Babson pre-work has arrived

OK, after a bit of confusion with my acceptance, I'm now a fully-fledged Babsonite. Or is that Babsonian? Anyway, whatever, I'm in. Yaaay!! Apparently their acceptance system doesn't like it when you exit the system before paying, it thinks you've paid but of course you haven't. So I ended up having to call and arrange for a wire transfer with PNC. The Financial Services people were very helpful.

Anyway, I've now received my pre-work binder and there's a bit of work in there. Not as much as I thought there would be based on feedback from other students, but a fair bit. The course load is apparently something like 80 hours a week for the first year. Ouch.

Anyway, I'll come back when I've made some sense of it. Cya for now.

Well, I'm enrolled (sort of)

I tried enrolling online with Babson last night. So I logged into my My Babson account, went through the links indicating acceptance and then moved on to the bit where you put your deposit down, only to find that I didn't have the US banking details I needed close to hand. So I closed the window, intending to start the process all over again. When I tried to log on again though it (the Babson system) seemed to think that my previous efforts were successful and that I'd already paid (hmm). So now I've got an email address (though it doesn't seem to work), I've got access to course listing and all sorts of things.

I think I'll need to call them tonight and sort it all out. Wouldn't do to bilk them of deposit money or anything, somehow I don't think that would go down too well.

Wallabies smash sorry Samoans 74-7

I missed the entire first half of the game because of a nightmare traffic jam that stretched all the way down Homebush Bay Drive through to Ryde Road up past Epping Road - took me an hour and 20mins to get to the stadium. Because they had no buses organised every muppet (including me) decided to drive. It took forever to get there.

By the time I got there the game was gone as a contest. Anyway, on viewing the game again I have these comments:

- Lyndon Bray was crap. His decisions were mystifying at the game and bewildering on my video replay. We were obviously the better team by a mile but his pathetic officiating detracted from our performance. The first yellow card he issued to Brian Lima was harsh, the second yellow to someone else (I forget who) was ridiculous (obviously his justification was that he'd warned the Samoans for slowing it down) and the third was for some offence I couldn't quite work out. His touch judges weren't much help either. In one example George Smith recovered a Matt Henjak kick close to the Samoa tryline with no support, the Samoan tackler got to his feet, Smith had the ball between his legs waiting for the support to arrive and the Samoan got penalised for going over the top - right in front of Bryce Lawrence (a Kiwi touch judge). I felt they were hard done by, even though they did infringe a lot, some of the calls were harsh.

- Matt Giteau had his best game in the No10 jersey, though you need to qualify it by considering the opposition he was up against. He distributed and kicked for the line well, and took the right options most of the time. He got great service from Chris Whitaker, who I seriously think should be picked ahead of George Gregan on form this year (though he won't).

- our set pieces went well, both scrum and lineout. Fatt Matt Dunning had an excellent game against two fatties even fatter than him. Good to know we have decent over and that Big Al Baxter isn't the only decent tighthead in OZ. Some problems from Jeremy Paul with his throwing as usual, but in general was good.

- Samoa's tackling was a joke. Fair enough they were a man down for most of the seconnd half but obviously their fitness levels were shot after 20 mins and they didn't put up much of a contest.

- for an Ozzie team made up of heaps of new blokes they seemed to gel pretty well. Thought Rocky Elsom had a blinder and gave us a great third option in the lineout and did some great support work, one of which resulted in his try. Mark Chisholm did alright for his start as well.

- Back three: bloody Clyde Rathbone got injured again. This bloke's worse than Medicare Mat Rogers! Chris Latham, even though he's a great ballrunner, is still a bloody HOG. He hogs the ball far too much. On three occasions tryscoring opportunities went begging because he hogged the ball. And Wendell Sailor...as I've said before, Dell is a great backrower playing in the No 11 jersey. It's good that he goes chasing for the ball, but he does so even in defence and leaves his wing unguarded! He's certainly hard to stop when he does get the ball, but his body position isn't low enough for mine when he takes it up.

- wasn't it great to see Bernie Larkham back on the paddock. Had a rusty start and gave away a try (I'm sure he wouldn't have done that in a tight Bledisloe game) but towards the end of the game it was nice to see his passes fizzing into space releasing his outsides again. The bloke's got great vision.

- Samoa tried hard but were outclassed. They were never a hope of winning but the scoreline was overly harsh on them - 40 pts was probably a more reasonable margin, rather than 70. Their kicking game was crap and they can't throw into a lineout to save their lives. Some of those throws were so far off the mark it was a joke. Still, the biggest cheer of the game was for the Samoan try.

- Disclaimer: most of the positive comments I made about the OZ need to be taken with many grains of salt due to how poor Samoa was (due in no small part to Lyndon "I Love Samoans So Much I'll Send Them Off For No Reason" Bray)

But it's not a bad start. You can only play what's in front of you and it wasn't the OZ's fault that Bray had a crap game. They took their chances well, as did the AB against Fiji. But I don't think you can read too much into either game.

Preparing for the move to Boston

Well, now that I've made a decision that it's going to be Babson, I'm starting to prepare for my eventual move to Boston. I'm guessing I'll relocate sometime around the first or second week of August. I'm hoping that I can somehow stick around until the 13th August so that I can at least go to the Bledisloe Cup, but I can't see any way I can swing that.

I've made a list of the things I need to sort out:

1. Housing
2. Laptop
3. Any prep-work courses in accounting, stats, etc.
4. Federal aid

Housing is obviously the most critical thing. I applied for campus housing and was told that I've got "more chances of going for a swim in the Charles River in winter than getting campus housing" as there's a very long waiting list. So I called a couple of realtors in Boston and the feedback was that it's not too hard to find a "decent place" in August, as while this is the time when demand for housing is greatest, it's also the time when most places become available. Of course, "decent" is entirely subjective - but I was told that for my needs (i.e. a 1BR place close to Babson, say in Newton, Wellesley, Brighton or Allston for around $1000-$1500 per month) it shouldn't be too hard.

Hmm. Will have to wait and see. I'm tossing up whether or not to go to Boston earlier to check the place out and have a look at the suburbs in question, but I don't want to waste money (and frequent flyer points) to go there only to come back to Sydney and then go again. Of course, there's the option to go there earlier, say in late July, and make sure I do my due diligence. But I'd like to spend as much time in OZ as I can, seeing as I probably won't be back to Sydney for at least 5-8 years, maybe more. I'm going to miss this place - I've been here for 18 years now, over half my lifetime. I guess it's all part of the experience of going abroad - getting out of my comfort zone and all that, look for new challenges and new experiences, meet new people.

I'm also a bit plagued with doubts - not so much with my choice, as Babson was always my first choice, but with making sure I've correctly measured the opportunity cost of turning down the BU and Indiana offers. I haven't even sent my "rejection letters" to Indiana and BU yet. I did speak to the LBS guys to tell them I was withdrawing my application - the MBA recruiter for Asia-Pac got in contact with me to see if I would change my mind, but I think I was pretty clear that I wanted a US MBA, so there was no point in keeping them hanging.

Maybe there's a tiny part of me that doesn't want to completely close my options off, though I know that Babson is the place that I want to go - I really think it's where I'm going to make the most of my education, make the most contacts, etc. I'm experiencing classic cognitive dissonance.

Laptop is kind of a minor thing, I'm not stressed about that. As for prep-work, I've got time to do that - two months worth of self-study should get me in shape. And federal aid? I'm not expecting to get anything, really, but doesn't hurt to apply.

Anyway, that's it for now. I'll be back after the Samoa game to post my thoughts on that. I'm expecting the Wobblies to win, but it will be interesting to see how this young team shapes up.

Wallaby side to play Samoa selected

Not really MBA related, but I did say I wasn't going to blog just MBA stuff, so there. The Wallaby side to play Samoa on Saturday 11th June has been selected. Here it is below:

AUSTRALIAN Team for Wallaby Test No. 440

1. Bill Young (vc)
2. Jeremy Paul
3. Matt Dunning
4. Mark Chisholm
5. Nathan Sharpe (c)
6. Rocky Elsom
7. George Smith
8. David Lyons
9. Chris Whitaker (vc)
10. Matt Giteau
11. Clyde Rathbone
12. Morgan Turinui
13. Stirling Mortlock
14. Wendell Sailor
15. Chris Latham

Reserves
Stephen Moore
Nic Henderson
Hugh McMeniman
John Roe
Matt Henjak
Stephen Larkham
Mat Rogers

23rd Man: Scott Fava

The composition of the team isn't a huge surprise, given the injury list, which includes Justin Harrison, Dan Vickerman, George Gregan, Brendan Cannon, Al Baxter and Phil Waugh, and with Lote Tuqiri out suspended for a couple of weeks. Five new caps in Chisholm, Elsom, Moore, Henderson and McMeniman.

Overall I'm reasonably happy with the squad considering the injuries - it's pretty much the squad I thought they'd pick. I didn't think Rogers did enough to unseat Latham at fullback, and I felt Elsom deserved his place over Hoiles at blindside. Jones has obviously decided to ease Larkham back into international football via the bench, so it gives us a new halfback combination in Giteau and Whitaker. It will be interesting to see how Gits goes at flyhalf with a backline of this quality outside him as he was pretty average in the Super 12 to say the least. Chisholm deserves his starting spot ahead of McMeniman, but you'd be splitting hairs there if you wanted to challenge that selection.

The most unlucky player has been Scott Fava who had a storming Super 12 and deserved to at least make the team ahead of John Roe, who has been very pedestrian in a pedestrian team. I'm also surprised at Stephen Moore's selection ahead of Adam "The Hobbit" Freier - I thought Freier had a pretty good Super 12 overall.

Anyway, it's a good strong team despite the injuries. I'll be at the game this Saturday and will post my summary afterwards.

It's going to be Babson

For my second post it's probably appropriate to quickly recant my MBA journey to date, leading up to making my decision on where to go. The link to Babson College on my links section is there for a reason - that's the B-school where I'll be heading for the next two years.

Why Babson? Well, I want my post-MBA career track to be as an entrepreneur. I'll talk about my views on entrepreneurship a bit later (it's pretty late here in Sydney), and from my research it seemed as though Babson, with its focus on entrepreneurship, just seemed like the perfect fit for me. I did get accepted to Indiana Kelley and Boston University SOM as well, and have been shortlisted for interview with London Business School (the interview is supposed to happen on Wednesday, actually), and waitlisted for Dartmouth, but I've decided to go with Babson.

In summary, this was the thought process I went through:

• Indiana Kelley - great school, proven track record in marketing and finance, majority of grads went to work in the Midwest for Fortune 500s (57% in 2004). Of the three US schools I have, it probably has the most well-organised career office. Entrepreneurship program still in relative infancy. I'm looking at working in the East or Northeast, and they didn't place too many there.

• LBS - great school, particularly if you want a truly "global" MBA. No one nationality dominates their student body. Great entrepreneurial program and access to VC firms in London, as well as consulting firms and IB (if you want to do that). In terms of prestige and pedigree it's probably the best of the bunch. But they only placed 10% of grads in the US, where I want to work. Plus I've got a Greencard that I don't want to lose. I've been putting off the INS for 10 years here in Sydney and I think I've used up all my lives - I'm sure if I went to London to study for another two years I'd lose my Greencard. Not to mention I haven't actually been accepted yet, just shortlisted for interview.

• Boston University - another great school but from my research it's not as strong an entrepreneurial school as Babson is. Stronger in finance I'd say, and has a good relationship with Wall Street (though probably not so much in IB). I kind of applied to BU as a fall-back option, but they offered me a $10K a year scholarship which was very tempting.
  

• Babson - the school's approach to learning, the innovative curriculum, the chance to meet with people who share the same spirit that I do, and the focused faculty, as well as the "fit" of the school which I feel is right for my needs - these all contributed to my reasons for making Babson my first choice. Plus Babson have also offered a scholarship ($5K a year) which sweetened the deal. My only concern was (and is) the Careers Office at Babson, which was apparently really bad in 2003-04 but has been completely restructured and should hopefully be in much better shape this year when I'm going to need it.

• Dartmouth - excellent Ivy school just outside the so-called G7 of B-schools. Small and cozy, but with a great rep for general management. Two issues though: 1) I only made it to the waitlist; and 2) it really didn't have as great a rep for entrepreneurship, venture capital or private equity.
  

Babson was always my first choice (the second was LBS, but I've since cooled on LBS as I've decided I want to work in the US). Still, it was a tough decision to make as it's all about planning for my future - which school will give me the best chance to realise my career goals? Also, it's unrealistic to expect to be able to start up a business right after graduation, so I needed to consider recruitment and placement opportunities for each of those schools. Plus, there was this little part of me which wanted my parents to be happy with the choice I made. I know that's probably irrational, but it's the way I am - I just want them to be happy with my choice.

Anyway, that's about it for tonight. I need to work out whether or not I should go through with the LBS interview. I suppose I could do it for practice, but I hate wasting people's time. I hate going through that whole facade of saying "yes, I'm really keen on your school and I really want to live and work in London, etc." when I'm actually not. But who knows - they may be able to place me in the US. But what about my Greencard? It's very important to me.

I'll sleep on it and see how I feel in the morning. But for now, it's Babson.

First post - welcome to my blog

G'day everyone. The name's OZGOD. Well, it's actually Mario Estacio, but OZGOD sounds cooler. Plus it's a pseudo I've been using online for a while now - feels sort of like me. I actually wanted Memnoch, which is another pseudo I've been using for a few years now, but some snapperhead's apparently using that already, so I missed out. Bastard.

Anyway, this is my first post, as well as my first blog. So excuse me if I'm a bit scattered and all-over-the-place, I'm sure I'll get better as I go. I'm still not sure how this all works.

So why did I start a blog anyway? Two reasons: 1) I'd never actually done one before and thought that I should keep up with the times; and 2) I'm about to embark on a journey to earn an MBA and so decided to join the millions of other sods who are recording their journeys. People can call me a copy-cat, I don't really care - I want to do it for me, so I'm doing it. Besides, it could be cool. I don't intend to blog just my MBA stuff, I'm going to blog anything I find interesting - be that cricket, rugby, or how crap the weather is in Boston, where I will shortly be moving.

So I guess that's it for now. I'll have to have a squizz around my blog and find out what I actually can/cannot do. I think there's somewhere I can put my profile in, so I won't bore myself with putting it in here.

So, cheerios for now. Tomorrow I'll see if I can post some info on what B-School I actually picked, as well as why. Laters...