Schliesslich und Endlich!

I was accepted by McCombs today, and the wait has been worth it. The seven months of wondering have taken a back seat to the excitement and anticipation of a new beginning. I have a tough choice to make, but I feel lucky to know that no choice will be the wrong one.

Thank you to all of you who have been so supportive over this long slog.

Sektion Sieben: Entscheidungen, Entscheidungen

Got the call from the Good Humor Man at Olin, and he came bearing Geld. Time to visit St. Louis and get ready to make a choice. Its a good choice to have, but its also a tough one. On the one hand there's Olin, with a good ranking and what appears to be a pretty good recruiter base. On the other hand is Rice, with extremely friendly students, rock solid finance, and a location in the state I love. I think they are the most under-ranked school in the US, and I think their lack of a PhD program is the only reason.

For the life of me I don't know what a PhD program has to do with an MBA, except that if you don't have one, you're more likely to be taught by actual professors.

So that's the decision, in addition to adding McCombs into the mizzle. Speaking of Macky-C, I got a letter from them last week in a standard envelope. My heart stopped, and I was thinking, "OK, I guess it's down to two." But reading further, I discovered that they had made a review of the waitlist and I was still alive. Anyway, according to them, I may be waiting until May or June before I hear something.

On another note, I'm back to running again, and I seem to be injury free. I'm looking forward to doing the BolderBoulder 10k in Colorado during my bachelor party weekend in May. Also really looking forward to the St. Louis visit.

Sektion Sechs: Neue Gelegenheiten

So the waitlist continues. Managed to drop 10 points on the GMAT. Ran into some lousy combination/permuatation problems early on the quant, and it killed me. I brought my verbal into the 96th percentile, but I don't even get to show this to anyone because of the verdammten math.

We had a great trip to Houston and Austin. My fiance was, suprisingly, more enamored by Houston at first, but in the end I think she prefered Austin. In any case, I've decided not to leave myself with only one choice in the event that McCombs gives me the dizzle. I'm going to submit an application to Wash U (Olin) this week. I finally started reading their emails, and I am really impressed with the school. Not for nothing, it would also be nice to go somewhere where I haven't already lived. Whatever the case, whether it's Rice, Olin or McCombs, it is going to be great and I can't wait to leave the technical world and pursue my intellectual limits in the world of finance.

I apologize for being a slacking blogger (slogger?) the last few weeks. Being waitlisted feels like ice fishing in April: you don't want to do anythin to upset the balance. But I think adding another option into the mix has defininitely filled some of the potholes in my psyche.

Sektion Fünf: Der Wait List

So I got waitlisted by McCombs. I'm a bit bummed not to be in, but elated not to be out. I'm going to give the GMAT one more shot at the end of the month, and then take my fiancé to Texas to show her what her new climes will look like.

So enough about MBA stuff. After more than a year of foot pain, I finally wised up, took 2 months off from running, and found a good sports podiatrist. It turns out the problem is fairly simple to fix, and stems mostly from the fact that my calf muscles are way too tight. I should be running again within a month.

Also, for those of you that are totally mystified by sports nutrition, I highly recommend the Abs Diet, by the editor of Men's Health magazine. The main thing the book does is explain how to fuel your muscles and control you metabolic burn. One important thing I learned is that running, without mixing in resistance training, can actually burn muscle and increase fat. Who knew?

Sektion Vier: Das Ding

"The Admissions Committee has carefully reviewed your application materials and I am sorry to inform you that we are unable to offer you admission to UCLA Anderson School of Management for Fall 2005."

Like all good dings, this one was succinct and had an exceptional, harmonically perfect ring tone.

I recommend this ding with the Nieman Ranch free-range chicken breast scallopini, seared winter veggies, pistachio - green tea ice cream and steel-cut oatmeal parfait, all complemented by the '99 Chateau St. Michelle Gewurtztraminer.

Anyway, what can you do? I was a little luke warm on the place anyway, especially in comparison to my visits to Rice and McCombs. I lugged my ass up there in a suit, only to interview with a second-year who was wearing shorts and a t-shirt with a three-day stubble. After attending a class with a totally forgettable professor, I think one student introduced himself to me. Contrast that with Rice and UT, where I had non-flippant interviewers dressed for the occasion and at least 10-15 students introduce themselves and volunteer their contact info in case I had any questions. So bottom line? I kind of expected it, and I'm not that bummed about it.

So in the absence of any new info from UT -- now entering week 11 since applying -- I've started to really research the career options and school life at Rice. And I've been really impressed with what I've seen. The ten-week action learning projects they do while in residence will be a great opportunity for me to get some hands-on finance and marketing experience. This will be huge coming from and engineering/project management background. It also seems like a lot of I-banks recruit there, especially for energy I-banking. Not that I want to be a banker necessarily, but I see I-bank recruiting as somewhat of a validation of an MBA program -- kind of like getting a Starbucks in your neighborhood.

I've been really enjoying my career research and reading up on finance, accounting and statistics. I enjoy sort of cerebral and analytical things, but I also have a non-engineer personality. My early opinon is that I will pursue some sort of investment career, likely in the energy sector. Of course, all this could go out the window after my first marketing class, but as they say, if you don't have at least some sort of plan, how do you know what do deviate from?

*Kudos again to WC on the Sam Giancana Memorial Scholarship at Chicago, and for all of the support and advice.

Sektion Drei: Am enden den Nerven

"At the end of my nerves."

I would be thinking there is something direly wrong with me for the amount of time I spend following the BW Forum, except for two factors:

1) My company has totally lost its direction and everything is slower than slow here. I'm utterly thankful for the fact that I timed by MBA apps this year. Something in the back of my mind probably told me that this company's future was dim as could be, when suddenly, in November, they canned the CEO and much of the management team and whoosh!, my suspicions were confirmed and I was relieved to have those applications done.

2) The more I read, the more I realize that there are a ton of people glued to the Forum, so I guess I'm not totally crazy. I get the feeling that many people out there are just like me: they wake up one day and realize that they've reached the peak of their potential given their level of education, and a change of jobs would do nothing to alleviate that or provide greater challenges. Therefore, they look upon an MBA as two years of intellectual rigor that will make sense of the crazy business world we live in. And hopefully, when it's over, we will find a gig that makes it a thrill to go to work every morning.

On another note, another day ticks down without a peep from McC. I swear if I get in there I'm going to wear my best Ali G garb to Admit Weekend and speak with a thick and indistinguishable Cockney accent.

Sektion Zwei: Perspective

One hates to get negative in these situations, but eleven weeks is a long time to wait for a decision. I guess the UCLA decision has been taking just as long as McCombs', but at least I expected that up front.

On the positive side, I'm guessing that I'm probably not dinged by McCombs, and that they are taking stock of their responses and later applicants before coming to a decision on me.

Another source of frustration lately is that I havent' been able to run for the last six weeks because of some weird tendonitis on the bottom of my heal. I've been lifting a lot of weights and doing spin classes, but that just doesn't have the same head-clearing capacity as a good run.

Anyway, I'm glad to hear WC and CG got fellowships at Anderson today. Its somehow surreal to be so excited for people I've never met, but I guess a lot of us in the working world form close bonds with colleagues we've only met through the phone or email.