My goal is to get through a draft of each school’s essays within the next week or two. I would like to have September to revise, as well as put together applications and recommendations.
I’m tackling Kellogg today. I was expecting it to be easier than it is. For whatever reason, the broad nature of the questions is actually more difficult for me than the more specific, shorter Harvard and Wharton group (other than my major block on Wharton’s perspectives question). It’s taken me quite a bit longer than usual to write the career goals essay – 600 words gives me a lot of room to describe and many options of what to share. I’m getting close, however – my current “stuck” point is how to get from my job now to the management consulting goal. It’s not that it’s not a logical leap, I’m just having trouble articulating the transition. I think I just need a break…which I’m taking now as I blog!
The other thing on my mind at the moment is the recommendations – I need to get on top of them. My boss has asked that I write hers, which I’m a little uncomfortable with, but I am going to put together bullet points and information for her so that it’s as easy of a process as possible. I still need to select my other recommender (two for Harvard) and ask them. I’m close – I’m deciding between someone who I work with in a different functional area, and someone who is external to my company but I work with very regularly and have about a four year history with.
I’m considering asking one person to do a few and the other person to do the others. Obviously they would both have to do Harvard. I don’t mind asking my boss for six recommendations, but for anyone else, that seems like a lot. I have a little more time than usual this week, so one of the nights I’m going to put together the recommendation details.
The last thing on my mind are a few second thoughts about my school list. The schools that I have written essays for so far are confirmed “yes,” – Harvard, Wharton and Kellogg – and I’m fairly sure that Cornell will stay. I’m a little on the fence about Chicago and MIT. I need to do some more research, probably on that recommendation night, and make a final decision so I can proceed full force with applications for all of them.
I suppose my break is over – time to go back to that transition from my current job to management consulting.
Read the full article: Essays, Essays Everywhere