The Sting Of The Ding: What It’s Like To Get Rejected By Five Schools

He’d hired a consultant, but hadn’t done any practice informational interviews, he says. He visited all the schools, except for Yale.

After he didn’t receive interviews at Harvard and Wharton, Yale was the next school to reject him. “I was like, ‘Holy shit, I might not even get in (to B-school) this year,'” Grant says.

The fear grew worse as the rejections came in. “When I got dinged from Kellogg, I was thinking to myself, ‘I’m really in trouble.'”

Meanwhile, his career was shifting. He was anticipating disruption in his aerospace industry workplace. Staff were going to be cut, and additional work burdens imposed on those who remained. “I basically started hedging my bets. I had started looking at other opportunities.”

SWIMMING IN A SEA OF SELF DOUBT

It wasn’t just the impending cuts that gave Grant a wandering eye, career-wise. The string of rejections had seeded him with self doubt, not a feeling he was used to. “Am I really a top performer?” he asked himself. “Am I capable of doing anything on my own?

“That’s why it was so important that I applied for another job.”

By the time Kellogg dinged him, he had already had a phone interview with the L.A. entertainment firm.

Grant is far from giving up on his MBA dream. He’s going to apply again to top 10 schools, but probably only three or four, and will likely not apply to Harvard, he says. He plans to spend 30 hours of prep time specific to each school he’ll apply for, and is shooting for 300 hours of GMAT studying time. “I’m really hoping to get a 760,” Grant says. “That will help.”

Grant created his blog because he wanted to help other people who were on the same MBA path, he says, and that fits with his devotion to non-profit and volunteer work.

“That’s my life’s mission,” he says. “I want others to succeed, that’s how I get my happiness.

“That’s what hurt the most. I was like, ‘Hey, I’m going to lead the charge, and everyone follow me,’ and then I, like, tripped.”

LETTING EVERYBODY DOWN

On his blog, beneath the photo of the Martian landscape that tops his revelation about the five dings, Grant addresses his readers. “I feel that I have let you down,” he writes. “It is incredibly difficult to fail publicly and own up to it. I am deeply sorry.”

Nevertheless, Grant is clearly well positioned for another attempt at getting into a top  program. His history working in finance for the aerospace industry makes him attractive to adcoms, and his new job is also impressive. He appears to have learned a great deal about himself and what he did wrong in his first two attempts, and if he applies those lessons, he’s bound to make an even better impression in applications and interviews. A higher GMAT score would give him an additional boost.

It turns out that the stark Martian scene that Grant placed on his blog does not, he says, represent a barren wasteland of the soul. It shows, he says, a new frontier.

“It’s a whole new world out there,” he says, “but it’s exciting.”

 DON’T MISS: WHO HBS DINGED IN THE FIRST ROUND OF 2014 or THE BEST OF SANDY’S ROUND TWO DING REPORT FROM HARVARD AND STANFORD