Month: May 2011

UCLA MBA Admits Never Received Links to Get SIR or SLR

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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.

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How to Save $5,000 on Your MBA Tuition

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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

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Waitlisted Again for Wharton

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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 18th (which basically means on July 18th).  Problem is, I plan to give notice at work about a month before that.

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Advice for Future MBA Bloggers

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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.

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Second Place for Clear Admit’s Best of Blogging

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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.

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UCLA Anderson Student Housing Options Guide

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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.

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Applications Open for the 2011 Beat the GMAT Scholarship

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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.

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