Wednesday, July 25, 2007

GMAT Complete...and applications begin

Its amazing how I went from maybe wanting a masters in engineering, to getting an MBA part-time, to any decent school in the Boston area, to my wife saying she would move anywhere so I should apply where I want. Thats where we are today, aiming for a some Top 10 MBA programs and how else to begin the long and hopefully not heartbreaking process but with the GMAT

Though my studying was far from what most people who want high scores seem to do. I went through the official guide once, did the sentence correction out of the Official Verbal guide, and that was about it . It was probably a bad idea to continue with my large remodeling job on the house at the same time as I started to study since it took a lot of my time and energy away from the GMAT process. In the end I almost reached my final goal but I am not disappointed and its not worth retaking. I ended up with a 740 and above 80% on both the quant and the verbal, which is supposed to be a big key. So with a number that puts me above the mean and median for all schools, I am now going to focus on the application process which will be the real deciding factor not another few points on a standardized test.

For anyone preparing for the GMAT I recommend http://www.gmatclub.com/ as a very valuable resource. A lot of people there have gotten amazing scores and its a very supportive community compared to some of the others related to the whole MBA process. If you spend time researching MBA programs you will surely come across the forums filled with people who will tell you that if you can't go to Harvard don't bother at all or people that tell you that you don't stand a chance of getting into Columbia since you didn't go to an Ivy League School, save a small nation from a tsunami, and only got a 730 on your GMAT. (note I am not planning on applying to either of those schools)

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Introduction...

Hopefully I can keep this blog regularly updated. I don't know how many people will actually read it but at least in a few years it will be fun to look back at. This is my introduction on where I am in life at the moment and why I am heading the way I am...its damn long

About 8 months ago I decided I wanted a change in my professional life, having just gotten married my personal life was pretty much perfect. Work while still interesting overall wasn't providing me with a sense of fulfillment. I make a comfortable living, work with a lot of good people for the most part, and the majority of the time like what I do. Sounds perfect to a lot of people. The only problem is that its one of those jobs that I don't feel I have much impact beyond my work since its very specific and also I have hit a plateau where I probably will stay for the next decade until some people finally retire. Originally I thought about getting a masters in engineering but after talking with some people who have them, I determined it wouldn't me what I hoped for in my career and would probably hurt me financially unless my work paid for it.

The more research I did the more I tended to focus on an MBA as what would help me attain my career goal. MBAs are a path to management...i.e. the location where you make decision not where you make someone else’s decisions happen. Now the process for applying to MBA program is about to begin…and this blog will follow me on my journey to what I hope is a acceptance at a school I would love to attend and hopefully will continue on from there.