What Happens After You Get Into A Great School

So…you’re “in” at Wharton. Congratulations on your achievement. I’ve felt kinda bad for all of you during these past couple of weeks, as the period between mid-November and late December (my waiting period) was the roughest time for me during this whole MBA application ride–definitely the upside-down-to-downward-spiral part of the coaster. While the GMAT had more painful grunt work involved, waiting on decisions from my schools of choice was by far more irritating–more of a mind you-know-whuck.

Presuming that the vast majority (around 70%-ish?) of you will be my classmates in the fall, I wanted to give you a quick heads up (or kick in the pants) on a few muy importante items that it would behoove you to get handled pronto. Full disclosure: Some of this is self-serving; actually, more special-interest serving than self-serving. I don’t actually get anything out of the deal other than seeing a couple of things that I want to go well, go well…but there’s something for you in each; so here we go.

ReVera Verification

First let’s start with the boring formalities. ReVera is the company that the school uses to make sure that you didn’t claim to work at McKinsey when you really work at McDonald’s. Basic stuff. Jump on it quickly, pay the nominal fee and get it out of the way as soon as possible. Depending on your profile and how easy of a time they have verifying your info, the time this takes tends to vary. As one might imagine, I can be a bit of a squeaky wheel; so, mine was done within about two weeks and change.

Wharton c/o 2015 Facebook Group

You’ll be invited to a private Facebook Group for our class via one of the follow up emails that you’ll receive sometime after “getting the call”. Jump on that right away, as a lot of pertinent info is disseminated there–most actually; and you’ll be left out of the loop if you wait around. There’ll be local admit meetups, roomate match-ups, classmates looking for people to hang out with during last-minute-before-b-school globe trots (a classmate from NY met a few of us in LA for beers on his way to Bangkok a few weeks ag0), info on admit weekend, and so on. If you’re still in “secret” mode about b-school, again, it’s private; no one will know that you’re a member of the group.

Wharton c/o 2015 LinkedIn Group

You can request to join our LinkedIn Group at http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=4775508. Admissions checks each request to join this group to verify whether or not you’ve been accepted into the class. I’m an administrator of the group and will occasionally accept requests as long as you’ve already been approved by the admissions staff on the Facebook Group–hence the importance of going ahead and getting Facebook out of the way quickly.

While the Facebook group has a lot more photos and “fun” discussion, the LinkedIn Group gets more into the “nitty gritty” of actual plans and resources–whether the issue is housing, majors, Philly, or what have you. I believe the military and married folks have all started to group up and trade info on their unique housing needs–which are typically a little divergent from the kidless, spouseless among us who might not mind the antics of single somethings disturbing their peace in the wee hours of the morning.

Speaking of housing, definitely reach out to Marvis Burns (he’s in both the Facebook and LinkedIn Groups), WG ’14 an his startup TheRentScene while looking for place. His team has already placed a few of us and everyone thus far has glowed about his speed and level of service and professionalism.

And again, if your Wharton status is still “a secret”, that group can be hidden as well in your “My Groups” options, just like any other LinkedIn Group. Just make sure to go back and delete the activity stream update from your profile after you’ve been approved, because it will show up.

A Call to All Data Geeks

In my last post, I talked about some projects that I’ve had the honor of working on with prof Peter Fader, co-director of the Wharton Customer Analytics Initiative (WCAI) and one of the school’s more celebrated/popular marketing professors.

We’re building a ground army of students with a vision of creating more programming, corporate relationships and employment/internship opportunities for Wharton students with interests in data and business analytics. While it is yet early to get too involved in the weeds of that discussion, we’d like to gather the info of all who are interested ASASP so that we can hit the ground running when it’s time. I honestly couldn’t imagine anywhere better to be for people who are interested in this area either as corporate professionals or entrepreneurs.

If this interests you, look for the “analytics”-oriented conversation that I started (I’m easy to spot, trust me lol) within the LinkedIn group so that you can add your name and email to the (ever growing) list of interested folks. We’ll go from there.

Southern California Wharton c/o 2015

If you are a resident (or transient) of Southern California (Los Angeles, San Diego and the surrounding areas), the R1 group has planned a SoCal blowout for the weekend before you go to Philly to meet the rest of your R2 cohort (you can thank us later; drinks are on you BTW; j/k; not really). All the communication for that event will take place in the Facebook Group, so (did I mention?) make sure to get on that asap.

We have no idea exactly what we will be doing…we’re making this up as we go…but all of the previous events have been a blast and we’re all looking forward to how off the chain things can get with both rounds of admits all in one place. I hope the venue we end up choosing doesn’t run out of beer; or scotch; or wine; or salsa, but I digress.

In Closing

Congrats again to all that have made it; you certainly did not get to this point by accident. We look forward to meeting you all in the fall–or before then for those of you in our (R1′s) respective locales. BTW, entrepreneurship and African American clubs will have the best happy hours during Welcome Weekend; IJS.

MBAOver30 offers the perspective of a 30-something, California-based entrepreneur who is applied to Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Chicago, and MIT Sloan. He has been offered admission into Class of 2015 from Wharton, Chicago and MIT Sloan. He blogs at MBAOver30.com. Previous posts on Poets&Quants:

How I Totally Overestimated The MBA Admissions Process

Musings on MBA Failophobia

Letting Go Of An MBA Safety School

When A Campus Visit Turns Off An MBA Applicant

Yale, Tuck and Booth: The Next Leg of My Pre- MBA Research

My Countdown: Less Than 30 Days To The GMAT

From Suits To Startups: Why MBA Programs Are Changing

Why I’m Not Getting Either A Part-Time MBA or An Executive MBA

Preparing To Sit For The GMAT Exam

Falls Short of GMAT Goal, But The 700 Is A Big Improvement

A 2012-2013 MBA Application Strategy

Celebrating A 35th Birthday & Still Wanting A Full-Time MBA