Kicking the addiction
When I started my application to B-Schools, I did not know about businessweek forums. I came to know about them sometime after I had finished of my GMAT and during the time I was finalizing my school choices. I was primarily looking at the rankings and to be honest, I was really struggling with the essays. So I chose to focus on my first two applications - Haas and Fuqua. Once I was done with them, I knew I had some time left before the Stanford and Tepper applications, so I started to surf around more. Lo and behold.. I was _stuck_ on the businessweek forums.
In the beginning, I was struck with awe and initially, I felt really stupid that I didn't use such a great resource to help me out. I soon realized that I had grossly overestimated the value of the businessweek forums. A significant number of posts fall into the following two categories.
The first one being - "Here is my profile, will I get into school X ?".
These posts in my opinion were of little value to me. With all due respect to the admission consultants who tried to answer these posts, if an applicant lacks the needed confidence to research business school stats and arrive at a conclusion, perhaps applying to B-School for a career in business may not be the right choice. I do not mean to be disrespectful to anyone, but the reality is that in most people in business will have to deal with insufficient data and the subjectivity of the client's judgment. Applying to business school in my mind is not different.
The second category of posts fall into the "Interview updates and Acceptance updates".
These posts in my opinion are of little value, _but_ I do frequent them fairly religiously. I started browsing these posts initially just to get a sense of where things were, given that the application process in generally opaque. I know that by visiting these posts, I am not getting any real value but I do get hope. Hope that may be I might get the interview email from Stanford or the call from Haas, that I have accepted.
I guess what makes businessweek forums most addictive is the fact that they provide hope. Hope is very powerful and consequently defies all logic and reality at times. Hope is the common thread that binds MBA applicants and creates virtual support groups.
All that being said, I have _not_ checked the businessweek forums for the last three days. I am trying to kick my addiction because I spend way too much time on these forums . I can spend this time on something more productive. In any case, let me see how long I can resist punching in www.businessweek.com
In the beginning, I was struck with awe and initially, I felt really stupid that I didn't use such a great resource to help me out. I soon realized that I had grossly overestimated the value of the businessweek forums. A significant number of posts fall into the following two categories.
The first one being - "Here is my profile, will I get into school X ?".
These posts in my opinion were of little value to me. With all due respect to the admission consultants who tried to answer these posts, if an applicant lacks the needed confidence to research business school stats and arrive at a conclusion, perhaps applying to B-School for a career in business may not be the right choice. I do not mean to be disrespectful to anyone, but the reality is that in most people in business will have to deal with insufficient data and the subjectivity of the client's judgment. Applying to business school in my mind is not different.
The second category of posts fall into the "Interview updates and Acceptance updates".
These posts in my opinion are of little value, _but_ I do frequent them fairly religiously. I started browsing these posts initially just to get a sense of where things were, given that the application process in generally opaque. I know that by visiting these posts, I am not getting any real value but I do get hope. Hope that may be I might get the interview email from Stanford or the call from Haas, that I have accepted.
I guess what makes businessweek forums most addictive is the fact that they provide hope. Hope is very powerful and consequently defies all logic and reality at times. Hope is the common thread that binds MBA applicants and creates virtual support groups.
All that being said, I have _not_ checked the businessweek forums for the last three days. I am trying to kick my addiction because I spend way too much time on these forums . I can spend this time on something more productive. In any case, let me see how long I can resist punching in www.businessweek.com
posted by FooBarMe at
10:24 AM
2 Comments:
The BW forums are pretty silly - but a nice way to channel anxiety into quasi-productive conversation. Overall, the result is probably more anxiety for everyone with zero impact on outcomes - so it had better be extremely fun.
Btw, I'm adding you to my "Blogs I Read" list.
By
MBA Jackass, at February 21, 2006 1:29 PM
That's awesome. Forums can be really addicting, eh? :-) Even if, as you stated, they might not have much value when it comes to your app. Yes, it gives hope, and I think it serves as a community of, "Hey, she/he is going through the same thing I am! They understand me!" Just like these blogs. :-)
Congrats being forum-free for 3 days! That's awesome. Time for me to kick the addiction as well. lol.
By
i_will_make_it, at February 22, 2006 4:53 PM
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