[General] What is your clan spread?

Thanks to Sepia Mutiny I came across this site http://www.gens-us.net/ If you type in your last name, it will give you a map showing the distribution of your clan (clan <=> last name) across the various American states.

The pic on the left is my clan spread. As expected we are pretty under-represented. I think they only use citizens and/or permanent residents to generate this map. So I don't show up on this.

[MBA] Wharton says - so long sucker

So Wharton has snagged the privilege of delivering me my 1st ding. Wharton was a stretch school for me, so am not surprised. But ding without interview - Ouch!

I have always maintained that Wharton has the most humane applying process. All decisions on one day instead of the drip, drip chinese water torture of some schools. All interview invites within one month instead of the marathons of some schools. So no hard feelings. Just a punctured ego.

[MBA] Wharton offers a peek into the future

The one day you are not obsessive about your MBA app status something actually does happen. Apparently due to a technical glitch, many people were able to see their dinged status on their Wharton account last night. Using the s2s boards as the sole indicator, this window lasted from about 7pm ET to about 9am ET. The problem has since been fixed. Every night before going to bed I religiously check all the discussion boards. Last night was not one of them. So there goes my chance to put the Wharton thingie to rest before schedule. My application went complete a gazillion years ago. So my chances of getting an interview invite now are pretty minimal. But early closure would have been good.

[MBA] Differentiate this

If you want to explicitly hear an admissions officer say how strong your application is, get yourself put on a waitlist. Had my Tuck waitlist review. Even here the stumbling block seems to be 'differentiation'. Surprisingly no direct mention was made of Tuck love or lack thereof in my application. In a way it's good. Both the schools who have waitlisted me encourage additional materials and both want me to differentiate myself. So less effort for me.

We went through the various aspects of my application (essays, work exp, recommendation etc.) Most of my application components, including - surprise - the interview, fell into the 'good/great/strong' category. I don't read too much into adjectives like these as they are thrown around with such abandon. I did however, learn a thing or two about my application during this review. Apparently my academics are 'extremely strong'. And I was worrying myself silly about my undergrad gpa. My work experience at X is 'interesting'. Well, thats an interesting choice of words. Had the lady not been so friendly I would have thought she was being sarcastic.

I haven't talked about recommendations too much here. Doesn't mean that I have not worried myself sick about them. Both my recommenders are engineers, not given to hyperbole and I didn't do any recommender management whatsoever. When I went to ask for recommendations, this is how the conversation went

Me - I am applying to business schools. Can you give a recommendation?
Recommender - Sure, why not.
Me - I hope it'll be strong. (self-deprecating laugh)
Recommender - Yeah sure.
Me - (awkward silence followed by hasty exit)

So it was a relief to know that the recommendations fell in the 'great' category.

[General] Me too

When I started reading Bschool blogs around mid 2005 something called tagging was going on. I never quite understood the concept. Was it an online version of something which happens in the real world? It was interesting anyway to read people's choices of books. This year the tagging includes a much longer list, so it's even more interesting to read. But Ash had to interrupt my lurking and push me out onto the stage :)

So here goes.

Four jobs I've had in my life:
Teaching Assistant
Instructor
Personal Tutor
Engineer
Everything related to software/programming/computer science - yawn

Four movies I can watch over and over:
O Brother, Where Art Thou? - I still don't understand why I like this movie so much
Sholay - No self-respecting Indian should leave this off the list :)
Padosan - More for nostalgic reasons than anything else
Matrix (II, III) with subtitles on - So that I can finally get it!

Four places I have lived:
Boulder, CO
Madison, WI
Kanpur, India
Rourkela, India

Four TV shows I love to watch:
Raymond - An example of acquired taste
Seinfield - Appeals to the inner stoner in me
Colbert Report - Bill O'Reilly pisses me off so much that Colbert's take is more fun that it should be
No I didn't flunk elementary school math, I am more of a channel flipper than a faithful tv watcher.

Four places I have been on vacation:
Redstone, CO
Rapid City, SD
Yellowstone
Chandipur, India

Four of my favourite dishes:
No name - baked potato, fish and a killer sauce (wife's concoctation)
Don't know english name - some sort of spinach and mashed fish
Mutton curry
Fried chicken at an obscure joint near Rapid City, SD

Four websites I visit daily:
Businessweek - someone please save me from this addiction
Sepia Mutiny - a blog for Indians not in India
Unstrung - for wireless geeks
Hella - fellow bloggers

Four places I would rather be right now:
Anyplace with a sea and without net connection

Four bloggers I am tagging:
All the bloggers I 'know' have already been tagged. So I'll pass on this.