Progress??? What is that?

I started on my career progress essay a couple of days ago. It was instant disaster. I have already written and deleted the first 2 paragraphs 5 times. At last I'm left with just 4 lines that I liked. The way I'm stuck for words, one would think there was no "progress" in my career to write about.

Frustrated with my progress,or lack thereof, I decided to ditch "Career Progress" and start with "Goals". I have written a bit. At least I know how I want to project things. So I have a sort of framework. But there's lots and lots of work to be done on the content.

Today I got up early stared at the comp for a while, didn't hit on any gold mines. So I just left for work. I reached office at 8am after nearly a month of coming in at 10.15am :) and surprised everybody.

Hoping to get something done over the next couple of days...

Progressing... but just inching along

My fact file is done. But all it contains is facts :(

Now comes the difficult part, putting the story together. I've been racking my brains for a good way to fit things together. The more facts I read/write, the more lost I feel.

Some good things are happening though. I've researched and jotted down some stuff about 2 of my schools - Harvard and Kellogg (I'm in the midst of it actually). Now that is some progress.

That's it for today. I really need to sleep. G'nite blog!

So many questions!

I've started on my fact file. I'm done with listing down facts about my academics, achievements and community service. I still have to finish the work ex, hobbies & interests and part-time & freelancing sections of the file.

This afternoon, when I sat back and read the file, I was aghast! I saw a list of facts, but disjoint facts. I've put down a lot of things. But I'm lost now. How do I connect them all? Do I actually intend to say my story using a bunch of diconnected truths? Fat chance!

So once I'm done with this file tomorrow, I will look at each point critically, asking myself:

"Is this worth talking about? Has this contributed to my life in a significant way?"

...and knock it off if it's useless.

There's an even bigger problem. I need to think of a way to organize my facts and experiences, such that they follow a logical flow of thought, seamlessly melting into each other.

I'm gonna be at it till I'm completely satisfied with the way my story unfolds. Whew! That's far far away...

Ready...Get Set...Go!

I'm planning to start work on my apps this weekend. I don't see any point in waiting till the application deadlines and essays are out in August. I want to get the preliminary ground work and the standard questions out of the way by mid-July.

I don't want to be in a spot where I start thinking about what I want to write after I look at the questions. They will turn out to be a farce. The essays have to paint a picture of me. But I'll not settle for a picture, I want a near perfect portrait!

I want to do some aimless soul searching, not trying to answer any tricky essay question, not trying to fit in or stand out of any school, not trying to paint a picture of the perfect B-School applicant with stellar credentails. I just want to have honest and clear answers to 3 questions.

• Who am I now?
• Where am I now?
• Whom and where do I want to be? Why? How do I intend to get there?
  

Ideally, once the schools publish the essays, I should just tailor my answers to the above questions to fit the school's questions.

Here are my first 3 tasks:

• Make a fact file containing anything and everything that I've done in my life, that's worthy of mention.
• Make fact files containing stuff that I can use in my essays, one for each of my target schools.
• Find at least one student/alum whom I can speak to about each of my target schools.

Deadline - Friday, 26th May.

Am I enjoying this journey???!!!!! Licking my lips in anticipation!

Meet me and my blog

The title of this blog says it all...

Voila! I have officially embarked on the arduous yet delightful journey of B-School admissions.

Let's get away with cursory stuff first:

Me - A girl hoping to make it to the top tier B-schools in the US.
Home - India
Industry - IT
Workex - 3 yrs in July 2007
GMAT - 700+
TOEFL - Yet to take

Am I withholding information? - Yes I am. That's all I want to say about myself at the moment.

Where am I today?

I have given my GMAT and got a good score. I took the GMAT in March 2006, when I was buried under a mountain of work. So I decided to take a well-deserved break to celebrate my GMAT and to give my tired mind and body some rest after work (which is still neck deep). I've been treating myself to hanging out, reading, shopping and a good number of movies for the past 6 weeks.

Now it's back to the game: B-School research, speaking to current students, fact files,recos and all the usual jazz...

Schools I'm apping to for fall 2007:
(Edited after further research)
Round 1
Harvard
Wharton
Stanford
Columbia
GSB-Chicago

Round 2 (maybe)
Kellogg
Ross

Why this blog?
This blog will record most of my soul-searching, the info I collect, crests and troughs in my spirits... Crisply stated - "The crazy life of a B-School applicant".

I invite comments on how this blog can be improved (if someone reads it at all!).

Thus begins my MBA Saga...