Last week I scanned my transcript onto my Mac and sent it to my work e-mail. I read the directions on the Cornell website for scanning a transcript and followed all the instructions. I scanned it at 72dpi (very low) and the file was huge (7MB). I inserted the file into a Word Document, at work, and saved the resulting file. The applicant instructions told me that I could not upload a file larger than 500Kb, but after saving the Word doc, mine is still 5MB! What, what, what! (In my best Mrs. Broflovski voice) I called Cornell and they told me that I could just e-mail it to my admissions manager and he would add it to my file. I called Dartmouth and spoke with a techie that gave me somethings to try out before sending it to them in an e-mail. I haven’t called NYU yet, but it will probably have to be e-mail as well.
The Dartmouth tech guy told me that this is their first year using the system and they were afraid that something like this would occur. My question is: Am I an idiot? Did anyone else have this trouble? Did I unknowingly purchase the greatest scanner on earth, that only produces super high res images (or the worst one that simply creates unmanageably large files)? Thank God that the admissions people have been very cool about this so far because I would have no idea what to do if they made me upload this.
I am heading to Dartmouth this weekend for the class visit/tour/interview. I have been prepping for the interview by taking a look at the Clear Admit Wiki for Tuck Interviews. The questions all seem to have common themes that are reflected throughout each interview, even if they are asked in different ways. I am going to prep on Saturday with a Tuck specialist who should be able to add some value to my responses. When I get back on Tuesday I will post all about it, so be on the lookout for that.
On a somewhat related note, today is Leif Ericson day. So, good for him…tell all of your Nordic friends thanks for colonizing! Look at this picture of him, a man like him would get into B-School. I bet he could talk all day about leadership…
Filed under: Randomness, Schools | Tagged: Dartmouth |
Confessions of an MBA Applicant 
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Yes, you can generally compress PDFs to get much smaller file sizes. The key is to scan as a PDF though, not a picture.
I’m sure the Dartmouth guy was just being nice, and snickered after you got off the phone 😉
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I had the same problem and Tuck asked me to self report the transcript. If you need Tuck’s self report format, let me know. They mailed it to me in an excel sheet.
Tuck interview – clearadmit wiki is good and pretty much covers what is asked. The interviews are very casual, so dont stress. Beware of the parking tho. Just park outside Tuck and call the parking guys to register your car. They prefer you park on the Dewey field lot and take the shuttle, but I had a bad experience there.
Good luck with Tuck! (hey, that rhymes!)
Randy – He didn’t even wait until I got off the phone to openly mock me about this. But it was a good natured ribbing, or at least that is what I am telling myself.
Apoorva – Thanks for the tip. I will keep it in mind when trying to park.
I am trying to stay cool about the interview, so hopefully I will get someone who will put me at ease.
Steve,
Congratulations on your Tuck interview!
A couple of tools to help you prepare:
1) Accepted’s MBA Interview Feedback Database (http://www.accepted.com/mba/InterviewFeedback.aspx ) contains hundreds of interview reports from applicants who interviewed previously at top MBA programs including Tuck.
2) Accepted also offers a free, short interview preparation e-course that you can sign up for at http://www.accepted.com/mba/interviewcourse.aspx .
Finally, please feel free to share you interview experience after your visit to Dartmouth.
Good luck!
Deborah Saltzman
Accepted.com
[…] I have had 1 (or more) people connect to my site because they searched for “Leif Ericson. My post on Leif Ericson day is obviously to blame, so I figured that I would just direct those people who […]
[…] I have had 1 (or more) people connect to my site because they searched for “Leif Ericson. My post on Leif Ericson day is obviously to blame, so I figured that I would just direct those people who […]