????一次不幸的失誤會產(chǎn)生連鎖反應

????對于一個身高1米55,、體重175磅、喜歡奧運會舉重項目和超級英雄電影的27歲男性來說,，沒有被頂尖商學院錄取可能是他遭遇的第一次重大失敗,。格蘭特在公司從事財務工作，目前正在搬家和換工作——從東海岸一家位列《財富》50強的航空航天公司,，搬往洛杉磯,，即將加入一家排名接近《財富》50強的娛樂公司,。

????在被五次拒絕之前，他還曾遭遇過一次不太嚴重的打擊,。一年前,，格蘭特只申請了達特茅茨學院塔克商學院,，但未被錄取,。不過至少那一次他進入了候選名單。

????這是格蘭特遭遇慘敗的另外一個原因,。

????2013年10月申請塔克商學院之后,，從12月進入候選名單到第二年8月被拒絕，格蘭特如同著魔一般,，一直擔心自己能否被錄取,，對成功的幾率進行了各種計算。之前一年,，有一位朋友的GMAT分數(shù)更低,，但被塔克商學院錄取，這讓格蘭特燃起了希望,，結果希望變成了泡影,。

????他回憶說：“我大概是有些不正常了。我就像個癮君子一樣,。不停地去查看論壇,，計算成功的概率?！?/p>

????于是,，第二次，他申請了哈佛,、沃頓,、耶魯、凱洛格和塔克,。這一次,，他不會再犯同樣的錯誤，不想因為太關注被錄取的機會而讓自己變得神經(jīng)質。

????但是,，他卻犯了一個更大的錯誤,。之前一年，在焦急等待塔克商學院的回復時,，他還能保持勤奮：他在面試之后與面試官保持聯(lián)系,，每個月發(fā)一封電子郵件——證明自己強烈的興趣和毅力，讓對方注意到他的存在,。這一次在參加凱洛格和塔克的面試之后,，他本應該繼續(xù)這樣做，但他說,，這一次他卻在盡量避免像上次一樣,，因為他不愿再為這種等待的游戲去消耗自己了。

????他說道：“今年我沒有在面試之后跟進,。我沒有給面試官發(fā)郵件,。我真是太蠢了。我太懶惰,。我一次次推遲,。真蠢?！?/p>

????并非因為缺乏熱情

????總體而言,，格蘭特（他要求不要透露自己的名字，因為他還沒有告訴雇主自己計劃去讀MBA）的條件并不差,。雖然他讀的是加利福尼亞一所二流州立大學,，但他是全額總統(tǒng)獎學金獲得者，他帶領學校的隊伍參加了國際大學生商業(yè)戰(zhàn)略競賽,，得到了3.7分的平均績點,，并以優(yōu)異成績畢業(yè)，取得會計專業(yè)學士學位,。

????取得MBA學位是格蘭特多年的夢想,。他說：“甚至在上大學之前我就夢想著能讀MBA?！?/p>

????上大學之前，他的商學院夢想還只是一個朦朧的概念,。但大學畢業(yè)之后,，他認為自己希望進入一家美國排名前10的商學院攻讀MBA，“但如果進入前十大商學院的機會渺茫,，可以考慮前20名的學校,。對于20名以外的商學院，我不會考慮,，因為我不會為了一個沒有太大價值的學位花那么多錢,，”他說道,。

????格蘭特說道，兩年前申請塔克商學院,，并且只申請了這一所學校,，“是對我的一次磨練?！?/p>

????他在申請時投入了很多精力,。他花了近200個小時準備GMAT考試，并且得到了710分,。為了準備申請材料和面試,，他拜訪了五位塔克商學院的學生，并在電話里向另外八位來自該校的學生請教,。按他自己的估算,，他一共用了50個小時研究塔克商學院的課程、教師和教授,，讀書,，與MBA課程專家們交流。他將所有研究成果匯總為“關于塔克的瘋狂記錄”,，其中包括他感興趣的事實,、學校里的復雜情況、課程詳情,，以及從Poets&Quants,、網(wǎng)絡論壇,、文章和采訪中收集的信息,。他去學校考察過兩次,，這兩次行程總共用去了他50個小時,。格蘭特說道：“我真的非常了解這所學校和關于它的一切?！?/p>

????閱讀格蘭特在申請過程中所寫的那些充滿激情的文章,，就像在讀泰坦尼克號船長愛德華?史密斯的日記。前面還在感情飽滿地描繪美好的天氣和平穩(wěn)的航行,，突然船便撞上了冰山,。

????參加完塔克商學院的面試之后，他在開車回新罕布什爾州漢諾威的時候,，得出一個結論：“我再次愛上了塔克。這讓我有些害怕。在第一次申請的時候,，我就知道我屬于這里……今天我們再次重逢?！边@一次,，他還申請了另外四所商學院,。

????然后,，格蘭特前往伊利諾伊州埃文斯頓，對凱洛格商學院進行了考察,，并參加了該學院的面試,，這一次，凱洛格奪走了塔克商學院在格蘭特心中的位置,。

????格蘭特對凱洛格贊不絕口：“凱洛格太令人驚艷了，這里正是最適合我的地方,，我希望在這里工作一輩子,。”他在這篇關于此次考察和面試的博客中,，又用了三次“令人驚艷”。

????此外,，他還用了兩個“奇妙”,，所以你能想象他在收到凱洛格的拒絕之后會多么心痛。不過,，事實證明,，塔克商學院帶給他的痛苦更加強烈。畢竟,，前一年他還曾進入過候選名單,，后來有一位學校官員曾告訴他，候選榜單中沒有任何人被錄取,。所以,，第二次申請塔克商學院的時候，格蘭特感覺自己應該是條件更好的候選者,。而且，塔克也是他最后的希望,。

????哈佛商學院最先拒絕了他的申請，沒有提供面試，但格蘭特對此不太擔心,?！澳强墒枪鹕虒W院，全世界最好的商學院——拒絕,，沒什么大不了,。”

????“沒有得到哈佛商學院的面試機會,，我并不意外,。但后來沃頓商學院也沒有提供面試機會，這讓我有些擔心,。”

????One unfortunate fumble leads to another, and another

????For a 5’11”, 175-pound, 27-year-old man who enjoys Olympic-style weightlifting and superhero movies, not getting into an elite business school may very well be his first significant failure yet. Grant works in corporate finance, and is now in the process of switching homes and jobs—from the East Coast, working for a Fortune 50 aerospace company, to Los Angeles, where he’ll be working for an entertainment company not far outside the Fortune 50.

????He had suffered a lesser defeat before receiving the five rejections. The year before, Grant had applied to Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business alone, but didn’t get in. He’d at least been wait-listed.

????And that’s another reason why Grant went splat.

????After applying to Tuck in October 2013, and languishing on the wait list from December until his August rejection, Grant got a little obsessive, worrying over his prospects of getting in, trying to put numbers to his chances. The fact that a friend with a lower GMAT score had gotten into Tuck the year before after being wait-listed gave Grant hope, which turned out to be false.

????“It was probably borderline unhealthy,” he recalls. “I was like an addict. I was constantly looking on forums, and playing the percentage game.”

????So the next time, after he applied to Harvard, Wharton, Yale, Kellogg, and Tuck, he wasn’t going to make the same mistake and drive himself nuts by fixating on his odds of getting in.

????Instead, he made a bigger mistake. The previous year, while anxiously awaiting an answer from Tuck, he’d remained diligent: he followed up his interview by getting in touch with the interviewers, emailing them once a month—demonstrating his strong interest and perseverance, and keeping himself on their radar. He should’ve done the same this time after interviews with Kellogg and Tuck, but he was trying to prevent the waiting game from consuming him as it had the time before, he says.

????“This year I didn’t follow up on those interviews,” he says. “I didn’t email the interviewers. That was really stupid and lazy of me. I just kept putting it off. Really dumb.”

????Not for lack of enthusiasm

????Generally speaking, Grant (who asked that his last name not be revealed because he hasn’t told his employer he’s planning to go to an MBA program), is not a poor candidate. Although he went to a middling California state university for college, he was a full-ride President’s Scholar, led his school’s team in the International Collegiate Business Strategy Competition, earned a 3.7 GPA, and graduated Cum Laude with a BS in accounting.

????For years, Grant had dreamed of earning an MBA. “It was even before I went to college, to my undergrad,” he says. “That’s always been there.”

????Before college, he hadn’t refined his B-school ambitions to a particular tier. But after graduation, he arrived at the conclusion that he wanted to get his MBA from a top-10 school, “but if that’s outside the realm of possibility, then top-20,” he says. “If you’re not in the top 20, I can’t even look at you because I’m not going to invest that kind of money without any kind of demonstrated value from the degree.”

????Applying to Tuck, and only Tuck, two years ago was “kind of like my trial thing,” Grant says.

????He had put a lot of effort into the application. He spent almost 200 hours studying for the GMAT and scored 710. To prepare for writing his application and the interview, he met with five Tuck students and interviewed another eight by phone. He reckons he spent 50 hours studying Tuck’s programs, facilities, and professors, reading books, and speaking with MBA program experts. He organized the fruits of all that research into a “crazy document on Tuck,” containing facts, school intricacies, details of programs that interested him, and information gathered from Poets&Quants, Internet forums, articles, and interviews. He visited the school twice, and doesn’t include in the 50-hour total the time spent on those trips.”I really knew the school and what the story was all about,” Grant says.

????Going over Grant’s enthusiastic posts written during his application process is like reading a diary entry by Edward Smith, captain of the Titanic, rhapsodizing over the lovely weather and smooth sailing that came before the unfortunate incident with the iceberg.

????After his interview with Tuck—when he had applied there and at the four other schools—he came to a conclusion while driving home from Hanover, N.H.: “I have fallen in love with Tuck again,” he writes. “I was scared this was going to happen again. The first time I applied, I KNEW that Tuck was the place for me… And here we are again.”

????Then Kellogg usurped Tuck, after Grant visited the school in Evanston, Ill., and had his interview.

????“Kellogg is amazing and totally synonymous with who I am and where I want to end up in my career,” Grant gushes, going on to use the word “amazing” three more times in his post about his visit and interview.

????Add in the two “fantastics” he used, and you know that when that Kellogg ding came, it stung. But it turned out to be less painful than the one from Tuck. After all, he’d made the wait list when he’d applied there the year before, and a school official had later told him they hadn’t let in anyone from the list. For his second chance at Tuck, Grant felt he was an even better candidate. And the school had become his last hope.

????Harvard had been the first to turn him away, without an interview, but that didn’t concern Grant too much. “It’s Harvard Business School, the best business school in the world—denied, big deal.”

????“When I didn’t get an interview at HBS, I was not surprised. When I didn’t get an interview at Wharton, I was a little scared.”