I'm a Smurf!

After deliberation and careful analysis of the situation- it's official.

I am going to be a Smurf.

Michael G. Smurfit School of Business at the University College of Dublin has accepted me for the 2005/2006 MBA class.



I guess my head is still a little reeling- it's been a very intriguing process how it all came to pass.

I applied to 4 schools this year- and got into all of them- I heard from Surrey immediately and was offered a position in mid December. I heard from Bradford and Strathclyde in the same day both of them giving me conditional offers dependent on them receiving my transcripts at Bradford, and a successful interview with one of the professors at Strath.

All through this- I never heard a peep from University College of Dublin.

So- I ultimately accepted the Strath offerand I thought that was the end of it until about a month or so later. I received an email:

“Your application has been successful through stage of the process. It will now begin stage two. Please respond with a time to call you.”

I thought “Well- there's no harm in hearing what they have to say…” and a couple of days later I chatted with someone there- and the next day I got an email saying that my application has been successful…

Successful huh? You don't say…

Anyways- I spent the next 2 months trying to decide which was a better choice for me- they were both my top choices going in. In the end- I emailed some recent grads from both schools and it was totally put into perspective for me.

The grad who is a marketing manager for a huge fortune 50 company now in Toronto said that she didn't have much trouble finding a job after she came back- which I would ideally like to do.

She put it in the perspective that an employer is looking to hire a newly minted MBA. She has 21 resumes in front of her- 10 from Rotman, 10 from Ivey and 1 from the University College of Dublin. Automatically- UCD will stand out as adventurous, and creative and daring. Throw “Good looking” in there too- and that describes me to a "T".

Also- UCD just has a more recognizable name. Strathclyde could be a Community College for all the prospective employer knows. Strathclyde most certainly is NOT a Community College- it's good name is just more centralized in Europe and UK.

So- Now everyone keeps asking “When are you leaving? When are you leaving?” and the answer is: Early September.

In the meantime- I'll work hard, get a tan, run, do yoga, read, see my beady eyed friend (and all my other friends) and live passionately- because that's what a good MBA does.