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