Well Done

Greetings from Telluride! The sun is out, the snow is fresh, and a day of skiing awaits.  Alas, I am not posting to regale you with tales from Booth's annual ski trip (at least not yet anyways).  Today's post is dedicated to others.  "Who?" you ask.  None other than some very special Round 1 admits.

Congratulations to three of my favorite GMAT Clubbers/Class of 2015 applicants!

Str1der -  This man is the definition of perseverance. I met Str1der last year on GMAT Club's Kellogg applicant thread.  We built a fast rapport and reviewed one another's essays.  I will always be grateful to him for the feedback he gave me on Kellogg's short essay.  He really helped me improve it.  Alas, although he was invited for an interview he was not admitted at Kellogg last year.  This year he came roaring back with a 40 point improvement on the GMAT, a job promotion, and killer essays.  I just knew that he was getting into business school this year.  And I was right.  St1der has been offered a spot in Tuck's class of 2015.  His email telling me the news was one of the best parts of my week.  Hats off to you my friend!  You're going to be a wonderful addition to Tuck.  Tell my friends The Senator and LadyRoadWarrior I said hello and to take good care of you.

Sassafrass/Machichi - A few months ago some person named machichi popped up on GMAT Club, wondering how a non traditional candidate such as himself would fare in MBA application land.  One read of his blog and I knew he'd fare just fine.  He's witty, thinks critically, and has a wonderfully unique background that would add to any MBA class.  This week both Yale and Kellogg confirmed what I already knew and called him with news of acceptances.  I am so very happy that such a well deserving candidate got into two amazing schools.  Selfishly I want him to choose Kellogg so I might have the chance to meet him in Chicago next year.

MBAOver30 - The second I saw that screen name I knew that I had found a kindred spirit.  Being a 30+ applicant myself, I knew exactly where he was coming from when he wrote this post on his blog. It took a long time and a very winding road for me to figure out that an MBA was the right path for me, so I immediately connected to his story.  I still can't tell who befriended whom, but we've been tight since last spring.  He got me through the late night portion of my drive from Philadelphia to Chicago and I blasted holes in a good percentage of his application plans. We finally met in LA this summer while I had a layover on my way to Fiji for Random Walk.  Even though I tore his Wharton essays to shreds he still took me out for sushi to say thank you.  Since then I've seen his Booth application go from alright to pure Boothie and talked him off the proverbial ledge a few times.  This week was quite the week for Mr. 30+ as he received back to back admits (with scholarships) to both Booth and Wharton.  I have already started the 24/7 "Come to Booth" campaign.

There are a number of other R1 admits who I was also very happy to see on the MBA forums.  So in no particular order, congratulations to: astrochriss88 (Kellogg); Top10MBACandidate (Booth); elbie (Kellogg, Booth, Wharton); query007 (Kellogg); ak2012 (Booth); c00guy (Kellogg, Booth); emanuelle (Wharton), and a host of others.

Enjoy this time and I hope to see all of the Booth admits at Admit Weekend Feb 8.