Quitting

I had a meeting with my new supervisor last Thursday. In it, I brought up the fact that I have been accepted to two top rate schools and that I'm most likely leaving the company soon. (He just became my supervisor earlier this month and had not previously been aware of my situation... one of my previous supervisors and my mentor provided my recommendation letters.) Not surprisingly, he was somewhat surprised but very supportive. While he is by far my least favorite of the three supervisors I have had at this company, he seems to be on board with my decision. In fact, he suggested that I contact our training and development division to see if they will be willing to support my return to school. I don't think that is likely.

A bit of a background: the company for which I work is one of the largest energy conglomerates in the world. Interestingly, we place little to no value on an MBA. Many of our geoscientists receive time off and monetary support to return to school, but individuals returning to business school must do it on their own time and with not quite so much of the company's fiduciary support. I also find it interesting that we are the only major energy company that does not recruit at the top business schools. We do most of our recruiting at Texas and Oklahoma schools while our competitors are searching for new hires on the campuses of the best schools in the world.

My supervisor's recommendation was nice, but not practical. I will do what he suggested - it was already part of my plan - and ask what options the company offers for individuals who want a full two years time off as well as tuition reimbursement in order to go to business school. I am reasonably sure that I will be rejected. I will emphasize the fact that the school that I will attend is one of the best in the world. This fact won't matter.

The only way that I will get company support is if someone at a relatively high level decides to support me on an individual basis. And even if that happens, I'm not sure I will accept due to the future constraints placed upon me. If I receive company support, I will be required to return to work for at least two years after I graduate. My current plan is to transition to the not-for-profit sector, but if I am enticed to remain in the private sector it will be entirely due to greed. My current company can't compete with the salary that I will demand post-MBA. It has been an educational, interesting, and often frustrating 2 1/2 years in Corporate America. I don't think I will ever return.

The Comparison

I can finally start the true comparison of Kellogg & LBS. A couple of days ago I received the full information package from Kellogg and yesterday I received my login information for the LBS admitted students website. At least from a website side of things, Kellogg is the winner hands down. However, from a welcome package side of things, LBS is the winner. Maybe I should be looking at things a bit more in depth. :) I've started going through the information - there is a LOT - and I'm learning quite a bit.

I'm still working on the actual cost of living/city comparison.

Philly Update

No Philadelphia trip for me this weekend. PowerScore was able to find another instructor to take the class so I'm stuck at home for the weekend. Honestly, finding this out didn't break my heart. A great friend of mine might make the trek to Houston this weekend now, and I would much prefer to have some fun with him instead of teaching a class. Although the extra money would have been nice.

I also found out that there is a PowerScore GMAT instructor in Chicago. If I do end up deciding to attend Kellogg, I had hoped to be able to continue teaching GMAT classes on weekends. If they already have an instructor in the area, though, I might not be able to do that. Oh, well, all is not lost: after giving blood this morning, I won a drawing for a $15 gift card to Starbucks. Too bad I hate coffee.

Next up on the PowerScore GMAT class horizon: March classes in Houston and Austin.

Housing

I noticed that Brit-Chick wrote about this very subject yesterday. It is something that is plaguing me right now, too. We currently live in a relatively nice, moderately sized, wonderfully priced apartment in Houston. In fact, with utilities included, we pay less than $700 per month. I'm very aware that this is going to change drastically with our upcoming move.

Brit-Chick mentions MBA Properties in Evanston in her entry from yesterday as well. I have been in contact with them already and they have been quite helpful. For example, I have already learned that our goal of paying less than double what we do now may be farfetched. Apartments near Kellogg that allow pets and that have a washer and dryer in the apartment are few and far between. Those that we have found are going to run up to three times what we pay now. Add in the fact that we'll be losing 65% of our income and incurring a $60,000+ bill from a graduate school over the next two years and the prospect of increasing our living expenses is quite daunting. Plus, I am absolutely amazed that parking is not included in rent for many of the properties. One complex charged $125 per month for parking. I guess the good ol' country boy in me is going to have to get used to the city life... fast.

I haven't even started to do in-depth research about London. I think the results may give me a coronary.

Responding to Being Waitlisted

I'm still debating on how to respond to being waitlisted by Yale. I want to go to Yale, I really do. However, I don't know if I want to go to Yale more than I want to go to Kellogg or London. And even if I did want to go to Yale more than to Kellogg or London, I don't know if want to deal with the stress of waiting to get off Yale's waitlist and into the accepted student pool. I'm well aware that waitlisted students don't usually get accepted until the summer... sometimes late summer.

One thing that I have heard from a couple of people is that Yale may have waitlisted me because they thought I would get accepted into a "better" school and that I would not attend Yale even if I was accepted. Based upon my interaction with Yale students, faculty, and alumni, I don't think this is the case. All individuals associated with Yale seem to truly believe that Yale is one of the top two schools (the other being Harvard). Even though the rankings don't support this view, I can't fault legitimate and deserved loyalty to your school/employer. For whatever reason, I just wasn't viewed as a good fit for the school. My application obviously wasn't perfect - hence the rejections from Wharton & Harvard. In fact, since I will only have three years of work experience upon matriculation, I would not have been surprised to have been rejected by all five schools to which I applied.

Tomorrow I plan on contacting Yale for the first time since my waitlist notification. I'm going to check and see what kind of contact they want from me since I have heard that some schools want zero communication from waitlisted applicants. If they allow me to provide more information, I plan on giving them as much as I can.

Philadelphia

I generally teach two PowerScore GMAT Prep classes every other month. These are almost always the Houston class and the Austin class. I have the option to travel, but I usually don't since it can get really tiring if I teach three weekends in a row. This month, however, the Austin class was cancelled, so I only taught the Houston class. Due to the winter storms in the northeast, however, the Philadelphia class that was supposed to be this past weekend was postponed. I might get a chance to go to Philly this upcoming weekend to teach the rescheduled course. I have never been to Pennsylvania and I'm looking forward to going... even though I'll only have 1/2 day to see the sights in Philadelphia. Now if only PowerScore can just find a plane ticket that is cheap and that meets my schedule.

The Next Test I'm Going to Take

For whatever reason, I had a less-than-brilliant idea just before my last year in college: I decided to take the LSAT. I can't remember the exact reasoning behind this, but I place most of the blame on an overzealous business law professor from the previous semester. Taking the test was a definite mistake. I didn't bother studying at all. I didn't even know what type of questions were going to be on the test! (The logic games came out of nowhere... imagine taking the GMAT completely cold and having never seen a Data Sufficiency question!) Needless to say I scored accordingly. My overall score was a 157; I don't remember the percentile. This score will follow/haunt me forever, so I have decided to retake the LSAT.

While my hurt pride is one driving factor, I can't deny that I also think that a law degree would be very beneficial in the business world. One of my regrets is that I didn't get a law degree during my three years in Houston. The University of Houston has a very good program and I could have completed it while still working. I very seriously considered getting a joint JD/MBA degree, too. It didn't feel right, though, I think mainly because I would have to stay out of the workforce for three years instead of two. Eventually I'd like to get a Juris Doctor and to do that I'll have to take the LSAT. Now is as good of a time as any.

Note: prior to this post I added a lot of new information on my sidebar. One of the sections gives links to the books that I'm using to prepare for the LSAT and a different link directs to the website of the company for whom I teach GMAT classes. Theoretically, if I score well enough on the LSAT, I could teach LSAT classes for PowerScore as well.

MBA Ranking Comparison: Part Two

Continuing from the previous post...

The five schools to which I applied (presented alphabetically): Harvard Business School (HBS), London Business School (LBS), Northwestern University (Kellogg), University of Pennsylvania (Wharton), and Yale University (Yale).

The five rankings that I used to compare the five schools (presented alphabetically) followed by the year with the latest available information for each ranking: Business Week (2004), Financial Times (2004), Forbes (2003), USNews & World Report (2004), and the Wall Street Journal (2004).

The raw data is shown in the image file contained in my previous post.

I found it interesting that there is such a huge discrepancy between the rankings. For example, Business Week ranks Kellogg as the best school in the US. However, according to the Financial Times, Kellogg isn't even a top ten school. The biggest discrepancy is for Yale. Business Week ranks Yale at number 22, yet Forbes ranks them at number five. (And yes I know that each respective ranking was compiled using different methodologies. For my comparison I chose to assume that each ranking was equal.) Interestingly, the most consistent school - excluding LBS - on my list is Wharton which is ranked between one and six inclusively.

I don't know if I expected to learn anything from this comparison or not. It is evident that the rankings, while informative, are by no means the definitive method by which to choose a school. One man's number one school is another man's number 13th ranked school. One fact that became readily apparent is that if I were to decide between Kellogg and LBS based purely on the rankings, I would be lost. There are so few comparisons of all business schools
(International and US schools) that I find the data to be inconclusive.

Just as an FYI, here is where I gathered my info.

Business Week
Financial Times (PDF)
Forbes
US News & World Report
Wall Street Journal (US)
Wall Street Journal (International)

And finally, for what it is worth, I throw my support behind US News & World Report as the "best" MBA rankings.

Edit: Due to formatting issues, I changed all of the links contained in the post to tinyurl.com links.

MBA Ranking Comparison: Part One

Out of curiosity, I decided to compare the five schools to which I applied by only using what I considered to be the most respected business school rankings. Here is the chart that I created using the aforementioned information.

Click on the chart to view it in a higher quality format.

London's Welcome Kit

The long-awaited second communication from London Business School arrived by DHL today. Before today, my only correspondence was an acceptance email. The welcome kit that I received today more than made up for the delay. Not only did it have all the relevant info that Kellogg provided - albeit sans the handwritten note that Kellogg included - but it also had a very nice leather London Business School portfolio. Spiffy!

I'm a sucker for free stuff.

Addendum: And by free I mean that I spent $222.97 to apply and got a portfolio in return. I'm not complaining... Kellogg didn't send anything quite that cool.

Edit: Corrected the amount that I paid to LBS.

My Picture

I just added a picture to my profile. I'm not sure why, except that all the cool kids were doing it so I jumped on the bandwagon. The picture is from early December 2004 when my wife and I went on our Yale campus visit/interview. I interviewed on a Monday and we spent the preceeding weekend in New York City. The photo was taken in Central Park.

majalo

Persistence of Kellogg

In my previous post, I forgot to mention that Kellogg contacted me again yesterday. This time it was by email instead of by phone, but their pleasant persistence in trying to get me to go to school in Evanston has been uplifting. The more they say they want me, the more I want to attend Kellogg.

At this point, with only two offers in hand, I would say that there is a 70% chance that I will go to Kellogg and a 30% chance that I will go to London Business School.

Decision Variety

I guess the good news is that I have now experienced the full spectrum of possible business school application decisions: Yale has waitlisted me. This makes the final tally 2 yes, 2 no, and 1 maybe.

The notification gave me a chance to either accept or reject the waitlist. I chose to accept it. I'll go through the motions of submitting more information and trying to prove to them that I really want to go to Yale and that it would be a good fit for me. However, unless Yale can give me a decision soon, I will be forced to attend either Kellogg or London. Yale still remains near the top of my list (probably number 1 or 2) of the b-schools that I want to attend, so I do hope to be accepted, but I won't be devastated if I am not.

When I received the email from Yale yesterday, I found myself more excited that when I received my first acceptance phone call (Kellogg). Now that I have decisions from all five of the schools to which I applied - albeit with one being a maybe - I can finally start thinking about where I should go. The feeling of relief and excitement is refreshing.

And the verdict is...

Mere moments after creating my last entry, I received the word from Harvard. Sometimes it isn't good to be right, because as expected I was not accepted to Harvard Business School. It is unfortunate because I would have liked to have had the opportunity to decided between Kellogg, Harvard, & London. Perhaps it is sour grapes - although I did post about it previously - but given the aforementioned opportunity, I think I would choose Kellogg.

It is interesting to me that most of the schools have held to their posted deadlines. London, Harvard, and Wharton all gave me their decisions (1 good, 2 bad) on the day that they claimed they would. Only Kellogg contacted me early (about one month before their supposed deadline). My understanding going in was that most schools would actually release decisions earlier that what their website said and that the deadline was only the last possible date a decision might be released. I just found it interesting.

Two more days until Yale's deadline. So far I am 2 for 4. A good batting average in baseball, but I don't know how it translates to business school applications.

Kellogg's Timing

I'm not sure if is a coincident or not, but Kellogg seems to have very good timing. The same day that Wharton released their decision, Kellogg called me. In fact, they called me less than an hour after Wharton sent me their admission decision (via email). Even if I had been accepted to Wharton - which I wasn't - Kellogg would have been hot-on-Wharton's-heels with good news.

The second coincidence (or was it) happened last night. A current first year student at Kellogg called me to see if I had any questions about Kellogg. We spoke for a half hour on subjects ranging from financial aid to married life. Interestingly, he was married, from the south, and is interested in the energy sector. Hmm. This call came the day before Harvard is scheduled to announce their decision. I wonder if Kellogg is making sure that they are not out of my mind if I am accepted to Harvard. Which, like I stated before, I feel to be unlikely.

I guess that since Kellogg is widely regarded as the best marketing school on earth all of this makes sense.

I'm flattered by the lengths to which Kellogg is going to convince me to attend school there. It will be very, very hard for me to tell them no: I'm a sucker for people/places who like me (or at least pretend to). :)

The GMAT

As my hobby/part-time job I teach classes on how to conquer the GMAT. The classes are 16 hours total split equally over a Saturday and Sunday. I usually teach two classes each month that classes are offered (every other month). I taught one in Houston this past weekend and I teach a class in Austin next weekend. I really enjoy doing it. I feel confident in my ability to understand as well communicate the knowledge, and most students seem to get a lot out of the class.

One thing I have found interesting, though, is the number of people who are 100% focused on the GMAT. Countless times I've heard students say something similar to "All I have to do is get a score of XXX on the GMAT and school XXX will accept me!" After having gone through the application process I feel pretty comfortable in saying that the GMAT is an important, but small part of the overall application. A certain score is needed to be considered at certain schools, but no score - no matter how high - will guarantee acceptance. (For example, I scored a 770 but was rejected by Wharton.) When someone tells me this I try to find out some more about what they are trying to do in life as well as what the rest of their application will look like so that I can offer some advice on where their expectations should be.

However, even with the above statements being accurate, we shouldn't underestimate the importance of the GMAT. Otherwise the classes I teach will be empty. :)

And the award goes to...

I got an email from London Business School yesterday...

…and I'm in!

Now I have to make a decision. Or at least I will have to soon since I'm still waiting on decisions from Harvard and Yale. Currently 75% of me wants to go to Kellogg and 25% of me wants to go to LBS. That is based completely on the schools. If I chose based on city only, London would beat Chicago/Evanston hands down. My wife and I are both concerned over how to move to a foreign country, though. We have a dog and a cat and we have lots of stuff. She would also have to get a job in London, too. Is it more hassle than it is worth? I don't know yet.
The bad news is that LBS requires a decision by February 18. We are supposed to leave for Chicago for Day at Kellogg on February 17. Hopefully Harvard and Yale get back to me soon since it looks like I'll have to make a decision by early February.

Quitting My Job

I completed my last performance review at my current job a couple of days ago. Somewhat surprisingly I was named the top employee on my team again. Several of my co-workers know my MBA intentions and I had thought that might affect my chances at being rated highly. Luckily I was wrong. There are a lot of things that I will miss about my job. A great deal of the work I did on my business school applications was done while "working". I'm allowed a great deal of independence in my job and I know that the company values my contributions. However, there are more things that I won't miss. For example, the glacially slow promotion process, not being allowed to do what I do best, and the huge communication gap between leadership and the rank and file. I do not regret my time here, though. It apparently didn't hurt my marketability to top MBA programs (even with only 2.5 years experience) and it has more than paid the bills. That said, I doubt that I'll never work in the energy sector again.

I'm also feeling a bit of senioritis at work. Now that I know that I'm leaving and I have set a date - my last day is in early July - I fear that my performance will decline. I know I won't be fired: as I mentioned before I was named the top employee on my time... there is some room for me to slack off. I don't necessarily want for this to happen, but I know that my focus is already drifting away from the present and to the future.

"Married People Don't Get an MBA"

I've heard several times, from different people, that if you are married, you don't get an MBA. Even when I was interviewing, some of the interviewers mentioned that being married wasn't necessarily a good thing when it came to business school. Fortunately, I've spoken to enough people who disagree and think that while I won't have the same experience as someone who is single, it will still be some of the best years of my life.

Moving to Illinois

Since the only school I've been accepted to is Kellogg, my wife and I have been looking at the differences between Houston and Evanston/Chicago. The biggest difference - by far - is the cost of living. One nice thing about Houston is that it is dirt cheap to live here. We spend less than $800 per month on all of our bills (excluding food). It looks like that won't be an option near Kellogg. Additionally, Texas doesn't have a state income tax, but Illinois does. Take out my income (about 2/3 of our total income) and we could struggle for a bit once we move.

Degree Track

One aspect of my MBA that I'm still debating is what my specialty should be. Right now, today, and at this very minute I'm very much leaning toward non-profit management/entrepreneurship. I want to start charities. I'm not sure if this would be the best idea for a couple of reasons. First, there are a lot of charities already in existence. Maybe I should focus on helping the ones that are already chartered. Second, I want to help people. I really do. However, the average salary of someone who works in the non-profit arena is nowhere near what other graduates make. Will my heart or my greed win? Stay tuned.

Still no word from Yale, Harvard, or LBS.

School Comparison

When I first started my quest for an MBA, my personal rankings were simple:
1) Harvard
2) The Rest of the Schools

This was based merely on perception. When the non-MBA centric world hears the word "Kellogg" they think cereal. The same goes for many of the other top programs. Only the Harvards and Yales have the name recognition that has permeated the majority of society. However, when I actually started researching the schools, I quickly learned that while Harvard may be ranked number one in some of the rankings, it probably does not give a student the best possible education. Wharton, Kellogg, Stanford, and a couple of other schools have higher quality programs (this is only opinion... there is no way to actually compare the programs). However, where Harvard overcomes all other schools is in the alumni network and in the aforementioned public perception. I'll admit that I am currently struggling with this phenomenon. I've already been accepted to Kellogg, and while I'm still waiting on Harvard's decision, I expect to be rejected. If I do get accepted to Harvard, will I be able to choose Kellogg, which I feel to be a better fit for me and a better overall education, over THE name brand MBA program in the world?

Note: my personal rankings have always been very similar to what I've already posted (Harvard is my number 2 or 3 choice). However, I've always included the caveat that it would be VERY hard for me to decline an invitation to attend Harvard Business School.

The Packet

I received my official acceptance letter along with a packet of information from Kellogg yesterday. Nothing too surprising was inside. There was some more information about the Joint Ventures (JV) club, though. JV is made up of the spouses and significant others of Kellogg students. I think this would be a wonderful opportunity for my wife to get involved in Evanston should we decide to attend Kellogg.

Also included was the schedule for the first Day at Kellogg (DAK) that takes place February 17-20. We are both planning on going. Having not yet done a campus visit to Kellogg, I'm very much looking forward to attending. I also plan to ask a lot more questions than if I were just an applicant. Now that I'm assured of a spot in the Class of 2007, I feel like I can expend more energy in learning about Kellogg. Before, while I extensively researched each school I considered, there was no guarantee that I would actually be able to attend said school, so I didn't look into every nuance. Once I have all of my acceptances/rejections I can really research my options.

Business School Applicant Interviews

I was lucky enough to be chosen to interview by each of the five schools to which I applied. (Note: Kellogg interviews all applicants.) The discrepancy between the schools in terms of interviewer quality and question content was amazing.

I had the option to interview onsite for four schools: Yale, Kellogg, Wharton, and London Business School (LBS). Interestingly, Harvard chose to interview me, but told me that my interview would be in Houston. Of the four schools who gave me the option, I chose only to interview onsite at Yale. I interviewed with the other four business schools in Houston.

There was a definite difference between the interview process. Kellogg & Wharton provided me with the names of three individuals and asked me to contact them to arrange the interview. I agree that I should have done the contacting, but I felt that the interviewer should have been preselected. The first person on my list from Kellogg was happy enough to interview me. It took three tries for me to find someone from Wharton willing to meet with me. Both interviewers chose Starbucks to meet. Both interviewers were late. The lady from Kellogg apologized and actually had a good excuse. The lady from Wharton (20 minutes late) didn't even acknowledge her tardiness. Neither had been out of business school for more than a couple of years. Neither had a quality job (in fact, one worked out of her house... hence the interviews being held at a coffee shop) and both had experienced significant periods of unemployment after getting their MBA. They did speak highly of their respective schools, but neither was a very good interviewer. The lady from Wharton asked no probing questions. Her only questions were from my resume (e.g. "Tell me about this experience.") The interviewer from Kellogg asked more in-depth questions, but still based everything off of my resume. The one thing I took from this is that if I ever choose to interview potential applicants after I get my MBA, I will NEVER subject them to an interview at Starbucks. Several times during the Wharton interview we had to sit and wait for some loud coffee machine to quiet. (I'm not a coffee drinker so I don't know what was going on behind the counter, but it sounded like a construction zone.)

On the opposite end of the spectrum were Harvard and LBS. Both schools provided me with a specific individual who would conduct my interview. The gentleman from Harvard invited me to interview at his office. He had been out of school around 15 years and was a senior level executive at an investment firm. He was impressive, the surroundings were impressive (we met in the executive boardroom), and his questions were hard. Unfortunately for me, this interview was after my Wharton & Kellogg interviews. After becoming used to the walk-me-down-your-resume questioning style, I was completely unprepared for this type of interview. We incessantly talked about leadership. Then more leadership. And then leadership again. I didn't want to bring up all of my experiences when talking about leadership only, so I kept waiting for another topic (say business savvy or greatest accomplishments) to use them. The hour ended without my having been able to bring up several of what I consider to be my most impressive experiences. I blew it and for this reason I don't expect to be accepted to Harvard.

The LBS interview was the last one that I completed. It was also done very professionally. I met the interviewer at a club where he is a member. We had a private room and his questions were the best of any of the other interviewers. The interview took the most time as well. We spent an hour on question-answer and then I was asked to present a five minute speech on a topic of his choosing. In total I spent an hour and a half talking to him. He spoke very little about my resume and instead asked about things I had done and what I thought about myself. Unique to his style was that he asked a lot of follow-up questions which I thought spoke very highly of his ability. He was a business owner who had been out of LBS for 20 years.

My Yale experience was completely different. I chose to interview at New Haven. My wife and I spent a wonderful weekend in New York and then drove up to Connecticut for a Monday morning interview. The interview itself was done by a second year MBA student and lasted only 1/2 hour (he was actually timed and could not go over 30 minutes). I had the chance to meet other applicants as well as some professors. We were then given a campus tour and had lunch with a group of current students. It is hard to compare the Yale interview to the previous four because this one was on campus.

My comparison of how well it went (in my opinion) on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the best. The schools are listed in the order that I completed the interviews.

Kellogg - 7
Wharton - 2
Harvard - 3
Yale - 9
LBS – 8

With the jury still out on Harvard, Yale, & LBS, I expect to be accepted to Yale & LBS and rejected by Harvard.

And so it begins...

I'm probably starting this blog about a year too late. My quest to achieve my MBA began in March of 2002, but really picked up steam just after Christmas in early 2003. However, I plan to go back and detail what happened - as best as I can recall - during the past year, if only for my own benefit.

Here is the quick and dirty info that I want to get out of the way first.
Per my profile, I am 26 years old. I graduated with a dual degree in Management Information Systems and Human Resource Management in May 2002. In June 2002, I began working for one of the major integrated energy companies. I have worked for said company for the past 2 1/2 years and I plan to continue to work here until early summer 2005.

I'm just like everyone else: overworked, underpaid, and underappreciated. While I don't regret the past couple of years, if I had to do it all over again, I would have chosen a different path. Perhaps I can detail THAT in another post. Moving on, however, because of my frustration with my employment situation, I decided to do something about it. I wanted an MBA.

Again I shall refer to a post that does not yet exist, but at some point I plan to detail how my confidence in myself had really dropped. My plan was to go to one of the Houston schools (most likely Rice) rather than suffer the embarrassment of being turned down at a "real" business school. Thankfully, when I took the GMAT in March 2002 I scored high enough (770) to convince myself that applying to the top five schools would not be a waste of time.

My plan at that point was to begin applying in the fall of 2004. I followed this plan and I have been working on and submitting applications since August. My original plan was to apply to the following nine schools (you read that right, nine schools).

1) Harvard
2) Stanford
3) Columbia
4) Wharton
5) Kellogg
6) Yale
7) Chicago
8) INSEAD
9) London Business School (LBS)

Luckily, once I began the actual applications, I quickly decided against this part of my plan. Rather than do the whole "throw a bunch of darts and hope one sticks" I decided to focus on a handful of schools. Since post-MBA career will hopefully be in the non-profit entrepreneurial arena, I looked at schools with strong non-profit management (NPM) programs. (Retrospectively, this was a great idea. Each application cost around $200 and took me several weeks to complete.) The schools to which I applied - in order of my original preference - are as follows (with reasoning in parenthesis):

1) Yale (best non-profit management program out there by most accounts)
2) Harvard (good social enterprise program; it would be hard to say no to HBS)
3T) Kellogg (probably the best business school out there and a good NPM program)
3T) LBS (no real NPM program, but a wonderfully diverse, international experience; I couldn't resist)
5) Wharton (also one of the best programs with a good NPM program)

I'm waiting to hear from Yale, Harvard, and LBS.

I was rejected by Wharton.

I was accepted by Kellogg.

More to come.