My MBA Journey

All set to start!

2007-08-25T00:10:00.001-07:00

Today was the first official event for the incoming class.

Most of the incoming class has taken the Kellogg Laptop Program and we got them configured and did the setup to get going. Some banks and cellphone service providers also had their stalls to help the new students open their accounts.

The college looked very vibrant today with so many students from different nationalities. Most of us are starting our KWEST trips tomorrow and everyone is very excited about it.

Most of the incoming class has moved in over the last two days and everyone has been busy unpacking and settling down. We have been forewarned that we would have no time for settling down once we start the CIM.

I am almost settled and I think I just to buy grocery. We guys spent most of the post lunch time sitting and talking to the other students. Went out for dinner pretty late in the night and saw there were lots of Kellogg students out there at most of the places that were open.

I have to do some community service tomorrow and then my KWEST trip members will meet for BBQ dinner. Day after we fly out of Chicago. My trip leaders are a fun bunch and I am hoping it would be a great trip. Time to hit bed as tomorrow would be a long day!

A New Beginning!

2007-08-22T22:37:00.000-07:00

Over the last few months a lot of things have changed.

I have made a lot of new friends. I have set new goals and there are new challenges!

I would soon start a new journey. The next two years would be the best years of my life is what most of the friends who are at kellogg or have done their MBA seem to say.

I got my admit in december and quit my job in Jan. I worked with a consulting firm for a few months before taking a two month long break. It was a lot of fun being with family and friends. Reading books and meeting people! I enjoyed every moment of it.

I am in Chicago now, Evanston to be more precise. I am excited about the upcoming KWEST trip, which would be an awesome start to our two years at Kellogg. We would bond with our fellow classmates and seniors over a fun filled trip. You can find out more details about it here.

I have met a few of my would be classmates and we have had a lot of fun over the last few months. The experience so far has been great as all of them have something really interesting in their profile, they are all accomplished and the best part is they are all very humble and fun loving.

Chicago seems to be a really nice city. The downtown is very impressive and there are a lot of activities to have fun. However, it seems to be seen how my opinion would be after I experience the winters here!!!!

I have been told that the next few months would be crazy! And would leave us with no free time at all. I plan to write regularly, but only time will tell if I can do that.

The applicants for the class of 2010 would have started working on their applications in full swing now so good luck to you all!

Kellogg!!!!

2006-12-22T23:14:00.000-08:00

I am in at Kellogg !

I am speechless.. I am not able to think and I am so happy !!
Would get back with more details :)

Thanks guys for all the wishes!!

Duke needs more time!

2006-12-19T18:22:00.000-08:00

Got waitlisted at Duke, was kind of expecting it as they were unable to schedule my interview as there were no slots free. So, I am happily confused ! Happy because I am not dinged and confused because it's not yet a Yes. But my waitlist strategy would have to wait till I hear from other biggies.

It was an eventful day for blogging community as iday and Alex got an admit from Chicago, rungee got into LBS and Duke and juggler made it to Chicago and Kellogg!!

Great job guys!! What a way to start a new year :)

I am keeping my fingers crossed for Chicago and Wharton and yeah how can I forget Kellogg decision might be just around the corner for me as I interviewed on 27th Nov and it is already the 4th week.

Good luck all!

UNC Loves me too !!

2006-12-12T01:36:00.000-08:00

Got accepted at UNC as well.

Have my Ross telephonic interview day after and I am not able to concentrate on that at all. I really need to motivate myself and push myself out of this complacency and be serious with the Ross interview.

19-21st will be the days to watch out for as Duke (19th), Chicago (20th) and Wharton (21st) will be releasing their decisions and yours truly has to hear from all of them.

Having Darden in hand has made me a little less anxious, but it will be eventful nevertheless :)

Good luck to all others.

Darden Loves Me!!

2006-12-08T01:14:00.000-08:00

I just happened to check my online application status and I saw the status as "Offer". Clicked on it to find out that I have been accepted at the Darden School of Business !!!!

It is a great feeling to know that all the hard work finally paid. I think I should get the official call or email tonight.

Good luck to all others!

Waiting for the Big News

2006-12-06T05:48:00.000-08:00

I have had a pretty hectic last few days as I had my interviews on 27th, 28th, 29th and 1st Dec. On second I was a free bird and it was a great feeling to have finally finished such a long and tiresome process. I wont calling it boring, but yes it definitely was taxing.

I will soon have a post on how the interviews were, I know it is too late for people interviewing for Round one, but I hope it will help people targetting Round 2. I was travelling and this back to back interviews hardly left me with anytime in between.

I heard from Ross today and have scheduled my telephonic interview. I hope by then I would have an admit in my hand from either Darden (decision date 8th Dec) or UNC (decision date 11th)

As of now I am gymming, reading books and in between wondering how to kill time and have fun !!

Wharton Invite finally!!!

2006-11-15T20:24:00.000-08:00

It was one hell of a wait :)
I flip flopped between getting anxious and telling myself to stay calm..
getting pessimistic to being optimistic
deciding to check s2s and deciding not to check s2s
and may other things :)

Infact yday me and my friend decided to ignore Wharton as it has been doing the same to us :) And today morning I had an invite mail form them..

Good luck to all other who are waiting.. hang on and you should get an invite soon!

Kellogg had a change of mind!!

2006-11-08T18:13:00.000-08:00

Everday while sleeping I close my eyes, cross my fingers and pray hard that god please be generous on me and get me the much awaited interview invite for which I have worked so hard !!

Everyday in the morning I get up much before my alarm can go off and would be lying restless in the bed thinking about the mail that might be sitting in my inbox.

Day before I got a mail from Duke asking me where I would want to schedule my interivew.
Yday I prayed even harder and I am sure god would have thought he si getting so greedy. So yday I did not get any mail.

Today however was different and god was generous :) I have a mail form Kellogg saying that upon evaluation of my application Admissions committee has decided to schedule an interview for me.

Looks like this is a positive sign as they have already evaluated my application and must have liked it atleast a bit and only then decided to call me for interview.

This mean now I have a lot of interviewing to be done and it is time I get started on my intreview prep very seriously.

Wharton is making me more and more anxious with each passing day. Darden is another school making a lot of us anxious since they have not yet called many people for interview and it is more alarming given the fact that they would release the final result by Dec 8th.

Good luck to all you folks who are interviewing or waiting for the invites to pour in.

Kelloogg likes me or likes me not ?

2006-11-02T07:44:00.000-08:00

Got a waiver mail from them.. I think I kind of expected this to happen :)

Still the fingers are crossed !!

My First Interview Invite

2006-11-01T17:22:00.000-08:00

After submitting Ross yesterday i was feeling so good about myself and wanted to enjoy the freedom and break for some time.

I left early from office and went out with my friends to Subway where we sat and talked about so many things for about 2 hours.

I got back home late in the night and couldnt help checking my mails. I had a nice mail sitting in my inbox from Chiacgo. I am running for Gym as of now would update more later.

Good lcuk to all othres!!!

Ross submitted !!

2006-11-01T02:02:00.000-08:00

I am a free bird !! It calls for a small celebration. Life is calling !!!!!!!!!1

What If Syndrome is creeping in!

2006-10-29T00:15:00.000-07:00

With Duke safely in I am very close to accomplishing the goal I had set for myself, hit most of my schools in Round 1. I am only left with Michigan, which I would be submitting in the next two days.

Last few months have been a lot of hard work and I am happy that I was able to focus so much on the apps and gave it by best so far. Now begins the long and anxious wait for the interview invites. There were times when I was really confident about my chances of making it to one of my schools because of my profile and belief that I have done a good job at the essays. But as the interview wait prolongs I do get a self-doubt once in a while. There are lots of What Ifs in my head:

What if my essays were not good enough for the schools I am targeting
What if the story did not make sense to them
What if the qualities I focused on in my essays are not the ones Adcoms look for
What if there are spelling mistakes and mention of school A’s club in essay for school B
What if my recommenders did some gross blunder

I am sure each one of you also might be going through the same What if syndrome!
Every time I have this, I look out of the window and take a dep breath. I tell myself that I gave it my best, and this is the person I am. If I am meant to be, I would shine through the competition, If I am not, then I will sit back and re evaluate myself and fight it out one more time. But I wont give up and in the end that is all that matters. The rest is destiny.

On a lighter side, I am reading The World is Flat and listening to a lot of music. I am also spending a lot of time meeting up with my friends. Calling my out station friends, who have been trying to hunt me down for a long time since I went under ground J

I am also eating a lot of delicious food outside as no more I am scared of falling ill. Nov 1st is when I plan to hit the Gym and I have a bet on this with my roommates. The feeling of being on the treadmill, sweating and pushing myself for one last mile is something I love and nothing can beat that.

Interview or no interview, admit or no admit, I am dying to get my life back!!!

Kellogg Submitted!

2006-10-23T10:16:00.000-07:00

A little late in updating. I did manage to put in my Kellogg application as well. It was not as much sweat as I expected it to be and did not really have to slog in the end to put a good application.

I think I did a pretty good job at researching the courses, alums and other aspects of the school. The self evaluation essay was the most challenging one. I did not have difficulty in pointing out the weaknesses in my profile. But somehow because of word limit I did not spend too much time on them.

From all the blogs, forums and discussions I had some idea of what the schools look for. Exploring Kellogg website helped to some extent in knowing what kellogg specifically looks for. I used these to evaluate myself on each of these aspects.

Outside of Work was my most creative piece so far. I did a great job at it in the very first draft and it hardly underwent any change later on as well.

Leadership essay here was very different compared to other schools as we had to talk about leadership experiences and about the most vauable lesson learnt. I used two leadership examples, one from work place and one from community service to bring out the common valuable lesson I learnt.

I sure have a lot to share on this if I am able to make the cut. Till then I wont advocate much as not sure if my approach is the best one :)
Good luck to all others aspiring for Kellogg

Done with Chicago

2006-10-16T21:51:00.000-07:00

Chicago was the first application I started working on and it took a great amount of effort. The first essay was a killer and it forced me to think through all the aspects like career progression, WHY MBA, career goals and why a particular school. But after hazaar iterations I am confident I have given it my best and have a convincing and punch packed story.

It helped me get my foundation right. This essay is still very different from that of most other schools, which have a 500 word limit. I am not surprised to see that writing the 500 one is turning out to be a great challenge. You got to touch on all aspects without exceeding the word limit and not compromising the content.

Next is Kellogg in line. lets see if I can make that to round one. Finding it really hard as of now, but then I aint giving up yet.

Finally pressed the SUBMIT!!

2006-10-11T07:09:00.000-07:00

Just now I submitted my Wharton Application and man I am relaxed now and happy !! I have put in a great amount of effort in the application and I think I am really satisfied with my efforts. I am happy I gave it the best I could have.

There is a lot I want to share, but I am really short on time:
Quick Tips:

1. Send your scores and get the transcripts as soon as you decide on the school. Dont delay tasks which can be completed much in advance till the last moment.

2. Do have a look at the online application much in advance. You can fill most of the stuff earlier itself as save yourself precious time and nervousness in the last moment.

3. Get your essays reviewed, everyone will have some comment or the other even after you have submitted. use your judgement to decide when you are done and what makes sense and what doesnt.

4. Ensure that you convert your essays to PDF and print them and sit in a relaxed mood and read. Some of the errors will definitely get caught, which otherwise would have gone unnoticed. Use double spacing, it makes for a better read.

5. Give your recommenders enough time and get that done much in advance as well.

Last but not the least !! Dont be scared to press the submit button. You have put in your efforts and given it your best. Its all destiny from here on.

Ok time to celebrate a bit. And Chicago here I come !!

Good luck to all fellow applicants.

Chicago App almost done

2006-09-14T05:04:00.000-07:00

I am almost done with the essays for Chicago. My Why MBA and WHy Chicago essay is the only one, which might undergo some amount of modifications.

I have asked two of my reviewrs to comments on the Essays, one of whom has just joined GSB and is from a different country and background. It will be interesting to get the comments from her since she is unaware of indian culture and has never met or talked to me in person.

My essay on social issues revolves around the area I have been actively invovled in for over last two years and I feel very passionately about it. This does tie in with my long term goals as well. Incase you are working on the same essay I think the best option should be to mix your personal invovlement and your passion for that social cause. It would not be a good idea to talk about a grand cause and why it is the biggest cause without actually putting "yourself" in the essay after the essays are about us.

The three short essays were really tricky too and the last one took the maximum amount of time. The first draft I worked on presenting a facet of my personality, which in turn was a strength. but after a lot of thinking I gave that up and really talked about something which is not a stregth. It is something very close to my heart and I guess reflects the true ME.

I used the book to bring out how the book resonated with my personal values and why I really liked it. Guess it was a good choice too.

Next is Duke in line and the first Essay I am working on is the Uniqueness essay. Will talk mroe about it in a later post.

Chicago Application Progress

2006-09-06T08:53:00.000-07:00

It sure has taken me a lot more time than I expected. I am still striving to improve the 1500 words essay. The biggest challenge with Chicago app is that it gives us only two big opportunities to convey our experiences. I have the framework in place where I talk about various decisions I made and what influenced those choices. It talks about various experiences and my learnings from them. The career goals is where I am facing the biggest challenge. Not because I am not clear, but because I am not sure how detailed it should be. Also I have professional and personal goals and talking about all of them is taking a lot of words.

The three short essays are tricky but do not provide enough opportunity to talk in detail about various interests and experiences. The last one of these is turning out to be the most challenging. There are secrets, but then there are no secret qualities I can talk about :) So still thinking hard on it.

Between the social issue and the personal development essay I choose the social issue one. I feel there would definitely be bigger social issues but this is the issue i feel most passionately about.I have experienced this first hand and have been involved in community service very deeply for over three years now it was my obvious choice.

i still need to talk to my recommenders and I am hoping they would be helpful.

I am still around !!!

2006-08-19T20:05:00.000-07:00

It has been a long time since I updated my blog and I already see some cobwebs around. Time for an update.

I am sure most of us are already busy writing the killer essays, formulating application strateges and talking to reccomenders. I have been spending a lot of time on my essays too. Chicago is the first school for which I would have my application ready I think. I have spent a lot of effort on them and now it is time to get some feedback on them.

These are the schools I am concentrating on as of now
Kellogg
Chicago
Duke
Darden
Michigan

These schools are definitely on my list too:
Wharton
Stanford
UNC

I have been getting suggestions to apply to LBS and INSEAD as well. Somehow I am not interested in european schools since post MBA I would want to work in US.
The essays sure are giving me a tough time and everytime I sit with an essay I end up editing it a bit. I want to target atleast 5 schools in R1 and that means I have lots of work to be finished.
I need to get trascripts and talk to my reccomender, who would be off to US for a month starting Sep 1st and that means I hardly have anytime to talk to him and finalize things. I was a little skeptical about asking him, but finally I have decided I to approach him and I hope he would be suportive of my idea.

Diversity at Stanford GSB

2006-07-23T04:10:00.000-07:00

http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/mba/mk/manyvoices/index.html

Incase you are in US you might want to register for the above event and get a first hand experience of the diversity at GSB.

And incase you do visit, dont forget to share your experience with those of us who cannot visit. We would be eagerly waiting to hear from you.

Need suggestions

2006-07-18T01:11:00.000-07:00

What matters most to me and Why ?

I have been thinking a lot about it and am a bit confused on what exactly is required.
Do they want ONE specific thing which matters the most or can it be a set of values and beliefs which matter the most to me.

Also at different times of live it has been different values and things which have motivated me and we are always eveloving as a person. So do I try and force myself to think more and see one common thread among all those activities or is it fine to portray a set of things which matteres the most to me in past and talk about what drives me in present.

Its raining deadlines and essyas

2006-07-17T06:25:00.000-07:00

Till few days back there was so much much time at hand to work on essays and hit round one for most of my first choice schools.

All of a sudden within last two weeks so many schools have come out with essays and now the deadlines look so close. There is a sense of urgency to get going now.
I need to keep deadlines for myself and plan it well so that I am on time and do not end up with lot of things to be done at the last moment.
1. Getting the transcripts from the Undergrad college is the first thing I need to finish.
2. Talking to recommender is the second
3. I also need to work on my resume parallely and should set a deadline for that too
4. Essays is something that will go on till the last moment, but I would have to see how I can break this also into smaller achievable milestones.

Essays and Deadline

2006-07-12T19:03:00.000-07:00

My Application Calendar:
Would keep updating this post as I get more info about the schools that interest me and I guess it would turn out to be useful.I also need to make a planner and set deadlines for myself to complete tasks. It all seems so close now, deadlines seem to be just lurking around the corner.

Michigan(Ross) releases app Dates for 06-07
About the Essays: We are currently in the process of updating our application. Our 2007 application will be available in early August.

Application

Round 1 app deadline: November 1, 2006
Round 1 Interview by: Invitation Only
Round 1 Response Date: January 15, 2007

Round 2 app deadline: January 7, 2007
Round 2 Interview by: Invitation Only
Round 2 Response Date: March 15, 2007

Darden releases app dates and essays for 06-07

Application
Early Action/Rd 1 app deadline(11:59pm(EST)): October 19, 2006
Early Action/Rd 1 Interview by: October 19, 2006
Early Action/Rd 1 Response Week: December 8, 2006

Round 2 app deadline(11:59pm(EST)): December 5, 2006
Round 2 Interview by: December 5, 2006
Round 2 Response Week: February 9, 2007

2006-2007 MBA Application Essay Questions

1. Why is an MBA a critical next step toward your short- and long-term career goals? (500 word limit)

2. Each of our applicants is unique. Describe how your background, values, education, activities and/or leadership skills will enhance the experience of other Darden students. (500 word limit)

3. Choose one of the following questions. (250 word limit)

a. What would you do if you didn’t have to work for a living?
b. Describe a significant maturing experience.
c. What have been the most satisfying aspects of your work life thus far and the most dissatisfying?

4. (Optional) If there is further information that you believe would be helpful to the Admissions Committee, please provide it below. (250 word limit)

Kellogg releases Dates for 06-07
About the Essays: Should be available within a month. - Dave

Application

Round 1 app deadline: October 20, 2006
Round 1 Interview on-campus by: December 18, 2006
Round 1 Interview off-campus by: October 6, 2006
Round 1 Response Date: January 8, 2007

Round 2 app deadline: January 5, 2007
Round 2 Interview on-campus by: March 9, 2007
Round 2 Interview off-campus by: December 22, 2007
Round 2 Response Date: March 26, 2007

UNC Application deadlines.
Early Action/Round 1
Application Submitted: October 27, 2006
Decision Mailed: December 11, 2006

Round 2
Application Submitted: December 1, 2006
Decision Mailed: February 5, 2007

Round 3
Application Submitted: January 5, 2007
Decision Mailed: March 12, 2007

Stanford Announces Deadlines and Essays for 2007

CALENDAR & DEADLINES FOR THE 2006/2007 APPLICATION YEAR
Application Round Application Received By Notification Date
One 25 October 2006 18 January 2007
Two 10 January 2007 5 April 2007
Three 14 March 2007 10 May 2007

Essay Questions for Fall 2007
Please answer essay questions A, B, and C. We provide recommended lengths for each essay, but these are only guidelines. Most applicants will find 7-11 pages (in total) sufficient. If your responses total more than 11 pages, you need to upload the remaining pages in the Additional Information section.
· Essay A: What matters most to you, and why?
(Recommended length is 3-4 pages, double-spaced)
· Essay B: What are your career aspirations? How will your education at Stanford help you achieve these?
(Recommended length is 2-3 pages, double-spaced)
· Essay C: Short Essays—Options 1-4
Please answer two of the questions below. In answering each question, please tell us not only what you did, but also how you did it. Describe what you felt, said, and thought during these experiences. Tell us the outcome, and describe how people responded. Your responses should describe experiences that have occurred within the last three years.

Option 1: Tell us about a time when you did something that was not established, expected, or popular.
(Recommended length is 1-2 pages, double-spaced)

Option 2: Tell us about a time when you felt effective or successful.
(Recommended length is 1-2 pages, double-spaced)

Option 3: Tell us about a time when you had a significant effect on a group or individual.
(Recommended length is 1-2 pages, double-spaced)

Option 4: Tell us about a time when you tried to reach a goal or complete a task that was challenging, difficult, or frustrating.
(Recommended length is 1-2 pages, double-spaced)

Chicago Application Deadline and Essays
Round Submission Deadline Decision Notification Date
Round One October 18, 2006 January 4, 2007
Round Two January 10, 2007 March 28, 2007

Consider how you can tell us your “story” through the following essay questions.

First Time Applicants:
Essay 1: Complete all parts below. (1500 word maximum)
Explain the path that has led you to pursue an MBA as the next step in your professional and personal development. Describe your short and long term post-MBA career goals. What or who influenced your choice of schools, and how specifically will Chicago GSB help you succeed?

Essay 2: Choose one of the following questions. (500 word maximum)
-If the admissions committee were to interview one of your closest colleagues, what aspect of your personal development would this person say is especially important for the admissions committee to know?

-You have been asked to write an editorial about the most pressing issue facing humanity. Please identify the issue and justify why you have selected it.

Essay 3: Complete each of the following questions. (100 word maximum for each question below)
-What is the one thing that most people do not know about you?

-What book, play, or movie would you recommend to the admissions committee? Why?

-It is your first day of business school and people are selecting study groups. How would you describe the value you will bring to a study group?

Can I love them all ?

2006-06-15T11:23:00.000-07:00

I Love them all and I feel so greedy that I want to get into all of them !!!

Their websites look so good, the students are an awesome bunch, all of them have good placements and brand value, some a bit more and some a little less but still good enough to make me feel interested.

They have a whole lot of clubs and activities to get involved in and build your network and leadership skills.

Then how do I differentiate between them?
How do I tell them why they are special to me and how will the school play a unique role in helping me reach my goals and how I will be able to enhance the experience of my fellow classmates.

These are the questions I have been struggling to find answers too.

I have found out some of the schools I definitely like and I am applying to them for sure. They also seem to be a great fit for me. I am a very outgoing person and believe a lot in teamwork. I have been a collaborative kind of a person and I am not a very aggressive leader. I enjoy taking part in lot of activities and my friends feel I am fun to hang around with.

I am working on my essays and I have found that it is better to sit with the set of essays of a school and decide in which essay I will highlight which aspect of my personality. One cannot talk about all aspects in all essays or the same aspect again and again. Plan it before getting started on the essays as this will help you in being more focused and you will be better able to cope up with the word limit and convey your story completely.

Guys how many schools are you planning to apply to? How many you think is advisable?

The Clock has started ticking.

2006-05-25T04:52:00.000-07:00

Saw the posts on Dave's blog

HAAS has released deadlines and essays

Round 1 Nov. 6, 2006
Notification Jan. 29, 2007

Round 2 Dec. 11, 2006
Notification March 19, 2007

Round 3 Jan. 31, 2007
Notification April 30, 2007
Round 4 March 12, 2007
Notification May 14, 2007

Chicago Announces new deadlines

Per Chicago GSB:
The 2006-2007 application for admission will be available by August 1, 2006. Our application essays will be posted on this website by July 1, 2006. We will also post a downloadable version of the application to this website in August.

Round Submission Deadline
Round One October 18, 2006
Round Two January 10, 2007
Round Three March 14, 2007

But none of my target schools have released the deadlines so far :)

The last week has been a little unproductive. I am done with the first draft for my Kellogg essays except for one.

I am taking turns to revisit the essays so that I have some time gap between my second reading and the first one. This helps in looking at it differently.

The draft seems fine, but somehow lacks a very personal touch. It sounds more like I did this, I achieved this and I learnt this. There is not much of my motivation, passion and me in those essays.
Its more like achivements essays and leanring from them.

In kellogg I have used different essays to highlisght different aspects as the word limit prohibits you from taking a lot in one essay.

All 2008 applicant blogs are a little too inactive now a days and I check for any updates everyday but then there are none most of the times :)
I guess they are all busy getting ready to get back to school.
All the best to them.

Working on First Essay

2006-05-15T10:59:00.000-07:00

I finally took the first step after a lot of delibration on which schools I am going to target. I think I have my list more or less finalized. I still feel that as I would spend more time writing the essays and introspect more I would be able to decide wether I am really interested in the school or not.

I also got the book How To Get Into Top MBA Program and I am finding it really useful.

I spent last two weekends and few more hours trying to get started on one of the essays for Kellogg's. I ended up exceeding the word limit by a lot. Thanks a ton to MBA JackAss for the amazing post on Kellogg essays.

I reworked my strategy and I am using different essays to highlight different aspects of my personality to bring out a complete picture. Earlier I was trying to talk about everything in the same essays and thus excceded the word limit.
Going forward before I work on essays of any school I will first decide which essay I am going to use to highlight what aspects and then start writing. It should save me some precious time.
I know some guys must be thinking I am starting too early, but keeping in mind my other commitments and work pressure I think I need to do this. Also I need spectacular essays to reach for my dream schools and I plan to give the applications my best shot.

School Selection contd...

2006-04-30T20:34:00.000-07:00

I have been trying to find out more about various schools, reading about the site visit experience of other bloggers. Few posts on why some of the bloggers choose one school over the other were really insightful and has helped a lot in letting me understand how to go about selecting schools.
No doubt all the schools I look at look really appealing but then I cant apply to all :)

I also have to keep in mind that the school should have a financial loan program.

So here is my list as of now:

1. Wharton
2. Stanford
3. Kellog/MIT (Still deciding.. but as of now it looks like it will be Kellog)
4. Darden
5. Michigan
6. Duke
7. Cornell/UCLA
8. Stern
9. UNC
10. Emory/UT

It still is a long list and I need to trim it down further.How do I do it is a question.

I have been eagerly trying to find out about the profiles on India/IT Males who have made it to these schools to assess my competitiveness, but no luck so far at most of the schools.
I have good GMAT, good acads in my undergrad, working for a BIG brand name product development company with lot of extra curriculars and a LOT of community service with good leadership roles. But I lack international work experience and have 4 years of work ex, which I think might be a little less for some schools.
Also I wont be able to visit the schools and I think the schools do give some weightage to students who visit the school and show genuine interest in the school.

With all the research so far I have found that no one can answer the question which is on top of the mind of all applicants "What are my chances?"

I know I have been tempted to ask this myself, but the more i read about admission process the more I realize it is not really possible to answer that. May be someone can suggest if my profile would be competitive or not, but at the end of it if you are a decent candidate it all boils down to your essays and interview.

Shortlisting the schools!!

2006-04-28T11:13:00.000-07:00

After almost a week long research, browsing through the site, exchanging mails with the current students, talking to applicants and reading businessweek I am convinced that Wharton is one school where I definitely want to go.

So, Wharton is the first school I have on my list.

I am now researhing Stanford/Kellog/HBS and would most probably apply to one of these. As of now based on my limited research Kellog/Stanford it will be :)or may be both.

About HBS I would love to go there, for that matter everyone would, but I am not sure if I would be doing the right thing devoting so much of time and energy on its application when I know the returns might not be too good :)

Columbiba has declared its ED deadline. So the race has begun!!

The Running of the Bulls: Inside the cutthroat race from Wharton to Wall Street

2006-04-17T19:32:00.000-07:00

Last time when I had gone to get some books I happened to see the above book and without any second thought I picked up a copy to get an insider view of the life at Wharton. I had also been partially inclined towards finance and was not sure if I Banking would be my cup of tea or not.

This is one of the few books that I read without leaving a single page, including the preface, acknowledgement etc. The reason for this may be that either the book was so interesting or I was too motivated to get the maximum juice out of the book.

The only thing I was disappointed at was that the book talked only about the undergraduate school and not the MBA School, but despite of that it gave a very good perspective about the culture of the school, the academic rigor, the alumni base of the school etc. The biggest insight was about the recruiting and internship process, which is the most important phase of the life at a B school.

Another big take away for me from the book was the greater understanding of what it takes to be a banker J. I am more aware about the dark side of this job then before and about the brighter side I think we all know it pretty well J The high salaries and fat bonuses and an amazing sense of empowerment. I am pretty convinced that given the priorities of my life I am not interested in such a career where I would be left with no time for my family, myself and to be involved in some of the things which are very close to my heart.

Wharton came off as a very finance centric school with almost the whole batch trying to jobs in finance related fields, consulting was the second preference and the book never talked about technology related careers or Not for Profit related careers. But I think that might be because it was a book about the undergraduate school.

I surely liked the challenge of thriving in such an ultra competitive environment and being among the over achievers. I myself would go out and make the most of it if I get a chance at Wharton. I liked the awesome career service department and the alumni base, the kind of admiration and reputation the brand carries. It will help me come back to my country and work in future as Wharton brand holds the same value across the globe.

I would still spend some more time on the Wharton website and try and get in touch with some current students or alumni.

So am I applying to Wharton? Well cannot say that as of now need to research more schools and see which fit me most. But no doubts about it that Wharton surely rocks!!!!!!

I would really appreciate if you guys can share some of your insights about the school incsae you researched the school.

Moving Ahead ...

2006-03-25T04:32:00.000-08:00

After a brief period of patting myself at the back for the good show in GMAT I am now ready to take the next step.

I have been working in office and partying with friends, watching movies and having fun. I am also learning french :) It sure is a lot of fun to learn about someone else's culture and traditions and the language. A few more interesting people in my class would have made it an even better experience :)

I have downloaded the essay questions of most of the schools in Top 30 and plan to download their applications as well.

I would now be researching the schools I would be interested in applying.

The more I read about the MBA application process the more I realize that its very unpredictable and a long and enduring process.
The key lies in differentiating yourself from the others. I need to improve my writing style to make it more interesting and crisp.

Best of luck to all the applicant who are waiting for the results or are on waitlist.

First Step of my Journey :)

2006-03-14T05:12:00.000-08:00

I am really happy that I did as I expected on the final Day and sored >720, which I think should put me in a good position. I am planning to apply for fall 2007.

I need to figure out how I can make the most of the time I have at my hand. Any suggestions ?? Things which could help me make a stronger case for the top B schools and add value to my application.

How to start researching the schools etc etc :)

Thanks to all you wonderful people. Your blogs have been a great source of inspiration !!! Thanks for the wishes and the tips too :)

Incase anyone has any questions regarding GMAT I would be glad to answer. I have benifited a lot form the fellow bloggers and would sure want to give back to the comunity.

9 days to go...

2006-03-05T10:09:00.000-08:00

After a 740 in GMAT prep1 a score of 720 was not really very encouraging but still I think it was not really bad.

Now that I am done with both the tests I can start working with the Official Guide. I have high expectations from this book so lets see if it lives upto that.

I have started taking kaplan Higher score tests and plan to finish them soon. Got 640 in the first test. I think the standard of RC was really tough and I made a lot of mistakes.

I think CR is the only area where I have mainained a good accuracy rate in all the tests.
I was doing well in RC also till the last test in which RC was a big disaster.

In gmat prep 2 tests it was SC which bombed :(

But still on an average I am making around 7-10 mistakes in the verbal section.
In quants I have been a bit disappointed as so far I have n been able to get a 100% accuracy rate in any test as I am maknig some mistakes in data sufficiency. This is the biggest area of concern as I think if I can get all correct in quants then even if I do average on verbal I will get a good score.

GMAT Prep Test 1

2006-03-03T10:32:00.000-08:00

Finally I got the Gmatprep cd from my friend and I sat down with the test. I was a little nervous as I wanted to do well on the test because people say it is the true replication of the actual test.

I gave it with full concentration and score a 740 (Q 50 and VA 40)
and was pretty happy to see the score. Nevertheless, I could have done much better as I realized I had made many mistakes.

I plan to take the next test tomorrow and then get started with OG as I have only 10 more days to go :)

Slow progress

2006-02-24T09:04:00.000-08:00

I am done with the Kaplan Verbal workbook and almost half of kaplan 800.
The difficulty level of questions in Kaplan 800 is surely much better and it has helped me increase my accuracy in Critical reasoning and sentence correction.

Maths was fine, no great about the difficulty level.

Took another Princeton Review Test and scored 730 this time with a raw score of 46 in quants and 45 in verbal.

The good news is that I am scoring well in verbal and making around 8 mistakes in a full length test. The bad news is that I am still unable to put a check on the careless mistakes I am making in Data sufficiency.

I need to focus more and go a little slow in the maths section. I finished it with almost 40 minutes to spare.

Verbal i need to improve my focus and concentration level and that would help me push my score further up.

From where I am right now a simple zero error score in maths would get me a 750 plus and I need to focus on getting this right. After that even if I do just fine in verbal i will get a good overall score.

inching closer to the GOAL

2006-02-20T01:40:00.000-08:00

I am feeling much better now and am in aposition to sit and study without much of pain :)

I have almost finished the kaplan verbal workbook and right now I am working with kaplan 800 and it is an amazing book.
have done only Critical reasoning from the book and it sure is pretty tough.

I have also takem 2 full length tests in last few days.
First one was the Paper based full length test in kaplan book.

I got 4 wrong in Quants and 10 wrong in Verbal section.This fetched me a score of 660 according to the scoring formula given in the book.

In Verbal I made only one mistake in CR and 5 in Sentence correction and 4 in Reading comprehension.

Yesterday night I took Computer adaptive test from Princeton Review and managed a score of 680. Here again I made 3 mistakes in quants and 9 mistakes in the verbal section. Out of these 9 I again made 3 mistakes in Sentence correction and 4 in Reading comprehension and 2 in Critical reasoning.

Was a bit disappointed as I was expecting a score of above 700.

So now what i feel is that I am doing good in critical reasoning and I need to improve my accuracy in sentence correction and reading comprehension.

part of it can be done by concentrating better and being aggressive while eliminating the answer choices. In some cases I did not read all the answer choices carefully, in someother read the question wrong.

Quants is where I am strong and I need to get rid of the careless mistakes I am doing. As all the 7 mistakes I made in the 2 tests were very simple ones and I made the mistakes because fo trying to hurry up.

I still have not started with my OG and I think doing that should also help me improve on my scores in sentence correction.

I am all pumped up and want to hit a score of 750 plus. Lets see if I can push myself hard enough to do that.

What a start :) The going just got tougher.

2006-02-13T10:05:00.000-08:00

I was down with fever for past few days and was avoiding a visit to a doctor. When the fever just refused to go away even after 3 days I finally went to see a doctor and it turned out to be something more serious than a normal fever and have been advised bed rest for minimum 10 days. And guess what the previous night only I had booked my GMAT test date for March 14th :)

I think god thought testing me just on GMAT would be an easy thing to do, so he increased the odds against me :) and here I am now with only 4 weeks for my GMAT and out of which the next few days are gonna be bad with fever, weakness and many other things :)

I flew back home and am off from work till I get well. That means good food and care at home :)

I have carried along all my gmat books. The net here is real slow so I wont be able to take too much of advantage of the various online forums etc. Need to register for VIP membership of scoretop. Anyone with an idea how good it is ?

Have been working with the Kaplan book for the last 2 days now.
The way I see it, I hardly need to do anything about quants.
I am also finding CR pretty straight forward, sometimes the weaens and strengthens questions get a little tricky but most of them are in black and white with no grey areas.

Sentence correction also I am improving slowly and my accuracy level is up to 80% now.

Reading comprehension was something i used to think might be tough, but to my surprise i made only 1 mistake in 24 questions I attempted so far from the kaplan book.

Once i finish this I would also take the full length practise test and then move on to kaplan verbal workout and then to kaplan 800.

Right now I am feeling really weak so studying in short slots of half an hour types.

Lets see if i crack under adversity or make a record :)

One month is all I have

2006-02-08T04:33:00.000-08:00

It has been long time that i have been going slow on my preparation for GMAT. Finally I have decided to put my foot down and set a date for myself.

March first week is what I am aiming at, I still need to find out if there is any free slot available during that time.

I plan to get cracking with the kaplan book by this weekend.

Next would be Kaplan Verbal Workout and then Kaplan 800.

Once I am done with these I am sure I should be ina good shape to take the cd tests and would move on to OG.

Lets see how quickly and vigourously I get cracking on this.

Got Tagged :p

2006-02-01T02:11:00.000-08:00

Starting here, the game hit KV who in turn tagged Mr D.Spiral and then wannabe and finally hitting me.

So here I go

Four jobs I've had in my life:
Ok I have been working for a few years only so dont really have 4 full time jobs :) But anyhow some of the jobs I think are major ones are

Placement Coordinator at College
Software Engineer at my previous organization
Programmer at my Current Organization :)
Fund Raising coordinator at a Not for Profit Organization

Four movies I can watch over and over:

Forrest Gump
Notting Hill
The Matrix
Munna Bhai MBBS its a hindi comedy :)

Four places I have lived:

Hissar
Bangalore
Hyderabad
Gurgaon

All in India and none of them is my hometown

Four TV shows I love to watch:

Young Turks
India Business Hour

I cant really recall any other TV show which I watch regularly..

Four places I have been on vacation:

Pondicherry
Shimla
Kodai kanal
Kullu manali

Four of my favourite dishes:

Kheer
Halwa
Aloo Parathas with curd
Pizza

Four websites I visit daily:

Pagalguy
business week
Orkut
My yahoo gorups

Four places I would rather be right now:

At home with Parents
Sipping coffee and reading a book
In the Gym or running
With my friends

Four bloggers I am tagging:

I am a new kid on the block not really sure if I know 4 bloggers who would respond :)
Lets see if I can continue the game :)
Forrest
Vibhu
Ash

What if it was Real GMAT Verbal Section :)

2006-01-29T21:04:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a good day, it did a lot to boost my confidence level. In the monring I read the Sentence Correction section from the Kaplan book.
It was good, but I would say the Princeton Review Verbal Workout was much better to get the basic right.
Kaplan did give a bit of information about the 8 different types of error GMAT tests you on and gave some examples about that too.

I did not attempt the sentence correction exercise at the end of Kaplan as I was expecting them to be a little tougher and want to keep them for a little later.

I had read the sentence correction from PR Verbal Workout and attempted the sample verbal section test give in it. The test had 41 questions and I timed myself to get a feel of the actual section test.
The questions werenot tough, but still some of them were a little tough and I had to choose between the two choices I was left with.

In the end I was surprised to see that I got 38 correct out of the 41 questions.
I treated myself with an ice cream :) and dint study after that :)

From today back to studying !!!

Being is almost always incorrect on GMATLAND

2006-01-25T02:15:00.000-08:00

A good improvement from the previous score in Sentence Correction.

I was might disappointed with my performace in sentence correction of the crack gmat diagnostic test i took. I sat down with Princeton Review Verbal work out and read about the 8 different types of error which are usually tested on GMAT.

It had some exercises as well for each type of error, it really helped in improving my ability to identify that error.There was a test at the end of it with 22 questions and I got only 4 wrong out of them, which I am sure is a great improvement over my previous performance.

Being is never correct in GMATLand :)
intent on is correct idiom intend to is correct to
Always try to underline the subject and the verb in a sentence and then see if they agree in number.This can be made complex by adding a lot of additional info in between the sub and the verb.
so much ..as is correct idiom

Process of elimination is the best way of tackling the problem. Going forward I have planned to solve all the questions witha scratch paper in which I will have a square for each of the choices and would write the reason as to why this is incorrect.This I believe will help a lot in gettimg more conceptual clarity.

Would I get one too :)

2006-01-21T07:37:00.000-08:00

Got this from http://bschoolorbust.blogspot.com/

HBS Admit letter from the BW forum
(if I am violating some copyright law, please inform me and I will take it off)

Dear Ms. xxx:

Congratulations!
On behalf of Harvard Business School, I am delighted to offer you
admission to the MBA Program. Your admission recognizes your outstanding
record of accomplishment and your potential for future success.
Each year, the MBA Admissions Board selects a class from among the
brightest and most accomplished young individuals in the world. We
aspire to find leaders like you who have the highest standards of
integrity and who understand that leading is a privilege.
The Harvard MBA Program offers more than just an academic degree; many
find it to be a transformational experience. By immersing yourself in
the case study method, and by working with distinguished faculty and
students, you will teach others as you learn. You will build deep,
practical knowledge while developing your leadership capabilities. In
joining our community, you will become part of an influential worldwide
network of alumni who will support you throughout your life.
We hope that you will accept our offer and want to make sure that you
have all the resources you need to make this important decision. Our
Prematriculation Web site will be your main source of information over
the next few months. It will direct you to key activities that will help
you learn more about HBS, such as Admitted Students' Weekend; in
addition, it highlights key requirements and logistics related to
joining HBS. You can immediately access the Prematriculation Web site by
using your username: xxx, email domain: mba2008.hbs.edu, and password:
xxx.
Your offer of admission is exclusively for the MBA Class of 2008,
entering in 2006, and it is contingent upon the verification of your
transcript(s), verification of your employment history, a signed copy of
"Joining the HBS Community" (a document that highlights our Community
Standards), and a tuition deposit.
We believe that you have the potential to make a real difference in the
world and hope that you will decide to become a part of the Harvard
Business School community.
Sincerely,

Brit K. Dewey
Managing Director, MBA Admissions & Financial Aid

CRaCk GMaT

2006-01-14T00:44:00.000-08:00

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

http://www.crack-gmat.com/gmat.htm

I happened to visit some blog where I got this link to take a free online Diagnostic Test. I had been wanting to take one full length test for long time. As I took the first one a while ago and left my preparation in between after that.

So basically its a fresh start I am making and wanted to know where I stand before I formulate my strategies.

Todays morning I took this test and the result was not very encouraging. But it wasnt really abd either.

It started with the Quantitative section through which I was able to breeze through. I finished it much before time and got 34 right out of 37 and it showed me a scaled score of 50.

The second section was verbal and this was the one which gave me a shock. I managed to get only 22 right out of 41 and 19 mistakes.

The bad thing was I had mistakes in all parts of verbal test.

SC was the worst and i got 5 right out of 14 questions I attempted. CR was equally bad with 4 right out of 9. RC was relatively better 8 right out of 13 questions.

Now I think this is a real bad show in verbal and there is a lot of effort I need to put in before I even get close to my target score of 750.

But one thing I was surprised to see was that despite of it the test showed me a score of 610 and it saud the score of the actual test would be a 100 points more than your score here as this test is relatively tougher.

But I am not reading too much into this last statement and would make sure I improve on my overall verbal score.

I had been doing some work on this already and its not good news that it dint help me much. I had taken a few tests from LSAT critical reasoning, was reading some verbal notes and frequenting various gmat forums like testmagic and sentencecorrection.com

looks like it is a long road ahead, but then I love challenges and its going to make it more interesting.

Small Steps to begin with

2006-01-10T01:17:00.000-08:00

Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.
--Robert Collier

I have spent my last few days trying to gather information on whats the best way to start my preparation and what should be my strategy to attack the test.

There is so much of information available out there and at times it got really confusing. I just wanted someone to come and tell me that do this and this and it would be done. But then it aint so simple, I finally tried to come up with my own plan of action and this is how it looks.

To start with I am going through some of the Verbal Notes complied by people who have done well at GMAT.
Sumeet Thakur's Verbal Notes

is a very good compilation and its helping a lot.
At the same time I have started visiting
testmagic.com
scoretop.com
pagalguy.com
sentencecorrection.com and they seem to be real good place to get your doubts clarified and learn new things.

Next I plan to start with Princeton Review Verbal owrkout and that should give me a good standing to get cracking on sentence correction.

Side by side everyday I plan to spend some half an hour on RC/CR form LSAT material I got from some forum. This would help me get in good shape for CR especially.

As of now this is what I have planned. Once I start implementing this I would have a fair idea of my strengths and weaknesses and I would be able to decide the future course of action.

I have plans to do Kaplan , Kaplan Verbal Workout and OG after this.

Missed by a whisker!!!!!

2006-01-06T22:54:00.000-08:00

The sotry begins !!
So far i was a little lax with my prep as I was a last minute participant in the race for CAT, Commaon Aptitude Test conducted for selection to the Indian Institutes of Management (for those who dont know about it, i doubt it though)

Quantitative (% Score) 31.75
Quantitative (Percentile) 96.07
Verbal (% Score) 36.00
Verbal (Percentile) 96.05
Logic & Data Interpretation (% Score) 23.73
Logic & Data Interpretation (Percentile) 85.48
TOTAL (% Score) 30.96
TOTAL (Percentile) 97.58

This is how my final score card reads :)
Missed by a very small margin.. in DI I shuld have made may be one more mark and I wuld have got atleast one call.

Anyway its over and I want to move ahead and take my plunge for GMAT now, it gives me all the more reason to go all out and crack it and give it my best.

I have finally decided that i will take GMAT by March mid and have started my basic preparation and information gathering.

Hope I would be able to achieve my goals this year.

I am back and I am here to stay !!

2005-12-01T03:20:00.000-08:00

I have been off for a quiet long time now and I am sure some of you must be thinking the blog is gonna be dead, but I am back. There was a little change in my priority and had to concentrate on something else for the last few months and now that I am done with it I am all rearing to move ahead and go all out for GMAT with even greater enthusiasm.

I have not yet started preparing again but I am planning to start it now and would take GMAT around Jan end or Mid Feb.

In the meanwhile I have still kept my eyes and ears open to all the information flowing around regarding the various schools and GAMT preparation.

I attended the World MBA tour last week and had a chance to talk to some of the school’s representatives. Few of them I talked to were Darden, Wharton, Hass, Queens and Ross school of Business.

I was really impressed by how patiently the lady from Queens Admission committee took all our questions and explained to us about the Queens philosophy and what it is looking for in the candidates and what makes it a special place. I was attracted towards it more because of the relatively lower cost and its inclination towards technology. It also emphasizes on team work and the smaller class size lets the students share a special bond and know each other well.

Ross school of Business hosted a presentation and I had a chance to attend it. I found that as the most interesting talk on the day. They shared a lot of information about the school, its culture, teaching methods and community. There were two alums from the school who made a great effort to share with us their experience. It had so much information which one can never find on any website or forums. Now I know how it helps to talk to alumni and how much helpful it can be. This is one school I am surely applying to. I have Stanford on my list for sure as well and that’s mainly because of the focus on not for profit and social entrepreneurship. I can take a lot of learning out from the courses for non profit offered their and can work with some of the esteemed faculty on a social entrepreneurship project as well. Over the next few months I am sure there will be many more additions and deletions to the list J and a lot depends on the GAMT score.

Target CrITiCaL ReasOniNG

2005-08-29T01:26:00.001-07:00

Have been going real slow with my Prep so far as I was involved with some community work and also was over loaded with work at office.Now I have finished the community service project I was working on and also my office work load will be a bit lighter for next one month or so.

I have planned to attach the sections where I can attain 100 percent accuracy rate. I have identified Quants and CR as the two sections where I can aim at giving my sore aboost. For quants I am not doing anything specific as of now but I am pretty sure that with a little bit of practise and a great amount of concentration while giving the tests I will be able to avoid the careless mistakes I might make during the test.

For critical Reasoning I have started with practising the questions given in the LSAT. I read it on scoretop.com that LSAT CR is tougher and if we can practise with LSAT CR questions we can surely do good in GMAT CR.
You can go to scoretop.com and get loads of practise sets from LSAT to practise CR. So next few days I will be doing just CR and will also keep working on sentence corrections.

Somehow I feel that I will end up with 2-3 mistakes each in RC and SC and CR each. So if I can get all right in Qquants and decrease my mistakes in verbal I would be in a very good shape.

For SC I have finished Princeton Review and the Verbal workout of Princeton Review. I gave a test but still ended up with 10 mistakes in verbal section. I have to see how I can improve on Sentence correction in particular.

Some good information

2005-08-21T01:40:00.001-07:00

Below is the post I got from http://brit-chickmba.blogspot.com . Found it really good. Might be of help to some of u as well.

What I'm looking for
Before talking about each school, I thought it would be useful to post the lists I made of why I want to do and MBA and what I want from a programme.

What do I want to achieve?

Equip myself to lead an nfp organisation in the future, by:

* developing skills in strategy and leadership
* gaining a deeper understanding of the issues affecting nfp orgs
* building more generalist skills and knowledge onto my specialist skills, knowldege and experience.
* acquiring enough knowledge of other specialisms to understand the issues and ask intelligent questions
* gaining knowledge and skills in the 'hard' areas
* building on my knowldege and skills in the 'soft' areas

What am I looking for when chosing an MBA

* Core courses with a good mix of 'hard' and 'soft'
* Opportunity to lok in-depth at leadership, strategy and nfp issues
* Ability to have both breadth and depth in course taken
* To learn from experts working at the 'cutting edge'
* To learn from my fellow students
* To be able to put theory into action
* To be in a co-operative culture
* Opportunity to work and study with people from a wide-range of backgrounds
* To be somewhere I'll enjoy living and studting
* Good links to nfp orgs and consultacies
* Interesting extra-currics
* Interesting people
* A firm foundation for future professional practice and development
* A well-regarded course
* A mix of teaching methods, used effectively
* Opportunitied to sing (a long-term hobby that I want to continue)
* Finance available for international students
* A loan forgiveness programme
* Decent transport links with the UK
* Not too big, but not too claustrophobic
* Excitement!

The above aren't in any particular order. I'm going to go through them at some point and divide the criteria into 'essential', 'desirable', and 'bonus', and probably add in some more that I think of along the way.

Edited to add: In response to requests, anyone wanting to use this list elsewhere is very welcome to do so, but I'd appreciate it if you could credit where it originated. Thanks.

Now, as promised, my thought on each school:

Yale
What makes it stand out

*Very good reputation for its nfp offerings.
*Interesting nfp focussed resources and courses (e.g. Programme on Social Enterprise, Partnership on Nonprofit Ventures, Nonprofit Organiosations Clinic.
*Social Entrepreneurship course
*Strong offerings in the strategy area.
*Strong offerings in the leadership area (including Chief Executives Leadership Institute, Creativity and Innovation course)
*Intersting joint offerings with other schools, particulalrly liked the look of 'Business Ethics and Sleeping Well' with the School of Divinity.
*Small school.

Concerns

*New Haven
*No university housing, how difficult will it be to find accommodation when I'm coming from across the Atlantic and have no local credit history?

Stanford
What makes it stand out

* Overall profile and reputation of the programme
* Location / weather
* Centre for Social Innovation and the nfp course oferrings
* Centre for Leadership Development and Research and the leadership and strategy courses
* Leadership DEvelopment Platform
* Process of Change Lab
* Management communication Programme

Concerns

* Location - west coast makes time difference with and travel time to the UK that little bit more

Before I visited, I'd listed 'reported arrogance of students'. I've now deleted that, but replaced it with 'very high competition from extremely able applicants'! But if you don't ask, you don't get, and the worst they can do is say 'no'.

Kellogg
What makes it stand out

* Centre for Nonprofit Management
* Offering of noprofit leadership non-credit course, early on in the year
* Social Impact Club and Conference
* LEAP
* Well regarded programme, both generally and for nfp's
* Very team focussed
* Good leadership and strategy offerings
* Board Fellowship course

Concerns

Slightly larger programme than the other two

One Down....dont know how many more to go :)

2005-08-20T04:33:00.000-07:00

I have been really keen on seeing what my score would look like if I take a full length test. But I had been restraingning myself from taking a full length test so that I dont waste one test cos of this temptation.

I did some basic stuff like reading the strategy to crack sentece correction and critical reasoning questions. I also did the Princeton review Verbal workout for sentence correction.
So finally I thought I should og ahead and take a full length test and I took the Princeton Review first cd test.Was taking it on my friends comp and it asked me to enter first word in Acknowledgement section for authentication, had to go back home and get the book.

So i did finally start my test.

First section promted to me was AWA and I dint even think twice before skipping the section :)
Next to come was Maths. I told myself not to hurry up through the section and give it with extra caution so that I dont make careless mistakes. I was pretty confident that I will get all of them right. Dint face any conceptual problems in any of the questions. But i guess that must be the case with most of the people. being an Indian male with Engineering background puts me in a good stead on my math skills.

The next section was the one where I really wanted to judge where I stand today so that I can plan my strategy accordingly. I was careful with the first 15 questions and gave them some extra time and went slow. I was trying to be careful and was also trying hard to keep my concentration level good. But looks like it dint happen :(

After finishing the test I was prompted if I would want to upload y score for which i said yes. But then my PC dint have anet connection so it dint happen. It then showed me the table where it listed out in each section which questions I got wrong and which ones I got right. Now here culd I find my score :(
Now I am still not surer how bad or decent my current status is. If you guys can help then here are the stats :

Quants 3 Wrong out of 37 and all of them were wide aprt and all after first 15 questions. Careless mistakes :(

Verbal wasnt as good as I wanted it to be. Anyway I know its the area I need to work on:
3 wrong in SC3 in CR4 in RC
so total of 10 wrong out of 41 :( But the good thing was no mistakes in first 10.

Any clues on how u think I stand at this point of time.I know it wont make much difference as neither will I get over confident nor complacent but still I had this curiosity to know the score.

Anyway I know the areas I need to work on now. So I will try harder to cut my mistakes there and be more careful in quants and not commit any careless mistakes.

Today is saturday but we are officially working as we have a release coming up soon :) Listening to Enrique One night stand have a grt day guys

Its not that bad after all :)

2005-08-12T05:53:00.000-07:00

Hey guys the sentence correction doesnt seem as tough as I was thinking after going through the rules in the Princeton Review.
I have practised a bit about how to identify the common GMAT errors and have been made good progress atleast in the tests given in the Princeton Review book.

I know it might be relatively easy and not a correct reflection of how the actual level of difficulty of sentence correction may be in actual GMAT. It has atleast helped mke get rid of phobia of Sentence Correction.

Going forward I plan to finish Princeton Review Verbal Workbook and then move on to kaplan and then Kaplan verbal workbook.

Last would be the OG :)

I hope this is the correct approach and should help me ace the SC questions on GAMT>
I am right noe concentrating only on SC as I was most scared of this.
I tried Quants and DS and I am sure with a bit of concentration I can get most of them right. That leaves me with SC and CR and RC to concentrate on.
Planning to take my first full length test over the weekend. We have along weekend ahead as we have a holiday for Independence Day on Aug 15th .
Happy Independence Day !!!

Done with the DIagnostic Test

2005-08-01T21:27:00.000-07:00

In matters of principle, stand like a rock; In matters of taste, swim with the current.
-- Thomas Jefferson

I finally bouth my First book Kaplan GMAT book. Took my first Diagnostic test and was not sure how to react. It dint go too well or too bad.

It had 38 questions and I got 29 right and 9 wrong.
Data sufficiency 2 wrong (The first two questions of the test. Careless mistakes)
Quants : All correct. it was pretty simple
CR : 3 wrong :( A bit disappointed here
RC : 3 wrong. This is my weakness I know and I am ready to work on it as well.
SC: 1 wrong. Was a bit happy as i was most scared of SC.

It showed a score of 76%. Dint know how to interpret that in terms of absolute score.
Have been reading Spidey's Notes for SC so far. PLanning to get Princeton Review and Kaplan Verbal workbook.
Will start with PR and take a full length test from that to gauge where I stand as diagnostic test dint tell me much I think.
Then I will do Kaplan and later on OG and kaplan verbal workbook.

Long way to go :)

(Does)Slow and Steady wins the Race ???

2005-07-25T02:32:00.000-07:00

It has beena logn time since I have updated the blog. That doesnt necessarily mean there is nothing happening on the GMAT prepration front.

I have been doing a lot of introspection about when exactly I want to apply for B schools and when will it be the right time to give GMAT. I have decided finally to go ahead and apply for GMAT now and apply to ISB this year itself.
I will have three years of work ex by then. Which I know is a bit less and it might be better to go in the next year. But, at the same time I know the learning curve at my job is not too steep at the moment and there might not be much fo a difference in the value I might have added on to myself during this one year period.

Outside work there is a lot I can do and add value,like, continue the work I am doing with an NGO, learn a new language and get involved in some other activites. But professionally I dont see much responsibility coming my way in next one year's time.

So now that I have decided I am gonna start off right away with my prepration. I actually bought a new study table chair for myself. have started off with reading Wren and Martin, the English grammer book(thats cos I dont have any other material at the moment)

There seem to be too many rules to remember and it looks daunting, but its a lot of fun too.

There was a funny thign mentioned there.

With uncountabel nouns we can use plural. Now advise ,scenry etc are uncountable.. but it was written that in India they are considered countable !!! I was surprised to see that.. Cos I never thought the same.. And I am sure most of the other Indians dont.

Guys if anyone of you can suggest me the best sequence to start off and which books to follow it willbe great. Cos i read a lot and have too much info now..which is confusing me a bit.

Gathering the gyaan

2005-07-05T02:27:00.000-07:00

Have just shifted to a new house and haev taken a seperate room on the top floor. I am really happy for this because now I can study peacefully without getting disturbed by others in the house.
Started off with researching few sites and blogs. There seems to be an amazing amount of information available on the Blogs and on various sites. Few of them are:

1. http://mbaleague.blogspot.com
2. http://daveformba.blogspot.com/
3 http://www.beatthegmat.com/
4 http://home.comcast.net/~dave.kim/index_files/Page423.htm
5 http://www.gmatclub.com/
6. http://scoretop.com
7. http://www.clearadmit.com/2005/05/best-of-blogging-2004-05.html
8. http://pagalguy.com/cat

Now these are some of the resources I have been tapping into and I am amzed how helful some of these are. I would seriosuly reccomend looking into all these and getting a feel of whats required and whats the strategy you need to follow and how to plan your GMAT better.
There are people who have been there and done it.. It can be a grt advantage if you can see how they went about it and see what strategy suits you best and plan according to that.

I would appreciate if you can leave as comments other useful links which i have missed.

Here I go

2005-07-04T04:03:00.000-07:00

Well I have just decided on starting off with my GMAT prep and my journey for a MBA . Wish me luck and I hope to share all the Gyaan I will accumulate while I follow my dream :)

Adios