Losing sleep over B-school research.. :-(

Yes, the title is a blatant lift from one of the blogs that I read recently, but what can I do when this exactly is my state these days.. Day and night, B-school research is all that I’m doing..I don’t remember when I worked so hard (office deadlines excluded) Not for my GMAT.. Not for my job interviews And surely not in the four years of my engineering.. The last I remember laboring dedicatedly for something was during my engineering entrance preps. What all am I doing?? Blog-hopping, Reading articles on clear-admit, Visiting school websites ,mailing current students and perhaps most importantly introspection..
Updates so far::
1)Mailed some current students and successful applicants from last year.. Got replies from ppl from Darden,Chicago GSB, Haas and Kelly.. Time for some hard facts:: Profile is gud, but schol not a surety.. And even if I get it, it may not be sufficient for living expenses.. And visa issues are surely bugging people overthere.. Good to know that international exposre counts, but lack of it won’t hit you.. The Haas guy especially advised me not to defer my apps for a year just for international exposure.. Also changing fields does not appear to be that big an issue if u r able to leverage ur experience properly.. In the words of tha Haas-guy, ” Howmuch of your BE content is useful now? Howmuch of your java skills will be useful in 5 years from now? What counts is your ability to transfer skills from one career to the other.. ” Surely thought-provoking..
Another gud news is that there’re certain Govt of India grants for studies abroad.. Have to look for the same..
2) Talked with an MBA colleague:: This guy’s leaving my company tomorrow..He has done a part-time MBA from a reputed Indian institute, but has done his part of research on International MBA.. He suggested me to keep my options open and not restrict my self to tech-domain. As he guessed it right, one of the reasons most of Indian IT guys go for an MBA is that they’re not very happy about their work.. Then why to restrict one’s options to a place where u were not that much happy.. You can excel only when u like what u do.. else u’ll be at best just making a living..
Man, experience surely talks.. Points noted, Boss!!
3) Started looking at essays:: No, Have not started writing my essays as of now.. But have started looking at the app-essays of various schools.. It may look a bit strange, but I’ve kept the essay Qs as one of the criteria for my B-school selections.. Actually I personally feel that the essay Qs can give u at least a bit of idea about the school’s openness for the low-experience guys like me. For example, a look at Sloan’s essays were enough for me to know that the school demands strong managerial experience.. A low work-ex guy like me doesnt stand taht much a chance.. On the other hand Chicago and Haas looked relatively more realistic..

Other updates::

• Have started making blog-friends.. Networking is essential for this infinite B-school research..

• Got lots of hard-copies of brochures now (Had requested them 7-8 weeks back) Surely iday was right when he said thatthe hard-copies have their effect.

• Became a part of Hella’s list ( A yellow pages for MBA bloggers)