Wharton Update

Alas, first of my deadline kicks in, and I have submitted my application. Boy! what a sigh of relief. For me, I can say that the application process this year was very different from what I did last year (I am a reapplicant at Wharton). Last year, I started writing the essays in late Oct and submitted them in late Dec before going on a trip to my home country. There was too much going on in my life at that time. At the end , my essays were sloppy, did not have clear goals and surely would not give me an admit despite other good credentials. When I returned from my trip in January and looked at my apps, I knew all my mistakes.

That was it! I began to think about my goals, what I really want to focus on and also on my strengths and weaknesses. After 10+ years of solid engineering (studies included), my mind is trained to think in terms of definiteness (yes/no, boolean values, etc).The process wasn't easy for me and definitely took a long time. I started writing down all the facts and figures from my life, spoke to my family and friends, till I saw something emerge from all of these things.

Questions that i asked myself reflected as early as my childhood, then my teens and now, to see how I have evolved over those years. I reflected enough on some important experiences in my life, to realize what I am good at, what I like to do, and what things I could improve on. I believe this kind of soul searching really helps. Even though, b-schools ask about short term and long term career goals, they want to get to know the real person behind these goals, why those goals matter to you, what makes you tick, what is different about you.

Some people have these answers clearly etched in their mind, while others (like me), may take a bit longer in realizing these things. But, bschool or not,I think this is important. All these things definitely helped me in constructing my Wharton application. As an applicant, I don't think I have anything stellar in my points ( I am not a VP or a manager yet, I haven't won significant prizes, I am not 750+ etc.) . But I have used my experiences to tell why i have done the things that I have and what I have learnt from them. At the end, this process has mattered much more to me. And , I am not worried about the result as I was last year. Because, that surely is out of my control.