Thursday, June 15, 2006

the other CAT in my life.


Kylie wonders if B-school would open more doors for her, as well.

Monday, June 12, 2006

the gmat really is the easy part

So I admit to not exactly sticking to my studying schedule. My GMAT is in late July and I've been studying about 7-9 hours a week. I do feel like I'm learning a lot and I never feel completely overwhelmed by a question--however I do worry that I spend too much time on them, particularly on math questions. While I rarely get questions in the book wrong, I probably need to learn to do them faster...

June is such a busy month, with constant birthday celebrations, out-of-state weddings, pre-planned vacations...it is hard to study more than 10 hours a week. Although I'm technically slacking from my schedule, I am almost finished with my GMAT 800 book. I can't believe I've blown through over 1000 problems! I will be stepping up the studying, beginning today with the Official Guide.

Lately I've been panicking about business school on a daily basis. I unfortunately have a lot of self doubt and I worry that this will be reflected in my essays and interviews. While I have the same basic reasons that everyone else has for going to business school (fundamental business/management knowledge, network of peers, greater flexibility and opportunity, status, money, etc.), I worry that my current lack of a specific post-mba plan will be detrimental to my applications.

While I know I am very interested in Entrepreneurship and Marketing, I can't say for certain exactly what it is I want to do. I also wonder exactly how specific my goals need to be. A friend of mine who recently went to the USC Marshall admit weekend was told by the second-year and alumni panel that it really isn't that important to one's b-school success to have a clearly defined path prior to attending. I want to believe this, as I can't imagine knowing what I'll want to do with my degree until I've had a taste of other possibilities I might not have previously considered.

I'm doing as much research as I can. But I still feel uneasy that the answer to my "Why" question isn't solid. Then I wonder if anyone's is really solid. Or if the very detailed, specific answer on their application isn't actually the reason they're going. Should I be able to explain why I want to go to business school in a single sentence? Or a few sentences?

Ugh, now I'm panicking again!