HBS Says "Um, no."

I checked my email yesterday while flying out of town on business and saw that the official HBS rejection was waiting for me. Oh well, I expected it. The outcome was clear a few weeks ago when I still hadn’t heard about an interview. I had quite a bit going for me at Harvard: my brother went to HBS and wrote a letter to the Dean on my behalf, a high-level executive in the MBA program’s administration read my essays and recommended me to the admissions committee, and the CEO of a company I used to work for (and an HBS MBA) wrote the Dean to recommend me. So, with all of that supplementary information influencing their decision it’s abundantly clear that the HBS Adcom thinks I’m only fit to be a bus driver, pimp, or Assistant Manager at IHOP. I hear that bus drivers get good benefits, and pimpin’ ain’t easy, so I’m leaning towards mass transit.

That’s it. No more schools to hear from, except for UCLA’s waitlist decision. It feels sort of strange to know, but not know at the same time, and this journey has now been whittled down to a choice between USC and a big fat “maybe” at UCLA.

To re-cap for those who missed the last episode, I was accepted at USC and UC Irvine, wait-listed at UCLA, and rejected at Cal and Harvard. I’m stoked to choose between USC and UCLA (assuming they give me the opportunity to do so). UCLA has been my first choice since day one and still is, but USC has a terrific Real Estate program and that’s where I want to end up, so if it’s USC I’ll be in a great position to succeed.

I wasn’t upset to get rejected by Cal and Harvard. I think that Cal’s bschool is a lot like its football team: over-rated and unable to live up to the hype. Why do I say this? Because I can. And Harvard? Come on, who wants to leave California to freeze in Boston, surrounded by hockey haircuts and NYC-envy? Although, the right to speak in the third person would have been pretty awesome. “JDiddy’s in the Ivy League, sucka.” Yeah, that would have been cool. (Rant over. Both schools are great and I applied to get accepted because I would have been happy to attend. There is no factual evidence to support either of the nonsensical claims made above. And come on, who am I fooling – if Harvard says yes, you don’t say no. You just bared witness my catharsis. Back to the regularly scheduled self-indulgent witticisms).

The Final Four Is Set!

The best time of the year keeps getting better. March Madness, Baby!

After a couple of thrilling games it comes down to UNC Vs. Michigan State and Illinois Vs. Louisville. Both will be great match-ups. My pool is completely shot. I had UNC, Syracuse, Oklahoma State, and Georgia Tech making up the fearsome foursome, with UNC taking out Ok. St. in the finals. Not to be. The only good call I made was West Virginia getting to the Elite Eight (and they were sssssoooooo close to beating Louisville, if not for a late collapse). And speaking of collapses, how about Arizona! Yikes! This will mark the first time in 4 years that I don’t finish in the money. This too shall pass.

I’m hoping for a UNC Vs. Illinois final. The game would be an awesome display of offensive firepower, and I think the final score would be something like 86-81. At this point I’m 50/50 on who I want to win the big dance, but I think I’ll root for Illinois if they get there. Both teams, however, will have a war on their hands to get to the finals. I think UNC will have a tougher match-up. Tom Izzo will have his boys ready to take care of business, and if UNC lets Mich. St. dictate the pace of the game it will be over before it starts. I think that Illinois can run Louisville out of the gym, unless Pitino’s nasty press can slow down the Illini. But, I just don’t see that happening because everyone on IL can handle the ball.

I was in Vegas once for March Madness. If you’re a college hoops fan, that’s an experience you must take advantage of at least once.

On the Bschool tip, there’s not much to do but wait. I’m strategizing on the “what ifs,” but that’s about it.

Hurry Up and Waitlist

I got the waitlist email from UCLA Anderson today. By my calculations it’s 67% positive. It’s good to still be in the running, but the perpetual state of purgatory is agonizing. However, knowing that USC is a great option is very comforting.

In a related story, Haas said “thanks, but no thanks” last Friday. I expected it, given that I wasn’t invited to Super Saturday. Honestly speaking, I don’t know if I would have gone even if they had accepted me. I’ve never been fond of Berkeley, even though having an excuse to move back to the Bay would have been cool. That’s not a knock against the school, by any means. It’s one of the best in the world, without a doubt. Anyway, it’s a moot point.

So, at this point it’s about waiting out the waitlist. If you are weighing your Anderson acceptance Vs. another school, I recommend the other school. :>)

Want a Free Gmail Account?

I switched over to Google's Gmail a few months ago. I find it to be the best web-mail/free-mail service out there. My favorite feature is the free POP access, which allows you to download your mail into a client like Outlook or Eudora. It's still in beta and the only way to sign-up for an account is through an invitation from an existing user.

If you want an invitation click the "Email Me" link in the sidebar to the right (just below "About") and send me a quick note, and I'll be happy to send you an invite. I have a limited number of invites, so first come, first served.

Not So Super Saturday

So, Super Saturday has come and gone at Haas and I wasn’t invited. So it goes. Their decisions are released on the 18^th, and at this point I have to assume that they’ll say “thanks, but no thanks.” There is, however, the possibility of waitlist purgatory, which is still preferable to an outright rejection. After Haas’s decision date on 3/18 come UCLA’s on 3/25 and Harvard’s on 3/30. It’s amazing that this hurry-up-and-wait experience might be over in two weeks. It’s been such a massive part of my life for the past several months, but I’ll be very happy to finally know the outcome (and hopefully have a nice dilemma or two).

This past week was something else. On Friday my DSL decided to roll over and play dead. Of course, I had 20 MBs of information to email to a client by the end of the day. Damn you, Murphy’s Law. My DSL provider (which rhymes with “horizon,” as in, “terrible service, dropped connections, and buck-passing are on the horizon”) had been dodging my tech support calls for weeks while my service became progressively more sporadic. Finally, I called to cancel and switch to a cable modem. As soon as the “cancellation department” got on the line things started happening. They had a tech at my house two hours later (a total miracle, given their normal “sit around your house all day and we’ll get there when we feel like it” approach), and they gave me several months of free service. And now it works! I’m happy that it works, but jeez, just handle your business before you drive your customers away for life.

This coming week will see me fly out of town for a short tour. My band’s headlining a 1,000 person room next weekend, which is going to be great!

Motivation?

Rumor has it that this is a picture of a giant inflatable balloon outside of a Japanese office building. I think they put the balloon there to cheer up their employees, but didn’t quite nail the English translation. Or perhaps they’re just honest.

The Freshest Kicks of All Time

To Peek or Not to Peek, That Was the Question

I was online a couple of nights ago when I came across a post on the BW forums that contained instructions to view Harvard’s R2 adcom decisions. Coincidentally, I was also logged in to Harvard’s application in another window to see if any status updates had been noted (I know that they never update the information on the applicant log-in page, but it’s like mint chip ice cream – resistance is futile). As a R2 applicant I briefly considered checking my stats, but thought better of it for the following reasons:

1) I knew that it was a definite gray area and that the good folks at Harvard would not appreciate any nosy behavior. It just didn’t seem like the right thing to do.

2) I figured that there was absolutely no upside in discovering my decision. If it said some version of “dinged” I would just be more anxious than I am now until March 30^th. If it said “you won the lottery” I wouldn’t believe it until I got the official word on decision day – which would make me more anxious than I am now. So, bad + bad = worse

Luckily, I closed the windows and went to sleep. When I woke up yesterday the brouhaha had started. The admissions committee sent out an email yesterday afternoon that expressed their dismay. The BW boards were buzzing with comments from concerned applicants. Yikes!

On a lighter note, I received an email from a USC student a couple of days ago. I asked if he could put me in touch with a classmate who was concentrating on real estate, and he connected me with the head of their student R.E. club. I’m going to meet some of the USC R.E. students tomorrow night at a networking event. I think it will be a great way to get an honest, informal assessment of the program, and to see what Marshall students and alums are like. I’m looking forward to it.

I came across this article on lifehacker.com. It’s about “interviewing the interviewer.” There are some good tips here for business school and job interviews. Scroll down a bit (after chuckling once you see the picture).

Interviewing the Interviewer