Taiwizzle

I’ve been in Taipei since yesterday. Very cool town. If I were to describe it I would say it’s a very toned down China. Same food, but a cleaner place in general. Not as many people yelling in your ear.

Got in yesterday evening and only had time to hit the night market. Okay, maybe they yell at you there, “Irasshaimase!!” Yes, Japanese for me. But the food is great and CHEAP. Today hit the breakfast buffet then prepped for my b-school interview with the University of Washington. Finished that up and came back to the hotel. Jumped on an afternoon tour that ended up being just me. The tour guide was really interesting. His name was “Jack” and he said he was 65 and was a farmer by trade. Dude got sent to the US, which is how he learned English, at the age of 18 in some farmer exchange program. Also ended up going to the Philippines to work on some farms over there. Jack took me to a 5 places in the city including the Chiang Kai-Shek memorial which had a cool changing of the guard ceremony. He also ran into his grandson there. Totally random.

Afterwards I went to dinner with some of old coworkers from my previous company. First time to meet them. Lots of fun and they even bought me dinner. Resting at the hotel at the moment. Possible nightlife run late night.

I had a lot of MBA activity over the last week. Last Friday I had an interview with University of Texas. UT gives you two options – on-campus or off. I interviewed with an alum currently working in Tokyo. He was young (younger than me) and very laid back despite having a CPA and MBA. It was a very casual talk that I think went well. Hopefully that will convince the admissions committee.

That same night I had dinner w/ the Associate Director of Admissions at Maryland/Smith. I’m already in so it was more or less dinner with him giving me more reasons why I should go to his school. The talk went well except the fact that I took him to a restaurant that had really small portions of food. It was nice to feel wanted though. He mentioned that there is an accepted students weekend on March 6 which I am considering going to.

Today I had an interview with the Director of Admissions at University of Washington/Foster School of Business. One thing I’ve learned from experience and all the MBA forums I read is that the admissions staff interviews are much more structured than the interviews with alumni. This was no different. I think I did OK, but I wish I asked more questions at the end of the interview. I asked three and it seemed like an abrupt ending. Hopefully I am wrong.

So here’s the tally at the moment:

Maryland - IN
Texas – Interview finished. Should hear back within a month of February 5.
UWash – Interview finished. The admissions staff said I should hear back right before their self-imposed deadline of March 26, 2010.
Duke – Did not receive an invite to interview and not placed on the waitlist so 80% chance a rejection here.
Hawaii – Got an e-mail last week from admissions saying they didn’t receive my transcript despite all my other transcripts arriving. Asked them to please look again and waiting to hear back.
USC – Still waiting to hear that all my documents have been received. They say they will notify candidates of final decisions by April 1.

Heading back to Tokyo tomorrow. AY’s leaving dinner, glitterball, mom and pop will be in town, bowling party… looks like a busy but fun week.