In at Chicago GSB (got DINGED at everywhere else)

[The E-Man]

I am sitting here, trying to think how to write this message. As strange as it may sound, my writing seems to flow better after a glass of wine. Let me have a glass of shiraz by FAT bastard (seriously, that's what the label says. It's a bottle from France.) What I am going to do here is to share with you my own thoughts and other success stories I heard. So here we go....

1) My background
HK Chinese; Male; Age 34 (as of 2004); Seeking for.... (just kidding); Left HK at 18 for the U.S.; received a BBA degree and a MS degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison; Graduated with distinction. After school, I got a full-time job in San Francisco.

2) Work experience
worked as an actuary for 10 years. Since no one really knows (or cares) what I do, I stopped giving an explanation a long time ago. If you really want to know, try beanactuary.com

3) On GMAT
I studied with Erin at TestMagic for eight months from Aug 2002 through March 2003. Thank you very much, Erin... for putting up with me. I finally found the courage to take the test in May 2003 and got 710. This bad boy makes me humble and ever since I have a newfound respect/love for the English language. Remember TestMagic's motto... Language is Power.

4) On B-Schools
I only applied to three schools a) Wharton, b) Chicago GSB, c) MIT Sloan. Only three, you may ask? First, I am the ultimate procrastinator. I have a plan in my head but never got to put it in writing. So I missed the first round. Second, I visited six schools in late October 2003 - Wharton, MIT, Chicago, Kellogg, Yale, and Columbia. I didn't think I was a good fit in Kellogg, Columbia and Yale becasue.... well let's have that discussion in another time. Wharton, needless to say, has a good brand name throughout the world. At both Chicago and MIT, I had a warm reception.

5) My results
Wharton - didn't get invited for an interview; got dinged six weeks after submitting my application.
MIT Sloan - I didn't have a stellar performance at the interview. I got dinged one week after that.
Chicago GSB - had a great interview with an alumni; And honestly, I do like my essays. I dare to say that every single thing I said in my essays was true.

6) On Admissions Consultants
I did use an admissions consultant. All I can say is "use your own judgment". They can give you some ideas, but, at the end of the day, you have to decide what goes on paper. Also, if your writing style is not up to par, there isn't much they can do. GIGO - garbage in, garbage out; a universal truth.

Like I said to Erin, all I need is one good school. Now I've got one. Thanks, Erin for your encouragement. I know you care about me.

[kicker]

Hey, "E-Man"

Great post. Congrats again! (You do only need just one school, but you got into a really good one!)

[Erin]

Yo, E-man! I know you already told me all this, but... (and here come the TM dancers...)

CONGRATS!!

You told a great story, but let me add my two cents:

<ul>[*]The E-man has always had a special talent with English, even though he downplayed it. This made his progress in sentence correction quick, and was evident in his essays.[*]The E-man has a great sense of humor, which comes through in this post, and was evident in his essays, and I assume in the interview at Chicago.[*]You (E-man) were very smart to "double-check" the product of the consultant you hired. In the end, I think your judgment was solid (and no, it's not anybody I've seen mentioned on these forums before).[*]I'm just guessing here, but perhaps your heart wasn't in it when you did the MIT interview? Since you'd already heard about Chicago?[*]I had a blast going out with the E-man in San Francisco. He introduced us to a stylish, cool little bar in Japantown, where patrons could smoke and the beers cost $8. We had awesome tapas a few nights, Carribbean food on others. Always fun. [/list]
Anyway, congrats again, and thanks for making this post. I'm sure it'll be of help to somebody somewhere.