News from Kellogg

Exactly 1 month to go for my first application submission deadline and i get this minor setback from the Kellogg AdComm. Nothing big really, but i was hoping this would never happen. I was trying to waive my TOEFL requirement off from Kellogg and after one painfully long month of deliberation, the AdComm representative today quoted the exact phrases in their website and said "Please take the test" :)

The whole experience has really been bad because of the following reasons:

1. Kellogg is the only school in my list which requires me to take TOEFL. I qualify for a waiver at all other schools.
2. I knew this by the time i sent them a mail asking for a waiver. If they were very rigid about their rules, they need not have taken one long month to inform me of the same again. This could have been done immediately.
3. The person who picked my mail when i sent it long back asked me to fax my resume and went on a vacation for two weeks. I promptly fax the resume, send a confirmation mail and i get a "Out on vacation" mail. This delayed the process by atleast two weeks. I have no rights to crib about the person going on a vacation. But if you are going on a vacation, why pick the mail and add it to your to-do list???
4. And after the person returned, i still had to wait for two weeks to get informed about stuff on their website. I was first told the resume i faxed could not be found. Luckily i had also mailed the resume. Unluckily - they had problems opening the document and i was asked to resend it. Luckily i was online by this time and i sent the resume again in about 5 mins. And then i had to wait for 10 days to send a reminder to get to know the fate of my waiver request.
5. I will be able to submit Part I of the Kellogg application only after i get done with TOEFL.
   

I hope this doesn't come out as a post cribbing about why i should have got a waiver. This is not about that. This post is about how this whole thing could have been done better, and more importantly, faster! Now i am in a position where i have to hunt for a suitable date, prepare for the test and crack it. It doesn't need much in terms of preparation i accept, but i gotta get into the test taking mood again and the deadlines are nearing.

Even as i am typing this mail, i get more news from Kellogg. For my recent query, the AdComm just confirmed that they will accept Self-Reported scores for the TOEFL test to start processing my application. This means that i can schedule a test even in early October and still submit my application for R1. Well, i want to now figure a date which is not to soon and not too late :) I really like everything i hear about this school and i really want to apply in R1. So I'm glad that it is still possible.

But as i mentioned above, i need to find some time out of the application stuff to finish the test. Just checked the TOEFL Sampler and the questions and the test in general look pretty easy. Hope it remains the same and i sail thru this test comfortably and get to work on the Apps again.

Speaking of working on the apps, i started working on my Harvard essay and all i could do was to review and rework on one essay. I got obsessed with TOEFL and spent all the time on it. Anyway - if this has to be done, this has to be done.