All of the information I gathered confirmed that the MBA's value would be greatly enhanced if I attended a top school. So I narrowed my search to within the top 20, using resources like Business Week's Guide to the Best Business Schools. I wanted a strong finance school with an international focus, ranked in the top tier, with good career placement prospects. After doing more research in college guides, analyzing both the Business Week and U.S. News & World Report rankings, and reading through school literature, I decided that three schools most closely matched my requirements: London Business School, NYU, and Columbia.

I picked LBS because it was the strongest international program that offered a traditional two-year MBA, and was highly rated in finance. I also chose NYU and Columbia because they were both top schools in New York City -- where I currently live (at least for the time being, anyway) -- and I had an opportunity to have my tuition covered by my firm. To get a better feel for what the programs were like, I attended several informational seminars. The first seminar I attended was hosted by LBS in Manhattan, where prospective applicants were given a presentation, and then Q&A sessions were conducted by the dean and faculty. I later attended sessions at Columbia and NYU. To be blunt, I felt the informational school sessions were all very similar in style. One issue that did stick out in my mind, however, was that LBS had high-level faculty conducting their seminars.

When I was delving more deeply into the profiles of admitted candidates, I realized that most had three to four years of work experience under their belts. During the LBS information session, I had the opportunity to speak in person with members of the admissions faculty, as well as the dean at the time, George Bain (he has since been replaced by John Quelch). After hearing my details, he gave me some very direct advice and told me to hold off applying until I had a few more years of work experience.

After some reflection, I decided to heed his advice. I knew that I should wait a few years longer until I more closely fit the profile that the schools were looking for. I turned my attention back to work, where I had some good opportunities for professional growth. In retrospect, I'm actually very happy that I did hold off applying to garner more experience because, put simply, there are things that you can only learn on the job. The skills I picked up in dealing with people, for example, were invaluable. Most of the things I learned -- specifically, dealing with conflict and improving productivity -- came directly from observing how my higher-ups operated. The way they rewarded good performers and encouraged those who were underperforming taught me how to handle similar situations. In short, there's no substitute to learning on the job.

So, I held off applying to B-school during the 1995-96 and 1996-97 school years. It was only this last winter (1997-98) that I decided to go for it. Even then, I was very tempted not to apply. Professionally, things were going very well, and it looked like I could have some real vertical growth within the company. I procrastinated a while, weighing the pros and cons, and finally came to the decision that getting an MBA was a no-lose situation.

Today's application process is very different even from when I first started researching schools in 1995. If you use the Internet search engines as tools (like Yahoo, Excite, or Altavista), you'll find a wealth of information on B-schools simply by typing their name and the word "MBA." You can even apply online, using CollegeEdge.com. I had kept track of the three schools that I had picked back in 1995 and decided to apply to them. I used E-mail extensively to contact admissions staff, students, and even professors that I had met along the way.

By the time I started the application process, it was already the middle of January. I wouldn't be finished anytime soon. I had procrastinated a great deal, partly due to the yearend projects at work and the new workload at the beginning of the year. I've heard that the chances of getting in drop from 1 out of 10 in January, to 1 out of 50 in March. So, I knew my chances were already greatly diminished, but I decided that if I didn't gain acceptance, I would use the experience as a "trial run" and try again early the next year. I had nothing to lose.

To compensate for the time crunch, I decided to do my applications using software from MBA Multi-App. I no longer owned a typewriter and wondered how someone without a computer would struggle through the process. The essays were the most time-intensive in a time-intensive process. I'd recommend to anyone who thinks about applying to start very early -- in September. You should force yourself to spend a good deal of time on the essays, no matter how long your workday has been. Most of the essays were similar, in that they were trying to get to know who you were, but they were different enough that you had to sit down and write something original for each one. I made sure to write mine in a down-to-earth style and got most of the work done by the middle of February. Getting transcripts also delayed me a bit. Word to the wise: You have to be able to organize and time these self-managed applications well, I was obviously failing at that particular task. Finally, I sent out the applications and was ready to contact ETS to have them send out my 1995 GMAT scores.

However, now I had one more dilemma. Should I retake the GMAT? I had done pretty well the first time (I scored a 680), but every school's average GMAT had jumped, and selectivity was rising every year. I also wanted to compensate for my average GPA (a 3.1 after taking a lot of replacement courses). Time was almost out, but I decided to schedule the GMAT once more anyway. It was now a computer-adaptive test, but there was much more flexibility in scheduling the exam (you have 250 days of the year to schedule your test on the CAT, as opposed to just four days when it was paper-based). I called for an appointment to take the test, and the dates that were available were either at the end of February or the second week of March. The schools all had deadlines in March, so I couldn't afford to wait that long. Without an alternative option, I scheduled the test for four days later, grabbed a practice book, and started taking practice tests during work and in the evenings. I took the GMAT at the end of February, and hoped that the scores would all arrive by the middle of March.

I liked the computer-adaptive GMAT much better than the paper-based version. The test was consolidated into three sections: Essays, Math, and English. I was very comfortable with the way Math and English were consolidated into only two sections -- the old GMAT was broken into many separate sections. I was very fast at some sections (like reading comprehension), whereas I barely finished other sections in time. Having these subsections consolidated made it much easier for me to answer every question. I didn't feel a time pressure anymore, and this must have helped me since I scored considerably higher (a 730) this go-around without very much preparation. The weekend after I took the test, I decided to send out two more applications to schools that I felt had strong programs. I didn't want to apply to any "safe" schools, since their value was limited. The last two schools I applied to were Wharton and Fuqua (Duke). Unfortunately, I had to skimp on their applications (can you say "cut and paste"!); I finished them in about a day and sent them out, the transcripts to follow that week. It was very refreshing to have the applications done and not have anything weighing on my mind. Completing the actual applications is probably the hardest part of the whole process.

Having applied to five schools, I next set out to sit down for the interviews. Wharton's came first, and it went smoothly. I felt pretty comfortable, and they asked no trick questions over the course of my half-hour meeting. I think they were just trying to get a handle on who I was. Next came Fuqua, where I was told I was one of the last students to interview for the year. There was a tour of the school, a classroom audit, and a lunch break, where I was able to have a good amount of interaction with current students. The interview, however, did not go as well as it could have. The interviewer asked me why I wanted to go to Fuqua, and I had no real answer (aside from the program's ranking). The interviewer obviously picked up on that. Then came NYU, a very nice environment (I already liked it since I live right next door). The people were very friendly, and the interview went very well. Columbia did not invite me for an interview: I just assumed they had lost my application in the mail. ;-).

Just when I thought the process was over, I received word from LBS that they had invited me to interview. A bit different than other schools, LBS schedules a full interview day, which they call a "selection conference," for all the students that they short-list. There was an interview session being held in New York, but I was too late for that one. But there were also two more scheduled, one at the end of May, and one in June, both in London. I wasn't about to delay, so I responded to the one in May and booked my flight.

When the selection conference finally arrived, I found about 40 other students there vying for the same class spots as me. We were all immediately depressed when one of the conference administrators announced that there weren't many places left and that most students selected would probably be waitlisted.

We were first broken up into teams and were all required to read a case study, which involved advising a food-services company with its plans for multinational expansion. The individual groups were then told to discuss the case, while being observed by the interview panel. It was quite a different experience than any of the other schools. Then, we were taken on a tour and also had Q&A sessions with students and faculty. Finally, we each had an interview with the panel. I'm not sure how the case discussion was received or how much impact it had, but my interview went extremely well. (I advise prospective students to speak out during the interview. Don't hold back any thoughts or make yourself seem hesitant to talk. MBA applicants have to show that they can communicate effectively. In my opinion, a passive applicant is going to get rated poorly on the interview.)

The other applicants at the selection conference were very highly qualified, and I didn't think my chances of getting into LBS were very good. After returning to New York, I called the school as a thank-you gesture, and that's when I found out that I had been offered a place in the class of 2000. I was extremely excited, as my colleagues at work can attest!

I had already received a thumbs-down from Wharton; Fuqua was going to send me a decision in the beginning of June; and I still hadn't heard a peep out of Columbia. It was just NYU and LBS.

I weighed all the pros and cons all over again, asking myself whether it made sense to get an MBA. To get me to stay, some colleagues had used the analogy of Michael Jordan switching from basketball to baseball. They asked me if I would be able to make the career switch and still be as good. Other practical concerns also weighed on my mind, such as the loss of salary. How much more expensive would it be to do the MBA in London as opposed to a top program in the States? What did recruiters in the U.S. think about LBS? Expense turned out to be equivalent to the other B-schools that I had applied to. I already knew how highly the school was regarded in Europe, so I talked to recruiters at some global banks in New York to ask their opinion. They all had very high opinions of the school. After three days of back-and-forth, I decided to accept the LBS offer. The most important reason I chose to go to LBS, was for the international experience. Living in Europe would be a huge learning and broadening experience. There's no telling where this will lead. I'm gaining the overseas experience, contacts, and multilingual skills that most large companies are now requiring of their senior management.