经典总结：美国MBA申请的7个阶段.

　　澳际小编与您分享美国MBA申请最经典的7个阶段，同时预祝大家顺利走完美国MBA的申请之路，拿到心仪的offer！

　　Edit by rhyme: The below is humorous, but frankly, it&aposs very very true and it gives you an idea of what to really expect after the GMAT. For those of you applying next year (at this point 2008), you should really read through this - get an idea of whats to come.

　　I&aposm attempting to summarize what most of us have gone through or will be going through in our path to B-school. I was partially motivated by several other posts within the forum (which I thank for) and partially on self experience (though the characters in this story are fictional, etc., you know the drill). School names are used as examples and by no means I intend to mock any organization or person, this is just an attempt at summarizing, in a humorous way, this rocky personal journey.

　　i.Introduction

　　Let&aposs say you are 2 or 3 years out of college and the thought of an MBA starts lingering in your mind. Either you&aposve heard some stories of former colleagues going for it and are curious about it or you think the name sounds cool.

　　You can talk to MBA alumni (if you have access to them) to start your research, or maybe to some friends. But this initial conversations can be biased (name 1 alumni who "officially" thinks his/her school sucked and you&aposll get a bonus!) for all you know.

　　So you decide you need some "objective data" to continue your research and you go pick up the latest issue of US news/ B-week, or whichever one is available at newsstands. You browse through their pages and start wondering:

　　1st phase (the MBA honeymoon):

　　- Wait, wasn&apost Kellogg a cereal brand?

　　- What&aposs with the GMAT scores? why 700? over 1000? that&aposs weird. What&aposs GMAT btw?

　　- Ah, finally, I know Yale, I know Harvard, I know Stanford, MIT and UCLA. But where&aposs Princeton? And Brown?

　　- I like International Business, so as per these rankings I should better be attending Thunderbird. But why are the starting salaries from there so much lower than from other schools?

　　- I loved Miami when I visited on spring break. Lemme see what their school&aposs like.

　　2nd phase (Delussional optimism):

　　- I&aposm a wise person, so GMAT shouldn&apost be a problem for me. Maybe I&aposll take one of these intensive 1-week courses and go for it! Why would anybody spend months studying? That doesn&apost make any sense. I mean it&aposs high school level math and English for crying out loud. Heck, I can speak English, I&aposve taken Calculus classes.

　　- I&aposm a clear admit at HBS, plus I&aposll get a full scholarship. After all I&aposll get a top GMAT, I do speak four languages and have made steady progress at work so far.

　　3rd phase (Depression while taming the beast):

　　- GMAT sucks. My friends no longer talk to me. My girlfriend broke up with me and spending 150k for an MBA doesn&apost make much sense to me anymore (nor does it make sense to my family, my former friends nor my girlfriend). Do I really, really want to do this? Otherwise I could go back to having a life right now.

　　- Ok, so I&aposm headed for a 600 score, if I&aposm lucky. Let&aposs see what that would do for me. Hmm, I&aposd better score at least 650. Wait, 650 ain&apost that bad! Oh boy, I&aposd kill for a 650.

　　- "So Johnny (an acquaintance of yours), how did your GMAT go?"

　　Johnny: "Oh man, I&aposm so depressed. I bombed my 7th attempt. I just can&apost get past 550. I&aposm about giving up"

　　You: "Crap, Johnny, after all the fort you&aposve put into this, I can&apost believe what you are telling me. I mean, I&aposm still a zillion hours away from your study record to date. By the way, I&aposll better be heading home and attack those SCs again!"

　　- (at 4am in the morning on a working day): I suck, I suck, I suck! I can&apost believe the silly mistakes I&aposm making. Sigh, I wish I&aposd remember more about Statistics...

　　4th phase (post GMAT preliminary research)

　　- Ok, so I got a pretty decent GMAT. Now let me write sth and send my app right away so we can finally bring this "I&aposll pretend I read your app." game to an end. Let&aposs check the instructions.

　　1st question) What matters most to you an why? [3 to 5 pages]

　　Hmm. Maybe I&aposll leave this one for tomorrow. Or let me brainstorm and write a shortlist:

　　1st shortlist (prior to any research):

　　a) Money.

　　b) Success.

　　c) Beer.

　　d) Getting my ticket stamped to land an IB job.

　　2nd shortlist (after some research):

　　a) Being mother Theresa.

　　b) Saving humanity.

　　c) Saving the environment.

　　d) "Changing the world".

　　- I&aposll apply to 147 schools. That way, I&aposd maximize my chances of getting a scholarship.

　　- What&aposs with the letter of recommendation? Should I tell my boss about my plans? It looks like the point of no return to me.

　　5th phase (applying, AKA the emotional roller-coaster)

　　[staring at essay#1 version # 84]: This sucks! I can&apost believe how boring I sound. I should re-start from scratch!

　　- I should write about the snooker tournament I won when I was 16. That&aposd be original, plus I can spin it to show how I used my leadership, analytical and teamwork skills.

　　- Beh, I can apply in Round 2 as well.

　　- Crap! my recommenders haven&apost even accessed the website yet and it&aposs only 2 days lt! I&aposll send them "friendly reminder #27". No, wait, I sent #26 just 5 minutes ago. Maybe I&aposll wait another half hour.

　　- Wait, was Kellogg&aposs deadline on the 5th? Or was that MIT? Maybe I should drop Wharton. I can&apost make deadlines on the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 7th. OK, I&aposll just drop Wharton from my list and have it as "fresh" backup for next year just in case.

　　- I wish I had applied to more schools in Round 1. Look at all these people getting interviews and admits!

　　6th phase (post application blues)

　　- Shoot, I won&apost get in anywhere. I mean look at the profiles of applicants! I should retake GMAT. My 700 is not enough. I should aim for 790+.

　　- Crap! Yale dinged me without interview! Ohmigod! If they did it, ANYONE can do it! THEY COULD ALL DO IT!

　　- I have an idea! I&aposll check which schools have rolling admissions and apply to those. I still have time!

　　- Suddenly University of Phoenix Online doesn&apost sound that bad.

　　- Why? Why? Why didn&apost apply to more backups? Why did I have to shake my interviewer&aposs hand so firmly? Why didn&apost I coach my recommenders more thoroughly? I wonder what they&aposve written. Probably nothing good. I wish I had submitted my app. a day earlier, that way I would have looked as a well organized person. I read that Kellogg dings all applicants above 28 years old who haven&apost made directors positions. Wait, is that a typo on my MIT essays? That&aposs one school less, buddy. I&aposm soo doomed.

　　7th phase (endless joy)

　　- Hell yeah! I&aposve made it! I&aposve been admitted [dream school X] next year! I rule! I can&apost wait to get recruited by [dream employer]. When is admitted students weekend?

　　- 2nd admit! I rule!

　　- Should I go to [School X] with a 7k scholarship or to [School Y] with a 25 k scholarship?

　　- Work? What&aposs work? Ah, right, that thing I&aposm supposed to be doing daily on weekdays from 9 to 5...

　　- I wonder whether spending this 150k makes sense after all...

　　- I&aposm so gonna get grilled at B-school! What if I mess up? I&aposd better start brushing up on some skills.

　　Hope you enjoy, and feel free to propose edits or add-ons. After all, we&aposre all together in this journey!

　　Cheers. L.

　　以上就是美国MBA申请之路，你进行到哪一步了？

　　澳际小编与您分享美国MBA申请最经典的7个阶段，同时预祝大家顺利走完美国MBA的申请之路，拿到心仪的offer！

　　Edit by rhyme: The below is humorous, but frankly, it&aposs very very true and it gives you an idea of what to really expect after the GMAT. For those of you applying next year (at this point 2008), you should really read through this - get an idea of whats to come.

　　I&aposm attempting to summarize what most of us have gone through or will be going through in our path to B-school. I was partially motivated by several other posts within the forum (which I thank for) and partially on self experience (though the characters in this story are fictional, etc., you know the drill). School names are used as examples and by no means I intend to mock any organization or person, this is just an attempt at summarizing, in a humorous way, this rocky personal journey.

　　i.Introduction

　　Let&aposs say you are 2 or 3 years out of college and the thought of an MBA starts lingering in your mind. Either you&aposve heard some stories of former colleagues going for it and are curious about it or you think the name sounds cool.

　　You can talk to MBA alumni (if you have access to them) to start your research, or maybe to some friends. But this initial conversations can be biased (name 1 alumni who "officially" thinks his/her school sucked and you&aposll get a bonus!) for all you know.

　　So you decide you need some "objective data" to continue your research and you go pick up the latest issue of US news/ B-week, or whichever one is available at newsstands. You browse through their pages and start wondering:

　　1st phase (the MBA honeymoon):

　　- Wait, wasn&apost Kellogg a cereal brand?

　　- What&aposs with the GMAT scores? why 700? over 1000? that&aposs weird. What&aposs GMAT btw?

　　- Ah, finally, I know Yale, I know Harvard, I know Stanford, MIT and UCLA. But where&aposs Princeton? And Brown?

　　- I like International Business, so as per these rankings I should better be attending Thunderbird. But why are the starting salaries from there so much lower than from other schools?

　　- I loved Miami when I visited on spring break. Lemme see what their school&aposs like.

　　2nd phase (Delussional optimism):

　　- I&aposm a wise person, so GMAT shouldn&apost be a problem for me. Maybe I&aposll take one of these intensive 1-week courses and go for it! Why would anybody spend months studying? That doesn&apost make any sense. I mean it&aposs high school level math and English for crying out loud. Heck, I can speak English, I&aposve taken Calculus classes.

　　- I&aposm a clear admit at HBS, plus I&aposll get a full scholarship. After all I&aposll get a top GMAT, I do speak four languages and have made steady progress at work so far.

　　3rd phase (Depression while taming the beast):

　　- GMAT sucks. My friends no longer talk to me. My girlfriend broke up with me and spending 150k for an MBA doesn&apost make much sense to me anymore (nor does it make sense to my family, my former friends nor my girlfriend). Do I really, really want to do this? Otherwise I could go back to having a life right now.

　　- Ok, so I&aposm headed for a 600 score, if I&aposm lucky. Let&aposs see what that would do for me. Hmm, I&aposd better score at least 650. Wait, 650 ain&apost that bad! Oh boy, I&aposd kill for a 650.

　　- "So Johnny (an acquaintance of yours), how did your GMAT go?"

　　Johnny: "Oh man, I&aposm so depressed. I bombed my 7th attempt. I just can&apost get past 550. I&aposm about giving up"

　　You: "Crap, Johnny, after all the fort you&aposve put into this, I can&apost believe what you are telling me. I mean, I&aposm still a zillion hours away from your study record to date. By the way, I&aposll better be heading home and attack those SCs again!"

　　- (at 4am in the morning on a working day): I suck, I suck, I suck! I can&apost believe the silly mistakes I&aposm making. Sigh, I wish I&aposd remember more about Statistics...

　　4th phase (post GMAT preliminary research)

　　- Ok, so I got a pretty decent GMAT. Now let me write sth and send my app right away so we can finally bring this "I&aposll pretend I read your app." game to an end. Let&aposs check the instructions.

　　1st question) What matters most to you an why? [3 to 5 pages]

　　Hmm. Maybe I&aposll leave this one for tomorrow. Or let me brainstorm and write a shortlist:

　　1st shortlist (prior to any research):

　　a) Money.

　　b) Success.

　　c) Beer.

　　d) Getting my ticket stamped to land an IB job.

　　2nd shortlist (after some research):

　　a) Being mother Theresa.

　　b) Saving humanity.

　　c) Saving the environment.

　　d) "Changing the world".

　　- I&aposll apply to 147 schools. That way, I&aposd maximize my chances of getting a scholarship.

　　- What&aposs with the letter of recommendation? Should I tell my boss about my plans? It looks like the point of no return to me.

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