Why Wharton is da bomb !

The last in my series of B-school application experiences is Wharton. The place where I will be in Aug 2008. Exciting !! Let me try and explain what makes Wharton so special to me and why is it the school of my choice ?

Admissions process: The Wharton admissions process was beyond doubt the most helpful, courteous and transparent of all the admission processes. The essays topics were not "tricky" or "fancy"; they were straight-forward questions aimed at helping applicants make the strongest case for their candidatures. One of my recommenders made an error while submitted the recommendation. Just one email to the Wharton S2S board was enough to get students to help me out and point me to the right contact in the Admissions office. Moreover, 10 minutes after I sent a mail to admissions my issue was solved :).

Interview: I mistakenly had set my cell-phone on "vibrate", instead of "off" during my interview. My nervous gf in Seattle, called me twice during the course of my interview. In other schools this mistake would have been deadly, however the 2nd year student was really friendly and also talked about how his family and friends were nervous as he waded through the interview process a year earlier. The questions were relatively straight-forward and he seemed genuinely interested in my answers.

School Visit: Both my visits to Wharton have been awesome. I met some really accomplished yet humble people. The culture that pervades the school blends a sense of strong camaraderie and a commitment to individual excellence. It was refreshing to see both see dimensions neatly balanced in the Wharton equation.

Results: Well, I couldn't sleep the night before the Wharton results. So, we went out and drank a lot. The alcohol helped me sleep and get up 4 hours after the results had been posted. I woke up to find 1 mail in my junk folder, that told me I was in. !!!

Getting into MIT-Sloan

Sloan is different: the campus visit, the essay questions and the interview reinforced this message.

Campus Visit: The first thing that struck me about the Sloan campus was how fragmented it was. The buildings were scattered and it did seem to team that students expend some energy compensating for the lack of cohesiveness of the campus.
The marketing class I attended focussed on Segmentation. Incidentally, the same topic was discussed during my visit to Kellogg. The difference in the approach was evident. MIT-Sloan was heavily quant focussed while the Kellogg professor talked about segmentation using an anecdotal real-life example approach. As the professor got into Eigen Values and Eigen vectors, I couldn't help but recollect my undergrad Computer Science days.
I got cold-called to make a 3-4 minute speech, in the Advanced Negotiations class. It was kinda fun standing in front of the brilliant MIT student community and make my little faltering speech. The students were very supportive and I was pleasantly surprised. I was realized that Sloan would push me and help me grow.
Overall, it was clear that the facilities are cramped and don't compare with some of the other top schools. However, I can see why Sloanies would absolutely love their school.

Essay Preparation: My girl-friend tells me I am emotionally-challenged when it comes to expressing my feelings. No wonder, the "tell me how you feel" part of the MIT-Sloan essays were the hardest part of the questions to me. I tried hard to open up and made sure I express my feelings the best way I could. In the end my essays painted a picture of a very real person; someone who has met with success and failure, and is willing to talk about both in a direct manner.

Interview: I was a little nervous for my 8:00 am Sloan interview in Seattle because I had flown in from Austin the day before and gone to bed at 2:00 am. Moreover, my gf had not picked up my suit from the dry-cleaners so I had no idea how I would survive the dreaded behavioral interview.
Anyway, the cleaners opened at 7:00, we were there at 6:45. I changed in the dry-cleaners store and headed to my interview. Incidentally, my interviewer was a little late, which gave me a little time to catch my breath. :)
She started off my telling me that the person who read my file had told her that mine was an extremely strong application. Well, that kinda boosted my confidence. We did only 3 questions: Tell me of a difficult time you faced, Tell me a little about the non-profit work you do & do you have any questions for me. I think I did really well in the interview and by the end of it I could tell she was selling the school to me.
On the day of the results, my interviewer left a voice mail on my phone, telling me I had gotten in. :)