Decision Time is Near

I'm in New York right now. The wife and I came out last Friday (on the red eye, which I don't recommend). She left tonight, but I'm here until Friday for work. I'm glad the wife could come out on such short notice; I found out about this trip 4 days before I left. We managed to get the trip scheduled, and we left Friday after spending the previous weekend in Tahoe. I also spent Wednesday in San Francisco, so I have had my fill of planes lately (although traveling so much has some benefits). The funniest woman in the world had enough miles for her ticket out her, and we used some of my miles to upgrade to first class. Neither of us slept well on the plane, and we actually arrived early--landing at JFK at 4:45 AM. The taxi stand wasn't even open, but when we finally caught a cab, we were surprised to find the hotel had our room ready.

After crashing until 11, we left to explore the city ... and felt like we stepped into Chicago! Saturday was c-o-l-d, and the 30 mph+ winds didn't help at all. After jumping from coffee shop to bar to coffee shop (and missing SoHo by a block), we found a restaurant for dinner on the Lower East Side. We moved on to a bar called the Grape & Grain, which was my favorite bar here. Small and unpretentious, we enjoyed sparkling wine and excellent Chimay beer while receiving tips on city life from the brothers that own the place. We made two more stops (I think), which included meeting a dead ringer for Adam Goldberg and a $43 round of drinks at the W. Sunday morning was rough, but we had an appointment to look at some apartments. On the whole, the apartments were better than expected, especially one at Central Park West and 94th. It may be just a tad too far north, but the separate kitchen and park views had us considering a deposit.

Coincidentally, last week, I received an offer to interview at NYU Stern, which was my final interview for graduate school. Unfortunately, the interview could not have gone better--which makes my decision even tougher. Previously, university of Chicago GSB had been my top choice, but after hearing about possible "attitude problems" and "entitlement gates," I began looking at Columbia more seriously. I have always wanted to attend Columbia; my wife even reminded me that I had looked into transferring to Columbia from ASU during my Freshman year. NYU was an afterthought, a safety school (despite its top 10 ranking). I felt that it lacked something special. My interview and tour completely changed that. The building that houses the MBA program at NYU is new and beautiful (not as new as the Hyde Park Center in Chicago, but newer nonetheless). Comparatively, walking into Columbia Business School felt like walking into a public high school--it was dark and run-down, with lockers bolted in as an afterthought. With the exception of the technology equipment, the classrooms probably looked the same when my uncle attended Columbia in 1970 - 72.

As it stands, I think I rank the schools 1. Columbia


2. NYU


3. Chicago.


I'm not sure what part of that is that by attending Columbia, we would live on the Upper West Side, which the wife and I liked as a neighborhood. Columbia also has an amazing campus (and it's Ivy League), whereas NYU's campus is very urban with no central facilities. The programs' strengths are similar, and I imagine the contacts and job opportunities are similar as well. I should know whether I'm accepted to NYU within 2 weeks, and probably slightly longer for Columbia and Chicago. The admissions officer from NYU asked me today how I would decide between programs if I'm accepted to more than one. I made up some answer that sounded good (and that she probably saw right through), but the real answer is: I don't know.