Necessary Evils

22 hours.  That's how long it took me to get from downtown Philadelphia to downtown Chicago.  According to the pushy GPS lady who lives in my Blackberry (don't judge me; I'm waiting for the new iPhone), Chicago is a 12+ hour drive from Philadelphia.  I had scheduled a 9a.m. move-in for Sunday so I left Philly before 8 a.m. on Saturday to give myself plenty of time for rest stops, fuel ups, detours, and car naps.  I got to my apartment building nearly three hours early.  Unfortunately, my movers arrived nearly one hour late.  Fast forward 5 hours and my life looks something like this:

Where FOMO Leads

Today is my birthday.  Although I do have dinner plans with friends this evening to celebrate, thus far I've spent most of the day in Chicago's O'hare airport.  Why am I not on a beach on this gorgeous sunny day that commemorates my entrance to the world?  Because I am returning home after spending three days in Chicago at the MBA Jumpstart Diversity Forum for Financial Services and Consulting.  What is MBA Jumpstart?  JumpStart MBA Diversity Forum is an intensive two and a half day program that educates participants on both the financial services and consulting industries.  "But Cheet, why would you attend Jumpstart when you're not interested in either financial services or consulting?" you ask.  I asked myself the same question several times over the last couple of days, but I did have my reasons.

In Training

-->

I have a confession.  I am nervous about business school.  It’s been over a decade since I’ve been a student.  Thanks to the GMAT studying isn’t the distant memory it once was.  However, studying for one exam doesn’t compare to managing a full course load, especially when that course load is focused on the subjects that gave me fits in undergrad.  I have a healthy fear of stats and economics, fueled by complete disinterest and my brain’s inability to make sense of concepts like marginal revenue=price and correlation coefficients.  Whether I like it or not the only way to an MBA is through these subjects.  Since I am spending my summer happily unemployed, I figured it would be a good idea to face my fears head on and get reacquainted with stats and econ and introduced to case studies and Excel modeling before school starts in September.  Enter Manhattan GMAT Pre MBA bootcamp.

Time on My Hands...

I had it all planned out. Before I was even accepted into an MBA program I knew that I would be taking the summer off prior to starting classes in the fall.  After working for nearly a decade and not really having a summer vacation since 1998 (summer before freshman year of college), I felt that I was due for two months of sleeping til noon, lazing around the house, traveling abroad for weeks on end, and living rent free at my parents' house while depleting the contents of their fridge.  I had been saving for over a year so I figured I could afford to blow my annual bonus on trips and the minimal living expenses of a cell phone bill and Netflix account, thus reserving my cash reserves for the school year.  My plan was foolproof.

Just Do It...Again

I am psyching myself up.  I am finding my motivation.  I am getting my mind right.  Friends, I am going back into essay writing mode.  Too soon? Yeah, that's what I thought too.  Then I looked at Booth's (under)estimated student budget and realized that scholarship money does not make the cost of a full-time MBA affordable, it simply makes it less unaffordable.  Even though my tuition is taken care of I still need to pay for books ($2,100), random fees (~$2,400), health insurance (~$2,400), transportation (~$1,300), a place to live (~13,500), food to eat (~$5400), and personal expenses ($3,000).  That is roughly $30,000 of expenses and I haven't even factored in the cost of moving to Chicago or a security deposit.  Add in a Random Walk, the ski trip, and a trek or two and the price tag can rise to nearly $50,000.  While I do have a good amount of money saved it's not enough to cover everything and I am not too keen on blowing away my savings anyways.  The back of the envelope budgetary calculations have left me with the sobering reality that in spite of Booth's generous award I could end up with nearly $100,000 of debt.  No bueno.