The Waiting Game Kicks In & It’s Brutal!

This whole waiting thing is brutal.  Well actually since I’m still coming down from last week the waiting game hasn’t been that bad.  I’ve been catching up on a lot of drinking and even planned a vacation to Fort Lauderdale next weekend with two of my best friends.  We’re staying here at the Westin Diplomat hotel:

This vacation will help me get my mind off this waiting game.  Even though I’m waiting now… I have friends who are not.  The people who applied Early and I believe R1 are beginning to find out their decisions.

I have decided to stop trying to figure out how someone gets accepted.  It’s too much of a crap shoot.  My friend whom I first met at the HBS event last April just told me that he was rejected from NYU.  I thought his profile was incredible.  I mean…730+ GMAT and a liberal arts background you would think B-schools would eat him up right?  Hopefully NYU was an anomaly and he’ll be admitted to all of the schools he’s applied too.

He told me “If I put as much effort into this process as you did the outcome may have been different.”  he’s not thinking about what he’s going to do if he’s not admitted to any schools.  It’s funny FROM MY PERSPECTIVE because I’m like… “If I only had a 730+ GMAT my outcome may be different!”  The grass is always greener on the other side I suppose.

This is not all that goes on post-submission.  Now I’m beginning to walk myself through my essays in my head asking myself “Did I include this… did I include that?” etc.  This is the worst feeling in the world because you know that you can’t do anything about what you’ve submitted.  So what I do is just tell myself that yes I included everything that has been coming to mind.  BUT there is one essay that I wish I could rewrite because I remembered something post-submission that would have made that essay sooooooooo much better.  But there’s nothing that I can do about it now – or is there?

Ok so I have a notebook that I started waaaaaay back in September 2009 when I attended my first MBA fair.  Since then this is the notebook that I’ve brought to every MBA event so I have all of my notes in it.  Even if I forgot the notebook at home I would transpose my notes from said event into that notebook.  There is still one more part of the process that I may have to go through.  Even though I had my Consortium interview back in October, some of the schools may request an additional interview.  I’m not upset or anything by that because I know that I can rock interviews – more so than essays, or so I think! 😉 So all of the things that I’m thinking about post-submission, I’m simply writing in my notebook.  If an opportunity arises in my interviews for me to speak to these things then that would be phenomenal.

Always plottin!!  So while the process is pretty much over… it’s really just beginning!!!  Couple weeks folks until R1 Decisions come out (Beginning of February I believe)….  mine won’t come out until the beginning of March so I’m still breathing but I make no promises how I’m going to feel mid-February!  March is just going to be a mess for me… I’ll probably lose so much weight from stress and not eating.  I wonder if I should weigh myself on the 1st and then weigh myself again on the 31st!

This report is adapted from Richard Battle-Baxter’s blog posts at “Ellipsing My Way…To Business School.”

Previous posts by Richard at Poets&Quants:

Should You Hire an MBA Consultant?

Study for the GMAT or Polish Off an Essay?

Am I Really Cut Out For This?

My First Round Applications Are Looking Elusive

A Frustrating Day and Night on GMAT Prep

Having Trouble Hitting the Submit Button

It’s Nearly Midnight. Where Are All My Friends?

“Why An Admissions Consultant Objected To My Essay on Coming Out”

“Brain Racing at 4 a.m. Thinking About Business School”

“After Scoring a 620 on My GMAT, I Want To Die”

“Walk Me Through Your Resume” – My Interview at Dartmouth’s Tuck”

“My GMAT Students Are ‘Totally Obsessed Weirdoes With Unbelievable Work Ethics”

“With Apologies to Paul Simon, 50 Ways To Tell You’re Getting an MBA”

“My 30-Day Countdown to an MBA Acceptance”

“Tis’ The Season For Racing Hearts & Sweaty Palms”

“East Coast Blizzard Means More Time To Work on MBA Applications”

“Fear, Loathing & Panic In the Wee Small Hours of the Night”