FREE HUGS

The Art of Jabbing

Came home at 3am last night driving in autopilot (read: over and beyond the legal alcohol limit) with a happy smile.

Had a few Scotch sevens with TheMonster, my closest buddy in my previous company (ThePlaceToBe). Since I only resigned a few weeks ago, we talked about the latest office gossip but mostly it was the sort of good conversation that comes from the judicious consumption of alcohol. All about life and love. Truth serum indeed.

Then I was off to an impromptu party of my previous-previous company (TheGoodLife). News spread pretty fast about my b-school acceptance and I must admit that I was more than a little flattered with the attention and the congratulatory remarks. I was so happy that I rather quickly went from downright flattered to downright plastered.

Spent the bulk of the night talking and jabbing. Jabbing is the subtle art of conducting exploratory dialogue with members of the opposite sex whom one finds rather attractive. We all know the drill. You jab a little, she jabs a little. You both try dancing over, under and through the witty banter to find out if the attraction is mutual. Jabbing and jabbing to bait the opposite party to finally punch back and fight. Everyone's a fighter, but every fighter needs a good jab.

Let's just say TheLadiesChoice had fun trying to be a lady's choice night. Good job. Good jab.

PS. Thanks to AsianGal, Boywonder and Bancaku for leaving comments on the site. Click the links and visit their highly entertaining blogs.

Living Quarters...choices, choices, choices

In a couple of days, the online application for my bschool's on-campus student housing will be up and running. It's going to be lottery-based so there is no guarantee that I'll be able to secure a spot. Nonetheless, I remain very optimistic since I've read quite a few posts in the student-discussion boards hosted by the school that pretty much everyone who wanted a slot got one. Turns out, that despite the relative convenience of living in-campus, this type of housing is significantly more attractive for international students like myself. The locals, or those living in the States prefer to source their own living quarters from the vast array of surrounding apartments and condos. No doubt, they aren't afraid of the extreme weather conditions or the culture shock that are sure to send tropically-inclined people like me scurrying for cover. I hear the cost-savings of living off-campus are quite tempting as well.

I've pretty much decided on on-campus housing. I have no plans of buying a car during bschool, and since the units all come furnished that also solves any problems of buying furniture, setting up Internet and phone access and all the hassles of moving into a new place. My dilemma now is whether to choose a studio unit, a one-bedroom unit or a twin-studio(!). If costs weren't an issue, I'd go for the one-bedroom unit. Think of the parties, poker nights and PS2 tournaments that can be accommodated by my spanking bachelor pad! But alas, the price is not right. So I'm stuck between a studio or a twin-studio with the latter being the more economical choice.

So what's the problem, you ask?

The thing with the twin-studio is that I'd be sharing a common kitchen and bathroom with a roommate (horror of horrors!).

Well, if you must know, TheLadiesChoice is actually one big mama's boy. Yup, that's right, I've never lived away from home and thus have never felt any compulsion or need to do any household chores. I'm like an undomesticated wild animal...well as wild an animal as a 27 year-old who can't cook, clean, or do laundry can be. Failure to launch indeed.

My thinking is that, if I'm going to have to clean the toilet, then I might as well be assured that I'm cleaning my own crap. I really can't imagine sharing something I hold so sacred with another human being. If it's going to be a mess, then it might as well be my mess.

The price difference is a whopping $300 a month. A small price to pay for my peace of crap. Haha.

What the heck...B-school Rankings!

Everyone makes a lot of fuss about b-school rankings. I think it's just human nature. Everybody loves rankings and talking endlessly about them. It's just that deep down everybody feels an intrinsic need to share their own opinions, to have their voices heard, to have their OWN rankings.

And so, here are mine. Some disclaimers first. I don't have any formal methodology to my rankings (apologies to rankingsgod1 from the Businessweek forums) but I have done my fair amount of research. Before the actual rankings, let me list down a few things which I believe in, and which in turn have greatly influenced TheLadiesChoice's MBA rankings:

1. I'm a marketing guy. And so I firmly believe in the power of prestige, branding and brand names (no matter how subjective or unquantifiable).
2. From all the official and published rankings, the only ones which I trust are Businessweek and USNews. I think that WSJ, Forbes, and FT vary too much from year to year to make them credible.
3. The school stereotypes (Kellogg for marketing, Sloan for techies, Columbia for finance) are true, but only to a certain extent. The top schools especially the so-called M7 reputedly can open almost any door to whichever industry one chooses (provided the hard work is put in.)
4. I do believe in determining that elusive "fit" when applying to b-school. Thus I encourage all applicants to do their research and come up with their own rankings. The most useful sites I've found are the discussion forums in Businessweek and College Confidential. Just learn to be wary of the trolls that lurk.

So here goes. TheLadiesChoice's B-school Rankings:

1. Harvard (brand name without par)
2. Stanford (most selective, great location)
3. Wharton (exceptional academic program, strong brand especially for finance)
4. Kellogg (marketing powerhouse, overcomes 'weak' NW name to still be top tier MBA program )
5. MIT-Sloan (MIT name and strong ties to the engineering school)
6. Chicago (reputedly the strongest academic program, starting to shed it's uptight image)
7. Columbia (finance in the finance capital of the world)
8. Tuck (most active alumni network, great community)
9. Haas (leverages on Berkeley name and proximity to Silicon Valley)
10. Duke (Go Blue Devils!)

This is where the story begins

This is my first posting. I never thought I'd be one to write blogs, but I've decided to give it a go.
So here I am, one week after I've officially quit my job. I have roughly four months until the start of b-school. Four months to do everything I've always wanted to but never found the time to do so. But I've found myself to be merely doing small errands, tying up loose ends. More than anything I think I'm relishing the fact that I have the OPTION of doing whatever I want. Choosing whether or not to exercise the option is a different thing entirely.

The thing is, having gotten accepted to b-school has been a truly big load off my back. I'm actually a re-applicant, so I have been at this whole GMAT, Essays, Recommendations brouhaha for a good 2 1/2 years already. The relief, jubilation and peace of mind stemming from the first acceptance letter was truly life-changing.

This blog will be about this endless summer of 2007 and hopefully until the end of my 2 year stay at business school. From time to time I may look back and reflect on what I have learned from the whole application process, but I'm more concerned now with enjoying the present and looking beyond to the future.

As one of my closest friends said: this is the summer of 007:license to chill.