Update on Applications front

Nothing great till now. Though am hopeful of some good news, till now nothing substantial has happen to provide me some relief.

ISB R1 - Ding w/o interview (expected)

Cornell R1 - Application under review, no i/v invite till now (R1 decision deadline Dec 17 , not expecting anything now)

Darden R1 – Application under review, no i/v invite till now (R1 decision deadline Jan 31 )

Washington Olin R1 – Application under review

Emory R2 – Application submitted on 7th Dec.

HKUST R1 – Will be submitting on Dec 17.

NUS R1 – Will be submitting by Dec 20.

Nanyang R2 – Will be submitting by Dec 25.

I had hoped that i would have something in my hand by Dec end. But picture doesn’t looks that rosy here. I’ll have to slog and put in my best in the rest of the Apps. I cannot afford to loose this year.

My childhood dreams

Posting after a long time. Too much to write, will do it soon. Till then enjoy the below essay i wrote on the occassion of Childrens Day essay competition at office. I did win a 1st prize for it too

As a child everybody wants “to go to moon” and “Become Sachin Tendulkar”. However, I never had a particular aim, but always imagined lighter side of things and be happy with them. I dreamt of building a house on top of a coconut tree from where I can see the other side of the sea. I was vegetarian, but liked to catch fish with a towel in the nearby pond and keep them in a glass tumbler. This used to make me dream of having a small boat and fishing net with which I could fish all day in the river behind our house at my native place. I dreamt of wearing full pants in the school to look smarter than others but papa never allowed me prior to class 6^th arguing that I’ll lose concentration on class and instead I’ll keep on looking at my trousers comparing it with others.  I used to dream of riding a bicycle without papa supporting at the back.

I dreamt of my colony roads filled up with rain water up to knee height, so that I could play in it while coming back from school. I dreamt of the school bell ringing early so that I could hit the playground. I was very attached to my best friend in school which used to make me dream of him always being in my section of a class so that we can talk endlessly, which never happened (There were 3 sections in every class in my school). And last but not the least; I used to dream of being a good son, who’ll do anything to bring happiness to his parents. I still do.

Today I have matured but I still envy those days and those day dreams.

Submitted Cornell Application

 Submitted Cornell in R1 6-7 hours before deadline. Some more lessons learnt.

Still unclear of what all colleges to apply but next is for sure Darden, in R1(28th Oct).

Thinking about Duke,Tuck and Stern.

Still need to do a lot of research for the course and other details.

Waiting for ISB results. Delhi calls are out, mumbai next. Not expecting much but still

Typical Day in Life = k*1/(Peace)

         7.30 AM Something Vibrating nearby; Hand reaches in sub conscious state. Snooze!!!!!!. Continue dreaming … U.S… Chicago/NY/Ithaca/Virginia… Top MBA Program…. Cracking Cases….. Party…… Fun……. P****…….. Stay Together…… More Fun……..   8.10 AM “Something” again started vibrating. Eyes Open… Ohhh!!! It was Mobile Alarm….. Already late….. Thinking why did i put it on vibration instead of Ringtone…… Curses self……. Remembers, Because parents shouldnt know P**** had called ( religiously calls to wake me up at 7.30 A.M )…….  Have to rush…… O.K Decided and Period!!! will try to reach before 10 to office………and tommorow will definately get up at 7.30 ( I swear ).

        Hmmmm…. no shirt/Pant Ironed in the Rack … No Electricity either ….. No worries… T-Shirt Jeans Always Allowed ……. Rememebers…… HR Once commented, not to wear Casuals on weekdays ……. hmmmm what to do ……. No other option…… Will manage today….. today night will iron and keep for tommorow ( I swear ).

       Run to Bus stop….. Lot of traffic…… wish I had a Car……I would have definately not cared reaching at 11 too….. More traffic……..whether to take a Rickshaw?…….Rs70 …….yes..no..yes..no…. HURRAYYY ……….. Company BUS…… remembers no BUS PASS with me…….No worries…….. Driver wont ask….. Will manage today…. Before Leaving will definately make a pass for Self ( I swear )……… Gets inside the Bus…. 1st Seat….. More traffice…… who cares…….. Reads book….. 65 Successfull Harvard Business School Essays……. Day Dreams……. Yes!! I also Have it me……. Not harvard but yes…. some School below it for sure……… I have better Experiences to write………. 10.30 AM……. At Office gate…….. remembers……. Seepz Pass Expired …… laptop pass Expired……. What to do….. Have to go to Gate1…….. Will definately Make the passes before End of Day ( I swear ).

     10.45 AM…….. Finally at Office……. yet to keep the bag down…… P**** Calls ” y are u not online”…. “Coming baba, blah blah blah had happened”…..”Told you….. You never Listen to me, @%$&@!^”……….keeps phn down……. team member1……..”Please Approve this”……….yet to keep bag down……….

     Takes tea…… Opens Laptop……11.00 AM Functional Owner Calls “What happened to this? we were supposed to roll this out yesterday itself no!!!”……”Yes Sir, but yesterday somany issues came got busy with them”………”Dunno what is happenening yaar….. Some time you ppl say this… some times that….. Fine…. Please keep me updated yaar”……. “Sure sir, it’ll definately go by this weekend”……..Wish i could say him “I swear” ……Bangs phn down……..Yet to see mails……….and breathe easy……. Daily dose of Functional owner over so, relief……… P**** calls again…….”What are you doing till now, So much time you take to come online”……. “Blah.. blah.. blah had happened… Coming in 2 mins”………….

    11.30 AM …X Mails….. Y pending items…… will surely complete Z out of them for sure before today……team member2…”Please approve this….”….. “yes will be done, ping me with details”……… Mr.X calls….. “Sir, X here…. Did you arrange for gatepass for us.”….. remembers … had forgot to do that yesterday night…. “Please wait fot 5 mins… will be done.. right away”……. Calls admin….. “Big Ppl have come…. Please arrange gatepass ASAP… else….. Blahhhhh will happen”……….. X comes…..”Boss… You promised this this this yesterday, havnt recieved..”…….. Coordinates with everybody… to send data…… team member3 ……”Please approve this….”…. “Will be done, Ping me details”……………

   12 PM…….. Boss calls…….”yesterday we decided no, that we’ll prepare the xyz to be sent to CXO….. Is it ready….”…….. “Will send you in some time sir”……….” and one more thing……You did not respond to this this mail that day… please make a response yaar..”….”Sure sir”…….” You’ll come for the meeting today right”…….. Remembers….. theres a meeting today ……. “Sure sir, i’ll be there”…….”Then you send me the doc now, we’ll review it in the meeting”…….. Catches 2-3 free team members….. assigns work…….decent progress….. but needs to be expedited………..

   1 PM…….. VP pings…….” Y is this thing not sent for UAT till now, i thought we had closed it long back”……. “No sir, we got a more critical xyz report to work on…. so we pushed this to lower priority..”……… ” I want this to be done ASAP….. Dont want Delivery/Operations to suffer because of we giving priority to Finance….. Make sure things are on track…”…….. ” Sure sir “…….. Team member2 again pings ” XYZ needs your approval, you didnt do it till now”…… ” Will do it right away”…….  Others ……. “Come for Lunch!!!……” …… ” yes coming in 2 mins… You all stand in Line” ………..

   1.30 PM…..manages to just be on time for lunch in the line to join others…..P**** calls….. ” No time only you have!!!” …….” Arre… blaah… blaah.. blaah had happened… sori.. sori… sori….”……… ” Did you mail XYZ School about pqr”……… oooohhhhh remembers ………” Was planning to do that in the 2nd half”…… “You forgot na…..”…… “Yes, will do that right after lunch… ok?”….. “Please do it w/o fail..”

   2.15 PM……. XYZ dashboard not touched…… Opens….. so low numbers…. how come it is possible…..Finds mistakes… reports…. Now looks fine….. above 95%……… nobody will ask in meeting atleast this point……Still report for CXO not prepared…… makes arrangements…. manages to complete it just before 3 PM. Boss calls to join him in Car to go to other office for meeting…… Curses… y are these meetings there….. have to do so many applications…… If i get even 1/2 of the meeting’s time for myself.. can complete significant amount in the APPS…….. No point thinking…. gets into the car…….   USELESS Jokes and comments being passed by the other 2 in the car…… No other option but to listen…. Y… because they were previousl bosses……….

3.30 PM………Meeting starts…… 7 PM meeting ends…….. What happens on time in meeting….. 4 PM tea….. 5 PM Snacks……. 5.30 PM Tea again………. Ofcourse issues are also discussed…….. Hmmm… Now what…… to go back home or….. close the pending issues by going back to Office?…….. Home 5 mins from here/Office 30 mins……………. Goes to office………Tries to close somethings……. 9 PM…………. Ok… end of days play……. rest will continue tommorow………. No Bus pass…. y? because Receptionist Left……… Catch Rickshaw…… to home………..Goes home …… Dinner………. Thinks……..  How fast life has become……. I really have no time for me/P*****/Family/Others……… How to get everything on track?……… Does it happens with evertybody? …. yes….. no……yes…… no……..If this is the case now what will happen 5 years down the line……… Do i really want this?………. What do i want in life?…………. Peace …… is that what i want?………… So what do i do? ………… Take a day off from Office? …… No… lots of work at office ……. Give up leadership? ………… No……..I can only move ahead………… Give up P****?…………… No cant live w/o P**** …………… So do what? ………………Write a blog entry? ……… ok……….Writes……….. Ohhhhhh!!!!!!! whats the time? ……… 3 AM…….. Time to go to sleep……..Ok….

7.30 AM Something Vibrating nearby; Hand reaches in sub conscious state. Snooze!!!!!!……………………………

Submitted ISB App

    Finally App season in full flow and yes, realised it does take lot of efforts. Good experience.

I applied to ISB because of the following reasons.

• Strong Brand, both in India and Abroad. Good Placements.
• 1 Year, India, Hyderabad, low cost, No loan Problems.
• Good performance at ISB–> Good Probability of a chance for Industry/Function change.
• This is my Do or Die Year, so even though my score is 670 ( Last year ISB GMAT Avg was around 740 for IT Background ppl) i applied as i’ll never apply again. Wanted to give it an attempt.

Some pointers for people who aspire to be in ISB

• Get high GMAT score unlike me
• Essays would require considerable amount of thinking, So be prepared to research a lot, may be about ISB or CASE STUDY Provided.
• Again, Word Limit may be an issue for the essays given the toughness of essays.
• IT people, Ability to show difference is a must as i guess more than 50% applications come from IT.
• Data which i could collect for last year was… 3500+ Apps, 1200+ Interview Invites, 530+ Admits, 421 Accepts.

Some Learnings from ISB Application

• Deadline Planning for all stages of an Application is a must.
• Adherence to Planning is (must)^2
• Exceptions are there, So dont loose heart if you are lagging. You always have the option of Night Out My friend completed end to end App in 1 week( apart from GMAT) and am 200% sure he’ll get a call.
• Submit recos atleast 2 days before Final Deadline, You never know If your reccomender Falls Ill or his Tata indicomm Data Card stops working on the last day
• Keep specified Scan/Upload Docs ready well before time.
• Send Essays for review to to atleast 2 persons. One good at English , Other Good at Ideas. A current student reviewer would be very helpful if available.
• Talking out with Recommenders, very important. Recommender should know you in out to write a very effective refferal.
• You dont need an Addmission counsellor to bring out a best Application, A Very good Manager and strong inner self may serve better. 100% True.
• Again, dont wait till the last minute. Application may go down because of traffic ( ISB App went down, though only for few hours on the last day )

Post Scriptum :

• You can always write recos yourself and then review with your evaluator. May work for some people. But I dont buy that.
• All views evolved from cirsumstances that existed for me, may  not be applicable/effective for others.

All the best to R2 Aspirants.

Life–>General Observations

Past 1 month was one of very bad phases of my life. It actually tested the hell out of me and it continues to do so. Although it changed many things in my life but i have also learned some things which i’ll never forget. However it continues to make me envious of happiness. 

Some learnings which i would like to share :

• True love is rare and divine but difficult to search for.
• Its twice as difficult to sustain and thrice as difficult to completely have it for ever.
• Emotions are essential part of your life but letting them take complete control over you can have dangerous repurcussions.
• Money is equally powerful in buying materialistic desires and creating spark to ignite the fire.
• Short term benefits can have long term losses and vice versa.
• Education does matter. It not only decides your future but the future of the generations to come.

      Every thing revolves about my aspirations and desires v/s societal pressure. Every person has desires; some have materialistic, some spiritualistic. I aspire both. I aspire Love. I aspire power. I aspire growth. I aspire purity of heart. I aspire peace of mind and i aspire well being of all those who are not happy because of some or the other reasons. I dont see any thing wrong in that. The point am trying to make here is how far one should go to sacrifice his/her desires to keep societal pressure under control. “Man is a social being and Society is an important part of an individual’s life” –> looks good on civics books and Exam suppliments but in the past i have realized the impact can it have on our lives in making or breaking our future. If society is guiding you on to a good path, then well and good but what do you do when  95% of the people will think 100% bad things about you 50% of the time. So do you go ahead and show them your middle finger and move on? Or you give up and kill all you aspirations?

      I have always believed, decision making isnt the matter of making choices, but its an art of striking an optimum balance of the correct choices. I have been weak and incapable of making decisions in some dire physically and mentally challanging situations but i have never given up, thanks to some people. I continue to learn and improve. an MBA learning experience will certainly add to the improvement. Because chosing one is no big deal, its the effort to make a good percentage of all things work simultaneously is what counts. I apply the same to our topic under discussion too. You certainly cant get 100 % of both at the same time but yes you can put efforts to do so atleast to land up at 50-50.

   So i’ll not give up but fight till the end, because i know am not doing anything wrong and i wont let the inertia or ridiculous thinking sway me away. Yes, this path, will certainly cost me lot many more things but the change will bring new light for those who are yet to come. Not many will dare to do so as the pain will be excruciating but many will certainly block your way and say “No way!! Sir”. But its your patience and perseverence which will sail you through.

I’ll sign off with 2 lines of a very inspiring poem by Sir Robert Frost.

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I–

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

ISB Infosession !!

  In the Past week 2 major things happened.

• I underwent a Surgery. Yes!!!!!! A surgery. I was very scared but somehow its over and am recuperating. The 2 rods which were implanted in my hand 1 and half years ago because of a serious Radius Ulna Fracture, were removed. Its 2 days and i can type with my right hand straightaway. So good news here
• I attended ISB Infosession here in mumbai. It was well arranged at Taj Lands. Initially i had decided that i will not attend it because of a review from my senior who had attended it last year. but then somehow went against it.

     Point to note : Infosessions are good to attend if somethings other than PPT’s happen like Alumni Talks / Demo classes / One on one talks /  Free snacks

          Good things / Takeaways :

1. Some statistics which are not available on net which they presented in PPT.
2. Alumni Introductions where they presented they Pre and Post ISB job Profiles and ISB Experiences.
3. Free Question Answer sessions where you are free to ask literally anything. This can be quite useful as you can ask a lot of questions which pertains to your applications and where you can get more insights into school functioning.
4. Post Session Alumni Interactions. Here you can maximize your gain from the session. You can ask from Essay Questions to Day to day Life of the Alumni. Go into specifics of their Job Functions. Some statisctics/numbers which school doesnt present in media. If they are in good mood then also present your profile and discuss about your chances of an interview call. Academics and non-academics.

Apart from that am trying to do some verbal study. I am studying the materials which i didnt referred in the 1st attempt and am finding it useful too such as Manhattan SC. Expecting to improve my Verbal Score to 40. That will give my Overall score a real boost. Lets see. Still 20 more days to go. Out of which, 10 days i plan to devote for Draft essays preparation for Rotman/ISB, Finalizing schools out of the list of 13, Visit to College for Transcripts, Talking to my Recommender and give him a breif background of my career goals and aspirations and convince him for devoting some time for my referrals.

  Still a lot is pending and very less time in hand. Hope everything turns out fine.

All the best for your Applications.

Taking Steps Ahead for Applications

     In last two weeks i did some serious B-school Analysis. Got in touch with some online B-school counsellors. Got in touch with Friends. Talks here and there about various aspects of Applications.

     1st step i took was that i decided that i’ll take GMAT again. Yes it took me lot of time to decide on that. Yes, some of you will ask why a 180 degree turn from what i was thinking some few posts back. This has happened because of some serious discussions/talks with knowledged people in the field, Thinking a lot on the same and also reading a lot of blogs and B-school profiles. Atleast i have realized that i have not so bad profile that i cant be optimistic of Aspirational Colleges and to apply to them i need be atleast above their Average GMAT score. Hence i go ahead and wont look back.

    But yes, Everything comes for some cost i.e.

• I loose some of my Applications time in preparing for GMAT.
• I loose some of my preparation/ Test Paper review time for AIMCATS.

But am fine with it only reason being, I believe i can do it. Yes, i can manage all of them at same time. I also did some research on the Industries & Job functions which are available Post MBA. This is important for me as although am somewhat clear of what i want, i dont have a fair idea of what are career profiles of people post MBA.

This plethora of information provided by Online Career Library at MBA.com proved very useful in having a clearer picture of various Industry and Job Functions. I must say i have to more research into these specifics before coming to any conclusions but still they were very useful. Also mba.com features many Profiles of Alumni’s who have already been through this part of their lives and now at competitive positions in their successfull careers. A day in Life series was very informative too. Great efforts put by mba.com people in designing portal that would guide newbies like me on to atleast a proper path. I would recommend a thorough inspection of this portal for every B-School aspirant.

      Based on my Research, Eligibility, FIlters and Aspirations ( and also assumption that i’ll score atleast 720 this time in GMAT ) i have zeroed in on my Initial List of schools.

• ISB               : Sure to Apply
• NUS             : Sure to Apply
• NANYANG    : Sure to Apply
• HKUST         : Sure to Apply
• ROTMAN      : Sure to Apply
• TUCK
• DARDEN
• NYU
• TEPPER
• SIMON
• CORNELL
• LBS
• INSEAD

These are the initial list of 13 schools i have shortlisted based on above factors. I still have to filter out schools based on ( University/Local Bank Loans w/o Co-signor )/( Probability of Scholarships ). Also there is one more factor which i cant mention here which will do some additions and deletions in my list and ofcourse it’s critical. In all i plan to apply to 7-8 Schools.

• 3 Aspirational
• 3 Competitive
• 2 Backup

That’s my story as of now. I’ll start serious studies for my second attempt from tommorow onwards. There were many more things to write, which i’ll do later.

Any suggestions/comments are most welcome. Ciao !!!

Farewell !!

     Today one of my friend bid Adieu to us. He left for his two year MBA course at Rotman School of Business, Toronto. On one hand, i feel i’ll miss him but on the other hand i feel excited about the fact that hopefully next year i’ll also land up a similar offer somewhere in some part of world. If it happens to be Rotman, probably we can share one more year of fun and adventerous experiences for 1 more year together.

All the best to me

Rotman Interview

Ya!! you are reading correct, 3 days back i gave a Rotman Interview for class of 2009. I had submitted my profile on QS MBA Tour registration Website and had also requested for an MBA brochure from Rotman. Probably the recruiting team srutinized the profile from there and invited me for an interview with Mr. Richard Powers ( Assistant Dean, Rotman School of Business, Toronto ). It was unsual for me as i never expected to give an MBA interview without submitting my application to the College. But i guess this works for the school as by this way they get to meet the prospective candidate 1 on 1 rather than taking a telephonic interview and later when they actually recieve the application from the candidate, no need for interview again.

            It was a very nice interview, rather i should say it was a casual conrversation. Mr. Rick took utmost care to make me comfortable and i must say he put everything straightforward. Topics we covered were :

• Was Rotman on your List.
• My work Schedule.
• General Background check.
• Responsibilities handled at Job.
• How’ll you manage Funds required for MBA.

Apart from this Mr. Rick Powers cleared my doubts related to sholarship and teaching assistanceship options. Job scene in Canada. Overall was a very good experience. I’ll definately apply to Rotman and keep my options open as i was not considering it before because of financial constraints ( which still persists ).

Last 2 weeks were very hectic, as Quarter Closure activities dominated at work, i had to spend 3 days at work continously doing some rigorous analysis of critical Finance things. Ended positively . And after this 3 days stint had to appear for Rotman Interview . Some personal problems here and there, apart from that nothing speacial happened in these 2 weeks.

       In the coming weeks i have to finanlize my schools and start writing essays for them, i feel am running behind schedule. Let’s see. Signing off as of now.