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

 

Half way through with Tuck essays

I am already half way through my Tuck essays. There are four essays in the Tuck application.

1) Goal essay & Why Tuck - Struggled the most with this essay. I knew what to write, but how to present it effectively was the most difficult part. Wrote 5-6 drafts and then got it reviewed by the 1st reviewer. Got really valuable tips (meaning another 5-6 drafts though...phew!!!) and now the essay seems more coherent and impressive.
Now just need two more reviewing - first by a friend who will check the grammar and sentence formation, and second by my mentor.

2) Leadership experience - Not started yet though have many stories in my mind. I know I will have a hard time selecting one [ Another sleepless nights coming :( ]

3) Greatest challenge - Completed 70% of the essay. This seems to be a clincher according to me. Have a unique story for this essay. Already got reviewed it once by the 1st reviewer. Waiting for comments from my mentor.

4) Contribution to college - Completed the essay and got it reviewed once. Looks decent to me but still really confused about the content. I feel the essay portrays cogent points. Need to review it by couple of guys more before finalizing.

Will try to finalize the Tuck essays by 25th August.

Upcoming Webinar

Just to update everyone about a paid webinar coming up on August 12, 2010. The topic of the webinar is "School Choice, Quick-Start Essays, and Killer Recommendations."

Please find the link where you can get more information and registration details

http://theartofapplying.com/bdo/join

If you want to check out a free sample of the webinar. please find the below link
http://bschoolodds.com/free-webinar/

 

Application season begins

Following is the excel sheet i found on one website for the B-school deadline for 2011 applications. Here is the link for the same.

http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/international-indian-mba-schools-accepting/54512-abroad-b-school-deadlines-2011-a.html

Also you can check the clearadmit website for the essay questions of respective colleges and their analysis. Below is the link for the same

http://blog.clearadmit.com/category/essay-topics/
http://blog.clearadmit.com/category/essay-topic-analysis/

Chat with a current student of Duke

Few days back I had a chat with a current student of Duke. I sent out mails to many students with all my queries and got replies from almost all. One student out of them asked me if we can schedule this over phone that would be most appropriate hence I fixed a meeting with her. I wanted to speak with someone who is actively involved in the school activities and was planning a career in gen mgmt/marketing. Below are some of the things we discussed


Concentration: Marketing

Career Switch: She was previously working as an Investment Banker and her aim was to work in a marketing role (brand mgmt) post-MBA. She wanted to switch from Finance to Marketing. Frankly speaking I found it a bit confusing when she told me about her plans because generally i have seen people moving from other sectors to Finance and Consulting but not vice versa. I asked her about the support from career services in helping students to make such career transitions, to which she replied quite positively. She mentioned that 60%-70% people coming to DUKE plan to make a transition from their current industry or job type.

Club Activities: We discussed about the activities of the club like organizing speaker series, helping students find a job in their domain etc. I also asked her about the number of students that opt for gen mgmt role post-mba to which she confirmed the figures to be more than 50%. Also she suggested me to check out the websites of respective clubs/organisations.

Job opportunities: She told me that the job opportunities were much better than the previous year though still it was not very bright. People are still struggling to find a job in Finance and Consulting sector. About the job prospects for International applicants she told that it's more bleak (again dominantly in finance and consulting industries). She told that people have to use their network to find jobs. In the end she was optimistic that the situation would improve in couple of years.

Alumni: Alumni of the school is very active and easily approachable. Infact many have helped the students with their job search.

Experience at DUKE so far: One thing that she kept on mentioning about the school was its congenial environment. She mention that the fellow students were very helpful and supportive and she learned many things from them.

We talked about a few other things and she encouraged me to give her a call incase of any doubts or queries.
It was a really nice chat session with her that further strengthened my decision to apply for DUKE.

Informative post for applicants from IT background

Today I came across a very informative post by one of my friend Naveen Venkatraman (Babson 2012 admit) about the suggestions for an applicant from IT background. After reading the article I felt that we spend so much time cribbing about our situation, position, job etc whereas we don't spend enough time in realizing the fact that there are some unique qualities that we can posses while working in IT sector too. You just have to brainstorm and you will find something worth sharing, no matter how small it is, in your essays. For all the applicants from the IT industry, here is a post worth reading:-

http://babsonmba2012.com/2010/07/08/so-you-are-an-it-applicant-part-i/