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Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Tuck application submitted!!!

After submitting the Duke application, finally submitted Tuck's too. Now two gone, three more to go: Tepper, Mccombs and Notre Dame.

Tuck's application had few elements to think about such as short essay on international experience (if any). Other thing to consider was the 500 word limit for each essay. Finally, after multiple editions, managed to bring my essays below that limit mark. Now the wait continues again for the interview invite.

Meanwhile got a mail reply from Duke that the Application Status is "Complete." At one point of time I felt that no interview invite is sent, but after carefully reading found the note

=============================
Once you log in, you will find your Application Status below the Submission Status. If the Application Status is "Complete", all required materials have been received and your file is being evaluated by the Admission Committee.
=============================

Now a bit relieved, but still keeping my fingers crossed.

 

Saturday, October 2, 2010

One month of inactivity at blogosphere

Yesterday I just checked my blog and saw that I wrote my last post on September 1, 2010. (Pardon to the readers who are not used to this kind of date format... What to do, that's the way you write in US)

Last month was like a typical Bollywood movie - drama, thrill, emotions.

* I submitted my first application of the year - Duke (Phew... done with one). I wrote around six to seven drafts of each essay, and after too much editing, finalized them. While I was working on my essays with my mentor and a close friend, I got hold of a really valuable guide from Stacy Blackman 'Designing your B-school applications' that helped me a lot to visualize my essays as a third person. Now the wait is on for the coveted interview call. Fingers' crossed.

* I went to see my first Live F1 race in Singapore with friends. I had been waiting for the race eagerly, and it did not fail me either. We managed to grab the best place to view the race (it was not easy... we went to the venue three hours before the race started) and enjoyed the experience a lot. Kudos to Alonso for the win and three cheers for our favourite Sutil (Force India). Bad luck to Hamilton though....

* I attended the MBA Information event, organized by World MBA tour, in Singapore. Met the assistant admissions director and alumni of UNC, UCLA, Smith and Kelley. It helped a lot in making my decision. Let me share my experience with all the four schools.

1. UNC - My experience with UNC representatives was great. Got to know more about the school's curriculum, research areas, placement scenario and student community. It is very good school for General Management and has a great research in sustainability and finance. Student community is decent and has a good active alumni base.

2. UCLA - Don't want to talk about it. In short, did not feel the connect with the school. Alumni's were busy taking their pictures and were very haughty. Did not like their attitude at all. Even the staff member, who came, was not very impressive.

3. Smith - Same as UCLA. Did not like the attitude of the staff member. None of the alumni was there, so can not comment on student community.

4. Kelley - The adcom was the best among the others. He gave a much better picture about the school, curriculum, placements etc. The only concern area - not much scope outside Marketing domain.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Essay evaluation by my mentor - Duke & Tuck

I had evaluation done by my mentor on Duke and Tuck essays yesterday. The result - ripped off

Duke:-
1st essay - Very coherent and message is clear. Just adjust two paragraphs and all set.

2nd essay - Very generic. Non impacting. Will be warded off by adcom. We then discussed on this and had a long conversation. Have to re-write the whole essay... Bah :(

3rd essay - Need to make a proper flow of the paragraphs. Right now it just looks like few bullet points. Also suggested few things that seemed pretty interesting.

Tuck:-
1st essay - Similar to Duke minus the word limit relaxation. Will work on it next time.

2nd essay - We discussed many stories and he recommended on one, which seemed different. Will start writing on it

3rd essay - I was sure that he would love it. Trashed!!! He said that it would look good if you applying for an Asian school, but not for a US school. As per him the impact is not great. We then discussed on few stories and decided on one. Will have to re-write this one again.

4th essay - Same problem as of Duke. Re-write it.

In short, this review was an eye-opener, but the worst part is that have to begin everything from scratch (especially Tuck).

Damn these essays are killing me :-|

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

New Tigers of Asia

I read an interesting article on the latest research done by Morgan Stanley:- 
MORGAN STANLEY RESEARCH: India and China: New Tigers of Asia. 

I'm posting the link for the article here. Might be of interest to the MBA applicants


http://team.univ-paris1.fr/teamperso/sponcet/455/lecture%2020%20comparing%20china%20and%20india/Morgan%20Stanley%20New%20Tigers%20of%20Asia%20china%20india.pdf

 

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Tepper Feedback interview

I had my Tepper feedback interview on 17th August 12:15pm EDT (00:15 SGT). It was a rough day at office and I wanted a good sleep after that. I felt like cursing myself when I agreed for the interview to be scheduled late in the night. I was waiting for a call and to avoid sleeping was killing time by watching old movies from my collection, as I was not in the mood to write any essay.

Got a call at 12:20pm EDT from James Frick, Director MBA admissions. He was very polite in his tone and we had an informal chat for 12-13 minutes. Below is the summary of our conversation

Things that were good in my application:-

1) Long term career goals - As per him my long term goal was unique and showed my passion towards it. He liked my intensive research about the school that I portrayed in 1st essay. As per him no need to change the 1st essay (just tweak the short term goals a bit)

2) GMAT is decent. No need to re-take (was surprised that 700 seemed decent to him, but happy)

3) Overall profile looks promising.

Things to ponder:-

1) Reflect more about myself in the essays. As per him, I did not put enough details to let the admission committee know more about me.

2) Work on 2nd essay.

I asked him one question - How to project a more better candidature through essays? His reply was " Be genuine, show true passion and let us know more about you"

In the end he told me that if I have any later questions or if I require any help with the application/essays, feel free to mail him (that I found to be a very nice gesture).

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

R1/EA deadlines for some top B-Schools

A quick look at the R1/EA deadlines for some of the top B-schools

August 30: ISB (for Indian Passport Holders)
September 13: Notre Dame (EA)
September 29: INSEAD (September Intake)
September 30: Duke / Fuqua (Early Action)
October 1: Harvard
October 4: Wharton, Cambridge / Judge
October 5: Cornell / Johnson
October 6: Stanford GSB, Columbia (Early Decision and January Term)
October 7: Yale SOM
October 8: Oxford / Saïd
October 11: Michigan Ross
October 13: Chicago / Booth, Berkeley / Haas, Dartmouth / Tuck (Early Action)
October 14: Northwestern / Kellogg, UVA Darden
October 20: UCLA / Anderson
October 22: UNC / Kenan-Flagler (Early Action)
October 25: CMU / Tepper
October 26: MIT / Sloan
November 1: Duke / Fuqua (Round 1), UT Austin / McCombs, Notre Dame
November 10: Dartmouth / Tuck (November Round)
November 15: NYU / Stern

Time to fasten your seat belts for couple of months ahead ;)

Nice article

Came across a nice article today. The subject of the article is 
"Dustin Johnson, not Thierry Henry will save our Economy"

A good article on metaphor - comparing today's business world with the attitude of sportsperson. Below is the link for the same.

http://www.conorneill.com/2010/08/values-for-life-goldman-sachs.html