One down and Many more to Go

I submitted Wharton R1 application on October 11th, one day before the deadline. I felt relief and pride at achieving an important milestone. The essays took a lot more time than I anticipated. It went through a complete rewrite and then continuous incremental tightening to convey my story in the most concise way I could. My friends helped me all the way. Each critic has contributed invaluable quality to my final version. Finally when I felt each sentence has a purpose, and each word inside each of those sentences are the most accurate one to convey my message I stopped.

Even the final day had enough drama. I feel every applicant may have one black sheep essay - the one perceived as the weak one. I had one too. So in the last two days I decided to pick a new topic for my last essay. I completed the essay, tightened it, whartonised it and finally was left with two glowing essays. I had to fight hard to pick a favorite. Finally, in an anticlimax, I went with my original essay.

Once Wharton applications done, I decided to visit Wharton. It takes close to two hours and $13 for me to reach Wharton. I attended two classes, had lunch with students, and made a few new applicant friends. Looked like I was the only R1 applicant. The students were very impressive. They showed us around and gave us very good information on the application process, curriculum, life @ Wharton and housing options in Philadelphia. I decided to head back after lunch.

Now I have self set deadlines of Nov 20th for Stern and Dec 21st for Columbia. It gives me one month for Stern and two months for Columbia.