Welcome to another edition of FFF! Now that we’ve gotten your attention by announcing the Best of Blogging nominees, which cover the thoughts and actions of bloggers over the past year, let’s take a closer look at the past week in the MBA world.
Now that the dust of round two decisions has settled, many applicants are in a contemplative mood. Some are thinking about their school selection with a broad eye to the ‘why MBA‘ issue, and others consider the difficulty of maintaining objectivity in making such an important and personal choice. MJ ponders the “what ifs” of life, while C’est La Vie wonders if her decision to attend Yale would have stood had her other applications worked out differently. Indeed, it varies with the applicant; dings from Harvard and Stanford made Anderson-bound Julius Seizure’s decision an easy one and a waitlisting by Sloan is sending WheresMyDessert off to Stern, whereas MBAJ (as the kids are calling him these days) was heading to Kellogg regardless of Columbia’s decision. Swayed by the school’s team-oriented atmosphere, Redwolf056 has also decided to attend Kellogg after a long Chicago showdown. Meanwhile, climate and cost played a large role in Nick Carraway’s choice of Duke over MIT.
For applicants who are still in the process of deciding where to spend the next two years, visits to campus are playing a big role. Although MBA Spanky wasn’t swayed one way or the other by his time at Duke, both AynRand2008 and Ty Coon were wowed by Emory, mbaformein08 found her fit at Kellogg, and FooBarMe’s deposit check is in the mail after his trip to a Haas EWMBA reception. We hope that MBA Cutie’s weekend leaves her feeling as positive about Ross as this crowd seems to be about their respective school decisions. On that note, we were glad to hear that declining tuition at LBS has Angel Angie even more excited, and that Resolute is feeling good about his destination due to the latest ISB salary and placement stats.
While dings are leaving several applicants with one option and an easy matriculation decision, others are sadly sent back to the drawing boards. We were sorry to read that a Columbia WL ding has left MBA Pundit with little choice but to join Forrest in the realm of the reapps, and that some bad news from Stanford has sent Mave back to the drawing board. Joining them are some first time applicants who are already thinking about their essays and planning for the GMAT. Speaking of which, Eric will be announcing the essay topic for his Beat the GMAT scholarship next week; this constitutes a great chance for the DIY test prep crowd to win some great study materials.
Some student bloggers are similarly settled on their plans for the immediate future (Mark is getting his post-HBS life in Chicago lined up, Sloan student Tom is set with a Google internship and Mbwana will be spending his summer with Microsoft), but many others are still in the midst of the recruiting process. Death Spiral reports that interviews are in full swing at INSEAD, Al Martine likens interviewing to courtship and relates a great first date with a company at LBS while Buckyhoo has a hot prospect at UNC but wonders about the ever-troublesome question of interests vs. goals.
Turning to academics, Noelle offers a great illustrated Wednesday in the life of an IESE student, while Olivier’s week was probably a less typical example of what things are like in INSEAD (seeing as he’s on exchange at Wharton this semester). Meanwhile, Futureguru discusses an interesting class at LBS, Nate braces himself for a rough patch in his MAP project at Ross, and KV gets ready to shadow a Bay Area exec for an LBS project. Thinking more broadly than specific classes and projects, the Divine Miss N offers her general take on LBS academics as well as some great advice for prospective students. Finally, three veteran bloggers (and BoB ’06 nominees) marveled at how close they are to the end of the road; Future MBA Girl resolves to make the most of her last three weeks at Wharton, while Marquis and Mark (hehe) have a bit more time to go but have begun the countdown – 10 more weeks at Stanford and 34 classes at HBS, respectively – nonetheless.
That’s it for this late-breaking edition of FFF. Have a great weekend!
