Fall 2009 Apping season begins!!!

With HBS releasing its essays as promised in May first half and application for Reliance Dhirubhai Fellowship going live on May 15, the apping season for Fall 2009 has begun formally.. 

On personal front, I’ve given myself a deadline to shortlist about 7-10 schools that I plan to apply by the end of May.. Will take some more time (may be 2 weeks) to trim down the list to 4 to which I’ll be applying in R1 and another 3-4 (if need be) in R2.. So far the list is:

ISB: This is one school that never went off my list from the day I started my MBA plans..But I’m planning to app in round 2 for this.. Round 2 results of ISB come at around the same time as R1 results of most US schools.. So I’d have sth to compare against.

IIM-A (PGPX):: It’s not even my Dream-school.. (I define dream-school as the one that you’ d love to attend, but you don’t have a strong chance at getting in. ) With its avg experience of 10+ years, it’s totally unrealistic for me.. But still I’m gonna app for this.. No app fee and app deadline is 15th Aug well before the deadlines for other schools.. So apping to this will provide a dry-run for other  schools..

Stanford GSB: Keeping it as my (wild)dream school.. With Reliance announcing merit and need based fellowship for 5 Indians, I’ve decided to give this dream school a very serious shot.

BTW, just got the news that a friend got into Wharton two days back. The guy already had offers from Duke, Tepper and IIM-C.. But W is big!!! Biggest of them all!! I guess I’d need to catch this guy and get some serious tips about apping.. :-) 

Meanwhile, fellow-bloggers for fall 2009, keep visiting and leaving comments here..  Anyone belonging to this tribe (Apping for 2009 and already blogging about it ) surely deserves a pat on the back for starting early. Let us start interacting on blogosphere and help each other out in whatever way we can. I’m reachable at my gmail ID: quizophobic

Reliance to sponsor 5 Indians @ Stanford GSB!!

Now this is some terrific news!!
Reliance and Stanford have tied up for  “Reliance Dhirubhai Fellowship programme” under which 5 Indians will get a full ride at Stanford GSB and that’ll cover all the expanses including tuition, travel and living expenses. Other than merit (which of course gets covered in the admission process at Stanford, another important criterion is commitment to return to work in India for at least 2 years. More here

This surely is a great news for me as I’ve always listed Stan as one of my dream schools, but have found it prohibitively expensive. Though the competition for this scholarship is going to be fierce , but still this charges me up to have a shot at my dream school. And in any case, I have my long term plans in India. Hope that’ll help if everything goes right.

With Mukesh Ambani tying up with his half alma-mater (He had to drop out of Stanford GSB due to Dhirubhai’s illness), can we expect the younder Ambani to follow the suite too.. (Anil is an alumnus of Wharton). That’ll be a double bonus for Indians!!

OPT Extension:: Some hope and then heartbreak!!

Last week, went to have dinner with few of my college friends. Over dinner, when we were discussing the typical “what next?”topic, one of my friends brought to me a wonderful news.. The time-limit for Optional Practical Training time limit has been extended from 12 months to 29 months!!

Now this was one of the best things regarding overseas MBA that I had heard in recent times. Over the last few months, I’ve been used to listen to horror stories of upcoming recession, Visa problems, Striggle with internships and more things like that.. This was making life a bit tough for me as after having delved so deep into US B-school research, I desperately want to have that experience first-hand. But at the same time, it’s not easy to ignore the mentioned factors, particularly for a middle-class Indian.

But this news was a new ray of hope for me.  Considering that my long-tems goals are in India and I only intend to  just for 2.5-3 years in the States mostly due to 2 reasons: to have some quality work-experience that’ll make me a strong candidate for recruitment when I return to India and to pay off my loans. (Yup, this time may not be enough for paying off the loans completely, but still at the end of this duration, I expect the remainder would be easily payable in the INR salary  as well.) 29 months was just the right period for me as per my plans. :) That would mean no problems even if there’re Visa-problems later on..
I hurriedly finished off the meal and rushed back to check the details of the story. And this was the time for the heart-break. The extension is only for science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) students. Read more here: http://www.dhs.gov/xnews/releases/pr_1207334008610.shtm Somebody at Pagalguy interpreted it to be applicable to MBA students as well. He dug out a list at Stren where “Budiness administration” falls under the list of ” Engineering Technologies” (How?? :-o)  But I was not convinced. And a Google search made sure that MBA students are not covered under this extension.  (See the “eligible STEM degrees” questions here. )

So what next?? I hope B-schools will push this matter further  and get the extension extended to MBA students. Meanwhile I’ll continue working on my finances and see how things turn up. Anyone having any update on the issue, please let me know by dropping a comment here.

 

IIM-A PGPX-2009 application goes live!!

I’ve started my B-school research from scratch.. So these days am visiting school-websites, student blogs etc. In this process, yesterday it was the turn of IIM-A. As I’ll be eligible to apply by age critieon (Born on or b4 March 31,1982; I’m just making the cut ) , I had planned to give it a shot. I always strongly feel that for a person like me, whose long term plans are in India, nothing beats IIM-A, even if it does not give you the taste of diversity and international exposure that are normally associated with an overseas MBA.

I was quite surprised to see that the application for PGPX-2009 adission is already on. I checked and rechecked to see if I’m looking at last year’s admission page, but I was surprised to see that everything for 2009 session is in place from the new brochure to a raw academic calendar from April 2009 to March 2010. I’m really impressed by this proactivity. Rest of my target schools are still in process of winding up their admissions for this year.

But another section of the site almost shattered my dreams of making it to IIMM-A. This was the class profile section.  I must admit that going purely by numbers, this is the most impressive average profile that I’ve seen in last 1 year of B school research. (Perhaps only IMD,Switzerland comes close) Sample this: Avearage GMAT:728 , Average work-ex 10.2 years, average international experience 5+ years.. WIth just 4 years (by April 2009) experience and 0 international experience, even my good GMAT score and above-average extra-curriculars won’t be able to push me into IIM-A. Whatever  hopes I still had were shattered when I saw this in answers to one of their  FAQs.” Adhering to minimum age of 27 years at the start of the programme, a normal graduate should have 6 to 7 years of post qualification, full time work experience” :((

Anyways, I always believe, “You miss 100% of the shots that you don’t take.” So I won’t quit before giving this one serious try. . There is no fee for application  and even GMAT  scores are to be self-reported initially. Further, no essays at this stage.  First round screening is based on profile-evaluation. ( We need to fill in the application form online, in which you can list your GMAT, GPA, experience, extra-curricular activites and other leadership experience.
Even if I manage to reach the interview stage, it’ll be a good exercise and if somehow I can get in (Probability of which is lower than my getting into Stanford :D) ,  having such experienced people for company will be a great learning experience.

BTW, for those who’re interested in apping to IIM-A , here’s the link: http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/pgpx/pgpx0910/login.php 

I’m back!!

Finally after 4 long months, I’m back to my blog.

Isn’t in weird?? I had quit blogging just after the last post on my blog, which said “Don’t quit!!” Well, I was too much tied up with deadlines at office.. Everything related to B-school journey had almost come to a stand-still: so no b-school research and therefore no blogging as well. :’(

Actually, an “almost” can be added to the “No” in B-school research mentioned above.. I did manage to sneak into Pagalguy at times or to check what’s going on with some blogger-pals.. So what else I have done in past few months: (This also includes the non-blogged stuff when I was active in the research.)

• Attended B-school events:: I can confidently say now: never miss an admission event of a B-school that you’re even remotely considering. Marketing is a subject on every B-school curriculum and it seems the adcom people have mastered it to full.. More about this in my next post.
• Helped fall’09 applicant friends: I had a vicarious experience of apping to B-schools by helping some of my good college friends and a few net-pals with their essays. I believe now I do have at least a rough idea about what is liked by adcom and what not. Hope this experience will help me when I start penning down my own essays later this year.
• Some reading: As I said in my “Not ready for MBA” post, I feel thatthat not many of us have a good idea about B-school life and different B-school specializations. Moreover, I feel that reading about some Business barons can also instill some business sense in me. So have ordered lots of books. (I’m an obsessive book-buyer, though can’t call myself an obsessive reader. ) So far, I’ve completed “Snapshots from hell” It’s a book about a student’s first year at Stanford GSB: a must-read for every B-school aspirant. Right now, reading Ten-day MBA. Next in queue are: Montauk and Lou Gerstner’s autobiography.
• Blog-hopping: Though I did not write much on my own blog, but I keep my B-school instincts alive by visiting blogs of some fall’09 applicants. A lot of them have got good admits this year and this may prove handy when I apply.
  

Will try to be more regular here now..

Don’t Quit!!

A guy posted the link to this poem on gmat_may2007 group.. Have read this earlier too, but this one never fails to inspire me.. Thought of sharing the same with the visitors of this blog..

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
when the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest, if you must, but do not quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about,
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don’t give up though the pace seems slow—
You may succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than,
It seems to a faint and faltering man,
Often the struggler has given up,
When he might have captured the victor’s cup,
And he learned too late when the night slipped down,
How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out—
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far,
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit—
It’s when things seem worst that you must not quit.

Busy! Busy!! Busy!!!

Sorry for not posting for a long, long time.. Actually, last 6-7 weeks have been pretty hectic for me at office as well as social/family front. Moreover the apping process has kept me busy too.. ISB was submitted almost at the last hour.. Had to struggle a lot with the Wharton essays, especially the “outsider” one; but finally I do believe that it came out quite well.. At Columbia, some serious problems were there with the submission of one of the recos. But now all I can do is to wait for the result and concentrate on rest of the schools. Efforts for Tuck have surely been the best of the lot so far, expecting an interview call at least. I’m breathing a bit easier now, but with Tepper and Emory coming up in next 10 days, followed closely by Stern in mid-November, life’s surely not going to be easy.. And then there are Ross, Darden and Duke to follow in R2.

Now if you’re a regular visitor here, I’m sure I’ve managed to startle you at least a bit.  After all, just in the last post, I was “Not ready for an MBA right now.” Actually the status at my end is still the same. I’m not applying this year, but many of my friends are.  Some of these are real-life friends, some online ones whom I’ve not even met. It’s their apping process that’s keeping me busy.  It’s mostly the review of the essays.  (and drafts for a reco in one case) As I was done with my GMAT way back in June, I had plenty of time for the endless B-school research. So I’ve slight upper hand on some of my friends who had almost no time between their GMAT and apping. So I pitch in as a self-certified application-consultant. Yup, I love to help people, but surely this time it is not entirely for philanthropic reasons.  

Many of my friends suggested me a dry-run this year: apping to schools in which you’re not interested. I don’t really buy this idea. I don’t find it worth the effort and the money. If you’re targeting a top-15 school, how would apping to a lower school give you an idea of the competition and what your dream school wants from an applicant? And let us say you give it a full-hearted effort and bingo!! You get an admit with a full-ride at one of the dry run schools. Now won’t it be too tempting to accept the offer and save yourself a year and a great amount of money. And then you’ve missed your dream schools even without giving them a try. I’d better keep the dry-run schools as the “Safe Schools” next year. This time I do want to know the application process in and out, but only second-handedly.

What else I’m doing on the B-school front? I’m attending every B-school event that happens in the NCR area. So far I’ve attended Stanford, Wharton and Ross; also visited the stalls for Tepper, Duke, Stern and some more at the recent MBA fair. Tuck and Darden are to follow in November. Planning to learn a foreign language, though have not yet decided which one. Other than that, I’ve started finding time for activities other than office-work and apping process. I’m now a regular at the office TT table and also am back to reading. Had almost stopped reading books other than OG, Kaplan and Manhattan. Coming to the books, I’ve just started “Snapshots from Hell” by Peter Robinson. It’s about the author’s life at Stanford GSB: the first year in particular. This is considered one of the best books on B-school life. Hope to learn a thing or two about the MBA life by the time I finish the book. Hopefully that’ll be another blog story here.

I guess I’ve to conclude now; need to get back to the Emory essays. Will try to be more regular on the blog again.

Not ready for an MBA right now..

I know the title will come as a surprise to many, but after careful deliberations, I’ve decided against apping this year..
Had gone in dormant state for some time now.. (that is as far as blogging is concerned) These days were days of deep introspection, b-school research, networking, essay-analysis and what not!! Add to that regular pressure of office work

Anyways, coming back to the title of the post, I’ve postponed my application process by a year.. It was a very tough decision for me on a personal level; putting off the applications by a year means I’ll be graduating in 2011, That’s about four years from now!! Postponing apping looks like postponing life by a year!! Convincing my parents was even a tougher job.. But finally managed to do so..

Coming to the reasons behind this whimsical decision (many of my friends do say that it’s crazy), there are many.. (In no particular order )

1) Chances of getting in:: Though I understand that GMAT 770 is a wow-factor in my application.. But is that enough to get into a good B-school.. Surely not.. In fact, as my cousin puts it:: Any B-school that buys you out just on your GMAT score is not worth going to.

2) Maturity (to be reflected in the essays): I know I’ve an okayish profile for a low-experience candidate, but what do I write in the essays.. Essays of almost every school want to listen to leadership, entrepreneurship and maturity stories.. As an example, one of the school asks for a time when you’ve managed a crisis in your team.. In two years of my professional life, I’ve been able just to create crisis in my team.. (Kidding off-course; hope no B-school adcom sees my blog ) One year later, I still may not have many managerial tales to share, but at least I’ll be closer to the statistical average of most of the schools… And one more year of corpo-life will surely add at least something to my profile.

3) Finances:: As the regular visitors to the blog must be knowing, initially no US B-schools was in my list due to budgetary consideration.. But with time, the love for an international MBA grew and finally I’m eyeing only international B-schools. But for that, I need schol and savings..(plus loans) Adding a year will add to my savings and also better the chances of a scholarship..

4) Goal-clarity:: Perhaps this is the most important reason that makes me feel I’m not ready for an MBA right now.. As of now, I neither know which colleges I really want to apply to, nor do I know what interests me most for post-MBA career. Do I want to make a big career switch and go to finance or do I want to play it safe and return to technology. Or may be Consulting or I-banking?? But wait; am I even very clear what consulting (or for that matter I-banking) is? I mean I do have an idea, but for such major decisions just having an idea hardly suffices. Further the selection of my targets was mainly based on the one major criteria:: achievability.. Interest and the elusive “fit” weren’t actually coming into picture.

There were some more reasons (which I won’t like to share here), but finally the decision is out:: Not applying this year..
So what next?? One year of planning, research, profile building, pursuing my interests and living life freely. I do hope that the decision pays off.

Coming up next on my blog:: my experiences from the B-school events in Delhi in September..

Losing sleep over B-school research.. :-(

Yes, the title is a blatant lift from one of the blogs that I read recently, but what can I do when this exactly is my state these days.. Day and night, B-school research is all that I’m doing..I don’t remember when I worked so hard (office deadlines excluded) Not for my GMAT.. Not for my job interviews And surely not in the four years of my engineering.. The last I remember laboring dedicatedly for something was during my engineering entrance preps. What all am I doing?? Blog-hopping, Reading articles on clear-admit, Visiting school websites ,mailing current students and perhaps most importantly introspection..
Updates so far::
1)Mailed some current students and successful applicants from last year.. Got replies from ppl from Darden,Chicago GSB, Haas and Kelly.. Time for some hard facts:: Profile is gud, but schol not a surety.. And even if I get it, it may not be sufficient for living expenses.. And visa issues are surely bugging people overthere.. Good to know that international exposre counts, but lack of it won’t hit you.. The Haas guy especially advised me not to defer my apps for a year just for international exposure.. Also changing fields does not appear to be that big an issue if u r able to leverage ur experience properly.. In the words of tha Haas-guy, ” Howmuch of your BE content is useful now? Howmuch of your java skills will be useful in 5 years from now? What counts is your ability to transfer skills from one career to the other.. ” Surely thought-provoking..
Another gud news is that there’re certain Govt of India grants for studies abroad.. Have to look for the same..
2) Talked with an MBA colleague:: This guy’s leaving my company tomorrow..He has done a part-time MBA from a reputed Indian institute, but has done his part of research on International MBA.. He suggested me to keep my options open and not restrict my self to tech-domain. As he guessed it right, one of the reasons most of Indian IT guys go for an MBA is that they’re not very happy about their work.. Then why to restrict one’s options to a place where u were not that much happy.. You can excel only when u like what u do.. else u’ll be at best just making a living..
Man, experience surely talks.. Points noted, Boss!!
3) Started looking at essays:: No, Have not started writing my essays as of now.. But have started looking at the app-essays of various schools.. It may look a bit strange, but I’ve kept the essay Qs as one of the criteria for my B-school selections.. Actually I personally feel that the essay Qs can give u at least a bit of idea about the school’s openness for the low-experience guys like me. For example, a look at Sloan’s essays were enough for me to know that the school demands strong managerial experience.. A low work-ex guy like me doesnt stand taht much a chance.. On the other hand Chicago and Haas looked relatively more realistic..

Other updates::

• Have started making blog-friends.. Networking is essential for this infinite B-school research..

• Got lots of hard-copies of brochures now (Had requested them 7-8 weeks back) Surely iday was right when he said thatthe hard-copies have their effect.

• Became a part of Hella’s list ( A yellow pages for MBA bloggers)

Confused!!!

And I thought that life after GMAT would be easy.

It’s more than a month now that I’m into B-school research and the present status is that the more I’m researching into this, the more confused I am getting. I believe I share this confusion with any middle class MBA aspirant, with a profile similar to mine. ( Low work-ex, IT , decent GMAT) My prime confusion can be divided under the following heads:
When MBA?
Some time back I was very sure that this year, I’ll be putting up all my energy for the 2 big ones: GMAT and CAT and this will be my first and last try at the Indian B-schools and some of the international ones. But now that I’m done with the GMAT, dropped the idea of CAT and am about to start the process for my b-school journey, I’m getting a bit confused.. More than a bit actually.. If I decide to wait for a year, it can mean a lot of things to me.. First, on the financial front, savings of one extra year can be a big boost for the 2 years of my MBA. Also, I’ll have one full year to work on my profile part: Can even learn a new language then. Above all, I’ll be closer to the 5-year average experience figure that most of the top B-schools have. Even IIM-A PGPX will be open to me: I’ll be past the 27-year age cut-off..
Considering the above aspects, it appears that deferring my apping by a year makes sense. But then, there are some aspects to life as well. Just today I discussed with my parents my intentions of considering postponing my apps. And their response was not very encouraging. They feel that deferring it by a year will be a bit too late. For other things in life you know :-). Even I tend to agree with them somehow on this. So 80% chances are that I’ll be apping this year. Rest 20% will depend on how the financial calculations turn out.. (So foolish of me, not to have done this part till now )
Which MBA?
This confusion concerns the specialization that I intend to have for my MBA. The reason I need to bother about it right now is that the choice of my targets will depend on this decision. I’ve heard that if you make a big jump like IT to finance or IB, then chances are that you’ll start as a fresher after your MBA. Am I prepared for that? Perhaps not, I’ll rather pick a specialization that make the three years of pre-MBA experience and four years of tech-education count. As of now, technology tops the list, closely followed by consulting, which can keep both tech and non-tech options open for me. But I’m still fine-tuning my options: interacting with current students as well as current aspirants, spending time wading through various schools’ websites and most importantly reading various blogs and success stories. Hope to figure this out in next 2-3 weeks
Where MBA??
When I started the process, ISB was the only school in my list. Financial limitations and unwillingness to settle abroad were the main reasons restricting my choice. Very soon NUS too joined the list. As I researched further, I found that if one can get a decent schol, then a middle tier schools can be comparable in costs to ISB. I looked at European B-schools too: INSEAD, Said, Cranfield and LBS among others. But the problem with these schools is not only are they costly, they offer schols after you get in, unlike their US counterparts that offer scholarship at the time of admission. So anybody like me, who can’t afford to without a schol, is not in a position to take the risk. Still INSEAD is too good to be dropped even on this account, particularly because its cost factor can be compensated with its shorter length. So at one stage, I was very much inclined towards the schol-generous schools like Emory or Purdue .But now a deeper search and research has created a craving for a top MBA B-school.. They say that a B-school is a brand that stays with you for your life.. A line at one of the blogs was particularly influential:: “I’ve seen people in their eighties still bragging about their Harvard days!!!”

But just when I had decided to give the big ones (Excluding the biggest ones, my big ones mean b-schools ranked 6-15) a try, the visa issue has started turning scary. True, as of now I’m least interested in settling abroad, but thinking of repaying the enormous loan in Indian salary is suicidal. Have to work for about two years to make sure that the rest the loan is payable in INR salary. So I’d like to keep the loan light and go for a mid-tier school that can provide me a nice schol. But then precisely because of the visa-factor, it makes sense to do an MBA which has a global recognition. This pushes me back to the top ones, where it may not be easy to get a scholarship. Do I sound confused?? I actually am.

They say that you must divide your targets in three groups of Dream, Reach and Safe.
As of now, Haas (Berkeley) is the one that I have put on my dream list;INSEAD is another. I dare to put ISB on the safe list. Still, exploring the other colleges like Tepper, McCombs, Tuck and Duke.
Planning to app to ISB in R2 and most others in Early Bird entry or R1.
Why MBA?
The most difficult of all Qs:: I guess I’d leave that for the essay questions.