The HBS Portrait Project

Browsing through the HBS wesbite , I came across the school's portrait project.
At first glance, it looked just like a nice set of portraits.But as I read through the HBS students' answers to the question "What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" I found myself inspired and thinking what would I answer...
What would you answer?

Been there done that!!

Am ecstatic! And since this is not college-admit-decision season ,you can comprehend what might be the reason for my ecstasy. Yup! I finished my GMAT today and fared well :).Conisdering my old score an increase of 80 points in the overall score is pretty much an achievement in itself. And of course breaking the 700 barrier always feels good too.

I was one of those bees who heard and read the Phoenix tales of GMAT re-takers,who came out with flying clours in their second or third attempt. And today am happy to be one of them.

Am satisfied with my section scores too;coz, I improved in both V and Q.
Am waiting for the AWA scores now. I did fair in that section and am curious if I can stand up to the score(5.0) I got last time.

But this is no time to get complacent....my top choice school has the first round deadline in the first week of October. So I've got to tighten my seat belt and speed up over the runway now.

The top 5 B-School admission event - Boston

Last night's Boston Penn Alum-Kaplan sponsored B-School admissions event was the first I admissions event I ever attended. Since I am applying to 2 of the 5 schools, it was a good place to start. Althugh I was familiar with most of the parts of the discussion, some of the tips the speakers gave out were pretty interesting. It was also interesting to know that all the 5 schools had not seen any significant inceases in the # of applications last fall,like what Buss. Week had predicted.But that still won't guarantee that would be the case this fall, after all the effects of recession have taken more dramatic turns lately.

The bottomline of the discussions was when youw rite your essays , apply for schools and attend interviews. Don't compare yourself with what the schools look for...ideally the schools arent looking for a student with the right quotients of A,B and C.They want to see who you are and what you can become and how well you fit into their program.

Surprisingly there wasn't much discussion - neither from applicants nor from panelists - about the financial aid situtation.

After the event I got the chance to meet with the asst. director of admissions and career mgmt. at Kellogg ask her a few of my queries and got some suggestions.

Over all nice event....am looking forward to attend more of these.

Is it a change of trends?

Browsing about colleges, I came across this BW article today. The fact that it dates back to March makes some of the facts a little less relevant and wrong as of today(most of the fin. companies like Goldman Sachs, State Street have already paid back their TARP duns are not subject to the H1-B restrictions anymore). But overall, it conveys the truth about the changing attitudes of international applicants to US B Schools.

The undisputable fact that a 2 year study at a US B-School is painfully costly seems to play a major role in the attitude of applicants of today's hard economic times. Lets face the fact here, times are tough and Americans are not willing to proclaim their land as "land of oppurtunities" anymore,especially not for foreigners. They want to emply their own citizens first (the EAWA act , remember!). Investing around $100K into your education in this scenario and without any prospects of getting a monthly salary in $ denomination does seems like a huge huge risk, especially when your family is involved(like with my case).

But then , the ROI is not bad at all, even if an interational student doesnot land with a job in US, he/she can very well go back to his/her home country where a MBA from a top 25 US B School is still a rarity. The Indian and Chinese students have seem to taken this hint as way back as 2004-5. And with perfectly desirable B Schools like ISB at home, most of the Indian applicants are shifting their focus too. After all,you spend way less money than you do in US (compare $30K to $100K ) but still end up with the same employment prospects.

All said and done, it is up to you and only you to choose which is best for you. I'm only hoping that this trend continues to make international students a coveted prospect by most US b-Schools,in which case I am at a benefit. :D