Happy New Year

Well, I don't think I'll be posting much until I get into the thick of applications. I continue to feel unconvinced that an MBA is the way to go, while also feeling that it just sounds like a nice break from my current trajectory. There was an article in The Atlantic Monthly this summer on the irrelevance of the MBA written by a fellow who founded his own consulting firm. Hit on my paranoia that it's just a waste of money. Sigh.

Nonetheless I forge on. I was just reading some MBA blogs and felt inspired to post a little myself. While I have mainly been concentrating on my evolving personal life - getting bids on new furnaces and tile jobs and fixing exploding water pipes and backing into my neighbor's car one fine morning and trying to stay out of the doctor's office myself - I have been making some small progress on the MBA front.

I attended HBS' info session in Seattle (on my birthday! even) which made me decide not to waste my time on those info sessions anymore. Far better to visit the schools in my mind. And so I am. I will be at Chicago's Fall Preview this coming month with a day at Kellog too. Then in early November I will go to Chicago, NYU, Harvard, MIT and Wharton. My credit card company is loving me right now. But I can't make a proper decision without the full in person experience and it's also a good excuse to visit some friends and family.

If my visits don't discourage me entirely, I will turn my attentions to the GMAT this spring and knock out my apps over the summer, shooting for R1 next fall.

One of my primary concerns at this point (aside from the cost) about MBA programs is about the maturity of my fellow students actually. Although there were some fine young people at the HBS student panel, they only confirmed my worries there. They just seemed young and I'm not that old but I will be a new 30 if I get admitted for class of 2010 and I've never felt my age. I will be married and hopefully childed at that point too. Also, what's up with being proud about the degree of partying that goes on at your school? I was under the impression that that was a freshman undergrad sort of mentality. I find it amusing to read Chicago students bragging about the debauchery that goes on on campus despite the reputation (apparently) that they're all just a gaggle of dorks. Be proud of your dorkness! Goodness, much better than frat boy. On the flip side, the in HBS video they showed at the session, everyone looked so terribly, squeaky clean. My husband who is a bit of an aesthetic nazi was writhing in pain and not at all won over. Just confirmed my other worry that my classmates will be boring, overachievers in the classic sort of way. Sorry, I'm trying to suspend judgement there.

The puzzle right now is trying to figure out what I'm looking for in a job. Or if I'm looking for a job (which I guess I have to since I'm out of one soon). I don't really like thinking about it, which is unfortunate ... for me.