As the beginning of May drew closer, I had to make a decision about where I was going to pursue my MBA. After weighing the scholarship/assistantship offers and the relative merits of the schools I've been accepted to, I've decided that I'm going to go to the University of Florida's Warrington College of Business for their one-year, Option B program. In a little under a year from now, I'll be finished with my degree program, and assuming I get the classes I want, i should be able to pull a double major (okay, concentration) in Finance and Marketing.

Why UF, as opposed to Notre Dame or Penn State? Basically, UF's program combines the best of both of the other two programs. Notre Dame had a one year program that would have required me to take on between $20K and $30K of student loan debt, and PSU had offered me an assistantship that would have covered most of my costs, but was a two-year program. UF offered me a very generous assistantship in a one-year program.

I resigned from my job last Monday, effective June 17th. School starts the following week. Between now and then, I'll be wrapping up things at work, hopefully transitioning with my successor in place for some overlap, but at any rate, documenting as much as humanly possible. I'm going to miss ONLINE, but I am also pretty sure that adding a master's degree will enhance my career enough to make giving up a year of my career worthwhile.

Yep, I actually hold in my hot little hands a winning ticket in the Georgia Lottery! Of course, only three numbers match, so the windfall is only $7.00, but hey, I won the lottery!

I called Notre Dame today and asked them to reconsider their fellowship offer. My file is being sent back to the committee for additional consideration. I've been promised that I'll hear something by Thursday, so we'll see what happens.

I also interviewed with the University of Florida. I'm supposed to hear from them about both admissions and financial aid tomorrow. As the admissions process comes into the home stretch, I'm facing the very real possibility of being on campus less than a month from now. Yikes!

So, as you may know, I'm holding an offer from Penn State for a graduate assistantship to attend their MBA program. I finally recieved my financial aid award notice from Notre Dame today, and it's not as lucrative (about 1/3 tuition, and no stipend, vs. tuition waiver and $500/month). Rankings-wise and reputation-wise, Notre Dame and PSU are pretty much interchangeable. I'd rather go to Notre Dame, however - I really enjoyed visiting the campus, and I was very impressed by the sense of family in the program.

Of course, I can't ignore financial issues. I'm going to call ND tomorrow to ask them to sweeten the pot, knowing full well it may mean I have to pass on the opportunity to go to a school I've been really excited about for a long time.

Has anyone else out there negotiated for additional financial help from their school? If so, how did it go for you?

It's a sad day for fans of comic strips. After failing to land a syndication deal, Dan Thompson has decided to end his online strip, "Lost Sheep". "Lost Sheep" follows the adventures of George, a sheep who decides to leave the flock and seek his fortune out in the world. He rents a room from Joe, a kind hearted man in love with Liz, who owns the neighborhood bakery. Also living with George and Joe is Frank, a wisecracking, surly parrot.

It's weird. Crap like "Garfield" and "Cathy" sells tons of merchandise and millions of books, but there isn't room on the comics page for a great, smart strip like "Lost Sheep". It's a crying shame. The only upside of this is that Dan has decided to continue the strip in a bi-weekly format, at least for the duration of his contract with uClick. Here's hoping some syndicate comes to their senses and offers Dan a contract so that we can return to seeing the daily adventures of Frank, Joe, and George.

Penn State made me the happiest MBA applicant in the world yesterday. They accepted me into their Smeal MBA program, and offered me a graduate assistantship. The assistantship offers a tuition waiver and a $500/month stipend in exchange for working 10 hours per week for the business school. So I can get a top-50 MBA at virtually no out-of-pocket cost. I'm so excited I can hardly stand it.

Still haven't recieved word from Notre Dame on their aid package. If it's as good or better, I'm headed to South Bend. But right now, I'm high on Smeal, and really excited about the possibility of joining their program.

My application at Florida should go complete today, since I sent my supplemental materials out overnight yesterday. I got word of the assistantship after sending out the UF material, otherwise I probably would have sent the material regular mail and saved a few bucks.

Things are turning out much better than it looked like they were going to back in March when I was getting dinged everytime I turned around. I have to wonder if the experience I had doing the apps to HBS, Wharton, and Chicago helped me create the applications that are getting such a positive response now. I know more about "the game" of MBA admissions, and am seeing the benefits of knowing how to play.

At any rate, work calls. Back to the daily grind!

Several things happening on several different MBA application fronts. First, I was invited to interview at Penn State on Friday. I'm going to schedule a phone interview for early next week.

I also visited the University of Florida last weekend, met with some of the MBA staff, and attended the Orange and Blue intra-squad spring football game, along with my wife (who is a UF alumnae) and several of her friends. I had a great time, and could see myself at UF, even though it's not an upper-tier program. On the positive side, it's a one-year program, and being done in mid-2006 would be awesome.

But the best news is that I got into Notre Dame! I've been accepted to Notre Dame's one-year program, which begins at the end of May. My interview was on Thursday, and my admissions notification came on Friday. Very quick turnaround! I hope that bodes well for recieving the admission packet this week, when I'll find out about fellowship awards. Mendoza is a great MBA program, and I'm very honored to be accepted. Now I have to figure out the finances!

Courtesy of the Daily Kos.

http://www.drewmarlowe.com/pictures/brackets.jpg

This is the funniest thing I've seen since the "Jesusland" graphic that circulated after the election.

A lot later than I expected, but I landed my second interview of the MBA application season, with Notre Dame's Mendoza School of Business's One Year MBA program. I recognize that by giving up the chance to do an internship, the one year program has a way of limiting my post-degree career options, but I think the opportunity to do the degree quickly and get back out into the workforce is a great plus. My interview's on Thursday, right after work, over the telephone. Hope I impress them enough to land some decent fellowship money!

Still waiting on Penn State, and haven't quite completed my apps at Florida and ECU yet - they both require official transcripts, which should be en route. Notre Dame is my first choice, although my wife is pulling for Florida, since that's her alma mater. We'll see how it goes!

(I had pretty much decided not to comment on this, but I felt I needed to get some things off my chest. Here goes...)

Eric Boehlert's Salon.com piece on the media's appalling deference to the right wing's lunatic fringe ("A tale told by an idiot", 3/31) deserves to be tacked to the bulletin board of every newsroom in the country. Despite no shortage of real news in March, the bulk of the US media allowed itself to be whipped into a veritable journalistic frenzy over what, although tragic, is an everyday occurrence.

End of life issues aside, the real story in the Terri Schiavo story is the mainstream media's obsession with objectivity overshadowing the truth. In the mad rush to present all sides of every issue, the fourth estate has wildly overcorrected for any real or perceived bias. Case in point is the horrible character assassination of Michael Schiavo. The night after Terri Schiavo's death, searching Google News with the phrase "Michael Schiavo abuse allegations" garners 1,850 hits. Whether you agree with him or not, Mr. Schiavo has suffered enough without being accused of being a wife beater. The continual mention of these allegations of abuse (which began with an anonymous tip to the Florida Department of Children & Families) lends credibility to the conspiracy theorists who circulate rumors that Michael Schiavo wants his wife dead so he can finally collect the money remaining from malpractice settlements a decade old. The truth, on the other hand, is that Mr. Schiavo stands to inherit very little from Terri's estate. Most of what money there was was exhausted long ago by the costs of her care, and the rest will be turned over to Medicare, which has paid for her $73,000/year treatment since 2002.

This is not the first time the media has sacrificed the truth on the altar of objectivity. Every time we hear Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold referred to as the "alleged" Columbine killers or Mohammed Atta as the "alleged" September 11th ringleader, we are reminded that those we expect to cherish the truth above all else are becoming more and more deficient in their duty. The massive media coverage of Terri Schiavo's decline and ultimate demise crossed the line from being overly sensitive to being deliberately negligent. We deserve better from our nation's media.

Finished my applications to PSU and UF tonight - I've written so many essays, my eyes are ready to glaze over. Now, all I have to do is get my hardcopy recommendations and transcripts to UF, plus finish the ECU application, and I should be done with MBA applications forever.

Unless, of course, I should fail to get in anywhere.

But let's not think of that nasty possibility.

On a completely unrelated note, my journal entry on Dr. Dubois was used as a letter to the editor in UNC Charlotte's student newspaper. Having had more than my fair share of dealing with the media lately, I have to wonder why they edited grammar mistakes into my letter that weren't there when I sent it. I'm not the only one - a friend of mine who has had several letters to the editor printed had noted the same thing. One day, I'll be a newspaper editor, and I'll learn these secrets.

On the home front, the project to encode my entire CD collection into iTunes continues. I found an old gem during my CD swapping tonight. "On The Rap Tip" is a compilation album released by Priority Records in 1989. I have no idea how I ended up with a copy on CD. I remember owning this album on cassette, and I didn't own a CD player (actually, a single-speed CD-ROM drive in my computer) until late 1993. I do remember many, many hours spent skateboarding on neighborhood ramps with this album blasting from a boom box. The highlight of this CD is a sanitized version of "Straight Outta Compton" by N.W.A., but there are some other classics on there as well. It's long out of print, but is still widely available used for less than $5. If you like late eighties rap, it's a nice way to get a lot of good tracks cheap.

What's with the basketball metaphors? March Madness, baby!

After a long weekend discussing options with my wife, asking friends for advice, I've decided to take a couple more cracks at getting into business school. I've already put together and submitted an application to Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business, which is in a small group of US MBA program that offers a one-year option. I've applied to the one-year program, since I already have an undergraduate business degree.

I'm also going to put in applications at Penn State's Smeal College of Business, the University of Florida's Warrington College of Business, and East Carolina University. So, it's back into application high gear for a while. My recommenders have been very gracious about this - their patience is greatly appreciated, since after all, they are my bosses!

But, as always, I'll keep my journal updated with my progress - whether it be success or failure. I think the process of applying to HBS, Wharton, and Chicago has actually prepared me to submit the perfect application to these other schools, but we won't know until I get the alternately keenly anticpated or dreaded "Your admission status has changed" email. More later - it's trivia night, and I'm late!

Christmas? No! NCAA College Basketball Tourney Time! This year's tournament has been a classic, with giant killings, like Bucknell's last second win over Kansas and UW-Milwaukee's improbable run to the Sweet 16. My favorite team, the N.C. State Wolfpack also made it to the Sweet 16, losing to Wisconsin last Friday.

But the absolute best games were the regional finals. Out of four games, three went to overtime. The weekend saved the best for last. Michigan State's double-overtime win over Kentucky was one for the ages. The was-it-or-wasn't-it three-pointer to end regulation, the tie-up at the end of the first overtime, the drama of the secodn overtime, all combined to make for one of the best college basketball games of all time.

The best part is, it's not over yet. The Final Four in St. Louis is next weekend, with some great teams set to play. Not only is great college basketball going on, but baseball season is almost ready to kick off as well. It's a great time of year to be a sports fan.

Got the ding from Wharton today - the unkindest cut of all, since I felt like my interview went really well. I'm going to take feedback sessions from both Wharton and Chicago, but my feeling is that these programs simply can't look past my NCSU transcripts.

And I don't blame them. If you had your pick of 6000 highly qualified candidates for 1100 spots, you'd be ill advised to take a flyer on someone who was as flakey as I was from 17 to 20, when you have your pick of 4.0's from the Ivy League. I made this particular bed, and now I'm lying in it.

The question now is where to from here? Some mid to lower ranked programs are waving dollars at me, and with application fees waived as well, it costs me only my time to apply. I've got plenty of that, given that I don't have to worry about planning a move to Philly. :-)

More later - I really should be working now.

A relatively minor news item caught my eye today. Last Friday, the president of the University of Wyoming, Philip L. Dubois, was elected chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Dr. Dubois's signature is one of the four on my UW diploma, and I used to see his face nearly everyday when I logged on to UW's Online UW website to work on my distance learning classes.

Although I haven't had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Dubois in person, his presence at UW has definitely had a positive impact on my life. Before his eight years at UW, the school's distance learning efforts were focused on traditional correspondence learning, with a smattering of site-based teleconference courses offered through a partnership with the Wyoming community colleges. In 1999, the UW Outreach School offered its first courses through Online UW. This program is what enabled me to finish my bachelor's degree. I'll always be grateful to the Dr. Dubois and the rest of the administration at UW for making the decision to charge in-state tuition rates to all Online UW students. Without affordable tuition, I may never have decided that finishing my degree was a realistic possibility.

But Dr. Dubois's tenure at the University of Wyoming was not only marked by progress at the Outreach School. Laramie's students enjoyed the benefits of improved fundraising that saw average annual giving to the school nearly triple between 1997 and 2002. UW's athletic teams enjoyed great success in the MWC (including a recent bowl victory over UCLA), and UW's campus recieved a facelift, with improvements to the libraries, a new athletics center, the Prexy's Pasture development, and more. Outside magazine named UW one of the top 40 schools (#34, to be exact) in its "Books and Backcountry" feature in the September 2003 issue.

UW also made great strides in growing its student population, finding great success with special deals offering students from nearby states tutition at 150% of in-state rates. These alumni will donate to UW for years to come, send their children to UW, and many took up permanent residence in the state.

UNCC is familiar ground for Dr. Dubois, whose last job was as a political science professor and vice-chancellor at UNCC. There is no doubt that they're pleased to see him return. UNCC is getting a capable, hard-working administrator, whose dedication to excellence will make UNCC the pride of the UNC system of schools. While UW's students and alumni regret seeing Dr. Dubois move on, we wish him and his family all the best in their new home.