School visit - Preface

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

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

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

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