Fellowship from Notre Dame

I've got a $30,000 per year fellowship from Notre Dame. That almost covers the entire tuition fees of $34,000 per year. I had a telephone interview with them on the 4th of December and an email with an admissions offer on the 8th. I was really pleasantly surprised since they had announced Dec 20th as the notification date. Anyway, last night I got the fellowship offer.

I was obviously thrilled and could hardly sleep last night after I got the news. I kept worrying about not being able to sleep since I had a video conference interview with IESE today. I had the interview at Reliance WebWorld. It was my first experience in a video conference and it was a really great experience. The interview lasted for around 40 mins though they say it normally lasts for an hour. The interviewer said that I answered the questions very directly and to the point which made it shorter. Don't know whether it was a compliment exactly... They'll let me know the final decision on the 20th.

However, Notre Dame's fellowship offer has introduced a whole new variable for me to factor in. ND has given me the opportunity to finish the MBA completely debt free. At this point, it seems like an offer too good to refuse. Have to speak to someone who actually studied there I guess. Not that I've been admitted anywhere else so its not like I have much to choose from at the moment. But I don't even feel like applying to Chicago, CMU and Duke which I was planning to do in Round 2 and have even completed my essays for. It still hasn't properly sunk in, but without debt, I'm free to do anything I want or get any job I want after the MBA. I can move back to India faster if I don't have to worry about paying off loans and so on...

Anyway, I'm not complaining. So many more decisions are now to be taken.