Was just talking to an old friend who started at Stern recently. He loves it there. But NYC is frightfully expensive. Campus Graduate Studio acco for 1700 bucks a month!!! Ouch..

But then Stern has a LOT to offer - NYC, Ashwath Damodaran, IB students, great culture etc. and it is definitely one of my top choices. And it reminds me of Avis' famous ad -"We try harder..". Stern is an up and coming school. So they try harder. Plus their IB placement record is impeccable.

As for my essays, I have spent every bit of creativity and energy I have into Chicago's essays. Ross essays have been ripped apart by my reviewers. SO I will wait for a while till I get back to them. See if I have any fresh ideas.

Next target- Wharton (Gee..I love unca Wharton!)
All I did today was brainstorm about outsider situations for Essay 2. Then called up friends randomly for help. We all concurred that I should try to keep this personal as it might be the only one I can use to show my personality. No matter what I try, I cannot make my goals essay personal. I just cannot!

I am also reading through the HBS essays in 65 Harvard essays and find that most of the guys have taken very small incidents and elaborated on them. This is an eye-opener for me because I always was looking for BIG examples. I have many but then the essence gets lost in the list of things I did and felt. So I have decided to use very small incidents..like instead of focussing on a project that failed, I will probably focus on one difficult conversation with one client in one project that failed. I think the key to cracking these essays is to ZERO down on the essence of the matter and then build around it. Sounds easier said than done though! Let us wait and watch.

I requested the big 4 company for a post in chicago. They said YES!! that is the good part. The bad or may be not so bad part is that I have to interview again and if I goof up, I lose the opportunity to work for them. Yikes! Well, keeping my fingers crossed.

BTW, I am not getting ANYWHERE with my essays. I wrote up first draft of Chi essays and my Essay 1 is so close to my last year's essays. I just cannot seem to give it a new flavor or even take out stuff to accomodate this year's achievements! Yikes.

Ross essays have been in the cold store for too long and I am sure they are dead by now. So when I take them out next time, I will have to start afresh. I know it. Dream of putting together 7 sets for R1 might have to be reduced to 5. Jeez!