Class of 2009 Bloggers
Continuing their great work, Clear Admit published friday a list of bloggers entering MBA starting Fall 2007. You can find it here.
Labels: General BSchool Rant
Sunday, August 27, 2006
Chicago n Ross Essays
I like apps that give opputunity to display your professional and personal lives in balance. I wanted to begin work on Chicago's app. But given the essays they have, I am finding it difficult to present all aspects of my professional life. They seem to be trying hard to get to know the applicant. The short ans questions are more abt your personality than achievements. Since Rose Martinelli moved to Chicago from Wharton sometime last yr, the changes in their application process are quite visible. I believe her greatest contribution so far has been the admissions forums - they absolutely fabulous! Post a question there and you are sure to get different perspectives from various students and even adcom members within a few hrs! Awesome! Even the essays and interview policy have changed. Last yr the focus wasn't so much on knowing the applicant personally, but this yr the essay questions are more personal in nature: Issue facing humanity, book/play/movie, study group selection - its hard to show your professional side in these questions. "One thing people don't know abt you" still leaves some room for you to do that. I am maha (greatly) confused abt the Chicago app. I guess I need to spend a lot more time introspecting than I have till now... Helps to know I am not the only one, even InBlue is facing the same problem.
I like Ross' essays this yr. Unlike last yr, they are not 100% focused on the professional aspect of your life. That kinda put me off last yr. Notably, they have converted "Professional Leadership" into a "Leadership" essay and "How have you developed professionally" into "How have you developed professionally and personally". Though I have looked at it only peripherally and I am yet to decide upon what to write, I still like it. :)
Yesterday, I was busy firefighting for one of the non-profit projects I work on. The entire day went off in it and I ended up spending not a minute on the essays yest. Hope to be able to catch up a bit today.
I like Ross' essays this yr. Unlike last yr, they are not 100% focused on the professional aspect of your life. That kinda put me off last yr. Notably, they have converted "Professional Leadership" into a "Leadership" essay and "How have you developed professionally" into "How have you developed professionally and personally". Though I have looked at it only peripherally and I am yet to decide upon what to write, I still like it. :)
Yesterday, I was busy firefighting for one of the non-profit projects I work on. The entire day went off in it and I ended up spending not a minute on the essays yest. Hope to be able to catch up a bit today.
Friday, August 25, 2006
Am a happy child!
I sent my Columbia drafts to a friend and the review wasn’t all that bad! The goals essay needs a bit of work; I am incorporating her feedback and then will send it to another friend. Hopefully it will pass muster there too. :)
My Darden drafts didn’t have it so good though. I am yet to begin work on the goals essay - need to cut it down to 500 words from the present 1100+. The diversity essay had huge holes, huge enough to pass an elephant. :| But the third essay's (what would you do if you didn’t have to work) revu was good.
This is a quantum leap from last yr. I hated writing essays then. But this yr I am finding myself enjoying the process (how weird am I)! Have no clue as to what changed from then to now. Except, of course, I have the luxury of time this time around; last yr I started the whole process of school selection etc only in Nov. Was traveling from Sept onwards, when I finished my GMAT, till Nov. And then my roomie decided to get married in a hurry, even before I could come back. So the moment I landed back, I went searching for an apt. And then came Diwali. So went home for that, and finallllly started the process arnd end nov.
Phew! Dunno y I wrote all that!
And hey, do chk out the daily cartoon! :)
My Darden drafts didn’t have it so good though. I am yet to begin work on the goals essay - need to cut it down to 500 words from the present 1100+. The diversity essay had huge holes, huge enough to pass an elephant. :| But the third essay's (what would you do if you didn’t have to work) revu was good.
This is a quantum leap from last yr. I hated writing essays then. But this yr I am finding myself enjoying the process (how weird am I)! Have no clue as to what changed from then to now. Except, of course, I have the luxury of time this time around; last yr I started the whole process of school selection etc only in Nov. Was traveling from Sept onwards, when I finished my GMAT, till Nov. And then my roomie decided to get married in a hurry, even before I could come back. So the moment I landed back, I went searching for an apt. And then came Diwali. So went home for that, and finallllly started the process arnd end nov.
Phew! Dunno y I wrote all that!
And hey, do chk out the daily cartoon! :)
Friday, August 18, 2006
Of Indians and our fascination for IB/Consult jobs
I have been in this race for an admit to a good BSchool for over a year now. During this period I've met several fellow Indians who are running this race with me. What I find amazing is that we r the most homogenous demographic there is! Atleast as far as the BSchool world goes. Engineer Male probably sums up 70-80% (Or maybe even higher) of the Indian junta (translates to "people") apping to the US Bschools.
As if this weren't bad enough (in terms of diversity), most of us want to get into either Consulting or Investment Banking post MBA! Even I plead guilty to this charge. Infact barring one person, ALL the Indian applicants that I know of, have either of these two as their goal. Why dont we look at Sales, Brand mgmt, Ops, HR, Non-Profit etc. Interestingly, Indian Bschools have a good mix of post MBA jobs!
Been thinking about this, and frankly I am at a loss as to why. A few factors that come to my mind:
- Indians are Quant jocks, and Consult n IB are one of the most quant heavy fields. (Thanks Anon for reminding me of this, forgot to include this)
- Since most of us come from a tech consulting background, maybe we dont bother to look beyond consulting. But then that leaves out IB.
- We are not exposed enough to the other options.
- Post MBA, most non-consult, non-IB donot hire internationals. But most applicants are not even aware of this when they are working on their goals, or so I think.
- Both pay handsomely!
Not sure how valid these points are, but I really cant think of any other reasons. Feel free to shred these to threads!
As if this weren't bad enough (in terms of diversity), most of us want to get into either Consulting or Investment Banking post MBA! Even I plead guilty to this charge. Infact barring one person, ALL the Indian applicants that I know of, have either of these two as their goal. Why dont we look at Sales, Brand mgmt, Ops, HR, Non-Profit etc. Interestingly, Indian Bschools have a good mix of post MBA jobs!
Been thinking about this, and frankly I am at a loss as to why. A few factors that come to my mind:
- Indians are Quant jocks, and Consult n IB are one of the most quant heavy fields. (Thanks Anon for reminding me of this, forgot to include this)
- Since most of us come from a tech consulting background, maybe we dont bother to look beyond consulting. But then that leaves out IB.
- We are not exposed enough to the other options.
- Post MBA, most non-consult, non-IB donot hire internationals. But most applicants are not even aware of this when they are working on their goals, or so I think.
- Both pay handsomely!
Not sure how valid these points are, but I really cant think of any other reasons. Feel free to shred these to threads!
Labels: General BSchool Rant
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Essay Update
Today's holiday (it is India's Indipendence Day today : 15-Aug) has proven to be most productive for me. I finally restarted work on my essays. I have written the first drafts of my goals essay and "What are you most passionate about" essay for Columbia. I am happy with the quality of both these essays, but they need to edited for brevity, by a HUGE margin. I overshot the goals essay by 50%! :)
My goals were proving to be a major pain for the past couple of weeks. Due to some recent happenings on my family business front, I was considering making changes to my goals to include those. But after having thought long and hard about it, I decided against it. Once that was decided, rest of the things automaically started falling in place. And I am glad I used the holiday today effectively. Finally!
I also wrote something for the entrepreneurship essay (Columbia again), but I am not at all happy with it. In all likeliness I will chuck the entire draft and start afresh. I gotta admit, I didnt really think much before I jumped in to start writing, and unfortunately I got stuck midway into the essay. Lesson learnt!
Its past 2 AM now, so time to hit the bed. Good night, world!
My goals were proving to be a major pain for the past couple of weeks. Due to some recent happenings on my family business front, I was considering making changes to my goals to include those. But after having thought long and hard about it, I decided against it. Once that was decided, rest of the things automaically started falling in place. And I am glad I used the holiday today effectively. Finally!
I also wrote something for the entrepreneurship essay (Columbia again), but I am not at all happy with it. In all likeliness I will chuck the entire draft and start afresh. I gotta admit, I didnt really think much before I jumped in to start writing, and unfortunately I got stuck midway into the essay. Lesson learnt!
Its past 2 AM now, so time to hit the bed. Good night, world!
Labels: Goals
Sunday, August 13, 2006
And the schools are...
After having thought long and hard, I have finally decided to app to 6 schools in R1 and 3 schools in R2. Bleddy damn tough task, but I am unable to reduce the list any further! Quite a few of these are schools I wanted to app to last yr too, but since I was very late in the game, I couldnt push in their apps in time.
The list stands like this:
R1
---
1. Columbia
2. Cornell
3. Darden
4. Chicago
5. Fuqua
6. Tepper
R2
---
1. Wharton
2. Ross
3. Haas
Over ambitious?
I have chosen these schools for their focus on General Management, Consulting and Entrepreneurship.
The list stands like this:
R1
---
1. Columbia
2. Cornell
3. Darden
4. Chicago
5. Fuqua
6. Tepper
R2
---
1. Wharton
2. Ross
3. Haas
Over ambitious?
I have chosen these schools for their focus on General Management, Consulting and Entrepreneurship.
Labels: General BSchool Rant
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
Michael Flatley Rox!
This guy is too much! He creates awesome performances! I am a huge fan of his and had been looking for his videos on the net (unable to order for them :( ). I hit jackpot yesterday. I found quite a few of them on youtube.com. Spent a better part of yesterday watching those videos :D
For the uninitiated, Michael Flatley is the god of Irish Step Dancing! You can read about him here.
I wanted to buy this video on amazon.com but I get the warning that it might not work on Asian DVD players becase of the difference in formats. :(
Anyways, lemme leave you guys with a small video of one of his masterpieces - River Dance. Even if you are not into Irish Step Dancing, do watch this video. Its a scintillating performance!
For the uninitiated, Michael Flatley is the god of Irish Step Dancing! You can read about him here.
I wanted to buy this video on amazon.com but I get the warning that it might not work on Asian DVD players becase of the difference in formats. :(
And oh yes, thanks Forrest Gump, for sharing the link to Rebekka's albums on flickr. She's awesome! Do check out her Multiplicity series. Some of them, like this one, are creepy in a beautiful way!
Anyways, lemme leave you guys with a small video of one of his masterpieces - River Dance. Even if you are not into Irish Step Dancing, do watch this video. Its a scintillating performance!
Sunday, August 06, 2006
School Selection
I started working on the essays, but somehow lost the momentum a few days back. Still struggling to get it back, been busy with so many things that unable to make time for this.
I made a huge mistake last yr, I dint have a concrete lists of schools till the fag end. My school list was under review and changing as late as mid dec; this when the deadlines were from 4-Jan to 15-Jan! So, this time around, the list is gonna be finalised much earlier. There are some 10 schools that interest me. Need to reduce this to 8 (or mebbe lesser). I am thinking I will app to 5/6 schools in R1 and 3/2 in R2.
I kinda have my R1 list complete, but will post it only when its not just "kinda complete" but complete complete :) But before I can think of finalising the schools, I need to take a call on something else (will blog upon it soon). Only once I decide upon that will I be able to decide which schools are in and which are out.
Based on the feedback recd from Duke, I have signed up for a quant course at mbamath.com. From what I've seen, it seems good!
I made a huge mistake last yr, I dint have a concrete lists of schools till the fag end. My school list was under review and changing as late as mid dec; this when the deadlines were from 4-Jan to 15-Jan! So, this time around, the list is gonna be finalised much earlier. There are some 10 schools that interest me. Need to reduce this to 8 (or mebbe lesser). I am thinking I will app to 5/6 schools in R1 and 3/2 in R2.
I kinda have my R1 list complete, but will post it only when its not just "kinda complete" but complete complete :) But before I can think of finalising the schools, I need to take a call on something else (will blog upon it soon). Only once I decide upon that will I be able to decide which schools are in and which are out.
Based on the feedback recd from Duke, I have signed up for a quant course at mbamath.com. From what I've seen, it seems good!
Labels: General BSchool Rant
Search
