Getting Admitted to the Wharton MBA Program for Executives

I first started thinking about getting an Executive MBA in the summer of 2006. I had always wanted to go back to school after my undergraduate studies for an MBA, but the Silicon Valley internet boom made it too compelling to stay at work. The ROI just wasn't there to go back to school full-time, and I had gotten married and had a child. And my career was in full swing as a director in large public software company. And then I got the crazy idea to go back to school full time. But the more I thought about it the more I decided that it was right for me. And if I did it, I wanted to do it at the best school I could, otherwise it wouldn't be worth the time. I didn't want an "MBA-lite". Otherwise I'd just order one off the internet somewhere.

Then, I realized there was this thing called The GMAT. "Wow,", I mused. "I never thought I'd never take a standardized test again!" I found out that standardized tests have CHANGED, too. They are now electronic, and you have to go to a testing center and take it on a computer. They are also adaptive, which means that they start medium dificulty and then get harder if you answer the questions right. Or easier if you don't, which causes you to stress out when you see an easy question! Of course, there are experimental questions, which could be the case that you are getting an easy question. You never know though.

So I enrolled in Kaplan's review course, which was expensive enough for me to take seriously and put skin in the game. I studied pretty hard in the fall and managed to increase my original diagnostic test score +100 points into the 700s. And I figured that was good enough to get me in whereever I applied due to my work experience. I took the real test in November. I got the typical engineer's high quant score and pretty mediocre verbal score.

Applications were next, which was around the Dec 2005 until Feb 2006. I applied to the Wharton MBA Program for Executives, which was ranked #1 for EMBA programs in 2005, as well as Berkeley-Columbia and UCLA's executive MBA programs. Boy, they were a lot of work. Most of the work was in the essays. I'd say that I spent about 40 hours per application. It was good because they really make you focus on what you want and why you are applying to the programs. Some of them have word limits, so you really have to concise with what you are trying to say.

From March 2006 until April 2006, I found out that I had been admitted to Wharton, Berkeley-Columbia, and UCLA. So I had my pick of the litter. After visiting, researching, and taking some time, I chose Wharton. It was ranked #1 in Financial Times, I perceived that the caliber of students was highest, and it was closest in proximity to my house. I liked the Ivy League pedigree and opportunity, which I felt would be a great experience to contrast with my University of California experience. UCLA and Berkeley would have been too similar to my undergrad experience. Plus UCLA would require flying every other week, and Berkley's program suffered from not even being on the ranking list. Their admissions office was also not the most responsive. The downside to Wharton was it didn't have a real campus here in San Francisco, it had the rep of being unnecessarily competitive, and it was the most expensive program. Being mostly self-funded, the price tag was the big question. Was it really worth $50K more than the cheapest program (UCLA)? After doing the analysis, I decided that it was. FT's average ranking of EMBA grads was that their salaries had increased an average of 60% three years after graduation. If that number was even close, then the incremental cost would be insignificant. I had the rest of my working life to recoup the investment, and I determined that the program would pay for itself in five years if the numbers were right.

And so I enrolled in the Wharton program and started in May 2006. This is my story...