School Days

I am not sure why it's taken me so long to blog this:

I am going to Wharton! - Yippie!! :)

I was refraining from blogging the whole experience until I told my boss, but now I am happy to say: I am headed back to school! I told my boss and my director a couple weeks ago and the formal announcement to our department was sent out last week.

It was a pretty long journey, starting with MLT's MBA Prep program, which is geared toward increasing the number of underrepresented minorities in MBA programs (I highly recommend contacting them if you are considering applying). I applied and was accepted in January '05. Through the program, I worked on my business school application (GMATs, introspective analysis, essays, references, etc) pretty much all of 2005. The process was tough at times, but my couch, Couch Jackson, was very supportive and encouraging, with just the right level of finger-wagging.

In December '05 came the true crunch time. With applications due just after Christmas, I had to buckle down. I had gotten the GMAT out of the way in May, so Dec was a month of essays. I am grateful for the volunteers from the program who read essays, made comments and corrections, etc. I am also grateful for my wonderful friends who took their time to read through my essays as well (Big ups to Desiree - she read every essay for every school! ...well except Wharton, but I still got into the others :) My recommenders were also fabulous. I had one who was unable to complete the recommendation. When I asked my backup, he was able to bang them out in a matter of days, saving my hide!

After pushing the "Submit" buttons, the anxiety and relief were both overwhelming. I couldn't believe a solid year of work was done and out of my hands. I also couldn't wait to find out what my future will be.

I had heard from some schools and was waiting to hear from others when I got the acceptance to Wharton. In that moment, the rest of the schools faded out of focus into the background. Visiting during Wharton Welcome Weekend all but solidified my decision (sending in my deposit truly solidified my decision :)

So it's official, I am going to be in the 125th graduating class from the world's first collegiate business school, established in 1881, the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

God is good.