Some quick notes

With this year's Round 3 decisions being made and wait list people hearing their fate, we're slowly starting to see a shift in focus to next fall's application season.

• HBS is going to publish the Class of 2012 essay questions next week (thanks to ClearAdmit's blog for pointing me to the post)

• Chicago Booth released their application & acceptance timeline

• There's a new edition of the GMAT Official Guide (12th Edition)... for those of you not yet done with the GMAT, hopefully this new edition fixes some of the glaring errors they've been printing for a few years in the 11th edition

…and along with the general shift to next year's season it's time for me to get my own butt in gear. I've stalled in my (pre)application work the past week so here's a to-do list for the next 2 weeks:

• I am going to reach out to a few consultants in the next two weeks. I don't know if I'm going to use one but I want to figure it out and, if so I want to get started with them during a time (late May/early June) when I assume I'll be one of their only "active" clients. The main thing I want them to do is help me put a framework around how to best market myself as a complete package.
  
• Need to update my BSchool resume so that I can move forward with a consultant if I decide to. A recent reorg at work resulted in a new title (it sounds like I'm more important now). I've got to essentially add a new section to my resume which will be tough since my actual responsibilities didn't change that dramatically.
  
• I also took on a real leadership role in one of the volunteer groups I work with. I'm now running events of 15-30 people and organizing social outings for the volunteers. Hopefully my volunteer/community involvement will be something that actually sets me apart from other financial services worker bees
• Further discussions with the Significant Other, who is also thinking about applying to BSchool this fall, need to happen. We've already had some really long and in-depth talks about this and the likely result is that we're both going to target a single school as our "top" and go above and beyond to get in. At the same time we'll likely have 3 others (which are already identified) as backup that we will also apply to in R1
  
• I've already been talking with the leader of the main student group I plan to be involved in at my target school and want to try and set up a lunch over the summer if possible
• I know at least one person that will be starting at each of my top schools this fall. Contact them and set up a time to pick their brain about the application process / Adcoms they met / interviews / how they presented themselves / etc.
  
• Finally, create folders for each of my top schools and get all the preliminary information gathering stuff out of the way: what each school sees as setting itself apart, any special programs or focuses I'd be interested in, club to contact this call, etc.