Editing...

After meeting with Nicole earlier today, I have spent the afternoon incorporating her edits for our research paper. Ended up adding an interesting section on GMAT statistics. As expected, more males than females take the exam, and males tend to score 20-ish points higher than females, although that gap has been decreasing over time.

Now I'm working on revising the recession's impact on the MBA section to reflect the research we did for our article "How to look up when the economy is heading down". We're getting all the edits done in time for Spring Fling tomorrow, although we can't update the errors I found in our magazine on my most recent proofread until the lab opens on Sunday at noon...

Cover Shot

Today I took the Red Line to Charles/MGH to take the photo for our cover. Our cover shot is supposed to represent our feature on B-Schools in Boston, so the Boston skyline and the Charles were an ideal subject. We were concerned that the photos wouldn't turn out bright enough to draw viewers to our magazine, due to overcast skies and scattered rain. My shots did end up rather dismal, but thanks to some lifesaving tools in Photoshop, I was able to transform the photos from drab to fab. Check them out below!

Before:

After:

Sprint to the finish!

We're now in the last week of work on our project. There's a bunch of work still to be done, but we're very happy with how things are looking. On our agenda for tomorrow are a number of things.

1. Finish creating advertisements

2. Head to Gnomon Copy to get information about printing our final copies

3. Go to the waterfront to get the last image we need for the magazine

4. Continue incorporating Nicole's edits on the magazine

Currently, we're working on incorporating Leslie's edits on the written portion.

We're in the home stretch!

Finished Written Component!

I just finished up our edits for the research paper component of the project. Erin and I were able to write up our acknowledgements and self-reflective statements yesterday and now everything is compiled in one place. 40 pages!! We still have some edits that we'll need to do before the final draft, but at least everything has been compiled.

We're getting ready to submit the project for award consideration this afternoon. Trying to make everything look as neat and professional as possible. It's incredible what progress we've made since the beginning!

Boston College

Yesterday, in conjunction with a trip to the Boston Marathon, I took an excursion to B.C.'s campus in order to take photographs for our Best of Boston spread. The campus is gorgeous and allowed me to take some great pictures.

Later in the day, Brittney and I worked on tightening up our paper and wrote our Letter from the Editors. We're really excited to be able to address our audience on a personal level.

Now, back in Eaton, I am laying out our articles and photos from yesterday!

Ads!

We now have ads! After attending Erin's birthday dinner tonight we got a second wave of energy. Back in the computer lab, we have now added advertisements to our project. Thanks to some fabulous photography that Erin had done of commercial products, they look great!!!

We are so incredibly excited about the progress we made this weekend. As Erin says "Brittney, you're blogging about your feelings!" More to come after the Boston Marathon tomorrow...

Tuck Bridge Program

Just finished writing up a Q&A with Paul Doscher from the Dartmouth Bridge Program. Erin and I had a chance to meet with him last week and boy can that man talk! He had so much to say that we were writing fast and furiously to keep up! I think the article turned out pretty well though. I was able to hone in all that he said to create an interesting and informative piece. It fits our target audience of liberal arts students very well and is a piece that they may not find elsewhere.

(We even got Paul to let Erin take a picture of him!)

Long Days in Eaton

With the second draft due date fast approaching, Brittney and I have been spending a lot of time in Eaton. Eaton is the computer lab on campus that has the Adobe software suite we've been using (InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop). Yesterday, Brittney and I camped out in Eaton for eight hours, during which time we finished writing and laid out two articles: "Is the MBA right for you?" and "The Socially Responsible MBA". Both articles look great!!

In writing about whether to MBA is a good decision, I had time to reflect on my initial thoughts about the MBA. Growing up with parents that both have professional degrees (CA and MBA respectively), I was skewed in the prevalence and necessity of such degrees. I have realized that I don't need to get my MBA and if I do, it needs to be when the time is right, otherwise the decision can backfire on both my career progression and bank account. I really want to convey this information to my peers in this magazine, since I don't believe I was alone in my perceptions of the MBA.

Back to writing about the GMAT!