Tuesday, August 26, 2008

UCLA App is live!

I was creating a handy dandy spreadsheet to keep track of admissions dates and deliverables, and noticed that UCLA Anderson's application had finally gone live! So, I started that one, even though I think my chances are very, very slim. So that's three apps started.

My mid-year review is today, and I'm going to ask my soon-to-be former manager (we went through another re-org, and he's moving to a new role) if he'll write recs for me. He's very big on continuing education, and he knows of my plans, so this should be a smooth one. I've got an idea on my other recommender, I'll ask her this week as well.

I also am starting to plan a trip to hit the three schools that don't have invitation-only interviews (Duke, UNC and Emory). I figure a solid week of vacation time in early October, spend a day at each with a travel day to get to Atlanta. I may try to plan it around the Columbus day holiday, so I technically only use four days of vacation, and can travel on the weekends.

One thing I noticed on the Anderson application: in the education section, they ask for a) last two years cumulative GPA and b) an explanation on why you've failed a class before. My Tulane GPA was wiped out when I transferred to Wake, so that should be easy. I did fail two classes at Tulane my first semester there (Japanese and Calc); I retook Calc and got a C+, and switched back to Latin and got As in all those classes. Any suggestions on how to explain why I failed in 200 words or less?

1 comment:

Josh said...

You need a great reason. Focus on the fact that it was your first semester. Maybe that NO wasn't a good environment for you. Maybe high school to college was a difficult transition, complicated by XYZ. I suspect you will get a bye since they were both in your first semester.

As far as the Tulane GPA being wiped out; many schools ask your GPA by year (year 1, year 2, year 3, etc). You may also want to check with each b-school to see how they will evaluate your transcript.

For your trip I would recommend starting in the Carolinas and ending with Emory. That will give you a chance to get a feel for Atlanta on the weekend; it's a great city.