After Getting An Acceptance, I'm Thinking About........

After getting accepted to Cornell, I’ve spent a good deal of the time congratulating friends on their own acceptances to other top schools. But I’m also consumed by these thoughts:

Anxiety over this investment: It’s interesting when you are going through the application process and you’re soooo wrapped up in making sure that your GMAT, essays, recommenders, and all that jazz is tight. You always hear about the cost of tuition and what not, but a lot of the time, at least for me, it was simply a necessary evil. Sure I applied through the Consortium so the chance of my receiving a fellowship was/is (I don’t even know at this point) refreshing, but now as fellowship decisions are being delivered the big elephant in the room is becoming more and more obvious. I spent nearly a down payment on a house (in some cities) to get a mortgage (in some cities). Essentially that’s what transpired this year. I’m okay with it… or at least I will be…but I think all applicants who are going to go through with business school and are paying for it, need to go through this mental wrestling match with themselves to fully understand what we are getting ourselves into.

Speaking of fellowships: Congratulations to all of my friends who did receive fellowships to various schools! I know the joy one experiences when you get the acceptance call but I can only imagine what it must be like to get the acceptance call and then find out that you’ve received the fellowship too! So… to my friends at whichever school I end up at… you guys are buying dinner that first night!

Admitted students weekends are around the corner: Wel,l not really around the corner, but Destination Johnson at Cornell is in 30 days. I have to register for that tomorrow actually – or maybe right after I finish this blog post. I cannot wait to meet my potential future classmates. I’m going to keep saying potential future classmates, because I have not received the final word from three schools just yet. As it stands right now, I’ll only be invited to one ASW, so I don’t have to juggle 5/6/7 of them. I have it easy compared to some of my friends.

Tomorrow (today) I’m going to be doing a mock interview with someone who became a friend after we partied it up at the NYU Diversity Conference. I actually haven’t seen him since the conference but we’re Facebook friends and talk all the time. He applied to three schools and just recently received an interview invite for Columbia. I told him to send me his resume and that we would do a mock interview. I want all of my friends to get into business school so that they understand rather than complain when I say that I’m too busy for things. No but actually…I really want him to get into Columbia. He did go there for undergrad so I’m going to need to come up with some more difficult questions that convey fit. I already told him that I was going to be hard on him.

JUST REGISTERED FOR DESTINATION JOHNSON!

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”