1000 miles to Graceland.

There a lot of crap going on at work that has distracted me from doing any serious 'prep' for my upcoming Wharton interview, though I don't know if there's anything formal I could do other than mock interviews. Last saturday, I met up with a friend of mine who gave me some excellent thought-pointers. Thinking along those lines has given me my main 'theme' that I want to get across in the interview. I drove down to Wharton last monday for a class visit. It was very productive, I got some more good insights into what makes Wharton Wharton. Met an alum and got some excellent insights. Thanks, D, for taking the time. Been playing with these thoughts in my head and I think I have a good idea of the answers to the inevitable Why,Why,Why questions. The thing I need to do next is compile a list of possible questions off the s2s boards and make sure I have points to answer each one of them. The interview invite has brought its own roller-coaster of emotions. Started with a Holy Cow ! - I'm almost In and quickly turned to a more realistic assesment of the slim chances as an R3 applicant. Now, I need to pump the energy levels back up. Need to be fighting fit and I've got a week to get there.

I originally planned to go to Pub this thursday and stick around in the area with friends until my interview next monday. But, now my work situation has affected plans. A new almost-no-vacation policy instituted this week has my hands tied. But, this is too important to me and I have a plan to work around this. I'm planning to drive down thursday morning to go for another class visit/lunch and Pub and talk to more people and drive back to be at work friday. I'll work saturday and drive back to Philly for my interview on monday and back to work tuesday morning. I'll make up monday by working next saturday. Got to get my boss' buy-in, but should be OK. It's gonna be a lot of driving - well over a 1000 miles in a weekend - but hey, you gotta do what you gotta do.

"so, you need to kiss so much ass just to have a shot at getting in ?" asked a colleague of mine who I talked with about my plans. Not at all. I don't think the powers-that-be know or care how many times you visit campus or if you do at all. I'm going 'coz I want to. I believe what really needs to be communicated in an interview is how well you know and understand the school and how it fits with your goals. That is key because if you understand what drives the school and its community, you are that much more likely to be a 'fit'. And this is a hard thing to figure out. I don't know any W alums/students personally, so the best way is to actually visit, sit in classes, see how things are firsthand, talk with students and staff and make my own conclusions. I still have some open questions I hope to find answers for. Also, I liked Wharton so much the last time I was there, i would like another opportunity to visit the school with a 'purpose' in mind. And I think Pub should be fun, everyone's recommended I not miss it. Though, I'm not so sure about this thursday's Pub. It's the start of Welcome Weekend for admits so all the attention is going to be on them. Well deserved, of course. Congratulations once again to fellow bloggers Hella, Jeamish and FMGirl for the awesome achievement and I hope to run into some of you at Wharton.