Buddhist Marketer

The headshot that didn’t make it

Curiously enough, the NYU Stern doctoral program application allows applicants to upload their head shot.

I was briefly tempted to upload my picture from The New York Press cover (the existence of which I did duly note under “List any awards, scholarships or other types of recognition you have received”), but even more tempting was uploading this Hallowe’en charmer:

I think it has just the right amount of, “I come wearing random white headdress-thing and bearing caramel apples; just think of what I’ll bring to the weekly lunchtime seminars!” don’t you?

You’ll be proud to know that I exhibited some restraint and uploaded instead the “preppy” shot of me that I currently use as my default profile pic.  Unfortunately in this picture I’m smiling, which I’ve been advised against.  (”Smiling is not sexy.”)

But let’s be honest:  admitting Anittah Patrick into your business school’s doctoral program?  Smiles or otherwise, it’s good for morale!  Vote for morale; vote ANP(hD)!

Has anyone else ever been asked for a picture on a grad school app?  What was your strategery?

The emotional roller coaster of seeking approval

I just want to do good work, find mathematical models that can represent observed micro- and macro- behaviors, prove that my idea that in the age of the network economy the importance of distribution > the importance of brand, be able to go off in search of answers to that which has caused me intellectual dissonance during my past ten years in corporate America, and contribute to the universe in a manner that celebrates my comparative advantage.

I hate the idea that I could be locked out of the club, yet again.

I thought the ups and downs of a doctoral program wouldn’t start until I was actually in a doctoral program.

Good heavens; no wonder girls aren’t good at math.  Dwelly McDwellersons!

From the blogosphere, echoing James Baldwin:

When you spend your life hearing that you’re not able to do something because of who you are, even if you want to believe otherwise, there’s going to be part of you that believes it.

My self-apppointed to-do list:

1. Rustle up some paint color chips from Home Depot
2. See if I can squirrel my way into classes skewing math-theory next semester, perhaps at the CUNY Grad Center
3. Find a good game of pick-up ball
4. Bake a pie
5. Try not to dwell on the last problem of the GRE math section, whose blank I didn’t have time to fill in because I accidentally clicked the HELP button and spent half-a-minute trying to figure out how to click out.  Damn you, 790!

If I didn’t care, I wouldn’t care, but I do, and so I do.

* sigh *

Politics intersection doctoral program applications

I’m so proud to be a Hoosier right now that Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business Department of Business Economics & Public Policy is officially one of the ten doctoral programs to which I’m applying.  Those lucky dogs on the admissions committee!

I seriously, seriously, seriously am amazed and moved by our collective capacity for change.  Even with the massive brain drain that my home state faces, for a Democrat to win is –

Just checked the vocabulary list.  No words suffice.  So I’ll steal one from Dubya:  awesome.