Days Off

With my Tuck interview tomorrow, I'm caught up between wanting to work all night and drive my applications to completion and just chill for the rest of the day. It's quite a conundrum. I've found that when I try to relax like that I feel guilty that I'm not making progress on my applications. At this point, I've updated all my essays for Tuck and I think I'm almost ready to call it complete (I'm nervous to say that). With that, I can focus my attention on bringing the content and adapting it to the other four schools. Since I'm a reapplicant, this mean Haas is almost complete, Kellogg just needs me to tailor my Tuck essays to them, Booth needs a ppt and Anderson wants to know more about my character. Doesn't sound too bad considering I have just over three weeks to go. I think Tuck, Kellogg and Haas could be complete in the next week and a half. Then I'd still have a couple weeks to bang out the last two. Not a bad place to be.

This weekend, I actually was able to accomplish a good bit without locking myself away until I came out productive. One of the things I realized is that it's important to read each essay independently. By taking a step back and asking what does this essay say and how does it say it without another essay clouding your judgement you can get a better read of the content. By doing that this weekend, I was focused on the task at hand. Today, in beginning my Booth ppt, I began to look at my application as a whole. What are the messages I'm trying to communicate to the adcom. What did I tell the Tuck adcom through 4 essays and a couple short answer questions. By looking at the messages, and ensuring there isn't too much overlap in specific content, I was able to quickly pull the headlines for my Booth ppt. Simultaneously, this enable me to ensure I was "on message" for Tuck. Overall, it proved very useful to ensure that both the big picture and specifics were coming through in my application. It may not be the easiest thing to do, but I don't think I did a great job with that piece last year. Hopefully this year that and adding specifics to the essays will make a difference which leads me to...

my Tuck interview tomorrow. As an aspiring consultant, I am trying to remember a couple of key things. First, take a minute. Silence is ok (in moderation) as long as you utilize the time to clarify your thoughts and come with a structure answer on point. Next, not every answer needs a detailed personal story of how I reached my answer. Ok, this does kind of contradict my specifics point earlier. It's close but it's a fine line. I need enough specifics to get the point across without burying my interviewer into a convoluted story that doesn't really bring him to a clear point. If I can do that, I'm confident. I know the school, I know my reasons for a Tuck MBA and future goals, I know how I'll contribute and be involved as a Tuckie. What more is there...? Not cocky, just trying to be confident.

Ok and with that, I'm basically done for the day. A last minute review is likely and a relaxing evening.