Waiting & Interview Questions

Waiting gets harder when there is less to do.  Last week, I gave my final presentation and now I just have to write a pretty simple 10 page paper due Friday and I will be completely done.  It's so hard to make plans to do anything when everything depends on the unknown.  Simple things like my phone died today.  I want to get a new phone but I don't want to start a new plan just to have to pay the cancellation fee in a few months should we get the opportunity to move to London.  We want to plan our honeymoon but that is on hold as well.  If he gets in we'll do a week or so somewhere really nice.  If not, we'll take a longer vacation with the comfort of knowing we can afford to do so.  Plus I just really really REALLY want to know.  I'm impatient that way.

We finally went over the interview in detail today to try to figure out what kind of impression he made and whether or not it's a good indication of the final decision.  Basically the interview lasted 1.5 hours.  The interviewer talked a bit about his industry in the beginning and asked Mr. Baby if he had any questions.  He had about three questions (he googled the interviewer a few nights before so he already had a few questions in mind).  Next, the interviewer told him to relax and said that the purpose of the interview was to select applicants in not out.  Then, he began asking questions.  Mr. Baby says it was all very conversational and comfortable.  Almost every single question was exactly or similar to the questions that I asked him in a mock interview--I made a list of 30 questions based on web searches and added a few spontaneous questions to follow-up on some points he made (think I discovered a new talent-I'm a great mock interviewer!).  Next they did the brief presentation which was basically the same question that everyone seems to post about the decision to fire an employee because of comments on a social networking site.  We also did this in the mock interview so he had some idea of what he wanted to say.  Last they talked about LBS.  The interviewer gave lots of insight on the pros and cons of LBS and gave some personal advice about what Mr. Baby should focus on once there.  In the end the interviewer encouraged him to keep in touch and to feel free to contact him if he had any questions.  Overall, Mr. Baby thinks he made a pretty good impression and felt confident when he came home from the interview.  So confident, in fact, I was treated to a romantic dinner at our fav fusion restaurant in Hollywood :)  That being said, I think the wait has dampened his confidence some.  Realizing how small the class is, accepting the fact that the applicant pool is probably very competitive, dealing with the lack of contact from the other two schools he's waiting to hear from.  It's so very hard to try to keep spirits up and find ways to make it through the waiting.  

Meanwhile I take some comfort in preparing for the move just in case.  I've scoped out apartments to get an idea of how much we can expect to pay in rent, looked for job opportunities, and best of all met with my graduate advisor who gave me a few contacts in London to help with my possible job search.  I've looked at how the health insurance works there, made list of the places I would like to travel to should we live there, and found out about what we will need to do to get our cat there safely.  Phew!  I don't know what else to plan/stress for!  I know that everything will change regardless of the many plans I make, but it helps me to sleep at night knowing that I've already started the knowledge gathering process.  Ick.  What am I going to do with all of my spare time once that last paper is complete?

Politics

I'm exhausted by the dem primary.  So sad.  Oversaturated.  I just don't care anymore.  I still favor Obama, but I worry too much.  He would be under constant scrutiny and if he forgot to tie his shoe one morning it would be evidence of his "lack of experience".  Clinton just keeps getting worse.  There is no hope.  Politicians.  Suck.  Hard.  I'm over it.  Hopefully I'll snap out of it by November and be able to feel something for these people again.  Ick.  

:)

The interview!!! Ack, it's all so exciting.  Found more practice questions for him and added a few of my own just to throw him off a bit.  It's all so fun and I'm so proud of him :)  I hope that he is enjoying this experience to the fullest because I know for sure that I truly enjoy watching him go after something that he really wants with full energy! 

Okay, enough for today, must get back to writing for a grade...

Too much...

Frustration, exhaustion, boredom, nerves, and excitement.  I have experienced all of these emotions in one three-day weekend.

First the frustration.  Only two more weeks of my masters degree to go and I'm stuck in one of the worst groups in history.  There are six of us and three of us are absolute shit-heads.  Yes.  Shit-heads.  I bit my tongue for as long as possible, tried to play nice and be polite, but then one of them walks into a meeting with an attitude the size of Texas talking about the quality of her input and I just couldn't do it anymore.  Here's the thing.  I don't need this class to graduate.  I've already taken all the credits I need and have a pretty good GPA and time to change the status of this class from letter grade to pass/fail so that it won't impact anything at all.  She, on the other hand, needs this and instead fixing all of her crappy amateur work I could have just submitted her parts as is and let the group fail.  It's not like we didn't give her the opportunity to fix it.  She just decided to stay up on her high horse and defend her work like an idiot so that we had no choice but to make the changes ourselves.  Ugh!  

Because of this frustration, I decided to take a much needed girl's night with my breastfriend and drink a bottle of champagne and watch bad tv all night.  Woke up to pancakes and a headache the next morning.  Came home full of intentions to get back to work, but took a shower and ended in falling asleep wrapped in a towel instead until knight in shining armor came home.

Once again tried to get some work for my job done but it is incredibly boring and I just could not force myself to do it.  

Knight in shining armor, meanwhile, has set the date for his LBS interview!  Nervous.  I researched a few sites for him to find some common and not-so-common interview questions for a mock interview.  He has made it through two mock interviews thus far and I'm so proud of him.  He doesn't like to practice with me because I have the tendency to smile and beam with pride when I listen to his thoughtful answers.  Such character.  This is why I'm marrying him.

He finally decided on a suit and it is gorgeous.  Excited!  I don't think I've ever been this ga-ga over a man in a suit before.  I've seen him in suits before, no doubt, but this one is just so well made, excellent fabric, and tailored just right.  He looks drop dead gorgeous in it.  Due to the unbelievable sexiness of him in his suit, we have decided to make plans for a nice dinner to follow his interview.  I can't wait to have him all to myself and wrapped up so nicely on top of it all.

Back to my boring work...

Wharton...sigh of relief!

Wharton released mid-decisions this afternoon and it's a no for lover-boy. I'm not that disappointed. Not at all really. After having the possibility of moving to London dangled right in front of me I refuse to settle for Philadelphia. I'm not quite sure how he is going to take it though. I hope it's not too bad. He really liked the program there and what seemed to be a nice group of students. Out of all of the schools he applied to, the Wharton Partner's Club was ranked the lowest on my list. I couldn't get much info from their website as it was out of date and kind of poorly set up. In other words, our feelings about this school vary greatly and since I did agree that he could apply there and I would move with him if he got in I tried my best to get excited about the possibility of living there. The hardest thing now is waiting for the final decision from London and interview decisions from H and S.

Oh well, I guess I should try to prepare myself for his reaction when he comes home from work...

Perfect Day...Invite!

I knew today would be a good day the moment I got out of bed. I woke up late and lounged around studying my very last midterm. I knew the material so decided to spend the rest of morning taking a long shower and playing with our cat. Checked the weather and smiled to see a promise of 75 degree weather. Yes, a good day indeed. I got to campus early, had no trouble finding a parking space and headed inside to take the exam. Exam was scheduled for 1 hour, followed by a movie. I finished the exam in approximately 20 minutes and left the class to grab a snack while I waited for everyone else to finish so that we could watch the movie. Randomly decided to check my text messages and what do I see?

A message from Baby #2: I got LBS interview :)

Hoo-freaking-ray!!! I'm so excited, proud, anxious, and happy for him. I know that he has been checking his email everyday waiting for a sign and talking himself out of his potential in the last week so this was very much necessary. Ahhhh! Off to read all about LBS and living in London again :)

A sad life...

This week has not been so great.  Just kind of boring overall.  Have my only exam of the quarter coming up on Monday and although it's 2am on Sunday morning I just can't bring myself to study. This unbearable feeling of misery.  I must figure out how to snap out of this.  It has lingered for far too long and this last week it has peaked.  Ick.

The one good thing about this week is that I have not obsessed about the man's b-school apps at all.  Still no invites but his "whatever will be, will be" attitude about the situation has finally rubbed off on me.  Now I'm left to deal with my own shit and I gotta say obsessing over his shit was a hell of a lot more fun.  And now I'm cursing.  Great.

Hmmmm...don't have much else to say :(

Super Tuesday is here!!!

It's 1am and I'm up trying make sure I make the right decisions.  People are sending their emails with their opinions and I was criticized by friends by my decision to vote for Obama.  "How could you?  It's about time we had a woman for president!"  Unfortunately that was the only reason they could come up with.  We are women so we should vote for a woman.  I wonder how those friends would react if I were to say "I have to vote for Obama because I am black."  In fact, when I heard others in my family saying that they have to do just this, I was the loudest voice saying that was not a good enough reason.  This wasn't really a big deal for me at first.  I figured either way I would win.  I'm a black woman, so what could go wrong?  First woman or first African American.  Yea for me!  

Then I started to listen to others (big mistake) and became enraged.  I work in a mostly Latino community and my Latina co-worker (Obama supporter) told me about a conversation she had with her husband.  She asked him who he was going to vote for and he immediately said Clinton.  When she asked him why he said "Oh, you know Obama is black and you know..."  So yeah, I'm becoming a little infuriated.  Everywhere I go I hear this crap about how we need a woman to be president when really underneath it all what people are saying is that we CANNOT have a black person (male/female) as president.  It makes me sick. It's a harsh reminder of how people can be sometimes.

Today I had to pull myself away from it all and sit down once again to figure this whole thing out for myself.  Shut out all the noise so to speak and make sure that when I go in tomorrow to cast my vote, it is a vote that is backed by something more substantial than the ethnicity and gender of the candidates.  I don't want to become the people that I despise.  

As I said before, I really haven't paid a ton of attention to what each candidate has to say in terms of television interviews, putting each other down, radio advertisements, etc.  It's just too much confusion there for me.  I don't want anyone to help me make up my mind.  That's why I tried to judge them all as stand alone candidates, looking at their plans for the future.  Tonight, I finally decided to actually listen to some of their speeches outside of the horrible debate last week and I was completely blown away by Obama.  Completely.  I mean an actual tear.  I can imagine my little future biracial children memorizing those speeches for school plays and reciting them without knowing the full weight of it all and me crying in the audience completely embarrassing them in front of their friends.  

"Yes we can heal this nation"

"Yes we can repair this world"

Really Obama?  Okay, I believe you!  That is not to say Hilary's plan are trash.  They are great plans actually.  I just don't believe her.  I don't believe her on paper or in spoken word.  She does not move me.  She doesn't seem to move herself.  I will agree that it seems that she is planning for bigger things, but I have to remember that there is a difference between a president and a dictator.  Unlike a dictator, what the president wants and plans to happen means very little if he/she cannot convince others that it is good.  Obama seems to be going for the incremental plan.  He wants universal health care too, just in a different way.  In a way that is more agreeable to most than Clinton's plan.  AND he can get people there in way that is fulfilling and not simply paperwork.  

I sort of see it like this in my head:  You are on your way to your local bookstore (I'm a bookworm!) and you want to read the newest book by your fav author.  For months there has been this build up.  This book will change your life!  It will change the way you see the world and act in it!  It will make you feel emotions you never thought black words on white paper could!  It is almost indescribable how good and interesting this story is.  You get to the store and there is a huge poster in the window announcing that instead of selling the book, they have decided to sell the CliffsNotes because it's more practical.  It's the same story after all, and you could probably get all the main points and pass a test if you were reading it for you high school AP English class.  Wouldn't you be a little pissed?  

So, that's how I see it.  Obama is the ground-breaking, life-changing, continue the story even in your dreams novel and Clinton is the CliffsNotes.  I think my decision is made.  

Unfortunately, after weeks of hearing some of the rationale behind other people's decisions I simply cannot fool myself into believing that he will actually make it to the November election. I'm okay with that because I still would have made the decision that was right for me.  After all, I have used Cliff's Notes a few times when I was in a crunch before and it's always better than not bothering to read at all.

Me, FHH, and politics...

I have tried to keep a journal since I was 10 years old and always failed.  Even now I have a journal on the floor of my car that I've had for over two years now and it only has about 10 entries.  I love the idea of keeping a record of life events and random thoughts but actually putting pen to paper has always been a burden.  I can't believe I let the world of blogging escape me for so long!  So, I have decided that this will not really be a strictly MBA blog and I am going to take this opportunity to chronicle my life as well.  Hmmm, maybe I should change my tag?  Of course, since my Future Hot Husband (FHH) and his MBA path are still very much a big part of my life, I'm sure the whole MBA thing will come up very regularly.

On to my life.  I have a job which allows me to spend a lot of time working from home.  Me working from home = sleeping in late, playing with the cat, watching bad tv, talking on the phone, and making very long lunch dates and then trying to catch up on actual work late at night.  Today I actually had to go into work for a meeting and I actually got a LOT accomplished.  Quite proud of myself!  Of course as soon as I came home, I logged on to check the app status for all four schools :)  Still obsessed.  I've also discovered the MBA forums and that only added to my craziness.  Thankfully, the FHH dragged me out for a workout at the gym.  Very nice change.  We came home, cooked dinner, and watched the Dem. Debate.  I have an eye for certain details and body language is very important to me.  That being said, I found Clinton to be incredibly irritating!

I usually don't like to watch or even hear candidates debate as it seems that issues always get lost and I'm never able to get an idea of what their actual plans are.  It's easier for me to just do a little research on my own to read up on where they stand on the issues that are most important to me which include healthcare, education, abortion/reproductive rights, and of course what they plan to do about Iraq.  Until today the Dems were on an even playing field for me in that I didn't care much for either of them, but they both seemed to be enough of a "better evil" than what we have had thus far.  Then Clinton and that horrible frozen smug look on her face whenever anyone but herself was speaking.  Ick.  It just bugs me.  I ended up not listening at all but working on school stuff instead and getting filled in on the main points during commercial breaks from FHH.  Still, every time I looked, there she was with the smug look.  I know it's silly but I really think overall appearance is very important for leaders and for me that includes facial expressions and not merely how attractive a person is.  

Having said that, I think it's time that the FHH and I start looking for new business attire and practicing our interviewee skills as we prepare to make changes in our lives seeking new jobs, new residences, and hopefully a new MBA.  I don't think I've ever had a formal interview in my life and the last thing I want to do is be rejected from gainful employment just because I had some weird smirk on my face.  I also think that this is important for all you lucky MBA applicants who recently received invitations for an interview.  Don't just practice your answers; pick out clothes that make you feel confident, practice a comfortable tone of voice and try it out in the mirror or better yet on video.  You might just discover a few things about yourself that need to be tweaked.  

I remember sometime early in FHH's career when he was practicing giving his first real presentation and realized that he said "umm" too much.  "Good morning.  I'm ummm hot as umm all hell and (long pause) umm I'm here to uhhh demonstrate my mmm dangerous hotness by ummm..."  At that point who really cares what he is going to do to demonstrate his hotness? Any sane person would be singing the latest song for the new thin Mac in their head by now (I love that song!)  

So yeah, rambling (another thing I have to work on to get a real job), but for the moment I guess it is the Obama camp for me.  For shits and giggles, I decided to check out the Republican side and...yep...nevermind!  Will there ever be a candidate that truly makes sense for the diverse population that makes up America?  Does it really even make sense to have a "President"?  Do we not try to come up with a new system simply because everyone is so comfortable with the systems that already exist for them?  Much to think about tonight while I troll the forums and prepare for another "work" from home day...

Choosing Schools

So, when the monkey-man finally remembered to apply to schools for fall '08, he made a list of all the schools he would ideally like to apply to including;

Wharton, Harvard, Stanford, Michigan, Columbia, London, INSEAD, NYU, Chicago, UCLA

Obviously this was way too many schools given the short amount of time he had, so I asked him to put the schools in categories of "love to go" and "LOVE to go" while I made my own categories of "like to live" and "LOVE to live".

In the end his LOVE's were:  Harvard, Stanford, and London

My LOVE's:  London, NYU, Harvard

Obviously his choices were based on curriculum, quality of school, and fit whereas my choices were based on cities I have yet to live in.  Actually, I never wanted to live in Boston for Harvard, but I thought I would just be so proud to say my monkey was going to Harvard!

Unfortunately, my NYU got cut from the list as it just didn't seem to have a good fit for him and we decided on Harvard and London definitely.  I was a little put off by Stanford as we already live in California and I would really like to change states, but the community there for partner's seems pretty tight-knit, there are some jobs available in my field, and I liked their curriculum so much that I was almost tempted to apply!  After some discussion, we also added Wharton to the list since back when he started to think about MBA programs in '06 it was at the top of his list and being from an "inner-city" myself, I know better than to believe even half of the negative opinions of outsiders.

The order of his preference changes everyday and right now Harvard is actually at the bottom of the list and Wharton and Stanford are competing for the top spot of dream school.  

I guess the point of this post is that I really think that partners should voice their opinions on these choices from the beginning.  If you are planning to uproot your life for two years, become the only "bread-winner", and provide all the emotional support that is necessary for a progrm like this, you certainly get to have a say ;) 

**My monkey is at least a little anxious after all!  I mentioned it in passing that I have somehow gotten caught up in the obsession of the waiting game and he said, "yeah, I'm frustrated too."  Of course, that was all he said before moving on to something else.  Why can't I just get over it like that?!  The more I think about it the more I think this is just a way to escape the tons of work I have to do for a somewhat reasonable cause.  Ugh, I'm supposed to be spending the night writing a letter to get more funding for my project to provide nutrition education to low-income communities but here I am blogging about someone else's MBA experience!  Whatever, it's a great break!

Introduction

Introductions are always hard, but I will try my best.

First of all, I love reading the MBA applicant blogs even though I am not applying.  My fiance is. So, as a future "MBA partner" (fingers crossed!), I think a similar blog for people in my shoes, besides the partner's club websites, is needed.  This is especially true for those partners who have been very involved through the entire process as much as I have.  Also, I'm hoping that this blog will relieve some of the stress that I expect to experience as a Partner of an MBA student.  I've read some pretty scary articles about the break-up rate of MBA students as they don't really have time for "real life".  So, I'm hoping that I can provide some insight and archive some memories of what it's like from our side.

The man started talking about applying to MBA programs back in 2006.  We were not engaged then (just living together) but having lived apart for a year before and with no schools in our area that he would want to apply to, he decided to hold off until I finished my own 2-year Master program.  I'll be finishing up in March and graduating in June so now is the perfect time.  

Even though he knew as early as 06 that he was going to apply, neither of us thought of it again until October 2007.  By that time we realized that there was no way that he would be able to make it for Round 1.  Still, he didn't jump on the ball just yet as a lot of family issues came up and somehow everything got pushed back until December.  He studied for the GMAT for two weeks, took the test on Dec. 15th (got a great score, I'm proud to say!), began outlining the essay questions for the next few days, and finally officially started writing essays on the 23rd in the midst of much holiday celebration.  

Everything was completely last minute and exhausting for both of us.  I was his only editor and I am a very tough critic questioning almost every sentence he wrote.  Sometimes, I didn't really read the essay at all and simply gave it back to him saying that I thought he could do more. Deceitful I know, but I have known him to be a great writer in some of the things he has written for me and I really wanted it to be his best work.  I wanted to be able to read it and hear the voice of the man I love come through every single essay, even the essays about things that I know nothing about like all the technical stuff he does as an engineer.  

*Sidebar tip to other perfectionist partners:  do NOT write the essays for your applicant.  This was very tempting for me as I love to write and I have a much more flattering view of my man than he has of himself.  They need to complete this on their own no matter how much you think you know best.  I know that if I wrote his essays and he got rejected I would feel totally responsible and if he got admitted with those essays he would feel completely undeserving.  So, all around it's best to just let them do it on their own.  However, if they ask you to criticize be honest.  For my part, my main assessments were based on whether or not I thought the person that I know came through or not and if the examples given were balanced for each application (professional vs. personal).  I only gave my approval when I could say without a doubt that I heard him and not something that seemed like a sample from one of the many sites out there.  On the one essay for Stanford that I think every applicant has a hard time with (what matters to you most and why?), I sent it back so many times with my only comment being "this isn't you" (much to his frustration).  It was very hard for him, but the end result was fantastic and really him.  So much so, that if he doesn't get admitted, I think he'll really feel that it was because he just wasn't a good fit and be able to move on knowing that it probably wouldn't have been a good idea for him to go there.

I really pushed him hard on this as whether or not he gets in will have a huge impact on both of our lives.  So, I stayed up late into the night with him sitting on our sofa with our laptops. While he wrote and rewrote essays, I researched the schools further (location, apartment prices, job availability), checked out other applicants, and looked for more job opportunities for him just in case.  I stressed out with him when none of his recommenders had submitted their rec's the night before they were due and even did a little detective work to find the home phone number of one person who we could not contact by email to remind him of the due date. Everyone got them in on time (whew!) and we celebrated big when the last application was submitted. 

Once everything was submitted, we both had to get back to real life and this is where we differ. He is infinitely patient about all things and pretty much let it go once he knew that his applications had turned complete.  His life goes on.  I am not, nor have I ever been patient about anything!  This waiting game is killing me.  I'm pathetic.  When I was applying for my MPH I actually got up at 4am and drove to desert to meet a curandero (don't know if I spelled it right, but it's a traditional spiritual type person who apparently can see into the future) with my best friend's aunt as a translator and asked "will I get into X school if I apply?"  he said yes and so I was able to submit my application with confidence and let the whole thing go.  I did not go see him this time around and I'm kicking myself in the butt for it.  However, I really do think that the application process really was a good experience for him whether or not he gets in.

In any case, I'm hoping that this blog will help me get through wait and hopefully provide a place for other future MBA partners to read about experiences from something other than the schools partner's club website.  Also, I'll try to include as much info directly from my partner as he continues to move through this process for all those applicants out there.

FYI-R2 Schools (in no particular order):

Wharton

Harvard

Stanford

London