Indian Admits -Room : Keep all desi discussions here!

One thing I have learnt through the process is to retain a sense of perspective. Its easy to get carried away and keep cursing our luck that we belong to a competitive pool. I did the same after my ding from Kellogg. I think we should refer to stats to get a sense of perspective.
Lets say your GMAT is in the 99% you are among the top 2200 students in the world. Among that let me take a ball park figure of 30% indians, which works out to approximately 660. Lets say the average GMAT score of UE is 700 which means that half the people above 700 get in. Assuming a average 400 seats at the top 10 schools. That works out to about 4000 seats, of which half have scores above 700. That works out to 2000 seats. Lets say 5% of those go to Indians(100 seats). I believe as an Indian our probability of getting in is about 1 in 6 which is not bad.

I believe that hope is not lost till the end. Sure we may not end up getting more than 1 admit but 1 admit is all we need. So good luck to all of us.

Three Cheers.

Thank you for the confidence booster

I believe the drawback is not indian M and IT. It is the lack of everything else except M, Indian, IT that is a problem for this demography.

One reason is that (believe me or not, your choice) the process of getting into good engineering college or landing a good software job was very tough and highly competitive till 3-4 years back, I am not sure about now.

Those who got into IT during that time had not done much other than working towards getting a job till then, and did nothing afterwards thanks to the overextended hours in IT jobs.

There is always a possibility of rethinking about what one really wants to do and mention that as career goals in ones app. Now another issue is that most of the people applying have goals similar to those of investment bankers and engineers from every other part of the world. that leaves M Indian IT with least advantage.

Welcome to my world

Hi neighbor!

I think you nailed it here.

nice new avatar mNeo, are you a bird now?

No, I am planning to rekindle my love for a specific bike once I am done with the R2. I need this to get over the disappointment from all the future rejections

On topic, I agree with tsaditya. We get carried away and keep cursing our luck that we belong to a competitive pool. Well, that sort of competition is going to be a part of our lives all the time. And there will always be people who would get success the easy way while you feel that you had to work a lot to get yours.

But let me warn you guys beforehand .. when I get rejected from all the schools, then I am planning to use the "Male-Indian-IT" card as the reason of rejection to my friends and family

I am not really concerned about the number of people applying from the Indian Male IT pool. The problem really is the deep rooted perceptions what we have to fight day in and day out. Most people outside have no clue what Indian consulting companies do on a daily basis and how much thought/leadership is needed to do well in our jobs. People generally refuse to believe that we are capable leaders. It is this ignorance and arrogance that affects our chances.

Even on this forum, the number of misconceptions about indian IT folks is incredible.

One member posted how elite consultants never visit this forum and went on to qualify that people from Indian IT companies are not "true" consultants. And by the way, how does anyone define a "true" consultant.

Another member once posted "unless you are an Indian IT consultant earning $2000 a month, you should buy something else...". Are people stupid enough to believe that we earn only $2000 per month?

I could go on and on.

I am willing to give the forum members here the benefit of the doubt and believe that such statements are merely a reflection of their ignorance and not their arrogance. But, what about those high faluting consultants who get paid $200 an hour. One guy told me that I have a may-be chance at some NEF school and not a school higher. Apparently, leading teams for an Indian based consulting company is not "true" leadership. Sure, there are many great NEF schools, but the way he passed over my accomplishments, purely based on his own opinions about the Indian IT demographic, was incredibly stupid. Anyway, I can only fault myself for asking outsiders about my chances.

Guys, the only constructive way to fight all this is by writing concise, thoughtful essays that truly reflect who we are. By doing that, we make it difficult for schools to reject us. Dont worry if you havent saved a drowning child or climbed the Everest. In reality, less than 1% of applicants do these things.

We will all make it to a school that we deserve.

ncprasad,

Paul Bodine strongly recommended me NOT to apply to Kellogg because my extracurriculars were not strong enough. I think everyone should take advice from any expert with a grain of salt. To your point, well-written essays will show how multi-dimensional a candidate is, increasing the chances of "over-represented demographics" or applicants with weaknesses in one area or another.
Look at me! Three months later, I am accepted to ... Kellogg

Now, who's the show-off?

I back up what nervous said, I come from a no name undergrad, dont work for a blue chip company or anything like that. Dont let people talk you out of taking a chance at a top school.

HOWEVER, be realistic...to many people apply to only the very top schools and are surprised when they dont get in. Its the luck of the draw for half the people that get into these schools. Spread your applications out across a variety of schools. Pick a couple UE and E schools, then a backup school. Be prepared to apply to 5-6 schools. Start with your hardest schools first since R1 is going to be the easiest. I think your best applications will be in R1 because you wont be burned out.

This thread isn't really doing anyone any good. NC, I dont think that people (consultants or otherwise) feel that Indians' leadership is not true leadership or that an Indian Consultant is not a real consultant because they work in India...this is not what causes people to say Indians have less of a chance. Its that there are a lot of people that have similar backgrounds, so its harder to set themselves apart. Plenty of Indians get in, they just happen to work for a name brand, have extremely impressive examples of leadership, and are going to be at a higher level. Its the same thing as bankers...HBS is going to take the VP from Goldman over the analyst from some unknown bank.

river, I am just quoting what I have heard incessantly from a lot of well-meaning folks. I can post the link to the threads with these statements, but I am not going to do so because it is only going to create a unhealthy atmosphere. In any case, I dont want to disrespect people who made a genuine attempt to help me.

I dont claim to know what people feel about me, I am only making a judgement based on what they tell me. If some one tells me "Your essays are great, but no amount of editing will change the fact that you are male Indian IT", what conclusion should I draw?

And none of us here believe that if we dont get in, its because of our demographic/background. I know that a lot of desi applicants get in because they put together great applications and there is no reason an Indian Male IT, like me or mNeo or others, cannot be one of them.

Indian Male ITs face a lot of stereotyping, which does us no good from an application perspective. Thats the point of my whole post.

dudes seriously........wasnt trying to diss anyone off. Least of all my Infy/ Wipro peeps.......I totally understand that bit abt IT being ultra-competitive some years ago. I know........Hell I started off my career there.

All I am saying is that the stats are mucho against you if you are an Indian candidate - esp. if you are an India based Indian candidate.

Fact - of the 18 Indian-Indian R1 applicants for W who created their ad411 profile and the 12 who took the trouble for U-Chic AND the 17 for Kellogg ........there are a grand total of ZERO admits reported. Thats zero with a capital Z. and a capital E ........you get the idea

So thats 0 / 47 - even with random disclaimers like "some of the admits havent been reported" an "dudes who actually get in dont do loser stull like make profiles", I would say these are very sucky odds.

The closest dudes got are with 4 waitlists (2 for Chic, 2 for W) .........

Dont mistake this for defeatism/ chronic pessimism. I was always hopeful........part of me still is. Just a lil disappointed ........thats all

But have no fear.........the times are soon gonna change. We will flip the numbers around an after the lesbian pool from Ivory Coast is frozen out of HBS cause of the Indian geek male domination, that they'll sing songs like "Fragments of what used to be.........skeletons of society"

(ya I worte the last para just cause I wanted to quote Slayer

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