.  It’s this risk and sacrifice that truly defines the MBA admissions process.

Work to Help Others

Out of all the things I’ve experienced with my blog, I can tell you that by far, the best moments occurred when I was able to tangibly help another person.  One of the easiest ways to do this is to simply take notes on complex subjects related to either the GMAT or essay writing.  I initially started taking notes just for myself because the process of formatting a post that would be shared with the world forced me to fully comprehend the subject.  But soon I began getting comments and emails thanking me for the documentation on my blog.  My “studying” posts were not only a way to reinforce my own understanding of a difficult subject, but also acted as a roadmap for anyone else facing the same obstacles.

Also keep in mind that your posts don’t necessarily need to show expertise in a certain area.  Sometimes the best help is simply providing comfort to someone else who is going through the same thing you are, such as getting waitlisted or preparing for an admit weekend.  I may be biased because I plan to work in social enterprise, but in my opinion, the best thing an MBA blog can do is provide someone else a path to success.

Don’t Make Profit a Priority

If you’re intending to go to business school and you’re considering writing a blog, the idea of earning income from your blog has probably crossed your mind.  While there are definitely success stories out there, the majority of blogs that start with this intent eventually fail.  There was a time many years ago, when any person could start a blog, get tons of traffic, and make a reasonable amount of income from their efforts.  But with both Blogspot and WordPress, the blogging market now has few barriers to entry and is completely saturated.  Some of the best bloggers out there don’t earn anything from their exploits.

If making money off your blog is your only measure of success, then you’ve likely set yourself up for disappointment.  I’m not saying profit can’t be a goal of your blog.  Just don’t make it the only goal.  The best blogs have a real purpose and are driven by something more than money.

When I started Random Wok, I honestly just wanted to learn how to build a website.  It was mainly a self-facing blog where I took GMAT notes and ranted about having to study so much.  The idea of making tons money off of my blog did indeed cross my mind, but after I opened my Adsense account, I quickly “learned” how unlikely that would be.  After this realization, because I was still learning, I decided I would continue blogging.

I didn’t think anyone was reading my work, but before long, fellow bloggers began syndicating my work.  David Park from Beat the GMAT eventually reached out to me and offered me free access to the Beat the GMAT Practice Questions.  Having this support definitely ended up contributing to my GMAT score and made a huge difference in the overall admissions process.

Like the business world, blogging at its core is not about money; it’s about people.  People who are genuine and candid.  People who receive help and pay it forward to others.  If you use your blog to find your voice and speak your mind, I promise you that you won’t feel alone while taking on one of the biggest challenges of your life.

The preceding post is currently featured on MBA-social.com.  MBA-social.com is an online lifestyle website that provides MBAs with national content covering popular topics such as Career, Family, Love & Dating, Social Life, and Style.  Follow MBAsocial on Facebook and Twitter for the latest in business school social life, news and advice.

I recently got an email informing me that I had won second place in Clear Admit’s Best of Blogging awards.  I was pretty shocked to receive this news given that:

1. I didn’t know I had even been nominated
2. I’ve been phoning it in on my blog for the past few weeks 

Thank you to all my loyal readers and supporters who looked past my slothiness and took the time to vote for me.  I promise you that more and better content will come soon.  This week marks the final week of the admissions cycle for me.  My final waitlist decision will come forth this Thursday.  And while I can sit here and blog about all the stress and ambiguity up to decision day, more than anything I just want this to be over.  No more decision trees about which side of the country I’ll be living on.  No more hesitation when saying which school I’ll be attending.  I need to move forward with my life, my career, and yes, my blog as well.

Back to Clear Admit’s contest, for getting second place, I won a free six-month subscription to either Business Week or the Economist.  (This can serve as incentive to any prospective MBA bloggers out there just starting right now)  I love BW and have subscribed before, but I’m thinking about giving the Economist a try this time around.

Anyway, congratulations to Richard from “Ellipsing My Way to an MBA” for winning first place, as he definitely deserved it.  Below is the full list of winners from Clear Admit’s website:

Top Applicant Bloggers

1. Ellipser http://money9111.blogspot.com/
2. Random Wok http://www.randomwok.com/
3. Just Ship http://justship.wordpress.com/
4. Rolipolli http://rolipolli.wordpress.com/
5. KT http://iamalittlemorethanuseless.blogspot.com/
6. MBA Dreamz http://mbadreamz.wordpress.com/
7. Fortune 800 http://fortune800mba.blogspot.com/
8. Unfathomable http://knowingthepathandwalkingthepath.blogspot.com/
9. Arindam http://canadatousamba.blogspot.com/
10. A. http://a-myjourney.blogspot.com/

Top Student Bloggers

1. Orlando http://www.kelloggmbaclassof2011.com/
2. Jeremy http://www.jeremycwilson.com/
3. Miltary to Business http://militarytobusiness.blogspot.com/
4. Rocky http://babsonmba2012.com/
5. Praz http://columbiambaclassof2012.blogspot.com/
6. Shobhit http://shobhitchugh.blogspot.com/
7. D.G. http://blog.dinogane.com/
8. Darden Poet http://dardenpoet.wordpress.com/
9. Paul http://mitlgo.tumblr.com/
10. Nistha http://nisthaonweb.com/blog/

UCLA provides a limited number of student housing options for all of it’s students.  For grad students specifically, the housing is done by lottery and the priority deadline for submitting your housing application is today, May 6th.  At first I was really only considering living off campus in Brentwood, because I had heard great things about the area.  However, the idea of having an apartment ready before I arrive was something that sounded pleasant to me.  During admit weekend, I had heard a number of horror stories about students arriving late, without a place to stay, and spending thousands of dollars living in a hotel before they finally settled down.  If you refer to the resource links below and click on “virtual tour and floor plan,” you can see that all the locations are pretty nice.  Because I think these units are sufficient, using student housing would also save me the cost and trouble of flying out to LA and scoping out a place.  Anyway, I haven’t fully decided where I want to live, but I definitely would like to have the option of living in the student housing locations.

The Options

Weyburn Terrace
Hilgard
Keystone
Rose Avenue
Venice
University Village – (Since I am not coming with a spouse or domestic partner, this option isn’t relevant to me)

Map of all Options
Rental Rates of Options
Matrix Comparison
Contact Info

My Priorities

1.  Proximity to Campus

I think this is very important for any person undergoing his or her first year of an MBA.  I’ve heard from alumni that you’ll be spending most of your first two quarters on campus doing either homework, group projects, networking or recruiting events.  Because of this, I don’t want my distance to hinder my participation in any of these events.  Two of the options are very close and within walking distance: Weyburn Terrace and Hilgard.  And as you can tell from the map, the remaining options are a bit farther.  I would say the next best one in terms of proximity would be Keystone because that location has shuttle service and apparently Rose Avenue does not.

During my second year, I assume proximity won’t be as important, as a lot of students are doing study abroad and overall people are a bit more independent.  I may consider moving further out after my first year.

2.  Get an MBA Roommate

I think having a fellow Anderson student as a roommate would be a great plus to my overall MBA experience.  Living with a classmate can provide support and comfort because you are both going through the same challenges.  Since there’s so much going on, he or she could act as a point of contact to get you in touch with things you might otherwise not know about.  Additionally, in one of my previous roommate arrangements, we helped each other out in terms of conducting practice interviews with each other.

Having a roommate also reduces the cost of living by a significant amount.  As I’m starting to feel the weight of the debt load I’m about to take on, this is definitely something I’m taking into consideration.

3.  Focus on Academics & Career

Maybe I’m already getting old, but when it comes to roommate living, I’d best describe myself as “lacking drama.”  I don’t drink or smoke.  I don’t stay up and make noise really late at night.  I try to be very neat.  I’m not saying my roommate has to have exactly my standards, I just don’t want any major roommate disputes arising during my first year, while I’m finishing up my core and looking for an internship.  Every roommate I’ve had before has been pretty reasonable, (and they’ve all been tech geeks like me) but I’ve had many a friend with stories of roommates from hell.  Let’s hope I’m still lucky this time around. 

My Strategy

I’m going to list Weyburn and Hilgard as my top two choices, and then have Keystone as my third.  Both Weyburn and Hilgard both also happen to have furnishing options, which can reduce some of the moving-in headache during the fall.  I’ll make sure to get my application in by the priority deadline to increase my chances of getting at least an offer of some sort.  The non refundable fee is $30, so I think it’s worth a shot.

If Weyburn Terrace or Hilgard do not work out, I’ll consider trying to get my own apartment and live in Brentwood.  In fact, if I decide to get a roommate, particularly one from Anderson, Brentwood might even be the better choice.  I’ve heard that it’s rare for someone in Weyburn to get a roommate within their same concentration.

In terms of roommate, I may wait until a good amount of the offers are out before I begin reaching out to people.  Assuming I eventually get in, I’ll reach out to other Anderson students who have gotten in and, if I find someone compatible and accepted to the same complex, the rules state that I can then send an additional request to the housing department to live in the same unit.

Picking housing options is really a shot in the dark, but if things turn out really bad, I’ll still have the option to move out next year, or even move out early after paying a termination fee.

Beat the GMAT is holding its annual scholarship competition once again.  As some of you may know, BTG assisted me early on in my application process, by giving me free access to the BTG Practice Questions.  I definitely would not have scored a 750 without this help and I’m proud to promote BTG’s efforts for social impact.  If you have any interest in applying for an MBA this year, I definitely recommend applying for this scholarship.  Below are the official rules from the BTG website:

Beat The GMAT is now accepting applications for the sixth annual Beat The GMAT Scholarship Competition, co-sponsored by Grockit, Kaplan, Knewton, Manhattan GMAT, Master GMAT, The Princeton Review, and Veritas Prep.  The Beat The GMAT Scholarship is one of the largest GMAT scholarship programs in the world and our community has distributed over $185,000 in awards to date. This year we have seven scholarship packages for seven people, valued at over $8,000! We accept applications up until May 24, 2011 and winners will be announced on June 1, 2011.

>>Click here to apply to the Beat The GMAT Scholarship.

The Prizes

This year we have seven scholarship packages for seven winners, valued at over $8,000!  Each winner will receive one of the following GMAT courses as well as a $250 GMAT Voucher (i.e., we’ll pay your GMAT registration fee).  The scholarship packages are as follows:

• One Grockit GMAT Video Course and Premium Membership (Online) + $250 GMAT Voucher
• One Kaplan GMAT Advantage Anywhere Course (Online) + $250 GMAT Voucher
• One Knewton GMAT Course (Online) + $250 GMAT Voucher
• One Manhattan GMAT Course (Classroom or Online) + $250 GMAT Voucher
• One Master GMAT Course (Online) + $250 GMAT Voucher
• One Princeton Review GMAT Course (Classroom or Online) + $250 GMAT Voucher
• One Veritas Prep GMAT Course (Classroom or Online) + $250 GMAT Voucher

Details

• To be eligible for this competition, applicants must have finished college or be in their final year of college. Applicants must be registered Beat The GMAT members (register here).  This competition is open to international applicants.
• Be sure to carefully read the instructions prior to submitting your application.  Any candidate who does not follow the requirements (example: going over word limits for essays) will be disqualified from this competition. Each field in the application form has specific requirements. Please make sure you follow these requirements.
• GMAT course prizes will be awarded based on applicant preference and availability.  How we distribute prizes: there is only one GMAT course available from each company listed above.  In your application, you will be asked to rank order the courses you wish to attend.  The first-place winner will win his/her top preference course from the total pool of seven packages available; next, the second-place winner will win his/her top preference based on the remaining pool of six course packages; next, the third-place winner will win his/her top preference based on the remaining pool of five packages; and so forth.
• A panel of judges represented by the Beat The GMAT Staff as well as past Beat The GMAT Scholarship winners will decide this year’s winners.  Our panel will not provide personal feedback on your application after the competition.
• For winners who do not have access to an in-classroom course, all of the GMAT courses listed above are available via online classroom option as well.
• Scholarship winners must redeem courses prior to June 1, 2012, or else lose their prize.

Questions?

Please direct your queries to the 2011 Beat The GMAT Scholarship Discussion Forum.

Six months after taking the test, I’ve finally sold all of my GMAT books to Amazon.  Selling these books was just one of those tasks that was difficult to prioritize with essays and interviews hanging over my head.  I now no longer have that stack of GMAT books sitting in my apartment staring back at me.

Initially, I created a Craigslist ad to try and offload my books.  The problem with this strategy was that there was a ton of competition in my area.  People were offering the exact same thing I had (MGMAT Strategy Guides + Official Guide Books) for $100 or less.  I failed to get anyone to bite.

Anyway, as I was perusing Amazon a few weeks ago, I noticed they had a textbook buyback program that included the MGMAT books.  Note that the end date to this offer is May 31 of this year.  I buy from Amazon at least once a month, so getting Amazon credit for my books is as good as cash.

You’ll see that for most of the books, I only got a small fraction of the retail cost.  However, for the MGMAT Strategy Guides, Amazon was willing to pay $78 for a product that had a retail listing of $114.  That’s almost 70% for books I’ve had out for nearly a year.  I was a little concerned about returning the MGMAT Strategy Guide set because each book has a different ISBN, which are all different from the one that Amazon has listed on the product page.  This week I got confirmation that my trade-in was accepted, so don’t worry if the ISBNs aren’t exactly the same – as long as you have the right books and the right edition you should be fine.

After taking the GMAT, writing essays, and conducting interviews, navigating the waitlist is yet another progressively ambiguous stage of the admissions process.  Based on the research I’ve done so far, each school approaches the waitlist game a little differently and each has the potential to change its approach every year.  Some schools want you to plead your case and look favorably upon post-decision activities, such as sending additional information, conducting supplemental interviews, and retaking the GMAT.  Candidates who are well connected sometimes have their contacts reach out to the school on their behalf.  This includes “unsolicited” letters of support, which are “spontaneously” sent from interested alumni.

Wharton, however, has been very clear that the school does not take any additional information into consideration when finalizing the admit class.  This was expressed in both the decision letter and a supplemental email to all waitlisted candidates.  The adcom has also indicated that the size of the waitlist pool has no correlation with the number getting in.  Therefore one person’s admission doesn’t necessarily affect another person’s chances, though I would suspect that the adcom has at least a rough class size in mind.  Wharton has been pretty objective in the admissions process thus far, especially given the new interview format.

After getting waitlisted at Wharton, I began browsing the forums on GMAT Club and found that the feedback among waitlisted candidates was mixed.  The majority of people who posted were planning to follow the rules and not submit any additional info.  But there was definitely a lot of curiosity about what they could do and whether or not the policy was as strict as it sounded.

I don’t blame people for being interested in their options.  Based on my own experience, I can definitely say that sitting on a waitlist without any control of your fate is a rough feeling.  You start to question everything that is put in front of you.  Maybe this “don’t send info policy” is just a test?  Maybe the adcom just wants to see how badly I want to get in?  People have passed along stories in which waitlisted candidates knowingly ignored the instructions, had some bigshot alumni contact the school on their behalf, and consequently got off the waitlist.

Anecdotes and rumors aside, I personally feel that violating the no information policy is a lose-lose situation.  While I really would like to get accepted to Wharton, I’m not willing to sacrifice my integrity to get there.  And even if I could boost my chances, I wouldn’t feel right about being rewarded for breaking the rules.  If there’s one thing I learned as both a victim and a survivor of the financial meltdown, it’s that a strong and consistent moral compass is worth more than any degree program can provide.  Given that I now intend to switch careers and work in social enterprise, I won’t deviate from my principles after getting this far.

It would be nice to have a choice of schools to pick from, but at this point, I already know that I will be going to get my MBA this fall.  With Wharton’s no information policy, my influence in the admissions process is officially over.  So my waitlist strategy is simply – to wait.  But in the meantime, I will definitely shift my focus towards why I’m going in the first place.

Within my WordPress dashboard setup, I have a Google Analytics widget that displays key website metrics over the past month.  I’m always interested in seeing which search terms led to inbound traffic for my site.  This month, the most popular search term was my website name “random wok.”  No surprises there.  But the second most popular phrase was:

“depressed MBA admissions”

Wow.  With all my posts about sacrifices and stress, I guess I’ve cornered the market on whining about the MBA admissions process.  And I this post will only further solidify that. 

Anyway, hopefully this theme will quickly fade away to the past, as I begin to move towards a better and (fingers crossed) happier future.

Just another quick post about more referrers I found through Google Analytics.  Below are the blogs that I’ve recently added to my blogroll.  If you are an MBA / GMAT blogger and want to do a link share, please feel free to reach out to me:

mako at randomwok dot com

• MBA Social
• Porque MBA
• RockyMBA Roads
• Fortune 800
• Venturing Into the Unknown

I spent this past weekend in LA enjoying my very first admit weekend.  For the most part, the event played out the way I expected, but there were definitely a few things that I stood out to me, which I’ll highlight in this post.  If you’d like a detailed summary, feel free to go to this site for a full synopsis.

Anderson Days kicked off with In and Out Burger for lunch.  Even though I live in California, I hadn’t dined at In and Out for a while, and had forgotten how great those burgers were.  I’d also never seen an In and Out food truck before.  Anyway, the burger was awesome and represented a great start to the weekend.

As I began to learn more and more about the Anderson experience, the two things that stood out most obviously were the culture and the environment.  In speaking with other admits who had attended weekends at east coast schools, they all commented about how the culture was different here.  People were more laid back and colloquial.  Every conversation didn’t feel like an elevator pitch.  I honestly had expected a lot of people to still be discussing their GMAT scores, GPAs, and which schools were ranked the best.  But it seemed that most attendees had moved on from that phase.  The majority of the people there had either already chosen Anderson as their destination or were very close to doing so.

The weather also made a huge difference, as there’s no way the east coast schools can compete with the weather down in LA.  There were a couple of admits who were planning to choose Anderson over Tuck and Chicago, with weather as a major factor.  Now, they probably weren’t deciding based on weather alone, but it goes to show you that ranking definitely doesn’t mean everything to all people.

Most people view an admit weekend as a time to relax and have fun after reaching the finish line of the application process, and I’m no different.  But the experience definitely gave me a couple of key personal takeaways:

I need to sharpen my story.  Of the people I met, very few had already experienced a career switch.  While I know people say that there’s nothing wrong with it, having a career switch of any sort makes it more difficult to tell your story.  I personally didn’t choose to get laid off.  But having that in my background has jumbled my value proposition and I don’t have an obvious direction going forward.  This is definitely something I need to work on as I begin business school.

I need to focus on my goals.  Maybe I’m just being hard on myself, but I felt that I met quite a few people who knew they were going to Anderson and knew what they wanted to do.  And while I didn’t talk much about school rankings, GMAT scores, GPAs, etc., I was still floating around with an “admissions” mindset.  I realized that I need to begin focusing on the actual “point” of an MBA, which is to obtain the job and career of my dreams.

I’m going to business school.  Though I’ve known this for a while, I think admit weekend was the first time I recognized the gravity of my decision.  I will be quitting my well-paid, full-time job.  I won’t have a salary for two years.  In just a few months, I’ll pack up all my belongings, move to a different city, and begin working tirelessly to change both my career and my life.  Yikes.

In terms of cost, I paid for most of my travel with the hotel and airline points I had accumulated from a strenuous consulting career.  The benefit of doing this was that I got to stay at the W Los Angeles Westwood, a hotel I’d never lodge at on my own dime.  The hotel definitely didn’t have a lot of business at the time, as I was automatically upgraded to a penthouse level room.  It’s nice that, despite the fact I no longer have status, Starwood still shows me some love.  After consulting for so many years, I’ve become somewhat of a hotel snob and it’s difficult for me to be impressed by a hotel.  But the W Los Angeles was definitely one of the best I’ve ever stayed at.

Overall, I had a great experience over the weekend and met a lot of people who will likely be my future peers.  If Wharton pulls me off its waitlist, things will get interesting, but otherwise, I’ll be happily attending UCLA this fall.

If you can’t tell, I’m having difficulty finding inspiration to blog right now.  Before I get a comment about my “post quality”, please note that this is a natural progression for every MBA applicant blog.  For a quick comparison, see below:

MBA applicant blog:

• drama, sacrifices, stress, tough feedback, essays, decisions, dings, acceptances

MBA student blog:

• “Hmm, I think I’ll sign up for that managerial accounting course.”
• “Oh, and I’ll probably attend the evening mixer tonight.”
• “Geez, I am in a lot of debt.”

Not trying to disrespect the MBA student bloggers out there, as I soon will become one.  Plus, MBA students have a lot less flexibility in terms of blogging about their job search.  But I think an MBA is much more exciting to experience than it is to read about.  It does make me wonder what I’m going to do with this blog long term.

Anyway, I got the UCLA admit package last week.  It contained a resource guide, an acceptance letter with a handwritten note from the dean, and two freebies: a leather business card holder with an embossed UCLA logo and a laser pointer / flashlight pen.  I’ve already spent thousands of dollars applying to business school.  Now I’m finally getting some ROI. 

As my blog has gotten older, I’ve noticed that a number of fellow MBA bloggers have listed my site on their blogroll.  I honestly haven’t been very good about keeping my own blogroll up to date.  The GMAT and the admissions process has a way of consuming your life and making you want to enjoy your free time afterwards.

Anyway, to all those that have listed me, I definitely appreciate the traffic and want to return the favor.  Below are the blogs that I’ve recently added to my blogroll.  I found these through Google Analytics, so they’re just the ones I know about.  So if anyone else out there wants to do a link share, please feel free to reach out to me:

mako at randomwok dot com

PS – I’ll get a more prominent blogroll widget soon.  Just need to find the right WordPress plugin…

• Just Ship
• Destination B-School
• Cognitive Bias
• Cassiopeia
• Pursuit of a Higher Goal
• The GMAT Redemption
• Gunning for MBA
• B School Orthodoxy

One of the first things I do when I wake up in the morning and feel groggy is check all of my email accounts – usually there’s something in there that stresses me out and helps wake me up.   When my Gmail emails downloaded, I noticed an admissions decision email from UCLA.

The official decision date for UCLA isn’t until the end of the month, so I knew this was either really good news, meaning they wanted to accept me before the other admits, or really bad news, meaning they felt my application was so poor that they needed to “pre-ding” me.  Given all the news I’d received prior to this, I wasn’t really leaning either way.

I didn’t have time to check the decision at home, so I to rushed to work and tried to focus on my driving.  When I arrived, I closed my office door and I went through the same login process I did for every other decision.  I thought I was feeling pretty confident at this point, but I still managed to type in my password incorrectly two times.  I clicked the decision link, which led me to a letter from the Dean.  When I saw the word “congratulate” I closed my eyes, both out of happiness and relief.

It’s official now.  I will be going to business school.  Two years ago, I was dying of kidney failure.  It was the Great Recession.  I was desperately trying to balance my health problems with running my own company, and barely had enough left over to make payments for my COBRA insurance.  I constantly teetered on the edge of financial bankruptcy, and probably even worse.

But going to business school is about leaving the past in the past.  I’ve spent the last two years of my life picking the pieces up, and trying to put them back together.  Now I have a way forward and I’m not looking back.

“I put my trust in you
Pushed as far as I can go
For all this
There’s only one thing you should know…”

– Linkin Park

It’s technically not true, but in my opinion, getting waitlisted is in a lot of ways worse than a ding.  Great.  All that stress I went through and thought would be finally over today just continues.  For all I know, I could be the next one line to get in, or at the very bottom of a list a mile long.  My life is still in limbo.

I had friends last year who sat on their waitlist statuses right up until the school year began.  None of them got through.  And with the competition this year, I doubt there’s going to be much room for people waiting to get in.

So if I equate this outcome to a ding, and assuming Stanford is ding as well, I’m essentially down to my last app.  I’m hanging by a thread now.  One more spin of the wheel.  One more roll of the dice.  I’m used to equating the admissions process to a marathon or some great battle.  Now I use games chance. 

I’m thinking about applying to Columbia for their April round, just in case.  Columbia seems to have fewer essay requirements and I could probably turn around an app in the time allotted.  But then again, I really don’t know if I can stomach another business school application.  Also, the fact that I might be stuck at my job even longer is making me loathe my work even more.

I am so sick of the admissions process right now.

I recently got an upgrade notice from Quicken, with an offer to purchase the 2011 edition of their software at a discounted price.  Since I recently switched to Quicken 2010 from MS Money Plus, and still have two years left before my online connectivity runs out, I wasn’t about to give Intuit more of my money, for what was essentially the same product I already purchased with a new coat of paint.

I decided to humor myself and click on the new features link anyway, to see what they were offering.  In reviewing these “new features” for Quicken 2011, I was shocked to see how many of these features were already available in Microsoft Money Plus, a product released over three years ago.  This doesn’t bode well for Quicken customers, considering that it’s 2011 and Intuit is still trying to catch up to Money’s functionality.  And because it’s now a monopolized market with Money gone, I’m not sure Intuit will have much incentive to upgrade their software any faster.

The other night I was watching a recap show of American Idol on Hulu.  The theme for that specific episode was for each singer to perform a song from the year they were born.  Okay, I thought, this might be interesting.

As the segment progressed, these were the thoughts that went through my head, in order:

“Wait a minute, I know that song.”

“Hey I know that song too.”

“And I know that one.”

“Oh my God - I’m old.”

Seeing people much younger than you on TV is always a tough pill to swallow.  I’ve also had people call me “sir” on a number of occasions.  Just another reason I should get going to B-school.

 One of the comments on my “depression” post last week, made by JustShip, really stood out to me:

“… focus on other things.”

I’ve been so used to giving it my all, and setting tough goals for myself that I almost feel obligated to be stressed out right now.  But there’s really no reason for it.

It’s important to put things in perspective.  Yes, right now getting an MBA to further my career is the most important thing in the world.  But within the big scheme of things, my school and degree are just one piece of who I am.  And while there will be times when I’m valued solely on those factors, I know that other factors will be more important in the future, such as my skillset, my character, and the amount of social impact I have.

This week I purchased an exercise mat so I could begin my long delayed goal of completing the P90 X course.  When I first heard of P90 X, it sounded really gimmicky to me – a set of videos you do every day over the course of 90 days?  However, both on the Internet and from friends anecdotally, I’ve only heard good things about this exercise regimen.  I’ve really neglected my health during the GMAT prep and admissions processes, so it wouldn’t be a bad idea to get in shape before the fall.

Over the next two weeks my life and my future will change.  But that doesn’t justify wasting the present.

I filed my taxes this weekend using H&R Block At Home Deluxe.  H&R Block is typically considered the simpler of the two mainstream options available, (the other being Turbo Tax) but since I don’t own any complex assets, have dependents, nor do I plan to itemize my deductions, H&R Block suits my needs.

I recommend getting the download version this year.  You can get it instantly and it’s usually a little cheaper than the retail version on Amazon.  Plus you help the environment by not contributing to waste.

Surprisingly, this year the government actually owed me money, to the tune of a couple thousand dollars.  I usually do a good job of forecasting my tax liability, so that I owe the IRS as much as possible without incurring an underpayment penalty.  But this year, due to all the time I spent studying for the GMAT and applying to business school, I hadn’t calculated my tax liability since last March.

It’s important for all business school applicants to get their taxes done early, so you can file your FAFSA as well.

Getting through work was tough last week.  Out of the five schools I’ve applied to, two of them have dinged me already, and since I haven’t heard a peep out of Stanford, I assume that’s a ding as well.  That just leaves two schools left, both of which I completed interviews for.

This past weekend was essentially my first, in over 6 months, of being completely free of any type of business school prep obligations.  No GMAT prep, no essays, no interviews looming.  And while this should have been a celebration of sorts, I really couldn’t enjoy it.  I spent most of it sulking and worrying about the future.

I’ve never really had a detailed backup plan, in the case that I get into none of the schools I applied to, but one of the things I considered was applying to a one year international program, like INSEAD or London Business School.  I also know a couple of schools offer rolling admissions, but I’m not sure I have the heart to put myself through the application process again, at least not this soon.  I’ve never really considered staying at my job.  The pay and the work life balance are great, but I know that I need an MBA to get the professional development I want.

My day of reckoning is in about two weeks.  Until then, my life is in limbo.  It’s difficult to find enjoyment in everyday things when I know my life is about to be turned upside down.  And when that happens, I’ll either be feeling great or as if I’ve wasted half a year of my life.