Clearly...

...I suck at blogging. I keep forgetting to post. My apologies. I think this will probably be a pretty lengthy post as a few things have happened since January.

1) I've completed both my FAFSA and CollegeBoard profile. Stanford requires both. Duke requires FAFSA and a word document. The CollegeBoard profile was another $23 to complete. Stanford's suggested filing date was Feb. 18 so that we could receive fellowship info prior to having to commit on April 1. I was pleasantly surprised by our government - I submitted my FAFSA on 2/17/05 to the feds, and it was sent to Stanford's financial aid office on the 18th. A few things that I learned in this process.

• If you plan to submit your FAFSA electronically, you'll need to request a PIN. This takes several days to receive via email. Why I don't know but you'll want to request that early.
• Nothing is safe. Money in trusts, stock options- everything will be held against you.
• That Estimated Annual Contribution is a joke.

2) This past weekend I attended Admit Weekend and the 22nd Annual Black Business School Association Conference at the Stanford GSB. Definitely had a wonderful time and met some incredible people. Here's a break down by day.

• Friday night was the BBSA's LPF (Liquidity Preference Function- PC for Happy Hour). One thing that I appreciated was that even though this function was sponsored by the BBSA, other ethniticies were well represented.
• Saturday was the BBSA conference. The keynote speaker was John Thompson, CEO of Symantec and also my fellow Florida A&M alum. Mr. Thompson was an extremely dynamic speaker and entertaining as well. There were panels on entrepreneurship as well as managing and directing your career. Admit Weekend officially kicked off Sunday evening, with a Welcome LPF in the courtyard of the Schwab Residential Center. And that evening we were off to Blue Chalk and a party sponsored by the International Club for dancing and more drinking.
• Sunday morning's first event was a Welcome Brunch. The most interesting thing was learning about the people in our class. Without saying names, Derrick briefly listed some of the accomplishments of our fellow admits and some of the more humorous recommendations that had been received - "good leadership is like pornography - I know it when I see it!".
• Monday morning was a bit more serious, with breakfast at the GSB Courtyard, a study group, and a core class immersion. We'd been given a case several weeks ago to prepare, and my case was on Seven Eleven Japan. My class was lead by Professor Seungjin Whang who teaches supply chain at the GSB. Definitely hoping to have him as a professor at some point in my GSB career. He was excellent! Very entertaining and extremely knowledgable. Of course, we had one final LPF before we left on Monday afternoon.

I'm sure I've left off a few of the events of the weekend, but I have to say that I was sad about leaving so many of the people that I met. I feel as though we've bonded already. Duke's Blue Devil Weekend is after the Stanford's reply deadline, so I'm hoping maybe I can go down and visit one more time before 4/1. Until next time...