Wharton Essays

I have been mulling around the optional Wharton Essays for a while now. The essays are:

Required: Please complete two of the following three questions (500 words):

• Describe when you were part of a team where the group process and/or intended outcome failed. What did you learn?

• Describe a situation where your values, ethics, or morals were challenged. How did you handle the situation?

• Describe a personal characteristic or something in your background that will help the Admissions Committee to know you better.

The question is which two essays to do? I have a good story to tell for the first one, something that I learned a lot from.

I have been debating with myself which of the last two to do. I have a story for each of them, but I have this nagging feeling that by doing one of the essays, the adcoms are going to ask themselves: "why didn't he do the other one?". Specifically I'm probably more worried about choosing the personal characteristic essay and the adcom questioning why I didn't do the ethics question. It's also a question of the type of information to provide, if I do the team failure and the ethics question, they are both business related, and both related to a company I ran, although the stories are different. If I choose the personal characteristic essay, it will give me a chance to explain something about my background. The question is if I should relate this story at all, it was a very difficult time period for me, and something that I learned a lot about myself from. I don't want it to come across as whining though, because I feel like I wouldn't be who I am today had this experience never taken place.

I could also choose to do the last two questions, but then of course I'm leaving out the team or group process failure, and what I learned. That essay is probably my favorite, because it most directly relates to why I need an MBA, and why now is the right time.

I could be over thinking this, but the essays seem to be *the* key to getting into a good school. I've been thinking about writing essays for all three, and then have people choose the most compelling two of the three.

Computer meltdown

I've been having a lot of problems with my home desktop computer. I would be playing a game, and it would just shut down. When I tried to reboot the computer windows would display the message that my computer was not fully ACPI compliant, please re-install windows and disable ACPI. If I let the computer sit for a while, it would stop being mad at me and boot up. For months I kept putting off, then finally I broke down and did a full re-install. I got everything set up and working, was able to play games on Sunday, then Monday it started shutting down again. Like usual after a shutdown it wouldn't boot up, this time it didn't display a message, it just sat there starting at me with a blank screen.

So the problem isn't windows related (even though it never shut down when I was booted into Linux). I thought the problem would be one of the following: bad ram, faulty power supply, faulty processor. I talked to a tech at the local computer store, and he suggested checking for heat problems. A typical processor shouldn't run hotter than 50 degrees celsius. I booted into the bios and checked the CPU temp: 78 degrees celsius. Ouch! That's really hot, and its not even doing anything, just sitting in the bios. I'm sure when I loaded Warcraft and it had to start processing, the temp shot up a lot higher.

Realizing the temp was a problem, I pulled out my can of handy dandy compressed air and blew the dust out of the heat sink on the processor. Reboot and temp check 58 degrees. This was quite a bit more promising, but still hotter than it should be. I went to the computer store and got a Cooler Max fan for $30. I removed the old fan, and put the new fan on the CPU, pushed the power...nothing. No bios, not beeps, just a black screen. That is a bad sign by the way.

Oh crap, so I pull the fan off the CPU and look at the Thermal Paste. Shit!! The heat sink wasn't making contact with the processor. The second I hit the power button I burned up about twenty million transistors. There was a little inducer on the motherboard right next to the CPU slot. When I tried to seat the fan over the CPU, one corner hung up on the inducer preventing contact with the CPU core. Instant burnage.

I made my third trip of the day to the computer, this time for a new processor. I bought the AMD Athlon 2400+ for $83. The guy told me the retail fan that comes with this computer is much better than the fan for the 1800+ (the one I just smoked), and that they will take back my Cooler Max fan. I would've bought the 2500+ but it runs at a bus speed of 333 Mhz and my ram is only 266 Mhz. To save on cost I just got the 2400+ and avoided a ram upgrade. The fan for this had a copper core right where it is supposed to make contact with the silicon (Copper dissipates heat better than aluminum), and a good preset swab of thermal grease. When I put the new CPU in the computer and checked the temp it was running about about 39 to 40 degrees celsius. I was able to get everything set up and running, and I didn't have any computer crashes after that. Of course today is the big test, it usually works fine for day. Ultimately it sounds like my other processor was bad, it was just running a lot hotter than it should have been. Which prompted my destruction of it.

Incidentally, after I swapped out processors, Windows XP made me activate before logging in. You are supposed to have 30 days, but apparently a hardware change prompts an immediate activation.

Family vacation and school debate

I'm back from a family vacation. It was nice to get away from work for a few days and retreat into the mountains. Who would have thought the reunion would turn out to be all about business school. :)

I have mentioned previously my uncle who is an entrepreneur. I have another uncle that has his own business as well, although he just has a small accounting shop. The interesting thing about this uncle is that he has an MBA from Columbia. I talked to him at great length about getting an MBA over the weekend, in fact both of them were there. The uncle with an MBA from Columbia doesn't think I need an MBA. He admits his MBA has been very instrumental in his career. Having an MBA from Columbia allowed him to get a job with Price Waterhouse, and with the experience he gained there he was able to start his own company. He also said that having an MBA from Columbia helps him out daily when dealing with new clients, because it adds prestige to the service he offers. This same uncle is the accountant for Orson Scott Card (if you are a book reader).

So now we see that his MBA has been crucial in his career. The education and the prestige have allowed him to operate his own private business for a lot of years. During our discussions though, I made it pretty clear that I know which direction I'm headed. His opinion is that since I know where I want to go, I don't need to get an MBA, instead I should just go down that path (starting my own company). He was remarkably persistent in his attempt to "set me straight".

My other uncle, the entrepreneur, was also at the family reunion. The first day I bounced back and forth between the two of them, picking their brains. The entrepreneur saying, "go to school, it would've made me more successful". The other uncle saying, don't go to school, it made me successful, but I don't think it will do much for you. The last day of the reunion I got the two of them together and set them at each other. :)

It was quite interesting sitting there listening to them discuss the issues. My entrepeneur uncle was very clear and articulate. He emphasized that although he doesn't have an MBA, he has been a lifelong student. He has more than enough credit hours to complete his undergraduate degree, and now he's simultaneously finishing his undergrad and an MBA. He strongly attributes much of the success he's had to his education. He also says you simply cannot over pay for good education. They went back and forth for a long time, and they discussed many more points than I will reproduce here.

It was very interesting to listen to them discuss this issue. It has been clear to me for some time now that an MBA is the path I'm headed towards. Listening to my uncle cogently and intelligently defend why and MBA is not only useful but nearly a necessity reaffirmed my decision.

An interesting side note, one of my cousins is good friends with the Dean of Harvard Business School. Apparently he is coming out to my area with his wife this week, and my cousin will be having dinner with them. She said she would put in a good word for me, and maybe arrange for me to meet him. :)

Who would've thought a family reunion would turn into an application process mecca.

Stanford returned my call

Nancy Gross (I hope that is spelled correctly) from Stanford admissions called me back today. She was extremely nice, and very helpful on the phone. Something that is a huge negative for me is when a school acts haughty and arrogant. A little less than a year ago I was speaking with a professor from MIT, and he was extremely arrogant. He suggested that it is very difficult to get into MIT, and that I shouldn't get my hopes up too much. It wasn't that he was just letting me know, I felt like he was extremely dismissive of me in general. I personally detest that type of attitude. Most applicants know it's tough to get into these schools, we are competing with the top tier of applicants in the world. There is no reason to be haughty and arrogant about that fact. The point of my little diatribe is to emphasize that Nancy from Stanford couldn't have been more different than the professor from MIT. She was very warm, and very kind on the phone. I've stated before that attitudes pervade an entire institution. To me, if the admissions people are rude and inconsiderate, it reflects very poorly on the school as a whole. Conversely, if they are warm and polite it reflects extremely well on the school.

Nancy said the round one deadline for application is October 28th. Class visits begin on October 11th. Apparently students don't start school until late September. She said that if you plan to visit, mondays and fridays are the best because you can do the class visit, the school tour and the lunch session all in one day. Also there are no classes on wednesdays.

Playing phone tag with Stanford

I've been playing phone tag for a couple of days with Stanford now. I would like to talk with some Stanford Alumni that had an entrepreneurial focus, to see what courses they took, how they feel it has helped them in their career etc. I left a voice mail last week, got a call back the day I forgot my cell phone, then I called them back today, still voice mail. It can be tough to get this information during the summer. :(

I am particularly interested in talking with Alumni that have started businesses after attending the program. I am intrigued to hear how well the program has prepared them for starting and running their business. I also want to know how they handled the debt load coming out of that program. Did they consult for a few years? Did they work in banking for a bit to pay off the loan? Or did they go right into a startup situation.

Talking with a Wharton Alumni

I had a really great discussion with a Wharton Alumni in my area friday. He was very good to answer my questions about the process. I had a relatively long list of questions, and my keyboard clacked away during our discussion as I tried to capture as much of the information as possible. We talked about his background, what he did before Wharton, what he did at Wharton and what he does now. We also talked a lot about what the student body at Wharton. He said that the people are very friendly and helpful, that the atmosphere is highly collaborative and team oriented. He stressed several times that it's important to build an individualized experience for yourself. By taking the classes you are the most interested in and by maximizing your time at business school you will get the most out of it. He said because of the collaborative nature of the program there are some people who just coast through it, but overall the benefits of the atmosphere outweigh the drawbacks. He was a big fan of the grade non-disclosure policy because it allowed him the opportunity to take classes in areas that weren't his strength areas and not worry about his GPA.

Talking with him also really helped to humanize this process for me. It's very easy to begin feeling isolated and cut off during this process, and actually speaking with a Wharton Alum was nice. He was very helpful and very nice through out the conversation. It's all the more impressive that all of this started from a simple post to the Wharton s2s boards about talking to an Alumni. I mentioned where I lived and gave an e-mail address on the forum, less than one day later I was contacted by this local Alumni. Very impressive, and something speaks to the quality of Wharton.

Thoughts on insider trading

Martha Stewart was sentenced to five months in jail and five months of home incarceration today. My brother and I have been talking about this a bit, and we have come to the conclusion that the current insider trading laws are ridiculous. The problem is that you are relying on the fox to watch the hen house. If one of the hens wanders into your hands, you as the fox shouldn't eat it, yet that's exactly what any good fox would do. The problem is that the farmer should've kept the hens cooped up, if they get out *he* should be fined. In other words, people are always looking for an edge in the stock market, that's how you make money. Obviously people shouldn't illegally gain insider information, but if they come across something that is, they should be allowed to use it. If anyone gets in trouble for it, it should be the person that leaked the information in the first place.

BusinessWeek thread now a flame war.

That thread has definitely turned into a flame war. The thing
that is so irritating is when people claim they have the one true
universal answer to a problem. When they claim they know
everything about a situation, and everyone should follow their
example. I've stated over and over on that thread that someone
should do a serious evaluation of what they want out of school.
There are a lot of factors to consider, you should seriously evaluate
going to a second tier school with a full ride, etc. Apparently
that isn't enough though, I swear it's like he wants me to say "No one
should ever go to a top school, because they suck!". He just
can't see beyond the facts of his own situation and realize that some
people in the same situation would still want to go to a top
school. *Sigh*

Entreprenuership discussion on BusinessWeek

I have been following this thread on the BusinessWeek forums. There is a guy posting that entrepreneurs shouldn't go to a top ranked program, that instead they would be better off simply attending a local program and avoiding the debt. He has a point about avoiding the debt, however there are many ways that one can compensate for the debt of the program. It seems to me that the top ranked programs are highly regarded for a reason. People don't just attend them because they are "prestiged", but because they will actually get a better education than they would at a local school. That is my perception, and is the primary reason I want to attend a top tier program. My uncle who is a highly successful entrepreneur was also highly supportive of attending a top program like Wharton. The guy on this thread seems to think that your background and credentials as an entrepreneur don't matter, however having run my own businesses, I can tell you that your background is *more* important than if you just worked at a company. Prospective clients tend to scrutinize new companies, they want to know the company will be around for a while. They want to feel like the company is in good hands, and that it isn't being run by Joe Blow down the street. Business is all about differentiation. Why should they spend money with you instead of the three other companies trying to win their business? Would it make a difference to you if one company was run by a Wharton MBA while the other company was run by a person with an MBA from Phoenix? It would matter to me.

The prestige factor won't apply if you plan to open a retail business of some sort, unless you need to get funding, or work out distribution deals, or make business contacts with other business owners. Oh wait, it's important there too. Of course actually getting a top notch education cannot be understated either. Mostly I think this guy is trying to justify to himself why he didn't go to a top tier program.

Contacted by a Wharton Alumni

I followed Hella's advice and posted on the Wharton s2s boards, and I have already received an e-mail from an Alumni in my area. I find this very impressive, and something that I think speaks to the overall quality of Wharton. My post on their boards was very unofficial, but it got immediate results. I haven't yet had a chance to speak with the Alumni, but I've responded via e-mail to arrange further discussion. This is exactly the kind of response that puts Wharton very high on my short list of schools. I am interested in a school that is highly attentive to the student needs, because I believe their attitude about students permeates all levels of an organization.

Since the other schools I am interested into don't have a forum such as the s2s to post on, I'll need to contact them directly. I will post an update about my experience with those schools. It's going to be hard to top Wharton's performance though.

Golfing

I have been golfing a lot this year, probably more than the three previous years combined. Certainly by the end of this season (barring anything unforseen) I will have golfed significantly more in this one year than all of my previous years combined. I am really starting to see some significant improvement in my scores as well. This morning when I went out I shot a 50 on nine holes. Last year I would've been ecstatic about that score, however today I know I really didn't do that well. I'm hoping that by the end of this season I'm shooting mid to low 40's consistently.

I've started re-reading some of the branding sections in Montauk. I need to refresh my memory, and look at my themes from a new perspective, to make sure that is really what I want to emphasize in my essays.

The effective executive

I've been reading the effective executive by Drucker lately (yes I've taken a break from 'My years with General Motors'). It is a very interesting, and a very quick read. It also pinpoints a problem I have been trying to articulate at my company for a long time now. The people above me are very intelligent, and they are all very good at what they do, but they are not effective in their jobs. They spend all of their time operating, or managing reactively. They just are not doing the right things, they are not proactive, they don't handle long term issues. Now that the book has helped me to identify the problem, I hope it presents a good solution for becoming an effective executive. The next couple of years will be critical for the company I work for, because they are going from a medium sized company to a large enterprise. In order to make this transition, a lot of things will have to change. It will be very interesting to see if they are capable of making the jump to the next level.

Counting lane changes

I was thinking about my previous post on changing lanes this morning as I drove to work. I thought it would be interesting to quantify the reward for changing lanes, versus remaining in the same lane. I stayed in the same lane of traffic for this entire experiment, while the car behind me was itchy to "get ahead". During a ten minute segment of the commute he changed lanes 14 times. I estimated that he was approximately 8 seconds ahead of my current position when I exited the freeway. So he gained on average 0.57 seconds per lane switch. On the other side of the equation he cut off 4 people during that time, risking either an accident or a road rage incident.

It would be interesting to quantify the overall average time savings per lane switch versus the overall risk per lane switch. Clearly this single data point doesn't give a valid statistical representation, but it is intriguing to see that there is not a high reward for lane switching.

Response to Brad and Byron

Originally I started typing this as a comment, but it got long enough to turn it into a post. :)

Brad said...

Yes, Helen got in on the 2nd time.

If you don't apply, you surely won't get in :)

Brad, as obvious as that sounds, it is a good point. I am still planning to apply. Reading that blog just struck a nerve today.

byron said...

I'm going to let you in on a little secret: I also got dinged everywhere my first time out. My big mistake was that I rushed the process -- I didn't plan things out, and as such I didn't research the programs carefully enough for fit.

Aside from W, which programs are you targeting?


Byron, you raise a good point about fit. My primary interest in business school is Entrepreneurship. So my list currently goes something like this: Wharton, Stanford, MIT, Harvard. I'm also considering looking into Haas, Kellog and Chicago, but I don't know too much about their programs yet.

I really want to get into a program with both good entrepreneurship and good general management programs. My strong background in technology makes me think that Stanford, MIT and Haas might be good fits. The overall strength of the programs in the two areas I'm looking at are why I think Wharton and Harvard are good fits. The learning environment seems to be quite different between all of the schools, and to a certain degree I really feel like I need to visit some more of the schools before I can really have this list whittled down. The reasons cited above are much shallower than my actual reasoning, but I haven't fully articulated why I want to attend each school at this point (which is something that obviously needs to be done before I complete my essays).

It is very difficult to determine fit simply by reading the marketing material from a program, or from the write up on their web site. I really need to talk to some current students and some alumni of the different programs. I think that would give me a much better idea of the type of people in the program and what the program is all about.

What is the best way to contact Alumni and students? Should I just call the schools and ask for some contacts? If any of you are current students at these schools or know some current students or Alumni, I would love to talk to them.

Beowulf

My recurring nightmare

I have this terrible fear that I'm going to apply to all of these schools and get dinged at each and every one of them. Now I have come across a blogger that had exactly that experience. You can find the blog here. Of course he had the exact same GMAT score as me, which doesn't lend itself to security and comfort. Reading through those posts are really sad, particularly reading the early posts knowing the outcome. He was so full of confidence and excitement in the early part of the process, then to get dinged at every school...ouch. I think it was Helen Chiang who was dinged the first time around too, then got into Wharton the next year (all these blogs are starting to blur, so don't scream if I'm wrong). I wish this guy all the best, and hope he re-applies successfully.

Reading that blog makes me realize that I need to be very careful, and put everything I have into this process. There are quite a few differences between myself and this other candidate, hopefully the differences are enough for me to get into some of the top programs. My wife is very supportive, but really not that helpful in this process. She keeps telling me that I'll get into one of these programs no problem, but these programs are *really* hard to get into. I know myself, and I know that I would be successful at these programs, now I just need to make sure and convey that to the adcomms.

Reading that blog has really thrown me for a loop, maybe it is good though, time to get that fire re-ignited under my butt.

Happy 4th of July

Today is the fourth of July! I love to see firework displays, unfortunately in my area there aren't many displays today because it is sunday. We will go see a decent display tomorrow, then later in the month there is usually a really great display that we go see.

I golfed 18 holes this morning and shot a 101. I would've broken under 100 if I hadn't blown up on one of the holes by shooting 5 over par. I'm going to golf again tomorrow since I have the day off, probably another 18 holes. :)

I may actually get some work done on my essays today for a change. :)