oops..

i am a re-applicant to Booth this year and already exhausted with my app. Today my recommender calls up and tells me that he has submitted my reco..and i thank him. After a brief pause he says but there is one small issue, i forgot to select the correct relationship in the reco form. And my jaw dropped... :'(

He is planning to write a note to the ad-com but i just can't concentrate on my app..he selected the correct info but then his explorer collapsed and whatever changes he made were lost.

I am hoping that this silly mistake doesn't prove to be a show stopper..and i encourage all the fellow applicants to update their recommenders so that they don't commit the same mistake..

Gearing up again

I have almost recovered from the setbacks and disappointments of last year's application season debacle. I am feeling enthusiastic again about applying to some top b-schools. I gave a deep thought to my application strategy and summarized it as:

1. Apply only to top 10 b-schools -- i don't think its gonna change {i know its very risky but can't just help it...}

2. Colloquial language-- BIG NO --has to change...i was too colloquial.. --> will be a lot more structured and formal while approaching the essays

3. My goals were too narrow -- i was specific but too narrow -- will be specific but will show some flexibility..won't be too rigid this time

4. Failed to highlight my extra currics and achievements outside the professional domain -- Will have to show a multi-dimensional facet...

Tied up real bad in a critical project so that leaves very little time for blogging...but will try to share timely updates on my apps...

Dinged by Booth

finally am off the waitlist...but as always have ended up on the wrong side ...

Essay Consulting - Admit1

During the app process i found people who straightaway quashed the essay consultants and then there were others who had great words to say about them. There are people who are better at soul searching, structuring their thoughts and writing precisely. Unfortunately, i am not the best of the thinkers and nor the prolific of the writers.

Squandering aimlessly after 2 dings and 1 WL, i saw Yael Redelman's blog. She is an experienced admissions consultant from NYU's MBA Admissions as well as a graduate of the NYU MBA full-time program. She has experience in Investment banking and hi-tech fields. And, she specializes in customized and personal admissions consulting for top MBA programs.

During my interaction with her i found her to be very friendly and helpful. If i am applying to b-schools during 2011, i will seek her help. for others who are applying during R3 or during fall of 2011 iwould suggest that you give Admit1 a thought. You can go to Yael's blog:
http://admit1mba.blogspot.com/2011/02/are-you-strong-enough-for-insead-and.html

For free assessment of your profile you can always mail her {her mail id is there on her blog}.

p.s: i do not have any personal interest in Admit1 and the views expressed here are my own..

Applications -- Some dos and don'ts

I did not get an admit this year but learnt lots of lessons. My stats were well above median for all my target schools. Be it the GMAT, GPA, Work ex, career progression, extra currics, i had some stellar numbers. But i failed to write a good story {and here i am aspiring to be a writer}. Following are some tips that "might" help others:

1. Career Goals -- I have a crystal clear picture of my career goals. But clarity alone doesn't help, i failed to show why i am so passionate about my goals. Since my goals were entrepreneurial, i also failed to show viability of my goals.

Learning: Know your goals {short term , medium term, long term} -- reading career literature or visiting the websites of your post MBA target companies is a great help. Go to the career sections, most of the companies share the typical career paths and also the associated skills, competencies and job responsibbilities. You will get a clear idea of what you will be doing and which skills you need to hone.

Why are you passionate about your goals: Don't just say i am passionate about marketing and hence i want to get into a marketing role. SHOW PASSION through some of your actions. I first got acquainted with marketing while working at college fest. I was responsible of marketing the fest to corporates and other colleges. I learnt x, y and z. i enjoyed doing a, b and c. despite of challenges m,n and p i did my job and fest was a huge hit. {This is just an example...you dont have to go back to college .. you can start with your last job or some extra curric that you re pursuing for a long time}. The basic idea is to link your goal with your passion.

Why is your goal feasible: I want to establish a company that will build golf clubs that will have analytics augmented in them. such clubs will automatically gather the data of your swings/hits/misses and once you push the analyze button, it will tell you your flaws and will guide you to a perfect swing. In the next decade there is going to be an increase of 50% in golf playing population and this club will have a huge demand..i envision that such a club can also help sportspersons and take the game to next level...blah blah...{obviously you need to put all of this succinctly...something that i consistently fail to do}

2. Leadership essays: one of the friends told me that best way to appraoch this essay is to prepare a MS Excel sheet. In one cloumn you write down all the leadership qualities that you possess and that you want to highlight in your essays. In second column put down all the stories from your life where you acted as a leader. Now play a mix and match...the story that can highlight maximum number of qualities should be your answer...SHOW THAT CHALLENGE -- HOW YOU RESOLVED IT -- WHY YOU BEHAVED IN THIS PARTICULAR MANNER -- WAT DID YOU LEARN -- WAT SKILLS YOU HOPE TO DEVELOP...

3. Never start writing an essay without having a good idea about your story....work on the plot first and then write the narrative...

4. School research does not mean listing down courses, faculty names, clubs etc,. again it shud be abt you..wat do you hope to develop thru a particular course/lab/club and how you will apply it in your post mba career...i made this mistake of simply listing down a lot of things i was excited about...better approach is to list few things and write about them in detail and how they are related to you...

Suggestions/Feedbacks are most welcome...

Happy New Year!!!

Happy new year to all the readers of this blog!! 2010 was a year that i would like to forget. A lot of my friends moved to new cities {limiting my option for partying}, i got 2 dings and 1 WL {probably because i didn't work smartly},  a bad back that bugged me from time to time..

But then 2010 was kind of good too because it made me introspect. I never gave my heart to anything that i tried. I was trying everything on superficial level. First and foremost problem was lack of focus. I wanted to get into a top b-school, i wanted to complete my novel, i wanted to learn guitar, i wanted to x, y and z ... but i failed to prioritize.

I started my novel and shared its plot with lots of people. Almost everyone praised the plot but when it came to completing the novel i never worked hard. Then came b-school apps..i started early and had a stellar profile {as per some ad consultants and some friends} but again i failed to put up quality apps.
I believe that i never worked hard on my apps and there were conspicuous flaws that i should ve corrected. In my next post i will definitely share some don'ts while applying to a b-school. Obviously a person who has not made it to a single school can only share don'ts..if i had known do's i wud have had an admit... ;)..
guitar..ah well i tried playing some chords but again never gave it the time....

i tried putting up R2 apps but decided not to waste $$$ and time...i didn't even plan for r2 till i got dinged from Fuqua {reading the ding from Fuqua was like ad-com sayin Fuq ya}...

For next few months i am not thinking abt b-school essays...last year i started too early..people had not even written their gmats and i was trying to write essays...i think i had too much time at hand but never used it judiciously..I have a lot of time at hand and i have to use it constructively...will try and prioritize...

Hope on Jan 1 2012 i will have plenty of good memories.. {ah 2012 is supposed to be the end of the world...gud i got dinged...else i wud have paid thousands of $$$ and wud have been dealing with hectic b-school life only to see the end of the world... ;) ... sour grapes for me...}

Dinged by Fuqua

That's 2/3 ... No i/v invite...i thought Fuqua would be a piece of cake for me...but i think i have not really understood the b-school app process well...out of my 3 apps...i only got 1 i/v invite...and then did my best to screw up the i/v...got WLed...at times i feel i was born to write a book 'How to screw up things when u re in a good situation..'

I didn't even prepare for r-2...had not given thought to safety schools....why i behaved in such an eccentric manner can't be explained thru this blog...

so r-2 or no r-2?? NO...i am not well prepared and i dont want to waste my and ad-com's time by submitting sub standard apps...I got my essays reviewed by a frnd who was part of ad-com at a b-school...and boy the way he bashed up my essays, sharing the experience is beyond the scope of this blog....I badly under played my story....and once he shared his insights...i realized that i am a very poor marketer...a b-school app is the best place to show ur marketing skills...and that too when u re eyeing marketing job post MBA....

Merry christmas and happy new year to all the fellow bloggers,...

and yes all this while i will try to pull of Booth's WL with all my might....and who knows if i can put a better app in next 10 days...Maybe..maybe i will....Makhtub...

1st ding

Kellogg has officially dinged me....ooops...was kind of expecting it....

Happy thanksgiving....

feels a bit bad...but whatever happens..happens for the best....at the very least i can have a bowl of Kelloggs...or i will have 2 today ;) ....

All da best to kellogg aspirants....

Done with the Round 1

My third app for R-1 is complete and i plan to submit the same by Oct-31. I can see a difference between my first 2 apps and the 3rd one. My motivation and passion for doing things is coming out in the essays. I am still not sure whether this would be enough for getting into a top b-school.

My strategy has been quite risky, i have applied to all schools in top 10 {in fact 2 schools are in top 5 and 3rd is near the bottom half of top 10}. No safety schools for me...

Interview invites have started rolling for one of my target schools but i haven't heard anything. I am talking about my first app. More or less my chances at this school are over { i still don't want to believe that :( ..}...in next few days i/v invites will start rolling for my 2nd app and i am expecting an i/v call at the very least....

As for my 3rd app i will only get to hear somethin in Dec {i/v decision}...for R-2 i have shortlisted 2 more schools...but a lot would depend on the results in r-1...if i am admitted then i won't apply to any other school...and if i am dinged at all 3 schools without an interview even then i won't apply anywhere ... :) ... Catch 22.... my mind is playing tricks with me...

Anyways..good thing is that i have updated my resume and it looks pretty impressive as compared to its earlier version.....can anyone tell me about some good job portals ;) ...

The feeling of completing my apps for r-1 has yet to sink in because my recommendors have not submitted the recs....will request them to do the needful at the earliest....

lastly, all da best to fellow applicants....biii

2 hawks down..2 more to go..

Have already submitted 2 of my apps and finding it hard to freeze the 3rd one. I want to approach the essays for my 3rd and 4th college from a different angle all together. I have all the ingredients but i don't have the recipe.

Shall i use the conversational style or go with the conventional style. I just want that my essays should reveal my personality in best possible manner. In retrospect, i am not happy with my 1st two apps. The grief is enhanced by the fact that those were my top 2 choices.

I don't have a clue about my next 2 apps and here i am killing time on blog. On Saturday i am going to play poker with friends. I have 9-10 days at hand before i hit the submit button again but things are not moving at the right pace.

I plan to submit 4 apps in R-1 and 2 more in R-2. If i don't get any interview invite in R-1, i may scrap my plans for R-2. I would better introspect and take corrective measures...

p.s: hats off to those who have submitted 4-5 apps in a short time...

K-1 Submitted

Long time since i wrote a post on this blog!!! Well..my illness turned out to be a bad throat infection and that eventually led to a high fever. Bleeding throat + Fever + 5 Sick leaves {am still not fully fine..100F..and weakness..bleeding has stopped}...didn't had much to do .. prepared a one page resume...and i think this one will come handy for all my apps...

am really getting scared now...not much time left...am leaving the town on Sep-19...and will come back on sep-29...Kellogg app is sealed..ll make few cosmetic changes before submitting ...nopes..how can i submit those essays...i have to work on essay4 - one more time...

Booth and Fuqua -- status quo -- no work done...for both these schools essay 1 and 2 are done...3rd essay needs to be worked upon....and i plan to do so in next 2 weeks...

Fourth school -- Wharton/Tuck/Ross -- oh my god...i love all 3 of them...but i am not sure to which i wud be applying this time....or maybe i will push 2 of these schools to second round....so only 3 schools in r1...

And finally i submitted my Kellogg part 1 application....checked..re-checked and again checked all the info...paid $250 using my c card...and as soon as i hit the pay button i felt i didn't answer some ques...last minute psyche up...had checked the part 1 on pdf format {Kellogg allows you to check whole of ur r1 app before submitting...}but still wanted to feel the pressure...at times i hate myself for pushing hard against the deadlines.. {part 1 deadline is sep24}...

Will share some resume crafting tips soon,...worked hard on my resume for the first time in my life...and  people liked the final product...got few compliments such as -- the resume shows u re a 'leader', 'driven', 'passionate', 'result oriented guy' ..woha....i am loving it....wish ad-com feels the same...

plan to submit part 2 once i am back from my trip...ll try and share the progress....until then.....Bbyeee.

DUKE MBA Application is open...

Duke has opened its online MBA application for FT MBA. Sep -30 is EA deadline and Nov-1 is R-1. Also the details of Info-sessions have been posted on the site...

All the best to all the Duke applicants.

Early Action - to apply or not !!!

The question that is bothering me for some time now is whether to apply in early action round? Does applying in EA increases one's chances of getting in? But, then with a binding to withdraw applications from all other schools can prevent one from getting into his/her dream school. Also, are Ad-coms more generous during EA when it comes to shelling out schols??

I have 2 schools on my radar that have EA with a binding. But both these schools are not my dream school {they are pretty close to my dream school but not no.1 }.

Need big time help on this one...