Making Progress On Those Round One Applications by: j.matthew.mueller on September 14, 2013 | 1,431 Views September 14, 2013 Copy Link Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email Share on LinkedIn Share on WhatsApp Share on Reddit Progress on my MBA Action Plan: Applications: Making good progress against my goals. I have the applications essentially filled out and my Wharton essays complete and uploaded into the application. I decided to pay an essay service to give me some feedback on my Harvard and Columbia essays. So far, I have gotten feedback on my Harvard essay…it wasn’t good. I was told I basically needed to re-think and re-write the entire thing. I spent the majority of today finishing that up. As far as my recommenders, they have been given a friendly reminder about the recommendations and I am restraining myself from becoming too overbearing about getting updates, which is pretty hard for me since you can’t really get too much info from the online applications about the recommendations. MBA Finances: Not very good here. I was making great progress (25%+ to goal!), but then had some big expenses like my car going into the shop (twice!) and paying to have my Columbia and Harvard essays reviewed. I am hoping that after my applications get squared away and I have some more free time, I can get back on track with my savings plan by getting a part time job. Currently I am over $1,500 behind where I should be at this point. Attitude: I know I am in the home stretch of the application process and so I should be making one last push to get the best applications together I can, but for some reason my attitude is kind of blah this week. Don’t get me wrong, I am still putting the work in and giving it my best but the overall process, time and money spent is starting to wear on me. I am sure I will snap out of it soon and I am pretty sure it has at least a little to do with the summer coming to a close and not having been able to enjoy it to the fullest because a lot of my spare time was spent on MBA applications, but I digress. I will pull it together, full speed ahead! Other: I spent a big chunk of today pulling together any and all MBA questions and advice from the internet. I am compiling this into one large document and I will insert the info and stories I want to highlight so that I have a good guide to reference when I start doing mock interviews to prepare for the real thing (fingers crossed). Also, after my Columbia campus visit, I decided that I like the campus, people and the location so much that I should go for Early Decision. This means that if Harvard and Columbia both accept me, I have vowed to go with Columbia. I feel pretty good about this decision and I think I now understand the whole “fit” thing everyone always mentions. I decided that I should still apply to Harvard on the off chance that I get dinged by Columbia and accepted by Harvard. I am pretty sure that has never happened to anyone, ever but I still really like Harvard and the world is crazy sometimes, so who knows? How is everyone else’s applications going? Anyone sharing my application fatigue? Good luck to all! MBAGirlJourney offers the perspective of a highly thoughtful young professional woman who hopes to land a seat at a top ten MBA program for the Class of 2016. She has two goals: to gain acceptance to at least two of the top ten business schools and to finance her MBA without taking on heavy debt. She blogs at MBAGirlJourney. Previous posts on Poets&Quants: My Goal: To Get Into Two of the Top Ten MBA Programs How To Finance Your MBA Degree In A Responsible Way Handicapping My Own Chances of Admission to Harvard, Wharton, Chicago Booth, et al An Ideal Routine For Your GMAT Test Day Narrowing Down & Strategizing My Target Business Schools The Real Cost of An MBA: $345K — So Is It Really Worth It?