In the Nick of Time

I feel a little like someone who just barely made it onto a subway train before the doors closed and the subway speeds off to its next stop. It wasn’t easy, perhaps with the doors re-opening and re-closing on my outstretched arms and awkwardly contorted body a few times as I wriggled onto the train, but here I am, sweaty and wrinkled clothing and all. After dusting myself off, it’s now time to settle down and face the journey ahead.

It is fitting that I received an invitation to interview with Chicago Booth on one of the last days to do so, since it is consistent with how my application to Booth has gone up to this point. I didn’t exactly start off on the best footing by submitting my application right near the deadline, so it was not unexpected that the status of my application on Booth’s online system changed from “submitted” to “received” to “complete” to “invite to interview” on some of the latest days.

The deadline to complete the interview is February 25th, giving me about a week and a half. After considering the cost of a last-minute trip to Chicago and Booth’s recent reassurances that they “view off-campus and on-campus interviews equally,” I opted for a local interview. There is some risk associated with the more random nature of off-campus alumni interviews, but there is also no guarantee that on-campus interviews at Booth are conducted by admissions officers – it could also be a second-year student or alumnus.

It’s been about a month since my last interview, with Kellogg, so I’ll have to get back into that frame of mind. A good place to start is with this blog post by Kurt Ahlm, the man himself and the Senior Director of Admissions. Fortunately, there are a quite a few unique aspects about Booth that stand out to me and I have materials from my previous interviews that I can use, so it should be a pretty straightforward interview. Poets & Quants’ recent article on the Booth admissions process, “What Happens When You Apply to Booth,” is also really useful and timely.

In any case, I’ll try my best as usual and we’ll see where this all leads.

*Note: For anyone still waiting for a Round 2 interview from Booth – there is still hope. The mid-decision deadline isn’t until tomorrow (February 16th), and the recent blizzard forced Booth’s offices to close for a few days, so it is more likely than previous years that interview invites come out on the last day. Good luck.