An Outlet - Part 9

24 March, 2022.

Today morning, mom and I went to the market to get some Banking work done, exchange mom's book at the library and also buy some inner wear that I've been meaning to buy for a while.

I also wanted to try out the online shopping route so I ended up buying 2 pieces from an app. Hope it fits me well.

Mom and I spoke at length about my B school dilemma and even if I am not close to a decision, it does feel better to not contemplate this alone.

There is a popular B school in my town but I have recieved an offer from one of their northern campuses. However, candidates seem to have an option of taking a campus transfer to any other campus apart from the main one. I do not care for the northern campus but there is another one just outskirts of my town that I may be interested in joining.

Now as good as the institute's overall reputation is, they're admission process has been a big confusing mess. We've dealt with site crashes and lack of communication before and looks like that wasn't the end of it. A couple of days back, they had sent us a mail vaguely saying that the transfer form will open on 25th and candidates have to secure their seats as per the first merit list.

Now by secure, do you mean just accepting the first offer or also paying lakhs of rupees for it. A lot of students interpreted the latter. But that's still a lot of amount to put into a course just as a buffer. There was absolutely no reply to the emails and tickets that I had raised for this issue and it's been 5 days since.

Today, I managed to get through to their helpline no and the person was of absolute no help to me. She didn't have an answer to any of the questions I asked, nothing whatsoever for me to actually understand how they're handling the process. Thankfully, I was adamant enough to not accept her replies.

She ultimately put me through to her senior and I finally got my answers. I would've made a big mistake had I not made this call. Apparently, it is not compulsory to pay the fees for the course you've currently been offered, in order to apply for a transfer. I made sure to confirm this multiple times and I hope they stick to it.

One of the main reasons why this B school dilemma was stressing me out these past couple of days was that today was the last day to pay the first offer fee and I had very less time to decide where I wanted to put my money. And again, that's a ton of money we're talking about.

Thankfully, I can explore my options in a more relaxed manner for at least a few more days.

I spoke to Kristen while getting ready for and going to college in the evening. She has her final interview for this season this Saturday. It's the main one for her for multiple reasons

A] It's her No. 1 target B school
B] It in general is an amazing B school
C] It's her only interview that is offline
D] Unlike other interviews, this one has a group exercise round as well
E] She has been preparing for this since last year

For her prep, she mostly goes to cafes cause she can concentrate more when she's out of the house. But when it gets too much, she calls me or some other friend for a distraction. And I'm glad to help. I really really want her to get into this college. That'll be the best news in a while!

So I spoke to her until I reached college and then got engrossed in an interesting Corporate Finance lecture. I don't have a compulsion to attend this course cause there is a really high chance that I might leave it once I decide and actually start with the MBA/PGDM program. However, I realise that I do miss being in a classroom and for those 2 hours that I'm there in class, I'm actually able to concentrate. I'm longing to change myself back to the dedicated person I was who was able to study/work for hours at a stretch.

On my way back home, I spoke to Kristen's school friend who started her MBA journey last year from another B school in the city. She gave her opinion about the B schools I have converted and upon hearing a specific one, actively advocated for me to keep it on the top of my list.

Alex is also busy with his internship/job search. He's been getting a lot of call backs for interview and even moving forward to other rounds. I'm glad that there is so much movement now and hope that he secures one soon enough.

It's 2AM now and I am currently sitting in the middle of a LOT of clothes. I have been wanting to purge some clothes from my wardrobe before I start buying new ones. I have done some purging before as well but the clothes still remain in the same wardrobe either cause I don't take the time to find out where to donate them or mom keeps them because "they still fit".

Since my last two purging sessions, I have made it a point to remove clothes if I feel like I will never choose to wear it. I am doing more of that today and have decided to stuff them in Alex's wardrobe so I can feel like I need to and have space to store more clothes.

I don't know when I'll finish but I plan to get at least 90% done before I sleep.