My upcoming visit to Tuck and Darden

Yes, I am going to vist some schools this year, based on advice and recommendation from many last year applications who I am happy to say, are students now. As of now I have Tuck and darden on my List and though I am not sure if I would be able to fit in more, this is a good start. I was initally concerned that I did not have my equal favorite (with Tuck) Harvard on the list. Work pressure and time constraint only allowed me these two. In my opinion visit and interview on campus are much more important for Tuck and Darden than HBS. To my knowledge HBS does not even interview prior to application submission like other schools do.

After compiling my school list for this year I did notice commonalities across schools. To me that was a good indication that I had done my research and that the list is better than the one I came up with last year. A good example are the 3 schools mentioned above; all offer Genenral Management courses and are big on the case method.

Though i have started drafting my HBS essays, I still feel that I am behind the curve as I have not really understood what Tuck or Darden are all about in great detail. I need to get moving on all other fronts escpecially for Tuck and Darden to be ready for the interview.

On my inital work I find myself really struggling with the question
"What can you contribute to the school" All I can come with are very generic answers like my opinion, inputs, knowledge coming from a different background, international exposure and work ex. etc. pretty much the same stuff I wrote about last year and If don't buy it, I dont think adcom will. What are they looking for here?

Other things on my mind are
>How do I make my visit to the schools worthwhile
>How can I create an impression outside the scope of the interview and showcase who I really am wothout making a fool of myself
>What are the questions I should be asking, Preceisely what Information should I seek outside the generic ones I have on the school and the program

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Posted in Bschool

The Struggle

Last two weeks have been Killer; probably close the hardest two weeks in my life. I have been swamped with work and there are issues all over the place. Each day has been long and stressful. At the same time we are looking to move and had given notice on our current lease. After putting so much effort on searching, calling and visiting apartments we still haven’t found one close to our liking. This has become part of our daily workload.

My friend and I are also planning out our School visit and interview and due to financial considerations had to limit this to 2, as far a visiting is concerned. After scheduling the interview and visit as we tried to book our plane tickets we found that this would be one hell of an expensive affair. Through the week we kept searching for alternative travel plans to keep the costs manageable and we finally managed that on Friday. But I tell you it going to be one adventurous trip for sure. I haven’t really got going on any of my applications yet, which is a big concern as I may need to complete 4 by Oct-Nov. Right now this doesn’t seem to be realistic target but nothing I have been doing of late does!

Some other things going haywire which I wouldn’t like to mention here.

But things are shaping up a bit since the last couple of days. That has allowed m time for this post. I have always believed that as long as you stay focused, you can pull through some tough situations. Just one more example of the same.