hey
albo
let me use an analogy. Admissions (and any interview, really) is like the beginning of a love story. I use this as an example because you can ask many girls out in a month, but you can only apply to programs once a year (granted, you're applying to them simultaneously, but that's another story). So hopefully you've already practiced asking girls out, and some of those philosophies / techniques will be applicable.
Let's say you see a cute girl on Facebook. There are three possible actions
1) You click "add friend." In this case, she'll have access to some of your public information and she can decide whether she wanna be your friend. She knows she's hot, and she gets 8283102+ creeps messaging her everyday. Sure, you may pay her an application fee to have your profile read. Are you good looking? No. Are you too young/old? Maybe. Having no previous experience / contact with you, she can only "objectively" evaluate you against all other applicants. So if you're good looking and wealthy (in this case, perfect 4.0 + target school + blue chip w/e), you can probably get 90% of the ladies out there. But if your'e not, then you're just not her cup of tea.
2) You don't click "add friend." Instead, you hire a private investigator to find out everything about her. Where does she go to school? What classes does she take? What coffee shop does she go to? What music does she listen to? What past / current bf does she have and what kind of guy does she usually like? Sure that's a bit creepy, but in finance terms that's "research" and "due diligence." Then one day, you swing by said coffee shop in a crowded afternoon and you politely ask her if you could share table since everywhere else is taken. You gently take out her favorite book from your bag, and you complement her choice of ringtone from Metallica. You show genuine interest in her, and you crack some jokes to make her laugh. When you're about to run out of cool things to say, pick up your phone and tell her that you have to run. You have a great time with her, and you wonder if there's any chance she'll be willing to continue your conversation later. She may or may out give you her number (like you don't have it already), but you just might get her email / see her logging onto quantnet.
3) Do nothing. Certain dreams are just not meant to be. She was gonna be an actress. She was gonna gonna be a star. She was gonna shake her *bleep*. On the hood of a white snake car. And you're just not gonna have a chance with her given your existing look and bank account. You can move on and later make a
music video about it, or you can push your luck and risk being put on her block list (or being identified on campus...) One of the best admissions advice I've been given was that my GPA was simply too low for the cutoff, and it helped me tremendously in re-evaluating my options and strengths. Knowing yourself and your competitive advantages will be one of your best asset in career planning. It's less about what you "want" to do and more about what you're GOOD at. Everyone loves a winner. Be a winner (in whichever discipline you choose).
Bringing it back to graduate admissions. We all want to get into those target programs, and we all have some blemishes on our record. Maybe you withdrew due to a family tragedy or your gf simply cheated. Either way, admissions is a new girl and she's here to listen to your story. If a shortcoming is so blatantly shown on your transcript, address it head on and outline your growth over the year. Girls like reformed sinners a lot more than sleazy liars with something to hide.
