This is likely news to many of my readers - I took the GMAT yesterday. Outside of my coworkers, I told only 6 people that I was taking the GMAT:
- Mom
- Dad
- Sister
- Sarah
- Mike
- Elia
I only just decided on Tuesday that I was going to take the exam. What is the advent of this decision? Since September, I have been considering applying to Notre Dame's MBA program. On one of my two visits to Notre Dame in September, I stopped by the MBA Admissions office to speak with one of their admissions counselors. To be perfectly honest, I was not thrilled with the impression that she left me with. I sat down with her and said, "you don't need to sell me on Notre Dame. I was an undergrad here, I'm sold on ND as a place. Sell me your program." Her response was not particularly strong, leaving me with some doubt about the program. This doubt was deepened when I stopped by to see a former professor of mine in the Business School. When I told her that I had just met with the MBA Admissions office, she told me that she thought I could do much better than an MBA at Notre Dame. "I love Notre Dame," she said, "but I primarily love their undergrad program. You're qualified for the best MBA programs."
These two incidents dissuaded me from applying to the program. Uncertain if I wanted to do an MBA at all, I put off looking at any other schools, as well. Every once in a while I would receive reminders via e-mail from the Notre Dame MBA Program reminding me that I had expressed interest in the program, and offering me incentives to apply, like a waived application fee or extended deadlines. These weren't enough to convince me. About three weeks ago, the whole concept of the MBA as a reality came back to me when my friend Sarah was admitted to Notre Dame's program. Good for her, I thought... maybe I'll go for it next year. Just this past Monday I met up with Sarah for drinks and we talked about Notre Dame and school in general. I explained how, following conversations with my coworker, Katrina, I had started to more seriously consider an MBA from Notre Dame even if their program wasn't the best one I could get into, but that it was too bad I had missed the deadline for the program.
Missed the deadline? I thought I had, at least. As if on cue, I had an e-mail waiting at work the next morning from the MBA Program reminding me that the application deadline was approaching on March 15. So I hadn't missed the deadline after all. Of course, I had a small problem. I had only 9 days to get everything lined up and sent in - including an application, three essays, two letters of recommendation, a transcript and, perhaps the hardest of all, my GMAT scores. Having not yet taken the GMAT, sending in my scores was going to pose a little bit of a challenge. My worry was hasty, though, as I soon learned that I could sit for the GMAT on Friday... so I did.
People wonder how I could just decide to take the test only days before sitting for it. My explanation is that a test of that nature is more about how much you've learned over the course of your life. I don't think that I could have performed much better with three months of review rather than three days. The few hours of review that I did over the three days was valuable, but not because I "learned" anything new; rather, it helped me refresh my memory about some statistical formulas that I had forgotten, or about some gramatical constructs that we never use in our daily speech patterns.
And so, with the GMAT successfully completed, I have but a few remaining elements to take care of before March 15. Here's to an essay-writing weekend!
When you live in the Bay Area, earthquakes are a reasonably common experience. Every now and then you'll feel a quick jolting of the building as the earth moves a little. Every so often, though, there's a quake that's just long enough or just big enough that the thought creeps into your mind - is this the big one about to strike?