Well……I have finally sorted out my plans for the future and am ready to tell you all about what I am going to be doing. Originally I planed on staying in China from November of 2005 until about a month before graduate school started. I wanted to do a joint JD/MBA (business and law degree) in California. This meant that I would most likely be coming home in either July or August, 8 or 9 months after originally arriving here in China.

I had to independently apply to the law and business schools of each of the schools I was considering. This meant that since there were 4 universities I was interested in, I had to complete 8 applications. You can see the ultimate results here:

Needless to say, I was not too happy with the results. I got all my applications in around the 1st of the year, and the decision schedules all indicated that I should hear from schools around March or April at the latest, which would have given me plenty of time to plan and return to the U.S. from China. I was very confident with my applications as my GPA was extremely high (3.925) which put me at the top of my UCSD graduating class and earned me membership in both Phi Beta Kappa and Tau Beta Pi. I had worked steadily for the UCSD CSE department as a TA for over 3 years. I had started my own business and acted as CTO of an internet startup. My entrance exams went well. I got a 160 on the LSAT which put me in the 82nd percentile, and a 730 on the GMAT which put me in the 97th percentile with a perfect score on my writing sample. My essays got praise from everyone that I showed them to, and I had a good group of supporters writing letters of recommendation for me.

When the rejections started rolling in, I really had no idea what had happened. On the law school side, the only dark spot was my LSAT score, which while it wasn’t perfect, was decent. Everything other than my LSAT score would have been tough to beat. On the business school side of things, I had no dark spots except for the fact that I had no post-university business experience. I, however, only applied to schools that specifically stated that they accepted students with no post-university experience. Given that type of statement, they must have accepted some people with no post-university experience, and it would have been tough to have beaten my credentials.

By the time April had rolled around, I had been rejected by every school except USC. I was even rejected by UC Berkely, the school my mom attended for her undergraduate education. USC was first choice, so I still had my fingers crossed. I quickly got rejected by their law school, but had still heard nothing from their business school. I started calling and emailing frequently trying to explain to them that returning to the states from China was not an easy thing. By the time June rolled around, I finally got a response from one of their admissions directors telling me that I had been accepted by the business school, and to wait for an admissions packet that they would mail to me. This packet was postmarked on the 5th and didn’t arrive at my U.S. address (my dad’s house) until around the 9th. They were out of town for a few weeks, but when the got back, they told me that the packet stated I needed to respond by the 15th, a date that had already passed. I couldn’t believe that they had waited SOOO long to send me the packet if the date was that close. I had my dad send the packet to me here in China, but it still hasn’t arrived yet. I called the USC admissions office over 8 times but couldn’t get a call back. I sent a number of emails to them but still didn’t get a response.

At this point, I had already been leaning towards spending another year in China. I have an amazing life here that I am extremely happy with. I have a wonderful girlfriend who I am totally in love with. I am learning new things every day and constantly find interesting things about this culture. My Chinese is improving rapidly, but it is clear that due to the complexities of the language, it will take far longer to learn than Italian or Spanish. I spent 6 months learning Italian to get to a level that I was pleased with. I think that 8 or 9 months with Chinese is nowhere near enough time to get to a similar level, but that 18 or 24 months might be a better estimate. I also am just beginning to understand what it is like to do business out here and still have yet to get my feet wet.

All that being said, I was slightly leaning towards spending another year here in China when I finally heard back from USC and they agreed to grant me a deferral. This way I can spend another year here in China and then decide what I want to do. I can go back to the states and attend USC business school. I can stay on here in China on a more permanent basis. Or I can do something entirely different. The bottom line is that I now have more options than ever, which is a great feeling.

So I will be staying here in Shijiazhuang for at least another year. Shortly I will be updating this website a bit to reflect this change. I would like to thank all the people who helped me with my applications including Susan M, Chuck M , Justin K, Geoff V, Jeff W, my Dad, and especially my Mom.

I feel very happy now and I feel very happy about the road ahead