Done with my apps! Yahoo!

Today I managed to complete apping to all the universities I had wanted to. I knew it would be exhaustive, but this much, I had no idea. Whats the use of having known it anyways.. I just had to zoom ahead! So the past 2 weeks meant continuous night outs for me! Not just that, the past 3 months have been very difficult too managing both my office, my interests ( read stocks, business and economy news ).. Hmm... Thank god its over now! I dont think I would have been able to continue a little further! but yeah.. who knows if I had to apply to one more university, I would have been able to garner energy to proceed :)

I could never complete my application two hours before the deadline. The maximum was 1 hr and the minimum was 3 mins! Yeah right! And I made it through all the deadlines because of my friends, my family and most importantly my recommenders :) Sounds strange to me that its difficult to manage recommenders. One of my recommenders bought a grammar book to remove errors in his reco. ! Before my apps, as I thought about the quality of work, I was thinking about postponing the ordeal for the next year. But I had given my recommenders all the info and it was difficult for me to ask them to stop :) Once my recommender who never comes to office in the early mornings came to the office for my reco and completed it! Wow.. what an amazing gesture. I realised I would stupid enough not to capitalise... In addition, my career progress has been great till now. I have been able to contribute and make impact on my organisation, a startup. Now that our company has been acquired by a bigger one, the growth prospects are slimmering down! So, in one year my average efforts would be low.. I suppose its the same with everyone.. The first few years are of steep growth curves while it slows down later....

I really hope I make into the top univs.. The worst thing is that Harvard and Stanford schools are the first ones! ( I did not apply any in Round1 ). So my trials were with Harvard and Stanford, my first choices. Out of these two, I ruined my application for stanford :( , my dream school! I still have not run out of hope!!

Apart from my recommenders, I cannot thank enough my friends and family. I honed my management skills during the application process than while I mentored juniors for a product in my company :D I remember for Stanford application, 5 of my friends and my recommender were strugglign to make it on time. I had given the job to fill forms to one of my friends based on what I had filled for Harvard, the second reviewing my first essay ( whats your passion and why essay ), the third helping me write my second essay (Yeah! Unbelievable, yet right.. I wrote second part of my second essay right the same day.. But still I have hope! Does it sound over-optimism? May be.. but i care a damn! The reason is I spent just the same time as much writing my first essay. Sounds weird is it? No, it actually does not.... The first essay would be easier if you have a strong theme and content. So, it was really very very easy for me and my reviewers really praised the essay.. So the confidence...) another friend of mine verifying my transcript and my recommender, unable to get a stable internet location, was searching for a cafe at 11:00 PM in the night! I needed a lot more management skills to manage all these tasks.. the advantage was everyone "wanted to" help me. I realised the need to infuse so much interest and passion into an organisation and work. The task of a manager ( who then becomes a leader ) becomes all the more simple and easier! The people issues if sorted out genuinely, will remove most of the thorns in the path. There have been many great moments ( All the moments were great just knowing that there are around 10 people willing to help you and take time for you despite your schedules! Amazing feeling ). There were several moments too.... In another instance, when discussing my strengths with my recommender, I saw that he wrote a strength of mine that I had too written! It was sheer coincidence. I really never believed in coaching the recommenders. Whatever they had written had to go in. I felt so great seeing the coincidence!

When I think about the time, efforts and money I have spent on this entire process, I shudder at the thought of what would happen if I dont get an admission in any of these! Lets hope for the best! But the best thing is even though I do not get an admission in this entire process, the process has reformed my life! Given me a perspective about where I intend to go, what my passions are etc.. Even in college, when I was given an offer to pursue Research Excahnge Programme and go to CMU for PhD, I did not take it because I was not sure of my dreams and whether research is my passion! I was forced to ponder and assimilate lot of information in order to do my apps... Thank you ! MBA process. I am a much better person professionally and personally. The apping process has been a steep pondering and learning curve for me. It has given a lot of maturity in thought, improved my relations with friends, recommenders and family, made me think about my future, my interests, my passions, ingrained in me the need to plan and structure life properly etc...

I might get in or not.. But cheers to the procedure! This makes me go back to my earlier post... IIMs, please change the pattern!