Accepted at Fuqua!!!

So remember my Duke result was (much) awaited.. well I finally got it, and here it is: ACCEPTED!!!! woohooo! am really happy now that it's finally sunk in!

The tension before was almost unbearable, got a weird nervousness, butterflies in stomach and all that... the Businessweek forum suddenly became quite a happening place as all of us in the same boat, tried to pass time and bet on when exactly the result would come out :P lols..

anyway so yeah , somewhere around 12.00 noon ET (night time where I live) I got an email from Fuqua telling me to check my status .. in the email was another link, and finally I clicked to see a nice-looking admissions letter open!! :)

Went a little numb initially so it took time for the words to get absorbed in the mind :) many congrats to fellow-Fuqua admittees, and best of luck to all others... here's to the 1st woo-hoo of this MBA process..

And then there were eight...

I had a flashback of that murder mystery today.. 'And then there were none' by Agatha Christie.. funny, huh, how counting the days till March 10 (D-Day for my Duke Fuqua app) reminded me of that book... so yea, here it is. 8 days to go till I get my 1st 'decision'.

It's been a long walk though. Still remember the Duke deadline and how I was so relieved when I submitted the application. phew. that kind of relief is just phenomenal. i guess what follows stress is often relief. who can forget the stressful days of thinking of what to write in applications, mulling over how to write it, how to make it look /sound good, and how to edit it...oh man, am i so glad that's over!

anyway so despite this anxious sounding blog, i guess it's okay. if i've waited 54 days already (jan 7th onwards), then i guess 8 more really can't hurt. 

in other news, I had a fun-filled weekend.. meeting old friends, gym-ing, snoozing, movie-watching, organizing a surprise party and yea, relishing some yum desserts!

Boothing the Booth

So I don't know why I chose the subject as that, but i guess it kind of goes :)

So here it is, my recent Chicago Booth interview experience!

As I'm an international applicant, and Booth could not find any available alumni in my country, I had a phone interview with an admissions representative. We set up the time and date well in advance.. and here's what the conversation was like (about 35 mins long); no surprises, usual MBA interview questions -

-Why MBA?
-Why Now?
-Tell me about yourself starting off with early years.
-Why did you switch from x job to x job?
-What surprised you when moving from x job to x job?
-Why Booth?How would you contribute?
-What do you outside of work?
-Why do you want to come all the way to America? :)
-ST and LT goals?
-What student clubs are you interested in?
- Any questions for me? (I had quite a few)

Some interesting questions I remember are:
- How do you think the work environment / work culture would be different in the US compared to x country (where I am from).
- Where else have you travelled in the world?

We even had a brief discussion on New York, as a city :P so all in all, was quite interesting..
the interviewer was friendly, relaxed and an easy conversationalist..

My advice to any future applicants / interview awaitees would be...have smart questions to ask at the end..be well prepared, re-read your essays and app.. look up previous interview experiences from accepted.com and clear admit.. the most important thing is to be yourself and know WHY you will be a great fit at Chicago Booth! :)

ciao :)

Laziness?

Ever since i got done with the writing part i.e. ESSAYS of the MBA apps, ive started feeling so free! its like i have lots of time at my hands to do all i wanted to do when sacrificing time for the mba process... ah it sure does feel good having some free time!

here's some of the stuff ive re-started / indulged in since Jan:

-Reading a lot of books

- catching up on my long list of movies.. speaking of which, what did fellow bloggers think of slumdog millionare and curious case of benjamin button? i really do get why both have been nominated for best movie.. my bet's on slumdog millionaire!

- swimming! aahh what ayy life :) its the most relaxing activity

-gym-ing: this is how my waiting-for-decision-frustration is taken out!

- baking: new recipes, lots of time, good fun..

-...and lastly, work...sigh going to office seems so hard every morning..what is it about winters that just deem sinking into a warm quilt the best thing to do...

:) so thats one way of spending the time until waiting for the MBA decisions!

Weekend prep

spoke to a Booth alum to find out more about the student life at Chicago.. sounds fun... the city seems great, very diverse. i visited it this summer, and really found it to be just that - very multicultural.. apparently there are quite a few cool student / extra curric activities out there..nice!

in other news, am waiting on my booth interview now, which is scheduled for later this week. lets hope that goes well. the weekend went by so quickly though, what is it with times these days, its running too fast!