tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97047832009-06-29T21:13:00.299-04:00My journey to and through Columbia Business School...AxeChickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10948568872113086467noreply@blogger.comBlogger89125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9704783.post-42732788547474778702007-08-20T15:45:00.000-04:002007-08-20T16:07:02.138-04:00

The end of summer is looming and school is about to start in 2 weeks. As I look back over the past couple of years, I can't believe that it's almost over. Today is the first day of Orientation for the new class. I remember sitting in Lerner Auditorium trying to stay awake during the opening remarks, thinking that I wasn't at all ready for the journey I was about to take. Now I've finished my

AxeChickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10948568872113086467noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9704783.post-86158953212000859962007-05-02T07:53:00.000-04:002007-05-02T08:17:56.722-04:00

To my unbelievable surprise my first year at business school is now over. This year has gone by faster than I could have ever imagined possible. A year ago, I was gearing up to move to NYC, complete a mini-internship, and get ready for one of the biggest changes of my life. In true irony, my very last final, Capital Markets, was probably the hardest test I have ever taken before in my life.

AxeChickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10948568872113086467noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9704783.post-22637844389680599262007-04-06T07:11:00.000-04:002007-04-06T07:29:30.592-04:00

25 days that's all that's left of my first year at bschool. Time has definitely flown by. I'm excited and sad for the end of the school year. On the one hand I am very mentally exhausted and the thought of turning in any more problem sets, papers, or cases and gearing up for finals is making me cringe. But I'll be very sad not to see my clustermates everday or my other friends for 4 whole

AxeChickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10948568872113086467noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9704783.post-49469967289448050572006-12-25T09:57:00.000-05:002006-12-25T10:41:35.899-05:00

V as in vacation!! Hard to imagine that I'm actually on vacation with absolutely nothing to do. No cases to work, no interviews to study for, no club activities, ABSOLUTELY nothing. However, the past few days have gone by way to fast. I took my last final last Tuesday and it's been a blur since then. A lot has happened in the last month. My spring break travel plans are booked. I, along

AxeChickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10948568872113086467noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9704783.post-5991286369077182152006-11-27T00:57:00.000-05:002006-11-27T01:45:00.547-05:00

Well, the dreaded first semester is almost over!! It's been tough and I'm so thankful that I'm almost finished. So over the past couple of months I've slaved through 2 finals and 5 midterms, sweated through what seems like a million informational interviews, gotten to know some really cool people, learned how to create a DCF from scratch (and realized that it's actually fun), and gotten my

AxeChickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10948568872113086467noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9704783.post-1159106852277639412006-09-24T09:53:00.000-04:002006-09-24T10:07:32.303-04:00

Interesting to know "how few finance people" in Columbia...Curious to know how few?CBS leaves an impression of "finance", "Finance", and "Finance"...I can't give an exact count of how many people at CBS want to do finance. That would be impossible. The point of the comment was to make it evident, that while there are a good number people who want to do finance, the majority of the school does

AxeChickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10948568872113086467noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9704783.post-1159013579035170152006-09-23T07:30:00.000-04:002006-09-23T08:15:43.066-04:00

We had our first set of midterms this week and I was struggling with figuring out how much grades really matter. I'm not doing ibanking (at least not really) or trying to work for McKinsey or Bain, so I have been told not to worry about them. However, I just couldn't get that through my head so of course I studied really hard for my stats exam this past Thursday. It did pay off, because I scored

AxeChickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10948568872113086467noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9704783.post-1157300262495256962006-09-03T11:07:00.000-04:002006-09-03T12:24:12.703-04:00

So I survived my first two weeks at CBS....barely. Marina did a pretty good job of summarizes the first week of Orientation. It was pure madness. There were two scheduled happy hours every night. I'm not much of a partier, so I never made it to the second one. Yes I know I'm lame. In terms of content, I was a little disappointed with the first week. There were a couple of very interesting

AxeChickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10948568872113086467noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9704783.post-1154272587886020792006-07-30T10:53:00.000-04:002006-07-30T11:16:27.933-04:00

I'm now officially finished with my internship and have 3 weeks until orientation starts. One of my goals for the next few weeks are to get back on my exercise plan. It pretty much disappeared last month when I started working. I interned with a woman that runs marathons and she gave me some hints to starting a running program. We'll see how that works that. I will also need to read this book

AxeChickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10948568872113086467noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9704783.post-1153567326907188872006-07-22T07:16:00.000-04:002006-07-22T08:04:25.573-04:00

Now that just about all of the schools have released their essay questions, many of you may be extremely eager to get them done. Well don't rush it!! Take the time to thoughtfully think about the essays before you begin writing. Outline and jot down different ideas about how to answer each question. This isn't the Tour de France, the fastest to the finish line will not always be the winner.

AxeChickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10948568872113086467noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9704783.post-1153523952218402072006-07-21T19:03:00.000-04:002006-07-21T19:19:12.233-04:00

Only 1 more week left in my internship. Although I'm not doing a whole a lot while I'm in the office, it's more exhausting than my old job was. So needless to say I'm thanking God that's it's friday and that I'm almost finished. As I said before the dept I was assigned to isn't my cup of tea, but overall the company is absolutely wonderful and I've been having informational interviews with

AxeChickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10948568872113086467noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9704783.post-1151749005930441922006-07-01T06:06:00.000-04:002006-07-01T06:16:45.956-04:00

I've been in NY for about two weeks and it's definitely taking sometime to get used to. My apt and roommate are both great, but city life just isn't for me!! The internship is going great. I have officially ruled out this career path, but the people I'm working with are absolutely fantastic and I'm learning a lot. It's a good thing I had some other ideas about what I wanted to do with the

AxeChickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10948568872113086467noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9704783.post-1147872394103503342006-05-17T09:13:00.000-04:002006-05-17T09:26:34.120-04:00

I have finally decided on a place to live when I move to NY next month. Woo Hoo!!! For a minute there, I really thought that I might be homeless. It's a great place close to school and although a tad bit more than I wanted to spend, has a lot of great extras that I think are worth it. So I now have exactly one month left before I move. To complicate matters, I'm going on a week long vacation

AxeChickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10948568872113086467noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9704783.post-1146050542997425202006-04-26T07:19:00.000-04:002006-05-08T11:51:55.890-04:00

Since Open House a series of events have been making me realize that my life is about to change dramatically over the next few months. I've been looking around my house trying to figure out exactly what I'm going to take with me. I still have yet to decide about that. Fortunately I found out last week that I got an internship at a really great company for the summer, thus starting the

AxeChickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10948568872113086467noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9704783.post-1145540870187959032006-04-20T09:04:00.000-04:002006-04-20T09:47:50.840-04:00

As you guys may have already read from several other blogs CBS Open House was a blast!! I was not only impressed with how accomplished my classmates are, but how genuinely excited they are to be attending Columbia next year. There are tons of arguments about Columbia being extremely "yield conscious" and not admitting applicants that want to go to other schools. But if these tactics have directly

AxeChickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10948568872113086467noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9704783.post-1143742951826264782006-03-30T13:21:00.000-05:002006-03-30T13:22:31.830-05:00

Yesterday I received yet another "Status Change to Columbia Business School online account". Since I've been "committed" for awhile now, I briefly had the thought that they decided that they had accepted me way too early in the process and found an applicant much more deserving of my spot. Fortunately, that was not the case. I have been generously blessed with a fellowship for school next year!!

AxeChickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10948568872113086467noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9704783.post-1142908417149905292006-03-20T21:31:00.000-05:002006-03-20T21:33:37.150-05:00

I think all the links are working now. Please let me know if there are any broken ones.

AxeChickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10948568872113086467noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9704783.post-1142782070964455252006-03-19T08:52:00.000-05:002006-07-22T08:02:25.090-04:00

As promised here are my past posts catalogued by topic. Every so often I'll update this list with future posts.GMATPreparing to apply (again)Just cranking alongProcastination SucksGMAT PrepApparently I'm IlliterateVictoryDone with the GMATQuick post about the Official GuideEssaysWhy MBAHow will you lead?Why Now?Decisions Decisions DecisionsSo Much To Do So Little TimeWhy does leadership matter?I

AxeChickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10948568872113086467noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9704783.post-1142700468382724692006-03-18T10:12:00.000-05:002006-03-20T13:22:56.890-05:00

I found that applicants for the next cycle are starting to read my blog so here are some things to keep in mind over the next few months:1 Get the GMAT out of the way!! The earlier you do it, the less you have to think about it and the more time you have for your essays, visits, informational interviews, and most importantly the sooner you'll be able to resume normal life and regain your sanity.

AxeChickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10948568872113086467noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9704783.post-1142694521037801722006-03-18T09:34:00.000-05:002006-03-18T10:11:16.186-05:00

Someone posted a comment a while ago asking about how to time applying ED."This is unrelated to this topic, but I had a CBS ED question. I am planning to apply ED for Fall 2007, so the application review process will begin in August 2006. I'd like to get my app in as early as possible, but it seems that it won't be available until the end of July. How did you deal with this? Did you write essays

AxeChickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10948568872113086467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9704783.post-1142692396753679712006-03-18T08:43:00.000-05:002006-03-18T09:33:16.773-05:00

The excitement on the CBS Admit Board is building to an uncontrollable level in anticipation of our Open House weekend next month (18 Days, 23 hours, 14 minutes to be exact). I have to once again say how impressed I am with my class. There's no doubt the class of 2008 is going to be a lot of fun!! Open House is April 6th and 7th. So far our class has planned events for April 5th - April 9th!!

AxeChickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10948568872113086467noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9704783.post-1141054742640565302006-02-27T10:14:00.000-05:002006-02-27T10:39:02.660-05:00

I had a great time at the Columbia Women in Business Conference on Friday. It was very well organized and the seminars are impressive. The day started off with a lavish continental breakfast follwed by an address from the Keynote speaker Geraldine Laybourne, Chairman and CEO of Oxygen Media. Her speech was inspirational and an eye opener. Oh before I forget, CWIB really did an outstanding job

AxeChickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10948568872113086467noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9704783.post-1140706258565462002006-02-23T09:30:00.000-05:002006-02-23T09:53:17.370-05:00

So today I'm off to visit Columbia for the 3rd time since I was admitted and the 4th time in 5 months. Yep that's right folks, since September I've been on campus almost once per month. This time I'm attending the Columbia Women in Business (CWIB) Annual Conference. I'm pretty excited about it. The school has really rolled out the welcome mat. Admitted women received discounted tickets (although

AxeChickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10948568872113086467noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9704783.post-1140609506333772692006-02-22T06:44:00.000-05:002006-02-22T06:58:26.356-05:00

I just sent in the application for the last fellowship I'm applying for. I found a whopping total of 3 that I was eligible for. There were a few others, but I'm sad to say that they were too involved. Those needed letters of recommendations and both of my recommenders from the application process are really swamped right now, so I didn't think this was important enough to bother them. Also

AxeChickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10948568872113086467noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9704783.post-1139863076759595872006-02-13T15:26:00.000-05:002006-02-13T15:37:56.813-05:00

Today I found out that I passed the Kroll backgorund check. So I guess now I can officially knock a couple of banks to pay for school without worrying about it affecting my admit status!! The process has taken almost a month to the day. I was never contacted by Kroll so I assume that they didn't find any discrepancies and were able to easily verify everything. The best news is that they were

AxeChickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10948568872113086467noreply@blogger.com3