A dreamer's journey to b-school

Where I was

2010-08-04T16:45:00.002-04:00

There's no excuse for my absence on this blog for such a long tenure!
But to tell u the truth I have been busy, not as busy as I was when applying to schools last year, but busy. In the past 2.5 months I mad a trip to my home country, got a student visa. Spent wonderful time with family and friends, visited holy places and of course, started work on my first year course work.

The school gave us a summer assignment that was specifically aimed at understanding ones career interests and strengths etc. We finished MBTI and EQI-360 assessments. I'm yet to read a prescribed strength finder book(I probably will have more on this after I finish reading the book) and writing 2 page self-assessment of my career and lifestyle choices.

Also I bid farewell to my 4 year old Dell Inspiron (gave it to my kid bro) and bought a brand new HP laptop with Intel's i5. I'm yet to get this configured for W.P.Carey's networks, e-maile etc.

I'm excited to start schol. Can't believe it's next week! Although it's just orientation and classes don't start till the 23rd. On top of everything I'm looking forward to meet all the 2nd years who I've been talking with all this while. I wud be great to meet these good samaritans in person!

A time to choose

2010-05-11T13:27:00.004-04:00

I think I pretty much speak for all the admits of Class of 2012 when I say that "the seach has begun!". the search referring to search of career opportunities. That's how the whole MBA things works. First you search for good books on GMAT, then you search for the best schools to attend, then you search yourselves to answer all the piercing and introspection-forcing essays. And when you finally do get an admit, you relax for a bit and then you search about various resources that will help you reach your ultimate career goals while at school. And now more that ever is the need to be on the top of things.
The past 1-2 years of economic turmoil has put a lot of pressure(for good reasons) on the MBA populace to be very very proactive to find internships and jobs. On the upward sloping straight line of the job worry vs. MBA clas year graph, Im sure we are curently at the peak. All of us are aware that companies are recruiting with frugality and taking minumum risk with new hires(wille explain what this means a lil' later). With this challenging situation around us and the undeiably substantial cost of a 2 yr MBA it is inherent on us to start planning our career moves right away.
First, frugality of recuritng within companies. Currently, in this time of firing, I believe a company would think twice before hiring a new person into their company. Although situation is improving, in order to ensure we are in a safe situation I think we should be very very clear as to what career we wish to pursue after MBA. Gone are the serene days when you got tired of a job and did an MBA for 2 years just to check-out the options out there. We simply can't do this. The advice I've received from current students is to be very very clear as to what kind of jon and internship you want. Have clear career goals. Once you've made up your mind, it's easy to stick to it and do career orientation stuff specific to that role/industry. There is no use of blaming the career centre at your school for not finding you a good internship when you juggled from one goal to another since you joined school. I think this is the best thing to do.This way you won't panic during the whole turbulent recuriting seaon because you know exactly what you are looking for and you'll find it in one place or the other.
Second, about the companies playing 'safe' in recruting. Companies seem to prefer recruitng people who are not career changers. They want to know that you can infact excel in the specific industry in the specific role. It might still be easier to go from tech consulting to management consulting but it's no more easy to shift from tech consulting to ibanking etc. Much is being speculated and planned by various schools to overcome this challenge and help their students in switching careers. After all career switch is probably the number 2 reason for people to go for an MBA in the first place. Read this article . The key thing to do is to highlight your exposure to these new industry in your resume. For ex. I wanna shift into marketing within an TV network, I'll then highlight my exposure to custmer management, product marketing in my previous IT career and also my involvement within the entertainment industry (may be by working part-time before joining school etc). This shows a true interest and seriousness on my part to chaneg careers and gives my career goals some credibility in the recruiters eyes.
Last, international students(such as me :)) are facing additional challenges of visa restrictions et al. There is really no way to overcome this since this is totally out of your hand. Just try and target companies which do sponsor your visa for a full-time job after MBA. This is probably where I would demand more help from career management centres at schools. Worst to worst, you can always work till your OPT lets you and then look for opportunities back home.
Just make sure you are well-thought and prepared for you career search and you'll end up as happy as the lady in the picture seems to be :)

Image source:v a l e n c i a c c e d u

The (almost)final decision

2010-04-16T17:28:00.003-04:00

Looks like my app season has come to an end.

First the bad news - I got dropped from the Ross waitlist.
It was a big shock for me because I sent them two good updates, with significant info. And just a half hour before sending my third and last update, which was about my BOB nomination, I got a denial from them. After recovering from the disapoointment I typed in a note to my application manager and also forwarded her my latest update e-mail. I don't think it would make any difference, but I forwarded that update anyway.

Now the good news - I got into W.P.Carey school of business at Arizona State Univ.!!!
Aplying to W.P.Carey was one of the last decisions I took in the application season, in March actually. My move to Arizona in Jan had a lot to do with it. I skipped their Feb. deadline because I wasn't sure of my fit at the school and vice-versa. I continued my research on the school and spoke to an Indian alumni at the school from the class of 2002 and few current students, I understood their marketing department offerings, evaluated if it would help me reach my goals and finally researched their financing options etc. After 1.5 months of this research I was convinced about it and applied to W.P.Carey. I had to take TOEFL in 15 days just to make it to the deadline. A month after submitting my application I was accepted to the school with a scholarship! The best part of it is I don't have to move away from my husband. As for Carey's competitiveness, it's ranked 27(2 spots above the last year ranking) almost same as Emory , it draws a lot of recruiters because of it's branding in Supply Chain. Although I'm not looking at doing Supply Chain I feel that the school will still give me a good exposure to many companies. Also the thing about Carey is that they are very serious about improving their hold on areas other than Supply Chian. The school is eager to make a recognition for itself as a well-rounded school in all business domains such as marketing and finance. This said I know I'll be studying within a dynamic environment and working with people who are hungry for making development. Just thinking about it is exciting for me! The Marketing department at W.P.Carey and it's Centre for services Leadership have been key players in my decision. Also it was important for me to get back to school after 1.5 years of gap in my career and no delaying it any further was necessary. You see the why MBA now was very important for me. At the end I'm happy to get to where I am now. It may not be the best situation, but it's the best for me. And I'm experienced in making the best out of any situation :)

Nominated to Clearadmit's BOB!!!

2010-04-09T13:11:00.003-04:00

Yeaaaa. I'm excited and thrilled to be nominated for the annual Best of Blogging(BOB)awards given out by clearadmit. My hearty congratulations to all the other nominees. You deserve it.

A year back I was just another MBA blogger initiating my own blog after reading tons of MBA blogs in the blogosphere. The idea behind it was to keep a journal of my MBA application journey in order to make it more organized. As I started looking around, reading the blogs of previous year's nominees and current students I was amazed to see how these blogs inspired me. I was so thrilled to see all these bloggers share valuable advice and experiences with people like me whom they've never met. As someone using this resource I wanted to give back to it. I was determined to make my blog one of the good blogs, if not the best one, around.

After an year this is what I've accomplished:
1)Countless friends, MBA applicants and current students, whose experiences and MBA application lessons have enriched my application journey
2)A feeling of mutual learning and team-work- the help from talking to other applicants, working together on essay reviews and sharing ideas of good application processes etc has been as helpful as one would get from an admissions consultant
3)A sense of distinction about myself- I can honestly say that this blog and the exposure I've gotten in the MBA-blogging world have made me feel that this hooby of mine sets gives me an edge in enhancing my aplication profile.
4) Finally, I'm happy to have shared my own experiences, good and bad. I'm glad that they have been helpful to my readers. Every e-mail that I get from a reader thanking me for my post makes my day!

My advice to people out there dismissing the idea of starting their own MBA blog simply because they think it's a cliche'- you never know what your blog can offer you. It can offer anything from new friendships to a good extra-curricular activity to free goodies from a lot of MBA admissions and GMAT preparatory companies who want to publicize thier product on your blog. So why wait? Blog away!

Happy .... am I?

2010-03-09T19:01:00.007-05:00

I'm in!
I got a call today!
So many of my friends have been sayin this lately.
I cannot tell how great it feels just to vicariously experience the above! I'm so happy to see a lot of folks on my favourite forum gmat club get into their choice of business schools. There are few guys and gals over there who have been getting into their favourite schools after 2-3 complete years of preparation. It's such an amazing feeling to see them screaming out their happy news!!

For long I've been hopeful that I would be in similar situation; that I would one day receive a phone call that would simply change my world for the best. But it doesn't seem to happen anytime soon. After almost 14 months of my sincere efforts I haven't been able to say "I've received an admit!". I'm slowly losing the hope. My single source of light is an application I'm working on forW.P.Carey School of business. My essays are good, I think. I've had the opportunity to connect with alumni and students of the schools. And I think I've made a good impression on the ad-com already, through my interactions with them on their on-line admissions webinar and e-mails etc. Hoping for the best.

Long due updates

2010-02-05T13:05:00.005-05:00

I've been awfully quiet for the past couple O'weeks. A lot has happened in this time. Mostly personal stuff. I've moved across the country and have relocated to the west. Yes I'm enjoying warmer weather now after bearing 2 bitter winters of the Northeast.Not in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine moving here. I've always lived on the East, mid-west portion of the country and was of the impression that West Coast was only for vacationing or gambling :D.

Now that I am here, I tried to see if any school here would interest me. Unfortunately the schools I liked didn't have any more rounds left and the ones that did have admission deadlines in April didn't interest me much. So there's not going to be any more changes to my school list. My status still remains the same, waitlisted at Ross and working on an admit there.

P.S.March 2010 - I did find a good MBA program that might interest me - ASU's W.P.Carey!!! So far I've spoken with an alumni who has similar background as me (some country, same career ideas) and similar MBA specialization interests as me and I've found the feedback good. This is infact the first alumni from a school who was very enthusiastic about telling me about his own MBA experiences and even initiated meeting in person to talk to me about it. Now that does say something about the school, doesn't it? Will write more in my future blog posts.

Ross ad-com's support to waitlisted applicants

2010-01-21T14:44:00.005-05:00

Kudos Ross! Once again you've gone beyond my expectations.

As I mentioned last week, I got waitlisted in Ross R1. The very next day I got an e-mail from Ross ad-com inviting me to joining the googlegroup created by Ross-adcom for waitlisted students. Now, that was surprising! I didn't expect that any of the schools would initiate such a thing. Apparently Ross does.
Since I joined the group I've noticed ad-com people answering queries on the discussion board of the google group. They even scheduled a chat today for waitlisted students. I just logged off from the chat. 3 of Ross admission officers were present in the chatroom (big shout out to Linda Abraham from accepted.com for organizing the chat). It's commendable that they took time from the busy R2 application reviews and patiently answered the queries from all of us waitlisted folks. In case you want to check out the chat transcript , you can find it at the accepted.com archives next week.

Kellogg, Ross and NYU

2010-01-15T00:23:00.006-05:00

As promised here I am posting as soon as I checked my Ross admit decision.

Sometime late afternoon yesterday(Jan 14th) I realized that I've not been accepted to Ross. Had I been accepted, I would've gotten my admit call already. But as the evening approached, with every passing minute not only did I get more nervous but also became more and more convinced that I had a good interview and a good application. So why did I not get in? I don't know, I'm going to think about that for the whole weekend coz people, I've been waitlisted ! :)
Frankly I'm thrilled to be on Ross' waitlist. I've been in love with the school since the past 5-6 months. And it's consoling to know that my courtship with Ross hasn't yet ended and there is still a chance of tying the knot!

As for the other schools, NYU gave me a no-no last week. I was particularly disappointed with that result because I wrote good essays for Stern. I would be interested in taking their feedback. Anyone know if Stern offers feedback for rejected candidates? Even if they don't normally do I'll try a hand at getting it.

So with 2 down and 1 hanging in mid-air today I submitted Kellogg for R2. I loved writing Kellog's essays, especially essay 3. I would like to take a moment and thank dreamchaser and rocky for their advice and feedback on my Kellogg essays. What would I do without the league of MBA'12 applicant bloggers?
Also a shout out to O'Neill (Kellogg '11) for his highly informative blog-posts about Kellogg!

6 more hrs to go

2010-01-14T18:15:00.001-05:00

..for Ross admit decision as well as Kellogg R2 deadline.
The score of my MBA apps so far, a dull 0-2.
More details in a few hours (after I check my Ross admit result online).

chow for now!

Not so good news

2010-01-05T15:29:00.006-05:00

...from Goizueta. Despite what I felt were great essays, my just-ok interview obviously didn't help me. Strangely, when I read the admission decision, I din't feel the expected chill. I think the MBA application process is making me stronger. But I'd like to take this moment to thank all the Goizueta students who helped me in the process.

Happy 2010

2010-01-03T00:58:00.004-05:00

Wish you all a very happy and prosperous new year!
May this new year and new deacde make all your dreams, MBA and otherwise come true :)

In between holidays

2009-12-28T20:48:00.003-05:00

Hi ppl, what's happening? Hope you all had a good Christmas and will have even better New Year's.
Things had been quieter with me, on the essay front, the whole of last month. Now it's December end and the R2 deadlines are almost here. I've been working on my K essays. This' taking a lot of time, I started last week. I'm still sitting with my essay 1 which is in a good draft shape , but unfortunately is 230 words extra [:'(] [:D]. So I've gotta do a lot of editing. I think that I should spare around 200 words for my until-now career progress discussion and the remaining 400 for describing future goals and why Kellogg. I don't think I can add any 'what will i do at K' stuff here. I'll have to fit that elsewhere.
It's 8:56 PM now and my goal is to have essay 1 in a better aka 'almost final' shape by 9:30. So gotta go now!
BTW - do you think my 200+400 strategy is sound?

Should I see a doctor?

2009-12-21T10:51:00.003-05:00

No! I don't have H1N1(knock on wood). But what's bothering my health,specifically my mental health, is the overwhelming wait!!I'm a nervous wreck...sob..sob..sob. Gosh, I'm annoying myself by obsessively checking my gmail account and hovering around the gmatclub forums looking out to see the latest news on various school fronts. I keep telling myself not to , not to. But alas, to plagiarize Edward Kullen the vampire, "Gmatclub has become my own personal brand of cocaine" making me go back to it and addicted to it! To add to this I've joined pagalguy.com too. "Dreamer, when will you learn...start working on your R2 apps you idiot!"There, that was my inner-self again. I think I should listen to her now.

Folks, am I the only one in this no-man's land or is anyone else with me? If yes shout out loud, it will probably make me feel less insane!

Reminiscing my Ross interview

2009-12-15T11:18:00.002-05:00

I had my UMich-Ross interview last week. I got the interview invitation right before Thanksgiving and had to complete my interview before Dec 9. The alum whose contact I was given turned out to be busy till Dec 9th and hence suggested that I approach the school for another contact. I did this. At this point I must say that both the alums passed out from the school in the new millennium and held very senior positions in the firms they were working.
So the day my interview was scheduled, I got a ride from my husband. It was the first time I was seeing the city traffic. Thanks to our thoughtful planning and early start we reached the rendezvous point, a coffee shop, a good 45 mins early. I used that time to relax and grab a cuppa coffee and some breakfast (the interview was scheduled early in the day).
I was waiting for my interviewer. After sometime when I started texting him, he showed up. We took a table at the coffee shop and started the process.
1) First he explained to me about the process (it reminded me of my Kellogg interview) and then asked me to walk him through my professional career. I did the same – spend around 3 mins I guess.
2) Then he asked me Why Ross. I answered it and it kinda led to Why MBA. Very specific questions about long-term and short-term goals.
3) A leadership experience at work
4) A situation in team when my team member was not performing well. How did I handle it.
5) Specific questions about my non-profit volunteer work I was doing since the past 9 months. He asked me couple of leadership questions about this activity.
6) And the most hated questions - What would I do if the MBA thing doesn’t work out this year.
This is the list of the questions I remember. I might have skipped a question or two, but not more. Overall I think I answered them with comfort and I’m hoping my interviewer could see how I was focused on my goals and purpose for an MBA and how much I’m in love with Ross :)
Then I asked him a couple of questions about his Ross experience and MAP. He spend around 8-10 mins answering my questions. When he started talking about his MAP experience, I chipped in and conveyed how I had forgotten to mention about MAP before and how I believe it to be very necessary for a career changer like me. Hope my being forgetful didn’t affect anything negatively :-$
The total process went a little over 45 mins. It was a blind interview, i.e. my interviewer had only my resume , that I sent him. He had not seen my application and essays. I think this is the best way to evaluate a person’s admissibility into a school. Conduct a blind interview. Then match the interview report with the application. If they are both coherently positive sounding then take in the candidate.

GMAT - pre-MBA , during-MBA and post-MBA

2009-12-10T11:21:00.003-05:00

As an applicant, when I started preparing for the GMAT this is what I told myself, "It's the one thing thatz in my hand and I better do the best I can". Unfortunately I didn't do well in my first GMAT. I barely crossed the 80th percentile on quant and was devastated coz I always thought I was good at math. I knew it was not reflective of my actual abilities and hence re-took the test and was satisfied with my new score. I was relieved that the whole GMAT thing was over once for all. But it was surprising to see that GMAT and MBA degree go hand in it for a long long time.
I toured 4 b-schools in the US and what I've observed is that the GMAT ghost haunts you forever. Most of these schools had notice boards roaring with ads of GMAT-tutors, special GMAT coaching discounts for students at that university, Math-tutoring etc etc. I was surprised to see that. I wondered why on earth someone would put thoses notices there? Was it for visitors like me? I was confused. But soon things became clearer. As adcom reps at the information sessions spoke about the job search, job prospects and career profile building they told how GMAT was a 'very important parameter' in job interviews. You see, it doesn't matter if you have a great GPA in your liberal arts class or great verbal scores on your GMAT that boosted your total GMAT score. Companies, especially financial companies and consulting companies, specifically look at your quant score for estimating your analytical ability. Inevitably, the career magmt. centers in most schools have to suggest their low-GMAT students to try and re-take the exam and improve their quant scores.
Much has been discussed about this topic, remember the GMATClub blog post by Linda Abraham of accepted.com. I do wish to add something to what was said in that article. In another instance, I've seen one of my fellow bloggers postpone her application process by one round just because she met with an adcom at a top-3 school who suggested her to retake the GMAT to improve her post-MBA job prospects.
Does all this mean that there is no hope for low-GMAT scorers? I say no.Your GMAT score matters depending on the kind of job you wanna do post-MBA. If you want to work in creative fields like media or entertainmentt and non-traditional fields like non-profit management then a low-GMAT score doesn't necessarily put you at a disadvantage. Also, one can highlight other academic successes on resume such as a scholarhsip or tution waiver from your UG or MBA school. Getting a 100% tution waiver from your b-school tells a lot of positive things about you to your employer.I've seen this atleast with one of my friends who graduated this May.
All said, applicants done with GMAT can't yet forget its implications on their career. Am I out of scope for this?

Emory visit and interview experience

2009-12-09T12:03:00.004-05:00

November, I thought, was the most eventful month of my applications season - with an interview, 1 school visit and 2 application submissions. But I think december is gonna beat it. The very first week of December, I attended a super saturday(at Emory Goizueta) and gave interviews for 2 schools. And now I'm waiting to hear from NYU & am keeping my fingers crossed on Emory's decision.

The super saturday event at Emory was informative in terms of providing details about the schools and giving an overall feeling about the school, which is very important for me. And I also scheduled my interview the same day. So lots of info. to get into my head and lot more things to deliver too :)

The day started with a women's breakfast at 8am(I know, I know - very early for a saturday morning - but hey, afterall they had so much to do in one day).It was a casual chat with current students, alumni and adcom folks. It was suprprising to see that 2 amongst the 7 speakers had their spouses enrolled in the 2Y MBA pgm along with them! Good for them!

I met a couple of applicants like me. After the women's chat I went to the room where Q&A with adcom was scheduled. The adcom asst-director,Kate Piasecki, was very friendly. I had already met her in September an MBA Tour event. There were almost 50-60 prospective students in the session. And there were around 25-30 students attending a school tour at the same time. A total of 80-90 I'd say. A lot of them were from the Atlanta area.

I then skipped the Q&A with students coz I had already scheduled to meet a couple of students later,more on this following. Next, I took the school tour. A first year student showed us around. The Goizueta building is kinda shaped like a 3/4 circle with a nice lawn in the centre. Apparently this lawn is where free drinks are served on Thursday :). Each of the 2Y and BBA folks have seperate floors for them. A unique artifact was the coca-cola trading floor from the older days NYSE. The coca-cola name appeared conspicuously in the entire Goizueta building.

Next I had a casual meeting scheduled with a couple of last season MBA-applicant-bloggers missionmba and ahembeea. After months of reading their every single blog post it was nice to meet these souls in person. There were a couple of us prospective students meeting with them. After 20 mins of talking I suddenly realized that I had a simulation class to attend. I quickly bid byes to all and ran.

The class/session had already begun. Not just applicants but Assoc. Dean J.B.Kurish, some profs and alumni and current students for both 1Y and 2Y MBA pgms were present there. It was a nice session and the professor, Mr.Robert Kazanjian, simulated a class session with a case study of Dell's strategy in the late 90's and early millenium. It was very interesting and all visitors were encouraged to participate. BTW there were a couple of visitors from India attending the event through webconference, how kewl is that for an information session!

Next there was a scheduled lunch with current students, but I skipped it coz my interview was coming up next. I went to a lonely place, and read through my notes and then went to the interview. Pretty standard questions. In the order of asking, the questions were : Walk me through your resume, why MBA, why now, why Goizueta, what core value of Goizueta would you identify yourself with, any questions for the interviewer and anything else I would like to add about me and that wasn't already covered in the interview. The whole interview went very very unbelieveably fast. It completed in just 20-25 mins!!! It was nice to know that quite a few Goizueta interviews last 25 mins or so such as Hakuna Matata's last year. I don't think I did my best in the interview. The only thing +ve about it was the alum who took my interview said,"Sounds like you are very passionate about what you wanna do". Is that a good sign? Only time will tell.

After that I wrapped up and left the campus.If you are interested in visiting Goizueta and can wait till Jan I suggest you to attend the next Super Saturday event scheduled on Jan 23,2010.

That's it for now, coming up next is my Ross interview experience. Keep blogging!

How to prep. for admissions Interview?

2009-11-30T12:20:00.006-05:00

I'm done with 3 interviews now and feel that I'm eligible to pass on some dough to you ;P. Seriously speaking, it's to express my gratitude to all those resources that helped me in my prep that I'm writing my post.
If you have been active on the blogosphere you wud've read a lot of posts like Xlick's NYU interview prep. report or Hari's tips for interview preparations etc. I don't want to repeat their good advice but just to add my 2 cents to this here I go:
I start my preperations going through the school's website for the (n+1)th time and taking notes of the school's specific activities in my field of interest - let's say entrepreneurship. I try to see if the school has any specific research centers or student-managed funds for use in the specific field, ex.the Wolverine fund of the Ross School. I also try to find info about what intership oppurtunities specific to my field of interest are available at the school. Also, I make a note of the companies that might have tie-ups or for-free projects planned with the schools, the geographical proximity of my dream-companies to the school etc. For ex. someone planning a career in entertainment can choose a college near LA or near NYC. Be sure to mention these points in the answer to 'why MBA' question which is 99.9% probable to come-up in any b-school interview.
Next step is to write down a list of the possible questions that you can expect to be asked. There are hundreds of resources that can help you with this preparations. A few are
1) Clearadmit interview wiki
2) GMATclub's resources like this and this
3) Blogs of current applicants who are going through the same process as you
Now that you have a list of questions, frame your answer to each questions. This part is something that no one can help you with. But you take help from your essays. Also write down a list of your life-enriching experiences - work, personal, academic or community related - and try to see if you can fit in these stories in your answers to the interview questions. Remember - It is on you, and only you, to highlight the different aspects that make you the special person that you are. The interviewer will not ask you specifically if you have you lead your high school team to the state championships, you tell him that to highlight your leadership and sportsmanship.
Last but not the least do a mock interview with a friend or your partner and ask them to be honest in their feedback. They might not tell you specifics about the MBA related topics and answers but they can surely help you with body language and eye contact which , don't forget, are equally important.

A lightweight MBA-applicant netwroking site created by a co-applicant

2009-11-16T19:06:00.003-05:00

Hey folks!
Check out this site.
This was put together by a co-applicant 'go2bizSkool' who I've come to know thru gmatclub.

The site is very simple to navigate.
Do put in your profile there and help us track the 2009-2010 mba-application season.

NYU visited and submitted

2009-11-15T22:52:00.002-05:00

Last weekend this time I was driving back home from NYC.Earlier that week I visited Stern. And right now am sitting peacefully with a submitted application to the school.
Stern essays are really unique. I think Stern makes sure that you write its essays from the scratch and don't ctrl+c, ctrl+v from some other school essays. Stern directly asks you the three important questitons - Why MBA , Why Stern and Why YOU? That's it, those are the three essays. And as for the legendary essay #3, there have been so many rumored stories about the creativity applicants have shown-right from someone sending a cooked sushi to sending a door with 'Let me in' written on it. As for me I have creatively decided to be uncreative. But have tried not to be bland in my 500 word essay.
My visit to Stern turned out better than I expected. Thr building reminded me of the Kellogg building. The location is totally different from all the schools I've visited so far. It just so happens that you are walking across the streets of NYC and suddenly you are in front of Stern. There are tons of folks walking all over the place. The place itslef is so lively. I liked the location, which is one of the reasons I'm applying to Stern.
Surprisingly for a weekday, there were around 70 vistors(yeah 70) that day. After an interesting class visit, I joined a coffee chat with current students. BTW the coffee was for free (again something that was unique to Stern). We were later led on tours by the graduate ambassadors. Our tour guide was a very friendly 2nd year. She showed us around and even let us through the 'silent study room' where the current students were all smiles looking at the huge prospective students crowd.
A very impressive thing happened during the school visit. The famous Prof.Okun paid us a surprise visit and shared with us his reasons for liking Stern and working there. Now did that ever happen to you at any other school?
Overall my Stern visit contributed a lot in understanding the culture of the school,which was the main purpose of my visit. As an international applicant, I'm glad I had the oppurtunity to visit all the schools I did so far. My next stop is down South...Emory here I come.

Ross on my mind

2009-10-30T16:47:00.003-04:00

The title of the post is as it appears coz of various reasons. If you have been a Ross fan,am sure you would've heard about its latest rankins ranging from #2 ranking in Aspen Institute's beyond-grey-pinstripes to the #1 ranking for Leadership development in the past 2 weeks. To add to this the b-school forums are roaring with yeah's of Ross applicants who received invites for interviews and aargh's from ppl who haven't yet.
Also lastnight, I attended the Ross worldwide club day event. There was this interesting session on Business Sustainability in the wake of climate changes by Prof.Andrew Hoffman. Although the majority of the ppl there were alumni, I did meet some prospective applicants.Although the event was for alumni,I did get a good feel (as if I hadn't had enough already :D) about the school. Most importantly I could see how involved the Ross alums are with the school even years after graduating.
P.S.Ross if you are hearing, am still waiting :)
P.P.S : 11/20/09 I did hear back from Ross :)

My very first interview

2009-10-27T22:47:00.006-04:00

I am done with my Kellogg interview...and I can't believe it is over.o.k.,it's not totally over yet....I'm a R2 applicant and hence have a lot more in my plate to work on.
The interviewer,called X,was an alumni of the school. X and I scheduled to meet on a weekday evening. As always my sweet husband,my b-school journey supporter, accompanied me. I reached around 20 mins early and waited outside the rendezvous point. X came in 5 mins early from the meeting time and we quickly grabbed some coffee and sat down on a table.
I noticed that X had already highlighted certain portions in my resume.I'm was thinking, is he going to ask all these questions from my resume?
Anyways, X started off the interview by giving me some guidlines about the whole importance of interview and also warned me not to get worried if he starts scribbling on the paper while I'm talking. I noticed that he had already written down some statements (i think those were questions) on a sheet of paper.
First X introduced himself in a very detailed casual way and started off by asking me to 'run through my professional resume'. I did it - in a fine way, I guess.I spoke in a way as to highlight my varied experience on different client projects and also some achievements.
Next question , Why Kellogg, Why now? I mentioned about the various aspects of Kellogg that attracted me and also quoted the programs and clubs that were relevant to my career goals.X built on it and asked me what other clubs at Kellog I would be part of. I answer promptly and also drop an idea for a new club that I had in mind....I could see some eyebrow raising (in a +ve way i'd say).
X then asked me about difficult situation in a team,what kind of a leader I am.
A somewhat different question , or may be a regular questions put in a different way was-what are you proud of.I am satisfied with the way I answered.
Then X asked me, "I don't get to see your application. All I have is your resume. So tell me,what do you think your application's weaknesses are'. I answered it too.
Later X asked me about a failure experience and then opened up the table for me to ask him questions. I asked about a club I'm interested in and something that he was part of too. I ask a couple of other questions.
X had already given me biz card card at the beginning of the interview and told me that I can get in touch anytime between now and the application submissions for adding any more info to what we discussed in the interview.
Finally we said best wishes to each other and departed. As I sat at the coffee table I couldn't help but feel good about the amicably persona somehow all Kellogg alumni seem to have...hmm...The one thing I regret is inspite of having excellent extra -curricular expereince I failed to highlght it in my answers... :(.
But overall not too bad for a first interiew :). I walked in feeling absolutely no pressure and that helped. I don't know what the result would be, but I'll just hope for the best.
P.S. Thanks to the resources on gmatclub and clearadmit for all the help :)

Daily energy dose for an MBA applicant

2009-10-20T10:30:00.002-04:00

How many of you have become obsessed with the whole internet MBA applicant resources such as gmatclub, totalgadha, clearadmit wiki etc etc? I have ! And I think it's absolutely worth it.

Reading the wonderful inspiring stories of so many seemingly ordinary , but actually extra-ordinary folks has been a good way to learn marketing myself....and by marketing I don't mean selling non-existing stuff about myself.I'm strictly against that. For me flabergasting my life history is a strict non-no. That said, it is easy for someone to think 'I'm an Indian IT Female, probably one amongst so many!!'. But think again! At the end of the day , when you have come so far , cracking GMAT, spending countless hours researching about MBA, gathering courage to introspect your life so far and accept your weaknesses, there is bound to be a force driving you and you are already special! One such example is this great Indian Techie story I read on the gmatclub forum.

Think again, you might not be so ordinary after all!

Free school guides

2009-10-11T15:41:00.004-04:00

Veritas prep has newly added this great feature of Free Annual School Reports/Guides.

I just started downloading the guides to the schools I'm applying.
I've already read through the Kellogg school report and let me tell you this-the info about the school I had after researching for a decent 1.5 months and then visitng it was all there summarised in one single report!

Kudos to Veritas guys for giving it to us applicants for free.

Duke's warm gesture to applicants

2009-10-03T10:31:00.004-04:00

I opened my inbox today and one e-mail titled "A message from The Duke MBA " immediately caught my attention. The mail is below:

A Special Offer from The Duke MBA
Clearly, the world is facing many economic challenges today. At The Duke MBA, we recognize that the MBA application process is an investment of time and money, which can both be in short supply in times like these. We feel strongly that visiting with Duke admissions officers, students, and alumni in person is incredibly helpful in understanding the Team Fuqua culture, and we also understand that traveling to our campus can be difficult. To help alleviate some of the financial stress you may be facing, we are pleased to announce the following Duke MBA Application Fee Reduction Program.
Individuals who schedule a campus visit through our online scheduling tool and come to Durham or who register for and attend a Duke MBA information session or coffee chat at one of our worldwide locations will be able to submit an application for the 2009 – 2010 application year for only $50, instead of the usual $200 fee. In this way, we are able to cover our administrative expenses while minimizing the impact on our applicants.
Please visit our Web site for a complete listing of upcoming information sessions and coffee chats, or access our online scheduling tool to craft your own campus visit (with or without interview) and plan to visit us. We will look forward to seeing you!

Truly Duke is standing up to its global MBA repute. I'm glad at least one B-School has recognized the real value of 200$ for applicats in short of monetary sources,like me.

My GMAT Preparation

2009-10-02T16:18:00.004-04:00

Hi folks...this is just a breather I'm taking from the essay writing.
I was going through some e-mails and suddenly remembered about how a post about GMAT was due.
I had a bad experience with GMAT the first time.After 3 months of prep. with OG,800score tests and Kaplan and other general stuff I was somehow letdown. In fact I won't say somehow, I knew exactly what happened. Questions #3 in Quant section happened. After spending an unacceptable 10 minutes on solving Q3, I panicked. Firstly I din't get the right answer.Secondly I saw that I lost 10 minutes from the total 75 mins and rushed through the subsequent questions.As a result my quant score was a mere 42...which is the lowest I ever scored.

With that experience in mind, while taking my second GMAT, I was more composed and calm. Whenever I felt that I spent more than 2 minutes on a question, I though whether or not to spend more time on that question.The important in GMAT,if you ask me, is to solve one questions and forget about it and then move to the next question afresh. Don't wonder whether that question was right or not and if it was a 700 level or a 600 level question.

The one challenge I faced when preparing for the second attempt at GMAT was - what books to use?? I had already exhausted my OG. So it was logical to use the OG verbal and quant supplementary books. Also,Totalgadha.com's GMAT resources proved to be a very very useful. Another important thing was the veritas prep. material.Frequent visitors to hella's applicant blog list would've already read Biz-Wiz's post . In addition to the books, the veritas prep tests are pretty decent. They actually come in a package of different test series,which includes the 5 800score.com tests that I had previously bought. But I liked the facility to store my performances on each test and track my progress. All said and done, nothing beats the official GMAT Prep software. It is a true indicator of your potential GMAT score.

On the test day,second attempt that is, somehow I was composed. And it helped.
Anyone whos akss me for GMAT advice will only hear one thing. Practice and be confident and composed on the test day.

School visit - Preface

2009-10-01T10:31:00.002-04:00

Hello all, It's been a long time (atleast in my blogging world :P) since I posted. I've been busy , as must be most of you out there targeting Round 1 deadlines.
Last week I visited Kellogg and Ross , 2 schools that I'm targeting for Round 1.
My visit experience was,im simple word, "Extremely useful". All the current students I met with were so so helpful...I have only good words to day about them :)
I'm dead occupied right now with K and R applications. Will post a eloborate school visit experience soon. Keep blogging and keep visiting.

Chow!

Here I am .... with essays , school visits and recos

2009-09-16T00:27:00.004-04:00

There are only 2 things on my mind these days. Essays. And essays.
I can comfortably say that I have decided on my list of schools. Unfortunately I won't be able to apply to all the schools in R1 itself. I might have a school left for R2. Am going to apply to a total of 5 schools.

Essays apart, my apps have several things still untouched.One of my recommendor (or I should probably say , one of my potential recommendor ) has been 'quite busy' and is making it impossible for me to talk to him .All I need is 20 mins of his time. The tough luck he has been showing me in getting touch with him in the first place is making me think that I should now approach my buffer recommendors.,which I have already done.So mostly I will be registering the recommedors on the app sites by the end of the week (I so desperately hope so, I've started to get a little worried now about the delay that's happening in this part of the application.

Meanwhile I'm also planning school visits. You are probably saying it out loud 'Is she crazy , school visits, now?'.I know,I know. But believe , I think it is the best time for making school visits. Few reasons why
1 - Classes start in early fall and hence class visits are available. Summer , weather wise , is probably the best time to visit schools, but you might miss the opportunity of 'experiencing' the school community since most of it is out in internships or career trekking.
2 - You will get a chance to meet new students who you can relate more closely in terms of applying to schools etc. Also second year students would have just been back from internships and will have a lot more to say about the B-School experience.
3 - Winter is probably not the best time.Apart from the weather, think about the busy recruitment season going on on campuses.

But hey, if you are someone who know that a school is definitely for you then a visit at any time is alright. But if you consider visiting a school to decide each other's fit in each other's life then think about the 2 cents I shared with you above.

BTW , I attended the MBA Tour last weekend. Wonderful experience.
The tour gave me a good feeling about 3 schools I was thinking about applying.And it
got me thinking about the 4th one ...so you see , these fairs do help you in making your decisions.

Application requirements and how to plan and meet them

2009-09-08T15:38:00.003-04:00

The first colors of fall are here and the application period is reaching its peak. All of you applicants,like me,out there are busy writing essays, reporting scores and stalking recommendors to finish up their work, right ?

But before you start all these you need to remember, I hope you all did, the basic things needed to apply:

1 - GMAT - of course we all know about this

2 - TOEFL - needed mostly for non-English-native folks. But hold on, this doesn't mean you WILL HAVE TO take TOEFL. Most of the schools,if not all of them, have already realised that the majority of the international applicants come from colleges using English as the language of instruction. So they have been waiving off TOEFL.

When you browse the requirement info for the school applications, you might come across " TOEFL needed ", but have a little patience and read through carefully.Most schools do talk about waiver situations.

3 - Transcripts (the most important part of the pre-apps process).Well if you are like me and totally forgot about the transcripts, then don't worry my friends. Talk to the schools or browse their websites. Most schools ask only the scanned copies of marksheets of UG course as a part of the applications. Only after you are admitted would they ask you to submit the official transcripts(the college notarised copies of marksheets - generally sealed in an envelope). Everything said and done,its always better to have your transcripts in hand before September ends. Start asking your colleges for transcripts at least a month or two before you need them, you never know how long they might take.

4 - Recos - Experience speaks for itself. It's best to talk to your recommendors no later than August (since most R1 deadlines are in the first week of Oct.). I suggest that you have a open hearted talk with them so that they can see your passion and your interest for the MBA and understand how important it is for you to go to B-School. That would motivate them to act fast enough and will ensure on-time reco completion. Share your essays with them and remind them,in case of a very long-ago employer,of the stories that you think might help them evaluate you.

5 - Essays - Well , get ready to spend a loooot of time introspecting. If you can't think of any great winner stories, try to remember failure stories and project them as your life lessons ... I don't want to give much advice on this - after all I too am a novice here(sparing my two year apps to a B-School prog 3 yrs back ) and everybody has their own essay strategy. The important thing is to write your own essays and not let anyone edit them so much that the stories stop sounding like yours.

On the lighter side , watched this movie 'Acceptance' - it's about the whole app process for UG schools , but we B-School applicants can relate to it a lil'.

O.K! Enough gyan for an afternoon, now I've got to get back to my essays :)

The HBS Portrait Project

2009-08-27T00:11:00.004-04:00

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!!

2009-08-25T14:44:00.005-04:00

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

2009-08-07T10:15:00.002-04:00

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?

2009-08-04T11:35:00.002-04:00

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

Charted plan for prep

2009-07-30T10:49:00.003-04:00

I'm in week 2 of my 5 week pep now.
With careful observations and useful lessons and experiences from others in my path,I've charted for myself a plan of 5 weeks for my GMAT.
This is how it looks =======>>

Meanwhile I tooka GMAT Prep test after week 1 , just to see how my performace was and the result was more than satisfactory :). Unfortunately my good performance on the GMAT Prep has made me a little lethargic for the last 2 days. Am starting afresh today and hope to achieve my self-driven deadlines.

Until next time - chow!

What have I decided on?

2009-07-23T09:52:00.004-04:00

Well...this is it!5 more weeks to go for me.......My decision to finish up my re-take of the Big G bye end of August,I hope, is sound. This will definitely give me a decent amount of time to spend on my apps.Meanwhile I have started narrowing down on the colleges..yeah I know, few of you have come up with the list looong back :)...One thing,for sure, is decided...I wanna apply to colleges that have a good reputation in teaching Marketing and Business Strategy.I've decided to specialise in these for various reasons....in fact I have not decided looking at my options, but have come to the conclusion based on asking myself this one simple question "What would I love doing?",coz I strongly believe that one only excels at doing something one loves...

Also,reading the latest blogs of students starting their MBA journey this year has been a source of inspiration.
I hope to be at this place next year :)

It's strange that I found myself to be the only conspicuous female on this journey this year.....hmmm wonder why no other females make much noise! :P

PPI - The standardised reco!

2009-07-20T15:39:00.003-04:00

The latest into the list of standradised tests / application procedures for admission into graduate schools is the personal potential index(PPI) from ETS , the body managing the GRE. Read article here

ETS has come out with this standardised management tool for recommendations a student needs to file in his grad schools application. Apparently this tool helps measure the qualities that a grad school seeks from a potential student by asking the reccomendors various questions.

As of now I don't know how long a PPI taken at a given time is valid.ETS hopes that PPI will become as standardised and prevalant as the GRE and GMAT by 2010 spring at the earliest.

One doubt I have about the effectiveness of PPI is how a reco taken 3 years ago is reflective of the students current abilities, I personally feel that the recos should be customised accroding to the various grad school applications.We'll have to wait and see if PPI really helps the process of recomendations.

Meanwhile the acceptance of GRE scores for GMAT admissions is killing me whenever I think about my killer GRE score of college days....which currently has expired :)!!!

Re-take....Action!

2009-07-20T10:58:00.002-04:00

With a 42 in Q and 38 in V, my GMAT re-take prep starts today.
What agenda do I have? I have with me, the GMAT Offical review - Verbal and Quant.
A ton of practice questions , thanks to internet resources.
I want to re-take the GMAt Prep exam , may be next Monday.
Meanwhile my schools short list is getting into shape.
More updates on that , keep watching.

Alas !

2009-06-16T13:14:00.002-04:00

I gave my GMAT this week and I am going to take it again.Probably after a month from now. All I can say is that my potential and skills were not reflected in the test and I sincerely believe that I can do better than what I did this week.

It's all retrospection and plan execution for another one month.

Till then!

AWA - Argument 4

2009-06-09T20:11:00.001-04:00

Date - 9 June 09
Sample essay taken from 800 score dot com test

Group #1: Analysis of Argument
A recent study with a researcher pretending to have a broken down car on the side of the road showed that when the researcher was a man, 60% of the time, a man pulled over to help them, and 0% of the time a woman stopped to help. When the researcher was a woman, 70% of the time a man stopped to help, and 20% of the time a woman stopped to help. This study shows how all men are more naturally altruistic than women. It also shows that women care more about helping women than men.

Describe how well reasoned you find this argument. In the discussion be sure to analyze the line of reasoning and the use of evidence in the argument. For example, you may need to consider what questionable assumptions underlie the thinking and what alternative explanations or counterexamples might weaken the argument's conclusion. You may also address possible changes in the argument that would make it more logically sound, and what, if anything, would help you better evaluate its conclusion.
------------------------------------
The argument under consideration is marred by a weak line of reasoning, the assumptions invloved with the evidence presented and the absence of experiment details. Also there are loop hools in the argument which might lead to counter arguments that could weaken the conclusion.

The line of reasoning takes only one example and it results. With this example alone it hastily arrives at a very generic conclusion. A single experiment regarding the behaviour of men and women on the road cannot be used to conclude that in general men are more helpful than women and that women help women more than they help men.

The experimental circumstances are hardly mentioned. For ex, which time of was the day was the experiment conducted, whether both the male and female researcher used the same stretch of road etc. Also the reasoning presented with the use of the evidence encompasses some assumptions like men stop for women only for helping and women don't stop because they don't want to help. In reality men might stop for socialising and the women might not stop because they were in a rush or they were scared of the strange man standing on the roadside.

Also the figures presented in the exapmle are misleading, for instance 60% of men in the experiment of the male researcher might number to 60 people in 100 subjects whereas the 70% in latter case might lead to 7 people out of 10 subjects which is in fact less than the the former. Also if there were no women subjects in the first experiment then obviosly the percentage of women stopping would be 0 and this doesnot prove any facts about women's lesser altruistic nature.If these facts actually come into light then they will weaken the argument as a whole.

As for any evidence that might strengthen the argument, inlcusion of any details proving that the experimental conditions were unifrom for both the experiements and that the same people were the subjects of the two experiments and that any theory that behaviour on road is representative of the human nature in general might add some value to the argument.

AWA - Issue 4

2009-06-09T20:09:00.001-04:00

Date 9 June 09

Sample essay subject taken from 800 score dot com from the 5 CAT tests I bought

Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the opinion stated above. Support your views with reasons and/or examples from your own experience, observations or reading.
------------------------------------------------------
There are a number of factors that an employer looks for in a potential employee when hiring him. This said, the most important of them is formal education. How often do we see a job requirement ad saying "we don't need your educational information, all we need is that you be able to do the job"? Very less, with the exception of waitressing probably. There is a sound reasoning behind this need for formal education in future employees.

First, formal education provides the minimal knowledge required to do a job. Can we think of getting operated by a doctor who never went to Medical school?Of course not.Similarly we would not send our kids to a school where the teachers themselves have never received formal education. Performing any job,be it in medical field or educational field, requires the person to be acquiscient with the basic rules involved and processes invloved etc. Without this things will turn out bad for everyone involved.

Secondly,formal education enables us to look at the right place for the causes of problems and their solutions. It also enables to find any wrong things happening. For ex. a lawyer who went to law school will be able to object to the inclusion of an irrelevant evidence that might mislead a jury.But a lawyer who didnot receive any formal educaton in law and who doesnot know the rules of the law might simply sit helplessly not knowing the right section under which he can object to it.

Lastly, formal education puts a stamp on a persons head saying that he or she is qualified enough and possesses the minimum skills required to perform a certain kind of job. And this helps employers to employ the right people in the right place and avoid the losses that might have occured if the opposite might have happened.

Progress with practice tests

2009-06-06T17:42:00.003-04:00

Two continuus days of testing can be tiring! And encouraging , if you see progressing scores :)
As mentioned in my last post, I took the Manhanttan GMAT and got bugged to see a 620. I went back read some notes on Quant , made myself a neatly jolted study schedule for the last 14 days before the big G Date and took a Kaplan test. Unfortunatley the results of the Kaplan test were not encouraging either. I scored a 640.

Scoring in the low 600s scared me off. But I did remember few of my B-School friends mentioning that Kanplan and MGMAT tests are not to be taken too seriously, this is because their relative difficulty range is much higher than the actual GMAT....and I beleive it owing my own GRE experience with Kaplan prep material. So following my friend's suggestion (she recently graduated from Kenan Flagler , her GMAT was 740 - so obvisously she is a trust worthy soucre of advice :))I purchased the 800score.com tests. They cost pretty reasonable actually (5 tests for < 25 $ = <1300 INR). So I gave myself a little rest after a browse through of SC notes on testmagic.com and took the test today afternoon....and Voila...to my delight :D I scored a 720(Q46,V42). I'm hoping to improve this mark though, especially the score on Quant section. I hope I can keep up the prep pace and stay in this 700 region...

Rest follows..

P.S - Post originally written on June 6 , '09

Manhattan practice test experience

2009-06-03T11:06:00.004-04:00

My husband was sweet to get me all these free practice tests - Kaplan , Manhattan , Veritas Prep etc.
With less than 2 weeks to go , I've started taking CBT practice GMATs last night.
The first test I took was Manhattan GMAT. They have a pretty nice setup of mock-GMATs out there. The questions were not to easy. I would say they meet Kaplan tests when it comes to difficulty. I have not had any personal feedback abt the Manhattan tests.
My experience - Finished the 2 essays quite comfortaly , before the clock struck 0:00. Quant went bad ! Half way through it , I realise I'm left with less time per question than my normal comfort level. That gave me jitters. To add to that suddenly the test website wentdown.Luckily when I logged back in the night my session was saved (Kudos to Manhattan site!). But I wouldn't blame for thus technical glitch for my porr performance , as my review disclosed that I went wrong right in the first 7 questions :( - this was the last thing I expected to happen with my Quant.
Same thing happened with Verbal. Got a few wrong questions in the first 10. I feel that my mind was not set into the whole test - my bad!
Overall performance - 620 (Shocking !!!)

My plan is to review all the wrong answers and see my weak links , get them geared up and take the next test - the Kaplan free test on their website.
Also I've registered to the free practice Kaplan test near my place of residence. I'm gonna take this 2 days before my actual exam.....So I hope it will give my some confidence or who knows !! Alls well that ends well and time will tell :)

Ciao!

P.S. Post written on June 3rd but will be published after my GMAT

AWA - Argument 3

2009-06-01T23:38:00.000-04:00

"Your vacation resort can ill afford not to publicize its offerings on Travelshack.com.Our readership has more than doubled in the past year alone and is dominated by savvy consumers with large disposable incomes.Witness the experience of Snowbert Ski Lodge. Since it began advertising itself on our webiste a year ago, it is regularly booked to capacity and its annual profits have increased more than threefold from the previous year."
--------------------
The argument in discussion might lead one to believe that advertising on travelshack.com will result in good profits.But a careful observation of the reasoning used and a look at the assumptions involved convinces us that the argument is weak. These weaknesses can be removed by providing more convincing evidence. A look at each of these factors will make our understanding clear.

The line of reasoning is misleading since it says that the consumer base of the online magazine/catalogue has doubled, but doesn't exactly quote the number of consumers. Though it might be a good thing for the company it doesn't show that a large percentage of the vacationing population actully reads this particular magazine. For example the readership might have increased from say 10,000 to 20,000 people.For a total vacationing population of 200,000 this accounts to just 10%.

Also the argument points out that the readers are mostly affluent people. It assumes that as soon as they see an advertisemt they will go and vacation at the particular advertised resort. But in reality the rich might only vacation at the high-end resorts. In such a case economy resorts cannot benefit from advertising their services on travelshack.com.

When we look at the evidence the argumnet uses to support itself, we can see that the underlying assumption involved is that the only reason the Ski Lodge's profit increased was due to advertising. This disregards any other reasons applicable for ex. reduction in the room rent at the resort, addition of new attractions near the Ski Lodge etc.

Inspite of the above weak links the argument can be made more convincing if it can provide further evidence linking the improved profits at Ski Lode to it's advertising on travelshack.com.For instance the results of a survey of the customers at the resort indicating that maximum customers heard about the resort through travelshack.com.Another convincing evidence can involve the comparision of Ski Lodge to it's neighbouring resorts and a deduction that only Ski Lodge's profits have improved.

AWA - Issue 3

2009-06-01T23:37:00.000-04:00

"Some people argue that those who do not send their children to public schools should not have to fund these schools through taxes, since neither parents nor chidren benefit from these schools. They ignore the fact that everyone benefits from the strong economy that a well-educated populace generates."

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In a community where people co-exist it is important for everyone to contribute to the maintenance and improvement of the resources within their locality. Hence it is wrong for someone to refuse the payment of taxes for maintenance of schools of that county.

The argument of the people that they doen't have to pay for the education given in public schools since they are not using these schools is very selfish in nature. It shows least interest in community and places oneself above all others, which is definitely not the right thing to do. Hence for the well-being of the community as a whole,one must place importance on public well being and act upon it by contributing to the maintenance of the community. For instance , people living in a community all pay the same maintenance charges periodically even though they might not use the pool as much as others do or they might not have a car to park in the parking place.

The people against the public schools might argue that they or their family do not take any benefit from the public schools. They might be right in their view. But in the long run ,they do use the products, the graduates, of these public schools in the form of employees or leaders etc. A good schooling for thes future employees and leaders will hence lead to the benefit of our very own public-school opposers.Refusing to fund their tax money to public schools is same as refusing to pay taxes for roads in the state. One might not use all the roads of the state, but he or she does use the various imports brought into the state through that very road.

As for the perspective of the supporters of public schools, their stand-point is perfectly right.They are right when they say that everyone who is a part of a community holds a responsibility to the resources there and hence should take care of the well-being of these commonly utilised resources.

AWA - Argument 2

2009-05-30T00:26:00.001-04:00

"Professor Taylor of Jones University is promoting a model of foreign language instrucion in which students receive 10 weeks of intensive training,then go abroad to live with families for 10 weeks.The superiority of the model,Profesor Taylor contends,is proved by the results of a study in which foreign language tests given to students of 25 other colleges show that first-year foreign language students at Jones speak more fluently after only 10 to 20 weeks in the program than do nine out of 10 foreign language majore elsewhere at the time of their graduation."

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The argument regarding the effectiveness of the foreign language instruction model followed at Jones University is weak owing to the kind of evidence used, the assumptions involved and weak reasoning. But by providing the details of the intensive training model and proper use of evidence the argument can be strengthened.

When we take a look at the reasoning presented in the argument we can see that Prof. Taylor contentds that a 10 week training program followed by a 10 week stay abroad will definitely improve the foreign language hold of the students. He misleadingly tries to convine us that a mere stay in abroad will improve langauge. In stating that he assumes that a student staying abroad will only be talking in the language of that country and not English or any other universal language.

In addition,the argument assumes that the students entering Jones Universty and other colleges are all at the same linguistic intellectual level. This may not be the case always. For ex. Jones University might have a difficult entry level lingustic test for the students of the course. The students who clear this test are sure to be equipped with prior forein language learning skills. It would be wrong to compare their learning curves with those of the normal students in other universities. Another assumption is that Prof Taylor thinks that same resources , like teachers or library books which enhance learning, are available to students of Jones as well as other colleges.

When it comes to using the evidence to prove his argument,Prof Taylor says that Jones University students who just finished 10 weeks of first year course are much better than graduates of other colleges.But this point doesn't prove that the particular model's 10 week intensive program or the 10 week stay abraod was carried out in the initial 10 weeks of Jones course.

Inspite of the above fallacies, the argument can be made strong by including details about the contents of the course followed in the 10 week intensive program.To name a few details of the pratice tests, guest lectures, foreign-language phonetic classes etc. Another means of evidence would be if the prof can prove that the same model followed taught to students picked from other universities shows improvement in their foreign language skills.

As can be seen from the above points we can conclude that the argument is inherently weak but can be strengthened by providing appropriate evidence and reasoning.

Useful GMAT sites

2009-05-29T01:07:00.002-04:00

Apart from the well-known GMAT sites like clearadmit.com,accepted.com, hellaslist,totalgadha etc etc I came across a couple of sites that I've not heard of before. These turned out to be really good , esepcially the site mbapodcaster.com. This site has a huge inventory of podcasts , mostly interviews of experts. This is promisingly useful to both beginners as well as post-MBA folks.

Also useful was http://mbaleague.blogspot.com/

AWA - Issue 2

2009-05-29T00:27:00.001-04:00

"All companies should invest heavilyin advertising because high-quality advertising can sell almost any product or service".
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Today's competitive market demands massive advertising on the part of every business that intends to attract customers and stay alive.But it is wrong to assume that adverrtising alone helps the sales of a product or service.

On the positive side a lot of advertising can help companies newly launching a product.But in the case of an old product,its quality and the extent it meets the expectations of the customers are what determine the prodcut sales.For ex. when the Snuggie was launched last winter we heard about its cheap price and free offers on Tv,radio and everywhere.The omnipresent advertisements of Snuggie helped its sales in the beginning. But when people discovered the extra chanrges that came under the head of 'shipping' a wrong review of the product passed in the market and hence resulted in drastic reduction of its sales.

Another effect of concentrated investment in advertising alone is that it will raise the expectations of the customers. When accompanied by a lack of investment in product development such expectations will see failure. Thus,inspite of huge advertising,a company will see diminishing sales.

In addition to the above,excessive advertising can have negative effects as well.A recent survey showed that repeated advertising about a product propogates a neagative vibe about the product.The consumers interviewed in the survey expressed that repeated advertising of a product makes them feel insecure about its durability and quality. Hence they don't considering buying it at all.

As can be seen by the detailed analysis of the issue, carried above,advertising alone will not help sales of a product or service and in fact might turn out bad for business.

AWA - Argument 1

2009-05-28T11:37:00.001-04:00

I tok 31 and not 30 minutes to finish this.
I feel this could have been improved in terms of organization.
I wish I Could write 4 paras and not 3
I wanted to bring out the flaw in saying 25 yrs wasn't enough to gain experienc.
Din't do that, lost time.

Following are the points that the test asked and I followed
Analyse the reasoning and use of evidence - I did by citing the wrong comparision of diff. industries
Assumptions - I discussed
Alternative explanation to improve the argument - Last para

Couldn't do
Couldn't evaluate its conclusion clearly

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The following appeared as part of an annual report sent to stockholders by Olympic Foods , a processer of frozen foods:
"Over time,the costs of processing go down because as organizations learn how to do things better,they become more efficient. In color film processing, for example, the cost of a 3X5 print fell from 50 cents for 5 day service in 1970 to 20 cents for 1 day service in 1984. The same principle applies to the processing of food. And since Olympic Foods will soon celebrate its 25th birthday, we can expect that our long experience will enable us to minimize the costs and thus maximizing profits."
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The argument "over time, with experience, the processing costs will come down owing to a company's learning of better techniques and thus increase profits" is limited by its failure to consider various factors,other than experience, contributing in improving the company's profits. In addition it misleads the audience by trying to convince them that the same business rules and markets prevail in film processing and food processing industires;which is as good as comparing apples with oranges.

Our argument is further falwed by the assumptions it makes when citing the above mentioned points.First it assumes that profits can be maximized by reducing processing costs. It fails to consider other ways of achieving good profits. Profits can be improved not just be reducing processing costs but also by minimizing other costs, to name a few ,associated with inventory and labour management. Second it assumes that the cost reduction in film processing can be replicated in food processing. It fails to understand that these are two different industries. In addition it fails to understand that there might have been technological advances in the film processing area that would have enabled this cited cost reduction and wrongly assumes that experience of the film processing industries reduced their costs.

The argument can become more sound if it provides more information or evidence that can refute the above mentioned flaws.For instance , if it can provide company expenditure details and prove that the major costs associated with the company are those in the area of processing alone, it can justify it's concentration on those costs alone. Also, if it can show the improvement in the company's profits with each 10 year or 5 year period, it would make sense in saying that experience tends to improve the profitability of the company.

AWA - Issue 1

2009-05-28T00:06:00.002-04:00

Anal of Issue

In some countries TV and radio are carefully censored for offensive language and behaviour.In other countries, there is little or no censroship.

In your view, to what extent should govt. or any other group be able to censor TV or radio programs? Explain , giving relevant reasons and/or examples to support your position.

In the current day Tv , radio and other media have become integral part of our lives.
We watch TV at our dinner tables. We listen to radio on our drive to work. We look at them to know what is happening around us.With such a considerable period of a day spent with the media , it is impossible not to have their mark left on us. As a result any idea repeated or removed from the media may in turn will root into or erase out of our minds and morals. With this understood I believe that excessive presence or absolute absence of censorship should be avoided and an ideal balance of censorship should be followed.

Let's take an example. Suppose the Iranian censor board decided to cut the scenes,that hail the feminist ideas, from the movie 'The Color Purple'. The whole point of the movie would then be lost. Without its feminist ideas this particular movie is very less meaningful. And by censoring the movie this way the Iranina Censor Board is stopping the florishment of feminism in Iran. Does that sound right to you? It doesn't to me.

If that doesn't convince you, let's take another example. If the govt. of India decides to air national Telivison programs promoting Conservative Christianity and criticizing Protestants , isn't it equivalent to controlling the religious beliefs of its citizens? Yes it is and it should not be allowed in a democracy.

Inspite of the criticism of the censor board I've carried so far, I still understand its importance in today's world. After all I can't go to a War movie like 'Behind Enemy Lines' with my kids without being informed that it was censored for the violent content. Neither can I let my children watch True TV without the removal of swearing from the various every day incidents shown in its programs.

We have just seen a couple of examples each telling us that censorship by government or any authority is wrong at times and right at others. Hence I feel that just as any other resource, it should be subject to limited use driven by a need for it.

Prep Update - Apr 16 '09

2009-04-16T09:53:00.005-04:00

I got back to OG. I took the diagnostic test they have in the beginning of the book.
The summary of the test is
Problem solving - Above avg.
Data sufficiency - Excellent(I surprised myself here :))
Rc - Avg
CR - Above avg.
Sentence Corr. - Above avg.

So I decided to start with the verbal section prep. I did the 141 RC Qs of OG in 2 days. And seem to have been doing OK. On an avg. I got all but 1 right out of every passage.My goal is to see if I can get a cent next time. Meanwhile I'm yet to explore Dagny' GMAT prep guide and other sources like Kaplan.

The one thing I have noticed in tha past 2 days is that when you sit and work a set of problems under a category you start developing the tricks and strategies for them. That is when I sat and did 70+ RC Qs at a stretch the pattern of the Qs and the process of fidnding the As to those Qs was kinda set into my mind. So I've decided that the last week of GMAT prep should involve re-doing the Qs all again. This is in the anticipation that my mind will be tuned to work on problems.As for the practice tests, I wish to take them then 2 weeks before that last week.

Until next time!

What's been happening

2009-04-14T10:16:00.003-04:00

I have re-started the prep for GMAT after the break I took last month.
I am strong on booking the date by the end of this week.I hope getting a date in May
is not difficult.Meanwhile I've been reading my dearest GMAT forum totalgadha\GMAT quite regularly. The one thing abt this forum is whenever I read it my adrelenine rushes and encourages me more to go follow my dream.The guys over there TG and Dagny, who is also Mrs.TG are doing one hell of a job - not only at guiding ppl but also at hiding their identities :).
Kudos!
Also am thinking of going to accepted.com and see if I can find some applicants for Class O' 2012.
Later!

US News & World report rankings

2009-04-01T10:18:00.001-04:00

http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/grad/mba/mktng

The story so far

2009-03-04T03:00:00.003-05:00

The song 'Breakaway' by Kelly Clarkson is what describes me perfectly!

I was born in India in a family where education is considered the most valuable possession.
When I was giving my CBSE exams, I was determined to score high! And I did.I'll never forget the day I got to know my result.I was overwhelmed with a feeling of success. And that feeling of achievement is what drove me for the next 3 years. I joined one of the best Indian RECs.Enjoyed the 4 yrs there! I think that was the palce where I gre out of the 'importance of academia alone' and thought about making something out of myself.
Then like the majority of Indian Engineers I joined an IT company to be a part of the dynamic and omnipresent IT field in India.After a few years in this ocean am finally getting time now to rethink about where I started my journey and where I want to go. But all said and all done,no regrets!Now am back in the game, the game of competing against myself.